Hiroshima & Cambodia. Fear & Resentment.

What’s amazing is that in spite of millennia-worth of accumulated and recurring proofs of this fact, we, modern men and women, officious worshippers of democracy and justice for all in the guise of human rights, child and animal protection acts, in their myriad of forms, we participate by proxy – anonymously – in the same random manner as the ‘others’ who overtly appear more callous.

We do that by giving our politicians very specific mandates when we vote for them. What we tell them is this: “Keep out the bad guys and adjust the budget so that I get more money from the government than I’m getting now. Do that any which way you want, provided you stay under the radar.” And we send our politicians, golem-like, on these tracks of action/reaction and relative justice while we deflect personal responsibility by staying safely tucked behind their coat tails – ready to leap out of the shadows and point an accusing finger at the first whiff of an imminent fiasco – any topic will do – and cry, “It wasn’t me! It was the politicians.”

Honest question: Why are we collectively, in the home, in the workplace, in our streets and in our politics still following such ancient, tribal, primary patterns? Why after WWII, haven’t the good men and women of those days, collectively, slowly, moved to set up a model of global-cohabitation aiming to have a different code of ethics in place … by now?

Honest question: are we faring better in these areas than our great-grandparents, our grandparents and our parents who have failed their world and ours?

If we are not faring better on the scoreboard, then, could it be that ongoing tits for tats and ‘Go better!’ and ‘Bring it on!’ responses, regardless of the financial cost and regardless of the human cost on all sides are simply what come naturally to us and, what the heck, if it’s natural, why suppress it?
It is true that wars and international discord do keep bevies of diplomats fully, if not necessarily, gainfully employed. It is true that the weapons industry does put milk and honey on many a table. And it is true that, generally speaking, any sort of societal/cultural mismanagement of emotional responses to perceived ‘injustice’ does keep a huge cohort of civil servants, doctors, nurses, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, self-help gurus and jail wardens also in their jobs – alongside by a huge section of the media.

Serious question: could it be said that envy, hate, anger, fear and resentment do, to a considerable extent, fuel our economy?

And then what?

I remember my mother telling me, when I was a child, that if something didn’t work one way, like a key not turning in a lock, I should remember to turn it the other way. Sound advice it was, indeed. And so, if the general consensus is that hatred, fear and resentment will never bring about any type of satisfying resolution to any sort conflict because these energies attract similar energies as effectively as two poles of a magnet jump at each other, then the only other way to turn ‘this’ key is towards the opposite pole – towards genuine acceptance, towards making an active inner peace in regards to that ‘other’, whoever that other happens to be.

Good news is that we don’t have to hug that other person. It is safe to agree that the power of hugs just as the healing power of making love are both hugely over-rated when it comes to conflict resolutions.
We don’t even have to shake their hand, as cantankerous school children are asked to do to show a supposed heartfelt softening of attitude.
We don’t have to do any of these things because an honest inner peace is also active energy.
Like attracts like, as effectively as two poles of a magnet jump at each other.

The way to alter the energy of envy, fear, hatred and resentment is to try very hard to not respond in kind, while dodging blows – figurative ones as well as literal ones. The key is also to not suffer anything under duress. Accepting anything under duress stands at the opposite side of accepting from a heartfelt inner calm – and duress will NEVER work.