A collective identity as human beings a must for ending global ethno-religious conflicts

by Bedgar Perera

I am quoting below, from a video clip where an unidentified person speaks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in brief and what he sees as a humanitarian solution for it, which would be applicable to any such conflicts world over.

Let me quote:

“If you identify as Jewish, you feel more sympathy for the Israeli deaths. If you identify as Muslim you feel more for the Palestinians.

“Albert Einstein said nationalism is an infantile disease and the truth in that statement explains not only conflict in Israel, but all over the world.

“The moment you adopt a country, religion or set of beliefs as your primary identity, is the moment dehumanization begins in your own mind. You automatically feel more love for those who belong to your identity calling them ‘my people’ , even though we all are one people.

Identified groups usually claim to be in sole possession of the truth, and therefore killing others in pursuit of the truth is justified. War is a symptom of the disease of being too attached to an identity, but it starts in here (brain), the moment you lose connection with humanity as a whole

.WE CAN KEEP OUR BELIEFS AND FLAGS, BUT IF WE WANT PEACE, WE HAVE TO BUILD A COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AS HUMAN BEINGS (emphasis added).”

I shared the aforesaid video with some friends and two comments I received are quoted below, because of their high relevance here.

 “This has been the universal truth. He puts it very succinctly” – Dr.Asoka Marasinghe, Texas,USA

 “Human race is yet to understand the simple truth, although fluent in so called advanced technologies” – Dr.Sarath Weerasena, Peradeniya

The foregoing indicates the futility of ethno-religious conflicts world over and that nationalism which gets inbuilt in the human mind owing to identification with a particular country, religion or set of beliefs, mostly from the time of birth of an individual. This has been termed an “infantile disease” by none other than Albert Einstein, meaning that it is inborn from birth. This so called disease explains not only the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also such conflicts all over the world. War is a symptom of this disease “of being too attached to an identity”, and in the process losing connection with humanity, with the human mind getting dehumanized along with the exit of the humane touch.

These conflicts have been going on over the past decades and centuries in this world as recorded in history, with millions getting killed, in spite of the world advancing technologically to the extent of even having developed artificial intelligence. The sheer killing of thousands of innocent humans in the midst of all material advances continues even now, at the push of a button by a fighter/bomber pilot which has the potential to blow into bits even big apartment buildings with hundreds or thousands of people sleeping at times, as shown on TV screens nowadays.

This happens in spite of the noble religions of people, all of which advocate living according to principles of natural justice, with love of one another, and absolutely no hatred to all and refraining from all crimes including murder which is the most heinous crime that a man could commit which has now become a very common day to day occurrence.

Through sheer interest, I have talked to quite a number of people of many levels, about their views on bringing about a solution to these senseless wars based on ethnic and religious issues, as Sri Lanka too has gone through such episodes which have not yet found any lasting solution with embers glowing within doused fires waiting to ignite any moment.

While some people are not bothered to talk about these issues saying it is a waste of time to do so, there are many including academics, who say that ” these are very complex issues which cannot be solved easily and that they will go on, so long as the humans exist.”. Worst is that even top diplomats with conflict resolution a major mandate, have been heard or seen referring to the so called complexity of these conflicts and the serious problems involved in arriving at a solution without ever giving a possible lasting remedy to the whole issue.

Perhaps they, including UN diplomats thrive on these issues with all their perks, high emoluments, attractive life pensions on retirement, while attending hi fi conferences, writing lengthy reports and last but not least attending diplomatic parties in plush hotels, at no cost to themselves, with all expenses being indirectly taken care of through the public purse of somebody somewhere or other.

Many issues in life some people blindly consider are too complex to solve and are hence pushed under the carpet may have unconsidered solutions that are not rocket science. Such tendencies of indecisiveness can move up the ladder from the individual level to communities in villages, cities, provinces , countries and the whole world.

In such a scenario, the anonymous speaker referred to above has a point worth pondering when he says: “We can keep our beliefs and flags, but it we want peace, we have to build a collective identity as human beings.”

The solution appears to be lying in building a “collective identity as human beings”. Of course even though the solution lies there, as it involves an attitudinal change in the human mind on a mass scale, it cannot be achieved overnight. But a start has to be made and thinking aloud, it can be realized that the best world forum to effectively start discussion about this will be the United Nations Organization (UNO), which was formally established for conflict resolution. But conflicts and wars rage the world over even while the UN sessions are ongoing.

There is no reason why the UNO which has its General Assembly (UNGA) annually with many world leaders gathering to discuss burning global issues, cannot focus on a theme like this and start the ball rolling for a universal move towards a “collective identity as human beings.”

If we want peace, as keeping peace is one of the UNO’s key mandates, this noble idea can be further discussed and adopted in due course as a UN Resolution. All member countries should concur as there is no logical reasoning for any member country to oppose such a Resolution.

The next step is for the political leaders of UN member countries to give an undertaking to abide by and spread the message to their citizen at large for acceptance, and actual implementation, since in some countries ethnic and religious considerations are included in their constitutions, giving more rights to some groups than others. All this, of course, would take time and is easier said that done. There are many adopted UN resolutions that remain unimplemented. Lip service alone will not do.

One could speculate that the aforesaid simplistic strategy is too ambitious and far-fetched to achieve worldwide acceptance, leave alone implementation, of adopting the proposed premise of a collective identity as human beings if we want peace. It is surely a long haul But a start must be made somewhere.

In order to add weight to the futility of ethno religious conflicts stressed in the foregoing, I quote from a well written article by Susantha Hewa, published in The Island of October 30, 2023, titled “Insanity of identity”, questioning the very basis of killing so many people based on ethno religious conflict during the current Israeli-Palestinian war.

“Isn’t this an ideal moment to look at our toxic identities that are mere cultural constructs? Almost all instances of plain butchery of one group by another group of humans are triggered by the fake identities imposed on us by tradition and culture, and the two most tenacious labels we carry throughout our life are our fake identities of ‘ethnicity ‘ and ‘religion’. It is the feelings of ‘self’ and ‘other’ created and nurtured in us by the socially sanctioned imposition of an ethnicity and a religion that has poisoned all human minds and engendered cruelty.”

It is hoped that the views expressed here will motivate those with interest to interact among one another regarding this vital issue for human survival, in order that useful ideas on tackling this grave problem, without letting conflicts take their course, killing thousands, will eventually reach where it matters. This is only a small attempt towards that end.

Email – bedgarperera@gmail.com