The path of peace

Submitted by michael (United States), Apr 20, 2008 at 12:07

Peace be upon you and yours. You are correct. We do still live in savage times. It is not the human spirit, but the tools of killing that have been improved. Those in power still overwhelmingly believe that the more they threaten and injure those in their gun sights, the more they will be respected and obeyed by them. Your article on the occupation in Hebron should remind us of the Stanford (as I recall) Prisoner Experiments. Two groups of college students volunteered-- one played the part of prisoners and the other their jailors.

The experiment was to have run for two weeks but had to be cut short-- because of gross abuses that the psychologists feared would instill lasting harm on both sets of volunteers. And these were young people who were one another's friends! But humiliation and the gratuitous infliction of pain quickly became pronounced features of their experiment in role playing. It is far worse when people don't even speak the same language, such as US soldiers in Iraq. Or belong to the same faith, as in Northern Ireland.

Fear and power make men with guns do unspeakable things to one another. In a mature society we would not tolerate leaders who set us one upon the other, like handlers at a dog fight. We would only follow those who followed the Path. Salaam aleikum. Shalom aleichem. In every language it should be the same.

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