Devise World Peace: Part 1, Consolation Payments

Under the premise that achieving world peace is largely a matter of using greater love to access greater creativity and ingenuity, this post explores the creative idea of using Consolation Payments as a device to create peace in an age of terrorism.

CONSOLATION PAYMENTS

Consolation Payments are significant sums of money, as much as a 5-year-supply or more, paid by the world community to the families of victims of terrorist attacks.  The purposes of Consolation Payments are not really consolation, but attention shifting and payoff distortion.

ATTENTION SHIFTING

As a parent, I observed that at moments of filial strife among my children, my most effective intervention method was to give my full attention to the party that was in the moment suffering and calling to me the loudest.  This typically went against my indignant inclinations to exact wrath on the alleged perpetrator(s).  Consolation payments are a concrete form of attention shifting away from the perpetrator of the moment to the victim of the moment.

PAYOFF DISTORTION

By committing horrific acts, perpetrators of terror are seeking in a perverted way to heal of their own victimhood. Their immediate goal is to draw attention to themselves and their own suffering,  Consolation payments distort this desired payoff by addressing the general issues of attention, suffering, and victimhood in a way that does not pay the perpetrators emotionally or strategically.

By distorting the payoff of terrorism, consolation payments make terrorism into a less desirable tactic.