mostly in their attitudes towards it.nWhat is it that forces families of Americans kidnapped innBeirut to come before TV cameras and tell us all that thenlives of their loved ones are worth more than the honor, thenprobity, and, in the last instance, the safety of their ownnnation? Men have faced death since the first ones came tonlife; yet for thousands of years they have evolved countlessnways to meet it with dignity, grace, and courage. I wondernwhich of those qualities are left to those of us kept pluggedninto life-support systems, as doctors tinker with us, makingnus even more mechanical than we already are.nIt is the mind-set that has legislated the safety belt upon menthat sees no taking in giving. Freedom is opportunity, forndownfall as well as rise. In the Soviet Union, they havenexcised out of life all the possibility of failure by creatingna unified, equitable, and universal failure. The worldnof seedless fruit and sinless sex will have become a realitynonly with the loss of our navels, which, in itself, is impossiblenno more.nFor ages, people have divided themselves into realnhuman beings and those who are only biologically human.nBut our divisions have become much more blurred, numerous,nand inconsequential. Our spokespersons, representatives,nand delegates to life would otherwise be out ofnmandate. Statistical entities, existing only in computerdegradablenminds, are becoming new units of humanity—nthe Western experiment in the existence of the person isngiving way before the ancient Asiatic reality of masses.nIf biological success is to be measured by the spread of anspecies upon earth, we are almost as viable as bacteria ornfungi. There is no reason, I suppose, why economicsnshouldn’t apply to humans as well. Where men havenbecome mere fractions of millions, and billions yet toncome, it is hard to envisage any other system but ancollectivist one. In Montenegro, the death of every mannwas a loss, for the whole country never numbered morenthan 200,000 individuals. In India, cyclones wash awaynmore people than that yearly, while the Chinese are apt tonexecute an equivalent of the Montenegrin army in a singlenanti-crime campaign.nLife is but a precondition to living. No place in thisncontinuum and, I suspect, in any other, is boundless.nInfinities there are only of choice, upon finite worlds.nPeople, in their millions, spend eons watching TV, playingncards, or merely existing, convinced of their right to endlessnliving, so they could, I suppose, have their crack at fritteringnaway the cosmos.nIn Canada, where I live, and in the USA, which I love, Insee a rampant, galloping flight from the responsibility ofnbeing human. Or alive, for that matter. Our technology,neconomics, our medicine, and social doctrines are allnworking together to absolve us from the dignity of beingnresponsible for our own lives, as well as for our deaths.nEvery year I find myself less free than the preceding one.nLooking back upon the North America of the 50’s, I realizenthat it was a paradise. Freedom then had not yet becomenconditional upon safety—transgression was punished morenseverely than nowadays, while prevention was still a rightfullynmedical term.nNothing in this whole wide universe is as unsafe asnfreedom. In fact, that could be a definition of it. Risk isn18/ CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnnnwhat we pay with to have a chance at life. Otherwise, wenwould only have a chance at safety. A continent discoverednand developed by those who were able and willing to risk isngradually being transformed into a playground for thosenwilling to have us all domesticated. It was probably inevitablenfor us to turn upon our own selves the principles wenhave been using, so far, in our dealings with the world. Butnstill it is a sorry thing to witness. I wish I were not party to it,nbut I am, by being alive.nThere can be no adulthood without freedom, nor cannthere be any humanity without adulthood. For thosenunwilling to risk, there is always the freedom of choice,ninseparable from the obligation to face the consequences.nThere can be no equality between freedom and slavery,nignorance and the search for knowledge, spiritual basenessnand nobility. Living in this world from Belgrade to Chicago,nfrom London to Lusaka, and from Peru to Iran, I havenfound it, unfortunately, mostly a place where little mennbase their stature upon the misery of others. Vast myriads ofnhuman beings upon this planet are united in their beliefnthat their malfunction is a result of someone else’s success.nThere is no dearth of ideologues, least of all in the Westnitself, willing to support them in this belief There is annalmost universal anti-Western, especially anti-American,nfeeling in all the Third World countries where I have lived.nThis feeling is a product of envy and injured pride.nIdeologies of jealousy are a feature of our times, morenthan of any other. Never before were the differencesnbetween success and failure so pronounced and obvious.nThat is not the fault of viable nations and societies, but annoutcome of modern technology. While cursing the Satan ofnAmerica, Khomeini does it by microphone in front ofncameras, despite an express Islamic ban on human representation.nIn Kuwait, sheiks endlessly cruise the streets inntheir Cadillacs, fingering their worry beads and denouncingnWestern decadence. There are no cultures in this world butnone: the culture of man fleeing nature, and the onlyndifferences are those of degree. We should not let anyonenextol their impotence as a virtue. Those who rail against bignpower imperialism engage in petty, often much morenvengeful, oppression, either at home or against their immediatenneighbors.nThis world is at war, and no one needs to look at a map ofnbattlefields to see that. Beyond the borders of a very fewnfortunate states, homicidal frenzy, darkness, lethargy, oppression,nand wholesale deception are the rules of life. Yet,namong North Americans there is a blissful unawareness ofnthe world beyond their frontiers. Even when they do travel,nfew travel outside beaten routes or spend time with peoplenliving in accord with their geography. We have allowednourselves to agonize over “issues” like the right to life, anright that is mocked by each act of injustice, disability, andndeath we cannot do away with. We battle over women’snliberation as if all other liberations were achieved already,nincluding the emancipation from those who would speak innthe name of all of us. We talk of racial equality without evernhaving seen any equality, anywhere. Homosexual groupsndemand the right to celebrate their choice, as if it were anmatter of aesthetics. We have lost the war in Vietnam andnare losing the one in Central America because of ournunwillingness to die for our right to our way of life. Nobodyn