Everyone who engages in hate of ‘others’ – based on religion, race/ethnicity/heritage, nationalism, politics, ‘class’, gender, sexual orientation, etc – shares a level of responsibility in all hate crimes because they have shown and/or taught acceptance for spreading hate.
That is why it is so offensive to see those who perpetuate ‘othering’ and division in society trying to bend the narrative of atrocities – such as what we witnessed at Bondi on Sunday evening – towards advancing their own hateful agendas.
No group is ever all right or all wrong. What human can determine right from wrong in perfect clarity at all times? Only the ignorant.
Aggression begets more aggression.
Compassion for all human beings is the only path to sustainable peace.
My precious sons were at Bondi last week, but on Wednesday. It was their first ever time in Sydney and we were there for them to see Kendrick Lamar in concert.
How life twists and turns, for better or worse, on a dime. Oh the gravity of time and random circumstance.
That is a concept I, myself, have wrestled with since I was 15 and personally experienced gun violence – what if I poked my head around that corner just 10 seconds later after he had finished loading his revolver … See “How Farmers Lose Their Perspective“
One thing is for certain – the men (and they almost always are men) who resort to gun violence have far more in common with each other – irrespective of their twisted reasoning and hate-filled biases – than they have ‘differences’ from those against whom they enact their violence.
Similarly, the many – the great majority infact – who love humanity do what they can to save or protect others, by selflessly responding in the face of crises including standing against violence, because they will not – cannot – witness people being hurt.
This needs to be central to how we in our societies work at eliminating hate and violence as I discussed in my essay, “For The Sons Of Deeply Insecure Men” …
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© Copyright Brett Edgerton 2025
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