So, the ego is the perpetrator of it all.

The ego's rigidity and resistance to correction are based on narcissistic egotism, pride, and vanity. The collective egos of whole nations bring about their downfall and destruction. Nationalistic vanities and slogans are inflated by political or righteous religious fervor that feed on whole populations for centuries. These frenzied, inflated, narcissistic ego positionalities result in the slaughter of millions of people and the downfall of demagogic leaders, and even their entire populations.

World history is the record of the cost of egotistic positionalities. The ego is not only incapable of assessing situations that are fatal but it even willingly sacrifices life for its own ends. The ego is therefore potentially deadly and would rather 'see you dead' than admit that it is wrong. The ego is capable of what can only be described as colossal ignorance. The ego is intransigent in that it fails to learn from its mistakes. Failed policies are reinstated repeatedly, even in the face of major catastrophe, and the justification is almost always a resort to some moralistic catch phrase that serves the political gains of the propagandists who exploit the gullibility of the naive public.

The ego is only interested in being seen as right and focused on "doing "something," no matter what the results might be. The ego often relies on force, whereas difficult problems can only be resolved through power that transcends the positionalities of 'good' vs 'bad'.

The ego conceals, whereas awareness reveals. The answer to many defective ego positions could be resolved in the sanity of common sense. The ego is naive despite its pretentiousness. It pompously demands proof of the obvious, and in doing so, it is slyly nonintegrous. It could best be described as sophomoric in its facile solutions and self-importance.

The ego feels threatened by common sense and piously recites how society has been mistaken in the past. In so doing it conveniently refuses to cite examples of common sense at all but instead cites examples of faulty collective-ego positions.

The ego holds onto the pleasure and satisfaction of hatred and getting even instead of surrendering to the willingness to forgive and forget. People cling to the familiar, even if it is killing them. Despite their protests, the average person is actually a willing participant in the individual and collective egos. It is resistant to turning down the payoffs of smugly feeling one is better than, more important than, or superior to other people. The satisfaction of spite, revenge, getting even, or 'making them pay' is addictive and self-serving, egotistical, and thus dominates entire nations and religious sects through endless conflict.

These egotistical positions have been institutionalized for decades, even centuries, to guarantee an uninterrupted promulgation. Catering to the ignorance of the masses has filled the bank accounts of the arms merchants and given them power over others.

The sad fact is that the so-called 'holy lands' are currently some of the most unholy places on Earth. Paradoxically, these legendary pieces of land that have cost the lives of multitudes of people over the centuries calibrate with hatred. The footprints of the prophets have been obliterated with the flow of the blood of cruelty and suffering.