Aggression as Inherited BurdenAggression as an Inherited Burden

What kind of moral and mental conditions does mankind live under that makes it fall so low? Its leaders are the spawn of its time and its present is the product of its past. And all of us are in some way or other contributors to this. By way of our large and small private wars – which we lead against each other in our sensations, thoughts and machinations, and which, with six billion inhabitants on the Earth, represents a colossal potential of aggression – we make it possible for conflicts on a worldwide scale and their unleashing in warfare.
 
Over the course of human history, the individual lust to fight comes together over and over again into collective programs of action. An alarming example of this is found in bloody parts of the Old Testament where genocide and the most bestial kind of violence against individuals is presented as the will of God. By playing
down these Old Testament text passages as “historical, cultural heritage,” we should not deceive ourselves into overlooking the fact that they continue to influence us as an inherited burden of aggression.

Although the Roman Catholic Pope and his Cardinals called for peace, they were quick to say, “… but we are not pacifists!” What a mockery of Jesus of Nazareth! His instruction, “The one who takes the sword will perish by the sword” apparently is meaningless to them. But who is stronger? The radical pacifist from Nazareth or the churches that have cheapened His teaching? They were the weak that wanted to spread their faith with fire and sword. And today, having originated religious fundamentalism, they now reproach the American President for embellishing the weakness of his arguments with religion.