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 %INSECURE FAMILY CLAN TRIBE GANG GROUP COOPERATIVE+960513
 %THREATEN DEFENSIVE ATTACK TECHNOLOGY FEAR ANXIOUS+960513
   %AGREEMENT CONFLICT RESOLUTION BATTLE WAR TERROR 960513

     Groups of people often  gather  together  to have the
advantage of strength  of  numbers  against  whatever  may
threaten them.   People gain a sense of security in having
others  who are with them to share their fears  and  their
perception  of  "how things are".   The mere  presence  of
others  who  are together in agreement---is comforting and
yields a sense of security.

     Insecure people often gather together with other like
insecure  people---to bolster their sense of the nature of
the external threats which they all fear.  They build each
other's  sense  of  fears of certain other people  who are
"different".   Together they build their sense of whom  to
fear and why;   making it all seem natural and inevitable.
Their fears are obviously caused by those other people who
are "different".    Together they find the right place  to
put their blame.

     The  tragic dilemma is that the other people who  are
"different"  may have been doing exactly the same thing as
those who fear them.   The two groups of people are united
in their fear of each other, but they do not know how much
alike they are---both in their fears and in how they  have
nursed their fears.   They do not know how much alike they
are  in  not  knowing how to transcend fears---and in  not
knowing how to truly  resolve conflicts.   This is because
honesty,   personal  integrity and communal integrity have
not been made to be important in their lives.

     It is not enough to have people around you who  agree
with  you and make you feel comfortable and secure in what
you  perceive,  believe and feel---if they are not  honest
people  of integrity who enjoy communal  integrity.    The
presence of  agreeable people is disintegrative---if their
agreement  is focused upon who is to blame for distressing
fears, anxieties, failures, mistakes and insecurity.

     If  agreement is focused upon defensive attitudes and
technologies---the  agreement  will  lead to personal  and
communal disintegration;  not to the enjoyment of personal
and communal integrity.

     "Communities" which come  "together" in fear and hold
fears in common   are not truly healthy  communities---for
they  do not seek honesty and integrity.   They seek to be
together in identifying enemies and scape-goats.   They do
not  seek  to  be  together in  seeking  truth,   honesty,
personal integrity and communal integrity.

     Justification  and success in the eyes of each  other
within  a  tightly  nit community is futile---if  they are
closely    associated   with   personal    and    communal
disintegration;   and with increasing alienation from  the
rest of the world and its life forms.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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