Everything Old

“Whole continents and whole races do not take well to imaginary roles, roles assigned to them by minds they find it difficult to understand, and which look quite strange to them. Thus they finally insist, if necessary with violence, on asserting what is least imaginary–and least acceptable to our collective imagination. ‘Here,’ they say, setting fire to a building, ‘see what you can make of this!’

We do not make much of it. Or else, perhaps, we decide it is a Terrorist plot . . . Thus we dispense ourselves from the need to think, and convince ourselves that there is only one way: to go into action with weapons.

Thus we drive them all into the arms of the Terrorists, since we have left them nowhere else to go!”

These words were penned over 40 years ago by the Trappist monk and mystic Thomas Merton. I have taken the liberty of changing only the word “Communist” to “Terrorist” in the two instances in which it appears.

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