Presidents have the power to start wars, send their bombs and guns to another country and start blowing apart the lives, homes and history of other people.
The amount of pain and harm that comes from weapons of destruction is beyond measure (or at least my capability to measure). Announcements are like - Russia has bombed Ukraine. It makes me feel sick. Another article I read recently said a very wealthy American offers the Republican Party billions of dollars. There are quotes popping up from different sources to reveal money is all that's needed to rule the world of 8 billion people.
Boys still in their teens, still confused about how the world works, what is right, what is wrong, can enter a classroom with guns and kill children and teachers while police are unsure whether to enter or not. This is the report from a school in Texas.
Anyone who has lived, given birth, nurtured kin, worked to make a business successful, risen to be part of a team of doctors in a hospital operating room, has earned a bachelors degree in science or flower arranging, or suffers from hunger and poverty, must know the world of modern capitalism or democracy or communism, is suffering. We all suffer said my yoga teacher. Writers, teachers, comedians, CEO's, kitchen staff, cleaners, parents, children, dogs, cats, know of suffering.
All, even the narcissistic warmongers held up as heroes - suffer. Famous good people like Gabor Mate, Margaret Atwood, Rebecca Solnit, Justin Trudeau, suffer.
What can we do about it? Anatol Rapoport (the game theory expert) told me many years ago "there are no solutions".
However that doesn't mean we can do as we please, or that it's too late. Bad news piles up because it would seem naive to talk as though there is an answer.
So the problem is not just the evil doers in the world, its that we have lost the narrative to find a way through in the story of civilization. To sing songs, write stories, play tennis, create symposiums among world leaders, clean the house and cook supper, is to trivialize our world. We've got to rule the world, keep every ego in line, threaten bad guys and MAKE SURE all shall be well. And we have a list of punishments to threaten the bad guy, yet if we treat one another as though they might be bad guys, we create the problem.
We alienate the humans who are supposed to live in peace and solve problems, who must maintain all societies to the utmost moral standard. But we don't hold the same views on what must be done, or not done, so our best efforts are lost in wars and arguments.
It's a long loop. What must be done, who is to blame, who are the good, and who are the bad.
All of this is judgement. Trying to solve a world of traumatized people by calling out what's wrong and who is to blame just makes things worse. Using the stick instead of the carrot has been the method for thousands of years and the chains are around the body of humanity.
This is where love comes in. I know it's not a singular cure. But listening to people before they become alienated and violent offers the element of healing and belonging. This means no one of us is responsible for getting rid of violence, hate and greed. And this is not a solution, but the world of our relationships brings us back into a coherent narrative where we use our best selves to help one another, to intervene where we see suffering, to ask others to participate. The world cannot be saved by a ruler, a religion, a law, or a dollar - the world is a cabbage. It requires life to be engaged. It grows, it lives and dies. Where we are is today and problems need our response, our engagement, our love and our care.
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