CIVILIZATIONS! Sales-Pitch

My situation is a bit lamentable. I am now a sort of pessimistic pacifist. I know now, and have always known – even in my ingénue – that I despise conflict. Before, however, I was blissful in my misinformed ignorance about war. I was content in my ignorance, though I do not believe I could have been fully happy in my naiveté – my innocent sort of trendy wish for world peace. However, thanks to “The Pen and the Sword” course, my pacifism is now realistic, rather than idealized and inarticulate. My attraction to peace before was largely impersonal, detached – irresponsible admiration. After taking The Pen and the Sword course, however, I think my appreciation has become more founded. The class informed my existent interest in the overarching struggles of peaceful humanity – good and evil; heroic and communal ideals. Sifting through these sticky questions was not easy by any means – yielding about as many nuggets of hard, definite, aphoristic truths as today’s Yukon River. Those few truth nuggets, however, are dense. Good and evil are dichotomous necessities. They co-exist in a sort of communal opposition. War is rarely justifiable as means to an end, yet is often resorted to earlier than necessary. In today's society, heroes continue to be valued largely for superficial things. Zion is the Utopia mankind unconsciously strives for, and has only ever been achieved on earth twice. The golden dusts of truth surrounding these issues are a bit hazier, and while the class established this foundation of learning, it has rightly left some questions a bit open-ended. The situational merits of the class have proved far more beneficial to me than the academic, per se. Because we definitively established some things, fore- and over-shadowing our discussions with these assumptions, we were able to continue down the road of conjecture more certainly, with less trepidation. We received gold dust with our nuggets. Now my afore soporific view of humanity’s struggles is a bit more alert. I’ve come to realize that humanity repeats its mistakes – therefore history appears to repeat itself. Despite society’s supposed “enlightenment” and through our higher education and learning, we still are not devoid of war or conflict. Humans are spectators and experiencers of the duking out of good and evil. This will probably never change, insofar as opposition in all things is required. When Zion is established on earth is when humanity will transcend itself; when it will rise above its masticating masses and realize true, Utopic peace. So what is my point? What is my thesis? I've learned that establishing basic knowledge in a discussion - whether personal, oral, or written - is essential to further conjecture and questioning. I've learned that despite cyclic history and cyclic humanity, mankind will not change until Zion is established. I've learned that information feeds and tames blazing curiosity. Above all, I've learned that scholarship and faith inform and enrich one another. I've seen it firsthand in my professor, Dr. Griggs. And so my situation is certainly not entirely lamentable. I prefer knowledge and truth – however uncomfortable they may be – to the happy ignorance of cobwebbed thought and the hollow fool’s gold of misinformation.