WEBVTT

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As we look around the world today,

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we see horrendous violence
in the Middle East,

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we see Russia invading Ukraine
and threatening its neighbors,

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and we see a growing desire
by many to identify by set

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ethnicity and ideology
over any shared sense of nationhood.

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We wonder: is this just
the worst instincts of human nature

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that we repeat
generation after generation?

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Or can we change our behavior?


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Can we move away
from these destructive mindsets

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to live more peacefully
with our communities and ourselves?

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I've spent the last 25 years

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working on conflict 
and reconciliation around the world,

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and I want to tell you about 
two incredible individuals who did change.

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Roelf Meyer was the Minister of Defense
during apartheid in South Africa.

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David Ervine was a loyalist
or a protestant paramilitary

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in Northern Ireland.

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These two men experienced
a profound transformation

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that not only liberated them
from destructive mindsets and behaviors

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but through their transformation

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help liberate millions 
from violence and repression.

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And through their story we'll see
that profound change is indeed possible.

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I met Roelf in 1994
when I invited him to Belfast

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to help share his experience
and help end apartheid

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with leaders there
who were struggling with change.

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Roelf was the senior politician
in South Africa.


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Everybody thought
he would be the next president.

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He actually grew up thinking


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that apartheid was not only good
for whites but for blacks as well.

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He built his entire career 
in the service of the apartheid state.

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But along the way,
something happened to him.

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He came to realize

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that the system he served and defended
was corrupt and immoral and had to end.

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David Ervine spent a decade in prison;
many people called him a terrorist.

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I later came to call him a friend.

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He joined the UBF paramilitaries
when, as a young teenager,

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another teenager of the same age
and same last name was killed

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by an air-raid bomb.

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David felt that everything
that he and his community stood for

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was under a mortal threat.

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He felt that the best defense
was a good offense.

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But like Roelf,
something happened to David.

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He came to realize
that the grievance and fear

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that justified the use of violence
against his neighbors

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had become a vicious trap.

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He had gone from killing
to live to living to kill

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and had to find a way
to break out of that.

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How did David and Roelf get to that point?

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When Roelf was Minister of Defense,
he interviewed a young ANC combatant,

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and asked him:
"Why did you join the gorilla movement?"

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The young man told him
that when he was a young child,

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his family worked for an Africano farmer.

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One day, while sitting
in the back of the farmer's pickup truck

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with the farmer's dog,
it started to rain heavily.

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The farmer got out of the car,
went into the back, took the dog,

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put it in the cabin, and left
the young child in the downpour.

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This unbelievable disregard
for an another human being, a young child,

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so shocked Roelf that it began to question
the very system he served and defended.

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David Ervine told me

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that he and his other loyalist prisoners
learned Irish in prison

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so that they could understand
what the IRA prisoners were saying.

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In time, he came to understand
that he had more in common

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with these working class Catholics
than many in his own community.

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He felt that their shared experience
of exclusion was a far deeper bond

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that what divided them
as Catholics and Protestants.

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David and Roelf shared a journey

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in which they realized they were stuck
in mindsets that had to end.

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Roelf went on to convince F. W. de Klerk
to release Nelson Mandela from prison,

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and he led the negotiations
to end apartheid.

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David Ervine became 
a principal negotiator,

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and as former senator,
George Mitchell said:

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"Helped bring the loyalist paramilitaries
out of the Dark Ages into peace."

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Is their story unusual?

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Over these 25 years, I've come to believe
that while every country will have

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its own unique experience
with conflict and repression,

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people respond
to those experiences as humans.

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It's the same around the world.

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I know from my own experience

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what fear, rejection,
and humiliation feels like.

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These emotions know 
no geographic boundaries.

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Being bullied by your schoolmates is
biologically, and fundamentally,

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no different than being humiliated
in Belfast or Johannesburg.

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In fact, neuroscience is now showing us
that we are deeply emotional beings

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that we need to feel safe and acknowledged
to engage fully in the world.

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Our brain processes 
are deeply unconscious;

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they blend emotion and cognition
in the service of survival.

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Our brains are plastic; they can change,

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and we can overcome 
deep-seated fear, bias, and trauma

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to live more peacefully within ourselves
and within our own communities.

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This is a universal experience.

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Some recent findings in neuroscience
help illustrate this very powerfully.

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And I believe that we can begin
to take what we're finding,

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match it with experience

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and begin to address 
the challenges we face in the world.

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A number of years ago,

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some social scientists discovered
the concept of sacred values.

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Those values that help shape
our core identity;

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they are really important to who we are.

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For some it could be
a deep religious belief,

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the protection of one's child,
or a deep love of country.

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Neuroimaging is now showing us
that we process sacred values

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in different regions of the brain
than cost-benefit calculations;

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that we respond with moral outrage,


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show aggression, and hold on 
more deeply to those sacred values

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when we feel 
that we're under threat.

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To millions of Americans,

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the Second Amendment
is a deeply felt sacred value;

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it's core to their identity;
it helps shape who they are in the world.

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It's not just about the right to be armed;

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it's tied to notions of freedom, heritage,

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and the ability to protect
what's really important to them.

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Let's look what happened after Sandy Hook.

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Rather than seeing an increase
in gun control across the country,

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we've been seeing
a loosening of gun legislation.

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And many believers in the Second Amendment
responded with outrage.

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They became aggressive, and they held
onto their sacred beliefs more deeply,

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and with what we know about sacred values,
this shouldn't be a surprise.

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It was a core threat to their identity.

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We are more polarized
on this issue than ever.

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And the question is: can we apply

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what neuroscience is telling us
about sacred values to this issue?

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What research shows us is 
that sacred values have to be recognized.

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We have to let somebody know

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that we acknowledge
how important this is to them.

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We don't have to share
those sacred values,

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but we do have to acknowledge

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that they exist and are important
to that individual.

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Only then can we get to common ground;
only then can that individual not feel

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that what's sacred to them
is under threat,

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and we can begin to have a conversation
about one of these most difficult issues.

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When we look at the world around us

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and we wonder if we can change,

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we can look at other insights
that neuroscience is providing us.

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When we look at the rise of ISIS
in Iraq and Syria, we wonder

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how did this small group
of fanatics rise so quickly

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and take over so many large segments
of this country of Iraq, and in Syria?

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They could not have gotten
there on their own;

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they could not have done that

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unless they tapped into the humiliation,
explotion, and exclusion

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that many Sunnis felt

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under the Shia-dominated government
of Prime Minister al-Maliki.

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I know from my own experience

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that exclusion is
the main driver of conflict.

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When we feel excluded,
we don't feel safe.

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When we feel excluded,
we feel that we can't really engage

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to do what's normal to us,
for ourselves or for our communities.

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Now we have 
a biological basis for exclusion.

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Some recent neuroimaging shows

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that we experience
social rejection as physical pain,

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that that part of our brain
that registers trauma

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can not fully differentiate 
between emotional and physical trauma.

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We share that with other mammals.

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Think of that animal that's pulled
from the safety of the herd by a predator.

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That's a direct threat to their survival,
and we experience that the same way.

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Our capacity to think rationally
is depended on feeling safe.

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So, when we think
of these challenges in the world,

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it's important to remember

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that we have to recognize
what drives us as behavior.

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When I think of David Ervine,
he said to me:

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"Terrorists have to come from somewhere,

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and exclusion and injustice
is a powerful place to come from."

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David went on to say
that he felt that his capacity

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to protect what is sacred
to him and his community

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- his religion and being British -
could only be fully realized

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in a country that recognized
what was sacred to those around him.

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Roelf Meyer came to see

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that a system built 
on exclusion would never last.

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What this tells us is

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that we have to build relationships
and governments of inclusion.

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Without that, we will drive

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more and more of our communities
into violence and division.

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As we look around the world,

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and we see deepening conflict, 
increasing division,

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and we make disappear,

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I think it's important to keep in mind
that people can change;

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that people can fundamentally change,

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and to see someone like David,
and to see someone like Roelf

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is empowering and liberating.

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We now know that we can rewire our brains,
that change is possible,

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and that by combing what we know
of these insights, and with practice,

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we can begin to reframe 
the challenges we face in the world.

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And I believe, to begin to live
in a more peaceful world.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)