What I really want is to understand injustice and conflict, and more and more I am realizing that it is most possible to understand within the framework of development, evolution and ecology. But is that really any kind of understanding? No amount of theoretical understanding will bring an end to any suffering. Yet here again is the assumption that I’m seeking understanding in order to assuage a grievance… yet this grievance is not my own. Can I pursue understanding for its own sake? The pursuit of this particular kind of understanding has no meaning outside of the ultimate ambition to disseminate what I learn–this is the most sinister of all ambitions!
