What the World Needs Now

A popular song in the mid-sixties went, "What the world needs now—is love, sweet love..." sung by Jackie DeShannon [http://tw.gs/Way9d for more info see– http://tw.gs/Way9g]. It's still one of my favorite songs from the sixties and the YouTube video (first link) captures the innocent hope of the sixties for a universal love. Another one of my favorites songs was by the Youngbloods called, "Get Together" [http://tw.gs/Wayba], which became somewhat of an anthem for the peace movement of the sixties. The sixties were a tumultuous time of expectant hope and altruistic (at first) belief in the goodness of humanity, with a divergent mix of protests and campus unrest, a war overseas, economic change, and a moral and spiritual vacuum.

Hasty Judgments, Wrong Assumptions

Katrina flooding in New Orleans–Win Henderson/FEMA

People, all of us, are quick to make judgments—we do this even without realizing it. It's more obvious whenever a great tragedy or disaster occurs—assigning blame and responsibility is all the rage, literally. The larger the event, the more blame is slung around. 


What concerns me most of all are the self-proclaimed prophets. Some foretell events that don't happen, while others are quick to claim it must be God's judgment. Depending on your own reactions, it's easy to fall into one camp or another of defending or blaming.

The Problem with Judging

The presidential campaign is in full swing, and the political rhetoric and retorts are flowing. Whether it's candidates or pundits, party faithful or the peanut gallery, everyone's got something to say—most of it reactive. But it's not just politics, strong reactions and judgments abound on a myriad of issues—scandals, "stand your ground," militants and terrorism, religion, morality, and so on. Reaction and overreaction isn't limited to the public arena, it's been going on since humanity existed.