should be "it is human to hate".

Loved reading huntington's stuff at university, albeit left wing academics advised me not to pay too much attention to him.

But i have always been wary of do gooders, so I nearly always ignored them.

Chris Lewis,

Top marks, good for you for having reckognised bias and ignorance.
There are too many on OLO who have an unrealistic stance on life, and given the opportunity will subvert the very fundamental structure of society by promoting their opinions.
They are very passionate and invested in their beliefs, so it is normally quite impossible to bring them into line, as they refuse to consider anything else.
It is with disbelief that I watch these people going about their day completely oblivious to the fact that they are just like the covid 19, in so much as they are spreading a contagion that can easily be curtailed, if only they would consider other options that have been offered to them so as to be better informed and stop the spread of whatever diseased mis-information they harbour.

Maybe China wants war? Maybe could be considering to just get it over with, clear the decks and move forward with structuring the New World Order?

Methinks the US would be wise to aim a majority of its nukes or ICBMs at Chinese military targets - just in case - and maybe has already done so? (And maybe a few at strategic Nth Korean sites?)

We all say nobody wants war, nobody wins from war. Could we be wrong, in this instance? (As far as wanting to give it a go? Them, not us.)

China, or the CCP at least, seems very (to choose a John Howard slip of the tongue term) Recalcitrant? So, how is anyone expected to have a reasoned and reasonable conversation with them? Xi in particular has the best Poker Face one could ever imagine. Nothing given away, ever.

Well, my fingers are tightly crossed in hopes that sanity will ultimately prevail - but, honestly, I'm not all that confident.

As for Aus, maybe we can hope we are just too small a fish to be worried about? Maybe.

I'm not suggesting conversation should be abandoned, not in the least, just endeavouring to weigh-up the possibilities, and consider the odds.

(Victoria is a worry of course. Could Daniel possibly be considering Seceding? Nah, he's pretty ordinary, but not that ordinary, surely.)

one day every soul will find out that peace is only available via the Prince of Peace. The selfishness and sinfulness of us all forfeited peace a long time ago. The more secular/marxist a society becomes the less peaceful. Look at all those marxist fools who recently marched and had hate dripping off them.

.

Dear david f.,

.

You ask :

« Please tell us what you think those root causes are that foster hate, violence and fanaticism »

On such matters as on all others, David, as I am sure you are aware, my mind is not cluttered with formal education of any sort. Here are a few “pristine” ideas I consider worth considering :

On hate :

« The antidote to hate is compassion — for others as well as ourselves. Self-compassion means that we accept the whole self. “If we find part of ourselves unacceptable, we tend to attack others in order to defend against the threat,” says psychologist, Brad Reedy. “If we are okay with ourselves, we see others’ behaviours as ‘about them’ and can respond with compassion. If I kept hate in my heart for [another], I would have to hate myself as well. It is only when we learn to hold ourselves with compassion that we may be able to demonstrate it toward others.” » – Allison Abrams, psychotherapist, and mental health advocate.

This, of course, ties in with Freud’s theory of projection by which individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feeling and motives to others.

On violence :

« Violence results from a combination of factors, including those originating in the violent person’s social or cultural environment and those representing immediate situational forces. Researchers have examined multiple factors within a person that may contribute to violence, including genetic predisposition, neurochemical abnormalities (e.g., high testosterone levels), personality characteristics (e.g., lack of empathy for others), information-processing deficits (e.g., the tendency to view others’ actions as hostile), and the experience of abuse or neglect as a child. » – Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Violence may, of course, be physical, moral, or psychological and/or any combination of the three.

On fanaticism :

Fanaticism has political, economic, religious, and psychological roots.

Here is an interesting article on the root causes of fanaticism, entitled “Inside the Mind of Fanaticism” by Allen Frances, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and former Chair at Duke University, that appeared in the HuffPost of 13 November 2017 :

http://www.huffpost.com/entry/inside-the-mind-of-fanaticism_b_5a072059e4b0ee8ec36941e1?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANdMEdYtsglnegpE3oP0EwPl1gAEOxrCmnwzJkpkOkPCDU1TzkahNEhMXUJPlEtVp8rQIjEGPcxElM4axjBKZXqHMmczaomPTu7OOSeRwFhJuk_Fp-wMxYz5Tl9HT8U_U0xoJK91Pq3g7c4_WnHqINg-v0OUe9sjIwUNH9OwEOA9

.

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Dear Saltpetre,

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Inequality is an inexhaustible subject. Libraries are full of the scholarly publications of philosophers, economists, sociologists, and political scientists on the question.

But, clearly, nobody has yet come up with a solution that most would consider relatively satisfactory.

Capitalism and co-operative economics are the front runners from my point of view. I think both have merits, each in its own domain. But it is becoming more and more obvious that the upper echelons of capitalism need to be recycled for the benefit of the lower echelons.

The question is at what point and in what form. The question merits serious reflection.

It is illusory to imagine that the current system can continue to operate without change indefinitely. It is already far too top-heavy and could topple over under its own weight at any moment.

.