It exists in minds, emotions and actions. It maims and kills minds and bodies, children, women, men, the structures they create, the civilizations they build. Bombs and guns, knives, poisons even fists and invalidating words smash living things, innocent human bodies, brains, flesh, eyes, organs, limbs, tongues strewn about the blood stained, tortured ground. The air, the water is filled with the putrefaction of dehumanization, death and dying.

We violate one another with abusive and invalidating thoughts and actions. We terrify one another with mental and emotional pressure, threat, coercion and intimidation in order to gain the advantage and have our way with the other. We terrify one another with physical harm and destruction. Often we make war on the others, which includes all the violation, terrorism and destruction imaginable and unspeakable. We do this in order to deny the others their equality, to control and subjugate them and to take what they have that we desire.

We see this insanity everyday in our homes between parents and siblings, on our streets between same race and different race young people with guns, in our neighborhoods by those tormented creatures who prey on children and women, and those who invade homes and businesses.

The insanity is legitimized in the minds of those who are callous to the domestic slaughter in their defense of rampant proliferation of guns in the hands of anybody, everybody. The insanity is codified and rationalized, or avoided, in the power seeking, biased minds of elected and appointed officials; in the profit-at–any-cost seeking minds of too many of the affluent. The insanity is tolerated by a numb, exhausted and “powerless” public whose heads are buried in the sands of self preservation, escapism and self comfort.

Examples of the disease of violence, terrorism and war blare at us from every page of the newspaper, from the rote-droning talking heads of television news readers and filmed scenes, from personal witness before our very senses, and too often from our very own hands.

The ghastly specter of such destruction, and public apathy, explodes daily in the streets at home and the fields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Lebanon, in Sudan, Sri Lanka, in a hundred corners of the globe.

A hundred million, a billion citizens of the nations, of the world ought to put aside their daily pursuits for a time to march together to the capitols, to the front lines and demand with a thunderous voice “Stop it, stop the violence, now. It is killing all of us, the future of our children, of our planet.” We ought to keep up the demand until insanity gives way to sanity. It will if we persist.

The Cause

Why do humans behave so insanely, so destructively? What is there in humans that drive us to act so inhumane and insane?

The jaws of pundits, experts, philosophers and religionists flap spewing millions of words and theories about the nature of “man” and the reasons for our behavior. None of it sufficiently sticks in the general mind to motivate rational change.

Experts and leaders expound volumes on how corrupt and wrong the other person, the other party, the other side is. They use the actions of their opponents and enemies as proof of their assessments and accusations. But none of it sticks sufficiently in the general mind to motivate effective change.

Is it not an oxymoron to invoke the spirit of what we mean by being Human, and at the same time act out “man’s inhumanity to man?”

Of course, it is. It begs the questions: what does being human mean and what is it that corrupts our soul, behavior and our relationships? We can use our bromides “man is born in sin, man is evil,” and the like. These statements are mere reiterations of what has been poured into our minds from the mouths of others or from our interpretations of the books of faith. These are easy slogans that help us to avoid critical thinking and self questioning; to help us point the finger at the other, and to perpetuate our helplessness, anger, hate and fear.

We need to rediscover and remember what it means to be human. We all know what it is; the memory of it haunts our inner minds. If this were not true we would not feel revulsion at the destruction and suffering the violence causes, that swirls around us prolifically.

If we did not really know what it means to be human, we would not seek ears to listen to our stories and our hurts, we would not despair at not finding much of that natural gift of care. We would merely shrug and think, “Oh well, we are born in sin, part of us is evil” and let it go at that, to survive as best we can amid the unending, dangerous chaos.

If we did not really know what it means to be human how could we have conceived of a loving God and the precept “ do not do onto others what you would not have them do onto you”?

No human starts out with such destructiveness. No human babe is inherently sinful or evil. Refresh your memory, go visit a site where little ones are brought together. You will see joy, amazing and swift intelligence and curiosity, enthusiasm to learn. You will see smiles and affection, eagerness to reach out to communicate and love. Oh yes, you may see a small portion of that population already withdrawn, morose or hostile. These are already reflecting their experiences and the conditioning acquired from their dysfunctional home situations.

But over time the lack of real listening, the suppression of full release of feelings through words, tears, shudders, angers (stigmatized as “tantrums”) and other forms of discharge (ventilation) – the natural surface mechanisms that indicate healing of trauma and emotional pain - gets internalized in the psyche and mental systems of young people. The pain festers there until it gets acted out in violence against others or self.

Accompanying the suppression are the authoritative controls, expectations, abuse, negative treatment, invalidation, biased and rigid ideas and rules, irrational beliefs and other oppressive behaviors of the older ones imposed on the younger ones.

Such conditioning is historical and exists in varying degrees in every family, in every society and every nation. This is the contagious disease that is perpetuated generation after generation.

The suppression and treatment fester into patterns of anger, fear, despair, powerlessness, invalidation of self and others. In families and later in society at large the growing young ones learn to displace (inflict) their patterns of distress (anger, fear, frustration, bias) on others, especially those who are younger (or the very old), different in color, belief, culture and habit, location, physicality, orientation and, ultimately on themselves (witness all the destructive behaviors, habits and addictions people heap on themselves).

The displacement takes on many forms: blame, invalidation (very often disguised as jokes), insult, abuse, bullying, crime, attack, killing, war, self destruction.

The manifestation of personal distress increases exponentially by the irrational and unjust political, economic, cultural, class, racial and gender oppression that pervades every social structure in human society.

Depending on social and economic status it is no wonder that the patterns of distress, hopelessness and displacement results in rebelliousness (from the “terrible twos” on up), addiction, gender conflict, irrational sexuality, crime, gang violence, ageism, racism, classism, religionism, war.

It becomes clear how easy it is then for “leaders” to whip up “patriotic” fervor among the population. They do this by exploiting people’s patterns of anger, fear and displacement. They do so when it is desirable for them to propagandize, stigmatize and inflict war on other communities and nations, targets over which they wish to gain advantage, domination and to control material resources and wealth.

Yet, there is a deeper question that must be addressed as to the cause of human destructiveness. This question is what is there in us that make us susceptible to internalizing destructive and distressful behavior habits?

The answer lies in the existence of a primordial instinct that rules behavior in living animal species. This instinct is the fear of non-survival. Somehow Nature developed this instinct in order to compel her animal creatures to protect not only themselves but to stay alive to produce offspring and perpetuate their genetic line. In this way nature has produced the evolution, that is, the growing complexity and capability, of animal life.

The height of that evolution, in the sense of complexity and capability, is the human specie.

It is that fear of non-survival, that instinct for survival that drives species, and individuals within species, to dominate one another for control of resources necessary for the sustenance of life, and for the continuation of their respective genetic lines.

This instinct apparently works well for all animals but humans.

The alpha lion defends his leadership of the pride against his challenger. Generally he does not kill his challenger. During the struggle one or the other instinctively senses the other is stronger or more cunning and quits the fight then takes on a different role within the pride or simply leaves it.

The lion pride does not whip up patriotism, arm itself and then attacks another pride in order to conquer its domain.

But human beings, in their creative cleverness do this, pushed by their animal fear of non survival. The fear and the cleverness developed the pattern of greed which pushes humans to acquire more than they need for successful survival. In certain individuals and families the pattern has festered into addiction to excessive acquisition. This pattern has led to the hierarchical structure of society and over time, infected leaders of territories, city-states and, ultimately, nations, and generally in the modern world, leaders of “big business.”

The Cure

Humans have, in a specific way, evolved beyond mere instinct. We have the power of awareness and intuition. Unlike instinct which functions automatically, intuition informs us subconsciously and consciously. For example, our intuition informs each of us that we are equal to every other human being, thus as deserving.

Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are testaments of our intuition.

Many of us don’t feel or perceive ourselves as equal. This is a result of the invalidation and oppressive conditioning we had encountered growing up in our families and reinforced in society.

Our intuition tells us the truth. This is why we feel the tension, the dissonance, the distress from how we are made to feel as opposed to deeply knowing (intuition) our real value.

It is our awareness and our intuition that makes us sick about the violence, the terrorism and war that fester all around. Our awareness and intuition informs us of our inherent benign and cooperative nature. We know (intuition) that being benign and cooperative, as opposed to being hostile, makes things go better, safer, smarter and lovelier in our human affairs. We can label these qualities “goodness.”

We need to recover our goodness, our benign and cooperative nature in order to transform our society into a sane, safe, creative and productive environment in which each person is respected as an equal and has equal rights to opportunity and access.

How can we accomplish this? Since our destructive patterns have been acquired through irrational and oppressive conditioning, as described above, the distress (fear, anger, loss, humiliation) that maintains the grip of the patterns within our system and on our behavior, can be dislodged. The discharge and detoxification of the distress would free our inherent nature to assert itself.

The goodness, kind, respectful and cooperative inherent impulse humans are blessed with would guide our awareness and intuition towards correcting and remedying the destructive behaviors and systems that we now see in society. We would replace the acts of violence, terrorism and war with thoughtful, cooperative, intelligent processes.

We each have the ability, the inherent natural ability, to dislodge and discharge the distress and the patterns produced by the distress.

Have you ever had the feeling of relief after a good cry? Have you ever felt lighter, more vital after being really listened to by another? Have you ever felt more refreshed after sweating hot or cold sweat? Have you ever felt less cob-webby and brighter after a good laugh?

These forms of natural discharge, the tears, the talking, the sweating (often accompanied by physical exertion and/or trembling) the laughter are the surface mechanisms of our deep (distress) healing system. Research, for example, has shown that tears of emotional discharge contain enzymes present in the state of depression. The tears are actually draining out and away those enzymes and proteins associated with depression; to affect healing, a lifting of the depression.

A stratagem of regular and persistent sessions of discharge will reduce the level of inner distress and the grip of the destructive patterns. This would free our inherent nature to resurface and effect positive change in ourselves, in our relationships and in our communities and nations.

How can we activate this stratagem? Decide to join with another, a loved one, a friend, an acquaintance in a session of mutual listening. Each take a turn of some time, fifteen minutes, a half an hour, an hour or more. One listens, the other discharges. At the end of the time, switch roles: the other listens while the other discharges.

Decide to have regular such sessions once, twice or more a week. The more you can do the more healing and greater power you will recover.

Decide to extend the listening partnership to others, to larger groups. Decide to grow the process throughout the community.

For detailed guidance on how to do this please read the document “Life, Love, Health and Happiness,” particularly chapter five, “Lasting, Rewarding Relationships.”

The Next Step

The process will grow powerfully world wide if we stick to it. People do know (intuition) that being respectful and cooperative with one another is the intelligent, the Human thing to do, for it makes everything work better and safer. Even our leaders will get it, and become human again.

The natural and ultimate goal of personal healing and restoring one’s power is to help in the task of liberating the whole human community from the grip of distress patterns and the violence they produce.

Such out reach is compelling, because, after all, a rational human being, or a relatively few such persons, trying to function in a dangerous and distressed world would be like being in a row boat at sea with swarms of sharks swimming menacingly close and all around.

Yet, it is not just a matter of community wide healing and empowerment. Society’s leaders must also be likewise influenced either by engaging in the Listening Partnership process or politically pressured by public demand to do the right thing nationally and internationally.

The right thing in the context of this paradigm is to effect equality, unconditional respect, opportunity and access for all the world’s peoples, especially for those who exist in regions historically colonized and/or otherwise held down economically and socially.

These regions are characterized by poverty, deprivation, disease, despair, racist and classist oppression by the affluent sectors of our human population, or by their own leaders.

Domestic leaders of these desperate nations and regions are people and their cliques who, in the main, attain local power and leadership through authoritarian, often, violent, means.

Such leaders maintain their control over their respective areas militarily and usually by making collusive deals with big business, corporate entities and governments which covet the region’s natural resources.

The chiefs, marshals, dictators, “presidents” and potentates are often funded and financed by the exploitative corporations and/or governments. Such leaders furnish themselves, their families and cohorts with lavish lifestyles and protect their status with police, army and political networks all financed by the payoff from the rich special interests in exchange for privileged access to the region’s natural wealth: oil, metals and ore, precious stones, timber, all sorts of wealth producing resources and, especially, cheap, sometimes, slave labor performed by the very populations which are held down in destitution.

Within this paradigm of restoring human rationality, power and moral responsibility the more affluent populations will demand of their leaders to take action along the following steps:

1) End government and corporate collusion with the exploitive leaders of the struggling regions and cultures

2) Demand, in exchange of trade with these regions, that new economic and social policies be instituted wherein:

a) Decent paying jobs and opportunity for growing large and small businesses are established for and by the general population.

b) Confer upon the general population the status of equality, human and civil rights for everyone in the general population including opportunity and access to advancement and resources; allowing each person to attain as high a status as his and her intelligence, ambition, capability and talent permits.

c) Remedy and clean up all the deplorable living conditions and institute general health and safety programs for the population.

d) Institute universal education for the population to prepare everyday citizens for these new policies and prospects.

e) Require that whatever political and governmental system each region decides works best for itself, it maintains and functions within these new policies and social standards for the general good of the people.

f) Ensure that everyone including leaders, function- aries, as well as owners and workers in the private sector has the right to earn profits and/or salaries commensurate with his and her work and contribution to the society.

As a rational, healed and powerful society we can accomplish all this, because as such a society the causes of war and terrorism (humiliation, anger and fear) will end. The peoples of the former exploited and oppressed regions will at last experience equality, opportunity and justice. They will attain trust over time and they themselves will see to it that terrorism and the reasons for it shall cease to exist.

The process will grow powerfully world wide if we stick to it. People do know (intuition) that being respectful and cooperative with one another is the intelligent, the Human thing to do, for it makes everything work better and safer. Even our leaders will get it, and become human again.

One ounce of human intelligence, awareness and intuition is stronger than a boat load of distress when we dare to use our human power.

The phrase “you are too good, to smart, too human to act out the bad stuff” is a powerful short-hand to remind ourselves and others that we are, indeed, human and “too good, too smart and too human, to perpetuate the violence, the terrorism and war.”

Thanks for your time.