Hi Desert-  a specific answer -

First - the basic human condition-
In general: We are in the position we are in because we have chosen to be here. If we knew better, we'd do better.
In specific: We're all struggling like the dickens to get out of where we are and go to a better place. If we knew one, we'd go there.

Those who release the three basic negative urges, represented in Tibetan thangkas as the snake, rooster and pig, hatred, pride and greed, then those people cease to have active involvement with events caused by those three urges.

Getting rid of those basic negative urges allows us to stop creating negative karma, because these urges represent the three antitheses to the three existential aspects of reality: energetic process, holomorphic unity, and transcendental awareness. (Note that these are the same terms we encounter in physical models of reality - process, structure and metric relations.)

To cling to a nationality, to the noble fight for Arab self-government against King Hussein or the Ottomans, or the USA, or to cling to any other goal that seems important enough to fight for is an error. It is an error because it implies that society can solve problems of unrest through force.

However, to cling to the noble awareness that by abandonment of divisive tendencies, no matter how seductive, and to develop a lifestyle that is important enough to live for will resolve errors, because it extricates us from social maladaptions.

Society has great value, but only when we support and encourage those aspects that are valuable. If we are willing to take an oppositional stance at any level, we entangle ourselves in the essence of the problem. This is because we cannot involve with anything without contacting it in some manner, and to contact it establishes an interface - like when a curious finger touches hot water - and that interface exerts negative influences on us - the finger feels heat -  so that if we do anything other than withdraw, we will get involved in emotional activities that are essentially painful. - the finger that fails to withdraw will get burned.

The way to create peace and harmony is outside society. It lies solely in the hearts of folks like you and me. Those who have only learned part of this lesson live in places in which others with the same degree of understanding also live. For example, Theravedans live in large societies throughout the East. Mahayanists live in smaller societies in more isolated groups. Militant Christians live in a large conglomerate spreading across North America. Militant Arabs live in the Middle East where their societies have been oppressed for the last 1200 years. Zionists live in a tiny conclave at the end of the Mediterranean due to other oppressions. Hindus occupy the Indian subcontinent, along with similar religious believers such as Jains.

All these groups define themselves as "not the same as our neighbors" for which reason they expect special considerations. It is the distinction that leads to downfall. Once we set up distinctions, we tend to emphasize them and increase our sense of self through enhanced differentiation. That is an error.

Conversely, those groups that identify themselves as inclusive of their neighbors have a tendency to not be clearly visible. One example is the cluster of interested participants at this forum. By not differentiating, we do not feel anger or hatred, but we replace it with love. We do not feel alienated and rejected in a competitive and fearful world, but instead we feel comradship and unity with others. We do not feel that we are unique in our isolated little corner of the world, but rather we understand the universality and transcendence of our path that leads from everywhere to a higher level of everywhere. We do not feel disgust and resistance to the work of expressing positive values, but we embrace the opportunity because, among other things, it's fun.

Given these ideas, you can easily see that the American troops who choose to enlist in the war are those who feel that peace is attainable through war. Those who fight them are similarly certain that by fighting and making war it will be possible to impose peace. Both sides have chosen their world, and both suffer - albeit cooperatively.

An example of karma - the Israeli's were previously under a British Mandate. They objected to this. The resorted to terrorism and planted a number of bombs in the King David Hotel where the British seat of government was lodged. They blew up the hotel, killed lots of people, and also got the British to leave. But the Palestinians saw how effective this was so they copied their esteemed neighbors, and are still doing it, with suicide bombers and by shooting rockets, Neither side is going to win. Both sides will lose. They were individually better off under the British rule, although politically disenfranchised. They gave up personal peace in favor of social change through strife, a choice.

The way out of this is to stop engaging in negative activities. Like holding a tiger's tail, this has to be done with great care and only by degrees that allow everything to remain stable. Those who stop engaging in negative activities stop creating negative karma and cease to have negative experiences, even though surrounded by all manner of ungodly chaos. The state of freedom from negative activities is called "satchitananda" by Buddhists and Hindus, and is the basic state of mature participation in the world.  It is available to everyone, and, in fact, most of the people on this forum live in this state to a very large degree.

These ideas are radically unpopular in many circles. They initially were promulgated by the beatnicks and hippies from the late '40s through the '70s. LSD emphasized the truth of these ideas (usually by sending those who favored negativity to a hellish experience)  and prompted a strong counter-culture that disowned competitive and violent social values and norms and began to replace them with more honest values. The concept "What goes around comes around" entered our society in the '60s. However, even though these are new values to us, there are many small communities throughout the world that live by pro-active positive values as opposed to negatve ones. In essence, these ideas are the source of all revolutions. Civil warfare and the reign of terror that follows it are the reasons that revolutions don't work. Progress only occurs in the aftermath when people realize collectively how terrible things were, and how stupid it was to cause them to be terrible, and how much better to cooperate and create, support and understand one another.

dave

Hello Nanna,

Religion and wrong reading of the bible are definite causes, but there is also philosophy.

None if them in my view is the root cause of war etc. It is all about power and pride dear. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

alan