The Urgent Need for a Cease-Hatred
by Michael Nagler
“…nothing that we can talk about, long for, or finally get, is so desirable, so welcome, so good as peace… Peace is so universally loved that its very name falls sweetly on the ear.”
—St. Augustine
The devastation that Israel is visiting on Gaza—and Palestinians more broadly—like all violence, radiates harm beyond even the geopolitical region. It damages the human spirit. It could be said to reverse the long arc of evolution, if you believe, as I do, in what Aristotle called the telos, or inbuilt purpose of life—the evolution toward higher modes of consciousness—and what Nobel biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi described as “the drive in living matter to perfect itself.”
Of course, it is not necessary to hold this grand, panoramic view to recognize and viscerally respond to the death and starvation of children by deliberate policy and know that it is wrong. It is even wrong strategically: no nation has ever become secure by savaging another. The very severity of Israel’s reaction to the October 7, 2023 attack plainly illustrates the cycle of violence they are trying to break by repeating it. Do they really think the Palestinians will voluntarily break the cycle, or take it lying down? Have they ever? Has anyone? As Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) recently said, “Israel just became a victim of its own success.” That is inevitable when you define ‘success’ as harming others.
How could that cycle possibly be broken? Only by a bold step forward—and only if that step is taken by the United States. We have been, for decades, the “only remaining superpower,” and, more to the point, the power behind Israel’s propensity and terrible capacity for violence.
To give this world crisis its correct name, we cannot solve it through a series of fragile ceasefires, even if we could get Israel to agree to one. We cannot solve it only in that region, or only in any part of the world. It requires nothing less than a paradigm shift of human consciousness—and, consequently, human culture.
In a way, there is a silver lining to the devastation: while other conflicts (55 of them, I gather) are ongoing around the world, the struggle here—for the soul of Israel and, I argue, for humanity itself—is iconic. If we could break out of the cycle of violence here, especially by breaking out of the worldview that got us into it, that change would resonate everywhere.
There is what we might call a “homeopathic” logic in the situation: precisely because the savagery has become so unendurable, we might be pushed into the boldness to end it.
I am not saying there should not be a ceasefire; I am saying there should be a ceasefire—and the beginning of a process to elevate human consciousness. This alone will give such a ceasefire a firm foundation and permanence. We need, if you will, a “cease-hatred.”
That process is education. A deeper kind of education than is presently available in most institutions or families, but there is no reason it would be impossible. Across the world, children are often taught to fear, mistrust, or hate those who are different from them. I cannot think of anything worse to do to our children—or to humanity. If they are taught to hate, they will hate. But if they are taught the principles of understanding, empathy, and the structures of peace, they can help build a world where cycles of violence are broken. May all our children—and generations to come—live to see that world.
