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I turned to the dark-haired Russian. "We have two profound developments unfolding here side by side. One is the development of the proof of The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra that was eventually discovered by Gauss in 1799. The other development is that of the proof of the Principle of Universal Love that is still being developed. We have discovered a few partial proofs of the Principle of Universal Love."
"Isn't that what Jamal and Mohja had talked about?" said Astrid to me. "They seem to think that the entire Islamic Renaissance was proof of this principle." She explained to the Russian that our two Islamic friends had talked a lot about this principle, the Principle of Universal Love. "They also talked about a principle that they called the Principle of the Advantage of the other," she said. "They seem to think that this principle was rooted in this second European renaissance that gave us the Peace of Westphalia and the founding of the USA."
"Isn't that proof enough that these are two profound principles?" I said to the Russian. "One proof is found in the Treaty of Westphalia that gave us peace after eighty years of war. The other proof is located in the founding of the USA that gave us the first true nation-state republic in world-history. These two great achievements were both built on the Principle of Universal Love. Both resulted from the humanist development that began right in the middle of one of the worst wars ever unleashed, the Thirty Years War. It seems that both developments took us miles away from this tragedy of a raging war and literally created a New World, each in its own way."
The Russian nodded. "The Treaty of Westphalia became the foundation for modern civilization," he said. He spoke in a quiet, thoughtful manner. "Nothing before this time came even close to what the Treaty of Westphalia had put on the table. Nor has anything comparable been achieved since then. Under this treaty all war-atrocities were forgiven. No blames were laid. No reparations were demanded. Even the war-debts were forgiven. It was as if the nations got together and closed the book on the Old World and began with a new clean page. On this clean new page each nation had its name written and had its name acknowledged as intrinsically sovereign, tall or small, mighty or weak, rich or poor, signed and certified by all the nations. It was a momentous achievement for the nations to do this. Can you imagine what a wonderful world we would have today if we could do this again? This feat has never repeated."
"We can only dream about it now, and even that dream is already fast fading away together with the Principle of the Advantage of the Other that once stood tall behind that achievement," I said to the Russian, who simply smiled an nodded in apparent agreement.
"So you know about that principle too," said Astrid to our Russian friend. "Let's all have a coffee as Peter had suggested," she said to both of us. "Would you kindly join us?" she added, speaking to the Russian.
On the way to the coffee shop Astrid explained to him that a painting had puzzled her that may be linked to that period of the Thirty Years War. It's Rembrandt's painting of Susanna in the Garden. "I believe it was painted in the 1630s," she said. "That puts it right into the middle of that period in which all this profound awakening began. The painting had puzzled me when I first saw it, because as far as I know it wasn't Rembrandt's thing to paint female nudes. He did a few. I believe there weren't many. But why did he paint this one at this time? I feel it must have had something to do with the developing peace movement."
"That's an easy problem to solve," said the tall Russian man in reply. As we entered the coffee shop he asked in a laud tone if there was anyone present who could answer a question of art history concerning Rembrandt's painting of Susanna in the Garden. He asked in Russian and then in English.
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