Why men of learning will always win out over crazed revolutionaries

Many so-called revolutionaries are cruel, ignorant and opportunistic men. They don’t have the heart and wit to do something creative with their lives. How much easier is it to tear down the hard work of others or shout some slogan to bolster their egos!

It could be so different. And sometimes is.

Take the Second Vatican Council. The years of hard work. The social expertise. The solidarity of bishops, laity, religious and the Pope himself, John XXIII.

Years of learning, sifted, explained and expounded by theologians from different backgrounds, experts in various fields and disciplines.

Men like Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Hans Kung, and Yves Congar.

Insights into every aspect of human existence, some of which were magically developed by the writer Rosemary Haughton, and still are.

The writings of philosophers (Wittgenstein) and literary giants (Tolstoy) were trawled for insights and original source material.

And, believe it or not, there wasn’t a word about blowing people up, demanding anyone’s allegiance or threatening the uninitiated.

One incontrovertible fact always seems to float to the surface: the dafter, the more psychotic the revolutionary the more likely he is to demand allegiance!

What I find interesting is that people who will go to any extreme to find and employ the most up-to-date methods of destruction, often still operate psychologically from blinkered, medieval ways of seeing the world. Scary, or what?

Richard Dowling

Patrick Street

Mountrath

Co Laois