My teacher used to say that love is a pet that feeds on mutual concessions. These days, it seems as though we’re not very fond of love precisely because it feeds on concessions. But the problem is not with love; the problem is with our perception of concessions. We think that by conceding, we are losing something, such as social status, respect, position of dominance, or control.
It’s unclear whether differing opinions create hate, or if hate creates different opinions, but one thing is clear: When there are different opinions, you need love in order to rise above the differences, but if there is no love then there is no motivation to rise above the differences.
There is only one solution to this catch: to realize that if we don’t rise above our differences and unite above our hatred, we will destroy each other, physically, there will be bloodshed. If we want to survive, we must confess that if hatred does subside, it’s going to end all of us. Afterwards, we must stop the demonization.
Once we have done that, we can take an example from nature and learn what it means to make concessions without losing face and why we should do it. When parents make concessions to each other, they don’t do it because they are weaker than the other partner; they do it for the sake of the child—their mutual creation. If the parents focus on getting their own way, they will divorce. But if they’re focused on raising a happy child, they’ll always find a solution that everyone is happy with, and their joy will be in seeing their offspring grow up in a good and happy family.
When two political schools of thought engage in power struggles, they must do the same. In their case, the child is the country. If the parties find the way to put their love for their country above their desire to see their dogma triumph, there is hope for the future. But if they entrench themselves in their positions and want only their view to exist, then catastrophe is a certainty.