Read Chapter 1 of The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr, 1952.  Though written under the threat of communism and the atomic bomb, it is every bit as applicable today as it was when written.  And that, gentle readers, is yet another irony.

For those of you who do not complete your homework (and yes, you get a gentlemen’s “C”), you will suffer the consequence of life without a philosophical understanding and appreciation of why the polemics that guide our existence continues to fail to satisfy our idealistic dream of virtuous hegemony.  Okay, okay.  So the language is a tad stiff and perhaps too precise given current common usage.  Still, struggle a little because we are living today as Neibuhr explained more than 50 years ago because we have no yet gained an adequate understanding of who we are, why we do things and why we cannot overcome human nature by banging on the table. 

Just change a few words and Neibuhr could be talking about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.  And when the next conflagration happens (and it will), the book will again predict the obvious.  Yet another irony is that his purpose in writing is to give us the opportunity to view the world in a way that would allow us to break free of the chains that, he similarly tells us, cannot be broken.  Too obtuse?   Do you get your philosophy from Archie Comics?  Give it a try.  You certainly won’t be any the worse for it, and it may just clarify that gnawing sense that there really is intelligent life on earth.