Wikipedia, that ever-helpful resource, lists 19 major epidemics and pandemics, from the largest to the smallest, in world history. Listings exclude “infectious diseases with high prevalence” like malaria, which are given separately. Items, moreover, must have had at least one million deaths. Number 1 is the Black Death, which killed 17-54% of the global population, mainly in Europe, between 1346 and 1353, or an estimated 75-200 million victims. Second comes the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920, with 17-100 million deaths and a 1-5.4 percentage worldwide. Covid 19 is listed as #5, with an estimated 7-21 million fatalities worldwide as of January 2024, or .1-.46% globally... What’s most interesting to me about this list is it leaves out the world’s oldest and most lethal pandemic, the misuse and abuse of power. If we exclude casualties of domestic violence and limit ourselves to wars, William Ekhardt in an article entitled “War-related Deaths since 3000 B.C.” that appeared in 1990-91 in Canadian Mennonite University’s Peace Research, vol. 22, no. 4/vol. 2, no. 1 estimated that number to be 1.1 billion. Now I’ll grant that the Mennonites are a peace-loving sect. Still, one has to believe that, given humanity’s history—think of the battles in the Hebrew Scriptures alone—the number of fatalities from wars large and small over the past five thousand years must dwarf even the #1 pandemic on Wikipedia’s list. Yet I guess we are all so used to this kind of collective violence that we hardly register it as a pandemic or even a public-health issue. The reality is, however, that whatever the actual number—one we will never know—abuses of power resulting in war must be the world’s oldest and most fatal pandemic.
Given that, where are the labs working overtime to find preventatives, vaccines, and cures? Well, to be fair, individuals and groups building dikes against collective violence include good parents and elders; caring and effective teachers, coaches, scout leaders, and therapists; healthy religious institutions; skilled managers and bosses; thoughtful local and state officials; and the worldwide network of charitable organizations. Right here in Boulder, however, I am aware of a special nonprofit focused on this issue, the Right Use of Power Institute (RUPI). Founded by long-time resident and psychotherapist Dr. Cedar Barstow, it was created specifically to train individuals and organizations to use their personal, role, status, collective, and systemic power with greater wisdom and skill. Now directed by Dr. Amanda Aguilera, the Institute also trains trainers who can teach and incorporate Institute ideas and techniques into their own work and organizations or even present RUPI-designed programs. Course materials currently exist in Spanish as well as English and include online and self-paced trainings. Two related books are also available: Dr. Barstow’s The Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics (2015) and Barstow and Feldman, Living in the Power Zone—How Right Use of Power Can Transform Your Relationships (2013). If you think this is a commercial message, you’re right. If you think RUPI’s public-health/educational mission should be expanded in both volume and reach, you’re also right. The future of the world may hang in the balance. To learn more, access free instruction, and register for courses, go to www.rightuseofpower.org.
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