Threshold of Inhibition Sinks

The alarm over the incident of the man who ran amuck in Parliament in the Swiss Canton of Zug prompted the president of said parliament to draw a noteworthy conclusion: He spoke under the following terms: After the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, the inhibition threshold of violent criminals has sunk. How true. Hardly had the twin towers in New York collapsed, when the toll of lives in the Mid East from the fire exchange between Palestinians and Israelis shot up. For a while it almost seemed as though behind the backs of a world numbed by shock, accomplished facts should be perpetrated. Minister President Sharon opposed more than ever the meetings planned for Secretary of State Perez and Palestinian leader Arafat. And when the meeting finally took place a few days ago, several Palestinians were killed shortly thereafter.

Terrorism also rapidly intensified in another blood-soaked city: The northern Ireland capitol of Belfast once again became the showplace of terrible fightings between warring Protestants and Catholics. According to a statement by the Irish Police Chief Flanagan, the extent of hatred and violence there is the worst he has experienced in 20 or 30 years.

Is all this a coincidence? Only for those who still believe that the world can be divided into districts that have nothing to do with each other; and that people’s feelings and thoughts develop independently of each other. For we have long known from modern science that we cannot divide the world into building blocks, but that everything is interrelated with everything else. For the world does not consist of particles of matter, but of energy and spirit, of patterns of information and tendencies, and every citizen of the Earth more or less contributes to the development of these energies. The readiness to aggression on one half of the globe also poisons the other half.

Of course, one can turn this communication toward the positive in an invisible way: For peaceableness is equally infectious as violence. One could imagine that had the so-called Christian western world done what Jesus of Nazareth taught – it would not have come to the Crusades, to violent colonialization or inter-European wars. The Earth’s aura would have long since developed a vibration in which the terroristist strikes in New York and Washington would have been impossible.

Hardly anyone speaks of these spiritual causes for the present situation in the world. Even though a chance for change does lie in knowing about them.

Washington Opposes a World Court

As reported by the Suddeutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper), the US government has decided to support a campaign against the projected World Criminal Court, which was initiated by Republican congressmen. According to the newspaper’s information, a law is to be passed already this coming week prohibiting US officials from cooperating with the tribunal.

The American government is scoring its own moral goal with this. Especially now, when it is trying to forge a worldwide coalition against terrorism, it is fighting against the creation of a global court that would be capable of bringing action against war criminals and terrorists through independent judges. And just recently, the action against Islamic terrorism was labelled "infinite justice" – which was, of course, then abandoned, because the claim of "infinite justice" encountered outrage in the Islamic countries. Without a doubt, a certain amount of arrogance adheres to this formulation. But does one want to abstain from justice entirely, when handling the condemnation of international criminals? Should it come solely before the American courts? Or is America afraid of landing in court itself, when it subjects itself to a World Criminal Court?

The rejection of such a court brings the United States into opposition with its European allies, who have long been endeavoring to establish an international criminal court. This should not be confused with the court that is presently in session in The Haag. This concerns a war crimes tribunal established by the United Nations for the war criminals in Kosovo, before which, for instance, Slobodan Milosevic is presently accused. If one want to avoid the accusation that with such tribunals, to which the war crimes tribunal in Nürnberg also belonged, one is concerned about justice for the victor, then it would be even more important to establish a court that is formed not after the fact, but exists from the start and is supported by the whole community of nations.

Of course, a world criminal court would bring to light only human justice which is afflicted with all the imperfections of human doings. True justice exists only within the framework of divine order. In this, God does not function as a criminal judge. According to the law of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping, each criminal passes sentence on himself – in this or a future life. The one who violates the cosmic order has to make amends for this violation himself. If we are not willing to do this, the settlement of the injustice that we caused to others will become a painful process. But God does not want that we expiate our offences through suffering and death, through need and illness, but that we establish order once more, by asking for forgiveness, by making good the damages as far as possible, and by also forgiving others, and by no longer committing a new injustice.

New Dangers Through Atomic Power Plants

Politicians become taciturn when addressed on the subject and until now one heard hardly anything about it in public discussion: What happens when the next terrorist strike is directed against an atomic power plant? This question is valid not only for America, but also for its allies. If it comes to a western military action against Islamic countries, the threat of the present situation will rapidly intensify.

The German Secretary of the Environment has commissioned an expert report on the security of atomic power plants, considering the , threat posed by this new situation. Until now, an airplane crashing into a power plant was only a theoretical case. Above all, the crash of a huge passenger airplane into a nuclear plant was viewed statistically as so improbable that it was held a reasonable risk. This has now radically changed. The 10 older power plants operating in Germany could not survive a terrorist attack by a large airplane. And so, what should one do?

In America the President has meanwhile given the command that every commercial aircraft that shows signs of being hijacked and is on the way to a new terrorist strike should be shot down. This is an apocalyptically odd alternative, above all, when one considers that during the past few years there have been hundreds of hijackings of aircraft. How can one determine that a hijacked airplane is not meant to merely serve as political extortion, instead of being a kamikaze strike like in New York and Washington? A further problem is that the interceptors, which are supposed to fire such a death shot at the lives of 150 to 300 passengers, would probably come too late. In America the mission failed because the hijacked planes were faster.

And so, do we want to erect anti-aircraft units around atomic power plants that shoot down from the sky airplanes moving within a certain security zone? This idea also seems to originate from the house of horrors of a science-fiction film.

Perhaps one should simply do the next best thing and shut down power plants that do not have adequate protection. As long as our civilization is marked by war and terrorism, it cannot afford the danger potential that could lead to a mega accident of cataclysmic proportions of an atomic power plant. Of course, the owners of the power plants will once again threaten that the lights will go out. But what do we prefer? The risk that hundreds of thousands of people die, which could be the case with a terrorist attack on an atomic power plant in a thickly populated region, or an accelerated abandonment of nuclear energy? Consistent savings of energy and the promotion of environmentally friendly technology make this possible, not only in 20 years, but already today!

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