An Axial Moment

The late great philosopher and political theorist, Karl Jaspers (bear with me a moment, I have a larger point to make), once wrote about "Axial Civilizations".   Jaspers wrote about the fact that there are certain civilizations in the history of the world, that became so-called axial (pivotal, fundamental) moments in the future of global civilization.  What I want to reflect upon in this blogpost, is the power of an - "Axial Moment."  That there have been certain moments in history which played axial (pivotal) roles in the future of the world.

One of these axial moments is - June 6!

For example, on this very day, just 74 years ago (June 6, 1944), 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in a battle that would later be called "D Day" - in order to force an extremely significant thrust in the prolonged effort to push back the Nazis and to win the Western Campaign of World War II.  Nine-thousand American troops died on this very day, for our country, just 74 years ago.  Those brave souls who gave their lives, climbed the beach heads, under extreme pressure from the Nazis, only to die upon those white sands.  To become the "flowers of the forest", and fallen heroes, as later poets would write.

On this same day, just 50 years ago (June 6, 1968), a US Senator named Robert F Kennedy, the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, was shot and assassinated in the kitchen of a hotel, named "The Ambassador", in Los Angeles, California.  Just after Robert Kennedy bellowed the words from a be-chisseled hotel podium; "Now it's onto Chicago, and let's win there", a lone gunman (as far as historians know) shot the young senator multiple times, leaving him limp, only to die on a cold, commercial, kitchen-floor.

What to make of this convergence of historic events?

What to make of this...

Axial Moment?

Not sure exactly!

Except to say that many young people have fought for the betterment of this country, only to be cut down too young, and too soon.  Also, that life is fragile.  And that these liberties of ours (freedom, truth, independence), these liberties that we keep, were not (to paraphrase Shakespeare's play Henry V), "purchased cheap".

Perhaps another reflection is that in both of these axial moments, there was a stated aggressor (Sirhan Sirhan in the former case, and the Nazis in the latter), there is an example of a violent perpetrator and a victim.  And that the would-be victims stood-up to, and ultimately vanquished their opponents - not through sheer force alone, but through good will, vigilance and the test of time.

Finally, I guess it makes me sad, from the standpoint of a person living in the year 2018, 74 an 50 years later, to know that though we have progressed in many ways, in so many more, we have miles and miles yet to travel.

Where are we as a country on June 6, 2018?

Is this another...

Axial Moment?

All For Now,

GB