The New War

It occurred to me that the war we're waging isn't the kind of war we're accustomed to fighting.

The "New War" is a war of ideals and customs. Ideals relating to community behavior, neighbor to neighborly customs like concern for the well being of neighbors we've lived with for decades, neighborhoods where we played as children, where we inherited properties, and where we buried our family members.

We may have new neighbors with different customs, perhaps better customs we could learn from, but the fear instilled in us from lack of knowledge of these customs has caused us to grow apart, to separate and isolate ourselves from people we're unfamiliar with. This lack of knowledge is perceived as fear, resentment, anger, and discomfort.

We turn on the television, sometimes the only contact we have with the outside world, and see civil unrest around the globe. We take on the concerns of those places and compare them to our own. Sadly, we find ways to identify with global problems and transfer them into our own lives.

But the real war is not on television, although it's reported and we have to read between the lines. The war is a war of comparisons, transferred feelings of being deprived of the thing we want most, peace and tranquility in our homes and workplaces, and lack of concern from the people in power. Anger wells up and we begin to change our way of thinking and behavior to match our feelings without sharing our views and discussing our feelings with co workers and neighbors, and loved ones to check our emotional health and get another point of view.

The war of isolation has begun inside our minds and we act out these fears by further isolating ourselves and limiting our contact with people who may share the same fears we do.