In response to such an awful event, I admonish everyone to focus on love and understanding, rather than anger and judgment.
Emotions are powerful forces. How will we use this force? For example, these moments bring us all closer together. There is a sudden and recognizable swell of compassion and altruism in the wake of these events. Yet, there is a concomitant misattribution of blame due to our lack of understanding, and with this blame usually comes anger. If this blame and anger is misdirected, then we may cause additional harm (could be mental and not just physical) to others that had no involvement in this event.
Rather than causing judgment, these events should cause us to question our assumptions. My assumption is that these sort of events shouldn't occur, but this assumption may not be valid. These acts of violence seem to be happening on a monthly, or even weekly basis now (stabbings at the Texas community college). Not to mention a daily, hourly, and secondly basis when you consider conflicts occurring in specific neighborhoods in this country, and other nations around the world.
Take this time to reflect on some possible root causes of this event. Don't rush to snap judgments. Don't point fingers. Don't give in purely to your system 1 response to tragedy. If we react to these occurrences based on our assumptions, we risk causing greater damage. Quickly consider this. The person behind this attack lost someone in a similar act of violence. He/she lives in a society notorious for its lack of justice. Might this have been a retaliation and not a provocation? Violence begets violence (just consider that this act may have been the latter violence in this sentence.)
Just to be clear, I do not condone this act in any way or under any circumstances. But I worry about our natural inclination to rush to judge others in order to protect our (often false) sense of security.
We must seek to understand the impetus of these events, because only then can we hope to prevent them in the future.
But in the meantime, don't get angry and don't be afraid. Take this opportunity to demonstrate the true power of love.
Emotions are powerful forces. How will we use this force? For example, these moments bring us all closer together. There is a sudden and recognizable swell of compassion and altruism in the wake of these events. Yet, there is a concomitant misattribution of blame due to our lack of understanding, and with this blame usually comes anger. If this blame and anger is misdirected, then we may cause additional harm (could be mental and not just physical) to others that had no involvement in this event.
Rather than causing judgment, these events should cause us to question our assumptions. My assumption is that these sort of events shouldn't occur, but this assumption may not be valid. These acts of violence seem to be happening on a monthly, or even weekly basis now (stabbings at the Texas community college). Not to mention a daily, hourly, and secondly basis when you consider conflicts occurring in specific neighborhoods in this country, and other nations around the world.
Take this time to reflect on some possible root causes of this event. Don't rush to snap judgments. Don't point fingers. Don't give in purely to your system 1 response to tragedy. If we react to these occurrences based on our assumptions, we risk causing greater damage. Quickly consider this. The person behind this attack lost someone in a similar act of violence. He/she lives in a society notorious for its lack of justice. Might this have been a retaliation and not a provocation? Violence begets violence (just consider that this act may have been the latter violence in this sentence.)
Just to be clear, I do not condone this act in any way or under any circumstances. But I worry about our natural inclination to rush to judge others in order to protect our (often false) sense of security.
We must seek to understand the impetus of these events, because only then can we hope to prevent them in the future.
But in the meantime, don't get angry and don't be afraid. Take this opportunity to demonstrate the true power of love.
No comments:
Post a Comment