I am going through
one my periods of despair over the kind of world in which my grandson has to
grow up.
Although we are now
technologically advanced beyond the wildest dreams of our forefathers we appear
to have learned nothing in the matter of
how to behave as human beings. We have 21st century methods of communications,
information handling, and truly amazing ways of killing each other, driven by a
stone age sense of morality.
Was there ever an
"age of enlightenment"? How enlightened are we?
Why are some
religious basket cases still finding a rationale for killing innocent people?
Why are some
religious fruit and nut cases still refusing to accept scientific evidence as
to the age of the planet on which we live?
Why does Israel
think it has a God-given right to take other people's lands and settle on them?
Why does Iran think it has a God-given right to wipe Israel off the face of the
earth? Which of these countries is morally right?
When Adolph Hitler
and his vile regime were finally obliterated we hoped that would be the end of
such tyrants, but they have continued to spring up all over the place, the
latest being President Assad of Syria. And when the world (through the UN) try
to do something about it, they are thwarted by the wishes of China and Russia
looking after their own interest.
Why are some young
people in Britain (and elsewhere) devoid of any kind of conscience and are
happy to indulge in drive-by shootings, or random stabbings of others because
they don't like their colour? I cannot forget the image from the CCTV footage
of the young man caught up in the Tottenham riots last summer, being injured
and then apparently helped by a group of other young men, whilst they
simultaneously and systematically removed the contents of the injured man's
back pack.
Taxi driver Raoul
Moat went on a wild shooting spree killing and injuring people in his locality.
At one point he went up to a police car parked on the roadside and shot the
officer in the head, blinding him. After a period of heroic efforts to come to
terms with a new life without sight, the policeman recently ended his own life.
When this news item appeared as an online news item, some disgusting idiot took
it into his head to post a comment that it served him right for being a member
of the Police chasing Raoul Moat.
Politicians lie
through their teeth to get elected; criminals use the internet to extract money
out of gullible people; paedophiles groom young people for their sick sexual
fantasies; some of them are priests! American presidential candidates slag each
other off in eye-wateringly expensive ad campaigns, then finish off their
pathetic speeches with "God bless America". What do these people know
of God?
And so I fear for my
grandson's future. But then I look back to when I was his age and remember the
bleak outlook and ever-present fear brought about by the threat of World War 3
and the obliteration of civilisation as we knew it by hydrogen bombs and intercontinental
ballistic missiles. There was probably as much crime around then as there is
now; it's just that nowadays we know more about it. We never used to have a
"24-7" news service, nor did we have the Internet. I survived the
fear; I survived the disillusionment.
It may be, God
willing, that my grandson will also survive and be able to live a decent life.
I think it's time I
went out into the garden to look at the spring daffodils and crocuses. Well ..
I would .. If only the neighbourhood's dogs would stop barking! (Dog owners
without a conscience.)
