It is remarkable that the Earth continues to let us live. Is it not amazing that humanity, despite great intellect and potential, steadily and assiduously seeks out the lowest, the meanest, and the least constructive outcomes for itself? In response, we must act quickly to protect the very fabric of our existence.
Mumbai, India, has suffered only the most recent in a series of human-on-human atrocities. Some little pimply-faced group of religious nuts cum revolutionaries listened to "the voices" and launched its little holocaust for some "holy cause" or other, leaving nearly 200 dead and hundreds more wounded. And for what?
These low types of people are not found only in the south of Asia or the Middle East. They are present in disturbingly high numbers in cities around the world. Like rats, cockroaches, and other vermin, they gather where large numbers of otherwise innocent, decent people live and work. They use the benefits of civilization to sow fear and loathing among populations largely ignorant of their true goals, like the early Ku Klux Klan of the American Old South.
Someone asks whether evil is "real," and these honorless, unwelcome wretches provide the answer with regularity: yes. They are evil. Their evil oozes from the dark singularity of their nefarious and violent goals for those parts of the world they can infect. They sow death and violence among people who might otherwise realize their dreams of peace and prosperity. Why are these people allowed to perpetrate such horrors?
My answer highlights ignorance and apathy: terrorists feed off the ignorance of those who loath knowledge strange to them, those whose apathy is comfortable from long familiarity. It is tempting (and perhaps accurate) to posit that, having no lives of their own, these international criminals find joy and fulfillment in the misery, fear, and suffering of others.
I cannot say that these miscreants have no lives, though. What is obvious is that they have no respect for the lives, dreams, or future of others. What they feel for themselves I find unfathomable. Perhaps they are simply satisfied with the evil they create; whatever their true motivation, they are a rabid scourge to the rest of humanity and should enjoy no welcome whatsoever in any civilized place.
This is where we come to the embarrassment. Even in the face of the frequent terrorist activities seen around the globe, other groups are content to follow their lead, only more quietly. The Mafia have done it for generations, creating and feeding fear for profit. Gangs of every stripe have terrorized, injured, and killed others, and have lived as though there were nothing of value. But it is the "common" people who sometimes engender the most shame.
Many people in the United States are poor; their condition is a fact of life, despite their attempts to do better. This nation is gripped by a lack of financial confidence not seen in 40 years, and all citizens find themselves somehow affected, regardless of their social stratum. This causes uncertainty about the future, especially for those who have always lived one or two paychecks away from disaster.
Why, then, are we afflicted with so many people who declare loudly that the poor deserve what they are suffering, that those whose homes are forfeit should have thought about their financial condition earlier, and that they don't want any of "their" money going to assist the troubled and sinking? Are we that devoid of compassion, that the plight of literally millions of our fellow citizens is simply an opportunity to vent our spleen at their "lack of foresight"? Can we somehow find ways to blunt their effect upon civil society?
It is terrible to contemplate the fix we'd have been in during World War II had this hard-nosed attitude ruled the day. It is hard to imagine what kind of world this could be if these people were actually a minority, not the loud minority bigots they actually are.
The future of the nation, and even the future of the world, will turn on our response to our fellows. How will that go? What form will our cooperative revival take at the time when we decide that humanity ought to be better?
One thing has always been obvious to some. It is not some bit of ancient, profound writing that has been unearthed only by me. No, this is something each of us knows (or should know) deep within: we can move upward into a better future if we share what we have, what we know, and our better selves. The future is literally being shaped right now by all of us. We should hope to do it well.