Esteemed Reader of our Magazine,
Murders, wars, rapes, thefts—villainy of every kind—are constants in the life of humanity. This is our history. It is a history of crimes: not only against one another, but against all life. The rainforests are scorched, the bugs are zapped. Roundup©-resistant hybrids are bred never to seed. Humans’ violence against life seems ceaseless.
The crimes of humanity against itself are the same as a hundred or a thousand years ago. Only the details, the scale and the weaponry have changed. Humanity is no more civilized, no more advanced. Yes, our technology has developed, but it is in the same ignorant, selfish hands.

Who is to blame for the mass murders? Are the Serbs or Milosevic responsible for the genocide in Kosovo? Is Burger King liable for the razing of the Amazon forests? The politicians and activists say yes. Everyone is pointing a finger, believing someone must be held accountable for the crimes. And both sides of every battle believe the other to be the criminal.
But I say no. No one is to blame. It is not the fault of the WTO ministers that their policies cause multitudes to suffer. It was not the fault of the Nazis that the millions were gassed. After all, I need look no further than myself to see that no one commits intentional evil.

Everyone is after the good—as it is understood—each believing that they are doing the right thing. Even Hitler, a contemporary icon of evil, believed his final solution to be a noble and important task.

The universe is governed by a law of reciprocal maintenance. What occurs on the earth is in a cosmic context and therefore serves the needs of a cosmic order. How can it be otherwise? Are we so self-centered and myopic as to believe that what we do happens in a vacuum? Yes. And the coup de grâce is that we believe ourselves, and our enemies, to be responsible for our respective actions. No, we are simply instruments for a cosmic need expressed as a private reaction. When the universe needs energy or the earth needs blood, the millions are murdered and our energy and blood are made available.
We are always somebody’s slave, always serving something. And we all crave freedom. But where is this freedom to be found? Reacting to people or events deemed evil makes us slaves to the very evil that we seek to dispel. We become the slaves of our anger. No, the final solution is not directly addressing the apparent problems. A more sly approach is needed; an approach that bypasses the lure of dualistic engagement.

Each person is a microcosm of the whole. What happens on a global scale, within the great body of humanity, transpires in every individual every day. It is there for the watching. After all, the national and cultural entities are comprised of individuals. As such, they represent a composite of each little life. Herein lies our opportunity.
Real activism doesn’t engage with the dualistic play of “issues.” It transcends it. The war for real freedom is the war against ignorance. The battlefield is in each person’s mind, heart and body. Victory is in not caving to the ubiquitous opportunities for distraction and reaction.

No one is culpable for the crimes because no one recognizes the larger context of their action. What seems right in one “world” is clearly wrong in a larger, encompassing context.
In which world will we live? It all depends on what we see. Our world is what we are awake to. Hence, there is battle each person must wage. It is the great war against sleep.

—Jason Stern