Kenneth Cloke

I never meant to be studying Conflict Resolution, Alternative Dispute Resolution, whatever we like to call it. Embroilment with a rather - well let's just say un-simpatico group of humans meant that I got dragged into conflict (you only have my word for the passive voice of course: perhaps I am a volatile instigator of conflict). A conflict resolution session was initiated, a Conflict Resolver (with impeccable credentials) was called in , undertook an atrocious day-long session aimed at – well I’ll never know, really, but it sure wasn’t anything involving resolution: exacerbation, perhaps – took the money and ran.

Then I lost my job anyway. And appealed to a legal tribunal, and got it back. Then reluctantly accepted the advice that “back” was far too toxic an environment to re-enter, so I meandered off to university and found myself undertaking a course in Conflict Resolution, Alternative Dispute Resolution, whatever we like to call it.

And to be honest, much of it was, well, ho-hum. Until …

Cloke.

And suddenly this heart began to sing. I mean I suppose I had to do all the other stuff, but case histories and breathy Americanised How To Win By Reading MY Book Available At a Store Near You and extraordinarily dull explorations of the Something or Other Act 1932 as Amended by Dull People in Suits wore thin after a while.

In a manner in which Cloke did not.

Because Kenneth Cloke dived (I guess as An American he might say “dove”) into the spiritual, human, beating heart of mediation. While his use of the adjective and adverb “dangerous/ly” is highly individualised, his thesis, not to mention the scope of his vision, is universal. Weaving across religious, mythological and philosophical traditions, through myriad historical manifestations of conflict, he takes his reader deep into the heart of humans not agreeing with humans. There he dares to breathe resolution.

Cloke steers his reader ably through causes, outcomes, wades through feelings, exposes presuppositions (“Judges have the most intractable bias of all: the bias of believing they are without bias” – 13), provides resolutions. He outlines pitfalls, and reminds the reader constantly that the pitfalls dwell within us. He dares to touch on issues of restorative justice, forgiveness, blame, emotional responses, revenge, reconciliation, Plato and Tutu and Wittgenstein and Goethe and even Thomas Merton, yet never sounds breathy or preachy or, dare I say it, in any way superior to the reader or the subjects of his narrative.

So in the end the course was worthwhile, and the events that led me to it pale into insignificance. Thanks to those events I have chanced across one of the finest books on the state and art of being human that it has been my good fortune to read. Now all I need is enough cash to fly across the world and meet the author in person. Yeah, that's a hint.… (altro)