Peace Is Here with Avis Kalfsbeek

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - JFK’s American University Speech (Class 11) We conduct a critical analysis of JFK’s 1963 "Strategy of Peace." While acknowledging its power in humanizing the Cold War "enemy" and breaking the Red Scare spell, we challenge Kennedy’s dismissal of "universal peace" as a fantasy. We explore why Peacewarts embraces the aspirational goal of absolute peace over mere...

Peacewarts: Dept. of Universal Understars - Watersheds vs. Nation-States (Class 10) We explore the concept of Bioregionalism and why natural topography—specifically watersheds—is a more logical and peaceful way to organize human society than abstract nation-states. We examine John Wesley Powell’s failed 1890 proposal and look at modern proponents of watershed-based boundaries who seek to align pol...

Peacewarts: Dept. of Universal Understars - The Map is Not the Territory (Class 9) We explore the semantic trap of mistaking abstract political maps for the actual reality of the Earth. We define "Provincialism Masquerading as Principle" through the lens of the American Civil War and contrast it with the Aboriginal Australian Songlines—a living, melodic way of mapping the territory through relatio...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Violence of Straight Lines (Class 8) We begin our second week by deconstructing the "violence" of colonial map-making. We examine how the straight lines of the Berlin Conference (1884) and the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) ignored the natural reality of the ground. Most importantly, we discuss how these rigid historical lines are mirrored in our own person...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - Species-Level Loyalty (Class 7) We explore the concept of Species-Level Loyalty and the shift from "National Resident" to "Planetary Citizen." We examine the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project as the first historical rehearsal of a borderless human crew, proving that shared survival can override national rivalry. Homework: Interrupt your routineto look up the "Ea...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Overview Effect (Class 6) We examine the Overview Effect not just as an experience, but as hard geopolitical data. By looking at the consistent testimony of astronauts from various nations, we see how the "High View" naturally dissolves nationalistic identity. We also revisit JFK’s 1963 "Strategy of Peace" as an early political application of this planeta...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - Atmospheric Sovereignty (Class 5) We examine the biological reality of the atmosphere and how it renders traditional concepts of national sovereignty obsolete during a crisis. We dive into the history of the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty and how the discovery of radioactive fallout in the global food chain forced a shift toward planetary cooperation. Homework:...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Earth as a Closed System (Class 4) We move from the philosophy of the "High View" into the engineering of Spaceship Earth. We explore Buckminster Fuller’s concept of the planet as a closed system where "there is no away." We also examine the 1963 document Pacem in Terris as a moral blueprint for a single human family sharing a limited life-support system....

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Pale Blue Dot (Class 3) We travel six billion kilometers away to examine the Pale Blue Dot—the most distant photograph ever taken of our home. We explore Carl Sagan’s philosophy on "human conceits" and how this extreme perspective serves as a tool for dismantling nationalistic ego. We also look at the massive cultural impact of the Cosmos series, which re...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Blue Marble (Class 2) We define and explore the Overview Effect—the cognitive shift that occurs when viewing Earth from space—and the historical impact of the Blue Marble photograph. We also examine the 1963 Hotline Agreement as a structural tool designed to maintain high-level clarity and prevent accidental global conflict. Homework: Interrupt your routi...

Peacewarts: Universal Understars 101 - The Humility of the High View (Class 1) Episode Summary: We launch our first formal class of the semester by entering the Tower. We establish the vision of the "High View" and the "Stars-eye view" before examining the work of Jonathan Schell and Linus Pauling. We explore why the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty was a scientific necessity and introduce our shared...

Peacewarts: Orientation – The Peacewarts Foundations Festival Today, we step onto the quad for the Peacewarts Foundations Festival. This is our "soft entry" into the curriculum—a day for breathing, gathering, and setting the cultural tone of the school. We move away from the high-speed "scrolling world" to embrace the "Deep Look," establishing the scholarly tools and ethical frameworks (like the C...

Peacewarts: Orientation – The Enrollment and The Grounds Welcome to Orientation. In this official orientation episode, we transition from theory to practice as we enroll in a new way of thinking about global conflict. We revisit the "Great Spell" of 1963 and conduct a high-level tour of the eight departments that form the Peacewarts curriculum. We define the "Syllabus of the Soul," establishing a...

The Midnight Realization – A Personal Note About Peacewarts What happens when the standard ways of talking about peace feel too heavy? In this personal note, Avis transitions from The Peace Experiments into a brand-new adventure for 2026: a peace school. After a bout of midnight insomnia, a new structural logic emerged: a way to study peace that is as rigorous as it is joyful. Welcome to Peacewart...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: The Pothole Broadcast In Chapter Thirteen, Kitty delivers one last broadcast from Midway. Using Doris the Pothole as both witness and metaphor, she reflects on what the hearing revealed and what it failed to fix. Peace, she reminds us, is not a grand declaration but an act of maintenance: noticing cracks, refusing denial, and telling the truth before the da...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: New Files, The Pothole and the Protocol Chapter Twelve brings us back to Midway, where Kitty files the story that quietly changes everything. After the national hearing, a modest directive authorizes youth-led peace experiments—not because institutions believe in peace, but because they can no longer justify their fear of it. At her desk, with Marzipan keep...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: The Question from Osprey Point The hearing resumes with more speeches, more caution, and less listening. While officials debate peace as an abstract risk, the youth delegation is sidelined—literally placed in overflow. When Garrett steps forward to ask a single, clear question, the room is forced to confront something it has carefully avoided: what happens...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: The Hearing on Global Inertia Kitty travels to the capital to cover a high-level hearing on global disarmament. Inside a cavernous hotel ballroom, officials and defense contractors frame peace as a dangerous gamble and delay as responsibility. The youth delegation is present but constrained, allowed to speak just long enough to be thanked and ignored. As th...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: The Midway Broadcast, Myths Debunked In a rare break from standard reporting, Kitty O’Compost goes live from the Beacon to name the myths that keep peace permanently postponed. With Marzipan providing emphatic fact-checks and Garrett’s voice cutting through the static, the broadcast reframes inevitability, fear, and scale as claims that can be tested rather...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: Ch 8 - Server Farms and Seed Banks Kitty O’Compost follows a question out of town and into two very different systems. At the edge of Midway, she encounters the guarded logistics hub, sealed tight with jargon and authorization. Downriver, she visits the Midway Community Seed Bank, where knowledge, resilience, and future harvests are shared freely. Between t...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: Ch 7 - No Gates in the Garden Today’s chapter takes us out of meetings and into the soil. Kitty visits a place where ideas don’t argue. They decompose, rest, and come back changed. If you’ve ever wondered whether peace has a practice, not just a policy, this chapter begins to answer that question. Experiment Zero is the prequel to The Peace Experiments, a p...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: Ch 6 - The Science of Skepticism, Scarcity Edition Kitty O’Compost visits Room 213 at Osprey Point High School, where skepticism is treated not as an attitude but as a scientific discipline. Under the guidance of Ms. Finch, students are running live experiments on the stories adults tell about competition, fear, and scarcity. At the center of the lab is a s...

Experiment Zero - The Peace Experiments: Ch 5 - Arguments Against Peace, Interview Day Kitty O’Compost spends a single morning gathering the most common objections to peace, beginning with a defense contractor’s carefully rehearsed fears and ending in a public school science lab where those fears are treated as testable claims rather than permanent truths. As corporate language leans on economic a...

Experiment Zero – The Peace Experiments: Ch 4 - The Leak: Protocol of Postponement In this chapter, Kitty receives an unexpected document that reveals how close the world is to disarmament and how far it remains from choosing it. What appears to be a serious plan for peace is revealed instead as a ritual of postponement, built from charts, committees, and comfort thresholds. As Kitty reads deeper,...

Experiment Zero – The Peace Experiments: Ch 3 - Scratch-Fact-Check, The Global Pothole A routine local story takes an unexpected turn when Kitty O’Compost realizes her reporting has begun to attract attention far beyond Midway. What started as a single pothole on County Route 12 now sits at the center of a widening web of polite warnings, unfamiliar acronyms, and unusually interested observers. As...