I have spent some time lately considering the essential nature of our current world. We live in a world dominated by harshness and incivility. The human species has descended to a place in which we are cold and cruel to each other without giving it a second thought. We tend to respond to everything with either a how does this benefit me cost benefit analysis or with a cynical zero sum gain perspective. Let me be clear, before I get rolling here, I am including myself in this here.
Suffering half a world away, fails to motivate us to action. Horror, barbarism, and tyranny doesn't cause us to flinch. When that suffering causes millions of people to flee in a refugee migration that we have not seen in at least this generation, it causes us to respond with a less than kind answer. I am willing to concede that our response is not an answer technically speaking as it is much more a reaction.
To look closely at the refugee crisis that Europe is experiencing, it is important to carefully consider it in detail. It is clear that there is a direct connection between the various radical Islamist conflicts in the middle east and Africa and the sources of the refugees. It is clear that there is a direct connection between a lack of an effective foreign policy on the part of the so called 'Western Democracies' and the barbarism being inflicted on these populations, which is causing the people to flee in the millions. It is also clear that the mass migration is leaving behind a destabilized horror.
Rather than look at the situation from a holistic perspective, we are attempting to treat the symptom, refugees, rather than the problem. The problem is the conflicts in their home countries. In most cases it can be tracked back to the horrors of a form of religion that bears only a tangential connection to that religion. Isis in Syria, Boko Haram in central Africa, the Houthis rebels in Yemen all track back to this barbaric form of religion that has more in common with the sixth century than it does with a modern expression of Islam, and with man's search for meaning and connection to the divine.
As long as we treat the symptom, and fight over refugee quotas, and which nations will accept them, the real problem will not abate. There will always be millions more refugees on the move until we address the problem. The problem being those willing to visit horrors on their fellow man that we have no capacity for which we have no ability to find a balance. The solution to this is not one that many people want to speak.
There is only one remedy for evil. It takes people willing to risk their lives to stand up to it. It takes weapons, guns, bullets, airplanes, and armies to push back the forces of hate. In a world that has seen numerous wars in recent years, few want to accept this as a valid choice. We are as a world tired of killing. We are tired of war. We are tired of what it costs.
Sadly, in a world governed by the aggressive use of force, there is not another choice. How do you sanction a non-state actor apart from killing him? How do you corral evil without bullets and bayonets? How do you stop barbarism and tyranny without slaughtering those implementing it? The answer is that you can't. The answer is that the only choice is to confront evil with force, and ending their reign of terror by ending them.
It is sad that that is the only choice. It is sad that there is not another choice. It is sad that our species has advanced so very little, that killing those willing to do evil upon the rest of their culture is the only way of preventing the evil from continuing and from spreading to other places. That is however the world in which we live. Rather than bemoaning the state of things, the fundamental nature of our current climate, it is rather important to get on with the work at hand.
Clearly intervention is needed. Clearly the evil needs to be eradicated. The method of doing so I live to wiser heads to determine. I would suggest a low intensity special operations campaign. It makes sense to take the best warriors the world has in small numbers and set them upon the ones perpetrating evil, carrying our horror, conducting unspeakable acts. A regiment of warriors that grasp discretionary warfare in a modern world, have the skills needed, and the willingness to go where evil lives and end it, is needed.
How that is conducted, the rules it lives by, how it engages, who it kills and who it spares, are details to be worked out. Reaching the conclusion that ending the evil is what I am talking about here. We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot allow new and ever more creative methods of killing our fellow man to be developed, implemented, and posted on the internet. We need to stop those that think their god has told them to behead people and put it on the internet.
How this connects to kindness as a broader theme is the question you are asking now I am sure. Here it is, kindness is not found in wrestling with the question of the refugees, though that is an important thing to do. It is found in solving the broader problem that caused the refugee to flee in the first place. Kindness is found in restoring peace and harmony to the places where it is not. It is found in routing evil from its hiding places and ending it.
Now that does not mean we do not need to deal with the refugee issue. It means that treating the climate that causes refugees in the first is more important. It means bringing peace and harmony to where it is not as a means of making it possible for the refugee to go home, is a greater act of kindness than in just finding a kind way to deal with just the refugee.
Kindness in a modern context means treating all of humanity with dignity. Kindness means finding a means to see the 'other' as an equal, deserving of love and compassion. Kindness means finding a means of protecting those that cannot protect themselves. Kindness means leaving behind our continuing search for our own creature comforts to provide a place at the table in the modern world for those we may have left behind somehow.
Some of the problem in these places is a lack of adequate development. Some of the problem is that the choice is to become someone's gun or to die of starvation. In such situations bad choices are better than no choice at all. And for those that claim we spend lots of money on development, I have to agree we do. We have gotten precious little in return for the money spent. Much of it has made the corrupt wealthy, and given the evil in such places a rallying cry to their cause.
If we reform the developmental aid process to make it accountable for results, and make the goals actually building infrastructure that the society in all these cases desperately needs, the money could be spent more effectively. If we bypass the UN entirely and make projects like connecting all of Africa with roads, electrical lines, clean water, and sanitation a priority we might actually begin to solve Africa's problems.
What I am saying is this, kindness must take the form of solving problems. We can solve immediate context problems sure, but the long range causes of the problems needs to be on our radar. We need to feed the hungry sure. We also need to ensure that they can feed themselves long term at the same time. We need to clothe the naked sure, but we need to provide the climate in which they can clothe themselves tomorrow, next week, and next month. Anything short of that is not kindness.
Suffering half a world away, fails to motivate us to action. Horror, barbarism, and tyranny doesn't cause us to flinch. When that suffering causes millions of people to flee in a refugee migration that we have not seen in at least this generation, it causes us to respond with a less than kind answer. I am willing to concede that our response is not an answer technically speaking as it is much more a reaction.
To look closely at the refugee crisis that Europe is experiencing, it is important to carefully consider it in detail. It is clear that there is a direct connection between the various radical Islamist conflicts in the middle east and Africa and the sources of the refugees. It is clear that there is a direct connection between a lack of an effective foreign policy on the part of the so called 'Western Democracies' and the barbarism being inflicted on these populations, which is causing the people to flee in the millions. It is also clear that the mass migration is leaving behind a destabilized horror.
Rather than look at the situation from a holistic perspective, we are attempting to treat the symptom, refugees, rather than the problem. The problem is the conflicts in their home countries. In most cases it can be tracked back to the horrors of a form of religion that bears only a tangential connection to that religion. Isis in Syria, Boko Haram in central Africa, the Houthis rebels in Yemen all track back to this barbaric form of religion that has more in common with the sixth century than it does with a modern expression of Islam, and with man's search for meaning and connection to the divine.
As long as we treat the symptom, and fight over refugee quotas, and which nations will accept them, the real problem will not abate. There will always be millions more refugees on the move until we address the problem. The problem being those willing to visit horrors on their fellow man that we have no capacity for which we have no ability to find a balance. The solution to this is not one that many people want to speak.
There is only one remedy for evil. It takes people willing to risk their lives to stand up to it. It takes weapons, guns, bullets, airplanes, and armies to push back the forces of hate. In a world that has seen numerous wars in recent years, few want to accept this as a valid choice. We are as a world tired of killing. We are tired of war. We are tired of what it costs.
Sadly, in a world governed by the aggressive use of force, there is not another choice. How do you sanction a non-state actor apart from killing him? How do you corral evil without bullets and bayonets? How do you stop barbarism and tyranny without slaughtering those implementing it? The answer is that you can't. The answer is that the only choice is to confront evil with force, and ending their reign of terror by ending them.
It is sad that that is the only choice. It is sad that there is not another choice. It is sad that our species has advanced so very little, that killing those willing to do evil upon the rest of their culture is the only way of preventing the evil from continuing and from spreading to other places. That is however the world in which we live. Rather than bemoaning the state of things, the fundamental nature of our current climate, it is rather important to get on with the work at hand.
Clearly intervention is needed. Clearly the evil needs to be eradicated. The method of doing so I live to wiser heads to determine. I would suggest a low intensity special operations campaign. It makes sense to take the best warriors the world has in small numbers and set them upon the ones perpetrating evil, carrying our horror, conducting unspeakable acts. A regiment of warriors that grasp discretionary warfare in a modern world, have the skills needed, and the willingness to go where evil lives and end it, is needed.
How that is conducted, the rules it lives by, how it engages, who it kills and who it spares, are details to be worked out. Reaching the conclusion that ending the evil is what I am talking about here. We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot allow new and ever more creative methods of killing our fellow man to be developed, implemented, and posted on the internet. We need to stop those that think their god has told them to behead people and put it on the internet.
How this connects to kindness as a broader theme is the question you are asking now I am sure. Here it is, kindness is not found in wrestling with the question of the refugees, though that is an important thing to do. It is found in solving the broader problem that caused the refugee to flee in the first place. Kindness is found in restoring peace and harmony to the places where it is not. It is found in routing evil from its hiding places and ending it.
Now that does not mean we do not need to deal with the refugee issue. It means that treating the climate that causes refugees in the first is more important. It means bringing peace and harmony to where it is not as a means of making it possible for the refugee to go home, is a greater act of kindness than in just finding a kind way to deal with just the refugee.
Kindness in a modern context means treating all of humanity with dignity. Kindness means finding a means to see the 'other' as an equal, deserving of love and compassion. Kindness means finding a means of protecting those that cannot protect themselves. Kindness means leaving behind our continuing search for our own creature comforts to provide a place at the table in the modern world for those we may have left behind somehow.
Some of the problem in these places is a lack of adequate development. Some of the problem is that the choice is to become someone's gun or to die of starvation. In such situations bad choices are better than no choice at all. And for those that claim we spend lots of money on development, I have to agree we do. We have gotten precious little in return for the money spent. Much of it has made the corrupt wealthy, and given the evil in such places a rallying cry to their cause.
If we reform the developmental aid process to make it accountable for results, and make the goals actually building infrastructure that the society in all these cases desperately needs, the money could be spent more effectively. If we bypass the UN entirely and make projects like connecting all of Africa with roads, electrical lines, clean water, and sanitation a priority we might actually begin to solve Africa's problems.
What I am saying is this, kindness must take the form of solving problems. We can solve immediate context problems sure, but the long range causes of the problems needs to be on our radar. We need to feed the hungry sure. We also need to ensure that they can feed themselves long term at the same time. We need to clothe the naked sure, but we need to provide the climate in which they can clothe themselves tomorrow, next week, and next month. Anything short of that is not kindness.
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