Author: tony

Let poverty, disease, injustice, tyranny play the role of the common enemy of humankind. And of course the institution of war can play the star part.

Our ancestors used to say that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Americans, in their comfort, their pursuit of individual advantages, in their worship of the bitch goddess of success, forgot to pay the instalments, and their liberties were re-possessed.

Put in this way, the question suggests that humanity is an actor endowed with intentions and a range of capabilities for carrying these intentions out. The question is similar to questions like "Can John stop drinking?" or "Can Tokyo reduce traffic accidents?" These questions can be answered by "yes" or "no," because both John  and… Continue reading Can Humanity Eliminate War? →

Reflections on morality occasioned by a rare American war crimes trial.

The problem, as I see it, is that of inducing integration in concentric circles, as it were, from self to family to community to a culture to humanity, inducing a realization that loyalty to one of these need not clash with loyalty to another.

I have children, and I do not want them to writhe in agony or to turn into automata or to repeat the atrocious lies amid which they live. Therefore, I am engaged in a struggle, which I often feel to be a hopeless one, but which I have no choice but to wage.