Colombia has long been suffering as one of the most violent territories of the globe, primarily a result of the constant power struggles between the paramilitary, military and guerilla forces.
Recently, alternative solutions to Colombia’s violence have been attempted with much success in the capital, formulated and strategised primarily by the ‘La Vida es Segrada’ (Life is Sacred) campaign of Antanas Mockus, a philosophy and mathematics lecturer-come-two-term mayor of Bogota.
At the basis of this so-called, ‘Super-citizen’ methodology is the concept that people follow laws and regulations based on three principles:
1) Fear: If they do not act in certain ways they will be punished under national or international legal guidelines.
2) Morality: They agree morally with the law and would not break it even if it were not illegal
3) Social exclusion: The action is socially unacceptable and they will be thus excluded from their family, social or community groups if they carry this out.
At the national level, the response to ‘tackle’ Colombia’s violence concentrates primarily on ‘Fear’ as the antidote to illegal violent actions. On a par with the majority of world powers then the major governmental responses have been to strengthen the state military and increase police presence and power on an ‘us versus them’, ‘good versus bad’ standard dichotomy.
For Mockus, this dangerously ignores the two latter reasons for individual and group behaviour. Within a new wave of action, both culture and society must be incorporated more heavily into ‘anti-violence’ initiatives. In line with this theorisation, Mockus established a wide and innovative array of techniques to foster anti-violent attitudes and behaviour during his previous term as mayor. These included:
-Hiring local artists to paint coloured stars on any piece of road or pavement within the capital on which someone had been killed, whether by traffic fatalities, violent or political crime. The name of that person was then written inside this.
-Issuing 30,000 two-toned ‘red/white’ cards (as used in football matches) to citizens to use in the event of public disagreements of any kind rather than resorting to verbal or physical abuse.
-Hiring local mime artists to socially embarrass people not crossing roads at designated zebra crossings (a major cause of traffic fatalities). The mimes followed and mimicked such people throughout the city, the basis of the strategy being that Colombians are more fearful of social ridicule than fines or regulations.
-Once the homicide rate began to fall, Mockus ordered that cemeteries continue to be built at the previous rate with signs built above them, declaring ‘this cemetery is empty’.
The success and popularity of such initiatives, have not, however, resulted in the extension of such human, social and cultural-focused strategies within Colombia or elsewhere. That this is a result of the lack of philosophical, innovative and confident figures such as Mockus within the spectrum of global political figures is possible. What is certain is the continual focus of law-makers on strategies based on the belief that ‘fear of punishment’ is indeed the primary reason for law-compliance and (non)violent behavioral patterns amongst citizens. According to the Mockus’ research, this is undoubtedly not the case.
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