[revenge] how do we break the cycle

Anakin off to avenge his mother with a pogrom

How do we break the cycle of atrocity and the escalation of violence - Ireland, Israel, Kosovo, Ossetia, Sudan? There is a passage in scripture which seems apt: Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I shall repay. In other words, don’t take matters into your own hands; leave them to me.

Don’t guffaw but there was a theme in the Return of the Jedi when the Emperor invited Luke to let the anger course through his veins and by so doing, lose his will to resist the urge to kill, thereby finally succumbing to the dark side.

Allegorical, yes. Christie had Poirot say to a girl who was planning murder, in Death on the Nile: “Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing.”

“Leave [the revenge] alone, you mean?”

“It’s deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil.” Her lips fell apart and a look of bewilderment came into her eyes. Poirot went on gravely: “Because if you do, evil will come. Very surely, evil will come. It will enter and make its home within you and after a while, it will be no longer possible to drive it out.”

“I – I – you can’t stop me!”

“No,” said Hercule Poirot, “I cannot stop you.”

His voice was sad.