OPINION:
Are boundaries of timeless values being increasingly obscured by excessive focus on business deal gains? That is, is a focus on interdependence, mutual prosperity and shared universal values being increasingly overshadowed by greed?
The quite rough but also awesome/wonderful evolutionary history of humankind, from its beginnings to the present day, teaches that those who have best led the way were not those who amassed the greatest gains for themselves and their own “tribes” during their lifetimes but those who upheld timeless values, even sacrificing their own immediate gain for the sake of the greater whole.
Whatever your faith (or non-faith), history documents the much greater impact of the following individuals and groups, in chronological order: Egyptian deities, Hindu deities, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Greek deities, Buddha, Confucius, Roman deities, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad.
Put another way, what greatest single factor lifted up America to become the greatest nation in the world? Was it that loose bunch of survivalist rogues who dominated as recently as 150 years ago? No, it was the grace of God, poured out on a unique nation — made up mostly of refugees from all over the world — that sacrificed 617,000 of its most promising youths in wars during the 20th century to protect other parts of the world from tyranny.
As expressed in this paraphrased core message of President Eisenhower: America is great not because it is powerful but because it is free, not because it is rich but because it is just, and not because it conquers but because it selflessly preserves human dignity.
Fellow Americans, let us not be so distracted by the heat of the present-day battles that we forget to continually recalibrate to the source of all good.
JOHN BRADY
Baden, Austria
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