Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Source of Conflict and Hatred

I wanted to share a revelation that I've had in the past few years that I think applies to conflicts and harmful behavior of all types. And that revelation is this:

Atticus Finch was wrong when he said that you can't understand a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes, and thus implied that the cause of conflict and hatred is a lack of understanding of other people.

What I have learned is that conflict and hatred isn't caused by failing to understand others, but is instead caused by people thinking that they do understand others.

Put more clearly: The problem isn't that people don't understand each other, it's that they think they do.

I will be happy to elaborate on this more fully should anyone ask.

I'm Baa-ack

My apologies for my unexpected hiatus over the last month or so. I don't want to get into the details behind it, but I've been dealing with an all-consuming problem that made it difficult for me to do anything with this blog. I'm hoping to get back up and running in the coming days as I catch up on current events, although my posting will probably be limited to just one or - at most - two a day for the foreseeable future.

Just to deter any speculation on these fronts, the issue that has kept me from posting did NOT involve any of the following: drugs, alcohol, arrest, dee-vorce, firearms, illegal wiretaps, Guantanamo Bay, torture, Hillary Clinton re-education camp. It may or may not, however, have involved tap dancing on the grave of the Mitt Romney campaign.