The Fault Line: On Power, Peace, and the Performative Neutrality of the Positioned Middle

The Fault Line explores the quiet violences embedded in the language of peace and the structures of power that claim to pursue it. Drawing from lived experience across institutions, activist circles, and community life, Dr. Demeter reveals how dissent is often silenced not by overt oppression but by the subtle enforcement of strategic conformity, identity politics, and credentialed authority. The essay critiques the performative binaries of left and right, calling instead for a deeper, grounded practice of peace rooted in relational repair, place-based wisdom, and regenerative imagination. It invites readers to stand in the fertile imagination, so be gardeners of a new paradigm. The essay is illustrated with striking visualisations that depict both the fractured fault lines of the present and luminous visions for a more just and life-giving future.