WHERE THERE IS TRUTH

Possibly with a bit of editing the title can be rephrased and reordered so as to ask a question. Is there a 'where there is truth'? Is there in fact on this planet a location where truth is of the utmost importance, valued as an integral part of the ethos of a nation? Where truth is valued as a virtue and necessity. Where confusion does not reign. A place under the sun which allows clear vision and space to act honorably, without fear of consequences of threats all the way to actualization of said threats.   Where a shell of truth is not hollowed out until all that remains within is falsehood and evil intentions. 

These days, decades after Peter, Paul and Mary sang of flowers and graveyards, of young people, of a never-ending cycle of pain, it remains clearly relevant to our times and into the visible near future. Humanity insists on perseverance of faulty beliefs, apparently unable to let go of the tool of war, of its inevitable consequences of horror, butchery, of inhumanity and cruelty beyond any understanding, let alone justification. 

Even as we make movies with ever larger than life Monsters, we do not discern the monsters hidden in the shadows, the humans pulling the strings, pushing the buttons of those front-line Monsters.  We ignore the Monsters within us, within all of civilization. No one is exempt. Humanity has clearly lost its way yet shows little enthusiasm or plans to reorient itself on its journeys through life. We fumble, detour, destroy the good before us and leave behind scorched earth.   

I can neither understand nor explain why this affinity of humanity for the negative and the harmful? Is it indeed that difficult for most people to understand and buy into the better options, the ones that elevate rather than deflate and debase? Why do we insist on ignoring the lessons our past misbehavior and failings have imparted to us. Why do we then persist in recreating versions of those erroneous times and deeds and follow them to perdition, to its inevitable bitter end. It is, as the King of Siam said, "a puzzlement". It is, as the Talmud tells us, one of the eternal questions destined to remain unanswered and unanswerable.

Peruse any format of news media, print, online or podcast. YouTube and its musical interpretations, or the verbiage of talking heads. Therein one can find a generous number of candidates for Monster status. Any number of clear villains, egregiously so, who have slaughtered thousands upon thousands, welcomed the Specter of Death to freely roam the land, denied and ignored until too late, or so feared and powerful that opposition was unable to be mounted. It takes oceans of blood and mammoth lakes of salty tears before any positive movement is visible.

Today, especially over the past decade(s), we are so frustrated, so apparently immutably blocked from any positive pathway. In that negative attitude and its pain, we return to thoughts of rescue, the Strongman and accompanying ethos. It may make trains run on time or distribute a few more loaves of bread, but it will not stop the evil rampant in the land. It will not give hope for the future. It will not allow dreams to be fulfilled or even dreamed of. The reign of a strongman is a reign of darkness and terror, an adoption of the worst of mankind and the rejection of the better aspects of Humanity. It promises only worse and more for the future. That is the world today in too many places, even looming right outside the doors of the nation, with too many already well within those doorways.  

Worse is that we reach out to those   "strong" people, climbing onto false hopes that will turn and bite us fiercely and too late. Too late we will have recognized the error of our ways and the state of being we have brought down upon ourselves. We allowed it to enter our lives, even cheered on its policies, which reeked of hate and bias, of falsehoods disguised as truth. 

As a result, we damaged something within us, whatever name we assigned to it - soul, heart, mind, the best instincts of mankind. Whatever name we give it, we will have gone a long way towards its eternal destruction.

If we are to redeem ourselves, find an open path to be better than what we presently are, we must understand the difficulties ahead of us and remain strong in a positive manner. We must delve deeply within those threatened aspects of ourselves. We must clearly acknowledge where we, you, me, all of us, went wrong. It is when and where we shed the recognition of a shared humanity. Instead, we stressed the differences, giving them far more importance than they deserved. The rot of these erroneous paths and thoughts grew without or with very little opposition. They were part and parcel of our daily modus operandi, of the foundations of a sick society. A society which absorbed the evil of the old societies of history.  

We turned off all feelings of kindness, of empathy and sympathy. Bought into the exaggerations of those who have now assumed the reins of terror and power.  Why have we done this? How have we allowed this? How have we enabled it so? How have we lost sight and understanding of the harm, the pain, the evil it has spewed forth over our lands, threatened this nation, the State of Israel and any forward-thinking people of the world.

How in fact are we able to look at a picture on the front page of a newspaper, a mother rather over vigorously being patted down for some nameless contraband or nonexistent weapon. Even as her little two-year-old baby stands there crying hysterically, not understanding what is going on, immersed in a terror beyond all comprehension. How have we been able to enforce a dichotomy between that two-year-old child, that terror that totally encompass him with the two-year-old child in our lives? There is no difference. No difference at all. Only in circumstance. Only in hearts of those who should and in fact, do know better but deny its truth.

If those circumstances appear to be dangerous for   society, then surely, we have enough brain power to overcome the issues, to plan properly and to be human and humane. To be fair, even apply the pure logic and understand the necessity of immigration to a nation. The labor it provides, the boost to the economy. The ideas of commercial activity, the fresh blood, and new 'boxes' of thought. All that a nation needs to grow and to be viable whatever the circumstances it faces now or in the future. The same as did our ancestors, and not so long ago. The same as we might very realistically be facing in the future. The very near future.  

We must not lose our goodness, our sympathy and empathy, our drive to benefit individuals as human as ourselves and better ourselves at one and the same time.  

We must not lose ourselves, the best of ourselves. Once totally forsworn, it will never return. Never. And we will all be the very worst for it.

Totally irretrievable. 

Truth. 

TRUTH.