Anna Politkovskaya
Posted on 10/10/2006 1:06:04 AM PDT by goldstategop
Have you ever heard of Anna Politkovskaya?
She was a Russian journalist who regularly reported on Vladimir Putin's undermining of press and other freedoms in Russia. This past weekend she was murdered.
If you are debating whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's future, here is a point to consider: In every generation, especially in the last century, vast numbers of good people -- often the best people -- have been murdered by the worst people.
Think about all the decent (and, of course, some indecent) people Stalin murdered among his 20 million to 30 million victims. Think about many of the best people in Poland being systematically executed when Soviet agents rounded up the elite of Polish society and massacred them in the Katyn Forest in 1940. What effect did that massacre have on Poland's development?
Think about the decent Germans the Nazis murdered. And, of course, think about the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews in Europe. Given the wildly disproportionate role Jews play in medical discoveries, the arts and other areas that improve society, the price paid by the world (forgetting for a moment the unbelievable loss to the Jews) because of the Holocaust, is immeasurable. Only God knows what cures for diseases the near-extermination of European Jewry deprived the world of, what great symphonies we will never hear, what inventions we will not be allowed to benefit from.
Consider the millions of decent Chinese -- those who wanted freedom for their people -- murdered by Mao Tse-tung.
In North Korea, it is not far-fetched to believe that almost every Korean who has expressed a decent thought has been murdered by the psychopaths running North Korea for half a century.
Think about those slaughtered by Islamic murderers in the last few years. Compare them with the victims -- Iraqis fighting for freedom, thousands of Americans working to provide for their families in the most tolerant society in the world, Israelis living in one of the world's most humane societies and unknown individuals in Muslim countries trying to bring their governments out of the dark age.
Consider the type of Homo sapiens who literally slaughtered Daniel Pearl -- the Wall Street Journal reporter whose life was dedicated (perhaps naively, but nobly) to promoting understanding between peoples -- and compare them with him. You then have the paradigm of what has been happening for a hundred years -- the worst of humanity eradicating the best of humanity.
You have to wonder how long the world can endure the constant removal of many of its finest souls, and the simultaneous survival and reproduction of many of its most vicious.
As if this were not bad enough, a major portion of humanity vigorously opposes the decent fighting the indecent. The world's Left increasingly flirts with pacifism -- Europe is militarily worthless, and America's elites largely disdain the military. And when the decent fight the indecent -- such as when America fights barbarians in Iraq and Israel fights terrorists who advocate genocide -- they are pilloried.
Indeed, much of the world is no longer capable of even identifying the indecent -- or the decent, for that matter. Moral relativism, multiculturalism and dividing humanity between strong and weak or rich and poor, as opposed to dividing it between the decent and the indecent, have all virtually paralyzed the human conscience.
The net result is that not only do the bad keep eradicating the good, but much of the world actually denies that fact, denies that we can even categorize any people as "good" or "bad," and often opposes the best taking up arms against the worst.
Is the prognosis for good triumphing over bad therefore hopeless? Not yet. The good need to fight not only the bad but also the vast middle of humanity who can't tell the difference between the two. It is a daunting task.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
The Frankfurt School Teachers, The Gramsciites. The Culture Revolutionaries, collectivists all, alas, seem to have the upper hand. We have our work cut out for us.
yitbos
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
yitbos
However, we successfully fought a two-front war not 60 years ago, so I'm pretty confident we can accomplish the same feat this time around. The American character, albeit under attack from the corrosive effects of PC, consistently demonstrates a moral backbone at cruch time.
When this news broke a number of FReepers applauded her killing.
The solution is simple.
We good people just have to perform genocide on the bad.
I'm going to disagree with the premise that man is striving for a golden age of peace and a world where death is wiped out forever. This smells like a Utopian concept instead of reality, and makes man the arbiter of change and progress rather than man's Creator. Certainly man has some measure of control over direction and destiny, but the overall control from Adam to the return of the Son of Man must be in Him whose world this is.
The lack of such knowledge or as I would put it, faithlessness, leaves one wondering about the many what if's in life and who really is pulling the strings, or in control. IMHO there are more good people on earth today than ever before in it's history, and they are striving with every fiber of their being, to make the world a better place than in previous centuries.
Knowledge for the ultimate good of man is being poured out on humanity in ever greater measure and there are receptive minds and spirits to receive it, nurture it through the process of bringing it to light and guard that knowledge into the next generation where it will expand even further by like minds and spirits. Just consider the developments in medicine, science, travel, communication, longevity for mankind, etc etc.
The righteous are living longer and thus producing good in a synergistic way as never before. There are strong nations, that nearly guarantee the conditions necessary for the righteous progress of man. There are men/women with voices unable to be stopped by virtue of the new media which has further spread truth, and spelled the demise of those who think they control what man can and should know.
No, we are living in the golden age of peace, prosperity, and progress, and though there are many who would destroy what God has wrought, they will fail as they have failed in past centuries. Good men die, but their numbers will never be as great as evil men who manage to destroy each other in far greater numbers than the natural passing and even the unnatural passing of the best of mankind.
Anna Politkovskaya
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Jeez goldstate, you aren't already convinced that man is endowed with the potential to accomplish everything you mentioned in your comments? Man is fallen man, but God has not left him alone or helpless in this world.
We are susceptible to death for a reason, and death is where each of us is headed. Death to the living is, as birth to the unborn, another step in the journey of man to the presence of him who is called the Father.
Eradicating war in a world where evil men use war against good men and nations, seems to me under the circumstances to be a futile and rather dangerous goal. There is no sane person who gains pleasure from fighting others, however, it is the height of folly to be anti war in the sense that present anti war folks see it.
It might be time for a national mobilization. Put the emphasis where it belongs. Might have to wait until after the election. Might be too late then.
yitbos
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