How can you fight an idea?

How can you defeat that pervasive belief

whose tentacles seek and suck out souls?

How can you resist an idea that is

the opposite of peace?

 

An idea has no substance and flesh

that can be held back or punctured

with bullet or blade,

for it is of the mind;

and yet it can defeat whole nations

as certainly as an atom bomb.

 

It lives as a parasite

in the shared consciousness

of humans who each,

with their unique version

of the idea,

make it stronger

as it grows and roots itself

in that realm

beyond flesh.

 

You cannot even fight

an idea with the strength

and certainty

of debate, reason and dialogue,

freed as it is

in the voices of those who

throw around ideas and beliefs

and juggle them in speaking

as if it is an enjoyable game of repartee.

 

There is only one way.

 

Not in force,

physical or psychical;

not in denial and wishing

the idea did not exist.

 

Only in the certainty

and subtle power

of enlightenment

and compassion;

only in spreading

awareness of

the power for good

that lives as a core

of hope in all living beings;

only in the purgative drug

of love and inclusion

that cures the idea

that one being or many beings

have a right to take

the happiness of another.

 

30/11/2015