The other day, we were greeted with the terrible news that the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, was assassinated. This shows several glaring truths, which I will discuss in detail with you.
First, knowledge cannot be “un-invented.” Tools, be they screwdrivers, firearms or nuclear weapons, cannot be just “gotten rid of.” The fact that the concept exists, means any reasonably intelligent person can reverse-engineer the actual tool, or something similar. The concept leads to the physical tool.
An example would be the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear devices. It took over $2 Billion ($36 Billion in 2022 dollars), four years and the construction of a couple of cities to make it happen. The greatest physicists alive at the time had to develop the physics and mathematics to understand and control its use. They then had to design and build the machines to process the fissile material, then machine it and so on. Today, someone with a Masters in Physics could lay the theoretical work necessary, and the processing equipment can be procured on the open market. The only hard part is obtaining enough of the proper fissile material that can be refined into “weapons grade.”
So this man, armed only with a basic knowledge of firearms, built a double-barreled black-powder shotgun out of what is available at any hardware store. Pipe, wood, duct tape, charcoal, saltpeter, sulfur, screws/washers (the projectiles) and a device to create an electronic spark to set off the powder. Building a “pipe shotgun” in the US is way easier because we have access to actual shotgun shells.
The second point is evil, as in the intent to hurt other people. This is a horribly mangled quote, I’ll update it when I find it:
“Evil can never be defeated. It is merely driven back, where it changes form and waits to strike again.”
Evil will always be with us. It cannot be legislated, willed away or defeated. It is just as much a part of us as our heart. Evil is just as essential as well. Why you ask? If things were all good all the time, how would you know that’s a “good” thing? It is by the contrast of Evil that we can understand the real beauty of love, happiness, joy and so on.
My third point is about time. Evil acts occur only when it’s the best circumstances for it. Good is almost always caught flat-footed when Evil acts. This is why Good has to conceptualize how Evil can manifest itself, devise how to act against the threat, then train and practice to do just that. Evil can plan and take its’ time until they have everything they need and the conditions are just right, Good must go with what it has then and there.
All this leads to point #2,419 that we cannot create Utopia. We cannot reach that, and it is dangerous to even try.