Not So Virtuous Circles Of Escalation

We're all bringing forces to bear at our borders. At our personal borders. Ideological and cultural borders, and our national borders.

I trust a little less, and give a little less, because I sense others doing the same thing.

I harden my political attitudes and moral priorities because I sense others doing the same thing.

I strengthen my national forces everywhere because I sense others doing the same thing.

And thus do not so virtuous circles of escalation become formed, hardened and fixed in place. And then do we become not only at war with ourselves, our social situations, and changing beliefs, we war with the rest of the world, as well as the very planet we live on.

Maybe if we interacted with each other more often, on a real level day to day as a natural part of keeping ourselves going, individually and as a group, maybe we could talk more about what's really going on at all of these supposed "borders." There are differences, and great variations possible between any of us, singularly and in groups, and if we don't continue to work at providing mutual understandings, and keeping the inherent tensions mollified to the best of our abilities, we can have very little expectation of surviving as a social species any further.