Critical reflections

By Lloyd Williams

August 30, 2008 12:22 am

— Time passes irresistibility. Sometimes it passes like a whirlwind; other times it passes like a gentle breeze.
But either way, as the "Rubaiyat" says, "Time is slipping underneath our feet."
When some of us became aware of the world, Calvin Coolidge was president, the Charleston was the rage, the
Model-T dominated the automobile industry and Charles Lindbergh with extraordinary talent and courage
was revolutionizing aviation. But the optimism of the 1920s disintegrated under the pressure of the Great
Depression, World War II and the Cold War. All this irrationality culminated in the misadventures of the later
20th century and the thoughtless notion that an aggressive America could bridle the myriad problems that
have tormented the world since ancient times. Roman Caesars, Chinese dynasties and a thousand other
authoritarians thought they could do so. And now the United States stumbles down this worn and thorny path.
Shortly after the American Civil War, Charles Swinburne poetically suggested that our difficulties are
traceable to the mutable nature of life, that "time and the gods" were at war and we are in the middle. Since
the human race is infected with the virus of avidity and apparently learns principally from suffering, it seems
gratuitous to blame the gods for our troubles. Earlier Byron, with equal poetic skill but perhaps greater
historical insight, explained our condition by noting that we have been living through "sad centuries of sin
and slaughter." And this is why from the village parsonage to the Vatican the ethics of peace dominated
religious and political affirmations, but are smothered in the rude barnyard of Realpolitik.
Those of us who are teachers, professors, preachers or moralists are occasionally given to scolding our
students or parishioners for their short-sightedness. And there is cause. Among the confusing problems that
our generation of unprincipled politicians, aggressive generals and myopic plutocrats are leaving the next
generation are some humdingers: a massive national debt; a bewildered "democracy"; a country that lacks the
will to control its drug and immigration problems; a people who seem incapable of checking their wasteful
energy habits; a nation that seems reluctant to take the lead in building international cooperation and world
peace; one that appears terrified at the thought of a national medical program; and one that does not seem to
know the difference between democracy and plutocracy. Neither the public nor its "leaders" seem capable of
facing these problems objectively nor able to work out honest resolutions to them.
Two hazardous problems in particular call for attention -- expanding population and proliferating nuclear
weapons. Unfortunately we are vulnerable to the lure of hedonistic culture -- "fun," money and recreation --
so we give insufficient attention to the slowly emerging crises of our times and the technical minds that study
them. Sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and statisticians are not academic oddities who can be
ignored; they are informed specialists whose techniques and insights greatly enrich our understanding. They
have ever increasingly precise data; they make it clear that population is not only increasing, it is increasing
exponentially. From 1900 to 2000 world population increased from a billion and a half to more than 6 billion.
The consequences of this tendency are frightening. Consider Mexico City as a case study. This may well be
the largest city in the world with a population near the 30 million mark. If this is true there are more people in
Mexico City than in the entire State of Texas. Its slums are enormous; its poverty is massive; its suffering
dreadful. With corrupt government, destitution and over-population, it is little wonder many Mexicans want
to move north, especially since our border holds back emigrants with the same effectiveness that a sieve holds
water.
The most important problem confronting the human race is peace -- achieving agreements and conditions that
assure cooperation among nations and the containment of war. We and others are flirting with nuclear war,
which is a form of insanity. Nobody can win such a war; everybody loses. The terrible bombs used in World
War II were firecrackers compared to those available now. Even the first two nuclear bombs dropped on
Japan -- "Fat Man and "Little Boy" -- were small by today's standards. Since America has been "protected"
from the metric system by fear, lethargy and politicians -- one prominent Oklahoman recently argued that the
metric system was a Communist plot -- the symbols used by scientists to indicate explosive power of nuclear
weapons are not always understood. A 1-kiloton nuclear explosion (from the Greek "kilo" meaning 1,000)
releases energy equivalent to one thousand tons of TNT; a 1-megaton nuclear explosion (from the Greek
"mega" meaning 1,000,000) releases energy equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT. So in less than a second the
temperature in such an explosion is hotter than our sun; the shock wave exceeds atmospheric pressure; and
hundreds of square miles are incinerated with all life extinguished. Additional destruction is massive and
unpredictable. One report says the Russians have developed a 45-megaton bomb. No one can give us the
limits of destruction from such a weapon. If dropped on New York City the probability is that everything
between New Haven and Trenton would be a smoking shambles.
We not only need to listen to the physicists to understand what our politicians and generals are playing with,
but also we need a clear insight into theology. "Hell" is not a region mysteriously created by God, vividly
described by Milton and powerfully depicted in the art of Paul Dore. Hell is nuclear war. The genius of
science designed its tools; some immature politicians -- from Washington, Downing Street, Jerusalem,
Tehran, Pyongyang and the Kremlin -- want to open Pandora's Box. They and their pro-war friends should
explore the meaning of "nuclear winter." Even our most brilliant scientists cannot fully detail its gloom and
desolation. There are bitter ironies in this continuing saga of human tragedy -- unnecessary deaths, waste,
mad aggression and the absurdity of domineering pride. In varying degrees most human beings succumb at
one time or another to some variant of these abnormal compulsions. But we should learn from our
misadventures. We seem to have learned little from the Vietnamese War so we swagger between the Levant
to the Hindukush suffering the illusion that we shall turn hundreds of millions of Moslems into lovers of
democracy. Pride just as neglect of college studies distorts one's judgment. The Moslems don't want
American democracy; they do not want our social values; they do not want our way of life; and they certainly
don't want our splintered Christian Church with its mutually canceling contradictions and factions. After years
of war, murder, torture, waste, debt, bribery and destruction in the Middle East there is little peace and less
normalcy. Our leaders proudly affirm "mission accomplished" while it is necessary for our executives and
generals to hide in the Green Zone. In some ways the ultimate irony in America's presumption is the notion
that several thousand American soldiers can reverse hundreds of years of cultural history. That the chief
executive promotes this idea and that the public believes it suggest the nation may have passed its meridian
and does not know it.
Laws, sermons and dictates are so numerous we cannot keep up with them. But all these directives, however
well-intended, have failed to keep the human race on the path to peace and justice. For some of us the poets
are a surer source of wisdom. There are so many with graceful lines and thoughtful ideas, choosing is
arbitrary. An eminently valuable counselor is Oliver Goldsmith. His promptings rise above the wrangles of
theology, the squabbles of politics and the uncertainties of our complex world. This is especially true when in
"The Deserted Village" he cautions us:
Ill fares the land to hastening ill a prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay.
Consistently to give attention to the ills of society and the needs of humankind seems unassailable logic and
sound ethics. One can scarcely imagine better counsel to shepherd us into the future.
As the days fly by everything changes -- institutions, relationships, loyalties. ...Our perceptions are enmeshed
with these changes; our ideas mutate. No doubt in future years we shall look back with puzzlement, perhaps
even astonishment, at views we now hold to be true. Our religious ideas evolve and mature. Teenage views of
God and moral obligation are not likely to match those of our senior years. The same is true for our values,
preferences and politics. Experience and time are twin blades of a giant metaphysical machine that savage
everything. But change or no change, we should give careful attention to building a world of quality and
worth, a task that calls for careful craftsmanship. Keen insight from such creative minds as that of the 17th
century poet Edmund Waller who gave us a prudent clue. He cautioned that unless we choose our stones
wisely, time will soon bring down the most well built castle. This is just as true of politics as it is of masonry.
So perhaps the wisest hopes we can have for the future are that our country will jettison its arrogance; that it
will take the lead in promoting world peace; that our economic system will grow less acquisitive; and that its
religions will outgrow their authoritarian qualities. These changes will not guarantee utopia, but they may
help us build a more humane world.

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