More Questions than Answers

[jeffnpat <jeffnpat@nis.net>]

It is always the boys in the great underground bunkers in London, or
Washington, or the boys who are hiding in the caves of Afghanistan, who
really know the whys and wherefores about what--exactly--is going on,
while it is the people who are told what to do.  Some of those who do
what they are told to do are more fanatical, on one side, than those on
the other side, but none of them speak the language that has been known
among leaders since time immemorial.  They can only speak the language
that says, in any country, "get up," "go to work," "have some fun," "go
to bed."  Things like that.  They speak the common language of
humanity--the language that has its roots closer to the womb.  Language
created by individual cultures is an entirely different animal, and it
is one that makes people who might otherwise have grown up with common
humanistic ideals eye each other with great suspicion.  And for good
reason.  When we "grow up" we are no longer the same.

The people who do manage to grow up the same, it seems, are the "savvy"
ones.  And it is they who quite typically become the leaders, pushing
boats and tanks about on the great map tables, while sending out many
thousands of shopkeepers and shepherds to shoot their brothers in the
eye, or be shot by their brothers, because each side feels that
brotherhood has suddenly been ripped assunder.

Times change.  Borders change.  Continents shift, tho' much slower.
Races intermarry and become new races, Our friends today are our enemies
tomorrow.  A few hundred years down the line and the distinctions we
hold between us now will have been forgotten.  Still a mother here loves
her new baby the same as a mother there.  Still the cry of hunger or for
love in a newborn tongue will be one we ALL can recognize, no matter
where we hang our hats.  Unless the times get nasty once again, and then
we look for a different tongue.  That different tongue will always be
provided.

I came upon an interesting quote the other day.  It is spoken in the
language of OUR leaders and THEIR leaders.  It is in fact spoken in the
language of, I'd guess, all the leaders that ever lived.  It says
something that the people are not supposed to know, and it has long been
understood--between them--that this is the way to get your troops to
fall in line, and do their "duty", without asking any embarrassing
questions that could get in the way of the job at hand.

"[I]t is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is
always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist
dictatorship.  Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to
the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell
them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of
patriotism and exsposing the country to danger.  It works the same in
any country."  --Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

All Best!

Jeff

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