Direction of Battle

We are only human. We live and we die. But we walk proud on this earth. We stand tall and magnificent. We are true power, we are true greatness. And we stand in our big cities proud over what we’ve done, proud over the beauty we’ve created, seemingly from our own great reserves of pure raw human power. And as we revel in this magnificence, as we stand and marvel on the vastness of our universe and our complete and utter dominance, and continuance of our great feats, we walk blind. One just has to peel back the outermost layer of reality and the truth stares us back in the face, like a nasty scratch on the back of a brand new CD. So, here I stand pointing an accusing finger at the stubbornness of the human race, and at the insensitivity of the human race. And this anger burns deep inside me. I have no specific direction for my anger; it is an anger which is directed at every facet of the problems in our world. Some share this anger, but direct it towards only one objective, for example war, hunger, governments, crime, violence or a slew of other problems we've gotten ourselves into. But this is not the right direction to follow. I look towards all these as one problem bound together.

Let us imagine that war has been abolished, and we all live in a beautiful utopia, a world where peace reigns supreme. What a great world that would be, but what then, when we have rid the world of this atrocity called war what then? We are still human we still make our own laws and we will still break those laws. We will have lost one part of our being, though be it a bad piece of our being, it will still have to be replaced, and with what shall we replace it? I don’t think that it is possible to just abolish war. To abolish war alone would not be enough. We would have to abolish everything else too; we would have to abolish all that is evil in the hearts of men.

And so, in this direction does my anger burn, in the direction of all these things, not just limited to one direction. It even burns in the direction of those who wish to do good, but do so in such a frustratingly stupid and asinine way that more damage is done than what is being fixed.
Rules made by man, rules and ideas which we have carved into the very essence of the fabric of our existence, written or unwritten, rules which we break on a whim just to fit with the times. This is for what I burn. In the times of the Roman Empire, it wasn’t looked as morally wrong to have two men thrown into an arena and fight to the death as thousands sat and watched.
In the days of old, there were forms of worship which demanded the sacrifice of one’s firstborn son and was not looked at as an atrocity as appalling as we do now as we sit in our homes with our families. And what of today, when we ruthlessly plow through our world so we can stay on the level, using the excuse “it’s a dog eat dog world out there” as if this gives us permission to do what we do. And when across the world little children die of hunger while we complain that the gas prices keep going up, what can we say to that? And what can the oil companies say to the rape they commit, when it becomes impossible for a father to drive to work, so that he can support his family. And what about the governments seemingly pig like greed to be the policeman of the world. And then what about those of us who condemn the government when the government intervenes and does protect us from harm.

If we could all just stop and take a breather from this mad rush to win the race, we would see something good, something perfect, and something which its beauty stands so far above what we have ever known. There is beauty here, and we just walk on by, ignoring it. We take what small bits of beauty we were given, by musicians, authors, or any of the few good people we’ve ever had, and we stop, maybe, and look in wonder for a few moments, but then right back to the race. We pass by the beauty which is contained in the human soul, and instilled in the world around us. The ability to love, to give, to create good, lies within us, seemingly dormant. The darkest and most depressing song holds in it a beauty so fine and pure, but it’s up to us to unlock it. Some have, some have tried to make a difference and what have we done with it, how many untold millions have been killed in the name of a religion which its main theme is to love thy neighbor. We took our emotions, the very things which make us human, and cheapened it. We look love and sold it for a hundred bucks on forty second street. We took anger and sold tickets to watch it in action. We faked happiness and aired it for the entire world to see. We give only because we expect in return. We have killed ourselves inside; we are all just tombstones walking around pretending to live.
The problem is not what is actually going on out there, but what goes on inside of us. What if we fixed that first?

In 1100 AD, an unnamed Monk wrote, “When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”