The age of spiritual warfare is now upon us. The forces surrounding our physical bodies are currently playing games with our souls, the stakes of which are our eternal destinies. We must realize what is going on outside of our physical bodies, in order to know what is going on inside our spiritual bodies. Even our mental self can conflict sometimes getting in the way of our spiritual needs, and we must take these things into account in order to maintain some resemblance of a personal unity.
No, I have not gone crazy. I am not an eccentric, new-age screwball, hoping to infiltrate the academic bastion of Dartmouth with my outrageous claims. Rather, I consider myself a level-headed conservative, though I am sure more than a few of you will consider such a term at least slightly oxymoronical. And I don't see anything outrageous about spiritual warfare, either, for it is upon Dartmouth in full force right now, as it has been for decades and even centuries.
Wherever there is a conflict in interests, a spiritual root is always present beneath the surface of the tree of disagreement. Never do we dwell in the realm of the purely physical, for our spiritual bodies hold immense power over the rest of our being. The spiritual side of our nature is what causes us to appreciate a sonata, follow a God or fall in love. Our mental and physical capacities carry us only so far. No matter how much I can possibly tell myself to love someone, it is impossible without feeling it emotionally. We cannot explain how it happens -- it just does.
Similarly, other emotions have the ability to defy logic. Take for instance the recent suicides of three of our own. Despite many rational attempts to explain the circumstances around these troubling deaths, most of the questions have come back wholly unanswered. We cannot be sure of the spiritual state of those who killed themselves and what might have led them to believe that such a solution was in fact the only solution. We all know what it is like to have some emotions pulling on us in one direction and others pulling us the opposite way. This notion of being caught and having no place left to turn, no matter what the specific circumstances, is what leads to such tragedy. For those of us who are left in the wake of the tragedies, in the heart of stressful rigors at their penultimate level, the only thing we can do is to look out for ourselves and those we care about.
One of the dangers facing us in this spiritual warfare is that today, economic success is seen as success in life. Most of us feel the constant pull from parents and educators alike to leave Dartmouth and "make something of ourselves," but at what cost? Our own souls? Even in the classroom, there is a war for our spirit which is being fought, and often, we as students are mere hosts for the battle. It is beyond us. As Max Weber wrote, "This order (of modern economics) is now bound to the technical and economic production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irresistible force."
Therefore, according to Weber, even those who do not care to become caught up in the whirlpool of economic advancement are still in danger. The "irresistible force" is too great, no matter who the person or what his goal in life might happen to be.
However, it is apparent that economic forces are not the only ones that are upon us. There are numerous stresses and subsequent traps into which we may fall, none of which we desire to encounter. The pull of money, in other words, is not the only one which has a hold of many of us: There is also the greater force which lies behind it. I am not about to say what that force is; however, its visible traits include greed, false priorities and selfishness.
Most people do not seek such traits on their own. Therefore, the desire which attempts to seep into our minds via professors and parents alike is not a human one, but one from an outside source. And if you'll buy that notion, you might also buy the idea that there is an outside force of good, which is combating this evil all the while.
What else do you think keeps us from becoming robots who seek only our own pleasure? Some people might say the answer to that is easy -- a reasoned conscience. Yet from where did such a conscience come? Surely not from our education, for even a two year-old knows the difference between right and wrong. What we have instead is a spiritual warfare over our eternal souls, whether you happen to see the lifespan of your soul being your lifetime, or the lifetime of your God.
Whether you buy only a single word of what I have to say, or even less, at least consider the possibilities. We are not alone in this world. That bears repeating: Not one of us is alone. Think about it.
