A word of Peace

Oct 8, 2024. Den Bosch, Netherlands.

Summer is over. We are still living in a small provincial town in the Netherlands. Kamiel seems to regain some of his strength and ambition, but the world is a complex mess. Political polarization appears to be the biggest provider of 'meaning' to too many people, trumping common sense and empathy. As the inventor of 'Charity Travel' I would like to reiterate how important it is to try and see the world from an other person's perspective. We can and should try to understand the rationale behind their motives, as well as the ultimate causes of their overt and hidden assumptions. The attempt to understand somebody's reasoning doesn't mean we agree with that reasoning. It challenges us to put forth our own reasoning. That can be painful, because it means submitting our dearest and deepest convictions to the same rigor as the motivation of people who commit atrocities. And yet, I think the way to Peace involves overcoming our immediate emotions, our instinct to want revenge and to cleanse the world of the root cause of our suffering. That doesn't mean we should banish emotions. I think we need more of them. We need to train ourselves to feel vicariously, to feel in a more complex way, to feel what is not underwritten by the politics of the day. Rationality is not the bane of emotions, it begets them. It enables us to simulate emotions from a different time, place or culture. When we learn to understand and integrate these emotions, we become better humans - if our true humanity lies in our conscious use of empathy (not in empathy per se, see Paul Blooms thought-provoking book Against Empathy). Enough with the awkwardly worded pseudo-philosophy. You know what I mean, and I am tired. This year we will see one more potentially world changing event. If I have to pick a side in the US elections, I would support Tim Walz for his decency. I would also like to say that there is no reason for despair ("If Trump/Harris wins, all is lost", we read it all to often, as if people have a special need to live in the Decisive Times). The coming four years will go by. There will be disruptive events, there will be misery. There will be joy. There will be us.