by Ray Jason
My personal Life Voyage was greatly inspired by two titans of sea literature – Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville. They wandered the Wide Waters, not just searching for riches and adventure, but also seeking deep awareness of the human condition.
They concluded that many men have a tragic tendency to succumb to the worst elements of their nature. Although there is a smattering of virtue motivating some of the characters in their novels, largely the books describe a dark and disturbed human landscape. Sadly, I now perceive the literary villains sailing those pages as only mildly malevolent, compared to the Malignant Overlords that we battle today.
Certainly, there have always been aberrant humans who want to dominate and even destroy others. Much of History is a sickening cavalcade of conquerors with an obscene lust to rule the world. That has not changed. But what is now different is their ability to achieve their hideous desires.