William Saroyan wrote The Human Comedy, a rather wry portrait of the human situation. Unfortunately, if one were to write a book today it would better titled Human Tragedy. That tragedy is of our own authorship and in its creation, we have set aside all that mankind should have learned over the millennia. Instead, we have immersed ourselves neck deep in a rising tide as the sea inches higher and higher in our self-generated sea of errors. Even as we stand there trying to maintain our existence, to find a way out of this muddle, we simply return to the same old, same old and compound the old mistakes.
What is this intensity, this emotion, that drives humanity to do so, to always manage to surge forward and wade ever closer to the shore to safety and then tank the entire matter. We then look around and hear the ticking of the clock. The doomsday clock whose hands edge closer and closer to midnight, the point of no return. No more rabbits out of the hat. Time, and again we have managed to pull ourselves back, to stop the hands of the clock and perhaps even push it back some nanoseconds. But how many times can we pull off that same trick, find a lifesaving moment of sanity. How many times can we be so dangerously stupid as to think that if one does the same thing again and again, there will be a different result? There is not. The sooner we understand that the better off we will be.
We can change our direction and our situation. We must delve into human history and throw everything into the pot, let it boil, until finally the main ingredient is left alone. That ingredient as I see it, is one that has been with mankind since time immemorial. It is a motivation that has positive aspects but unfortunately also has negative ones with enough power to blow the situation to smithereens and has indeed done so many, many times with varying consequences.
(Mind you, I am not a sage of the world, and I merely interpret as I understand. I am sure there will be many detractors but at this point we are allowed to think for ourselves and so I have done.)
Some appearances and applications of this drive are seen as more positive than others. Some in their extreme applications, are totally negative. All have proponents of pro and con. In fact, I believe that without this drive mankind would never have progressed, for this drive necessitated invention, innovation, and planning for a future.
The tragedy is the inability of humanity to see past its limiting noses and know its commonality and use that trait to work hard and compromise and mesh the drives together. We need to distinguish. between drives driven by total evil and those driven by necessity, or by those thinking it positive, and either not seeing or wanting to see the negative consequences. Easy it will not be, perhaps even Sisyphean but worth a try. The alternative - been there, done that and here we are. Well past time to get out of here.
It is the caveman with the club desiring the other room in that cave. It is the clan that needs more room for its members. It is a group of warriors desirous of laying down arms and raising their families on a piece of hospitable territory, to establish a home, a nation, a state. It drove the explorations of the French, the Spanish, the English. It drove the settlement of what was to be America. It persisted through the centuries and endless wars over territories. It manifested itself in mainly negative ways over and over again. It was the drive of Mussolini to acquire colonies for Italy. It was the evil policy of Lebensraum of Hitler. It is the never-ending fight amongst the nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Sudan, fighting over the same lands. It is the invasion of Ukraine by Putin's Russia. It is the American doctrine of Manifest Destiny. It is the ever-ongoing battles in the land of Israel.
The need for living space, the coveting of a neighbor's house or property, the selfish desire to wall out the world and deny them access to shared lands, all the way to national and international desires of expansion, it is all one and the same merely different in degree. Always seeking of more room, more living space, more wealth, more influence, more power, more and more and more.
Too often the more obtained, the more we want. It is a vicious cycle that never ends only reinforcing itself as rage, jealousy, and the use and approval of violence grow geometrically. When it appears that there is an end to a cycle almost immediately there is another. The cataclysmic end of one cycle apparently has no lasting effect or acts as a deterrent upon the next one. It is as if we need this impetus to validate our existence. Sadly so.
Why have we not learned the obvious lesson? Why have we not taken it to heart? I think that perhaps we look at the positive, or that thought to be positive which arises out of that ugliness. America. Small lands growing more important. Researchers, scientists, and inventors encouraged and productive, moving mankind along. Delving deeply into the mysteries of the world. New ways of thinking. New devices necessary for mankind to move on.
There has been a slow understanding that in one nation's advance there is another nation's retreat. One nation's need seemingly obviates the other. Many Western nations have come to realize and understand the damage done and have changed some attitudes and made amends. However, it must also be understood that those indigenous nations displaced or pressured by newer people, were also displacers of earlier indigenous tribes.
It is an ever-repeating cycle and where it goes, we all know, even as we ignore it. It is a cycle that goes around, comes around. Inevitably. Somehow, somewhere, some way, there must be some person, some people, bright enough, charismatic enough, to come up with a viable, even if difficult solution and convince others of it and then see to its application.
The other day I came across this statement and I believe it is quite apropos of today's posting. If only, if only we could see and accept each other in this manner. If we understand our similarities and can find enough moments of sanity and sane people, perhaps we will live this truth and understanding. If only. "They want to live their normal life. They are normal neighbors. Normal sports club members, normal ordinary people. They want to live well here and be part of this country and city.”
Surely with common sense and hard work we can find enough room for all on this earth and help all to develop their lands in the best way possible, to have sufficient air to breathe and room to expand. Is there a good alternative to this? I think not.
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Yitzy, I hate to let you near the ugliness of the world, to allow it to sully your innate purity and beauty of soul. Forgive me, but I find it difficult to omit you. I love you.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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