Do you want to know one of the most disturbing facts on this Earth? The Nazis and Soviets both baptized their newborns. Think about that for a moment: The most evil people to ever walk this Earth thought that Christ was on their side. Mass-murdering, genocidal maniacs saw themselves as the good guys, and assumed that they were going to heaven when they passed away.
That's a profound self-deception that calls many things into question. First and foremost among them though, is the argument that human beings are capable of reliably determining their own moral standing in the grand scheme of things. As it turns out, we're infinitely better at diagnosing how and where our fellow compatriots have gone awry, than in undertaking that difficult journey of self-reflection and critique of one's own inner nature, which is what truly improves our surroundings. I've often joked that the population of self-reporting bigots in this world is a grand total of zero. But it's the truth. No one wants to think of themselves as the bad guys. Not even the worst among us see themselves that way.
And yet, besides being incredibly disturbing, the above fact is also cause for great optimism, for it means that each and every one of us has a conscience, whether we make use of it or not. And where there is a conscience, there is hope, both for our species and for the world we inhabit. For it grants each and every one of us the ability to tell right from wrong, and up from down, and inside from out, as we stumble half-blind through this shadow-strewn world.
I'm usually of the opinion that things are as they were meant to be. Human beings are socialites by design, and just as you cannot make a camp fire with but one small twig, so too have we been designed to need and depend upon one another if we want to accomplish anything constructive in this world. That means holding one another accountable for our actions, as well as listening to and heeding our detractors when we are the ones at fault, because as so many of us have clearly demonstrated, our ability to measure our own transgressions is greatly limited.
If we as a people can somehow accomplish the above, then we will thrive. If not, then we, and all that we are and have ever been, will fall into ruin, as surely as did the "baptizing" Nazi and Soviet societies. The choice is ours to make, and ultimately, ours to own.
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