I don't like the use of language such as "another small victory against Sharon".

It is the language of hate. It may have not been intended to sound very hateful but there is a tinge of hate in there, even if its only subconscious.

There are no evil people, just people who've got dangerous ideas into their heads and unfortunately some of those people are in posession of power that they are not wise enough to know how to use responsibly and selflessly and ethically.

I bet none of you have tried to empathise with Sharon. He's a human being too. He thinks he's doing the right thing. He's not. He's wrong. He's blatently wrong. Loads of Israelis would be doing what he's doing if they could - but they can't because they're not in power. He is doing more damage than those people not because he's more evil but because unfortunately he's got more power.

Of course what he's doing is terrible and of course he shouldn't be doing it. But hating him for it isn't going to help anything. Of course we should engage with the problem and fight (that's another word I don't like but I can't think of a more appropriate one right now) for the rights of oppressed (not just in Palestine but all over the world) people. And of course we should oppose any wrong deeds done by Sharon and other people. But this can and should be done without hate.

Direct your anger at the system, not at individual people.

If you took some ecstacy then you'd understand. And then you'd come down and start hating people again. But that doesn't mean that when you were under the influence of the drug you weren't right.

I'm not saying you need to take drugs to understand certain fundamental wisdoms, but it is a way of doing it.

Various religions teach that you should love your enemy, including christianity. That's what it says in the bible. People repeat like zombies those mantras in church every week and then they go out back into the world and carry on hating people. They know the words off by heart but somehow they are blind to their meaning.

The christian church has spread its dominance over much of the world. And yet the important teachings of the religion are ignored by most of its followers. People are happy to believe in the bullshit (eg that there is a god - bollox there's a fucking god) that's in the bible. They're also happy to believe all the right wing propaganda that isn't even in the bible at all eg all that nonsense about chastity. In genesis doesn't it have a really big go at adam and eve for being embarrassed about being naked. The message is that there's nothing wrong with being naked. And yet many christians and most priests think of nudity as being something shocking.

The real wisdom in the religion is ignored by most of its followers. And probably the biggest pearl in the whole thing is that you should love the whole of humanity. Related to this is the bit that says that you shouldn't judge "lest ye be judged yourself" (they spoke 16th Century English in the middle east back in jesus' day ;-) ). ...and about how you should forgive people. And the thing about "turn the other cheek" (meaning when someone hits you in the face offer them the other side of your face) Er... well blatently you shouldn't let people beat you up or anything but the point is that you shouldn't be reactionary and seek revenge. By all means stick up for yourself, let people know when they're being out of order, don't let people seriously hurt you... but at the same time don't feel that somehow they "deserve" to be hit back. Er.. like, the world would be a nicer place if people learnt to behave like that. If someone is a bastard to you for whatever reason, you should have the maturity not to try and get them back for it, rather than allowing it to become a cycle for revenge.

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, but what I'm suggesting is that in general we don't demonise people and we try to develop a love of all humanity and that in particular this should apply to dangerous misguided human rights abusers, even including Sharon.

Blatently if someone is a killer that's no reason to hate them. If I came across a lion or a tiger (bit surreal I know but hypothically) walking down the street and it looked like it was going to kill me, I wouldn't hate it. If I had to (and could) I'd kill it if it was either it or me but I wouldn't do that out of hate, I'd just do it to save my life and if there was another way of saving my life, like catching it and sending it back to the wild in india or wherever it is tigers live, then I'd do that instead. Sharon is dangerous and misguided and what he is doing must be stopped (and the tiger analogy by the way isn't supposed to suggest that i think sharon should be killed). Sharon must be stopped. But that doesn't mean we have to hate him.

"Yeah but the tiger doesn't know any better", I hear you say, "People should know better". Yeah we should - but we don't always. The difference between us and other beasts is that we have an advanced degree of intellect. However, that's only part of our psychological make up - the rest of us is the same base animal instincts that we share with more primative mammals - when our emotions get the better of us they take presedence over our intellect and we behave irrationally. People behave irrationally all the time. But people with power do a lot more damage when they're behaving irrationally than those without power. With the same level of hate but different levels of power, one murederer might kill 1 one person he doesn't like while a politician might kill thousands. Sure that's a worse crime but if you were in a position to kill thousands you might do it yourself. "OH NO I FUCKING WOULDN'T" I hear you say. But think of those US soldiers who killed shit loads of peasants in vietnam. They came back, settled back into the real world and then started thinking about what they'd done back in that crazy war, and lots of them are still having nightmares every night as a result of it. If you ask any average soldier if he thought he was capable of committing war crimes he'd say no but it goes to show that actually people are capable of doing great evil if they are given the opportunity to do so. Those who do, do it partly because they genuinely lack wisdom and partly because unlike most other people, they are in a position to be able to do so and to be tempted to do so.

Tony Blair for example, for all his faults he's just a normal bloke. And he's killed thousands of iraqis through his complicity in the sanctions. Now maybe you do think he's a bit of a tosser (so do i, even though I try not to think of people as tossers) but you probably think that about loads of everyday people as well. Tony's no worse than them - it's just that when he's a bastard, his bastardness gets magnified by his power. And while that doesn't make it any more ok, it does mean that he's no more demonisable than half of your mates who'd probably do just as much harm if they were in power because they're only human.

I don't know if I've managed to explain what I'm trying to say properly.

But basically, don't demonise people, even if they're doing a lot of damage. They should no better - but they don't. When people are doing wrong they should be stopped - but not hated. And maybe people who do wrong should be punished - but not because they "deserve" it (that would be revenge mentality) - only because maybe it's a necessary deterrent.

I basically agree with all those hippies who say that you should love everyone in the world. OK maybe that sounds a bit superficial - how can you love someone you don't know.
But what it basically means is that you should have respect for fellow human beings and you should focus on the positive aspects of humanity, and you should be compassionate and forgiving.

And when I say forgiving, I don't mean that you should think that it's alright to commit crimes against humanity - just that you shouldn't hate people for it. Crimes against humanity (and crimes on a smaller scale too) should be prevented whenever possible, and when they do happen, maximum effort should be expended to make sure it doesn't happen again - and if this means punishing war criminals with prison or even a death sentence (and I'm not advocating this but some people might) then this should only be done as a deterrent and not out of hate, spite, malice or the urge to take an eye for an eye.

John Lennon was almost right when he wrote "All You Need Is Love". Blatently its not a sufficient condition but is a necessary one.

I rest my case.

PS No one's allowed to tell me that "it's all a bunch of tree huggin' hippy crap".

Because that's *my* line.

Screw you guys I'm going home.

- eric cartman (from south park)