War and peace. Briefly

When a concern for the common good overtakes our longstanding preoccupation with me and mine, peace will prevail. In the meantime, war is inevitable. We strive to hold individuals and agencies accountable for war, but in fact no one is responsible. Unless everyone is.

Just us

A peculiarity of our species is its reflexive need to make one individual responsible for what happens: Smith’s slap, Putin’s war. The concept of personal responsibility contests the truth that we are not in control, things happen as they must, and everything causes everything