LAHORE War mentality is a centuries-old mania which has gained ascendancy during the 20th century, and achieving the idea of total peace is a distant possibility, but we must keep the ideal of peace alive. These views were expressed by celebrated writer Karen Armstrong while gathering support for 'compassion during a lecture-cum-question answer session here on Thursday. Karen Armstrong was of the considered opinion that people were being sensitised on the subject of war, and the American were taking the Charter of Compassion very seriously. Though the hardcore are becoming harder in their approach, but there is a change for better certainty, she mentioned adding that war mentality had gained gone high during the 20th century through the evolution of the nuclear weaponry, but people must keep the ideal of peace alive despite the fact that achieving total peace was never going to be part of the world. People have been fighting for 7000 years. Now small groups are causing damage to the peace, and hard-line religious movements have become part of the ambience. However, the silverline is the healthy disliking for war, she averred, while responding to the questions of the audience. To a question about so-called Muslim fundamentalism being more prominent in comparison to Hindu, Christian and Jewish fundamentalists, she mentioned that the term fundamentalism was coined by the Christians in 1920s, and they tagged themselves to be so with a great pride. Now this word is completely misused and misunderstood. Islam was the last religion to develop this of all the religions with divine scriptures, she said, adding that labelling of the Muslims was untrue and ridiculous. Optimist Karen Armstrong asserted that people were walking up to reality now, and we must conduct ourselves with compassion. She explicitly rejected the idea of responding violence with violence since it intensified the emotions. When a hardliner is attacked, he becomes more belligerent. We must consider enemies as our friends, she advised, while further saying that people must learn to hold and curb themselves in order to disrupt the cycle of aggression. While maintaining that mostly people were taking 'polarised positions, she wanted that they should work on their environment for making it conducive for better living.