It Will Come Back to Bite Us in the End

The other day I heard a politician praising her party for wanting the government to defeat its enemies. It is a popular sentiment not just for national political leaders but also for many leaders political at all levels, civic leaders, and business leaders. However, that thought leads to the problem identifying ones enemies and how one relates to the enemies of enemies.

Perhaps we should recognize, no, we definitely should recognize that defeating our enemies is not only not the only solution but may be one of the worst approaches to any way of life. We have been using that approach for thousands of years and it still does lead to any lasting community. It continues to be “what goes around comes around” and “an eye for an eye”.

Isn't it time that we live life under a new banner of behavior, behaving in a way that builds trust and respect. Yes, there needs to be accountability, time out for bad behavior, and honest criticism. We are teaching our business leaders that putting our competitors out of business is the only method of growing our businesses.We have countries that hate each other. Tom Lehrer wrote a song about it and we are at a point that nobody likes anybody else very much:

There’s strife in Iran

What nature doesn't do to us

Will be done by our fellow man.

We practice bad behavior in our business relationships, we extol it in our television and movies, we export it to countries in economic need, it our behavior always seems to come back and bite us in the end.