War and peace

Thanks to terrorism there is much less difference between war and peace than there used to be. "War" used to be a matter of governments openly declaring war and sending armies across national boundaries to fight against each other. Civilians were often casualties but, at least, it was considered to be a war crime if armies deliberately targeted non-combatants. Violent attacks in times of "peace" -- governments not officially at war -- were crimes even if commited across international boundaries. The perpetrators were criminals and police, "peace officers", not soldiers, were dispatched to deal with them. Unfortunately, governments, including ours, got into a habit of lending support, usually covert but often overt, to terrorists treating them not as criminals but as freedom fighters or defenders of the faith or some such. Now laws that used to work well based on a distinction between war and peace are no longer realistic. That is a loss. Civilization, such as it was, is set back.

Personal thoughts

I have been very moody and thoughtful lately, My wife died recently, September 24th, and I miss her very much. Thoughts about her lead to thoughts about life and one thought leads to another. I think about religion although I am not a believer and I think about nature, including human nature, which has always been of great interest to me. Let me give you one random example of a thought that came to me in the middle of the night:

Humans have always excelled as tool makers. Prehistoric people made many tools -- not just the weapons, the clubs and spears, that regrettably tend to come so quickly to mind. Needle and thread are prehistoric inventions as are fish hooks. Containers were made so that water could be transported and stored against future needs. There are certainly many more examples. Tool making has been a central pillar in the construction of human civilization. Tool making is exquisitely characteristic of human endeavor and it has shaped our social values and our ethics.

I am an ethical humanist. My father was a tool and die maker. I am proud of him. There is nothing he could have been that would have been more civilized or more quintessentially human. As I look back on it now I cannot not be sure whether I am proud of my father because I am an ethical humanist or if I am an ethical humanist because I am proud of my father.