Maybe we haven't come so far

Bishop Gellert Hill

The Libertas family visited Budapest Hungary last week. It’s a great city. The people are very friendly – why not, it was your money. A couple of things struck me as toured around the city. First is Gellért Hill. It towers 754 ft. above the Danube offering a beautiful panorama of the city. The hill is named after the iron-fisted Italian Bishop Gellért, who assisted Hungary's first Christian king, Stephen I, in converting the Magyars. Gellért became a martyr when vengeful pagans killed him by rolling him down the side of the very hill that now bears his name - in a barrel – oh, and the barrel was full of nails. An enormous statue of Gellért now stands on the hill, with the bishop defiantly holding a cross in his outstretched hand.

What struck me was how far we – humans – have come. Except for the terrorists we are now locked in mortal combat with, half of the African continent, some remote South American tribes, voodoo practicing tribes in the Caribbean, devil worshipers, the few remaining communist governments and crazy sociopaths that dot every society, nobody would even consider rolling a human being down a long steep hill in a barrel of nails. Well now, wait a minute. That is a fairly long list come to think of it.

I guess it is an indication of how far the civilized world has come. But then wouldn’t civilized people always have been taken aback by such gruesome treatment of a fellow human being? Hmmm. It’s getting hard to come away believing we’re any better now than we were in the 11th century when the good Bishop met his demise.

Oh wait! We were aghast at Abu Grhaib. We are better now because we have condemned the frat boy actions of few soldiers who, in the heat of battle, misbehaved. Oh surely God will look down on us and bless us for condemning those we send to do our bidding when we think they go too far.

Look, I’m not happy about Abu Grhaib. But I’m not happy about it because of the obvious break down in military discipline and the damage it does to our just cause – not because a few terrorist murdering bastards had their pictures snapped naked. I’m less happy about the hand wringing and political posturing by certain Democrats and the MSM that think keeping Akmed the bomber up past his bedtime is torture.

I think the only lesson to take away from Bishop Gellért’s story is that it just might be the human condition to treat other humans badly. Only good training and discipline can overcome that condition.