It is said that no cause is ever lost because no cause is ever really won [T.S.Elliot?], and recent events have brought that home forcefully.  The most obvious is the resurgence of Islam, a faith written off after WWI and the secularization of the former Ottoman Empire as relegated to the dustbin of history. Today I looked at the news and saw Al Quaeda in Iraq protesting "the Crusades" as if almost 1000 years hadn't passed since Pope Urban initially used that term.  And for those who want some variety in their enemies, Russia and Putin are slowly establishing a stranglehold over European energy sources, giving them more leverage than they ever possessed during the Cold War which ended less that twenty years ago. Speaking of Russia, if we look to our South we see the reemergence of Marxism, perhaps the most reviled and historically bankrupt of all the ideologies that have taken hold of men's minds. Even our old enemy in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega is back, reelected decades after having been written off as history.  And from a less adversarial perspective, Judaism, perhaps the most prosecuted and oppressed of all belief systems in history, continues to exist, and is even right at the center of world events as Israel seems to be at the geographical  center of  the world's struggles. And less we think we are unique, proof that new, advanced ideas do gain hold in the world, let us not forget that Democracy began more than 3000 years ago in Greece, and that the Romans had the first group of aristocratic elites called a Senate.  Does anything ever change? Is progress an illusion to comfort us as we engage in battles fought for hundreds or thousands of years? Or we all Sisyphus, pushing that stone up a hill only to have it keep falling back down, never making headway ?

An existential secularist [read Liberal here] would probably point to material improvement, and that is undeniable, the result of Capitalism, a system that echoes some economies of the past  but which incorporates the added boost given by technology and energy which magnifies and multiplies the generation of wealth and the improvement of living standards.  So yes, from that perspective life is improving, just as it is also deteriorating due to the pollution, alienation and other drawbacks which attend the modern industrial economy. But I am an optimist by nature, so I will credit this a net gain.

But it is obviously not enough as the upheaval in the world demonstrates. Now it can be argued that most of the problems are due to wealth inequality, and if that can be remedied all will be peace and goodwill. Sorry, I ascribe to Jesus' words that the poor will always be with us. After all, if you compare today's poor to  the medieval poor you'd be hardpressed to say most are not much better off  [for instance, in the US, many of those in poverty probably live better than the aristocrats of the 1200's], but the problem seems to be relative wealth, and here, unless you are a Liberal who still believes in fairy tales, human nature ensures that there will always be "wealthy' and "non-wealthy" people. If this is the cause of the strife we face, than we are indeed doomed to battle for all eternity.

But I don't think that is the real problem, and I base this on my own experiences. I know many very wealthy people who are unhappy and "searching", susceptible to all sorts of marginal or fringe belief systems [did I hear someone say "Scientology"?].  Material wealth is nice, maybe more than nice, but it doesn't fill a person's soul, and therein lies the problem. Try as Liberals might, people realize they have "souls" even if they don't call it that, and that is what reawakens or keeps alive ideologies and faiths long thought dead. Marx thought he had the answer to this thirst, and Lenin thought he was realizing it, but instead they only proved the point that a strictly secular, materialistic system will never fulfill us.  And yet  believing in God doesn't reallyseem to solve anything, as we apply all our competitiveness and ambition to the realm of faith and split into competing "teams".And so we keep looking, and fighting and despairing.

I would like to be able to offer here comforting words of wisdom which would show us the way off this treadmill, but I do not have any. What I do know is that , even while we are fighting for what we believe is good and right,  we must never stop appreciating life and all God had given us. I remember a story about Warren Zevon, the songwriter who , when he was dying from an untreatable cancer, was asked what he would miss most. His answer was a "good ham sandwich", and for me that resonated. Yes, we may very well find ourselves in a world war with Islam, but even as we engage in it, we must cherish our family, our talents, our opportunities, all those instances of charity and decency which surround us if we only open our eyes, and yes, even a good sandwich. Maybe we are fated to fight the same fight against the same enemies over and over, but that doesn't mean we cannot change and become more appreciative, decent people at the same time. Maybe life is all about trying to do  things that make God proud, even as we are experiencing a "Ground Hog's Day" type of deja vu in confronting the challenges the world presents. Maybe that is the only real progress.