Dear Editor
Paraphrasing Obama’s words on Gaza – “There’s blood on everyone’s hands.”
António Guterres made a statesmanlike speech in the UN and was viciously attacked for his thoughtful skilled equipoise.
I experience sympathy for both communities, in direct proportion to the aggregate per capita death toll. The dead, the maimed, the dispossessed, the bereaved and the psychologically devastated are all equal in their plight – regardless of which side they are on.
None has the moral high ground. Neither will ever surrender. Both take absolutist positions and give no quarter. The scene is set for millennia of conflict – elements of Islam still resent the Crusades and much of the basis for positions adopted derives from oral and written traditions from the dawn of history.
A substantial proportion of Israeli and Palestinian people would, I strongly suspect, be capable of living together in harmony but the witches cauldron of nationalism, ethnocentricity and entitlement is kept roiling by the bitter, damaged and murderously obdurate zealots in both communities.
There are parallels to be drawn with actual or incipient or frozen conflicts all across the planet. Nor should we forget the other existential threats that confront us all.
Calling for leadership is an obvious first step but there is a more profound need.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the one dominant species on the surface of this tiny wet rock at the unfashionable end of the universe, us – Homo sapiens, is the most advanced life form in existence. The sheer improbability of our existence defies our combined numeracy skills. The terrifyingly precarious hold that we have on that existence cannot be overstated. And yet we have the rank idiocy to behave as we do – widespread combat, rampant inequality, heedless consumerism, the pursuit of assets far beyond any rational need, the squandering of irreplaceable resources, the amoral, asocial seedy barbarianism that we call politics, the destruction of the ecosphere upon which we depend absolutely…
Either we all learn to live and love, work and play together, in intelligent harmony with each other and our planet or we encounter The Great Filter.
One planet, one dominant species, one common fate – no exceptions.
It is everyone’s heart and mind that must change.
Yours sincerely
Steve Ford
Paraphrasing Obama’s words on Gaza – “There’s blood on everyone’s hands.”