Once upon a time there were 2 tribes. Something happened,
far back in time and they decided that they didn’t like each other.
One tribe was strong and powerful, and was much bigger, so
it decided that the smaller tribe needed to be contained in a very small area.
They set about taking the small tribes property and making them move into a
much smaller area. They decided that
they had to control the small tribes’ access to things, so they made sure that
the border was very carefully managed, and blockaded both people and stuff from
going in or out. They made plenty of excuses for this behaviour, but the one that
stuck out is that they were scared of the smaller tribe, because they were
different.
Quite naturally, the small tribe didn’t like being
ghettoised, and tried many things to try to break free from their open prison.
They tried to build weapons to fight back, but the big tribe had bigger and
better weapons, with far better defences, so they didn’t do much damage. The
response of the big tribe was to kill more of the small tribe. The big tribe
didn’t care how many people it killed, or who, or even where they were. They killed
many women and children; they killed people when they were sheltering in
schools and places of worship.
Because the big tribe had better connections, for many years
their behaviour towards the smaller tribe went unnoticed by many, and un
reported, but eventually the wider world became aware of what was happening. People
in the wider world were also scared of the big tribe. They had powerful weapons
that could cause thousands of deaths and injuries, but they still they decided
that something had to be done to try and resolve the issue. They gave the big
tribe a few chances to stop their behaviour, which the big tribe ignored. In the
end, they had had enough, and gave a final ultimatum.
From history, this led us into a global war. At the end of
the war, when many, many people had been
killed, everyone agreed that the small tribe had suffered enough, and needed
their own land. SO the other tribes in the world selected a piece of land for
them to have, and gave it to them. Unfortunately, this meant the people that
already lived on that land had to put up with the small tribe moving in.
Over the years, the small tribe became stronger and more powerful. Because of what they had endured, other tribes
helped them and supplied them with stuff to help them develop powerful
connections and weapons, so that they would never be mistreated again. Due to
all the support that they had, from powerful friends and allies, the small
tribe eventually grew, and became the big tribe.
And so history begins it cycle one again.
I had to think long and hard about
how to end this history lesson. The
previous has happened numerous times in the history of humanity, and it never
ends well. It also teaches us that ‘tribes’ rarely take lessons from history,
and therefore repeat the same mistakes time and time again.
It is the history of the WW11 holocaust, it is the history
of the Marsh Arabs, it’s the history of several African countries and tribes, and
it’s the history of the former Yugoslavia.
It’s the present of current Israel Palestine War (sod
calling it a conflict – it is war).
One of the many definitions of Insanity is:- doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting different results.
So is mankind terminally insane? Or is there another way forward?
Until mankind finds a way to resolve conflict, without
repeating the actions of the past, I do fear for us as a species.
