… I used to remind my friends that agitating for peace and actually bringing it about are not necessarily the same. Stirring up passions, provoking animosity, and polarizing opposition may sometimes produce short-term gains, but it cannot produce long-term beneficial results because it only clouds minds on both sides. Progress comes only from opening others’ eyes and ears, and that can happen only when people’s minds are calmed and their fears allayed.
––Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness: On the Beatitudes, 214
