It seems to me that the number one question of the hour , in modern societies, is how to adopt a sane response when we are surrounded by madness?

Here, it’s visceral and tribal; and generally unhinged. You can sense this if you detach yourself sufficiently to be aware of how people are thinking, without being swept up in popular emotion – though if you detach yourself too much, of course, you are not aware at all. Right now there seems to be a kind of euphoria. Like my daughter saw people dancing in the streets. And the news programs, which I hear in the background when I am not shutting my door or wearing earpods, try to commodify a channel the emotions. I hear statements like, “One thing’s for sure, without the amazing performance of the army, we would not be where we are now.”

Tribal manifestations of emotion are dangerous; these directly result in phenomena like a genocide. But they are widespread among human groups, and seem difficult to escape.

And then there are situations like in the U.S., where you have two polarised sub-groups, almost hermetically sealed in, so that neither of the sides is able to hear the other.

Smart people like Thich Nhat Hanh (the Buddhist monk and peace activist, who tried not to take sides during the Vietnam war) would make statements like “you can’t have a Left, without the existence of a Right”, and whenever he thought someone was wrong about something, he would begin, “What you say is partly true…” Because truth is always relative, and whatever we say is never 100% valid, or utterly mistaken.

But, it is truly hard, in a society that is exhibiting symptoms of group psychosis, to adopt measured, sane positions. A part of you wants to scream. Though if you do, no one will hear you anyway, so it’s pointless.

An Israeli friend of mine tries to adopt a position of empathy towards all people. She is fluent in Arabic (and of course Hebew) and tries to be helpful and respectful towards everyone. She says she is not a political dissident. “If you want to genocide people, go ahead. I will not be part of it.” That’s the kind of statement she will make. Of course, she’s a bit mad too, with her own hang-ups; deeply insecure and fearful, overly assertive about her own “truths” – it’s hard to tolerate her for too long.

And in Europe I myself did not find the right measure of reaction or speaking out when confronted by the complacency of others towards the genocide happening here. My voice sounded too strident, even to me. If I had been among pro-Palestinian activists, it would have been even harder, because there are extreme levels of emotion and blindness among them too.