Four obstacles standing in the way of peaceful co-existence are identified and addressed: the problem of paradox, the problem of egocentrism/chauvinism, the problem of the so-called “dumbbell effect,” and the problem of ancient history’s faulty pre-moral paradigm. Each restricts the ability of a moral actor to see ‘other’ completely—that is, in his, her or their full human essence—before finalizing her moral intention and undertaking moral acts. The moral actor fails to see that other is informed not only by an animating sphere of human differences, but by an animating sphere of human “samenesses,” as well. As a result, natural, involuntary compassionate pre-moral impulses are blocked.
These obstacles to understanding, while not limited to Jerusalem or the Middle East, play significant roles in the on-going cycles of violence, alienation, marginalization and recrimination that characterize life in Greater Jerusalem. The Companion Flag in Jerusalem shows how each is resolved through a process of public education and symbolic transformation. The result is the unleashing of involuntary, compassionate pre-moral impulses in every individual, the human differences exhibited by other notwithstanding. These mix with other pre-moral impulses, prescriptions, prejudices, etc., and increase the chance that each person’s moral choices will be infused with compassionate regard, restraint, and concern for the well-being of other.
The Companion Flag is the world’s first universal symbol representing all that human beings have in common, their differences notwithstanding. Flown below the other flags of the world on the same pole, it serves as a daily reminder to us all—especially our children—that parts of our lives are the same no matter who we are, where we live, or how pronounced our differences may be. In the essay that follows, three visions of a just Jerusalem are explicated in vignette form.
