It’s easy when we hear about one group of humans inflicting severe suffering and death on another to feel anger and revulsion – particularly when the act is described or shown in graphic and gory detail by the media.
We see our leaders promise swift and bloody revenge and watch as planes are sent to bomb foreign lands in the vain hope that this will teach them a lesson and they’ll stop being evil.
This simplistic, almost childish approach is supported through media outlets issuing headlines and rallying calls designed to stir up yet more hatred and anger, as if ridding the world of hatred and violence is as simple as ensuring that the response is demonstrating a greater capacity for hatred or more effective violence.
It is a singularly unevolved and primitive approach to the “terror” problem, which has seemingly become more widespread and more intrusive since war was declared on it following the September 11th attacks in 2001.
All the bombs dropped, ”enemy combatants” killed, innocent “collateral damage” sustained, countries invaded and money spent on “fighting evil” does not seem to have dented the capacity for some groups of humans to perform evil acts upon others.
All that the ”war on terror” seems to have achieved so far is to create more terror – it is a war without end, no definable goals in sight, no point at which those involved could stop and point to a victory.
Evil acts are countered by equally evil acts. Violence is met with more violence, each side determined to keep going at all costs.
We are witnessing the stark reality that if everyone takes the approach of “an eye for an eye”, the whole world will end up blind.
Hatred will not be overcome with hatred.
Darkness cannot be dispelled by more darkness.
Anger merely begets more anger.
No negative emotion or behaviour can ever be overcome by turning that same emotion or behaviour against itself as a cure.
Try it next time you are with someone who has lost it and become very angry.
Try shouting at them and being even more angry than they are in a bid to calm them down and help them to see the error of their ways.
It cannot and will not work.
It takes light to dispel the darkness.
It takes patience and calm to best deal with anger.
It takes sustained unconditional love to ultimately triumph over hatred.
The only effective and lasting path to restoring the light to the world is through more and more people showing calm, patience, compassion and unconditional love in their dealings with others on a daily basis.
Love Rules 
When someone is trying to kill you, you don’t always have time to be nice, you have to fight back or die. Sometimes violence is the only answer, even if you don’t like it. Unless, you just stand there an let it happen. Even non-violent people can become violent if their lives, or the lives of their children, are at stake. I’m not talking about domestic violence which is a never-ending nightmare for women and children, I’m talking about war. We send out kids to fight. That’s why they are going to the places we send them. It’s insane but sometimes the alternative is worse. It’s not a black and white situation. If we, or a person, does not defend themselves, they get hurt or die. The thing is…our Constitution states that we cannot START a war, we can only DEFEND our shores but not go and kill people UNLESS WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!!!!! But our government doesn’t actually care about the Constitution, it cares about money and the profit from war. So they ignore what our country stands for, what the Constitution plainly states, and they do what they want. The result, not much changes and our kids are horribly wounded, they are killed or they commit suicide. And, let’s not forget our own soldiers raping our own soldiers. I’m ready to fight, to go to war, if threatened or if people are attacking us. 9/11 could have been started by our own government to get the Patriot Act passed, I don’t know. All I know is that things are a mess. NONE OF US KNOWS ANYTHING AT ALL. WE ARE LIED TO ALL THE TIME. WE ARE GIVEN BITS OF INFORMATION, some of it true, most of it false. We have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Ever.
And I’m all for violence if someone comes at us. Nice doesn’t get you anywhere but dead or enslaved. When you’re dealing with people who are radically different (in beliefs/thinking) it is sometimes impossible to come to any agreement. I think we should always try, but we need to be ready to fight as well and believe me I always want to be the biggest, baddest, dog on the block. I don’t know where unconditional loves comes in. We are killing each other at an alarming rate in our own neighborhoods, violence seems to be the norm, so I don’t know where unconditional love exists, definitely not here. I think unconditional love is visiting Nirvana somewhere. As long as there is hate, racism sexism, ageism, etc., you’re not going to find unconditional love.
You can’t change other people. Compassion? Sounds great but realistically, people in those other countries shoot babies and smash them against walls, so no, not from me. The people who blew everyone up at the Boston Marathon, nope. Unless the dead and wounded can be restored, the people who did it don’t deserve to be whole or alive. That’s not anger or rage, that’s just fair. The 8 year-old boy who was killed NEVER GETS A SECOND CHANCE. So fair is fair. I could push the button on the guy who did it. Not a problem…just thinking about that innocent little boy and and all the people who have had their lives altered forever, that’s what the person who did it deserves. Only fair. You play, you pay. It’s really that simple. He wanted to kill people, he tried his best TO kill people, innocent people. He should expect to die, if it’s okay to kill people he should be prepared to die in return. That IS compassion, it’s compassion for those who were killed and maimed. It’s a way to make sure that at least THAT person, doesn’t do it again.
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If we don’t try to do things differently, we’ll just get more of the same. If we don’t try to make things better, then we may as well give up. Violence never stops violence. Only understanding, patience and compassion will change things for the better. Look at Northern Ireland. To have peace, all sides had to make concessions – but the violence had to stop for it to work. I choose to believe that what we do on a daily basis has an impact. Butterflies and hurricanes. So I’d rather choose compassion over violence, patience over anger and love over hatred. I don’t see how else anything will ever be any different.
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