5 ideology of the State.” 10 At the end of his brief description of the twentieth century, a contemporary historian, among other scholars, 11 confessed that he was able to confirm what so many suspected: at the end of the day, history amounts to, among other factors, the record of the “crimes and madness” of the human being. 12 The State crimes that have been committed are still insufficiently known and acknowledged today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The brutal and cruel acts perpetrated throughout the twentieth century continue today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. 17. However, it is and continues to be the obligation of all of us who are true to the principles and purposes of jus gentium to contribute to preserving and strengthening the legal grounds for the construction of a better world in which justice and, therefore, social peace can prevail. The universal juridical conscience – which, in the final analysis, as I have been maintaining in my writings and in my opinions within this Court, constitutes the material source of all law 13 - has at least achieved a degree of evolution that today allows it to identify the goals that must be attained to benefit humanity as a whole – in a renewed vote of confidence in human reason, perhaps the last hope. IV. The total defenselessness of the individual in the face of the State’s criminal practices 18. The ancient Greeks were already fully aware of the tragic defenselessness of the human being in the face of arbitrariness. The coexistence with the irrational that prevails in the world was present in the Greek tragedies (for example, those of Euripides) and the “moral impotence of reason” was often acknowledged, especially in the face of brutal conduct. 14 The great twentieth-century Romanian playwright, Eugene Ionesco, when referring to the actuality of Sophocles and Euripides, stated that: "The works of Euripides speak to us as if they had been written yesterday. It is comforting that his work proves to us that, throughout the centuries, a human identity is perpetuated. It is frustrating, because the human condition remains moving and tragic throughout history, throughout all the social upheavals. [...] Greek theater is much more 10 . A. Morton, On Evil, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. IX, 78-79 and 82, and cf. p. 125. 11 . Cf. the warnings of Bertrand Russell, "Knowledge and Wisdom", Essays in Philosophy (ed. H. Peterson), N.Y., Pocket Library, 1960 [reed.], pp. 498-499 and 502; and Karl Popper, The Lesson of This Century, London, Routledge, 1997, pp. 53-54; among others. Another major thinker of our times, Isaiah Berlin, confessed at the end of his life that, at 82 years of age, his life had spanned most of the twentieth century and he had no doubt that it was the “worst century” in terms of the “horrible” events for “our civilization”; during his life, he concluded “more terrible things have happened than had occurred in any other era of history.” I. Berlin, "Return of the Volksgeist: Nationalism, Good and Bad", At Century's End (ed. N.P. Gardels), San Diego/Cal., Alti Publ., 1995, p. 94. 12 . E. Hobsbawm, Era dos Extremos - O Breve Século XX, 2nd. ed., São Paulo, Cia. das Letras, 1996, p. 561. 13 . A.A. Cançado Trindade, A Humanização do Direito Internacional, Belo Horizonte/Brazil, Edit. Del Rey, 2006, pp. 3-96 and 385-409. 14 . E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley/L.A., University of California Press, 1997 [reed.], pp. 29-30, 187 and 191-192.