Ugly Americans! Were they always ugly? Or have they become ugly during the Bush administration? Let us begin by saying there are no ugly Americans. There are no ugly Islamists either. There are only people. According to Clint Eastwood there are good people, bad people and ugly people. Eastwood tried to explain the difference between the three.
It was a superb film, but he was not entirely convincing. Yes, a distinction can be made between ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’. But if contrasted with ‘good’, the distinction does not really make much sense. However, there really is a third general characteristic. And it is not ‘ugly’. It is neither good, nor bad, but contains both. And it adds a third element which turns it into something completely new and all its own. For want of a better word (which we hope to discover one day), we would call it ‘real’.
The good, the bad and the real
The US (Cheney, Bush and the rest) think they are doing the right thing. They are the ‘good’, so they claim and believe. The Islamists, according to them, are the ‘bad’. They form an ‘axis of evil’ (which shifts as the occasion requires). But neither Bush nor the Islamists are standing in the real. Until we understand that there really are 3 attitudes instead of 2, there will be no Peace. There will be compromises and truces, but no Peace. For ‘good’ and ‘bad’ will always fight each other, using every means available, including war, murder, corruption, lies, bribes and abuse. Even spiritual abuse.
The Peace Paradigm, however, lies beyond all this. It is real. Of course, the US is confronted with the problem that they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. People and countries ask for US involvement and intervention. But if they do, they are condemned. So, yes, this is a dilemma. But there is more. Because there are different ways to intervene. There’s a ‘good’ way, a ‘bad’ way and a ‘real’ way.
We can bomb the world to pieces,
but we can’t bomb it into Peace.
The real way is not a matter of more development aid, although there is more need for aid than bombs. It’s not a matter of more freedom and democracy, although these are indispensable if tempered by responsibility. It’s not a matter of more religion, although religion can be a portal, if fanaticism is removed. It’s not a matter of more equality, although men and women have equal basic needs they should be able to fulfill.
It’s a matter of developing brotherhood. This is more than solidarity, or ‘social justice’. It is more than freedom and equality. Maybe we could call it ‘free-quality’, a combination of the two. But then don’t see it as a compromise, but as something new and better. Brotherhood is more than freedom and equality combined. It is the balance sublimating the two. That makes it real.
We were looking for a video to express this. The one we post goes a long way, but still does not capture what we are trying to express. Some things are easy when you know it or have seen it. It was not easy to see that the sun does not rise in the East and does not set in the West. It never did. The earth turns on its axis which makes the sun appear to rise and set. Once we knew the truth about this, it was easy to see. But it took humanity until approx. the 15th century, before this was seen and understood. Those who have seen the realism of the Peace Paradigm have the same kind of problem: ‘How do you make them see?’
We will find the way, there is no doubt.