Blog details

Adam Sharon, Family Mediation Center, Boston

When we think of the complicated technology in the contemporary era, it replicates the stream of waves gently slapping the banks and later sturdily gulping the same. See as the strong stream of waves gets vanishing, the individuals and societies who hold their feet firmly not to get swayed away by the mighty waves – are bold enough to survive but the extent of their survival in respect of the collaboration with their fellow people and other societies remains a subject to be investigated. 

 Is the claim of the physical science in respect of uniting the distanced persons and easing the difficulties are valuable for the human beings in the Universe?  May be true-To some extent? Beyond that extent as everybody expects and desires it is the Almighty’s magic that may be doing the real wonders. You may also wonder- why Almighty has been dragged on to this discussion. The emotional elements like depressions, miseries may probably cause disputes in their transactions that may crop up in their day to day life. So finding a resolution to this effect apart from quenching the thirst from the pool of contentment can never be accomplished by means of physical science. Complications and ambiguity are the products of science. Hence we hope a non-scientific treatment rather than letting our brain bearing the scattered scientific rudiments to bring about the aforesaid happiness and easy relationships. Our aspiration is in a sense is the human nature.

 While emphasizing human nature, the version of celebrated thinker Bertrand Russell has to be recollected- “Man’s desires and aptitudes are all complex compared to that of other living beings. As such man has been facing a lot of troubles. At the same time they are self-centered and have a social inclination – a combination of selfishness nature with egoistic tendencies and collaborative nature with love and affection towards fellow beings”. But men are not real social beings like ants or butterflies; but neither a self-egoistic like lion or a bear.

The human proclivity is more or less tension packed. The negative connotations like anger, selfishness enmity tend to fight with constructive and upbeat features like love, affection, sincerity; sacrificing mentality and this struggle originates the aforesaid tension. The result coming out of these battles may cause a situation leading to differ with others in respect of any transactions. So the difference may convert into a dispute. A permanent solution against settling these types of disputes has become inevitable.

The supreme body like Courts in our legal system cannot deliver a permanent solution to this effect though justice is visible on the face; the reality provides the enduring basis for the distancing of the individuals.

We are forced to face such situations. But in some strange occasions, we may opportune to get introduced to such persons who possess the resourceful personality. They molded their identity in such a way where they might have acquired the virulent traits after having undergone the severe virtual training in diversified areas. Such personalities may be projected to be mere imaginings for us – when we tell others about them we may be treated and termed as fools. But we must recognize the reality. We must explore them. Such personalities of course are among us. We can discuss an example: Two persons. Strangers. Accidentally they happened to see a big jar full of gold in front of them – But the strange things happen there is that they don’t make a single self claim over the jar. On the other hand one tries to make other feel that it belongs to him (later) only. When it occurs, usually ordinary man expresses his desire that it belongs to him (“it belongs to me”) only, but the scenario is entirely different in this case where both of them say to each other that “it belongs to you”.

The purpose of collaboration serves when a man gives preference to his brother in respect of giving up his favorites. The dedication of one to meet the requirements of his fellow being when the former requires the same thing, when one is starving, make efforts to provide food to his brother, keeping awake for other to sleep are the collaborative or cooperative attitudes of a human being. These characters remind us that of great personalities about whom it was disclosed in the scriptures. We happen to read and hear about such personalities who have tried to make such impossible task into practice in the scriptures like Prophet Mohammed and his disciples including ansars (who have received Prophet and his followers from Mecca wholeheartedly) and muhajirs (Prophet and his followers left Mecca for Medina seeking shelter and solace so as to propagate Islam) . Again we remember the great prophet Jesus Christ, who had made his people of Israel, realize such good deeds in his revelations. Even in our India, we are lucky enough to be a part of the great nation of legacy where some great prophets known to be maharishis of ancient times announced to the universe in different medias like epics and other great books like Vedas and Upanishads about the relinquishing one’s favorite entity for other – renouncing their favorites to other living beings. We can accept their philosophies without any reservations.

Therefore cooperation is an inspiration to a society. It should be borne in mind that while evolving scientific way of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) techniques, it shall have its roots in the cooperation. When a sacred process of settling disputes in the form of mediation scientifically operates – the negative connotations previously referred such as anger, selfishness, enmity etc. will be distanced away and subsequently society acquires benefits of love, affection, peace and contentment.