By Teodros Kiros
Human beings are complex beings, but their fundamental nature is the same. They all fear death. They are insecure. Sometimes sluggish and lazy. Many times dishonest. The quest for security propels them towards greed and selfishness, and the capitalist market systematically conditions them to be selfish, greedy, insecure, indifferent towards the poor, and leads them to think that selfishness is natural, that life itself is short and humans nasty.
It is easy to condition human beings to think in this destructive way. Life however, surely short is not nasty. Life could be otherwise, and so could human beings, by reconditioning themselves once they are aware of the destructive conditioning and imagine themselves as kind, compassionate, morally intelligent and change themselves.
The Ethiopian situation as part of the human condition can also be changed on three levels, which I will address separately.
- Individuals
- The State
- The Elites
- Individuals
The backbone of the Ethiopian nation, and its nationalities are connected by the umbilical cord of Oneness. We really are One. Oneness is the core of our being, our humanity. What we call individuality is only a cover, a mask that we wear, the visible frame. The invisible frame is our Oneness. Ethnicity and nationality are only costumes, which dissolves in death. What lasts, and what we should uncover is our Oneness, that which makes us human and Ethiopian. Once we uncover this fact killing others, committing genocides against them is equivalent to killing ourselves and committing genocide against ourselves.
Realizing this challenges us to use our intelligence and think deeply before we hate and kill others. This is the activity of Reason, a God given gift which we are not using. Deep change begins with this awareness and could be picked up by the leaders of the Ethiopian State
- The State
Once the individuals are awakened in this deep way, our leaders will not govern us like sheep and condition us to go to war with our brothers and sisters with whom we are connected by Oneness, that invisible city inside all of us. When our leaders tempt us to fight their wars, we can resist them by advocating dialogue instead- understanding our Ethiopian situation and solving what divides us by recalling Oneness, and extract from the depth of our hearts.
Our leaders might threaten us to conduct their wars, but now we can say no them, and they cannot help but turn away.
They too are insecure and that is why they seek security by war. We, the changed Ethiopians can change the way.
Finally,
(3) The Elites.
The Elites, as humans are afraid of themselves, given the warring Ethiopian State they have manufactures. They may preach war, but they too are sick and tired of advocating wars, they cannot afford. They are addicted to this way of life, but if I am right that Oneness is our anchor, and that the changed individuals and the reformed state can save us, then there is an alternative in the imperative of dialogue free of domination and replete with compassion and revolutionary violence for saving Ethiopia from its current impasse.