Christopher Hitchens (credit: Wikipedia)

 September 1, 1939

W. H. Auden - 1907-1973September 1, 1939

I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentionable odor of death Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.

W. H. Auden (credit: Wikipedia)

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Above are the first few lines of a poem by W. H. Auden that has haunted me since I first heard it quoted (by Christopher Hitchens, I believe it was. He and Auden were good friends). The poem was written, as the title says, in New York on the day the world went to war for the second time in under a generation.

And I agree with what Auden implies in this excerpt: the people of Germany were so hurt and mad after World War One, and how the treaty that was supposed to settle it punished Germany, that they stored up an enormous hate from the time of that treaty (1919) on. Hitler was not an evil genius. He was evil, but his rise to power was not mainly due to his political genius, nor to adverse economic conditions. His rise was made possible by the climate of anger and hate created in Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, which really did cause great suffering in Germany.

So I watch the t.v. coverage of Trump supporters' demonstrations and I feel a chill so cold it leaves me speechless.

The images that haunt at that moment aren't of World War Two. They are of the U.S. Civil War. The worst war by far that the U.S. has ever been involved in. World War Two took a bit over 300,000 American lives. The Civil War took more than double that many.

Could we train the population to gracious winning and losing? To winners' saying, "You worked this latest election hard, opponents of mine, but you lost. But there will be other elections. And I still respect your right to speak your mind, as long as you are not promoting violence in your listeners. Dissent within non-violent boundaries is the concept that democracy is built on."

The Civil War haunts me because we humans seem -- in the main population at least -- to be unable to get what Auden is saying and sink it in so that we live by it.

As is the case in the U.S. these days. Right and Left hate each other with such a vehemence that their democracy with its noble ideas -- and they are noble -- is barely holding on. The country is teetering on the brink of civil war.

Why? I believe the roots of the current political situation lie in the refusal by too many U.S. citizens to learn and take to heart what Auden says in this poem. "Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return." In other words, the current victors in most of the U.S. political scene, and especially in the presidential contest, the left-leaning majority of citizens, are too obviously eager to tell the current "losers" on the right "nyah, nyah". The vocabulary involved is more erudite, but the essence of the message is still "nyah, nyah". "Hah, hah. Who's crying now?" And so on.

And so ...the followers of the right burn. But they also store up their anger and use it to drive their political activities. Will these include violence in the near future? I don't know. But I guess, and fear.

I fear the motives on both sides that lie behind these venomous exchanges. It's vindictiveness on both sides, it's ugly on both sides.

America, America. As your neighbors, we Canadians fear for you. Citizens of the American Left, my point today is this: mockery does not serve the long term interests of your country. Democrats, you won. Be gracious winners, no matter how provocative the actions of your opponents have been. You must. What's riding on your showing that higher level of behavior is simply ...everything.

Remembrance Day, 2020

I got that Nov. 11 was a serious day when I was in grade 3. It was so still for those minutes. Even at a school assembly of kids. In those times – the 1950s – many had dads who had been in WWII. Maybe, that was why we fell so quiet.

But in any case, I knew that this was serious. I’ve obsessed over it for 60+ years.

Some say there is no way to spare future generations from this horror. I just can’t believe that. So I write. I think I see a way to end this madness, but it’s not likely to draw much attention in my lifetime. However, I can’t afford to think about that. The idea will be out there. For me, that is enough. 

We must make a curriculum for the world's schools that teaches all the children of our species to respect all of the other children of that species. Find your motive kids, to exhort yourself to be your personal best, by competing with yourself, not others.  Or at least, competing within the rules. There's always a referee in the ring or on the field. Obey that person's commands. Honor the ideals of the game. 

To those who think I am a Romantic aiming for solutions that will never be real, I say: “You haven’t considered the alternative”.

You see in every land in every era, war was always just a generation away, even for the lucky ones. War. A human constant in every society, every era.

What has changed is the level of destructiveness of our wars. That level keeps going up. WWIII? The next one that is all out? If we let it come, it will likely end us.

So? So we go back to re-considering my proposal. A peace curriculum for all students, spiraling upward in challenge level as the grades go up.

For today’s post, I’ll let that flat statement be enough.

But, I will say to friends who are veterans of real combat:

“I know you went through horror that I have not known and now never will. I had a weekend in 1969 during which I thought very hard about going down to Montana and joining the US Army. I’d bought the ‘Domino Theory’. Things my dad had said about the madness of war finally tilted me away from that choice. (Thanks, Pop.)

“But even though I know your worst mental images are not of things you saw but of things you did – by your own hands – I still like you. You were innocents. You went off to fight, maybe die, for ideals that turned out to be lies. But that willingness, so dedicated, that alone holds me in awe.

“It’s Remembrance Day. For those who saw and did the real thing, stand proud. Just your being there gives us all material for thought. Thank you for your service. Now let’s get to work on eradicating the roots of why you had to do that brutal job.”