There has been a lot of talk lately about the fact that we have effectively lost the war against the cyber crooks. There are some who argue that we're just losing for now, but given enough time, vigilance and committment we can still make a come-back. There are others who insist that it's all over but the crying and we might as well scrap the entire Internet concept and try something new.

In between there are many flavors of opinion. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Right now our nation is wrapped up in a civil war in Iraq. There are persistent rumors that we might be poised to attack Iran as well. Again, we have the one side saying, "stay the course" and we can eventually achieve our goals against the terrorist threat. While others, equally convincing and passionate, say we have already spent too many lives and far too much money and it is a lost cause. And once again, there are a myriad of opinions across the entire spectrum of thought.

I won't argue one way or another here, but since this is a blog and therefore opinions are encouraged, I will be honest and say that I come down on the end closer to the "left" if you will on both issues. I feel the cyber wars are certainly lost at this point and are unlikely to swing back into equilibrium as long as there is so much money to be made in cyber crime. I also hold little hope that we will ever manage to break the ancient cycle of tribal distrust and sectarian violence that has plagued the Middle East for all of history.

All of these conflicts have similarities on the more micro level with conflicts we see every day around us. Today, my boss told me he witnessed a man being attacked and viciously beaten on a downtown street. Every day women and children are abused in our neighborhoods. We fight with our partners and children often over ridiculous and meaningless things. Perhaps the bottom line is that as humans conflict is inherently a part of our nature.

I have read in spiritual treatises the thought that we bring confict into our lives in order to experience pain and suffering. Why would we choose to experience pain, or disseminate suffering to ourselves or others? Perhaps because we do not believe that we have enough and that we are taken care of, or that we can trust in goodness. Perhaps in the end it is because we live our lives in fear of want. Even here in the richest society on earth where we take it for granted that our water is clean and there will be food in the stores and gas for our cars and electricity for everything we need. Even here, we still live and act out of fear because we know it is all illusion and the house of cards could collapse at any time.

So we create conflict to test our assumptions, to test our alliances, to test our security. On a micro scale we do so in our homes and communities. On a macro scale we still build weapons of mass destruction that could end the entire human experience in a matter of moments.

I wonder if there might not be a way to end this cycle of fear. Maybe I'll speak to that next time.