The Unclad Soul

Kant, the brilliant German philosopher, wrote, “Wisdom is organized life.” That is genius. And that is what we are missing today; organized life. Well, genius, too. Everything is a mess. Our president. Congress. Religion. Education. The economy. The environment. It’s all a disorganized, sloppy jumble of ideas and chaotic priorities. And our own lives reel in the confusion. We lack wisdom. We are missing any real guiding principles. What do we represent as a people, as a nation, other than angry personal divisions, a shallow obsession with materialism, empty religion, and a contorted political system that only works for affluent, well-connected individuals and corporations? Our major social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter can be places of real connection, family photos, invites to fun events, cute videos of pets, helpful news and interesting pieces of art, essays, and great music. But too often these are also places of vitriol, rage, bullying, bigo...

War. What are we doing still fighting wars into the 21 st century? In WWI, 6 million soldiers and civilians were killed. In WWII, the numbers soared to an estimated 50 to 55 million people. During WWII, 6 million Jews were murdered in the Nazi death camps. In the Vietnam War, more than 5 million North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed. Approximately 250,000 Vietnamese soldiers died. America lost 58,220 soldiers. In the War in Iraq, 4,486 U.S. soldiers died and so far, 2,345 have died in Afghanistan. More than 1 million soldiers were wounded in both wars. Those wars cost America 6 trillion dollars. And in spite of the carnage, Iraq remains entangled in a civil war and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are still undefeated. Without even listing the statistics of the fighting in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Palestine, and other places, one begins to wonder what has war accomplished? Japan was bombed into submission with the Hydrogen Bomb and Hitler and the Nazis were ...