The Words of Anne Frank

When speaking on how the murderous hatred of the Nazis and their will to destroy was stronger than the will of those to prevent this insanity—and on how too many people stood silently by and watched the ethnic cleansing go on—Anne Frank wrote in her diary not long before her death at age 15; “The little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago!” At this young age Anne had realized the sad reality of human nature and the conditioning processes of our world; “There’s in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage” (May 3, 1944; ver. A). Anne was also aware of the fear that people would let overcome them and how the individual’s unwillingness to face this fear would cause him to stick his head in the sand and seek escape through some bizarre form of religion or some other form of nonsense for entertainment.

I have witnessed this in my own observations of the world around me. The peoples of this country sat around and did nothing during the ethnic cleansing of the American Indians, which lead to the awful tragedy of the Trail of Tears—and the peoples of this country sit around and do nothing about the incredible tragedy of our deeply corrupted government and the injustice that prevails in all aspects of our legal system. The peoples of this country sit around and do nothing about the tens of thousands that sit in jails for crimes they did not commit because they have been railroaded or the tens of thousands that have lost their homes and all of their land because of big government and big banks have lost the significance of the individual. The peoples of this country sit around and let the destruction of nature and the animals go on unabated in the name of development and in the overwhelmingly corrupted importance of the all mighty dollar. The individual, you and me, are no longer important…and yet you do nothing and stand silently as these tragedies go on.

It may be in vain to believe that human nature will ever change. Anne wrote; “If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world for mankind” (April 11, 1944; ver. A). The sad actuality is that the supernatural “god” that Anne had hoped would save her and the god that the Cherokee Indians hoped would save them, and the supernatural being that so many others have believed will save them and who continue to believe will save them, and pay lip service to, is nothing more than an invention of human thought. It is not until the masses can realize the actuality of this fact as well as the problems of the purely atheistic approach that there will be hope for mankind. It is only when we free ourselves from all projected beliefs that man will come to terms with what he is and will live without motive. It is only by facing the sorrow of all human beings, and thereby going beyond sorrow, that there is love. And only love will let us face our fears and only love will bring about a human nature that understands that, although we are fallible, we must stand up for our rights and the rights of others. Only this love will bring about a human nature that protects nature and the many precious animals—a human nature concerned with the long term results of our actions.