Lines drawn by fear

Care exists alongside conflict. No war can erase our interbeing. Where our love, wisdom, and capacity are weak, conflict and its possibility generate fearful responses. There the bounds of societies are shaped by greed, hate, and delusion: greed for what is desired, free from the constraints of care; hate for what is alienated, incurious and careless of its liveliness, beauty, integrity, or personhood; delusion that we are separate, and totally erased or redeemed after this short, precious life.

Such bounds are drawn as policed lines, barriers to free passage, by imperialism, colonialism, wars of conquest and retribution, ongoing defense of unjust claims, ongoing fantasies of inherent rights to extract, exploit, disregard and belittle. They replicate the fear that created them.