Love or Fear

The Premise: Some small portion of the population has strongly violent tendencies.

Option A: treat these individuals with love and compassion. Do research to understand their core problems, offer services to help them find alternative behaviors, show them empathy, patience and a willingness to help them.

Option B: treat these individuals with fear, and arm yourself to prevent them from harming you.

Results of Option A: this violent subset of the population is treated with respect and dignity. Many of them will find the help they need before they become a drain on society. The occasional outburst of violence may obviously still occur, but will likely be limited in scope and effect. The next generation learns compassion and patience.

Results of Option B: in order to arm anyone and everyone afraid of these people, you by definition provide access to weapons for them as well, creating an escalating arms race. As fear leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to violence, you are also enabling people who may not be fundamentally violent a means for violence, increasing the number of individuals you need to fear. By escalating the arms race, when a violent outburst occurs, it will not be limited in scope. Violence towards the public at large creates more fear, thus creating a negative feedback loop and even further escalating the arms race. The next generation learns fear and watches people trying to solve their problems with violence.

Option A has no downside and provides for a safer world for your children. Option B leads to America in 2015.

Can we change this? YES! But it comes down to YOU. How do YOU react to potentially violent people in your life? Do you treat them with empathy and compassion and try to get them help? Or do you ignore them, or worse, foster fear in your heart until it's so overwhelming you are willing to put your family in danger by owning a deadly weapon?

Darkness' only enemy is light. You have the option every moment of every day to be that light or to propagate the darkness. With either option, you lead by example, influencing others, especially the next generation. Do you want your children growing up barricaded in their house, gun in hand, fearing the world? Or do you want your children growing up seeing the love in the world?


"Do not make friends with an elephant keeper, unless you have space to entertain an elephant." -- Ram Dass