For millions of years humanity lived in a ‘state of nature,’ a physical environment in which our survival both individually, and collectively as a species, depended on human beings becoming skillful, remorseless predators.
Despite overwhelming evidence that indicates that human beings continue to be habituated to the roles of territorial predator and prey; the vast majority of human beings would insist that we have overcome this primitive requirement and become civilized, they would strongly resist the imputation that, as I write today on August 29, 2007, that we continue to be savages; moreover, that we are savages with weapons of mass destruction created by a burgeoning scientific and technological establishment.
I believe, and am constrained to prove, that we continue to be savages; also, that the most obvious, unremitting and inexorable feature and characteristic of our species is our duality.
This duality is a consequence of the fact that the human psyche is divided into two compartments, the conscious and subconscious; this fact allows us to act violently and with remorseless, relentless savagery driven solely by emotion, and, simultaneously display and demonstrate the intelligence that caused us to harness fire, construct tools, and split the atom.
This duality allows us, at this critical juncture in human history, to be completely logical, rational and empirical when confronting problems in the physical universe; and, concurrently be palpably and totally incapable of solving any problem in the social milieu.
I have developed a hypothesis that explains this dichotomy that I am constrained to share with anyone and everyone with whom I can communicate; because it is clear to me that the race is on the verge of destroying every component of civilization that we have painstaking and laboriously constructed.
This hypothesis would apply to any sentient species, any group of organisms which developed a capacity for language, and therefore a capacity for learning and creating innovations.
I suggest that such an adaptation could only occur during the period of cataclysmic and catastrophic upheavals and dislocations; and, the other equally monumental and widespread changes in climatic and physical conditions over the extended interval spanning millions of years that is required for a newly formed planet to cool and eventually attain ecological stability and equilibrium.
Each species that evolved on Planet Earth was an adaptation to the existing physical and climatic conditions; and, this process of adaptation continued apace spurred by the extreme and intense stimuli of the very unstable physical environment - until ecological balance and stability was attained, subsequent to that equilibrium being achieved the process of adjustment and growth continued - but at a much slower pace.
I am constrained to repeat for emphasis the notion that it was the very extreme and very intense conditions that prevailed over a vast period of time that prompted the adaptation that produced intelligence in the human species.
It is clear that among the millions of organisms that were produced by the process of evolution, only one developed a capacity for language; it is also clear that adaptations and adjustments continue to occur, but that the physical environment achieved stability and equilibrium; and, no longer is the matrix of the extreme conditions which could prompt and precipitate an adaptation of such magnitude.
It also would be logical to conclude that this process of physical development which eventually results in ecological equilibrium must occur on every new planet - though possibly involving varied and varying eons of time and with different levels of severity; and, that it is only during this extremely stressful period that the adaptation that creates the capacity for language and intelligence is likely to occur.
Another inevitable and unavoidable feature and component of this evolutionary process must be a currently inconceivable and unimaginable period of time during which there is an intense and savage competition for existing energy resources.
Any species that developed a capacity for language and therefore developed the capacity to learn and create innovations must also perforce confront the absolute requirement for survival of becoming adept and practicing coercion for a comparatively vast period of time.
If we examine the social and political development of the human race, a sentient species; two, or possibly three periods, would stand out and lay claim to our attention.
The vast period of time that ended when human beings domesticated certain grasses and created the humble beginnings of agriculture; before that momentous and watershed event the species survived by hunting and gathering, and had an existence little different from other groups of predators, for example lions or wolves; and, their numbers were limited by the availability of game as were the numbers of competing bands of predators.
With the discovery of agriculture the species overcame this constraint and their numbers increased exponentially; and humanity became the dominant species on Planet Earth.
The second epoch began about ten thousand years later when human beings discovered that there was an alternative to relying on force to motivate the other to act; that human beings could be motivated by positive reinforcements.
It is crucial to appreciating the logical construct that I am trying to build to examine the difference and timing involved in developing and assimilating the critical components of social learning of discovering and harnessing fire, and, that of relying on force as the means used to motivate the other.
The habit of relying on force occurred so near to the beginning of the human story, and, was such an absolute requirement and necessary prerequisite to survival that it could compared to the unconscious, reflex response of a contemporary toddler as he learns to avoid a hot object.
There are only two forms of motivation that are available to human beings to motivate the other, the carrot or the stick; I am suggesting that human beings never chose the stick, that it was the only means available to them at the beginning of the human story; that it was a reflex, automatic response which was absolutely essential to survival to which they became habituated in the intense crucible that existence was for millions of years while the planet cooled and eventually attained ecological equilibrium.
I am suggesting, further, that reliance on coercion was by far the major factor determining the nature of human culture, that this was the critical element that determined the nature of social roles, that established and perpetuated the dominance of the roles of territorial predator and prey, that shaped, thus far impermeably and immutably, the ‘conscious and unconscious premises for thinking and action’ of the human race.
Human beings discovered fire much later and quickly and easily adopted the technology implicit in harnessing this innovation; and, began to create an ever increasing difference between the rate of development in the physical universe and those in the social milieu.
A difference and dichotomy that now threatens the very existence of human civilizations because we have split the atom and created weapons of mass destruction.
I suggest that over a period that spanned millions of years humanity became habituated to relying on force in their relations with other entities, and, have never been able to break this habit; but breaking this habit has become essential to the survival of the human race.
I am suggesting that the discovery that there was an alternative to relying on coercion to cause the other to act came a mere two thousand years ago, when coercion based culture was so deeply entrenched, so deeply embedded in social organizations that human beings could only pay lip service to moral values and pretend to act prompted by the dictates of conscience.
What this circumstance impelled was an ever widening gap between the concepts that human beings embraced; and, the what they did in precept; in essence, this became the basis for a delusion that became more and more powerful, pervasive and sophisticated with the passage of time.
This has resulted in a radical disconnect between the existing social reality and what the majority of human beings perceive; it is the consummate irony and ultimate paradox of the emergence of sentient organisms that the process of evolution must inevitably result in a palpable incapacity and inability of such organisms to process information into the facts that would support function; in effect, the process of evolution must inevitably produce entities who do not know what they are doing.
The design for existence to which human beings were inevitably and immutably habituated in the ‘state of nature’ was based on the ubiquitous, pervasive and incalculably and incredibly ancient drama of a predator consuming prey to satisfy his hunger; a paradigm in which the needs of the predator was completely satisfied while the needs of his prey was comprehensively disregarded and ignored, these needs had no relevance or weight whatsoever because the destiny, the inevitable destiny of prey, was to die and be consumed.
I suggest that this paradigm has been implicit, albeit obfuscated and obscured, in all social relations down the centuries; it is clearly discernible in the world view that is Absolutism, an ideology that was widely utilized and formed the basis for governance for most of documented history; a world view that was the basis for political regimes in which an absolute ruler had the power of life and death over all those over whom he ruled.
It was clearly the primordial perspective smelted and forged into its cruel, long enduring form and very primitive aspect the institution of chattel slavery; and, the institution of serfdom that was the most obvious feature and characteristic of feudal societies.
The two institutions chattel slavery and serfdom were the basis and context for all social relations and facilitated the functioning of all social systems for all of human history - with the exception of that blessed period replete with the hope and potential of liberty that was initiated about three centuries ago when human beings seriously set about constructing governments of the people, by the people, for the people.
I suggest that this paradigm is alive and well, and still omnipresent - even in those nations that have adopted Marxism, a political theory that held that after ‘changes in the ownership of the modes of production, the world of necessity would be transformed into a sphere of liberty and the management of men would be replaced by the administration of things.’
To support this contention I interject at this juncture a description of political developments in the Communist bloc that proceeded from the massive intellect of an individual who arguably was the greatest social scientist of the Twentieth Century, Professor Gunnar Myrdal; in his watershed work “The Asian Drama” he declaims:
In the Communist countries, bias is massively and systematically incorporated in the approach to all social, economic and political problems and has been hardened into a stale dogma. In these countries, scientific as well as literary writings are programmatically expected to contribute to the fight for Communism. This limitation has virtually eliminated social sciences as we know it. It has stifled even that sophistication with which laymen approach social problems and which in democratic countries is continually fed by, and in turn stimulates, social research. Another sobering thought for social scientists is that there can be rapid economic development and flourishing progress in the natural sciences and in technology while the social sciences are represented by little more than a crude, teleological doctrine plus a highly developed economic technocracy. (Myrdal 11)
I am suggesting that if Professor Myrdal were alive today; and, observed what the theory so replete and redolent with hope and liberty that democracy was, has become; he would find that political correctness and other exigencies arising out of elevation to super power status has also hardened and concretized this civilizing and emancipating political doctrine into the stale dogma of a secular religion.
Yes, I have not been misread or misconstrued, I am suggesting that the design for human existence forged in the ’state of nature’ is also alive and well - even among those nations that are currently attempting to create governments of the people, by the people, for the people.
All these nations, both those whose body politics have constructed the forms of democracy or socialism, continue to be bastions of coercion based culture because they continue to fall prey to the mechanism that has blunted the impact of all liberating and civilizing ideas and ideologies, they promote and venerate egalitarian concepts while simultaneously in precept they hew to the powerful, seemingly immutable traditions of coercion based culture.
The United States of America attacked the sovereign nation of Iraq without any real justification, an incursion which resulted in the deaths of more than half a million Iraqi citizens; one that caused four million Iraqi nationals to flee that country and become refugees, international mendicants; and has completely destroyed the infrastructure of that nation.
This act of naked aggression has resulted in the government of that country being completely and palpably incapable of defending and policing its borders.
After four years of trial and error the invading Allied Forces, if the current propaganda about that incursion is to be believed, is now having some limited military successes against the insurgency that this unjustified invasion precipitated; and, the promise of victory is now perceived to be something more than just another fanciful illusion manufactured out of the web of deceit and obfuscation that has become the stock in trade of the spin doctors of the Bush Administration.
In the minds of many, if this victory is achieved, this will vindicate and justify this naked act of aggression, it will make the abrupt termination of hundreds of thousands of lives both Iraqi and American, the equipment damaged or destroyed, the billions spent, warranted, justifiable and worth the cost in lives lost and scarce resources invested; indeed, it would be unpatriotic for anyone to say that victory would make this incursion not one whit less a gigantic blunder; and, everyone seems to be oblivious of the fact that this reflects the invidious pattern of existence to which humanity became habituated in the ‘state of nature,’ that holds that might is right.
An antelope in the last moments before he is killed by a lion cannot ask, why am I being killed?
Do the people of Iraq have the right to ask why, to enquire what they did to precipitate this unprecedented catastrophe, this monstrous calamity?
They do not have the right to ask that question - if they are prey, if they are ‘sand niggers;’ the derogatory term that I am reliably informed is currently applied to members of this Semitic population.
But that is all happening far from home, in a part of the world of which most Americans do not have any firsthand experience; to prove that the pattern of existence to which I referred still endures, that it still inevitably and interminably precipitates vast, unmitigated suffering and misery for human beings we need to apply this hypothesis to a situation that is closer to home.
I will not rehash the details of chattel slavery as it was practiced below the Mason Dixon line, what I would like to do is examine the recent history of African Americans; the period that began with the integration of the Public School System in the USA.
Education, is considered to be the great equalizer; but, in this instance it has not had that effect, instead, its application proves beyond reasonable doubt the omnipresent and pervasive nature of the design for existence humanity learned in the ‘state of nature.’
Because when the schools were integrated white parents did not wish black teachers to be able to apply corporal punishments to their children; so this form of motivation was forcibly extracted from the American Public School System.
It was a teacher in South Florida with more than twenty years experience in that system that told me that this was the major factor in the decline in education; but, this was something I also observed with my own eyes.
I sat in on a class of seven year olds; and, was embarrassed and mortified by their powers of observation, they clustered around me and brought to my attention that there was white stuff in my ears; that I had forgotten to clean my ears that morning.
One child was a ‘crack’ baby, her mother had used cocaine while she was pregnant; so that pitiful child was pathetically thin to the point of emaciation, and could not stay still.
Without corporal punishment, teachers were deprived of the means to create and maintain the order and discipline necessary to educate, leading to the secular decline in the education product.
But ignorance and inability to connect the dots was arguably not the most malefic consequence for the millions of students in the Public School system; teachers had to construct the means to create the appearance that they were doing their jobs, so they contrived and devised machinations that created the appearance that students were being educated - despite the fact that many of these students were functionally illiterate and incapable of performing simple calculations.
While I attended the Central Campus of Broward County Community College I witnessed first hand the application of some of these ‘devices.’
One Instructor read all the answers to a multiple choice quiz to be given the next day to the participants in a Marketing Course in which I was enrolled; and, wonder of wonders, those students still could not achieve good grades.
Even more incredibly, in a required course in Public Speaking in which I participated it became palpably obvious that more than half of that class could not read; but they still managed to achieve passing grades, many of them actually received higher grades than me, and I had spoken in public every weekday for six years as a necessary component of my job; during the period from May, 1973 to August, 1979 I was employed as a labor negotiator processing grievances and negotiating contracts for thousands of workers, predominantly for workers employed in the public utilities in my native land of Jamaica.
I witnessed with growing amazement, incredulity and an emotion close akin to anguish the performance of a new immigrant from Israel who had not yet learned to speak English, who quite literally mimed his presentations - and that somehow achieved a passing grade in that course in Public Speaking.
I participated in that course in 1996; and, have spent the years between then and now trying to get somebody, anybody to admit to, and confront, this very, very dangerous situation, in vain.
I have written to Governors of Florida, to a Secretary of Education, to the President, to Members of Congress, notably Newt Ginrich; to African American leaders, notably Jesse Jackson; to editors of every major print or electronic media house in this country, all to no avail.
The decline in education is the means being utilized to completely negate the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and transport African Americans back in time, back to a situation in which ‘the negro again lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, one in which he is again languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land’ - if I am permitted to evoke the rhetorical brilliance of the Reverend Martin Luther King to demonstrate and dramatize the poignancy of this appalling condition and emphasize the need for urgent action to remedy this ever worsening situation.
This has become the American Way; devices which allow citizens of this country to celebrate the gains of the Civil Rights Movement every year and loudly proclaim that such developments demonstrate the great strides this nation has made towards becoming a functioning democracy; while the reality is, the inescapable and sere reality is, African Americans are worst off than they were before the integration of public schools because they have been corrupted by engaging for years in cheating and successfully beating the system, with the tacit support and connivance of their teachers.
This deplorable state of affairs must perforce contribute to the rising tide of crime and other predatory though ostensibly respectable and legal activities; in combination with, and reinforced by the fact that parents cannot instill discipline in the home because of statutory limitations on the use of the rod, nor, as I have been at pains to describe, inculcated with discipline at school - precipitating a situation in which this nation teeters daily on the very brink of disaster and chaos, from without and within.
This nation ‘dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal’ is being hoist on the petard of racism, a situation replete and redolent with irony and tragicomedy; and, totally inexplicable unless it is understood that the design for human existence that is coercion based culture is endlessly and interminably reinventing and renewing itself.
This pattern is also palpably obvious in the activities of that currently notorious dog fighting ring - if the situation proves to be that which has been much ballyhooed in print and electronic media.
But how do Americans have the temerity to point fingers at, and treat with absolute contempt those who cause dogs to fight each other, how can they excoriate those who execute helpless animals who do not perform well in the ring; when they are accessories before the fact to the corruption and destruction of the minds and morals of the young of this nation?
Ignorance is not and can never be an excuse given the lengths to which I have gone, over a period in excess of ten years, to expose this sere and very dangerous reality, including sending numerous electronic mails outlining what I have observed to the current crop of Presidential candidates representing both major parties.
There are millions of examples of this design for existence reinventing and perpetuating itself; and, of the duality in the human psyche that makes this possible, I will provide one other that is very relevant:
Atrocity casts spotlight on US policy
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| By John Simpson |
The attacks on the two Yazidi villages in northern Iraq on Tuesday were a form of ethnic and religious cleansing - genocide, you could almost say.
Such things have become a part of the underlying pattern of warfare in Iraq.
The Yazidis I have met have been gentle, quiet, justifiably nervous people. Some Muslims regard them as devil-worshippers, though their beliefs are both more complicated and far more innocent than that sounds.
The situation in Iraq offers all sorts of opportunities to carry out violent attacks like these, settling old scores and wiping out religious, ethnic and political enemies.
The Pentagon and the White House have blamed al-Qaeda for these atrocities, as they habitually do for most of the violence.
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| The main point of the surge is political, and it is mostly directed at American opinion. The White House wants to be able to declare victory and start withdrawing |
They maintain that American relations with Sunni Arabs are getting better, and that even Sunnis are turning against the extremists of al-Qaeda.
This attack may certainly have been the work of an al-Qaeda group, attacking people they would regard as heretics.
But it is equally possible that it was mainstream Sunni Arab insurgents, who in fact seem to be responsible for the large majority of killings and bombings in Iraq.
Surge politics
So what does all this mean for the success or otherwise of the American "surge" in troop numbers?
US President George W Bush said there would be big attacks as a result of the surge. One effect of putting tens of thousands of extra American soldiers into Baghdad and other centres of violence is that it has forced the insurgent groups to carry out their bombings elsewhere.
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| KEY FACTS: THE YAZIDIS Religious sect found in northern Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus Number about 500,000 worldwide, but largest number in northern Iraq Doctrine is an amalgam of pagan, Sabean, Shamanistic, Manichean, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic elements Yazidis believe in a Supreme God, but do not believe in evil, sin, hell or the devil Violation of divine laws can be expiated by metempsychosis, or the transferring of a soul from one body to another Principal divine figure, Malak Taus (Peacock Angel), is the supreme angel of the seven angels who ruled the universe after it was created by God |
In this case they attacked two virtually defenceless villages.
But for Mr Bush, the main point of the surge is political, and it is mostly directed at American opinion.
The White House wants to be able to declare victory and start withdrawing. It claims that civilian casualties in Baghdad have halved as a result of the surge.
Yet a careful examination of the figures does not necessarily support that.
The McClatchy group of newspapers, part of the American mainstream media, with a considerable reputation for honesty and painstaking accuracy in its Iraq reporting, says there were 5% more car-bombings in Baghdad in July than in December, before the surge began.
It also says the number of civilians killed in explosions is about the same.
The BBC's own monitoring of the surge also indicates that the position is less satisfactory than the White House and the Pentagon say.
Still, if the Bush administration can persuade Americans that things in Iraq are improving, then the figures are irrelevant.
Bush legacy
It's all about politics. And according to the Los Angeles Times, next month's assessment about the surge's success will be written by the White House, instead of by the two men we were previously told would make the judgement: General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador there.
Both men have the reputation of being independent-minded and frank. But at a time like this, such qualities are not primarily what the White House wants.
The way history judges Mr Bush - his "legacy", to borrow the word Tony Blair always used - and the way the American electorate judges the Republican candidate for the presidency in November next year will be decided in part by the judgement on the Iraq war.
President Bush wants to persuade Americans that, in spite of everything, the war in Iraq has finally turned a corner.
The terrible loss of life among the Yazidis seems to indicate otherwise.
Yet one of the worst features of this war has been the way in which one atrocity follows another, and each seems to dim the memory of the ones that went before.
Everybody in this country is involved in the blame game.
The Republicans blame the Democrats, Democrats blame Republicans, Conservatives blame the Radical Left, the Radical Left blames Conservatives, ABC takes issue with NBC, Fox fulminates about the inadequacies, indiscretions and failings of their counterparts at CNN, men and women in the street blame ‘politicians’ for their plight, Al Sharpton blames Don Imus and sundry ‘rappers,‘ and on and on and on.
But all are oblivious of the real culprit, of the real genesis of the tragic state of affairs which causes this nation to teeter interminably on the brink of chaos and disaster; which is, I contend, a ubiquitous and pervasive coercion based culture, the conscious and unconscious premises for thinking and action in this nation.
I wish to testify and share with my readers the fact that I have never heard anyone admit that the fact that humanity had to become adept at using force had anything whatsoever to do with the monolithic, impermeable, intangible obstacle to progress that human culture has become.
I have heard Newt Genrich recently use the phrase ‘agency of change’ but am convinced that, like the vast majority of human beings, he is oblivious of what a monumental and earthshaking development such an agency if formulated, could precipitate; that this phrase implies that the government of every nation should become involved in promoting the most fundamental change that any human being could ever imagine or conceive of, the change from relying on coercion based culture to that of depending on positive reinforcements in their relations with other human beings.
Reward and punishment play a part in all learning but one rather the other may be stressed. Repressive socialization emphasizes punishing wrong behavior, participatory socialization rewards and reinforces good behavior. In toilet training, for example, parents may ignore mishaps and concentrate on praising instances of self control and compliance.
If the modes of socialization are compared with laboratory conditioning of animals, repressive socialization is similar to administering an electric shock to an experimental rat when he takes a wrong turn in a maze. Participatory socialization is like giving the rat a pellet of food when he selects the right path. Both forms of conditioning extinguish “wrong” behavior, one by the negative act of punishment, the other by the positive act of reward. (Broom 100)
That instead of endlessly and interminably repeating the past, over, and over, and over again; governments must create open ended systems of reward for all groups involved in the economy, for investors and entrepreneurs, for every category of worker; and, use these incentive programs to harness the efforts and creative energies of every citizen to the national plow; and, as a consequence, succeeding in motivating individuals to adopt the patterns of behavior necessary for societal functioning, order and progress.
This is the choice that this nation needs to confront; whether they will in precept continue to rely on force to motivate the other, and perpetuate a culture whose ethos is competition, one in which five per cent of the population controls ninety per of the wealth, and, the vast majority of human beings live from paycheck to paycheck and struggle endlessly to keep their heads above deep and treacherous waters of poverty.
Or, whether they can become adept at utilizing positive reinforcements to motivate the other, create a culture whose ethos is cooperation, one in which the creativity of labor would be released, one which would create, for the first time at last, the real and actual possibility of peace and prosperity for all citizens, and, make real the vision of the Founding Fathers who had the vision and creative imagination to conceive the means of constructing the just society that would be the consequence of creating the substance, not just the forms, of democracy.
If I were not painfully and intensely aware of the ubiquitous impact and effects of coercion based culture, of the duality and dichotomy in the minds of human beings; I would be shocked by the fact that this nation in concept was founded on the profit motive, but not for those who labor within its confines.
I would be overcome with amazement of the fact that the Presidential candidate who has garnered the reputation of being a harbinger of change, Senator Barack Obama, embraces the notion that more police, more jails, stiffer sentences can reduce crime; when it never has, and, has never considered the possibility that giving the poor a stake in this nation by improving the quality of their lives is the only viable means of reducing social conflict.
The fundamental change that must occur to facilitate the realization of the human potential for civilized existence is confronting the paradigm that I have described; that relying on coercion determined the nature of human culture, and, that the practice of coercion based culture in the crucible of the ’state of nature’ for millions of years made the application of these attitudes and patterns of this design for existence well nigh automatic and therefore immutable.
To understand and appreciate exactly what I mean by the term ‘well nigh automatic’ we need to travel backwards in time to the beginning of the documented history of the human story.
When human beings discovered that certain strains of grasses could be domesticated and began to build town and cities on the deltas of rivers where an abundant water supply and deep alluvial soil allowed the production of food surpluses capable of supporting large populations; other human tribes continued to engage in nomadic existences moving from place to place to find the fodder for their herds of cows, sheep and goats.
When horses were domesticated these tribes spawned bands of horsemen who pillaged towns and cities; the point being that the end of the period in which humanity existed in a ’state of nature’ did not bring about the cessation of conflict but initiated a period of even more intense competition for scarce resources; a competition which has become more and more virulent and intense and continues even as I write today.
It could be argued that the attack on Iraq was prompted, not by the very naïve and hopelessly unrealistic goal of exporting democracy to that country; but by the selfish and opportunistic objective of gaining control of the second largest pool of oil on Planet Earth.
The following passage describes the origins and early developments that informed the creation of the institution of Absolutism:
Whatever its ultimate origin, the institution of kingship stabilized itself in Sumer by superimposing military relationships upon an older religio-political system. The authority of a field commander over his army served as prototype for the king's authority over the city; and the rise of kingship may be conceived as a process whereby extraordinary powers delegated in time of war became normal in peacetime. Kings arrogated to themselves supreme military and judicial authority and organized royal households analogous to the divine households of the temple communities. In so doing, they encroached upon the administrative authority of the priestly colleges; and no doubt the relation between king and priest was often an uneasy one. Perhaps accommodation usually occurred without prolonged dispute or open violence; but we are informed that Urukagina, king of Lagash (ca. 2400 B.C.), openly set himself against the priests, proposing to restore the good old days by protecting the poor and weak against priestly oppression. In time, however, royal usurpation became sanctified by myth and ritual, of which the central act was an annual ceremonial marriage between king and goddess of the city.
In proportion as war became chronic, kingship became necessary. Concentration of political authority in the hands of a single man seems to have become the rule in Sumerian cities by 3000 B.C. (McNeill 43)
I am constrained to emphasize this point, to refer to; and, to differentiate between the immutable, impermeable quality of coercion based culture, a design for human existence which has changed very little since the beginning of the human story because for eons this was the necessary prerequisite for survival; and, the relative ease with which human beings developed and assimilated innovations in the physical universe.
Based on the evidence we may conclude that the best hunters had the power of life and death over other members of the tribe, both because they controlled the distribution of the meat they killed and because they had to protect the weak from the perennial incursions of the denizens that populated the world in which they lived; creating a situation in which those hunters actually had the power of life or death over other members of the tribe; and, is clearly similar to the world view that spawned Absolutism, the dominant and preeminent theory of governance in which an absolute ruler had the power of life and death over his subjects.
Indeed, it is the vast difference between advances in technology which have produced the means to split the atom and created weapons of mass destruction - when set against the fact that socially and politically humanity has marked time since the beginning of the human story; that makes urgently necessary a detailed and in depth examination of that initial period of ancient history to create the accurate description and appreciation of human culture that is the necessary prerequisite to finding a means for humanity to avoid destroying itself with the very dangerous inventions of its burgeoning technology.
This difference may be satisfactorily explained by concluding that innovations in the physical universe were easily adopted and assimilated because they were labor saving devices or filled some need; when set against powerful social and political traditions that served and preserved humanity for currently inconceivable and unimaginable periods of time; and, created a powerful elite who had the power and means to create dynasties and so perpetuate the status quo.
Absolutism became the enduring, pervasive and extremely popular ideology of rulers and governments in most existing nations; with the notable exception of the form of democracy which very briefly flourished in Greek city states, where was created a form of government that did not conform to the ubiquitous practice of ruling by relying on coercion; a mode of governance which inevitably resulted in brutal tyrannies and unrelieved oppression for the vast majority of human beings.
The Greeks developed a form of military organization called the phalanx that required the participation of all adult males; and, the cooperation and cohesion required for the efficient functioning of this unit critical to defense of the Greek cities resulted in a leveling, an equivalence in the rights and privileges afforded all citizens.
In effect, for the phalanx to be successful equal effort, participation and adherence to rigorous discipline was required from all were involved whatever their social status; this equality extended to, impacted and eventually produced a more egalitarian and democratic political environment, one in which all citizens were afforded, when compared to existing tyrannies, more equal rights and privileges.
The success and superiority of the phalanx resulted in glorious and facile victories for Greek military expeditions; and, eventually curtailed this experiment in democracy; a form of social and political organization which briefly elicited the hope and promise of a viable alternative to Absolutism.
The Greeks conquered most of the known world and were stimulated to embrace more authoritarian and tyrannical forms of government to maintain and sustain the great empire that included most of know world.
Some forms of democracy were adopted and so preserved for posterity by the Romans,
until the exigencies of ruling the empire they created, precipitated a not very dissimilar regression to Absolutism.
To emphasize how powerful the tradition of Absolutism has been in human history; the ideology that was founded on the notion that “might is right” and perpetuated the culture to which human beings became habituated in the ‘state of nature,’ I interject the time lines that indicate that for the period that began with the evolution of homo sapiens, and ended with the discovery of agriculture lasted for upwards of half a million years; the ancient era of the species lasted for ten thousand years, and the modern era has spanned a mere two thousand years.
The new experiment in democracy, the period during which nations have been trying to create governments of the people, by the people, for the people; has spanned three centuries of human existence, a drop in the bucket of human history.
I am suggesting that the Modern Era began when a human being stumbled upon the means to apply his intelligence to his experiences and eventually achieved moral consistency by practicing the discipline of truth; a moral discipline which had the effect of transferring information from the subconscious into the conscious compartment of his mind.
This very innovative approach to existence produced a gentle, civilized, moral human being; a development that was so incredible, so different from the unrelieved brutality of that period that it precipitated the establishment of the religion which is currently the most popular, venerated and respected among human populations that together are labeled
Western Civilizations; indeed, the valid claim could be made that Western Civilizations were founded on the moral values implicit in the teachings of the man called Jesus.
These teachings created a viable alternative to Absolutism; and, precipitated a struggle between two powerful tendencies in the mind of every human being; simply stated, on one side of that struggle was the notion that ‘might is right,’ on the other side of that struggle was the notion that ‘right is might.’
At the core of this struggle is the duality of the human psyche, the omnipresent reality that arises out of the fact that the human mind is divided into two compartments.
When Jesus discovered and attempted to communicate the extremely radical and revolutionary notion that human beings should renounce the use of force in social relations, it was at a juncture in history when humanity had been practicing coercion based culture for more than half a million years, a mere ten thousand of those years constituted the documented Ancient Era of our race; and it would be at least two thousand more years before circumstances and events combined and conspired to create a situation in which a human being could tell the truth, as I am doing - if he was willing to endure extreme poverty, loneliness, and, bear the animus of every individual with whom he came in contact.
For all of those eons of history human beings had to learn diplomacy as a necessary prerequisite to survival; they had to learn to conceal the inadequacies of their fellows and themselves and never to be a ‘snitch’ because disclosures of inappropriate behavior would have resulted in corporal punishment, exquisite tortures or an early violent demise.
The point I am making is that speaking the truth, the discipline that civilized Jesus, and, my poor self, could not be practiced with impunity during the period when the Modern Era began; moreover, it would be several centuries later that any human being could have the temerity to tell the truth, even a truth as innocuous and real as stating that the earth was round, without this having the consequence of causing this person to be crucified, consigned to the rack, or be called upon to endure some other intense sanction.
So instead of civilizing humanity the teachings of Jesus were adapted and changed so that they became culturally and politically acceptable and viable; and, this doctrine began to serve the diametrically opposed function of perpetuating the status quo.
The difference, the ever increasing difference, between concept and precept began to be manifest and impact the lives of human beings; in concept human beings embraced a version of Christianity in which the prescription that telling the truth would make you free was obscured and deemphasized, but, in precept continued to be agents of coercion based culture.
Just as the original fate of Jesus was shaped in part by intra-Jewish disputes, the communal memory of how that fate unfolded was itself shaped by those disputes, especially when Roman domination of Jews started to unravel. Writing fifty or seventy years after the death of Jesus, the Gospel authors continued to be influenced by the climate of crisis and dispute, Roman terror and Jewish polemic.
In this era there were Jewish risings against Rome not just in Judea but in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyrenaica (near present-day Tunisia), and Cyprus. The war had such significance to Rome that in 70 C.E. Trajan built a triumphal arch at the Colosseum to honor the hard-won victory, and Roman coins were inscribed Judea Capta. In the second war (132-135 C.E.) Judea was stripped of its Jews and renamed Syria Palaestina. It cannot be overemphasized that the texts of New Testament were being written at one of the most violent epochs in history, with the twin assaults on Jerusalem, in 70 and 135, serving as rough brackets within which the composition occurred. (Carroll 88)
It is clear, most especially and specifically because of the abject failure of the Christian dogma to transform human beings from the primitive social and political state, agents of coercion based culture - into the butterfly of gentle, civilized human being; that those who wrote the Gospels opportunistically reinvented the teachings of Jesus into ideas that would perpetuate the status quo.
Most significantly, in terms of finding solutions to contemporary social problems, was that the fundamental innovation that transformed Jesus into a gentle, civilized being, the practice of the discipline of truth; was parlayed into something wholly traditional, entirely different and exceedingly dysfunctional in terms of the goal of achieving civility; and, in the process consigned to relative obscurity by contriving a supernatural genesis for the intelligence and mental acuity that Jesus attained by practicing the discipline of truth.
The cultural transformation from territorial predator to civilized human being would be
precipitated, according to early writers of the Gospel, not by telling the truth but by possession of the Holy Ghost, a supernatural construct; a very necessary and very opportune adaptation if the Christian doctrine was to become universally popular.
I am constrained to emphasize that for the entire duration of the human story what the race has been doing, socially and politically, is repeating its past over, and over, and over, again; as evidenced by the fact that quite recently a CEO in China, which is currently the wealthiest nation on the planet, who had responsibility for quality control, was recently executed, actually put to death, for failing to do his job.
The other very significant departure from the truth occurred when the early writers of the Gospels absolved Pontius Pilate, and Rome, of blame in the death of Jesus; anyone who has read the history of the Roman Empire could never entertain for a single moment this version of history, even the most biased and self serving documentation of this period makes it abundantly clear any individual who had the temerity and audacity to claim to be King of the Jews, especially if that individual was able to draw large crowds and develop a significant following, would be signing his death sentence for the heinous, unforgivable crime of threatening to disturb the social order and shatter the Pax Romana.
This could be considered sacrilege and blasphemy and lose me a lot of readers; so I humbly request that those who are scandalized and deeply offended by my conclusions bear with me as I try to explain and justify my iconoclasm.
Just as the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation did little to change the condition of slaves; just as the integration of Public Schools has done little to change the lot of Africans who were forcibly kidnapped from their native lands to labor on plantations in the Southern States of the USA; it is clear from even a superficial examination of the policies and actions of Popes, Prelates and Priests of the Roman Catholic Church that professed to hew to the doctrine that was created by Jesus; that this institution very soon after its inception was transformed into one that perpetuated coercion based culture.
Undisputed historical accounts indicate that entire nations converted to Christianity - after they were conquered and became colonies of the Holy Roman Empire.
That instead of eschewing the use of force, ostensibly Christian Armies down the centuries of human history engaged in acts of brutality and savagery that were wholly inconsistent
with the teachings of Jesus; during the Crusades, during the Spanish Inquisition, in the New World when native populations were extinguished when they resisted enslavement by individuals who professed to be followers of Jesus Christ, during the papal dynasties of the Borgia and Medici families, during every period of human history including the present one - the era characterized by the actions and infamy of priestly pederasts worldwide, the true nature of agents of this Church can easily be discerned from their actions.
Do I need to rehash the predatory activities of these pederasts who used the authority, respect and sanctity accorded the Catholic priesthood to cloak and facilitate the abuse of children worldwide, wholly despicable and wantonly criminal activities that have been camouflaged, justified and tacitly supported by the hierarchy of that Church which created, contrived and implemented an opportunistic doctrine that holds that such abuse could be somehow equated to, and absolved by, the payment of huge sums of money?
Agents of this Church have relinquished every claim to morality and sanctity when they adopted and embraced the modus operandi utilized by the celebrity pederast Michael Jackson.
I suggest the Roman Catholic Church is, for the most part, venerated not because of how it has behaved and performed down the centuries but because of the power and wealth that it has accumulated by prostituting the teachings of Jesus; this has provided unlimited power that this Church has used to condition ordinary men and women to intensely fear and obey its malefic, self serving and tyrannical pronouncements and engage in its
and obey its malefic, self serving and tyrannical pronouncements and engage in its meaningless rituals which perpetuate the status quo; agents of this Church have put human beings on the rack, have tortured countless individuals for stating that the world was round - in the name of gentle Jesus.
It is another item of proof, if that were needed, of the ubiquitous, enduring and pervasive nature of coercion based culture; as is the awe and respect afforded the President and Members of Congress who are supposed to be servants of the people, elected by them to be guardians of their interests, who are instead treated like princes and kings and allowed to fill their bellies, and those of their sycophants, family members and hangers from the pork barrel - at the people‘s expense; or, engage in lewd behavior in public restrooms, cavort with prostitutes, and send prurient electronic messages to adolescents.
I think that the Roman Catholic Church should become reclusive and eschew all contact
with the public and embrace to a completely monastic existence - until it can guarantee that not one single member of its Priesthood will in the future be guilty of sexual abuse of a minor.
Is such a guarantee feasible, can any group of human beings be capable of meeting such a requirement?
I suggest that they can - if, as I do, they practice the discipline of truth.
One of the most powerful traditions and pillars supporting coercion based culture is the completely spurious notion that human beings are incapable of attaining moral consistency; but I have and I will submit to questions on any aspect or area of my existence while attached to a lie detector machine, at any time of the night or day; and, waive all my rights embodied in the Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution.
The ever increasing difference and dichotomy between concept and precept is painfully and palpably obvious in the actions of every individual, organization and institution; if the individual who is reading this is not aware of this ‘difference,’ this lack of awareness, this ignorance is the best proof of the hypothesis that I am constructing - if the reader could only perceive it.
It is clear to me, it is crystal clear to me, that Karl Rove was in control of the pork barrel for the Bush Administration; and, resigned because his role was likely to be exposed and compromised if he was forced to testify before the Congress.
It is clear to me, it is crystal clear to me, that those who think him a political genius and architect of election victories facilitate and perpetuate the existence of the pork barrel; because they do not understand that being elected is not an end in itself, but is a means to the end of improving the quality of life of citizens.
It is clear to me that this nation has lost its way because of a moral decline; and, will never recover unless a moral revival occurs, unless my prescription becomes popular.
Unless a bare majority in every nation accept and actually practice in their everyday existences the discipline of truth; and, commit to relying in precept on positive reinforcements in their relations with other human beings.
The price of freedom is an individual becoming aware that there is a difference, an ever increasing difference between concept and precept in his or her life, between the ideals and values he or she espouses in concept and those that actually inform their actions - that is an inescapable, irreducible fact of not only the lives and times of President Bush, Senator Hilary Clinton and Senator Harry Reid, but of the life of every human individual; and, that individual becomes totally committed to bridging and reducing that difference and dichotomy by practicing the discipline of truth.
The price of freedom is having the strength and moral courage to confront and accept total responsibility for the skeletons, not in anyone else’s closet; but for those that inhabit and taint your past.
For me, the price of attaining freedom and of becoming the recipient of the boon of increased mental acuity has been very high, I have drifted further and further from the human concourse; as I attempted to express in verse:
My victims past and present, real and imagined,
Passed before my staring eyes;
I found myself on a treadmill,
Repeating scenes from a fractured time,
Was amazed to be still alive.
In all my social interaction, on the job, with family and friends, with lovers, my world view
has created differences, dichotomies and conflicts, with a common genesis.
As I previously stated in every individual and organization there is a ever increasing difference between concept and precept; between the ideals they embrace in concept, and those that they practice in precept.
The conflict between my poor self and every individual or organization has had two main sources; the first, that they wish me to engage in activities that I know are completely immoral and sometimes illegal; or, I demonstrate and express knowledge of their illicit actions, I cause them to know what they are doing.
In the past those who dared to march to a different drummer, who resisted the siren call of socialization and renounced coercion based culture were crucified, or, burnt at the stake, or, tortured, or, imprisoned.
Today, as I write, the sanctions I have endured for daring to tell the truth and follow the dictates of my conscience are more covert but are just as effective in stifling the moral aspirations of most people.
I lived in abject poverty for the period 1979 to 1984 before I managed to escape the land of my birth, Jamaica; and, have endured intermittent bouts of poverty and privation for the same reason but these experiences have produced a realistic picture of human culture and created moral consistency in my life.
For example, my major weakness and Achilles heel for most of my life has been my promiscuity.
I have overcome this fault by knowing that I will confess and never for a moment hide or conceal any behavior that contravenes the dictates of my conscience.
Further, I am aware that I have an innate sex drive which must be satisfied; so when I have no viable alternative, I masturbate.
Most individuals, Michael Jackson, Catholic Priests et al, will do anything and everything to hide, even from themselves, their abuse of minor children; and, they are unaware that they have an innate sex drive very similar in all respects to their need for food, so they continually exist in a state of high drive in which they are prone to, and find irresistible, temptation.
This ‘difference’ in culture creates a situation in which for me, time is fractured; I know that in every social relationship in which I engage, that soon or late I will be asked to do something that I know is wrong; or, I will reveal knowledge of what an individual or organization is doing in precept that results in their exposure, something they find unacceptable and intolerable.
I cannot begin to describe the privation and hardship that has resulted from my telling the truth and trying to do the right thing these past three decades.
I am trying to bring to the attention of the reader the source of the mounting chaos in human affairs; the fact that in certain areas action is impulsive, irrational and motivated by emotion and is not informed or limited by intelligence or the dictates of conscience.
In May 2006, I became aware that I had had enough to the culture in South Florida, that I could no longer exist in a social milieu that was so pervasively corrupt and venal; so I loaded my Toyota Tercel with all that it could carry and left everything else of value that I owned, and drove north.
I first went to Louisville in Kentucky but it was Derby time and so expensive that I retraced my steps and landed in Memphis in Tennessee; and discovered that I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
I was homeless for a month before I landed a job with Terminix at its Call Center in Bartlett as Statistical Coordinator but was fired when I attempted to change things there; employment there was more like a visit to the mall than a job, a situation I could not abide, tried to change, and was terminated for my efforts.
Since that brief interval of normalcy I have lived in abject poverty, my only company being the roaches that infest and share my room in the welfare hotel in which I reside.
I have a job, of sorts, I am front desk clerk for that hotel; and, have been soundly abused twice and named, of all things, a liar, by the person who held that position before I did.
I am not demented and would not have attempted to migrate but for the knowledge that I would soon be the recipient of the proceeds of the estate of my late Aunt, who died some years ago in Jamaica.
What I did not take into consideration was that my brother and sister would attempt to deny me access to these funds to force me to go to live with my elderly mother, an endeavor that would have consigned me to entering my personal version of hell.
I include excerpts of electronic mails between my sister and myself that document my claim, and testify that despite my pleas the name of the bank holding these funds has not been transmitted to me.
Will check on this.
William Virtue
My address is:
3222 Airways Blvd # 312
Memphis TN 38116
If you would be so kind as to provide documentation that would introduce me to the bank; and, provide the information that would allow me to contact the bank directly I would be happy to take care of this matter and relieve you of the burden of doing this.
From: Marcia Ashley
To: William Virtue
Subject: Re: HOME OF THE BRAVE?
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:40:59 -0700 (PDT)
Converting to U.S. dollars and sending by checque from Jamaica. It sounds a simple exercise. Presently, having recently retired, I am adjusting to a new job and arising circumstances. Also I travel next week-end. The bank handling the estate is not my bank. They do not know me. Something like this must be possible. Its the bureacracy, restrictions on U.S. dollars, and inevitable stretches of time to accomplish anything that will pose problems. I will make enquiries, but am unable to do anything more at this time.
marcia
William Virtue
I do believe that were I to go outside US Boundaries for any reason, I would have great difficulty with returning, I am sure my green card would somehow be lost, because of my activities in
the peace movement.
I may be becoming paranoid but its that kind of world.
Is there any possibility of converting this disbursement to US currency at some reasonable charge and mailing this to me in a check at an address I will provide?
Bill
From: marciaashley@yahoo.com
To: "William Virtue"
Subject: Re: HOME OF THE BRAVE?
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 11:18:19 +0000
>Your part of estate left by aunt Mavis is available for disbursement please advise when you will be here to collect same.
>Marcia
>Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from Cable &
Wireless
I have dedicated my life to changing the world, to creating a just society that would nurture and protect its young; and, create for them the possibility of happiness.
I was aware intuitively from the outset that I must never compete because to engage in competition of any kind would destroy the validity of this transcendent enterprise.
I am determined to enlist the cooperation of my race, to frame an appeal to their intellects that would pierce the gloom of delusion in which the species has existed since the beginning of time.
I knew from the outset that this would be a most difficult enterprise; and, to make sure that I did not flinch or waver from this self imposed duty I have created a situation in which I will only be comfortable and secure - if and when I communicated my prescription to human beings.
I would not write fiction to be comfortable and secure; indeed, I have completed three hundred and fifty pages of an autobiographical novel that I am sure would be a bestseller - if I finished it; but I will not because I might lose the drive to complete my quixotic, transcendent mission.
What the bequest from my Aunt would do is allow me means to concentrate all my attention on preventing the escalation of the conflagration in Iraq into World War Three.
It would allow me to resurrect the web site whose URL is voiceofpeace.net and prove to all those who visited it that I not only predicted accurately the course of the attack on Iraq but did my best to communicate the dangers inherent in that massive blunder - when it could have made a difference.
The point I am trying to make here is that nothing I write here is for my benefit; it will not cause me to be elected, I have deliberately retained my status as a resident alien, I cannot be elected; nor is it likely to profit me in any material way; my intent is to promote peace on earth, goodwill among men and create the possibility of happiness for human beings.
When I stated years ago, after the first group of children were killed when they were lured to the killing ground by Allied soldiers brandishing sweets, that President Bush must be impeached to save America’s soul; I did not prescribe that dangerous course of action out of animus towards the President but for the common good.
The legacy of President Bush will be precedents of tyranny created by his abuses of power and his predilection for flouting the law; his impeachment would destroy these precedents and give pause to the next neurotic who like a moth is attracted to flame, the irresistible allure and temptation of political power.
It would also convince those around the world that have watched the depredations and human right abuses of the Bush Administration with growing alarm and disquiet, that the USA has renounced the notion that ‘might is right’ and will in the future treat with other nations based on the principle that ‘right is might.’
When I stated years ago that the State of Israel must withdraw to the borders it had in 1949, it was not because of animus towards any Jew; it was to prevent the conflict in the Middle East escalating into World War Three because in that conflagration a dirty bomb is likely to be detonated and that catastrophic event will cause humanity to regress into savagery.
In fact, the reverse is true, the three and one half months I spent in Israel were among the happiest of my life; during that period I was exposed to the fact that there is nothing human beings cannot accomplish - if they cooperate.
The people of Israel have no legal claim to one acre of ground in Palestine; on merit, because they made the desert bloom the State they constructed must be preserved, I would bare arms to preserve Kibbutz Hagoshrim, the settlement in which I resided for a wonderful week and of which am an honorary member.
I repeat, it is the consummate irony and ultimate paradox of the human species that for literally millions of years humanity became habituated to a culture determined by the absolute requirement for survival, becoming adept at using force; and, now to survive the weapons of mass destruction it has created humanity must renounce that culture and practice a culture that is diametrically opposed in every respect, one that is based on positive reinforcements.
To overcome our past and create a future for the species, it is necessary that all those areas of repression be subjected to the light of intelligence and become limited by the dictates of conscience.
What is required is that individuals become able to accurately describe the existing reality of their lives; and, the print and electronic media find the will and courage to transcend their current role of propaganda machine, defender of the current elite and perpetuator of the status quo; and, provide humanity with accurate descriptions of reality, they should become capable of publishing the facts that would support function.
I have deliberately referred to masturbating, a taboo subject, though almost everyone has engaged, at some time in their lives, in this means to reduce their innate sex drives; I know, beyond doubt, that a media house which cannot publish what I have written, exactly what I written, will continue to be part of the problem, and, never be able to contribute to the solution, fundamental cultural change.
Those who cannot dare to ignite the animus of International Jewry because of their strategic position in financial institutions worldwide, will, with their cowardice and inaction cause the world to regress to savagery.
For myself I have to tell the truth with fear or favor because I am the butt of a cosmic joke, I have been designated by a fickle and insensate fate to be the Change Agent during this transcendent enterprise.
Jesus, in the St. James version of the Bible, is quoted as saying that:
15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (St. John, Chap. 14)
At the risk of being accused of blaspheming, based on my personal experiences, let me attempt to translate this passage into the accurate description of social reality that would be the prerequisite to the resolution of the conundrum that is the ultimate paradox and consummate irony of human existence.
I suggest that Jesus knew that sometime in the future there would be a naïve, idealistic, benighted fool who would adopt the discipline of truth; and, as a consequence, create a realistic description of social reality.
What is truly remarkable is that this has occurred at the point in history when this information is so sorely, so urgently needed by the human race; it has occurred at that moment in time when humanity has developed the technology and productive capabilities that would facilitate renouncing coercion as the means relied on to motivate action, and moreover, must do this - if our race is to avoid self destruction by the weapons of mass destruction we have developed.
I believe that fate could never be so cruel and fickle as to make available this information at this critical juncture in the history of humanity; and, cause it to be ignored and consigned to obscurity.
I believe that the American people will again begin to practice the values and moral precepts that made this nation great; and, lead the nations of the world into the future and create a new era of peace and prosperity for all of mankind.
I have done my best to create an ideational path into the future, a track that is not a four lane highway but one that has been seldom traveled; one whose signs and milestones are the bare bones and skeletons of those who have tried to tell the truth and actually practice moral values in human societies.
If there are lights along the trail I have blazed, these illuminations have been created by the love and affection showered on me by children; who have never doubted me for a moment and intuitively always lent their support and were aware of the love that motivated this transcendent enterprise.
The last child who so blessed me was very coincidentally named Miracle; and, this is what I am hoping for, the miracle of the American people achieving a moral redemption.
The word is love, and the objective is world peace.
P.S. If you read this and know of anyone who might benefit from this message I beg you, in the name of Jesus, to save the humanity from destroying itself, to pass it along.
Bibliography
Constantine’s Sword, The Church and the Jews - James Carroll, published by Houghton,
Mifflin Company
Sociology A Text With Adapted Readings - Leonard Broom & Philip Selznick Fourth Edition Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated
The Asian Drama, Enquiry Into The Poverty Of Nations - Gunnar Myrdal, published in New York in hard cover by the Twentieth Century Fund and in paper cover by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House.
THE RISE OF THE WEST, A History of the Human Community by William H. McNeill The University of Chicago Press, Published 1963
William E. Virtue
3222 Airways Blvd # 312
Memphis, TN 38116
Ph:(901)332-3800
Cell:(901)201-8090
