That Which Happened

Perhaps their knives were made of stone -- chipped flints, sharpened to a deadly point: the earliest human technology. . . .

. . . [I]t's evil -- as the killing of every innocent person is -- but it isn't new. It's as old as the hills, as old as any chipped flint dug up from the past. It's religion, tribalism, lust for power and -- let's be painfully honest about it -- a falling-out among former allies, old comrades in undercover war. Each one of these is a powerful engine of hatred -- churning in the dirt of the real world, in the mixed matter of the human brain, in the murk and folly of human history.

Religion: the implacable, impenetrable conviction that absolute truth is in your sole possession. You are good; your enemies are evil. Tribalism (or in civilized terms, nationalism, patriotism): the belief that your country, your people, your grievances, your interests are above all others, that your values are so important that sometimes innocent people have to be sacrificed to them. Lust for power: the burning desire to impose your will on the whole world -- or failing that, to bring the whole world crumbling down around you.

And a falling-out. The White House points the finger of blame at Osama Bin Laden . . . [who l]ike Saddam Hussein . . . was first armed and empowered by America itself. The same intelligence services that now stand blind, struck and wounded, cynically embraced these brutal renegades as pawns in the Great Game of geopolitics; . . . then, like Dr. Frankenstein, lost control of their creatures. . . .

. . . There is no answer. It will not stop. They say the world has now changed irreversibly, that nothing will ever be the same. But it will be the same. The same engines of hatred, the same murk, the same dirt, the same mixed matter in human brains.

This is not a new evil. It's as old as the hills, and it is with us always.

"Even unto the end of the world."