The terrorist attacks in Paris have added fuel to the fire of violence. Should mankind be declaring war on its own people?
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Celebrated author Deepak Chopra once said,
“Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion—and also intuition, creativity, insight and focused attention.”
In a perfect world, these words would govern an entire city or population. Even in a less perfect world, they’re still as strong as a ten-man army—and still have power to carry broken souls through the toughest of battles. We’ve seen countless examples of this—in the black-and-white print written in our newspapers, in the images flashed across our televisions on the news—and with our own eyes.
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With boundless positivity, however, comes the inevitability of negativity. A kind of negativity that can make man question what he sees—can make him begin to lose faith in everything he thought was good and righteous. It can even make him want to declare war—on others or his greatest foe—himself.
The terrorist attacks that took place on November 13, 2015 in Paris—claiming more than 120 lives—have re-opened that wound. It is now fresh once again, and a dark loud hangs over humanity. The Islamic State has reportedly taken responsibility for the attacks and officials in Paris have declared a state of emergency as the country looks to rebuild.
In light of that news, one must think about what negativity brings to the table. We’re already waging war on drugs, poverty, police, guns and the latter. Some may even say war is what got mankind in these debacles to begin with, but questions of morality still remain.
Has humankind been pushed to the point war and violence are the norm? How do we, as individuals, cope with such violence? What stories or advice can we share that prevent someone we know or love prevent them from inflicting more pain than what all these wars have already caused? More importantly, should we be declaring war on our own people?
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The Good Men Project invites you to share your stance on this issue. Send your inquiries to Erin Kelly at [email protected] or Shawn Henfling at [email protected], along with a title and potential subhead for your story. If you are a first-time contributor to GMP, please send a short bio and a link to your Facebook page (if applicable) in addition to your query.
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