At the bottom of all the hate-isms -- egotism, racism, sexism, ageism, etc., I believe is fear - insecurity. We are, after all, alone in our heads. We need imagination to conceive how others may feel and think (compassion). We `know' nothing but ourselves, and our longing to understand and give meaning to all that we perceive. When we ask logical questions of the universe it answers only with the poetry of physics and time,or the non-answer that: all is chance! Blood dust and iron! We are in Camus' church of the absurd! And he tells us that the only defence against absurdity is passionate and permanent revolt for one's own liberty! - Oxford Muse, 2005