Back in 1933 there was a wonderful exchange of letters between Freud and Albert Einstein published under the title of "Why War?" I commend this to your reading that you might be reminded yet again of how prophetic geniuses can be, not only about the direction of their own work, but about the more general issues that we all struggle with. In this case the threat that the willingness and even joy with which we engage other nations poses a threat to our very existence as a species.

Both men understood, a half-century ago. well before an atomic bomb had been exploded, how dangerous war was becoming.

Hitler's merry band of henchmen forbade publication of these letters in Germany. They simply didn't want to hear any of this. Hmmm, sounds like some on these boards, say what?

Freud kept emphasizing the "death instinct," and the "aggressive" side of human beings in what he refers to as his "mythological theory of instincts" but he had no proposals to rescue us from our jeopardy as a species.

Adorno's work on the authoritarian personality along with Erich Fromm's attempts to understand the individual's relationship to a particular social and economic system read like biograph on Tom Broz and his clone, SADI-Tech.

Give some thought to the problems of waging peace without the simplistic resort to waging war. You are sounding like Linus in the Charlie Brown comic strip: "I couldn't think of anything to say (to the little curley haired girl) so I hit her." This makes an impression but certainly doen't accomplish any meaningful long term goals.

Pax, Publius