Prose and Poetry. Cosmos and War

Why is prose harder to write than poetry? Because in prose every part of the text leads you away, demands more attention, and it is difficult to create a unified whole. In poetry the language is holistic: with one word you can embrace much, and there you are king and god, not allowing the harmony you convey to be broken, even when you write about disharmony.
It is known that at the beginning of history poetry and music were one whole, and later they separated.
All religious books are written in poetic language; they are full of metaphors and parables.
But let us move to another subject.
Why do all kinds of theories about overpopulation and similar ideas fail in real life? As Владимир Маяковский once said: “Different people are needed, all kinds of people are important.”
Why did humanity, as soon as it became civilization, turn its eyes toward the sky? The Bible was created by Jewish agricultural people; they understood that harvest often depends on weather, and that heaven decides when to sow. No matter how well you cultivate the land, if you lose connection with the sky, nothing will succeed.
Gradually useful and harmful human qualities became separated. Morality arose out of practical necessity. Determination is important and useful, while aggression brings no benefit. It is better to domesticate animals, and they will be more useful. Even in war slaves could be used rather than killed.
All human development moved in the direction of humanism for completely utilitarian reasons. Slave labor became unproductive, and humanity moved to feudalism, then to capitalism.
Under capitalism profit becomes the main goal of the owners of factories and enterprises.
Why was Фридрих Энгельс mistaken in Anti-D;hring when he believed that the militarization of the economy was only a temporary phenomenon in Europe? Engels thought militarization was merely a remnant of old feudal orders, when feudal lords waged wars as a kind of game born from idleness, and that capitalism would destroy this phenomenon because militarization and war produce no benefit and therefore no profit.
But Владимир Ленин, in Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, showed that new kinds of empires had emerged in the world — not territorial, but financial. Banks became empires, and financial capital, not industrial capital, ascended the throne and felt its imperial power.
The goal of banks is to accumulate money, protect money, and produce money, and financing militarization brings enormous guaranteed profits because the customer is the state. Money has no smell, and banks finance the most conservative and reactionary regimes.
When the Nuremberg Trials took place, not a single banker who financed the construction of gas chambers, crematoria, and the entire machinery of the camps where thousands of people were tortured and exterminated was tried or even mentioned.
When Адольф Гитлер came to power, Germany was going through terrible times; the treasury was empty. Interestingly, in his famous book Mein Kampf Hitler devoted hundreds of pages to analyzing and criticizing financial capital. He understood how it worked and studied its predatory nature. Yet they gave him money — for militarization, for Auschwitz, Buchenwald, gas chambers, crematoria, and even competition among contractors for construction projects.
The statement by Thomas Dunning that “with 300 percent profit there is no crime at which capital will scruple” is confirmed here completely. Only those who created this spectacle never went to the gallows.
Many countries, peoples, ethnic and social groups, millions of innocent people suffered from World War II. Only financial capital did not suffer; it profited and strengthened its imperial power.
People usually speak about the victims of World War II by blaming Hitler for everything, as if an evil man was simply born and everything went wrong. But in World War I Hitler himself was a victim. He was a sick man both physically and mentally, but others saw he could be used.
World War I had already shown examples of mass extermination. The gas attacks described by Эрих Мария Ремарк and others were predecessors of the gas chambers.
By the time of the Nuremberg Trials there had already been Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Dresden, where about 250,000 German women and children died during the bombing.
Representing the Soviet Union at Nuremberg was Андрей Вышинский, who in 1937–1938 had provided formal legality for the mass repressions known as the Great Terror.
But the purpose of my article is not to search for guilty parties in human rights violations, though the most important human right is the right to life. Otherwise there is nothing to discuss — neither in the past nor in the present.
Why is prose more difficult than poetry? Because when you write prose, themes open one after another like Pandora’s box, and each is important and demands time and attention.
What I wanted to say is that throughout all of human history people were right to look toward the sky, toward the cosmos. The cosmos is an infinite and unlimited source of resources. Investing in space is far more beneficial than investing in war.
It is madness that humanity spends ten times more on militarization and military budgets than on space.
It is absolutely clear that humanity will become a planetary species — this is its future. The exploration of the Solar System, the planets, and asteroids will provide unlimited resources and territories. Technology will develop at tremendous speed, and the best human qualities will be cultivated.
And we love people for their best qualities, not their worst ones. Yet often the worst qualities appear because of environment and circumstances.
In wars — international or otherwise — one of the central commandments of every religion is violated: “Thou shalt not kill.” People are transformed into enraged beasts or exterminated like cockroaches.
Cosmos demands courage, cooperation, comradeship, intelligence.
War is baseness, betrayal of divine truths, dehumanization, and the annihilation of human qualities. Most importantly, it is meaningless and useless.
One wants to cry out to the world: come to your senses.
Have people truly learned nothing since the time when the crowd justified two criminals but condemned Christ to death?
I would like to end with the words of Иммануил Кант:
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”