Love.

The Christian love as an idea capable of changing the world has turned out to be a total fiasco as far as I am concerned. What is love? Even Christians, the self- proclaimed experts on love have serious problems in defining the concept without running into serious problems with logic and common sense. To summ it up Christians define love as the gift from God and then go on preaching love as a Christian duty. I am not denying that love is a valid concept and subject well worth exploring for someone aspiring to happiness. However, this is how love is being 'practiced' in real life. A Christian approaches you with the Bible and tries to promote the teaching of his particular Church, of course in the name of love. Sometimes you can even have him say, I do it because I love you. Then when you politely decline to 'accept Jesus' into your life what you see in the eyes of the 'loving' preacher is more of a hatred than love as you know it. Ah and how they are pleased with themselves if they manage to slip into their farewell words a few threaths of eternal damnation. Such mockery of love is being played over and over again wherever Christians go.

How can we rational human beings accept that cheap substitute of love is beyond belief. Even those of us who didn't have very loving mothers certainly know in their hearts how much more profound than cheap preaching the real human love is. Yet, we get fooled because long ago we lost our spiritual freedom. We are enslaved by ridiculous concepts and afraid of following our instincts and true feelings.

Christianity makes a mockery of love in a deeper sense, too. Throughout the history Christian churches of various denominations loved to make alliances with the most evil political forces of oppression and injustice. Today in America we seem to have an unholy alliance between the pro-corporate conservatives and religious fundamentalists. The vision of society promoted by this group is the world where the powerful and rich are given all the freedom in oppressing the poor and defenceless, and the rest of us are urged to give to charities. Now love is equated with giving to charities while any attempt to balance the social injustice is viewed with suspicions. Socialists and communists who strive for social justice are labeled as evildoers, God and freedom haters. Some Chritians-conservatives even express the opinion that social reforms aimed at ending the poverty are anti-Christian because Jesus had promised that we would always have the poor presumably to provide plenty of opportunities to exercise Christian virtues and give to charities.

The hippie movement has been no more successful in embracing love as the cornerstone of their social philosophy. However, at least they had some success in making love, God bless them.

Justice.

Perhaps no other country prides itself of serving justice more than the United States of America. And yet, perhaps no other institution managed to mock and ridicule the idea of justice more than the curious judicial system in the United States. (see the note on American justice)

The failure of America to serve justice to its citizens is of grotesque proportions especially in the context of country's aspirations. Yet, this failure is no coincidence because of difficulties to define and to understand the concept properly. The reality is that you can argue about justice in the judicial courts, in the Congress and in the Senate until you get blue in your face but in the end the best paid lawyers and the lobbyist with the deepest pockets win the day.

It is no coincidence that America produced angry and violent rebels like Timothy Mc Veight and Theodore Kaczynski. People like animals resort to aggression when cornered and if the government denies its responsibility for what happened in Oklahoma, Waco and Ruby Ridge God help us. Personally I have more respect for Timothy Mac Veight than I do for Enron executives or for the abortion doctors killers. Whoever Timothy Mac Veight was, murderer and cold blooded killer, undeniably he was also an idealist with the courage to sacrifice his life for the cause he believed in. When faced with tragedies like Oklahoma bombing we always have a choice either to learn something from the tragedy or deny that we have anything to do with it. The lesson to learn from the Oklahoma bombing is that despite all the 'Land of the free' slogans American society is cornered, deprived of justice and desperate. If nothing changes there will be more Timothy Mac Veights in the years to come.