MOULTRIE —
In a recent presentation by the History Channel, there is some sobering food for thought when it comes to man’s inhumanity to man.
The series was titled “The Story of All of Us” and it went back to the formation of the universe and then followed man’s development from cave dwellings until now.
And one will notice a theme throughout these episodes and that is that man has constantly developed more efficient ways for us to kill each other, progressing from sharp sticks and stones right on along the path of crossbows, cannons, muskets, assault rifles, rockets, bombs, chemicals, biological devices, etc.
On one episode of higher technology, the program featured the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. And one historian said very appropriately that man has always been in an “arms race.” In other words, you hit me with a stick and I’ll hit you with a bigger stick right on through the process of guns that shoot more and faster and bombs that will destroy more buildings and lives.
Since the beginning of time, millions of people have died over the issues of land boundaries, treasures, religion, government ideologies, etc.
Watching such a series of historical events does not leave out the progress that has been made in energy, medicine and machines. Yet one can’t help but notice that while one group of experts seek to find a way to cure a disease, another group develops a device that can kill thousands with the push of a button. And we might wonder how has our species survived as long as we have?
Such programs don’t necessarily provide any answers to predicaments that we might perceive except that to rationalize that we should only use our weapons for good reason. And then it becomes a matter of defining “good reason,” some aspects of that task sometimes seemingly much clearer than others.
We applaud the History Channel for such a series because we indeed need to occasionally consider the sequences from whence we came and to where we might be headed. Life is an adversary system even on our best day and our resolve should be that the total of good outweighs the total of bad.
Perhaps airing such a feature during a time of year when we uplift the banner “Peace on earth, good will to men” is fitting even though there may be stark contrast to those aspirations.
Just something for us to ponder...
Opinion
History Channel series should prompt some deep thought
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