|
"What a disgraceful spectacle
humanity presents!
In
spite of fearful wounds, humanity makes war upon itself.
We who
deal with the sores afflicting mankind are struck more than others
by all the evil men voluntarily inflict upon one another.
I am neither a
politician nor a
propagandist.
It is not my business to occupy myself with
ideas.
I have too much else
to do.
I am moved by a great pity, as lofty as a
dream."
Dr. David Hawthorn smiled sadly at this
vehemence, then his smile vanished at
the moral
outrage.
"Unfortunately you are right.
With all the misery
we have to suffer, we tear
ourselves with our own hands besides - the
war of the classes, the
war of the
nations, whether you look at us from afar or from above, we are
barbarians and madmen."
"Why, why," said Angus Starling, who was
getting excited, "why do we
continue to be fools when
we recognise our own folly?"
Dr Hawthorn shrugged his shoulders, as he
had a few moments before when they spoke of incurable diseases.
"The
force of tradition,
fanned by interested
parties.
We are not free,
we are attached to the past.
We study what has always been
done, and do it over again - war and injustice.
Some day perhaps
humanity will succeed in ridding itself of
the ghost of the past.
Let us hope that some day we shall emerge from this endless epoch of
massacre and
misery.
What else is
there to do than to hope?"
"There is
one great general cause for the world's ulcer."
"You have said it -
servility to the past, prejudice which prevents us from
doing things differently, according to
reason and
morality.
The spirit of tradition infects
humanity, and its two frightful
manifestations are …"
Dr. Hawthorn rose from his chair, as if about to protest and as if
to say, "Don't mention them!"
Angus Starling could not restrain
himself any more.
"…
inheritance from past
tradition."
"Hush!" cried Dr. Hawthorn.
"You are
treading on ground on which I cannot follow.
I recognise the present
evil.
I pray with
all my heart for the new era.
More than that, I believe in it.
But do not speak that way about two sacred principles."
"You speak like everybody," said Angus Starling bitterly.
"We
must go to the root of
the evil, you know we must."
"You certainly do," and he added
violently, "Why do you act as if you did not know it?
If we wish to
cure ourselves of oppression and
war, we have a
right to attack them by all the means possible - all! -
the principle of
inheritance of past technique and the
cult of the homeland."
"No, we haven't the right," exclaimed Dr. Hawthorn, throwing a look
at his interlocutor and rising in great agitation.
"We have the right!"
cried Angus Starling.
The grey head drooped, and Dr. Hawthorn said
in a low voice:
"Yes, it is true, we have the right.
I
remember one day during
the war.
We were standing beside a dying man.
No one knew
who he was.
He had been found in the debris of a bombed ambulance -
bombed purposely or not, the result was the same.
His face had been
mutilated beyond
recognition.
He moaned, groaned, sobbed, shrieked - appalling
cries.
We listened to the sounds that he made in his agony, trying to
find one word, the faintest accent, that would at least indicate his
nationality. No use.
We looked and listened, until he fell silent.
When he was dead and we stopped trembling, I had
a flash of
comprehension.
I
understood.
I understood in the depths of my being that man is
more closely knit to man than to his vague compatriots.
Yes, we have a
right to question oppression and
war.
I saw the truth several
times afterward again, but I am an old man, and I haven't the strength to stick
to it."
"My dear sir," said Angus Starling, rising, with respect.
Evidently he was touched.
"Yes, I know, I know," Dr.
Hawthorn continued in an outburst of
sincerity.
"I know that
in spite of all the arguments and
the maze of special
cases in which people lose themselves, the absolute, simple truth remains,
that the law by which some are born
rich and others poor and which maintains
a chronic inequality in
society is a supreme
injustice.
It rests on no better basis than the law that once
forged races of slaves.
I
know patriotism has become
a narrow offensive sentiment which as long as
it lives will maintain war and exhaust the world.
I know that neither work nor
material and moral prosperity, nor the noble refinements of progress, nor the
wonders of art, need competition inspired by hate.
In fact, I know
that, on the contrary, these things are destroyed by arms.
I know that
the map of a country is composed of conventional lines and different names,
that our innate compassion of self leads us closer to those that are
like-minded than to those who belong to the same geographical group, and we are
more truly compatriots of those who understand us and who are
on the level of our
own souls, or who suffer the
same slavery than of those whom we meet on the street.
The
adoration we have for our native land would be good and praiseworthy if it did
not degenerate, as we see it does everywhere, into
vanity,
the spirit of predominance,
acquisitiveness,
hate,
envy,
nationalism, and
militarism.
The monstrous
distortion of the patriotic sentiment is
increasingly killing off humanity.
Mankind is committing
suicide. Our age is an
agony."
Two men have a simultaneous vision: "A cancer!"
Dr.
Hawthorn grew animated, succumbing to the evidence.
"I know as well as
you do that posterity will judge severely those who have made
a fetish of the
institutions of oppression and have cultivated and spread the ideas supporting
them.
I know that the cure for an abuse does not begin until
we refuse to submit to the
cult that consecrates it.
And I, who have devoted myself for half a
century to the great discoveries that have changed the face of the world, I
know that in introducing an
innovation one encounters hostility." - Henri
Barbusse
Dr. David Hawthorn and Angus
Starling from The Ghost and the Darkness fill the roles of generic
characters in this Henri Barbusse tale. |
|
 |
This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.
This website defines a
new perspective with which to engage reality to which its author adheres. The
author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has
forged a populace unable to discern propaganda from reality and that this has
been done purposefully by an international corporate cartel through their
agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of reality on the human race.
Religious intolerance occurs when any group refuses to tolerate religious
practices, religious beliefs or persons due to their religious ideology. This
web site marks the founding of a system of philosophy named The Truth of the
Way of the Lumière Infinie - a rational
gnostic mystery
religion based on reason which requires no leap of faith, accepts no
tithes, has no supreme leader, no church buildings and in which each and every
individual is encouraged to develop a personal relation with the Creator and
Sustainer through the pursuit of the knowledge of reality in the hope of curing
the spiritual corruption that has enveloped the human spirit. The tenets of The
Truth of the Way of the Lumière Infinie are spelled out in detail on
this web site by the author. Violent acts against individuals due to their
religious beliefs in America is considered a "hate crime."
This web site
in no way condones violence. To the contrary the intent here is to reduce the
violence that is already occurring due to the international corporate cartels
desire to control the human race. The international corporate cartel already
controls the world economic system, corporate media worldwide, the global
industrial military entertainment complex and is responsible for the collapse
of morals, the elevation of self-centered behavior and the destruction of
global ecosystems. Civilization is based on coöperation. Coöperation
does not occur at the point of a gun.
American social mores and values
have declined precipitously over the last century as the corrupt international
cartel has garnered more and more power. This power rests in the ability to
deceive the populace in general through corporate media by pressing emotional
buttons which have been preprogrammed into the population through prior mass
media psychological operations. The results have been the destruction of the
family and the destruction of social structures that do not adhere to the
corrupt international elites vision of
a perfect world.
Through distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the
population has been directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt
international elite that further consolidates their power and which further
their purposes.
All views and opinions presented on this web site are
the views and opinions of individual human men and women that, through their
writings, showed the capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational, insightful
and unpopular thought. All factual information presented on this web site is
believed to be true and accurate and is presented as originally presented in
print media which may or may not have originally presented the facts
truthfully. Opinion and thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected,
redacted, combined, added to, re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion
and thought has been throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the
original writer with the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions
clearer and relevant to the reader in the present time.
Fair Use Notice
This site may contain
copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically
authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our
efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, human rights, political,
economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe
this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes. For more information see:
www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted
material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
 Copyright
© Lawrence Turner
All Rights Reserved
|