The human malady we must all try to understand

The more I see of humanity, the more I am convinced that something is terribly wrong. Dostoevsky wrote "I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition among men." This begs the question: what is the normal condition among men? What is it that is wrong?

Is it war? This past Sunday morning in the University Chapel, I heard Dr. Gwendolyn Zohara Simmons deliver a tirade against the Bush administration. According to Dr. Simmons, believers in peace everywhere must band together to oppose the assault on human goodness that Bush is staging in Iraq. I will not here discuss the inappropriateness of her political topic for a religious service, nor note the irony of her acid message's juxtaposition with the reading of Micah 4:3, a verse of reconciliation between all factions. I am interested rather in the assertion that war is somehow the center of human immorality.

The issue has long troubled me, in fact, but I do not think that war is always wrong. Maybe, if our country were invaded, it would be the best thing to submit. Maybe it would have been better simply to weep and not to fight after Lexington and Concord, after Pearl Harbor and after Sept. 11. Even if national defense is wrong, there is also such a thing as justice, which is also part of being moral. What are we to do if we are called to fight on another's behalf? I do not think aiding the oppressed is immoral, even if the aid involves harming the oppressor. And what if the soldiers are willing? (Of course, that just wars exist does not mean that there are no unjust wars, and Dr. Simmons may have had a point about Iraq. War is deeper than politics, though; violent strife, unlike filibusters, has always been with us, and I do not wish at present to add my voice to the multitude praising and condemning our president.)

Irrespective of what it has done to our country, I believe that war often does great things for men. It reveals their pluck. It can turn those shy and unpopular boys that sit in the corner into saints. It shows every fighter the measure of his courage. Of course, this is just what I gather from reading. It is possible that war is no more than a dirty, bloody, senseless thing, which makes animals out of good human beings. I have read this in books, too. I do not know, but it seems that war is a symptom of the human malady, not its cause, and sometimes, on a very small scale, even a cure for it. The old lie turns out to be true: It is a sweet and meet thing to die for a just cause.

If not war, what is it that has grieved humankind through the centuries? For a very long time, I thought it was inequality. I thought if all people could simply be given an equal foothold in life, with equal opportunity, with a vote in their government, all would be well. This is pure foolishness. Churchill once said democracy was "the worst form of government, except for all those others", and he was right. The same goes for all other human institutions. They are never better than temporary cures. I myself am something of a socialist, but I do not believe that public health care will increase the average happiness of man a bit. To spread democracy, freedom of speech and public transportation is a moral call, but none of the three will end human woe. The general state of humankind cannot be made better except by the changing of our hearts, and no earthly power, no matter how benevolent, can accomplish this.

When I consider the war in Iraq and Simmon's biting address, the conclusion is inescapable: something is wrong with the world. I am not sure I can do anything about it. I am certain my political agenda cannot. In the meanwhile, I will be careful to love what is good and flee from what is evil, and to shed tears for the world. David Schaengold is a sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached at dschaeng@princeton.edu.