The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience, good men; what was bad in them, who wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.        (Robert Briffault, Professor at Cambridge University (The Making of Humanity, London, 1918)

By Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

In Search of Moral and Intellectual Human Consciousness

The unwarranted continuing conflict between Ukraine, Russia, NATO, and the US impacting the whole world goes unabated after eleven months of bombing, killing, and devastation of the Earth and environment- none of this is reparable or replaceable by the warriors. We know from history, how during the Two WW Europeans, Russians and Americans destroyed human culture of rational thinking, morality, and survival. The common citizens were victimized across the thinkable human landscapes. Have we learned any lessons from own wrong thinking? Have we ever recovered from that man-made insanity against man?

Perversion from the truth and missing proactive reasoned initiatives signal elusive manifestations and hallmarks of global leadership operating the UNO, NATO, the EU, and other security organizations. Kashmir, Palestine, the Korean war, millions of displaced refugees, Syria, the Cold War, climate change, and now the unending hostilities involving all in the Ukraine-Russia war. Global institutions responsible for peace and security are manned by dead-ended inept, disinterested, and terribly naïve leaders often placed by systematic capitalist greed and ignorance.  They lack the moral and intellectual capacity to understand the imperatives of war and peace and how mankind should be protected from sadistic thinkers and planners of war. All wars are the outcome of a few mindless people claiming to be leaders to dominate the less fortunate and destitute human beings. Caitlin Johnstone (“Advocating World War Three Is Just Mainstream Punditry Now.” Information Clearing House: 10/30/22), clarifies the puzzle: Instead, we’re getting a world where we’re being hammered harder and harder with propaganda encouraging us to accept global conflict as an unavoidable reality, where politicians who voice even the mildest support for diplomacy are shouted down and demonized until they bow to the gods of war, where nuclear brinkmanship is framed as safety and de-escalation is branded as reckless endangerment.

In its search for change and movement to progressive future-making, the global mankind is oppressed by systematic ignorance, intransigence, and arrogance of the few affluent class of people managing the global institutions, militarization, and governance – the perverted insanity lacking basic understanding of the Human Nature and of the working of the Universe in which we enjoy coherent co-existence.   Animals do not commit massacres of their kind and species, nor set-up rape camps for the war victims, the global warriors against the humanity have and continue to do so at an unparalleled global scale without being challenged by any global organizations or leaders. Torture and massacres of innocent civilians are convenient fun games to be defined as “collateral damage” and a statistic. Perhaps, they view humanity just in digits and numbers, not as the living entities with social, moral, spiritual and intellectual values and progressive agendas for change and development. Every beginning has its end. It is just that most powerful nations have failed to learn from the living history – a slap to EH Carr’s precious thoughts of human history.

We live in Conflicts that Destroy Human Habitats, Culture of Thinking and Civilizations

Despite the reality of catastrophic events of the 2WW, most global leaders claiming greatness of minds and visions have lost the moral and intellectual path of political farsightedness and accountability.  The EU and NATO and their regionalized and ethno-nationalistic propositions are fast becoming contentious issues of peace and security between the Russian Federation and the Western nations. People of knowledge and wisdom cannot make animosity as a trade to endanger our future. To this author, a cataclysmic nature of human intellect is unleashing a highly irrational and unthinkable world of complexity to come to our consciousness destroying all progress and achievements of any human civilization on this planet. Most human intellect knows the basic imperative: “if you THINK intelligently, you could find workable remedies to human problems.”

Several millions of human beings forcibly displaced worldwide wondered, why have the civilized world not come to aid and protect their lives, rights and human safety? Why was the war not stopped at the outset between Ukraine and Russia? Despite systematic hope, they become helpless and hopeless of any sustainable future. We breathe oxygen in mysterious ethnic claims of superiorities and animosities shaping rigid conflicts and primitive discourse. Looking at the Nature of Things, the universe encompasses many challenging opposites – time, space, sun, moon, gravitational rotation of the earth, fire, water, air, sand, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, disasters, explosions, wars, destructions, bombing and all that can be imagined destroying the mankind and endanger the continued movement of the splendid, inspiring and harmonious Universe. How is it that Man – a creation of God cannot exist with fellow Man? Is Man by nature a bloodthirsty creature?  Perpetuated ignorance and violations of the Laws of God are leading man to an unrestrained drive to dominate the earth and exploit all its resources with policies and practices unleashing evil-mongering and systematic tyranny without any accountability. The Earth was a trust from God to human aspirations, ingenuity and needs but its manifestations are ignored, violated, and spoiled by human blindness. This TRUST and its reminder are explicitly mentioned in (The Qur’an, Chapter 33: 72):

“We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth; And the mountains but they refused; To undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it; He was indeed unjust and foolish.”   

The Earth is a living entity and is meant for us – human beings. We, the People wonder who else except God created life, the Earth, and the living Universe floating in space well balanced and functional since time immemorial. Global leaders need to learn how to co-exist in universal harmony. They should take a trip to outer space to view the existence of the Earth and how the Powerful God has created it and continues to manage it harmoniously despite large-scale human ignorance and violations of the Laws of Nature. Could the warmongers grasp the basic knowledge – how the planet Earth exists and moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second is 1,040 miles per hour? The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. And how do all living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? Do people ponder and realize how human beings are created by the Divine process and how societies flourish since time immemorial? This understanding is critical for peacemaking and peaceful co-existence within the Universe.

Capitalist Warriors are not Peacemakers but Millionaires

 “War is a racket Then and Now”, explains Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (War Is A Racket) of the US marines served 33 years but “had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until [he] retired to civil life did [he] fully realize it.” The wars sustained capitalist governance and made millionaires into billionaires. “WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, and surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” Butler asks many rational questions: “How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded and killed in battle?”

German philosopher Immanuel Kant (“Perpetual Peace”, 1795), was more proactive and realist when he noted that:  “Intellectuals must be seated in chosen assemblies and systems of public governance to overt individualistic insanity against the people.”  Viewing the perpetuated chaos and nationalistic ideals of the few, no matter how time exists in a frozen leadership intellect, this author recently proposed several proactive strategies for a ceasefire and peace dialogue between the warring parties:

To stop the war in Ukraine, the US, the EU, and NATO should have direct face-to-face communication with President Putin. ……. It is logical when people of diversity and opposing ideals come to talk directly……. Time and history will not forgive nor forget any of the leaders if they failed to agree to an immediate ceasefire and peace deal.

Can we THINK to be human first in all our moral, political and intellectual endeavors?

Can we look at the mirror and critically see ourselves – who we are and why have we become so stagnated in moral, spiritual, and intellectual values to destroy our own existence by our own complicity?  Can we see the mirror with a collective conscience and realize as if there were no people of REASON and accountability populating Planet Earth?  What kind of nuisance discovery it could be if other intelligent species from outer space ( as indeed there are living beings on other planets), come to visit our Earth and its so-called advanced knowledge-based species and their AI weapons, visual constructs, and magic of conquests claiming to be the master of their destiny and sustainable future, and given the sophisticated missiles, nuclear arsenals, and mother of bombs so well placed comfortably that nothing could disrupt their lifelines except animosities, wars, and wickedness to destroy their own existence on this Earth.

A long time ago, Eric Bogle synthesized the poem: The Green Fields of France and many have sung it to remind mankind of a just cause in waiting at the global table of the contemporary war racketeers and sadistic warmongers:

Did you really believe, when they told you the cause,
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again –
And again, and again, and again, and again.