Discovering the Most Brutal Enemies of our Earthly Community
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 4 Jun 2012
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
We can help solve all problems of our earthly community only if we were to get directly to their source. As the scholastics indicated: Quidquid contingens est causam habet – Whatever comes into being must have a cause. People across every continent are going through crucial pain of one kind or another. Such pain did not pop up from the midst of nowhere. Since in this world only people make things happen for the better or the worse, we may safely conclude that the origin all the problems facing the world could be traced to people.
Exposing the Source of Existent Problems
Our job as concerned citizens is to find the source of an existent problem as to bring it into the open for everyone to see with clarity. As Socrates said, when people become aware of the source of their problems, they proceed to take needed steps courageously and fearlessly and the problems are solved. If we were to analyze every problem that human beings faced, we will soon discover that such problems could always be traced to violations of the Divine Law.
This law is always applicable to all people of every culture, religion and philosophical orientation. Although the name of such a divine law may vary in various global areas, its essence remains the same… totally unchangeable for all practical purposes. The Divine Law was instituted by the Supreme Essence of the Universe, known as Causa Prima – the First Cause by Aristotle and simply as the Supreme Being, commonly known as God.
In the Judeo, Christian and Islamic tradition, this Divine Law is also referred to as the Ten Commandments that God gave to all of us around the world. The Divine Law was meant to protect God’s children from human abuses. As Jesus and many ascetical writers reminded us, God is pleased with us when we reveal our love for Him by action through the faithful observance of the Divine Law. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.
God’s Ten Commandments may be stated briefly as follows: 1) Make God the most important element of your life, 2) Refer to God’s name with respect, 3) Devote God’s weekly day in holiness, 4) Demonstrate respect toward your parents, 5) Preserve the life of others by not killing anyone, 6) Respect the purity of people’s life, 7) Avoid stealing anything from others, 8- Prevent yourself from deceiving others through lies, 9) Show gratitude toward every wife you come across, and 10) Develop respect toward your neighbor’s property. We may trace the source of all problems in history through violations of such commandments.
People in Authority Fully Accountable
When those that violate these divine commandments happen to be people in authority, then the harm that comes out as a result may go on for several decades and even for many centuries. Hence, we cannot close our eyes to any action taken by those in authority, regardless of what their titles may be. When they perform actions that are in line with the Divine Law, then we should give them our wholehearted support. But when their actions reveal defiance to such a sacred law, then we should become vocal and demonstrate our opposition.
Each time we are faced with a conflict that reveals clearly a struggle between God and the Devil, we should throw our full weight behind God against the Devil by all means and without any hesitation. We may illustrate this by a few tangible examples that involve violations against the Divine Law. For all practical purposes, let us take the Ten Commandments, one by one as follows:
1) Making God the Supreme Being of our lives by observing His wishes on a daily basis with no exceptions whatsoever.
2) Referring to God’s name with respect in a way that He always comes first in our lives. 3) Devoting one full day a week in prayer and meditation as to seal my spiritual union with God by all means.
4) Demonstrating respect toward our parents, without whom we would have not been born to become an integral part of a constructive society.
5) Preserving the life of others by not killing and maiming anyone. This means that the waging of wars, under any circumstance, is strictly forbidden. Our culture of war mentality should be fully obliterated.
6) Respecting the purity of people’s life by not taking advantage of them through exploitation and other abusive means.
7) Avoiding stealing anything from others. Over the centuries, wars were mostly waged to control entire communities and nations and to confiscate from them anything good they may have.
8- Preventing ourselves from deceiving others through lies. There are hardly any politicians in the world that use honesty and fairness in dealing with people everywhere.
9) Showing gratitude toward every wife you come across. There has been hardly any war where women in general were spared from being treated as a piece of property without any respect for their human dignity.
10) Developing respect toward your neighbor’s property. Over the centuries to this very day, numerous sophisticated weapons have been developed whose purpose is to kill more and more people and to destroy their properties beyond repair. The latest of such weapons are known as the drones.
Culture of War Mentality in Perspective
Over the last few thousands of years, the entire world has been immersed in a culture of war mentality. The philosophy of the vast majority of nations has been built on machismo. In order to get what you want you have to become brutal as to take by force what you cannot take easily by peaceful means. The sacredness of human lives ceased to exist since it became only an instrument to get what one wants by all means. This culture of war has become a nightmare. We need to keep in mind that in a war everyone is a loser, now one a winner.
To make things worse, the manufacture and sales of weapons, along with the waging of never-ending wars, turned into a lucrative business, which nowadays it is all that counts. Weapons of all kinds are sold to all those who are ready to give the right price, friends and foes alike. Those nations that manufacture and sell weapons tell us that they want to make sure that their allies would be well protected in case they are attacked. Those that make such claims are either naïve or phenomenally wicked.
If they really believe what they say, then they must be naïve, morons in the strict sense. If they say so as an excuse to justify their continued manufacture and sales of weapons merely for profit, then they must be wicked, very brutal at heart. We need to learn from history that those nations that are our allies today may turn to become our mortal enemies tomorrow. Iran under the Shah was viewed as an ally by the USA. But under the Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran was then viewed as an emerging enemy.
The United States as a capitalistic nation believes that when it comes to making money, the “sky is not the limit.” This means we may device any plan we want as long as it generates more and more money in our pockets. The consideration as to whether it would be wise to equip other nations with weapons of all kind as to wage wars without any end in sight is never taken into consideration. Hence, we may begin to realize that those that are responsible for the manufacture and sales of weapons and the waging of wars have become our de facto brutal enemies.
There is no need to go into far-away lands to search for our mortal and deadly enemies. Our brutal enemies are to be sought in our native land. In view of what has been stated, we may now easily recognize them without the slightest shadow of a doubt. They are all those who, when it comes to action, they demonstrate total disregard for the Divine Law as explained in the Ten Commandments outlined and explained earlier. Our notorious and most brutal enemies are those involved with the manufacture and sales of weapons of all kind. They are known as the weapons and the military industries.
Our Mortal and Deadly Enemies at Work
Our mortal and deadly enemies have developed the habit to look at us in the eyes with artificial smiles, while trying to convince us that they feel deeply “obligated” to look after our security. These are normally our government officials whom we elect to whip things into order by putting the bulk of money in areas that are vital to our lives. These would include a good health care system, guaranteed social security, the best education possible for all citizens as to develop their talents to the maximum possible, and adequate home facilities for all people especially those in dire need.
Every government in the world that allows a foreign nation to build military bases on its territory is contributing toward the creation of animosity and needless threats to nearby countries. We have reached a stage in history where every single country cannot feel safe any longer. The reason lies in the fact that with our war products we are constantly germinating the seeds of future conflicts and wars. The time has arrived when all people of all countries should make sure that their respective nation develops into an island of peace and not serving as a platform for never-ending wars.
Every government that allows its nation to develop into a platform for future possible wars has, willy-nilly, become a brutal and notorious enemy not only to its own people but also to the people of the surrounding countries as well. Good intentions are not enough since we learned from history that the “way to hell is paved with good intentions.” We do have a substantial number of good countries, which are doing very well in their pursuit for a permanent peace. We may enlist Costa Rica in Central America, Malaysia in Asia, New Zealand in the South Pacific, in addition to others.
What do such countries demonstrate to have in common? They all refuse military aid of any kind and, instead, they opt for health care needs along with useful medical equipment, good education and adequate homes especially for the needy. They also believe the presence of the military stimulates suspicion.
Unless the institution of the military is changed from a war agency into a humanitarian organization, its presence has become increasingly detested by people everywhere. Since World War II ended in 1945, the United States became involved in wars more than all the nations of the world combined. Each time it became involved in war conflicts, the people of the locality like in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan always detested foreign military presence, from which they experienced systematical brutality. The military destroyed brutally not only the infrastructure of cities but killed numerous citizens without mercy.
Carrying out Brutal Orders Blindly
Everybody knows that the military in a nation is there to carry out orders from the government such a military represents. Still, the military is held fully accountable for all the atrocities people experience, among which the loss of their homes, places of worship and schools. This always creates thousands of refugees. In addition, many children become orphans since so many parents get killed. All of this explains why people in many countries have described the military as a terrorist organization sanctioned by the government that sent them.
Those nations in the world that believe in what they term to be “strong military” to provide for “national defense and security,” have proven that they have absolutely learned nothing from a recorded history of 6,000 years of civilization. History has repeatedly taught us that violence breeds violence and more violence breeds more violence. We often hear of the military used to bring about peace. When the military destroys cities along with the lives of people, the whole area is turned into a “cemetery” that is referred to as “peace!”
Since the beginning of times, there has never been a cemetery that was not peaceful. When people are dead and buried you never hear afterwards any noise from them. This is how the military is used by governments to bring about peace in any global area. Besides, the military has been the only institution in history that is accountable to no one. When we kill innocent people, we may be arrested, and later brought to trial for our act of murder. But when soldiers kill innocent people, upon their return home they are received and treated as heroes!
Finally, we may begin to see with crystal clarity that through a careful study of the realities that surround us, it would not take us long to discover the most brutal enemies of our earthly community. As stated earlier, to make constructive contributions to our earthly society, we need to explore and find the source of an existent problem as to bring it into the open for everyone to see with clarity. Once we all become aware of such a source, constructive actions are then bound to be taken and any brutal problem we face would then be solved.
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Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – President, International Association of Educators for World Peace, Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament.
-Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University.
-Hon President & Professor, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich.
-Member, TRANSCEND-A Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 Jun 2012.
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