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%DISSONANCE CONFLICT TENSION RESOLUTION INTEGRATION+940626
%COERCION VIOLENCE COMPETITION BATTLE WAR TERRORISM 940626

     We  cannot  wisely  deal with  many  daily  situation
without some sense of the differences between the  various
kinds   of  dissonance,   tension,  competition, conflict,
coercion,  violence,  battling,  terrorism and  war  which
causes  distress  to us day by day.   Our  sense  of  such
differences may,  or may not,  be consciously  verbalized,
talked about or written down.  Yet, if we have no sense of
such differences, we are  likely  to  respond to different
situations  as  if  they were not different, and so not be
wise in our responses.

     War,   terrorism,   battling,   violence,   coercion,
competition, cooperation, and being together in love---are
different  from  each  other in  a spectrum of  levels  of
disintegration and/or integration.   We  act like fools if
we  have  no sense of the differences between  them.    To
survive  with  personal and communal integrity we need  to
respond  to  each  kind  of reality  in  a  way  which  is
integrative  within  the  context  and  presence  of  each
different kind of reality.

     Many  of  our  external  forms  of  war,   terrorism,
violence,   coercion and competition originate in  similar
internal forms within our own personal being and doing. We
cannot  deal  wisely  with  the  external  forms---in  the
absence of dealing with the internal forms from which  the
external forms grow.   Neither can we deal wisely with the
internal  forms---in  the  absence  of  dealing  with  the
external forms which nurture the internal forms.

     Internal  and external forms engender each other.  It
is  foolish  to seek  one unique source,  just  as  it  is
foolish  to try  to discover a unique source  of  chickens
without  being aware that eggs come from chickens;  or  to
discover the unique  source of eggs, without  being  aware
that chickens come  from eggs.   Some processes are cyclic
rather   than  linear,   and  it  is  foolish  to  pretend
otherwise.

     If   we  insist  on seeing all  cyclic  processes  as
linear   processes,  we  are  bound  to  experience  inner
dissonance as we encounter processes which are more cyclic
than linear in nature.

     If we insist on seeing all linear processes as cyclic
in nature, we are bound to experience inner dissonance  as
we encounter processes  which are more  linear than cyclic
in nature.

     As   we   experience  inner  dissonance  because   of
our insistence on an  either/or  pattern  of perception we
are likely to project our inner dissonance out upon others
whom  we  may  choose  to see as the cause  of  our  inner
dissonance---and so engender external conflict which  will
engender in yet others inner  dissonance  in an additional
cyclic  process.    If  we  do not  perceive  the  dynamic
interplay   between  the  different  inner  and   external
processes  we are unlikely to be able to deal wisely  with
them.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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