The 20th Century saw millions of people killed in various wars and other outbursts of massive savagery! Five to 6 million European Jews were murdered during Hitler's Holocaust! Over One Million Cambodians /Kampucheans out of a population of Six MILLION people died during the Killing Fields Barbarity of the late 1970's and 1980's! It is estimated that 50 to 70 million Chinese were killed during the Reign of Mao over the People's Republic of China! The Ruthlessness of Stalin ended the lives of over 34 million Russians. The Dropping of the First 2 nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took the lives of nearly 200,000 Japanese. The bRitish and American bombing raids over Dresden, Germany ended nearly 35,000 lives.
These number are ghastly and hideous. One would think that they would be enough to make war and militant belligerency unthinkable to the leaders of most nations. Yet, We know this to not be the case, There simply is something about the ways are minds are constructed that to not allow us to deeply and pervasively grieve and mourn over the fate of large numbers of people. We respond to the fate of individuals, especially individuals that we have a bond or a connection with rather than groups or segments of the population!
The death of a child can provoke tears, We are likely to run to te aid of an elderly woman being mugged before us. A family that has lost their house due to a fire will have us reaching for our wallets faster than will the news of a community of people thousands of miles away. Maybe, one day, our social scientists, political candidates and elected leaders will finally grasp and govern as if they truly understand this truth!
- Johnny -
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