The power of rituals to shape people’s behaviours

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We talk about these negative emotions

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and the idea of dehumanizing
another person

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or making somebody seem unreal.

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It does take time and takes
time to develop those beliefs.

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And that's part of where
rituals come into play.

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In rituals as my colleague
and I always used to say

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they are a morally neutral technology.

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Rituals can be used to engender
enormous compassion and love

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among people.
We can all be part of this ritual.

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We can all be part of a wonderful
group filled with love

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and perhaps even that
ritual can extend

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even though we may be a small group
it may extend to all of humanity.

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And so just because
we're a small group

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doesn't mean we can't feel
connected to all of humanity.

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On the other hand rituals can
become incredibly negative

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and if you keep people
in a very limited way

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and you infuse it with
a lot of hatred and anger

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then you the way our brain works

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is that it sets us up to continue to feel
that and to feel that we're threatened.

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So we kind of wrap ourselves
into our own little system

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that anything outside of that system is
viewed in extremely negative kinds of ways

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that can lead to these
kinds of violent behaviors.