Going from left to right - in more ways than one - the
political world seems falling apart : The
USA is discussing not whether their president is the best ever but whether
their president is just self-seeking and intellectually unfit for the job ; in
Ireland most politicians are resisting the
logical advance of democratic representation, coalition of all parties and go on dividing in the hope of conquering
each other; in the North of Ireland the DUP is pulling itself apart, in Britain
many Scots want to secede, the Conservative government is unsure whether its rudder is guiding them to the right direction and even
whether it has one; the European Union
instead of creating unity and the certainty of a better future for Europeans is wondering if there is, or ever will be, such
a thing as European Unity ; the Middle East is rocked and blasted again and
again with disastrous wars whose origin goes back to what European Nations have
greedily done to it for centuries.
And the Catholic church, still believing in its destiny to
be the Rock on which a new World would be solidly built is in bitter conflict
inside, under attack from outside and wondering how it can keep its certainties about anything in
face of so many believers now becoming uncertain of nearly everything.
There is even more than that, but why continue such a litany
of woe?
There is plenty of criticism about all this , plenty of a
verbal and other abuse about it. But there seems a remarkable absence of reasonable analysis of
what is happening and why it is happening. Maybe too many people are afraid of
being held responsible, too few
believing we humans can do any better.
So why not ask just one question that might help lighten the
dark : What would have happened if.........?
What would have happened if our Unionist friends in Ireland ,
having got control - against their
wishes because they wanted all of it - of six Irish counties had decided to
treat everyone in that carved off
area with justice, decency and even
generosity? There were some of them who did want it and even the British King George
the Fifth ( it was George V wasn't it ?)
made a speech at the opening of Stormont (in 1932 wasn't it ?) saying he hoped
"both sides in Ireland would eventually come together". What would have
happened if the Unionist fair play people, few as they were, had taken courage
and succeeded? Of course they were thinking
of fair play inside the Empire, which would not be easy but no matter, that
might well have been remedied in time.
Or if in the USA they really did become the Land of the Free
for the black people, the immigrants, for all to whom their Constitution
promised a new life brightened by the American Dream come true?
Or if the European Governments who colonised the world for
profit had listened honourably to those who demanded justice for those whose riches and resources
they plundered , and the idea of creating a "shared
history" with them had been real,
not a sham created after so much abuse?
So many ifs and an even greater number of buts. It did not
happen - that was not because it could
not happen, but because so many people refused even to think of it
happening. These weren't only the powerful
and ruthless ones. Some of them believed
they were the great defenders of human dignity in the world - the church and other
religious leaders among them. What would have happened to Apartheid in South
Africa if the Dutch Reformed and other Churches had not tolerated or encouraged it ?
Is our "What if..?" then a fantasy question about an impossible dream ?
We human beings have an immense capacity to do what is
right. Some of us have died rather than refuse
their fellow citizens the dignity and justice they deserve. We celebrate their lives and deaths. Surely then
we have proved we have something better to live and die
for than an economic system, or for making ourselves great again by
blocking other peoples' trade, fingers poised over a bigger destructive button of misery than our fellow human beings whom we should be promising to cherish, not threatening to destroy ? Asking
"What would have happened if.....? " is not a useless question. Not
only political and religious unions but even
our social and homestead unities are dissolving, our empires crumbling , our
artificial greedy divisions of people and countries proving to be the accursed disaster they really are, yet somewhere there must be - an individual here, a handful of people there
- the seeds of a human intelligence that understands what is really good for
the human race, seeds that never really died and may still be ready to grow no
matter how the ruthless, the greedy, and worse, the ungenerous, have poured the worst of their destructive
profit-making seed- destroyers on them.
Or to put it another way :
What if your small persistent shouts for justice were at last to shake down our avalanche ?
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