I think the key is fear. Fear is behind every single thing in this world that harms others or ourselves. How do we deal with that one?

This one is a very big point for me and is extremely complicated, I think I go some way to dealing with it in my, Understanding Hate article, twinned with this one. Fear I think, harms us most when it has been manipulated by others.

For instance, we have a natural fear of strangers which we overcome everyday, however when one section of the media asks us to fear a particular set of strangers, that's when things can turn into racism, homophobia, et al.

It is a long drawn out process, but we'll get there in the end . . . Things like this next example give me hope.

In the UK for years, it was quite acceptable to call Gypsies, gypos, the problem with the term is it was connected with entirely negative things. Thieving gypo was a term used often, because gypsies where portrayed as dishonest and untrustworthy.

Then a few years ago, a TV production company decided to make a program called My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding, the program revealed a previously unseen Gypsy community. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly, but mainly the good.

Suddenly these people who we had dismissed as thieving pikeys or gypos were finally being humanised...

Now in the UK, using the term gypo, or pikey is frowned upon, and there have been many more programs about this community, and in fact the culmination of this was when Paddy King of The Gypsies, one the Big Brother reality show.

This is a perfect example of how unfounded fears where smashed after the populace were educated, and it really gives me hope for our world! :-)

As ever, thanks for your thoughtful comments @natureofbeing :-)

Cg