Chasm

One of my deep operatives gave me a book recently. Its "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle.

He's a type of new age spiritualist with his foot in Buddhism, Judeo/Christian traditions, Hindu and Yoga, and some philosophy. The message is more or less based in a caring kindness for the world community and for some, reading this book would be helpful.

Personally, I'm not looking for another Guru.

There is a quote in the book that seems to efficiently articulate the deeply felt and experienced divides that we witness in the world. In this quote he does not state to whom or about whom he is writing but I am thinking particularly about the Israeli - Palestinian endless conflict. He writes:

"...Both sides believe themselves to be in possession of the truth. Both regard themselves as victims and the "other" as evil, and because they have conceptualized and thereby dehumanized the other as the enemy, they can kill and inflict all kinds of violence on the other, even on children, without feeling their humanity and suffering. They become trapped in an insane spiral of perpetration and retribution, action and reaction."

The question remains, it is still there. We know all this but how do you convince two groups of people to understand the sentiment in a way that would change behavior. How is the cultural experience of this mechanism altered or changed for the better.

Do we change, one person at a time, slowly. Is there a way to change everyone, both sides, quicker, maybe by what we call 'the law.'