Roots of Conflict

With the situation in Gaza and the Westbank, I've noticed that many people seem unable to understand how violence begins in the first place. How violence and animosity is cultivated, bred and perpetuated. A group like Hamas doesn't just fall from the sky. A lot of people who style themselves as academics or thinkers seem unable to assess the root causes of problems, even though it is only by understanding the roots of conflicts, it is only by assessing the conditions which give rise to violence, that we will truly prevent violence from occurring in the future. To my mind, it is the duty and responsibility of thinkers to look at things contextually and in an evidence-based fashion.

It is as though the supposed academics and thinkers who defend the massacre in Gaza, whether implicitly or explicitly, don't want to stop future violence from occurring. This includes violence against Israeli citizens by terrorists. By inflicting such extreme violence on the population of Gaza, by supposedly trying to eradicate terrorism, Israel will engender far more animosity and hatred. Thus, the Israeli government won't only kill tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians along the way, but will further endanger their own citizens in the long run. Perhaps the aim isn't actually to eradicate Hamas. Perhaps it is to fulfill colonialist, greedy and hateful ambitions. Maybe this is what Bassem Youssef meant when he said that this conflict has nothing to do with Hamas.

The peaceful and intelligent way of assessing this conflict is to understand how and why some people are driven to acts of terrorism, like what happened on October 7th. Until we understand why some people are driven to such violent, brutal acts, we will never reach a place of healing and peace. To think that we can totally obliterate Hamas, as though they are the sole and only problem in this situation, is not just an insensitive and highly destructive approach. It is also inefficient. This is because more Israeli soldiers will die along the way, tens of thousands more Palestinians will be killed, and it will generate more hatred, trauma and pain on a global scale. 

From my perspective, no one is born evil. Or no one has evil at their core. It is more that some people are swept up in cultural cycles of greed, fear and hate. These cycles are millennia-old and have contributed to all of the horrors that humans have generated. These cycles have clouded people from their better judgement. In spite of what we're often told, it actually isn't  human nature to be greedy, selfish and hateful. It is more the case that many people are affected by pernicious ideas. Ideas which misguide them. Ideas which allow them to justify horrific actions.

Most people, if they saw an old woman fall in the street, would instinctively try to help her. Most people, if they heard a child crying out for help, would immediately run towards them to see what's wrong. It is arguable, however, that there are a small handful of humans who are born with more psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies. But if we lived in a culture which was overwhelmingly based on values such as connection, cooperation and compassion, then that small handful would be managed appropriately, and we wouldn't let them rise to positions of power and influence.

It is only through miseducation and our cultural lack of guidance and wisdom that we start to make excuses for horrific actions and that we let sociopaths rise to positions of power and influence. But things don't need to be like this. If enough people push back against our toxic cultural conditioning, if enough people truly exercise critical thinking, then we can gradually change the way we do things for the better. We need to be compassionate but in a steadfast and unrelenting way. We need to be powerfully compassionate.