Fanatics of Our Own Beliefs

I was a guest on the Joe Donahue Show, WAMC New York this morning. One caller, Chris, expressed an opinion that we will never have peace so long as we have religious extremism.

Chris was adamant on his point, "I want peace, but we will never, ever have peace as long as there are religious fanatics, people who believe they are right and everyone else is wrong." His exact words may have been slightly different, but his view is quite common-it might even be your view.

You may have heard of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led a south polar expedition through disaster in 1914-1915 without losing a single man. He succeeded through managing the beliefs and expectations of his crew, keeping them active, focusing on a future in which all of them survived. There were men in his group who resented his optimism and grumbled about it, but he won them over. He was realistic; he kept everyone actively engaged in solving their problems step by step, and he was optimistic. He was fanatic about keeping his men focused on the future. His leadership example is famous today.

Whatever our beliefs are, we tend to be "fanatic" about them. Although Chris' statement doesn't sound like "extremism"-and I am sure he would not hurt people like bona fide extremists-still he is expressing an opinion about the future, about the way things are, in absolute terms, which is what extremists do.

I am not interested in arguing with Chris about his opinion-after all, we all feel right about our opinions, and it is his opinion. The constructive question, like Shackleton might have asked, is: what is the future we WANT to create?

If we don't actively imagine and work to create a future different from Chris' future, then the momentum of his opinion and those who share it WILL create a future that we definitely do NOT want-a future with war: destruction, unimaginable suffering, disease, hatred, famine, rape and ignorance.

You see, in envisioning and committing to a future that inspires us, we are asking the question that lets us survive and thrive, rather than settling for an absolute answer that re-creates a dismal past into our future. Together, we create the future we want and that we are inspired to work for. We have an important choice: we can unconsciously commit to an apparently inevitable future, OR we can use our awesome human powers of vision to build a path to a future we prefer.

Chris does not have to change his opinion-he can use the energy of his belief in creating the preferred future without war. He could ask the question of religious extremism, rather than settling for an answer, if he sees that as the main barrier to peace. Chris' focus on this issue can be a gift to all of us, creating peace in this area of religious extremism.

Chris can ask: what can be done about this? Is it really as hopeless as it appears? A recent poll of religiously extreme Jews and Hamas people in Israel/Palestine showed that they might relax their hard-line positions if the other side would acknowledge them as having a right to exist. Saudi Arabia has effective anti-extremist programs that rely on education and jobs. Mauritius has dozens of faiths and ethnicities living in harmony, some of them extreme.

What are you being a fanatic about? What answers have you settled for that create a future none of us want? Here is an very simple, brief exercise that I promise will change your life forever:

Put a pen and a pad of paper next to your bed. For the next eight days, each morning when you wake up, before you get out of bed, before your brush your teeth, before you talk to your loved ones, take five minutes to write one thing that you could do to cause world peace in five years. Don't repeat yourself.

Actually DO the exercise. Decide to do it, right now, and actually follow through and do it. It is your life, your future, your war or peace. Invest 40 minutes over eight days to change your life.

After eight days, read what you wrote. And please, share it with us here on p5y.org.