The Free Radical

Quite simply, the “ends” can never justify the means because there are no “ends”. There are only means. And as tempting as it may be to just leave it at that, I will, however, attempt to elaborate.

All of life, and especially human endeavour, is in continual process. There are no endpoints– unless we speak of the postulate that eventually the universe will collapse in upon itself bringing an absolute end to all existence as we know it. Such an ultimate end hardly requires any justification since any discussion is rendered moot by the very topic of discussion.

So what do I mean that there are no “ends”? Surely World War II ended decades ago, and the Roman Empire came to an ignominious end many centuries ago! So how can I stand by this notion of there being no endings?

Let’s first look at the Roman Empire. The term “Roman Empire” is just a convenient historical label or category we use to refer to a specific period in the history of civilization on this planet. Historians tell us that it had a specific identifiable beginning and a definite end. But the larger context within which we place the “Roman Empire” is “history”. And history did not end with the folly of the Romans. It carried on through the lives of the survivors of the Empire’s fall. It’s what came next… and something always comes next. But what determines exactly what comes next?

Could it be that the “means” determine or create the “ends”? I really don’t know what else possibly could. So with this in mind, let’s now turn to WWII. We are told that it ended in 1945. Were the Allies fighting a war against a man? A Nation? Or an ideology? A whole heck of a lot of what WWII was about seems highly relevant in today’s world. Fascism. (Think government backed corporate monopolies.) WWII never ended; it just went covert.

We can only be the change we want to see in the world. What we want cannot be mandated from above. To truly exist it must be evenly dispersed among all. Freedom.

The “means” should be figuring out how to do that! No justification necessary.