The family and I just returned from seeing Angelina Jolie's film: "Unbroken," which is based on a book of the same name, written by Lauren Hillenbrand. This is a film that touches on most of the essential portions of, the epic and amazing life of Olympic Track Star and former Japanese Prisoner of War, Louie Zamperini.
While the film was very good and inspirational, don't settle for just the film if you REALLY want to be amazed by - not only by a man with an indomitable spirit, but also, how an encounter with the living Christ brings about a miracle of deep and comprehensive healing; as well as, an amazing and unsurpassable example of forgiveness (Something the film gives only cursory mention of over all).
As I reflected more on the film and Hillenbrand's book, it reminded me of the immeasurable and unbelievable depths of human depravity, and evil that we humans are capable of exacting upon one another...
Thus, in a related sense, it also reminded me that of the many highlighted-big stories, that emerged out of the History of 20th Century (e.g. Advances in Science/Technology, Capitalism/Globalism), that THE truly big story was really the role that Totalitarian and Socialist forms of government, played in the hundreds and hundreds of millions of lives that not only suffered horribly, but also were lost through Genocide, Democide and War... It is the kind of Evil for which, a lack of education, relational marginalization and limited opportunity, are at a complete loss to explain...
Anytime an individual, and/or a relatively few individuals in government, ask for the kind of power (justified as: "for the good of all"), to fulfill promises that enable them provide, everything that is needed for everyone, then we should receive that request for those promises with great fear and trembling... Why?
Because those same individuals are either being deceitful and nefarious in terms of their true intentions; or utterly naive in their understanding of the dynamic between human depravity and power in human history (this is equally true for those who hopefully and blithely follow them)... In either case, depravity is always a controlling factor... The empirical evidence in the 20th Century for this truth is beyond dispute...
It is also true that many will confidently point to our great achievements as a species (made possible through God's "Common Grace") as proof for unswerving hope and optimism for the future... But these same individual's often ignore, how every single significant and monumental advancement made by us, have also been used unfailingly to prosecute new, creative, efficient and wider forms of human pain and death... The greater the good, a thing has within it, the more it equally possesses the capacity for greater evil as well.
Unfortunately and tragically, this sobering reality has not been a primary message in Secondary and Higher Education... But rather a continued, and pollyannic belief in the inexorable evolution of Humanity; and the "Humanist Spirit." Reason and Logic have always been the bedrock of Humanism, but the success of any exercise in Reason and Logic are predicated on the "Starting Points"... If the starting point is wrong, then the conclusions derived from Reason and Logic, will always be wrong too.
Thus today, in contemporary culture, the "soup de jour" is The Comprehensive, Federal Pursuit, and Dispensation of (humanely defined) "justice." Predicated merely on redacted or revisionist history, which may well end up being one of the most troubling, even terrifying projects in human history...
Notably, one could add up all of the evil perpetuated in the name of Christ in history... and there is plenty it; and then compare it to all of the evil prosecuted through (Benevolent?) Totalitarian Rulers and Socialist Forms of Government in the 20th Century alone, and there really is no comparison... the evil done in the name of Christ is barely a blip in comparison to the evil done by the aforementioned forms of governments... In like manner, and even more poignantly, you could add up all of the Good that has been done in the name of Christ, and then compare it to the all of the good done through Despots and Socialist Forms of Government in the 20th Century, and it becomes utterly and untenably embarrassing for them...
The problem of humanity will never ultimately be solved by bigger, "better" and more powerful (controlling) government, who's primary goal is to control the mind and thus behavior... but rather through a radical change of the human heart, in Christ...
