“Until the philosophy which hold that one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” Bob Marley

Our world is badly broken, and I think I know the main reason why: Monsters.

Merriam Webster defines fascism as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Anyone that believes that one group of us is intrinsically superior to the rest is a monster. Righteousness and evil reside in all groups.  In fact, impulses for good and evil reside within all of us individually.

Events in Israel and Gaza illustrate this well. Benjamin Netanyahu is a monster and most Israelis are furious at him for being so busy consolidating his power by trying to end the independent judiciary, that he failed to  focus on their nearterm needs for security.   Catering to his far right base, he has trampled on the interest of the Arabs. This fits well with the above definition. Now his party is trying to suppress the press.

Of course, that is not to defend the indefensible Hamas. These monsters are really the other side of the same coin.   Both Hamas and Lekud, Netenyahu’s party, see no reason to empathize with the other. And left to suffer are the innocents on both sides.

The surge of success of these monsters around the world, people like Putin in Russia and Xi in China, Modi in India, Orban in Hungary, Bosenaro in Brazil should alarm us all. And the list seems to be getting longer. Donald Trump is cut from this same fabric. Scapegoating, undermining and suppressing opposition and free expression while consolidating  power are hallmarks of people behaving terribly. All of these men have huge egos. Each of us is susceptible to being drawn in by people that exude confidence. We must be very careful. There’s a reason they call scammers “confidence men.” Each of us must have the humility to admit when we have been wrong, and one easy way to identify monsters is their inability to acknowledge mistakes.

Our long term national interests are best served by leaders who are empathetic but not naive, informed but humble, and able to see that our futures are all intertwined. Unlike poker, our lives are not a “zero sum game.” When we work for the betterment of each other, we all come out ahead. This is true in our neighborhoods; this is true in foreign policy. We are all in this together.

Finally, a bit of interesting history on one of my favorite characters: Maimonides. One of the most revered rabbis in the long history of Judaism, this 12th century figure was also the personal physician and advisor of Saladin, the leader of the Muslim world, the sultan of Egypt and Syria. Jews and Muslims had coexisted in relative peace for centuries. We can and must learn to get along. Off subject, but his thoughts on charity are worth reading:  

https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/eight-rungs-of-the-giving-ladder