The other day at work I was walking past a couple of young kids who were sitting on a couch and chatting. The first sentence I heard come from a little boys lips was:

"If I was the boss of the world, I would make everybody play together."

It made me smile.

'If only he was the boss of the world, the world would be a much better place', I thought to myself.

I told one of my friends about what the little boy had said and his comment was "Oh, only a kid would say something naive like that because they don't get how the world really works"

Mmm... what if he said that because he has seen how the world works... and he wants it to change?

We know that most intolerance comes from ignorance and fear.... and that kids only learn intolerance as they grow - there's some irony. Of all the things we can teach those young hungry minds.... we teach them to be angry, bitter and fearful; we teach them to hate people who are not like 'us'.

Is it just my imagination or are we (and I mean the 'global we') becoming less tolerant? Perhaps I'm just noticing it more?

Sure, we preach tolerance (outwardly) but scratch a little below the surface and it seems that we are a society who is fearful of, critical of and obsessed with anyone (or group) who doesn't align themselves with our thinking, beliefs or values.

Clearly, they're all wrong and we're right.

Maybe we need the six and seven year-olds teaching the stupid, insecure, fearful adults about love, acceptance and tolerance. Left to figure it out for themselves, kids don't seem too concerned with their friend's skin colour, religious beliefs, political persuasions or country of origin.

When I was six years-old my friends could have been green and come from Mars; I didn't care.

They (kids) have this crazy system whereby they evaluate people based on how those people treat them. If someone is nice, they like them. If they're not nice, they don't like them... but tomorrow they probably will! It's complex I know.

Lucky for those dumb kids, us clever, highly evolved, highly educated adults are always around to teach them about hatred, fear and how 'different' we all are. Apparently the fact that we're all the same species, all have (essentially) the same needs, all look (pretty much) the same and all live on the same planet, isn't enough for us to say "hey, we're all in this together so... here's a wacky concept: let's not fight, let's not find more reasons to hate each other, let's stop trying to change everyone else and..... let's stop killing each other (we could be scaring the kids!).

The unspoken message that we teach our kids is that anyone who is different to us, anyone who doesn't look the same, talk the same or have the same values or beliefs as us should be feared.

I know that someone will probably write to me and tell me that I am over-simplifying an extremely complex issue but the seven year-old in me might suggest that perhaps we're complicating an extremely simple issue.

I believe the whole co-existing-without-killing-or-hating thing is hard because we have made it hard. Nobody needs to kill or hate... it's a choice. It's a culture, an ideology, a habit handed down from generation to generation.

What if we loved people (even tolerated would be a good start!) despite our differences? Do we all have to have the same beliefs, values, standards, customs, ideals and traditions to live harmoniously? If we got down from our incredibly high horses we might actually learn something from those we fear. We might learn they're just like us.

My best (female) friend is a married, Jewish, mother of three. On the surface, we have virtually nothing in common. She regularly thinks I'm weird and I think she's weird. Well, she is kinda weird.

Our lives, cultures, religious beliefs and backgrounds couldn't be more different. When I first met her I didn't get her... at all. When I got to know her (and get her) I realised that, although we're different, we are really the same; same values, same beliefs (about many things), similar interests and similar philosophies and ideas on many significant issues.

So the most unlikely person ever.... became my best friend. And she has taught me more than I could ever have imagined and my life is infinitely better for having her in it. When I'm an idiot, she tells me. I love that.

So perhaps we should replace (some of) our leaders with a bunch of kids for a year or two and see what happens....

Maybe we'd all have to play together because.... "that's the new rule."

If you were the "boss of the world" what would you do?

Craig Harper
http://www.craigharper.com/