Every time we turn on the TV news we are bombarded with depressing stories from all over the world – Iraq and Syria, refugee drownings, the ice epidemic, gun violence and the list goes on. It can be overwhelming and it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of so much misery.
The truly depressing thing is that we humans just don’t get the message. About 2500 years ago, Buddha gave us lots of practical advice on how to live our lives. Jesus followed about 500 years later and made some pretty good suggestions. Then came Muhammad and numerous other wise teachers who all proposed that love, peace and respect were a better option than war, violence and crime.
In spite of the efforts of all these wise men, the main thing that humanity appears to have learned is how to commit violence on a truly industrial scale. You could forgive God for being pissed off.
So do we give up?
While it’s difficult for most of us to make a difference in the Middle East or in other major trouble spots, we can make changes in our own lives and the lives of the people around us. When you boil it down, we can only really be responsible for our own lives. We can certainly give positive examples to others and treat them the same way that we’d like to be treated, but we can’t control what they do, or don’t do.
Because we are all connected to some degree, the way we live our own life will have an impact on the lives of the people around us. They in turn can have an impact on the attitudes and behaviour of the people that they are close to. In this way we can all make a difference, be it positive or negative. It’s worth remembering it’s not what we believe, but what we do that really counts.
While the bad news gets all the media coverage, it’s easy to overlook the fact that even in places like Syria and Iraq, there are thousands of people and hundreds of organisations who are there trying to assist those who are suffering. While humanity is very good at violence, it’s also good at providing compassion.
To finish on a brighter note, I should mention that there’s another easier and more pleasant way to solve the big challenges facing us. I’ve been to quite a few dinner parties where a few bottles of red wine have enabled the participants to solve most of the world’s problems. Perhaps we should replace the UN with a committee of wine makers!