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Regulars
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Written by Matthew Rushton
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Thursday, 01 November 2007 00:00 |
 WITH MEDIATION entering its teens in the UK, now seems like a good time to take stock of what's been achieved and what's left to do before the process enters adulthood. It's tempting, as some do, to view mediation as a run-away success.
True, mediation has made mighty strides in terms of credibility, but numbers suggest there is little room for complacency. Best guesses suggest somewhere in the order of 2,500 commercial meditations take place each year, which compared to court filings, and the vast numbers of arbitrated cases, make mediation disappointingly small beer.
Courtesy of Andrew Ackland, mediation has had a long and beneficial association with common sense. So the question arises: why is common sense not prevailing? There are numerous factors, intrinsic and extrinsic to the process, which could explain why more people don't rush to embrace mediation. Changing the world to fit in with mediation, however, strikes me as an unreasonable proposition; conversely mediation could, I believe, go some distance further to adapt to the world as it really is.
And this means accepting that people want revenge; they want to vanquish and crush those who have wronged them. To succeed to its potential, mediation needs to find a place for this and other less noble behaviour if it is to fire the imagination the angry and unreasonable.
One's teens are a time to toughen up and adjust to the realities of life, and mediation has the opportunity to do the same. It will take time, and possibly a few meaner, nastier faces at the Lamport Hall dining table. |
Rushton Roars 
