Changing History?

I am still thinking about my trip to Israel and still trying to figure out what upset me so much.  What is slowing becoming clear to me is that I have been deeply affected by learning how often the land upon which Israel now sits has been invaded and overtaken.  All of these conquerors came, raped, pillaged, and slaughtered the inhabitants, often enslaving those they didn’t kill, or else ruling them strictly and taking away a lot in taxes and restricting freedoms.

When the inhabitants rose up against whoever was the ruling power, sometimes, for a brief period, they drove them away.  But most times, and always eventually, the power came back stronger and raped, pillaged and murdered even more savagely. The Romans were especially good at that.  

Yes, this was history, but what is most troubling is that it is the present, and it seems to be the future.  It makes me wonder if there is really too much of a genetic basis that makes humans easily vulnerable to fear which leads to hate which leads to violence.

It seems to be so much easier to destroy than to build, or to stir up fear than to create understanding.  It is happening in Israel; it is happening in the U.S.  In many states, recent examples of which are Maine and Missouri,  the war on poverty seems to have turned into a war on the poor.  People who are broke and hungry are being demeaned, humiliated and even prosecuted.

The sense that someone who is different, or someone who makes us uncomfortable is evil and must be feared, has taken over our politics, or economics, and our worldview.    This should not be surprising because, in truth, as we can see from Israel, it has always been that way. 

What makes me sad, is that with all of our new technology, and all of the new knowledge that it has brought us, these more basic, primitive behaviors,  still so easily and quickly, become dominant. 

Yes, in some ways, there have been real improvements. While we have all these local, horrendous civil and religious wars going on, but the world seems to have learned to avoid the huge wars of the 20th century that killed millions of people.  Technology has given us a much greater awareness, and a much stronger reaction to some of the injustices that are happening. Abuses of power are being called out, and that will, eventually, lead to change.

So perhaps the tide is turning, and much of what is happening is the frightened reaction to those who are feeling left out or left behind.  Yet, as the tide moves out very, very slowly, it leaves so much wreckage behind.