Last week we said it is the "them vs us" concept that has been inherent in human society for thousands of years, and so much a part of our way of thought, that to discern other possibilities and potentials can indeed be difficult.
In the ARES and RACES areas we find the alternative to conflict in the cooperation and working together of those who have risen above the ancient idea that one 'must' be one dominant over the other. The need to 'dominate' is just one of several modes of human activity. We can work together as 'partners' (as those who cooperate) and achieve much more than by wasting ourselves 'dominating' when we could be using that time and emergy in community activities.
Still, there is still much within us that responds to the 'competitive' elements in life. Millions enjoy the tugs of competitive sports - for instance the Super Bowl. In the Roman Era the competitors would have slain one another, so we have moved upward in consciousness. Humankind efforts to stop the physical wars between nations has increased in this century. Certainly, then, we CAN look beyond the need to dominate, to establish 'rights'. We CAN go beyond the 'need' to have someone 'win' and someone 'lose' to one of working together.
In an article by Frank Cox, titled "Why we do what we do", cooperation rather than a "them-vs-us" attitude was described as "what makes life worth living". He further described how it emerges in disaster response: "as people immediately being trusting, focused on a common good, and sharing an instant good will in the midst of a common disaster. I have seen that the softest things in life are the most enduring: honesty, compassion, caring, forgiveness, the will to help, a hesitancy to harm."
Can we who work in emergency communications afford to do less?
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