If future presidential administrations hope to even begin healing the wounds to the U.S. & the world inflicted by the current atmosphere of hatred and intolerence in America, whole different visions must be developed for the role of the U.S. in the world. Deepak Chopra presents here a suggestion for a the kernel of what we must have in place to begin change.

Tars


The Cure is Compassion by Deepak Chopra

from an OpEd on The Huffington Post

Article

"Modern medicine has reached the stage where diagnosis runs far ahead of cures, especially in cutting edge area like genetics and stem cells. The genes that cause many cancers are quickly being isolated, far faster than knowing how to correct the damage they cause. The same seems true in politics as well.

Countless books and articles diagnose what's wrong with everything from the Iraq war to global warming, but cures seem to lag behind blame, accusation, regret, alarm, and anxiety, all of which are familiar symptoms when a patient has found out bad news but has no way of reaching a cure.
In the case of politics, I find myself leaning toward compassion as a powerful cure, and when I see signs of compassion in the face of Sen. Obama and former Sen. Edwards, I feel a small spark of hope. Since the death of Robert F. Kennedy, candidates don't run on a platform of compassion. The red-blue divide that now separates us is a compassion barrier, in fact. Abortion rights advocates have no empathy for those on the other side who worry that an aborted fetus might have feelings, or that religious issues stir someone's conscience deeply. On the other side, pro-life advocates have no compassion for frightened girls facing a pregnancy they can't handle psychologically, or one that involves rape or incest.

In the case of the Iraq war, few commentators point out the terrible lack of compassion we are showing toward the Iraqi people. Democrats gleefully hammer away at a sinking president while Republicans cling to an illusion of winning the war. But in neither debate among presidential candidates did anyone seriously bring up our commitment to end the suffering that we caused by this preemptive war. The U.S. has lost around 3,500 soldiers in the past four years; the Iraqis lost ten times that many last year alone. The killing may be sectarian in nature, but the outbreak was caused by our invasion. Both political parties should agree on that point and act accordingly.

Compassion is considered weak nowadays, not a fit platform for anyone running for higher office. But in its absence we continue to dwell in the toxic aftermath of the Whitewater investigation and Monicagate, which made it respectable to excoriate, if not personally destroy, someone you oppose. Frankly, I sorely miss the presence of someone like Mother Teresa or even Princess Diana, who despite her flaws had a large streak of unalloyed sympathy for other people -- people who are poor, sick, and suffering. This was a personal quality, not a calculated political move. Who today is willing to show that they have a heart and can't help feeling compassionate? I wager that anyone with the courage to display actual love, sympathy, and kindness would rocket into public favor. We are desperate to get out of this prevailing tension and hostility that prisons public life today. You may think that compassion is a naive cure, but the alternative is simply more of the same disease."