The Age of Violence

Rioting is the new free speech, it would seem, if Brazil, Mexico, France, and oh, yes, New Orleans and other cities of the USA are any indicator. And why not? When the "leaders" of the most powerful nation in the world can find no other way to address problems and greivances than sending in the troops? Send them to Iraq! Send them to Louisiana! Hey, uh, send them to the border! Violence begets violence, it was long ago written down; this is true. It begets itself and seldom little else. With death and mayhem becoming so prevalent in every sphere, it seems that the world is headed, not for another world war, but for a conflagration; tensions are a high in Asia, in Africa, and smouldering in the East of Europe and the old USSR; the Middle East is a powderkeg surrounded by madmen with torches. Those fierce torches seem to be the only light in that benighted land. In Venezuela and Iran, North Korea and Beiing, sabres are being rattled; in Somalia and Darfur the death knell is never silent. The world seems terribly adrift in a terrible and stormy sea, and the end, no one can foretell.