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Activism Questions

Punditry alone can hardly change the world. Activism can, especially of the Gandhi, Schweitzer, and King type. Each earned universal respect by his individual devotions, not to God or grandeur, but to humanity. And each changed history.

"To forgive and accept injustice is cowardice." -- Mohandas Gandhi

"The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies." -- Albert Schweitzer

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'. Expediency asks the question, 'Is it polite?'. Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?.' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'. And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells him or her that it is right. -- Martin Luther King, Jr"

"The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein

King put his finger on one vital attribute of civilization. Einstein points the way. One can ask:

  • Does any one society deserve a Manifest Destiny?
  • Why have the monotheisms been mired in conflict with one another over the millennia?
  • Why do famine and genocide still persist in Africa?
  • How can a democratic society justify imperialism?
  • Is imperialism ever justified?
  • How can the biosphere be preserved with the pressure mounting from human population growth?
  • Is it possible that exremists on the various sides need each other?
  • Why are women second-class citizens in so much of the world?
  • Do the above have a common denomintor?
  • Will freedom continue to march forward, or will extremism force a nuclear holocaust that could reverse a half billion years of Natural History?
With these questions in mind, what can we do? Quick Links for Action might produce some starting points:

We close with another truism:

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." -- Albert Einstein

This from the man who stands at the top of a pyramid built by Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and countless others--especially Michelsen and Morley. A pyramid that has tripled life expectancy, deciphered the works of nature, reserved the realm of the Creator to that of nature's creator.

Posted by RoadToPeace on Saturday, August 27, 2005.

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