Hong Kong authorities said on Monday they had arrested 13 people for suspected manslaughter in a probe into the city’s deadliest fire in decades, pointing to substandard renovation materials for fueling a blaze that has claimed at least 151 lives.
Priorities
We’re all old now, but some of us grew up in the golden age of manned space travel. Mercury-Gemini-Apollo-Skylab-Space Shuttle are words intimately familiar to us. It was ever so exciting and adventurous. As a science geek, I was glued to the TV for every launch and recovery. In second grade we had what passed in those days for a “portable” (bloack-and-white) TV and we dragged it to school where we spent the day watching John Glenn’s first orbital journey. But then I got older and was told, much to my disappointment, that the world had higher priorities than space exploration. My dreams of moon colonies and Mars mission were dashed. Priorities…
President Trump, during his first administration, has set us once again on a path to the moon. But it is not making much news and given the vagaries of politics these days, I am not holding my breath. After all, different administrations have different priorities. Sometimes different branches of the government have different priorities.
Current news has me wondering about priorities. We have just concluded our long weekend of thanks while thousands are dead in Southeast Asia and its archipelago. News, other than the rising body count, has been hard to come by. Poverty, and make no mistake the loss of life associated with these storms is a direct result of the poverty in the region, was one of those priorities that killed the maned space program. It is looking more like an excuse than an actual priority.
Police continued to sweep the seven towers engulfed in Wednesday’s disaster at the Wang Fuk Court estate, finding bodies of residents in stairwells and on rooftops, trapped as they tried to flee the flames.
More than 40 people are still missing….
Amid pockets of public anger over missed fire risk warnings and evidence of unsafe construction practices, Beijing has warned it would crack down on any “anti-China” protests.
China long ago made clear that its priorities are something other than human life. Watch this horrendous story disappear – quickly.
Which brings me to this story about Israel’s use of robotics in the Gaza War. The tech is fascinating and quite sophisticated. And strategically it makes all the sense in the world as the good guys risked no life while the bad guys lost. But it also gave me pause. America’s Civil War killed massive numbers because the technology of warfare out stripped our tactics and defense capabilities. World War 2 moved war from the battlefield to the everybody’s home front because of technological advances – reaching a zenith in nuclear weapons. We have learned how to kill en masse, and it seems we are learning how to kill without risk.
I do not wish to be anti-war here. If war must be fought, we are wise to fight it with every tool and every tactic at our disposal. I am looking more broadly.
What I see in all of these stories is a sacrifice of our humanity. We sacrificed our quest for knowledge and adventure for the sake of a problem that has no solution – poverty. In chasing that problem without a solution we have dehumanized the impoverished. Whether it be the tower fires in Hong Kong or covid policy, matters of state seem to matter more than our human lives. What does it say about humanity if warfare becomes entirely an automated affair. As is often the case, science fiction has explored this question – here’s a clip. Even James T. Kirk and Spock conclude war must have a human face.
Yesterday we looked at how influential intellectuals are coming to God and they are doing so not through intellectual activity but by once again finding their humanity. Progress, it would seem, comes not from the denial of our humanity, but from its flourishing. Therefore its flourishing should be our highest priority.
The post Priorities appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.