By William Markiewicz
(As other short items may follow, I've decided to group them together.)
The Recent European Elections (6/08)
Results show that national and local issues were predominant over global issues. This is natural and is why global ideology has generally failed up to now. Is the future of Europe in peril? Not if the focus is put on really unifying factors like self-defence. So the military concern must dominate economy and politics must be subordinate to military strategy. Militarily united Europe, of course, protects from outside dangers and diminishes the gravity of conflict within Europe itself. With this in mind, Europe can be one of the pillars of world peace.
The argument that private interests and belief in one's own power can lead to collective blindness which in the past engendered imperialistic tendencies here and there can be countered. In democracy, the majority wins. If we believe in collective intelligence, then common sense will prevail to support the right decision based on mutual concessions.
Hypothetical Speech of a Pakistani Politician (6/01)
The Taliban destroys our schools and harms the children. They want our children stupid. So, an opening is created to
allow outside powers to penetrate and destroy free Pakistan. They want women to be instrumental only for men's
stomach and sexual satisfaction. They want to entrust Pakistan's future and security to God, forgetting the old
wisdom: "If you want to entrust the safety of your camel to Allah, first tie it firmly to the fence." God gave
humans intelligence to manage the future for their country and themselves. The Taliban don't wait for God to ensure
their victory, but, by brutal methods and total cruelty they take care of their own goals and the result is the
destruction of our freedom and future.
Complexities in Human Relationships (5/15)
For humans, a social species, relationships play a predominant role in their existence. The motivations for relationships are mostly rational, thus understandable, based on principles of cause and effect. But what if some relationships are outside the field of understanding? When people who don't know each other behave in similar ways toward some other unknown person, it becomes a collective phenomenon which then must be rational, though for reasons unknown. The hidden reasons are grounded deeply in collective psychology of the majority if not the totality of the population. What are the reasons for this selectivity? We can't judge the unknown, but it deserves to be mentioned. It's a psychosomatic phenomenon where the brain and biochemistry play equal roles. Generally, in the race for popularity those targeted individuals find themselves at the end. Their reputation is generally low though not for any precisely defined reason. The mist of doubt surrounds them. Freud once said that psychological problems would one day be treated with pills. The hidden, mysterious, psychological reasons for unpopularity will one day be revealed to have an organic essence.
Religious Fronts No Partners for Conferences About Equal Rights (5/01)
The Swiss press considers that homosexuals and women were the grand losers at the Geneva Conference Against Racism. That is because religious affiliation shouldn't qualify for partnership in this kind of conference. Everybody has a right to love his religion but not to hate the religion of others and the extremists would never agree on this point. There is no 'good' or 'bad' religion. Freedom of belonging or of choice should be the only attitude for participation. Conferences for reconciliation toward peace and harmony must, in the first place, insist on unconditional rejection of all those whose path of belief supports eradication or submission of others.
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William Markiewicz