Taught to hate

We hear about war and conflict all the time. In fact we hear about it so much we start to think we are incapable of having a peaceful planet. But when we see children of warring cultures playing together, we come to see that the desire for conflict and hate was something we were taught and not something we were born with.

When we are born it is a time of innocence for us. We know nothing about the problems of the world, we know nothing about love or sex. In fact about all we know how to do is play and have fun. When we cry things are often resolved with a loving hug or kiss. So the question is where do we go wrong and teach our children to hate. After all we do have some checks in place.

Unfortunate as it is, there are several places our children learn. In fact in some countries it is in the text books at school. Other places children learn to hate is hearing adults talk. So with this and more we teach our children to hate, and with that comes continued conflict.

The Middle east has always been a hotspot for hate and conflict. If you look at some of the centuries old feuds between some cultures, and the persecution of Jews for as long as anyone can remember, you start to ask why. Even going back to the biblical times Jews were fair game. So that brings us to the eventual question of what started it all way back whenever it was? Chances are nobody truly remembers. The more recent conflicts are easy to identify the trigger point, but the situation was already primed from the past. Without that priming, the chance things would elevate to armed conflict are greatly reduced.

So considering that times change, and certainly a lot has changed from biblical times, what may have been something that could have started a war some 2000 years ago, would not even be considered a reason to say more than, ‘And your point is???’. In actuality it could have been as simple as a romance that crossed cultural lines and the families did not take kindly to their children running their own love life. As stupid and silly as that sounds in today’s world, that certainly could have started a feud that quickly elevated to revenge fighting. After all is that not what most of the fighting is about. Certainly there are land issues today, but what lead to that. Seeing is the global population was but a fraction of today’s, there was plenty to go around even for the most robust of appetites for land.

So the bottom line is we do teach our children to hate, and because of that there will be prolonged conflict around the world. Places where this hate teaching is reduced, people tend to get along well although admittedly some cultures do not easily blend. So the problem is with the old and not the young. Finding that master reset button is what it has been all about for leaders and politicians. However they are dealing with the effect of the hate teaching. Fix the cause and the effect will tend to itself.


Comments are closed.