See God (face to face)

Every Killing is Suicide

There is an unbroken chain of living tissue between each of us and the first human. To me that suggests that physically we are still the first human and still being modified, albeit in seven billion versions. With this in mind, it follows that whenever a human kills another human it is a suicide. That may seem too abstract to be relevant even if it is technically true, but it brings me to my real question which is, “What is it that drives us to murder each other?” In war we not only do it with impunity, but as heroic champions among our particular tribe. How do we get there so righteously?

Although there is plenty of evidence that there may be a predisposition towards internecine behavior in primates, I would like to suggest that it is caused rather by a malformed view of reality arising from the traditional use of our brains. Going a step farther in this, one could say that the way we use our brains results in a disassociation from reality that serves our purposes quite well, but in some instances can result in truly insane behavior and often on a very large scale.

Conflict is only possible where there is division. We use our brains to divide, and endlessly subdivide everything we can perceive. When we perform this action we attribute unique identities and numerous aspects of identity, not just to the outer world, but to each other and ourselves as well. If you were to sit down and list all the various identifications that apply to you, I imagine it would be a very long list. Each of those aspects of your identity is a potential source of conflict between you and all the other versions of you on this planet.

Are you really an American, Russian, Australian, man, woman, conservative, democrat, Christian, atheist, Taliban, mathematician, businessman, teacher, soldier, soccer fan, South American, wife, son, grandfather, policeman, protester, environmentalist…, or are you simply a human who has been identified by others and yourself in a wide variety of ways. Every label of identification is a disassociation from truth and a step into the imaginary world of belief. It is also the basis for all human conflict. If we strip away the nationalities, the alliances, the creeds and causes, the flags and anthems, the names, numbers, and uniforms we are left with people. If there is only “us” and no “them“, if there is only “me” in seven billion variations, all war, all murder, all killing of humans by humans is suicide.

josephpagen@yahoo.com