I shall answer my own questions before I start doing any debating
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Under what circumstances is it justifiable to choose another person or organisation as our enemy? If somebody chooses us as their enemy, does this automatically make them, our enemy?
There are no circumstances in which choosing another as an enemy is justifiable. If somebody else considers me to be an enemy then, whilst I do not have a responsibility to try and reconcile myself with them, I should either do this or avoid them. I do not consider it justifiable to defend myself if I could have reasonably done something earlier to either defuse the hostitlity or make any ammends.
This is not to say I would not defend myself, however, I should definitely try every course of action before being forced into such a situation.
How should we treat our enemies? What should be our long term aim in dealing with our enemies?
Well in the case of people who consider us an enemy, we should treat them critically but not with hostility. Our aim should always be on ending the conflict, not winning the conflict. I believe that with that intent in mind, the largest amount of harm can be avoided.
I do not believe in revenge. I feel that revenge is essentially letting another person have power over yourself since you are letting them dictate your actions.
Do you feel that you live up to how you feel that enemies should ideally be chosen/treated? Have you ever regretted a previous interaction with an enemy and have you learned from this mistake?
I have consistently failed to live up to my expectations in this area but I am comforted by the knowledge that everytime I do fail, I get a little bit better. In fact over the last year I feel that I have managed to consistently live up to the ideals I have outlined above.
I find that a major stumbling block that causes the majority of my failures is an inability to control my immediate emotional response. I, therefore feel that intending to follow these ideals is not enough. I must take active steps to ensure that I follow them and I do this through prediction of future conflict so that I might avoid it (thereby avoiding any negative emotional response on my part) and meditation so that I can return to a calm state as quickly as possible.