"Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
In this poem, Arnold envisioned the world as a place of darkness,
conflict and confusion, with no light to show the way out. To him the
beauty of the world was just an illusion, a dream; and the reality of
life was one of struggle and pain.
Indeed, the world seems tobecome a more dangerous and hopeless every
day. The news is filled with dire stories about war and starvation,
the inexorable destruction of the natural environment, pollution of
the oceans, terrorism, and crime. Most recently we have been reading
about the "Arab Spring", in which the people of several nations have
risen up against their dictators. As inspiring as these events are, in
the midst lie acts of horrific cruelty. In Libya it isrumored that 100
officers who refused to order soldiers to fire on protesters, were
burned alive. La hawla wa la quwwata il-laa billah. How horrendous.
Wouldn't a sane person be afraid of such a world? Wouldn't an
intelligent person be consumed with anxiety, and wouldn't a very
intelligent person be plunged into despair?
The thing about fear, anxiety and despair is that they flourish in
spiritual darkness, just as some species of mushrooms can only grow in
the dark....
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