Listening to the world news one hears again about the ceaseless wars in the middle east. Both sides sight right on their side and so the death and destruction continues. This is not an intellectual discussion this is a fact is it not?
Both sides are loosing as suffering is taking place and this will continue as one side tries to quash the other. There is no victor in conflict, there is only conflict and all the insecurity and fear that that brings.
It is too easy to take sides however supposedly rationally one comes to ones decision. In fact taking sides is surely the root of the problem. To decide that one side is right and the other is wrong is almost certainly based on ones own beliefs and conditioning which is rarely based on fact.
Do not all human beings irrespective of nationality, religion, ethnicity, tribe, culture and society have the same rights?
If we cannot destroy the opposition, and this is not being recommended, how are we to resolves these conflicts wherever they exist? Firstly in the human sense how are they created? Surely they are created by the will of the individual being exerted outwards. The individual who wants power, who wants their way of life to continue, to prevail over others ideas of how they would like to live, and they, in turn, are doing the same.
This comes from our sense of individuality, of having what we want for ourselves and following our own desires. In most societies this is encouraged; to pursue our own interests, or the interests of our group, be it family or nation etc, without much concern for others needs. This activity of reinforcing the self, forcing our will and beliefs on others causes the conflicts that eventually lead to death and destruction.
It is therefore self centred activity that ultimately causes war and that selfish activity is the action that leads each one of us to to take sides and therefore create enemies.
Without enemies there is no war so perhaps the first thing to do is understand that it is each one of us who creates enemies when we choose a side that suits us according to self centred preferences.
