Page 52 - Non-violence and peace-building

Avoid Conflict by Ignoring the Lesser Evil

prevent the situation from turning into a conflict that
involves ‘rocks’. The fact is that not to be willing to
tolerate the lesser evil of a foolish person will always
mean that you will have to accept having to face a much
bigger evil instead, sooner or later.
Once, a wrestler belonging to a particular community
went to a wrestling ground that belonged to another
community and entered into a match with a wrestler
from that community. After the match was over, he
began complaining that he had been cheated. Now,
even if he was right, what he should have done was
to simply accept the situation that he was faced with.
Then, after preparing himself well, he could have
returned again, after some days, for a second match.
And this time, no one’s cheating or deception could
have caused him to lose. But if, on the other hand, he
refused to accept having been cheated and was bent on
taking revenge for it, say by attacking the wrestler from
the other community, it would turn into a full-fledged
communal riot, and then the entire town would have
gone up in flames. The price of not tolerating a minor
wrongdoing in a wrestling ground would have been
enormous destruction of life and property.

Similarly, suppose a group of people belonging to a
particular religious community is worshipping together
in their place of worship. Just then, some people
from another community throw something into their
worship space that these people consider unclean.
This is, undoubtedly, an unpleasant situation. If this
group of worshippers tolerates this unpleasantness,
the matter will rest there and will soon die out. But if,

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