Vigilance Required

It is philosophy that makes man understandable to man, explains human nobility, and shows man the proper road. The first defect appearing in any nation that is headed toward decline is in the philosophic spirit. After that deficiencies spread into the other sciences, arts, and associations. Philosophy is the escape from the narrow sensations of animality into the wide arena of human feelings…In general, it is man’s becoming man and living the life of sacred rationality. Its aim is human perfection in reason, mind, soul, and way of life….It is the foremost cause of the production of knowledge, the creation of sciences, the invention of industries, and the initiation of the crafts. - Al-Afghani

It's scary when you read this, and Churchill, and Jefferson, and Reagan, and then look at where Islam, England, the United States have ended up. 'Tis proof that one must be ever vigilant in the competition between good and evil; truth and fiction; rational and irrational - more vigilant than we have been.