The next revolution

(ES)

"Men do harm or for fear or for hatred."
The Prince.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 - 1527)

When we hear of the detention and torture of Palestinian children by the army of Israel.
When we hear of the torture and death of children at the hands of the secret services and the Syrian army.
When we hear of children raped and killed in DR Congo by armed militias.
When we hear of Iraqi children killed by American troops during the assault on a house.
When we hear of indiscriminate bombing of civilians.

A boy practises walking with his prosthesis at the ICRC orthopaedic centre in Kabul, October 2010
© Kate Holt/IRIN

What do we think?

We try to find answers to some facts that shudder us. What leads a human being to commit such atrocities? There is no rational answer, a human behavior so contemptible only can be explained by the spiral of hatred and the abyss of fear. Irrational feelings that dominate the actions of those who suffer them.

How much hatred and fear are necessary to torture and murder a child. To tie his hands and shoot to head. To rape a girl in front of their parents and siblings. Impossible to explain. Impossible to understand for those who have never felt that way. Acts that can not go unpunished.

When an innocent child becomes an enemy, the question is not why a soldier or a mercenary is capable of torturing and killing him without mercy. The question is how prejudice and propaganda have influenced to fuel and amplify the hatred of one people to another. Why unfounded fears and nonexistent threats are a powerful means of governments to convince the public opinion of the unavoidable destiny of a people. How the rootlessness and fear of children being recruited against their will as child soldiers get them to become monsters.

The spiral of hatred has no end, and fear is a black abyss of unfathomable depths. The fight against violence starts in each of us, overcoming our prejudices, not getting pulled by the propaganda, being critical of our governments, and above all, forgiving.

Throughout history, we have lived many revolutions, perhaps, the next revolution to come, also the most necessary, is the revolution that is born in each individual so to give it greater social and emotional awareness.


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