Читать книгу Ultimate Defense - Fredric F. Clair - Страница 11
ОглавлениеAPPLICATION
To assist in applying our remedy, it should be formulated as accurately and referentially as possible. A reverent reconstruction of the central code of each major faith, as set forth in authenticated, direct quotations ascribed to the central figure, should be prepared. Relative authenticity of the various passages used would be established by reference to researches authorized or approved within the given church or faith itself. Since the "remedy" to which we refer herein, consists of the principles or rules upon which there is substantial agreement among the ethical and moral teachers predominantly accepted throughout history by substantial sectors of mankind, the direct precepts of the nominal founders of our major religious and ethical systems must be compared and correlated. Because our objective is the use of the remedy as a set of operational instructions, the emphasis would be upon direct dicta. Imperative expressions of the elements of the remedy, carefully excerpted and verified, would be indispensable to the program of application. A partial and preliminary compilation of the sort suggested forms part of this volume, and is the source and inspiration of the material offered.
Sedulous observation of the rules that compose the remedy in the process of applying it is of paramount importance. Propagation should be in constructive illustration of the tenets themselves. And this should be no mere passive observance, but a vigorous exposition of their functional value as a superior, more satisfactory way for people to think, act, and live. The precepts which constitute our remedy should infuse every aspect of its application, and can display their immense productivity from its inception. It would be a futile folly to perpetuate abuses which have so nearly destroyed us, by introducing them deliberately into a structure designed for their elimination. We can forestall many of the unfortunate evasions and rationalizations that have chronically vitiated the use of the tenets as actual patterns-for-practice, by simply remembering that they stipulate "ends" and "means" as being inseparable, perhaps indistinguishable. If we suppose that the teachings form a cohesive pattern, and that this pattern provides the sole hope for human survival, then we will scarcely ignore or abridge its "end-means" element. To breach the remedy in our attempt to teach it might damage or destroy the whole; and so it might contribute to our inexorable drift toward involuntary race-suicide, exactly the impetus of our abortive attempt to prevent it.