It isn't looking good at the moment, but my hope this Christmas is that the broad type of human compassion will make a comeback in the world.
This doesn't just mean that those inclined towards war or terrorism will recognise the value of the lives they end, and change their minds. It means that when we write a book or make a movie, some attempt is made to humanise the enemy, instead of lazily leaning upon the premise that the main actor's righteousness forgives all acts of brutality.
This isn't a new idea. It's the notion of homonoia, introduced by Alexander to bind the ancient world. It described all human beings as individuals with a similar nature, each one part of a common humanity.
Briefly, it bound his empire together. You see the idea of a universal bond of all people to one another flowing majestically through history. It was the ideal behind the sharing of citizenship in the Roman world (civitas romanus sum). It is behind the idea of Caesar being due that which is his, in Jesus' words, and in the application of his message to Jews and non-Jews alike by St Paul. It finds expression in some of the notions of Islam, such as taqwa (piety of the individual). Winding forward, it is the source of the French notion of fraternite and the American belief in universal immigration. It is the foundation for the notion of human rights, which has become rarefied during the last several decades.
And yet here we are, operating from within our own politics and acting out of hatred for one another.
But then maybe this is because tribes tend towards war. The umma will inevitably end up in conflict with the muscular individual. I hope not. But it is where we have ended up.
Is Trump not the model of Ayn Rand's all-conquering businessman heroes who move the world through their own will? Are the Moslems who kill civilians without feeling not bound by the kinds of loyalty which segregate those of "us" from "them"?
Maybe the West needs to find a way to express homonoia in a way that doesn't offend those who hate the methods of socialism, and Moslems need to remember the value of individual goodness in spite of a person's country or religion. Or maybe it is just naive to imagine we can make a world together.
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