Recognizing Our Capacity for Aggression Is Not Moral Equivalence
Conflict can become easier to narrate when aggression belongs entirely to the other side. They are violent. They are irrational. They are the problem.
Sometimes responsibility really is highly unequal. Actors can differ sharply in power, conduct, legality, intent, and the harm they cause. Self-examination should not erase those differences.
But another inquiry can still matter. What human capacities am I locating only in the other person? Anger. Fear. Retaliation. Humiliation. The desire to dominate. The wish to punish.
Recognizing that these capacities are human does not create moral equivalence. It can make dehumanization harder.
That matters because durable conflict resolution often requires more than defeating an opponent. It requires political arrangements, communication, security, accountability, and conditions under which people can continue living after the conflict changes form. Looking inward is not a substitute for legal or political analysis. It is one way to prevent analysis from becoming a story in which only the other side is fully human and only the other side is capable of aggression.