It is not suprising, given the contribution of genetics to ones intelligence, that George Bush II has simplistically proclaimed that he and the United States are involved in a war against the "forces of evil"..the Stars Wars equiivalent of an Evil Empire; all this in a background of US approval (over 60 years ago) of real estate claims, based on Old Testament support, in the Middle East; engendering a barbarous conflict that has been directly responsibly for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack as well as the quasi-military status presently in existance in this country. He, as well, with the approval of a pusillanimous Congress, committed the military power of the United States to a pre-emptive attack on Iraq....initiating an on-going offensive war to "free" the people of Iraq and eliminate a potential aggressor!!
The very notion of "good" vs "evil" is a Human invention based entirely on local Civil and Religious precepts; and, because of this Mr. Bush and Congress have essentially declared a war based on Pentateuch vs Koranic precepts. Both are religious "manuals" for Human behavior that are selfish, arbitrary, invidious, and repugnant to Human cooperation; they are in direct contradiction to what is, in fact, the true interests of Human Kind:
Thus, it would have been far more accurate, and not at all misanthropic, for Mr. Bush to proclaim that Human Society, under his leadership, to be, in fact, the "Evil Empire", currently involved in a war of self destruction.
We have the capacity for love, tolerance, and creativity...we have the capacity for avariciousness, hatred, and destruction. Our society glorifies these latter characterictics...considering such "intertainment". In 1836, William Apess, the Native American author of Eulogy on King Philip, wrote: " ...given historical facts, and an exposition in relation to ancient times, we have been enabled to discover the foundation which destroyed our common fathers, in thier struggle together; it was indeed nothing more than the spirit of avarice and usurpaton of power that has brought people in all ages to hate and devour each other."
In treating a cancer, the goal of the physician is to prevent its' spread to healty tissue in the body. Otherwise, the outcome is inevitable..the destruction of a life. In a like manner one hopes that the history of human exploration to previously unexplored regions on earth will not be repeated in our ventures to other Planets and other Universes. We should greet NASA's successes with sadness and NASA's failures with a joyful smile.
History has shown us the outcome of Scientific Exploration when based on solipsism and acquisitiveness.
We look at todays highly technological world with tears in our eyes. Our technological successes have been astounding; our success at understanding ourselves and each other...a resounding failure.....Greed and bigotry and hate are alive and well. If there are worlds yet to be discovered, let them remain far from our vitiating reach.
Let us hope that our attempts to reach other Planets continues to meet with failure until we purge ourselves of hate and greed and intolerance. Then we are ready to reach out beyond ourselves and our Planet.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is through love that we are born to eternal life.
The last sentence should have read: " and it is through death that we are born to eternal life".
The notion of eternal life through death is too macabre; the notion of eternal life itself is, as well, too mystical and metaphysical so it was changed to read as above; which perhaps reads more poetically.
The only realities are biologic and economic. Both are subject to the vagaries of time and situation and are mollified by these thoughts of St. Francis of Assisi*.
*This "Prayer of Saint Francis" may be apocryphal. Donald Spoto (Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi, 2002) states that it was probably composed by Marquis de la Rouchetulon during World War I, sent to Pope Benedict XV, and published in the L'Osservatore Romano in December 1916.