I’m trying to stand back from my emotions about the conflict and chaos in today’s world to see if I can find a little wisdom.
In what circumstances do humans share resources and help one another out?
We often do this on a family and neighbours scale, so why are we not one caring, sharing global family?
What are the causes of conflict?
What will help us to resolve them?
Each of these questions is complex and could be the topic of a large book. Let’s see if it’s possible to simplify and get to the key issues.
SHARING & CARING
In what circumstances do humans share resources and help one another out?
‘No man is an island’
Even the most capable and self-sufficient person will at some time need support and most of us need company and community to feel happy. We discover that giving and sharing provide us with even greater pleasure than receiving. So long as we feel respected and safe around others we enjoy being helpful, generous and loving.
Safety and mutual respect are the foundation of a caring, sharing society.
GLOBAL FAMILY
We often do this on a family and neighbours scale, so why are we not one caring, sharing global family?
As well as a natural capacity to love we inherit from our animal ancestors survival instincts. We desire to live and need water, food and a safe territory we can call home. If we feel that these - or our close family - are threatened fear arises resulting in anger which gives us access to greater strength and energy.
Fuelled by this protective impulse groups of humans have created kingdoms and armies to ward off attacks. We have tried to expand our territories and armies in anticipation of attack to ensure that we have the biggest, strongest, safest home.
To become a global family we will need to create and maintain trust so that this competitive aggression ceases and we can enjoy all the sharing, caring aspects of mutual-support.
FAULT LINES (- in both senses!)
What are the causes of conflict?
The survival instinct results in defensive-aggressive feelings and behaviour. These harden into viewpoints, perceiving the feared ones as ‘enemy’, ‘inhuman’, ‘toxic’. This anaesthetises our natural instinct and moral resolve to protect and preserve the life of others. Social ‘norming’ carried by shared stories and a biased media intesify our perceptions of Us (Good People) and Them (Dangerous Crazies).
Conflict then arises and hardens along these fault lines:
LAND: the notion that ‘my tribe’ can own and control vast areas
INEQUALITY of wealth, resources, power and status
FAITH: when our religion comes to signify our territory
FROM INHUMANITY TO HUMANITY
What will help us to resolve these deeply etched human conflicts?
1. remembering that all humans share the same basic needs and desires
2. realising that the mess we are now in has roots in fear and the survival instinct
3. redefining Us and Them, so that we work towards everyone being Us (Dancing to music from many cultures helps us experience this)
4. commitment to the environment - forests, animals, rivers - which benefit from peace and are destroyed by war
5. the desire to evolve and foster the best in ourselves
Every person makes a difference. You always have some agency. Plant seeds for the future you would cultivate.
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