Polarity.
In an age where information and communication are more readily available than ever before, we are growing further apart as people.
Crawling into the digital echo chambers of our ever present devices, we are isolating ourselves from the one thing that can create growth and inspire peace between our races, nations, genders and families.
The ability to listen to an opposing point of view.
In politics, in the definition of societal structures, in the determination of family and even in the relationships between genders, there appears to be a greater divide than a coming together.
As voices rise in pitch and provocation, we are becoming less desirous of peace, and more willing to enter into conflicts of ideas without a respect for our common humanity.
The need to be right has overridden the responsibility to be respectful.
I see this in the lives of friends who have become so polarized by one position that they have ceased to become anything else. Casting off all pretense of civility and compassion, they desire the destruction of an opposing point of view, and all who espouse it, without regard for the truth or the possibility of a valid opinion that does not conform to their own.
The fascism of ideology is replacing the tyranny of theology. Have we learned nothing?
Where are the cries for peace in the midst of the cacophony for chaos? When will we turn to our neighbor seeking reunion with the same fervor and ferocity as we now seek victory at the cost of our common decency?
It seems a forgotten reality that we still have to live with the people with whom we disagree, even if we have temporarily triumphed in some venue of war, or whatever passes for it. Victory seems to destroy the virtues of kindness and friendship, relegating the defeated to the position of the enemy, rather than the friend with whom we must reconcile.
We cannot continue down this causeway of chaos, lest we find ourselves in a conflict entirely of our own creation.
Today, I implore you to begin the process of peace by listening not to the arguments of your opponent, but to the beating of your heart that declares them as such.
Journey inside yourself, and ask why you cannot reach out in peace and harmony. When you find the answer to this question, you will have served the world in way that no-one else ever could.
If you would seek to find the flaw in others, first understand your desire to do so.
If you would seek peace, find it first in you.
—Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings