車臣(Chechnya)乃裡海(Caspian)和黑海(Black Sea)之間的高加索地區(Caucasus)其中一個俄羅斯聯邦。由於高加索地區乃羅剎人進軍土耳其和波斯必經之路，因此幾千年來皆是兵家必爭之地。近代高加索人跟羅剎人戰爭進入高峰期始於彼得大帝進軍亞洲的大博奕(The Great Game)為起點(見拙文《阿姆河斯坦恩仇錄》)。
筆者記得007系列中的《The World is Not Enough！》占士邦曾進入高加索地區調查一宗涉及英國石油大亨Sir Robert King被殺的案件。其中來自美國核彈專家邦女郎Christmas Jones曾講過美帝在高加索地區行動必須要有MI6的協助，皆因大英帝國在高加索地區乃至中亞地區情報網絡已經有幾百年歷史。Christmas Jones這番恭維事頭婆的說話原來有根有據。話說當年羅剎人東進的終極目標乃印度次大陸，因此大英帝國乃至東印度公司均派了不少密探在這地區工作，其中一名有涉足高加索地區的著名探險家便是Captain Arthur Conolly。
Captain Arthur Conolly本是東印度公司軍官，於1829年他喬裝伊斯蘭商人化名阿里汗(Khan Ali)由莫斯科出發，經過大部份高加索和中亞地區後於1831年安全抵達印度。據說Arthur Conolly作為拓荒者開啟了大英帝國在這個廣大地區的人脈網絡，其中俄羅斯更思疑大英帝國長期資助高加索人對羅剎人的戰爭。1834年在他的傳記《Journey to the North of India through Russia, Persia and Afghanistan》首次以大博奕(The Great Game)來形容英俄逐鹿中亞的國際形勢。
按道理車臣人跟羅剎人血海深仇，攻擊對象應該是俄羅斯而非米帝。據國際情報「權威」Strafor的《Why the Boston Bombers Succeeded》的分析，Dzhokhar Tsarnaev和Tamerlan Tsarnaev應該受al Qaeda宣傳影響而成為獨立行動的Inspired Operative，未必與車臣恐怖份子有關聯。不過單掌拍不響，倘若大英帝國一直以來真的默默支持高加索人對付羅剎人的獨立運動，那麼大英帝國沒落後美帝又有沒有取而代之介入這場獨立運動？假如米帝真的是現代高加索人獨立運動的幕後金主，那麼這兩名已經在美國落地生根兼學富五車的車臣靑年才子，緣何要對美國恩人痛下毒手呢？
How strange is the lot of usmortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purposehe knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But withoutdeeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists forother people – first of all for those upon whose smiles andwell-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for themany, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties ofsympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my innerand outer life are based on the labors of other men, living anddead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the samemeasure as I have received and am still receiving. I am stronglydrawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I amengrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow-men. I regardclass distinctions as unjustified and, in the last resort, based onforce. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good foreverybody, physically and mentally.
I do not at all believe in humanfreedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only underexternal compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity.Schopenhauer's saying, 「A man can do what he wants, but not wantwhat he wants,」 has been a very real inspiration to me since myyouth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life'shardships, my own and others', and an unfailing well-spring oftolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easilyparalyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from takingourselves and other people all too seriously; it is conducive to aview of life which, in particular, gives humor its due.
To inquire after the meaning orobject of one's own existence or that of all creatures has alwaysseemed to me absurd from an objective point of view. And yeteverybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of hisendeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked uponease and happiness as ends in themselves--thisethical basis I callthe ideal of a pigsty.The ideals which have lighted my way and timeafter time have given me new courage to face lifecheerfully, havebeen Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship withmen of like mind, without theoccupation with the objectiveworld,the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientificendeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. The triteobjects ofhuman efforts--possessions, outward success, luxury--have alwaysseemed to me contemptible.
My passionate sense of socialjustice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly withmy pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other humanbeings and human communities. I am truly a 「lone traveler」 and havenever belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even myimmediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all theseties,I have never lost asense of distance and a needforsolitude--feelingswhich increase with the years. One becomessharply aware, but without regret, of the limits of mutualunderstanding and consonance with other people. No doubt, such aperson loses some his innocence and unconcern; on the other hand,he is largely independent of the opinions, habits, and judgments ofhis fellows and avoids the temptation tobuild his inner equilibriumuponsuch insecure foundations.
My political ideal is democracy.Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. Itis an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient ofexcessive admiration and reverencefrom my fellow-beings,through nofault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be thedesire, unattainable for many, to understand the fewideas to whichI have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. Iam quite aware that it is necessary for the achievementof theobjective of an organization that one man should do the thinkingand directing and generally bear the responsibility.But the ledmust not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. Anautocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. Forforce always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to bean invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded byscoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposedto systems such as we see in Italy and Russia today. The thing thathas brought discredit upon the form of democracy as it exists inEurope today is not to be laid to the door of the democraticprincipleas such, but to the lack of stability of governments andto the impersonal character of the electoral system. I believe thatin this respect the United States of America have found the rightway. They have a President who is elected for a sufficiently longperiod and has sufficient powers really to exercise hisresponsibility.What I value, on the other hand, in theGermanpolitical system is the more extensive provision that itmakes for the individual in case of illness or need. The reallyvaluable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not thepolitical state,but the creative, sentient individual, thepersonality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while theherd as such remains dull in thought and dull infeeling.
This topic brings me to that worstoutcrop of the herd life, the military system, which I abhor. Thata man can take pleasure in marching in fours to the strains of aband is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given hisbig brain by mistake; unprotected spinal marrow was all he needed.This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with allpossible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all theloathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism--howpassionately I hate them!How vile and despicable seems war to me! Iwould rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such anabominable business. My opinion of the human race is high enoughthat I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had thesound sense of the peoples not been systematically corrupted bycommercial and political interests acting through the schools andthe Press.
The most beautiful experience wecan have is the mysterious.It is the fundamental emotion whichstands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does notknow it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good asdead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience ofmystery--even if mixed with fear--that engendered religion. Aknowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate,ourperceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty,which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to ourminds--it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute truereligiosity; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeplyreligious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punisheshis creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience inourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of anindividual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, fromfear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied withthe mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and aglimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, togetherwith the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever sotiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.
