"Is Olive here in Moscow? Is she at the conference?" I asked.

      Anton shook her head. "Olive gave up her place to a friend of Nicolai who helped with the organizing. I suspect that this person might have been Ursula's Steve, but I'm not sure. I don't think Steve is here either. Olive said that this friend of Nicolai has a large network of academics. That's why I think it might have been Steve. The various academics in the network began organizing the young people. It was the young people from all across our country who really got the ball going. We've got a lot of young people from all walks of life supporting the conference, even if they can't all be there. The only thing we haven't got is a specific agenda or a specific goal. When you face the horizon you don't always know what's in front of you that can't yet be seen. I'm sure you agree. That's the reason why we didn't set a specific goal for ourselves.  We are more interested in the process of exploring what makes a civilization tick, rather then manipulating everyone towards a specific goal as you do in the West."

      "Your purpose then is to explore the dimension of grace," I interrupted.

      "If we do that, something good will likely come out of it," Anton replied. "The process is the important thing, and that includes also everything that goes on outside of the conference hall."

      "This way you cannot fail," I said and smiled. "That's why we must not shy away from the ugly things, too. The ugly things represent failures in our perception of the principles of civilization. I told Nicolai that your country is doomed by its devotion to the imperial model that has no principle, which stands in opposition to the Principle of Universal Love. I told him that the Soviet Union will disintegrate if its imperial policy isn't scrapped. He seemed to agree, reluctantly. Right now, the Soviet's imperial policy is wrecking the Union. It is wrecking its economy, most prominently under the Orgakov Plan. If this overriding insanity would be allowed to play itself out to the bitter end, Anton, you would definitely loose the Soviet Union. The result would be a great tragedy for mankind. Should your economy disintegrate and Russia fall prey to the western imperial horde of financiers, the horde of gangsters would be demanding austerity upon austerity from Russia. Millions of your people would then die silently in the gutter of poverty. That would be the consequences. A deep reaching biological collapse would likely result. This kind of deep collapse would take many years to repair, if indeed it would ever be fully repaired. That's what is at stake, Anton. More people would die in this process of disintegration into poverty and impotence than the Soviet Union had lost in World War I and II combined. It would be an unimaginable tragedy. The impending tragedy needs to be avoided. It can still be avoided, but time is running out. I am also saying this about my own country. Still I am wondering if all of that could have been avoided if the renaissance spirit that had touched both of our nations would have been implemented all the way down to the grassroots level."

      "You are saying that both of our countries will likely collapse into nothing if the present platforms are maintained," Anton interjected.

      I nodded. "I think that outcome can still be avoided, Anton. The only thing that is still an open question, is whether we will make a serious effort or whether we will let the collapse happen so that the question remains which of our two countries will collapse first. Something big and terrible is unfolding and I cannot see any change happening on our end that might prevent it, or on your end. Nevertheless, the principle remains within us that can empower us to turn the ship around. But will we respond to this principle? It's scary to do this when our honesty is put on the line and we are demanded not to betray ourselves and regard one another primarily as human beings. Unless a deep uplifting begins within the western society towards the Principle of Universal Love at the home ground, so that the principle means something where it really counts, the collapse of America will happen. It also looks as though your country might collapse first. Can you see now, Anton, how powerful the Principle of Universal Love is, because when it is lost, the loss of civilization that comes with it is incredibly tragic? To love maybe scary, but not to love is always tragic. When this happens the world falls apart. In their crisis people blame God for the tragedy that they themselves have created, like the bomber pilot did who was told that God was on his side. He may still have nightmares about the horrors that he helped create in Dresden, and this after all these years."

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Stories about  Healing from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche