Lebanon: a study in interconnectedness

Safety, security, stability, and sustainability have become enshrined as humanitarian wishes in our global community. These concepts inform our values and perceptions of universal human rights. In concert with dignity and essential freedoms, these concepts moreover comprise the bedrock of the 21st century’s globalized civilization that prides itself on having climbed to historic peaks of prosperity by practicing humanized capitalism.  But these values and wishes of safety are historic anomalies in human affairs. They all but vanish entirely from collective awareness at the all too frequent times that are ruled by fear, hatred, greed, acute need, and aggressive search for dominance.  Rather than non-zero pursuits of security and sustainability for all, our species’ predatory traits have been – and are – the staple diet nurturing human mentalities and actions, demonstrated in the rise and demise of empires. Although diametrically opposed to our deepest values, this edge of human evil is