The Human Responsibility

Perceiving one group of people as truly evil and  another group of people as truly good will not lead us to any reasonable conclusion.

If states and institutions are truly interested in teaching children about crimes committed by different nations, how about starting with more recent human tragedies such as those taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine/Israel, and China/Tibet. Let us also not forget the long struggle of African countries against colonial powers who practically raped the continent for hundreds of years. Nor the lives of Native Canadian children ruined by the religious establishment in residential schools in Canada a couple of generations ago.

Reconciling what seems hard to reconcile is one of the most fundamental virtuous characteristics of a great person or nation. The world is the place to achieve this goal if we are truly interested in living together in peace and harmony. Let us think very seriously before supporting divisive initiatives in our countries, our communities and in our our world. Our media and intellectuals have the moral and ethical responsibility to provide objective and verifiable historical and current facts.

As in Buddhism (and anywhere you would like to refer it to), there is the idea of making friends with “the enemy” — It is important to stay true to true intelligence, no matter how difficult and counter-productive it may seem. If truth be told, it is often most wise to stay clear of one’s own mind’s machinations.

We always have the option of going with ‘misery’, or taking whatever is going on as an opportunity to work towards growth. If self is connected with the Source then the Self is self-sufficiency. This starts with letting go of greed and selfishness, a difficult habit to break. It is possible to do. Having a strong support system of good-minded people who are unafraid to speak the truth helps this process immensely.

Yilmaz Alimoglu
April 28th, 2012
Copyright © Yilmaz Alimoglu 2010-2015.