It's my contention that to get a population to go along with a war, the other side must be de-humanised somewhat. This de-humanisation can be as simple as knowing nothing about them and therefore being unable to relate to their lives. It's not that we dislike people in Iraq or Afghanistan, but we don't know them and have no real empathetic connection to them. One of the reasons I suspect war has decreased in Western Europe is that many more people, in fact almost everybody now travels abroad. The kind of 'Destroy This Mad Brute!' propaganda that was used against the Germans a hundred years ago wouldn't work today.
In this video Ronny Edry, an Israeli graphic designer, talks about his effort to break down the barriers between the Israeli and Iranian people, using social media. What the citizens of these countries have to say to each other is an incredible and refreshing contrast to the belligerent rhetoric of Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad. It's also an example of what anyone can do by putting their talents to good use, the wave they can create.
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