We are at war

Correspondence: *Ildefonso Rodríguez-Leyva E-mail: ilrole@yahoo.com.mx Available online: 02-05-2022 Rev Mex Neuroci. 2022;23(3):79 www.revmexneurociencia.com Date of reception: 04-03-2022 Date of acceptance: 04-03-2022 DOI: 10.24875/RMN.M22000086 The difficult situation that humanity faces when one part of it confronts another could be compared to a social disease. Without having yet emerged from a pandemic, we are now facing another conflict that will have an impact on mortality and the global economy. War is a social conflict that goes with the same history of humanity and it is usually experienced not only between nations but also within each country, each small society, and even within families. Neurologists often find it necessary to certify that the patriarch or the mother of a family is unable to make decisions due to a fixed or progressive cognitive deterioration, while the children break their ties out of economic ambition or simply for the sake of power. The same happens in social groups, organizations, and societies. The quest to have more, the envy, the desire to transcend or to feel powerful makes people’s and nations’ leaders to be both admired and hated at the same time. The followers will applaud the aggressions, while the opponents will mark distance and will try to convince others about the unfairness of the warlike maneuver that the leader is exercising. The same happens with organizations: the representative tends to forget those who supported him and exercises their power by rewarding those close to them, their friends, and cornering those who dare to raise their voices demanding justice or at least space. Are these social struggles a reflection of the illness of a leader who tries to exercise his will? The answer is not simple, justice has its edges and what is valid in one society may be punished in another, what is logical and adequate for one group may be crushing and impoverishing for another. What I believe is always terrible, no matter which perspective it belongs to, is the loss of lives that were not even participating or had minimal interest in the conflict generated, as well as the fact that people have to leave their homes, their homeland, and their family, for the interest of others. It is unfortunate to have to leave a whole history, belongings, and memories behind or to have them destroyed by someone who feels superior because they carry a weapon. In what area of our brain does the war process initiate? There is no doubt that this is the organ that creates good and bad actions, the one generates envy, ambition, destruction, and war. Countries like ours are living their own war, as incredible as it may seem, as many people die because of social conflicts as the lives that are being lost in Ukraine and the most unfortunate thing seems to be the indifference in which many of us seem to carry the situation, “as long as, it does not affect me, my family, my friends, and my interests, it does not matter.” However, every social change ends up affecting us and that is why we must insist that the search for truth is the only answer to every social injustice we face. Education is the best way to understand the importance of respect for others, tolerance, coexistence, and having other ways of looking at reality. It is seeing the perspective of the other that allows us to understand that my idea may be wrong that I may be wrong. In this publication, we extend our solidarity to those who are suffering the loss of a loved one, of their home, of their homeland, and of their past, and we hope that our society will be more educated, more equitable, productive, healthy, and just. We wish peace for the world and especially for those who are at war.