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Chapter 11 - And the World Grinds On.All in all, our days of the conference were exciting days, days in which the kaleidoscope had been constantly turning. We had talked as much about laser ignition, inertial fusion, and Tokomak reactors, than we had talked about economic principles, political history, and the moral development of humanity. We had even talked about the coming ice age and what mankind must do in terms of the technological development to protect itself from its consequences. In this sense, the end of the conference came all too soon. During the last session the records that had been kept of the conference were tallied up, recommendations were made, and after that, a totally unofficial requirement gave rise to our group's "victory dinner" that was hosted by our friend Augustin who had headed up the entire English speaking delegation. I felt that we had ample cause to celebrate. Still, I didn't think of our accomplishments in terms of victories. No victories had been won, because our battle had left no one vanquished. I preferred to think of our achievements in terms of majestic breakthroughs that had been made towards a richer and freer universe. This, certainly, was worth celebrating. In fact, our achievements had been astounding. Tremendous achievements had been made in four major areas that hadn't even been considered when the conference was called. The focus of the conference was intended to be on protecting property rights and depopulation, which we were supposed to harmonize. Our first achievement was to scuttle this attempt and open the horizon to infinity. Out of this came a clear mandate for the governments of the world to protect humanity as an imperative of a much higher priority than protecting property rights and the feudal systems that require the decimation of humanity for the oligarchy's assured survival. Naturally, this universal challenge was not only put forward to the governments, but to humanity as a whole. Along with ripping up the predetermined agenda, an official recommendations committee had been formed that was given the task of capturing all the key elements of the speeches and ideas. These were voted on, on the last day. Comments were invited, which added some special flavor to the cold numerics of the voting. It was this flavor that had really defined the achievements that had been wrought. The most recurring comments, to the great surprise of the organizing committee, were not focused on protecting human rights, but on something much greater. The comments were centered on a growing recognition of the wonders of human life, the majesty of the individual, the beauty of the human soul, and the strength of mankind's boundless intelligence. One comment was that humanity should strife to recognize itself truthfully, as the tallest expression of life in the universe, and respect each other on this basis, enriching one-another's life. This was said to be a paramount necessity in a world so deeply driven into poverty that one hears the comment often repeated that human life isn't really all that precious. In the shadow of such cynicism, people began to think that death by nuclear war holds no terror anymore for people who are trapped in this kind of poverty that some counted as worse than being dead. It was felt that some people might even be induced to see nuclear war as something preferable, especially if they were so tightly boxed into a corner by deprivations and demands that they could see no possible way out except through the illusion that a nuclear war can solve their ever increasing problems. It was acknowledged in the comments that such an escape into the mythological nuclear war fantasy world, while being totally irrational in the global perspective of a world armed with tens of thousands of nuclear weapon, holds nonetheless a welcome promise to those who have closed their eyes to life itself, to its riches, its wonders, its strengths, and the beauty that is imbedded in the human soul that begs to be discovered. || - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||
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