The root of War is fear...Thomas Merton

At the root of all war is fear: not so much the fear men have of

one another as the fear they have of everything. It is not

merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even

trust themselves. If they are not sure when someone else

may turn around and kill them, they are still less sure

when they may turn around and kill themselves. They

cannot trust anything, because they have ceased to believe in God.
It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous

but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly

that hatred of ourselves which is too deep and too powerful

to be consciously faced. For it is this which makes us

see our own evil in others and unable to see it in ourselves.
Thomas Merton. New Seeds of Contemplation

(New York: New Directions Press, 1961): 112.

Thought for the Day

[W]e never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve

our ethical and political problems: that we are all more or less

wrong, that we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed

by our mixed motives, our self-deception,

our greed, our self-righteousness

and our tendency to aggressively and hypocrisy.
New Seeds of Contemplation: 115-116.