Communism, liberalism, conservatism, they all claim to be universal. They include people of every race or nationality.

Well, not quite. They include a person of any race or nationality IF HE BELIEVES in their faith. You are a Communist regardless of the color of your skin, but only if you BELIEVE in Communism. The same is true of liberalism. The same is true of conservatism and the political philosophy of every kind of theologue.

The problem is that a person can no more change his actual beliefs by an effort of will than he an change the color of his skin by his own efforts.

All these faiths claim to be universal, but there is nothing universal about them. If you are not a Catholic, you can’t make yourself believe in Catholicism. Yet the very name “catholic” means universal. Evey church calls itself “catholic” or universal. It obviously isn’t.

There is nothing universal about a community of faith, whether the faith is religious or political. From the point of view of a real, thinking individual, his beliefs divide him from communities that call themselves universal as totally as his skin color or his citizenship divides him fom other races and nationalities.

What a group means when it says it is universal is that its MARKET is universal. A “universal” faith has the world to choose from. That is a huge advantage to have over non-universalist groups, but it’s not as inspiring as “unversalist” groups like to pretend it is.

Universalist groups are not only not inspiringly lovely, they tend to be vicious. Religious grops get into nastier wars than cnountries or races do.

There is never a real truce betwen universalists. Countries can set up borders and give other countries peace within their borders. But there can never be a single second when a liberal believes that a conservative does not need to be converted. The Communist must always believe that there is no room for a single Catholic on this planet, and no Moslem can be satisfied while there is a single Infidel on earth, no matter how “moderate” he is.

A moderate Moslem is one who does not believe in forcing others to his faith, but he has an obligation to want everyone to be a Moslem.

All universalists want it all. A nationalist or a racist is perfectly willing to let other races and nations have their space. But no universalist can ever honestly conceded the right of any other belief any room at all on Planet Earth.

That, after all, is exactly why he calls himself a universalist.