Humanity and Inhumanity

In my previous post I alluded to the trials of ancient Egypt, where a Pharoah tried to implement his high ideals some 3,000 years ago, with disastrous results. Man's inhumanity perseveres to this day. We see it now in Iraq and Afghanistan and Darfur. Hellholes like these will always be with us, as long as there is greed and want in the world.
But what of our humanity? Our daughter is now studying medieval literature in England. The cost of her education is putting a serious dent in finances, and to what end? When friends ask, I almost embarrassingly mention her field of study, but one wise woman friend, a teacher, put it so well. "She is carrying on civilization." Yes, we need our doctors, plumbers, carpenters, accountants and others; without them we could not survive. But what of the bigger picture? What about our humanity?
A cousin's son, the same age as our daughter, is now doing humanitarian work in Africa. Needless to say, his experiences have utterly reshaped his world view. A neighbor's daughter recently graduated from a top university with a degree in scientific ethics, a skill sorely needed in this rudderless time when GM foods and run-amok pharmaceutical companies are the result of corporate-driven funding. So there is hope. We may never solve the quagmire of Iraq and other hot spots, but we must always strive toward that higher humanity, no matter how futile it may seem. Many twenty-somethings are doing just that. We cheer them on.

Waging Peace

I am just finishing rereading Finnish writer Mika Waltari's fascinating 1945 novel, The Egyptian, about ancient Egypt. Set more than 3,000 years ago, it chronicles the struggles of the all-powerful Pharoah Akhetaton, who decreed that Egypt would worship a peace-loving, monotheistic god, Aton. Pharoah pulled slaves from the mines, decreed universal literacy, refused to make war with his neighbors—in particular, aggressive Syria—and divided the wealth of the kingdom among rich and poor alike.
Disaster followed, with more bloodshed than ever. People starved, and civil war plagued the kingdom. There's a lesson here: a utopian society such as this won't work unless the people are already acculturated to the idea, and much careful groundwork needs to be in place before trying to institute sweeping reforms such as these.
Politicians promising earth and sky would do well to look to their history. It's not that easy, folks.