Full Moon

"Self love, my liege, is ne'er so vile a sin as self-neglecting." Those famous wise words were once spoken by the Dauphin in Shakespeare's "Henry V".

But over four centuries later, a great many denizens of this Earth have yet to grasp the implications of the French Prince's words. They are under the false illusion that selfishness and greed are the greatest obstacles to world peace.

To provide an example of why such people are mistaken, I would draw the reader's attention to the rise and fall of Nazi Germany almost a century ago. If the Nazis had been truly motivated by self-interest, World War II would never have occurred, as the price Germany ended up paying for its belligerence was incalculable. Even if they had won the war, it would still have cost them the lives of millions of their citizens; an entire generation of their strongest men.

So no, the Nazis were not afflicted by selfishness. Rather, their crimes were instead motivated by a particularly pernicious brand of suicidal ideation. Their denigration of their foes was rivaled only by their own self-deprecation, as they ruthlessly fed one innocent life after another into the meat-grinder of war.

Some people value human life. Still others value only money. Neither however pose as virulent and insidious a threat to humanity as those who value absolutely nothing whatsoever. And if humanity does fail, as many have prophesied it one day will, its demise will come not at the hands of its most cynical, but rather, its most nihilistic members.