When great civilizations begin to...
Illustration
When great civilizations begin to decline they pull in every resource to preserve themselves. Power, might, brains, genius, religion, art -- all are brought forth to reverse their demise.
When these are not enough to guarantee victory, the children are sacrificed. This happened in the Children's Crusades; it happened in Nazi Germany with the youth movement; it is happening in South Africa today. How easy we can look at this and turn away complacent. Our children are not marching the streets under gunfire and resting in jail.
Yet, in our present civilization, who is called to make the final sacrifice? Do the power players, the instruments of might, the researchers, the geniuses, the artists? Instead, their rewards increase the more we desperately depend on them to save us. But something else is going on. Are not the children of our day offered up, not as fighting soldiers, but as throwaway objects? So many children, so expensive to maintain, so insoluble a problem, so easy it is to sweep them under the rug -- the runaways, the outcasts, the unemployed, the unpopular ethnics -- hundreds, thousands, all embarrassments to a rich system.
When these children are sacrificed and we neither see them no more nor do we owe them anything further, there is enough and some to spare for one more generation. With our unwanted sons and daughters gone, we bolster once more what is important and real to us.
When these are not enough to guarantee victory, the children are sacrificed. This happened in the Children's Crusades; it happened in Nazi Germany with the youth movement; it is happening in South Africa today. How easy we can look at this and turn away complacent. Our children are not marching the streets under gunfire and resting in jail.
Yet, in our present civilization, who is called to make the final sacrifice? Do the power players, the instruments of might, the researchers, the geniuses, the artists? Instead, their rewards increase the more we desperately depend on them to save us. But something else is going on. Are not the children of our day offered up, not as fighting soldiers, but as throwaway objects? So many children, so expensive to maintain, so insoluble a problem, so easy it is to sweep them under the rug -- the runaways, the outcasts, the unemployed, the unpopular ethnics -- hundreds, thousands, all embarrassments to a rich system.
When these children are sacrificed and we neither see them no more nor do we owe them anything further, there is enough and some to spare for one more generation. With our unwanted sons and daughters gone, we bolster once more what is important and real to us.
