Climate action without fanaticism
Laurie Michaelis reflects on the challenge of working for change without trying to change people
My mother died in June and my brother, sister and I have been clearing her flat. I picked up a small book there by Amos Oz, How to Cure a Fanatic. Writing about the roots of violence in Israel and Palestine he says: ‘The essence of fanaticism lies in the desire to force other people to change.’ A key lesson I learned from my mum when she was alive was that setting out to change people rarely works. In Quaker terms, peace depends on answering that of God in the other and in recognising our own darkness – our areas of unconsciousness. Often, it is precisely the things we find most difficult in other people that are the best pointers to our own blind spots – they can be Light that shows us our darkness and brings us to new life.
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