THERE IS STILL HOPE

There are moments in which we feel really sad. Moments in which we dismay when we analyze the state of the World, and particularly the humanity.

Every time seems to be less human, the totally lack of ethics in social relations, the abuse of people, a stampede of crime, an explosion of corruption everywhere, the expansion of evil ideologies, the global warming, essentially lack of love, of affection, of understanding and the lack of courage to ask for forgiveness, and to forgive. All these mixed factors give as a result chaos, and an enormous sign of interrogation for the future of the human species and the Earth itself.

I don’t think I am wrong if I say that the biggest crisis in all orders, institutions and individuals happens in Occident. 

There is a permanent degradation of the society. It’s easy to see it looking at TV and the movies produced by Hollywood where violence reaches incredible extremes. 

And a question jumps into our minds: where are the values that have to permeate a society? How all those situations and scenes of violence have a place in the minds of those who develop the argument and script for a film? What is their idea of entertainment?  And what kind of public needs scenes of brutality, bad language, sex and drugs, to be entertained?

Occident is sick! Really and gravely sick. And nobody seems to realize that. Throughout the planet there is a small group of people that consciously realize this dreadful reality but regretfully it is a minority, and the economic interests prevail over  reason.

Orient is different. Yes, unfortunately there is also corruption and in certain countries, violence. But it is different. Still there is shame, there are ethical values, the respect of traditions, a simpler way of living, and the searching for self-improvement.

They firmly sustain the unity and the validity of family, and oppose the degeneration of the species disguised as “human rights”.

Many westerners have been going and continue going to Orient to find sources of spiritual development.

This also happens because the Christian Church in Occident (and with this generic mention I include all the churches, the Roman Catholic, the Protestant, the Pentecostal, the so-called Evangelical, etc.) have miserably failed to fulfill the demands of the Gospel. They have increasingly secularized themselves, they are no longer the light of the World neither the salt of the Earth. And that have regrettable consequences.

But I wouldn’t be fair unless I do recognize that within Occident, there are some rural areas in different countries –mainly in Europe but also in the United States of America and in Latin America— that keep traditions, and the people living there respect the adults, are serious in their responsibilities with their human group, they learn to be supportive of one another and keep a sense of unity.

That is why there is still hope. Not all is lost with humanity. Still remain people in many places whom we can trust, confronting a troubled present and possible a difficult future.

Milton W. Hourcade