The day I realized that I have no enemies in this world was in retrospect one of the most important days of my life.
It wasn't that long ago, sometime in the summer of 2007. It came as a surprise to me that I hadn't realized it before. I had long ago understood, for instance, that those we imagine to be our enemies are usually not that important to us; those who act to undermine us are not criminals or terrorists but people we live and work with daily, the ones who envy us our jobs, our things, our money, our looks, our sexual status. And that's just for white people, in this country. Those counted as 'minorities' will have a host of other local forces arbitrarily marshalled against them. Most, of course, white and otherwise, will do whatever is in their power to undermine those local forces in turn. We constantly suffer at one another's hands; but quite rarely at the hands of those popularly deemed to be the 'enemy'. This is quite notable at such places as the Pentagon, where people use the most part of their energy and effort to work against each other rather than the declared Enemy, just like in any workplace.
When I suddenly became aware that all human beings are stupid (and though some are smart, they are always still stupid about some things), it became impossible to hate anymore. Even people who do things that are appallingly stupid, I see that their stupidity is just a tendency that I find also in myself, magnified. I used to have fits of rage, irrational anger. Sometimes I would smash things. No longer; there doesn't seem to be any point in getting that angry.
What still makes me angry is that the whole human race, with all its marvelous potential, has been made ill by some unknown force, and is very likely to destroy itself without realizing any of this potential. I believe I can assume that no human being has made any legally binding agreement with this unknown force, in spite of all the stories and legends about deals with the devil, etcetera. Certainly no agreement was made to which I was a party! So I'm mad, and I express anger at our stupidity frequently.
But I can no longer feel hatred of anyone, even monster mass-murderers like Hitler, Stalin and Cheney. They are ill in the extreme, probably incurable, and thus pathetic. Maybe all of us are incurable, I don't know. But some are less damaged than others, that is clear.
By the way, Alice Miller has many valuable insights into what creates such human monsters, and I'll be touching on her works a good deal in the future; I think they're among the most important modern books.
Soon I'll write on infotoxin, and how even nature can mislead us, in addition to all the ways we devise to mislead one another. For now, just imagine yourself on a ship in a calm sea on a bright day. Can you always tell the sky from the sea?
Neither can anyone else. We are truly incapable of judging one another with accuracy, yet we have to use such judgements to survive. There are many, many, many dangerous people. Yet not one is an enemy!
Makayla, you're being brought up in a more civilized neighborhood than most USAns, and hopefully you'll come to this conclusion on your own. I realize that just telling you these things won't make you 'see' them. Most people, especially 'my fellow Americans' post-9/11, would read this and merely scoff. Of course there's enemies, they think. Otherwise what are we spending all this money on?
Ah well, I'll repeat what I printed on the Rampant Egos' album Centerpeace: Though your fate be war, may your heart know peace. In spite of everything, walk in beauty, my love. Walk in beauty.
