I know some Holocaust survivors. Jews, Poles, communist Germans, Danish policemen, people of every rank, station and affiliation.
Every last one of them goes out of their way not to hate - not the people who tormented them and killed their families, not people who disagree with them today, not anyone.
Having been exposed, up close and personal, to the consequences of hate, they know all too well that it ain't worth it.
I think about this as I watch the increasingly personal political attacks happening at three levels of government in Canada and, of course, in so many hot zones around the world. This is what the Canadian "War Room" people don't get - by dehumanizing their opponents so as to justify treating them inhumanely, they are dehumanizing themselves as well.
It doesn't matter to me whether you're Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, Horwath or Hudak or Wynne, John Tory or Olivia Chow or backroom folk or pundits or petty warlords with too many guns and not enough sense.
Hatred is justification for inhuman acts, pure and simple. When you allow yourself to hate, you lose yourself. Whatever else you win, your soul withers with each attach you make against your fellows.
Justify it however you want, confabulate your rationale all you want.
Hating is poisoning yourself and hoping your foe dies first. This is not how you win - this is how you lose your way.
If you really want to win, don't dehumanize your foes so as to crush them like bugs - understand them.
Knowledge is not power - empathy is power. This is why the wise don't self-promote; don't belittle nor fight against.
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