What Kind of World.....?

America today does NOT have a race relations problem. What is does have is a culture war, a conflict between two sets of socio-political values, in the which racial identity is being disingenuously exploited as a symbolic "Trojan horse", i.e. a pretext to advance the cause of one camp over the other.

The conflict in question is one of individualism versus group collectivism, of free enterprise capitalism versus Communism and socialism, of a nation whose societal values are influenced by religion versus one in which all religious theologies are absented from the national scene altogether. It is a question of acceptance of individual responsibility for one's own destiny, versus an insistence that society-at-large, acting through government as its agent, owes me a living. It is a question of whether or not the government should rescue me from adverse consequences of my own foolish personal choices.

Suppose we could somehow wave a magic wand, to permanently eliminate all racial differences between us, would this bring about a global Golden Age of peace, justice, love, brotherhood/sisterhood, and prosperity to all? Past history strongly answers with a thunderous "NO!" The historic human experience is replete with examples of nightmarish war between peoples of the same race. The American Civil War and European theaters of two global world wars of the 20th century come immediately to mind. North and South Korea, North and South Viet Nam, race brother against race brother, in mortal combat over questions of socio-political ideology. In Africa, too, protracted civil conflicts in the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Sudan and former Biafra are reminders that racial similarity is no restraint against wholesale slaughter.

Even the Bible makes a pronouncement on race, in quoting Jesus Christ to say a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and among his own people. Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4. Indeed: today, people of multiple nations and races world-wide venerate and honor Jesus Christ as the indisputable Son of God; while in modern Israel, His own homeland, nearly all the people hate and revile His name except for a small remnant of self-named "Messianic Jews for Jesus". Romans chapter 11.

In summary, then, racial homogeneity and solidarity is no guarantee of absence of conflict and strife among men. Race is therefore no more than a convenient pretext by which to "pass the buck" to other people, in allegation of cause for one's own self-inflicted difficulties and misfortunes. It takes a paramount degree of courage to look honestly at one's self in the mirror, and ask:

What kind of world Would this world be
If everyone in it Were just like me?

-Lawrence K. Marsh