Much of my introduction to organic gardening, the only kind of gardening I have ever engaged in, was made possible by a fellow by the name of Gary Kline. From his garden store on the shores of Black Lake I carried with me a heavy weight of knowledge, and a fair wage of experience. It was incredibly good fortune for me to have had those opportunities.
In the years that I worked at Black Lake Organic, I met nearly every organic gardener in this part of Washington. Interestingly, I was the stand up fellow who attempted to answer questions and provide guidance to many who were senior to me in age and experience. I had behind me several shelves of thick and thorough books about gardening and pests and soil science. From them I drew strands of knowledge that provided many of the answers I was sent searching for.
In time, my conversations with our customers began to fill me with answers to questions I would not have posed to me for years to come. When winter came, and there were not funds to pay me with federal reserve notes, I acquired copies of many of those books for my own shelf. I also acquired many of the tools I still wield today. When I teeter at the top of an orchard ladder, steadying myself with a thin branch pressed between my fingers, at the end of my arm, cradled comfortably in my rough hand, are the Felco pruning sheers I was so happy to acquire fifteen or so years ago in exchange for my hours in that shop.
I am leading you to this small cedar building built on a hand poured cement slab at the shores of Blake Lake in Washington State. In the door and around the corner to the shelves that hold the simple organic fertilizers that help form the foundation of organic agriculture. They are naturally separated into three categories; animal, vegetable and mineral. The basic animal meals; bone, blood, feather and fish. The basic plant meals; soybean, alfalfa and kelp. The basic ground minerals; rock phosphate, agricultural limestone and gypsum.
When it comes to fertilizing your garden, it is important to remember that you are undertaking an ancient and sacred activity. The first cultivators of land began to understand the complexities of its management. They might have been striking the first blows from human hands against this glorious planet. If they failed to understand well enough the cost to the land of their agriculture, they might have moved on, or perished. In most cases we do not have the luxuries that they enjoyed. We are often left to garden in marginal land. Too many trees to the south. Big rocks. Heavy clay. Or it just stays wet late into the spring. When gardening in these places, it is that much more important to work hard to understand what we do when we attempt to improve fertility and increase our yields.
An element too of fertilization is its ability to increase the nutritional value of our food. When the first assessments of human health were made on a country wide basis in the US to fulfill the needs of the growing army, it was found that many health problems were locally severe, and elsewhere non existent. There were not super markets at the time to mask the local nutritional deficiencies in the soils and water. What the soil offered to the plants, the plants offered to the people. What the soil did not offer to the plants, the plants could not offer to the people.
Another interesting anecdote concerns the range of the Buffalo. A mammoth beast, that stormed across the range. Only eating grass. What grass must have nourished these beasts? What soil must have fed these grasses? They knew well where to end their graze, if they wished to continue to pound the terrain. The most fertile soils in the world could be found beneath the feet of the Buffalo.
What did those soils have that the marginal soils do not? Maybe most importantly is calcium, at just the right saturation percentages to maximize the production of protein in plants. This perfect ratio was the result of parent rock that had nutrients ready to be dissolved, and weather that would coax it out of the rock in the ideal concentrations. With just enough rain to quench the thirst of the plants, without washing away their valuable nourishment.
If the mineral balance of the soil is in this ideal range, everything else will begin to come easily. Microbes and plants living and dead will release nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur. These microbes and the earthworm they assist will flourish, processing and refining organic matter into humus. Humus, this final product of aerobic decomposition, not dirt, not compost, humus. It is the nexus of life on this planet.
Curiously, humus and clay have a lot in common. They both hold a positive charge, that attracts cation elements. The total charge in a given soil represents the capacity of a soil to hold these nutrients against leaching. A sandy soil has a very low capacity to hold cation nutrients. A clay soil or a soil high in organic matter has a larger capacity. There is a minimum quantity of these cation nutrients that must be available for a plant to grow. There is also an ideal relative concentration of these nutrients in a given soil based on that soils capacity to hold them.
The three primary cation nutrients are calcium, magnesium and potassium. Calcium should represent 70% of the saturation, magnesium about 10% and potassium around 3%. In different soils you may find advantage in adjusting that magnesium number, but the 70% calcium number is a target in all soils. If cation nutrients occupied 100% of the capacity in a given soil, that soil would be pH neutral. In a properly managed soil for agriculture, the pH should be about 6.7. This allowing some unsatisfied or potential capacity in the soil. It also allows some acids in the soil to continue the decomposition of minerals.
Agricultural limestone is the ideal material for raising the calcium concentration in soil, and thus raising the pH. If the pH is too high already, but a need for calcium exists, then gypsum is an alternative source. It should also be remembered when applying rock phosphate that there is a significant amount of calcium in it as well. As with all organic fertilizer, you are getting a natural material, with a variety of elemental components. Look too see what other nutrients you may be adding along with the one you intend to add.
If the intent of the gardener is to nourish herself, then great attention must be paid to calcium. We are deceived into believing that the way to plant growth is NPK. Though these nutrients are consumed in great quantity by plants, the determiner of their efficiency in doing so and their nutritional value in the end is more accurately found to be calcium.
When studying that soil analysis you have done by the extension office, (after first carefully reading the description of how to collect the soil sample and following all of the directions to the letter), look to the base saturation percentages to determine your need for calcium. If you have the agent recommend fertilizer applications, and they call for dolomite lime instead of agricultural lime, be sure to examine this recommendation carefully. It is almost always in error. Unless there is a distinct need for magnesium, do not use dolomite lime to raise your pH.
If you have been adding phosphorous, whether you knew it or not, you likely do not need any more this year, take a break. If you do need phosphorous, composted chicken manure is a great source, as long as you need the accompanying nitrogen. All around it is a great fertilizer for corn and squash and other high consumption crops. Steer manure is a much lower nitrogen alternative. Be aware that much of the manure today is contaminated with persistent herbicides. Cow manure and horse manure most notably. Persistent meaning they will not biodegrade. Ask your supplier if they have tested or are aware of any concern about the chemical clorpyralid. If they cannot address this concern, move on.
I am cautious about advising people use soybean meal for nitrogen, and I warn people against ever using conventional cotton seed meal. The former does not always show good results, and is almost certainly genetically engineered soybean. The latter is not regulated as a food crop and so is soaked in pesticides and herbicides. Rumor is that the oil extracted from the seed meal for potato chip production carries all of the pesticide residue with it. This keeps me from eating cottonseed oil, but does not encourage me to use the meal as fertilizer.
I like the animal meals, especially since they are not now used for feed. Blood meal is an excellent quick source of nitrogen and iron, even in cold and wet soils. Feather meal is a bit slower, and carries with it compounds that may slow its becoming available for plants. Steamed bone meal is an excellent source of phosphorous and calcium, though it also contains lead. They will all attract animals. I have planted hundreds of bulbs into beds using bone meal only to return the next day to find each one meticulously removed by patient little fingers so that the little beast could devour every precious flake of that steamed bone meal.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Organic Fertilizer and Heavy Metals
Like many stories, this one begins on a lovely spring day. It was just dry enough today in western Washington to mow the lawn for the first time. If I did not get it today, it would have surely meant the Stihl trimmer would have to put the first cut on it after another week of rain. So, avoiding that, I was grateful for the opportunity to get it now with the mower.
One thing led to another, and next thing you know I was hearing from a friend about how the new garden at the White House in the other Washington had the list-serve all a flutter this morning. Turns out there was a fair bit of concern about what sorts of lawn chemicals had likely been used in the recent past on that stretch of grass, and how it must be enough to undermine the claim of organic.
Now, before I continue, I want to share with you some of my background. It was about 1992 when I first stepped foot in the door of Black Lake Organic. This is a small gardening shop on the shores of beautiful Black Lake outside of Olympia, WA. At the time this was quite the rustic operation. The fellow who ran the shop, and owned it, and built it, and would soon employ me for six years and be my friend until this day, is a man by the name of Gary Kline. Now Gary was not much for bureaucracy, or the paper work that went along with it. So, the fertilizer operation at the time resembled something that would have taken place in the last century, meaning the 19th. I was quite impressed though, it was like an apothecary's shop, or the sort of place you find in the opening moments of a spooky movie, where the protagonist buys some exotic powder or the pulp of some very rare plant.
Though it may all seem very exotic, everything there could be divided into one of three classes; animal, vegetable or mineral. In all three of these classes the material was usually ground into a meal, producing for example, blood meal, alfalfa meal, and limestone flour. Well one day a customer, who also happened to work for the state, noticed that we bagged small quantities of any and all of these materials for resale in the store. We would buy in fifty pound sacks, and sell in any bulk quantity the customer wanted. Of course they informed us, we needed a special permit to do this, and part of what that permit requires is a nutrient analysis of the material, printed on a label and applied to each of these bulk packages.
You are probably familiar with NPK. Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Three of the major plant nutrients. It was quite an undertaking to get all of the materials we used tested and registered with the state of Washington. But we undertook the task, and Gary still operates the store and sells all of the organic fertilizers there to this day.
It was 1997 that the Seattle Times published an investigative piece on heavy metals in fertilizers. All types of fertilizers were analyzed, organic and synthetic included. Yep, that’s right, there was contamination of the fertilizer with heavy metals, but it may come as a surprise to you where these contaminants turned up. Turns out, Miracle Grow was as clean as a whistle. After all, it is a synthetic creation, so it only had elements that were intended to be there in it. The organic fertilizers on the other hand, were loaded with heavy metals, cadmium and arsenic being the two most abundantly discovered.
The rock phosphate mine in Idaho that was supplying the rock used in the organic fertilizer was loaded with the metals. When the same rock was processed to make the super phosphate used in the miracle grow, the cadmium and arsenic were removed in order to increase the concentration of phosphorous. Of course, somewhere this very concentrated waste lies today. When it came to organic standards, which dictated that the rock could not be modified if the fertilizer was going to be called organic, that cadmium and arsenic was being very modestly and evenly distributed all over the country on peoples organically tended lawns and gardens.
Not long after the article in the Seattle Times, heavy metals in fertilizer fell under state regulation here in Washington. We had to submit all of our fertilizers for laboratory analysis to determine the concentration of metals in them. These totals dictated the application rate of the fertilizer, and the associated numbers were made available to the public on a website. Several products, including that Idaho rock phosphate, were too contaminated to continue to be used. Another mine, in Montana, soon came online and supplied us with a less contaminated rock phosphate.
This brings me back to my conversation this morning. Upon being told about the concern for the lawn at the White House, I informed my counterpart in the conversation that when I discuss with clients their concern for past contamination in their yard, I often reassure them by saying, 'hopefully they were not using organic fertilizer.'
Two other sources of possible contamination with heavy metals are fertilizers derived from sewage sludge, or trace element products that are really just a clever way of disposing of industrial waste while still turning a profit for the manufacturer. In the state of Washington (and possibly Oregon, California and Texas) heavy metals are regulated in fertilizer. You could also track down information on brand names and generic products at the Washington website.
A good rule of thumb that I share with clients of mine (I design and install natural/organic food producing landscapes) is; whatever you have been doing a lot of, should probably stop, and something you have not been doing could take its place. Meaning, spreading wood ash on your garden is good, until you have done it too much, which happens rather fast. If you use rock phosphate every year, stop it, you have enough phosphorous, and it lasts a very long time. If you every year apply chicken manure to your garden, stop it, you have enough nitrogen and probably way too much phosphorous. If you never eat meat, have a hamburger, it is probably just what you need.
One thing led to another, and next thing you know I was hearing from a friend about how the new garden at the White House in the other Washington had the list-serve all a flutter this morning. Turns out there was a fair bit of concern about what sorts of lawn chemicals had likely been used in the recent past on that stretch of grass, and how it must be enough to undermine the claim of organic.
Now, before I continue, I want to share with you some of my background. It was about 1992 when I first stepped foot in the door of Black Lake Organic. This is a small gardening shop on the shores of beautiful Black Lake outside of Olympia, WA. At the time this was quite the rustic operation. The fellow who ran the shop, and owned it, and built it, and would soon employ me for six years and be my friend until this day, is a man by the name of Gary Kline. Now Gary was not much for bureaucracy, or the paper work that went along with it. So, the fertilizer operation at the time resembled something that would have taken place in the last century, meaning the 19th. I was quite impressed though, it was like an apothecary's shop, or the sort of place you find in the opening moments of a spooky movie, where the protagonist buys some exotic powder or the pulp of some very rare plant.
Though it may all seem very exotic, everything there could be divided into one of three classes; animal, vegetable or mineral. In all three of these classes the material was usually ground into a meal, producing for example, blood meal, alfalfa meal, and limestone flour. Well one day a customer, who also happened to work for the state, noticed that we bagged small quantities of any and all of these materials for resale in the store. We would buy in fifty pound sacks, and sell in any bulk quantity the customer wanted. Of course they informed us, we needed a special permit to do this, and part of what that permit requires is a nutrient analysis of the material, printed on a label and applied to each of these bulk packages.
You are probably familiar with NPK. Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Three of the major plant nutrients. It was quite an undertaking to get all of the materials we used tested and registered with the state of Washington. But we undertook the task, and Gary still operates the store and sells all of the organic fertilizers there to this day.
It was 1997 that the Seattle Times published an investigative piece on heavy metals in fertilizers. All types of fertilizers were analyzed, organic and synthetic included. Yep, that’s right, there was contamination of the fertilizer with heavy metals, but it may come as a surprise to you where these contaminants turned up. Turns out, Miracle Grow was as clean as a whistle. After all, it is a synthetic creation, so it only had elements that were intended to be there in it. The organic fertilizers on the other hand, were loaded with heavy metals, cadmium and arsenic being the two most abundantly discovered.
The rock phosphate mine in Idaho that was supplying the rock used in the organic fertilizer was loaded with the metals. When the same rock was processed to make the super phosphate used in the miracle grow, the cadmium and arsenic were removed in order to increase the concentration of phosphorous. Of course, somewhere this very concentrated waste lies today. When it came to organic standards, which dictated that the rock could not be modified if the fertilizer was going to be called organic, that cadmium and arsenic was being very modestly and evenly distributed all over the country on peoples organically tended lawns and gardens.
Not long after the article in the Seattle Times, heavy metals in fertilizer fell under state regulation here in Washington. We had to submit all of our fertilizers for laboratory analysis to determine the concentration of metals in them. These totals dictated the application rate of the fertilizer, and the associated numbers were made available to the public on a website. Several products, including that Idaho rock phosphate, were too contaminated to continue to be used. Another mine, in Montana, soon came online and supplied us with a less contaminated rock phosphate.
This brings me back to my conversation this morning. Upon being told about the concern for the lawn at the White House, I informed my counterpart in the conversation that when I discuss with clients their concern for past contamination in their yard, I often reassure them by saying, 'hopefully they were not using organic fertilizer.'
Two other sources of possible contamination with heavy metals are fertilizers derived from sewage sludge, or trace element products that are really just a clever way of disposing of industrial waste while still turning a profit for the manufacturer. In the state of Washington (and possibly Oregon, California and Texas) heavy metals are regulated in fertilizer. You could also track down information on brand names and generic products at the Washington website.
A good rule of thumb that I share with clients of mine (I design and install natural/organic food producing landscapes) is; whatever you have been doing a lot of, should probably stop, and something you have not been doing could take its place. Meaning, spreading wood ash on your garden is good, until you have done it too much, which happens rather fast. If you use rock phosphate every year, stop it, you have enough phosphorous, and it lasts a very long time. If you every year apply chicken manure to your garden, stop it, you have enough nitrogen and probably way too much phosphorous. If you never eat meat, have a hamburger, it is probably just what you need.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Ethical Republic
Walt Whitman got America right in his essay, "Democratic Vistas." He acknowledged the vulgarity of the American success drive. He toted up its moral failings. But in the end, he accepted his country’s "extreme business energy," its "almost maniacal appetite for wealth." He knew that the country’s dreams were all built upon that energy and drive, and eventually the spirit of commercial optimism would always prevail.
David Brooks - The Commercial Republic
David Brooks in his article titled, The Commercial Republic, sketches out a world that is very much the one I see before me as well. Mr. Brooks and I agree on a bit, for example; extending the rights of marriage to same sex couples. We also share a certain intellectually conservative nature. I too have many conservative leanings. I, however, have a very strong ethical root system that stays me against falling onto my conservative side. This is what I fear often happens to Mr. Brooks. He falls on his conservative ass when it comes to the free market and capitalism.
I am an entrepreneur myself, and I feel the same urges that Mr. Brooks cites in his editorial. I am after adventure, and uncharted territory, and opportunities that would not be provided me by a nine to five career. Of course there is risk associated with this choice as well, and an utter lack of the security once found in regular employment. For these reasons Mr. Brooks’ thoughts appeal to some of my instincts.
Where we differ, is in the object of our endeavor. Plainly, Mr. Brooks proposes that the ingenuity and innovation that drives so many of us in this country has wealth, and financial prosperity as its motivating principal. He speaks of heroic individuals who "strive, risk and make money." This as though the ‘making money’ part is the source of motivation and strength throughout, and the end result intended.
I have in my mind the homesteaders who were ripped off and manipulated by bankers and barons. Women and men who worked as hard as anybody has, without significant regard for the wealth that motivated their predators. Clearly he and I see two very different classes of heroic figure in our nation's history. One motivated by the human instincts of freedom and independence and strength as a consequence of hard work, and the other motivated by their self interest and greed, conniving to mislead and gain power on paper that they could never earn with their hands.
He also speaks of the distinct lack of this gospel’s resonance in the current American milieu:
It has been odd, over the past six months, not to have the gospel of success as part of the normal background music of life. You go about your day, taking in the news and the new movies, books and songs, and only gradually do you become aware that there is an absence.
When I read this line from him, I was immediately taken back to the days after the trade towers collapsed, when the oppressive presence of aircraft did not hum in the skies above. I have written in the past about not missing this opportunity, as we missed the one that followed from those catastrophic events.
I cannot speak for other entrepreneurs, but I would like to make clear to anyone who will listen that I am not the least bit motivated by wealth or by financial success. What motivates me is the deep desire to leave this world better than I found it, to understand the meaning of my existence as thoroughly and fearlessly as I am able, and to be as kind and compassionate to my fellow inhabitants of this earth as I possibly can.
Beyond my own personal rejection of the gospel of wealth that is revered by Mr. Brooks, abstractly I must contend it on ethical grounds. What is not acknowledged by the advocates of a return to free market capitalism and the rampant consumption associated with it, is that the reality on this planet will not allow it to continue. If as individuals and a nation and a planet we continue to place ourselves ahead of all of us, consuming beyond what the planet is able to offer us for sustenance, then a terrible future awaits.
It is, I am certain, within our reach to realize a world that is as peaceful and verdant as our most fertile imaginations will allow, but we must have the courage to seize opportunities that offer voluntary change to us, and the world. Progress not based on the necessity of catastrophe, but on the deep desire to make things better for us all.
This is a new age. It is the age of the internet, and the age of the stem cell, and the age of great promise. It is also the age of water shortages, and the age of wild fires and the rising tide of consequences. With this new age we require a new ethic, or more accurately, an ethic renewed. It is a conception of the world at once ancient and modern. It is the ethic that set us apart from the beasts who bestowed our origin upon us. It lingers in us even at our lowest moments. It is the ethic that commands us to have concern for others. It is the ethic of compassion. It is the belief that beyond what we can gain for ourselves, what we can insure for others is a good in excess of that.
When we see a child suffering, should it matter whether we know how near she comes to us genealogically? How then do we require for ourselves a lifestyle that necessarily diminishes the quality of life for another? This is the nature of capitalism, it offers opportunities to those well positioned by birth, and rewards avarice above all other human qualities. It exploits those who are least well positioned, and pays a silencing bribe to those who see this suffering and know better, but have not the courage to act against it.
No longer can we afford to let our desire for more than what we need be our guiding principle. No longer can we participate in a system that exploits and misleads the ill equipped, in the name of enriching the well positioned few. It is time for us to apply the ethical mandates of a world of diminishing resources to our economic system. It is time for us to cast off the yolk set upon our backs. It is the burden of a dead and decaying ethics, it is the corpse of capitalism.
David Brooks - The Commercial Republic
David Brooks in his article titled, The Commercial Republic, sketches out a world that is very much the one I see before me as well. Mr. Brooks and I agree on a bit, for example; extending the rights of marriage to same sex couples. We also share a certain intellectually conservative nature. I too have many conservative leanings. I, however, have a very strong ethical root system that stays me against falling onto my conservative side. This is what I fear often happens to Mr. Brooks. He falls on his conservative ass when it comes to the free market and capitalism.
I am an entrepreneur myself, and I feel the same urges that Mr. Brooks cites in his editorial. I am after adventure, and uncharted territory, and opportunities that would not be provided me by a nine to five career. Of course there is risk associated with this choice as well, and an utter lack of the security once found in regular employment. For these reasons Mr. Brooks’ thoughts appeal to some of my instincts.
Where we differ, is in the object of our endeavor. Plainly, Mr. Brooks proposes that the ingenuity and innovation that drives so many of us in this country has wealth, and financial prosperity as its motivating principal. He speaks of heroic individuals who "strive, risk and make money." This as though the ‘making money’ part is the source of motivation and strength throughout, and the end result intended.
I have in my mind the homesteaders who were ripped off and manipulated by bankers and barons. Women and men who worked as hard as anybody has, without significant regard for the wealth that motivated their predators. Clearly he and I see two very different classes of heroic figure in our nation's history. One motivated by the human instincts of freedom and independence and strength as a consequence of hard work, and the other motivated by their self interest and greed, conniving to mislead and gain power on paper that they could never earn with their hands.
He also speaks of the distinct lack of this gospel’s resonance in the current American milieu:
It has been odd, over the past six months, not to have the gospel of success as part of the normal background music of life. You go about your day, taking in the news and the new movies, books and songs, and only gradually do you become aware that there is an absence.
When I read this line from him, I was immediately taken back to the days after the trade towers collapsed, when the oppressive presence of aircraft did not hum in the skies above. I have written in the past about not missing this opportunity, as we missed the one that followed from those catastrophic events.
I cannot speak for other entrepreneurs, but I would like to make clear to anyone who will listen that I am not the least bit motivated by wealth or by financial success. What motivates me is the deep desire to leave this world better than I found it, to understand the meaning of my existence as thoroughly and fearlessly as I am able, and to be as kind and compassionate to my fellow inhabitants of this earth as I possibly can.
Beyond my own personal rejection of the gospel of wealth that is revered by Mr. Brooks, abstractly I must contend it on ethical grounds. What is not acknowledged by the advocates of a return to free market capitalism and the rampant consumption associated with it, is that the reality on this planet will not allow it to continue. If as individuals and a nation and a planet we continue to place ourselves ahead of all of us, consuming beyond what the planet is able to offer us for sustenance, then a terrible future awaits.
It is, I am certain, within our reach to realize a world that is as peaceful and verdant as our most fertile imaginations will allow, but we must have the courage to seize opportunities that offer voluntary change to us, and the world. Progress not based on the necessity of catastrophe, but on the deep desire to make things better for us all.
This is a new age. It is the age of the internet, and the age of the stem cell, and the age of great promise. It is also the age of water shortages, and the age of wild fires and the rising tide of consequences. With this new age we require a new ethic, or more accurately, an ethic renewed. It is a conception of the world at once ancient and modern. It is the ethic that set us apart from the beasts who bestowed our origin upon us. It lingers in us even at our lowest moments. It is the ethic that commands us to have concern for others. It is the ethic of compassion. It is the belief that beyond what we can gain for ourselves, what we can insure for others is a good in excess of that.
When we see a child suffering, should it matter whether we know how near she comes to us genealogically? How then do we require for ourselves a lifestyle that necessarily diminishes the quality of life for another? This is the nature of capitalism, it offers opportunities to those well positioned by birth, and rewards avarice above all other human qualities. It exploits those who are least well positioned, and pays a silencing bribe to those who see this suffering and know better, but have not the courage to act against it.
No longer can we afford to let our desire for more than what we need be our guiding principle. No longer can we participate in a system that exploits and misleads the ill equipped, in the name of enriching the well positioned few. It is time for us to apply the ethical mandates of a world of diminishing resources to our economic system. It is time for us to cast off the yolk set upon our backs. It is the burden of a dead and decaying ethics, it is the corpse of capitalism.
Ressentiment and Redemption
In an attempt to understand better my rejection of nihilism, I have investigated often the idea of hope as its antidote. In an effort to more thoroughly understand hope, I have turned to investigate faith. Further considering the concept of Eudaimonia as an alternative to cataclysm. All of this again, as a movement to overcome nihilism.
The nihilism of which I speak is not only to be found on the right, where it has been most observed of late, but it is clearly present in the left as well. It in fact often accompanies many of my fellow street demonstrators when we gather for what I hope to be a jubilant celebration of our hard won right to assemble. I have long been a participant in and an advocate of street protests. I think by there very nature they demonstrate hope, and a kind of investment and care and concern for the world that is in itself an act overcoming nihilism. But I see often in the actions of those around me at these events, and in the meetings that sometimes precede them, a very dark mood indeed. One of the favored slogans of this crowd is ‘tear it down’ which I hear as a hallmark and troubling indication of nihilism on the left.
I do not wish to be misinterpreted on this count. I am an absolute advocate of and participant in the dismantling of the criminal artifice of our age. It seems to me though enough to tear back the veil that conceals the lies and obfuscations that found such institutions, and let them collapse of their own weight. This I suppose is one of the first examples of the faith that I have in the world. That if the truth be told, the natural laws will do the work of tearing down. Maybe I am naive in this belief, or maybe current events are evidence of this persistence of gravity.
What has become clear to me over the years, is that the root of much political and social and therefore public nihilism, is a private wound, often suffered in childhood or some other naive and vulnerable moment. Ressentiment is born of private suffering but grows into a force with public and political consequences. For this reason I am very sympathetic to the sufferer, in spite of the devastating impacts their actions have in the world.
I have several times referenced Hereclites, and his often quoted phrase concerning the river and its ever changing and subjective nature. This is also the nature of the individual, and though we may wish to name and objectify our opponents, so as to more easily pummel or dismiss them, it is the far greater task to recognize them as the ever changing subjectivity that is in fact their nature. To see an individual as limitless potential as opposed to hardened object is yet another iteration of my faith, and also the first hint of the infinite power of redemption.
Having been raised Irish Catholic, the imagery and mythology of the church is deeply interwoven with my philosophical investigation. At a very young age I concluded that the real meaning of the Crucifixion went far beyond the stories in the Gospels. I imagine the early martyrs to the christian faith who would not utter even the most modest disavowal as an alternative to violent death. It seems to me there must certainly be some very deep human connection with these ideas, a connection that extends far beyond the literal mythology.
What magic is it then that lies hidden behind these stories we tell to our children? How is it that in spite of the mortal threat against us we persevere and remain steadfast in our integrity? What is the key to our redemption? A redemption that is not won in victory, but in defeat. I say simply it is hope. A hope that is the source of great character and great institutions built on great character. A hope that redeems an individual and a people, a hope that sanctifies humanity.
The nihilism of which I speak is not only to be found on the right, where it has been most observed of late, but it is clearly present in the left as well. It in fact often accompanies many of my fellow street demonstrators when we gather for what I hope to be a jubilant celebration of our hard won right to assemble. I have long been a participant in and an advocate of street protests. I think by there very nature they demonstrate hope, and a kind of investment and care and concern for the world that is in itself an act overcoming nihilism. But I see often in the actions of those around me at these events, and in the meetings that sometimes precede them, a very dark mood indeed. One of the favored slogans of this crowd is ‘tear it down’ which I hear as a hallmark and troubling indication of nihilism on the left.
I do not wish to be misinterpreted on this count. I am an absolute advocate of and participant in the dismantling of the criminal artifice of our age. It seems to me though enough to tear back the veil that conceals the lies and obfuscations that found such institutions, and let them collapse of their own weight. This I suppose is one of the first examples of the faith that I have in the world. That if the truth be told, the natural laws will do the work of tearing down. Maybe I am naive in this belief, or maybe current events are evidence of this persistence of gravity.
What has become clear to me over the years, is that the root of much political and social and therefore public nihilism, is a private wound, often suffered in childhood or some other naive and vulnerable moment. Ressentiment is born of private suffering but grows into a force with public and political consequences. For this reason I am very sympathetic to the sufferer, in spite of the devastating impacts their actions have in the world.
I have several times referenced Hereclites, and his often quoted phrase concerning the river and its ever changing and subjective nature. This is also the nature of the individual, and though we may wish to name and objectify our opponents, so as to more easily pummel or dismiss them, it is the far greater task to recognize them as the ever changing subjectivity that is in fact their nature. To see an individual as limitless potential as opposed to hardened object is yet another iteration of my faith, and also the first hint of the infinite power of redemption.
Having been raised Irish Catholic, the imagery and mythology of the church is deeply interwoven with my philosophical investigation. At a very young age I concluded that the real meaning of the Crucifixion went far beyond the stories in the Gospels. I imagine the early martyrs to the christian faith who would not utter even the most modest disavowal as an alternative to violent death. It seems to me there must certainly be some very deep human connection with these ideas, a connection that extends far beyond the literal mythology.
What magic is it then that lies hidden behind these stories we tell to our children? How is it that in spite of the mortal threat against us we persevere and remain steadfast in our integrity? What is the key to our redemption? A redemption that is not won in victory, but in defeat. I say simply it is hope. A hope that is the source of great character and great institutions built on great character. A hope that redeems an individual and a people, a hope that sanctifies humanity.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Death and Living Well
"For let me tell you gentleman,that to be afraid of death is only another example of thinking one is wise when one is not."
Spoken by Socrates in Plato’s Apology
Sometimes the best thing that can be said of someone is that they shall soon be dead. Usually, though, it is just a nice additional thought to have about them. Yes, for some there is not much hope of redemption except in death, and yet they struggle against it all the more mightily, and spit and rail at its approach. We have for this long lived in fear of death. It is after all, a final end to the affair we carry on with ourselves, with the identities we develop over a lifetime of performances. Will there come a time when we will see the necessity of, even the wisdom in, our own timely demise?
What is it truly that we so dread? Is it the unproven worth of our timid souls? The unwitnessed glory of our defining moments? If only someone had been there to see our greatness, maybe our end would be welcomed more graciously then. I fear that those fears are reserved for far too few. Is it the abyss? The stinging loneliness of the yawning chasm. Nothingness? Have we not earned something more comforting than nothingness? Maybe it is our assumption that we deserve something better in the end than death. A thousand minds have taught us suspect theories that warm our hearts and defend us from the bitter cold clutches of nothingness.
In the modern era, we learned that most, though surely not all, of the possible causes for our premature decline can be nearly eliminated with healthy living. Yes, imagine this, healthy living postpones the onset of premature death. I will not conceal my complete lack of amazement at this incredible twenty first century discovery. Eating the food we have evolved to eat, in reasonable quantities, when accompanied by the vigorous exercise most often associated with an enthusiasm for living, will ensure in large part that you do not succumb too young to forgo the award of a full life.
Of course, tragedy is a very real, painful, and unavoidable fact of human life. Certainly the tragic end can not be avoided with diet and exercise. But then again, the quality of the life led up till then must be some compensation for the untimely demise that punctuated that life. At least I will have to end that particular inquiry there for now.
When I hear talk of health reform I must admit I cringe. I think the most important part of any health reform must be that we grow accustomed to the the thought of dying, of ceasing to exist, of embracing nothingness like the dear friend it has been to us all along. Think of the benefits, if instead of clutching at the tattered remains of our brief existence, we wrapped our withering arms around the abyss and exited with a noble gleam in our eye. It is possible. It seems to me that many times the heroic effort to prolong life only serves to fill the pockets of the providers, and reduce the quality of life for the dying.
Health care is really about inspiring people to live vigorously, and about an agriculture policy that enables farmers to provide a wide variety of nutritious whole food to as many people as possible reliably and sustainably. Health care is not about miraculous advances in chemical medicine disproportionately made available to the rich and fortunately born. Every dollar spent to save one wealthy and poorly maintained individual could save thousands if committed instead to the education and proper feeding of the many. This may not be a welcome statement, but I believe it is incontrovertibly true.
When healthcare became an industry, it ceased to be concerned with the well being of humans, and became instead a means to enrich very few at the expense of human health. When I think of the oft touted Bush AIDS initiative in Africa I almost weep. The population of a continent become the captive clientele of the drug companies. Well enough to return to normal life, and maybe continue to expand the client base of the drug companies, but never well enough again to declare their independence from the companies that hold the patents on their future. This is the greatest humanitarian contribution of G.W.B.
So then, I suggest that if we want to save the world, and make the future a better place not only for our own grandchildren, but for the grandchildren of people in forgotten lands abroad, then I suggest we take better care of ourselves on a daily basis, and not seek extraordinary care when the time comes for us to end our love affair with ourselves. This is of course an unsettling and difficult maxim to accept. What though would we think of Socrates had he pleaded for his life? One might even observe that it would have taken so little from him to achieve his reprieve. He had instead completed the sculpture that was his existence, he had lived well, and it was the right time to die.
Spoken by Socrates in Plato’s Apology
Sometimes the best thing that can be said of someone is that they shall soon be dead. Usually, though, it is just a nice additional thought to have about them. Yes, for some there is not much hope of redemption except in death, and yet they struggle against it all the more mightily, and spit and rail at its approach. We have for this long lived in fear of death. It is after all, a final end to the affair we carry on with ourselves, with the identities we develop over a lifetime of performances. Will there come a time when we will see the necessity of, even the wisdom in, our own timely demise?
What is it truly that we so dread? Is it the unproven worth of our timid souls? The unwitnessed glory of our defining moments? If only someone had been there to see our greatness, maybe our end would be welcomed more graciously then. I fear that those fears are reserved for far too few. Is it the abyss? The stinging loneliness of the yawning chasm. Nothingness? Have we not earned something more comforting than nothingness? Maybe it is our assumption that we deserve something better in the end than death. A thousand minds have taught us suspect theories that warm our hearts and defend us from the bitter cold clutches of nothingness.
In the modern era, we learned that most, though surely not all, of the possible causes for our premature decline can be nearly eliminated with healthy living. Yes, imagine this, healthy living postpones the onset of premature death. I will not conceal my complete lack of amazement at this incredible twenty first century discovery. Eating the food we have evolved to eat, in reasonable quantities, when accompanied by the vigorous exercise most often associated with an enthusiasm for living, will ensure in large part that you do not succumb too young to forgo the award of a full life.
Of course, tragedy is a very real, painful, and unavoidable fact of human life. Certainly the tragic end can not be avoided with diet and exercise. But then again, the quality of the life led up till then must be some compensation for the untimely demise that punctuated that life. At least I will have to end that particular inquiry there for now.
When I hear talk of health reform I must admit I cringe. I think the most important part of any health reform must be that we grow accustomed to the the thought of dying, of ceasing to exist, of embracing nothingness like the dear friend it has been to us all along. Think of the benefits, if instead of clutching at the tattered remains of our brief existence, we wrapped our withering arms around the abyss and exited with a noble gleam in our eye. It is possible. It seems to me that many times the heroic effort to prolong life only serves to fill the pockets of the providers, and reduce the quality of life for the dying.
Health care is really about inspiring people to live vigorously, and about an agriculture policy that enables farmers to provide a wide variety of nutritious whole food to as many people as possible reliably and sustainably. Health care is not about miraculous advances in chemical medicine disproportionately made available to the rich and fortunately born. Every dollar spent to save one wealthy and poorly maintained individual could save thousands if committed instead to the education and proper feeding of the many. This may not be a welcome statement, but I believe it is incontrovertibly true.
When healthcare became an industry, it ceased to be concerned with the well being of humans, and became instead a means to enrich very few at the expense of human health. When I think of the oft touted Bush AIDS initiative in Africa I almost weep. The population of a continent become the captive clientele of the drug companies. Well enough to return to normal life, and maybe continue to expand the client base of the drug companies, but never well enough again to declare their independence from the companies that hold the patents on their future. This is the greatest humanitarian contribution of G.W.B.
So then, I suggest that if we want to save the world, and make the future a better place not only for our own grandchildren, but for the grandchildren of people in forgotten lands abroad, then I suggest we take better care of ourselves on a daily basis, and not seek extraordinary care when the time comes for us to end our love affair with ourselves. This is of course an unsettling and difficult maxim to accept. What though would we think of Socrates had he pleaded for his life? One might even observe that it would have taken so little from him to achieve his reprieve. He had instead completed the sculpture that was his existence, he had lived well, and it was the right time to die.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
What Will It Take?
On the verge of so much, will we cower and shrink? Will we fail to seize this opportunity to descend from our heights on our own terms? Many have for some time seen the inevitable decline of the capitalist tradition. Beyond its deep roots in the most despicable human instincts of avarice and self interest, what appears to me as its fatal flaw is distinct from this poisonous origin. The great capitalist institutions like dinosaurs towered above us. For so long it appeared we mammals hardly stood a chance. In this age it seems that scurrying from beneath them will be our first steps to surviving their demise. Who would have predicted that the inheritors of so much could arise from those so meek?
The flaw to which I referred above has accompanied capitalism since it seized the baton from the feudal lords and land owners. When manipulation replaced brute force as the means by which those who were born into a world that they perceived themselves to be the masters of, exerted control over those who were born into the same world perceiving themselves as slaves, capitalism was born. When this means of control proved much more effective at projecting the will of the master into the population at large, a new character appeared on the scene. The master had morphed, from a brutally regimented and tactically guided killer, into an impeccably clean cut intellectual and statistician who managed those beneath him not with blows, but with bits of bread and the promise of a bright future among the ranks of the elite.
How then did this new class of master subdue and subjugate the old? Was there not a struggle? The age in which we have lived is the age of this struggle. An epic clash, punctuated with nuclear blasts that halted the march of armies, and revealed the terminal weakness, in the end, of brute force. Who might have imagined before then that a weapon of such destructive power, the final development of military innovation, once held by two great powers, would reduce warfare to a second class means of domination. Undoubtedly, it is still the choice of imbeciles, motivated by their reflexive fears and visceral responses to personal insult, or their juvenile impatience.
The possible redemption of this violent catastrophe of human endeavor that we call the twentieth century, is the emergence in this next century of an age so great that all that has been lost in reaching it can be counted as well spent. Have we not always justified suffering and sacrifice in this way? Whether on the plains or in the trenches, the greater good, and the promised future always lifted the spirits of those so engaged. Let us make and keep this promise to ourselves. That we will aspire to redeem this century past, by assigning our efforts to the realization of a century that does not attempt to fix the flaws of the past, but instead seeks to overcome them.
What then is the greater flaw in capitalism than avarice? The great flaw of capitalism is that it seeks to deceive. What can never be told the customer, else they would surely cease to exist as one. This is the secret that must be revealed about capitalism; that it lies. It lies actively and proudly and with a smirk on its face. It asks those aware of its deceptions to join in the knowing smiles, and it prays mercilessly upon those who are not so well equipped. In this, I believe, is the first clue to how we might proceed to overcome capitalism. The antonym of capitalism is altruism. Where one seeks to exploit, the other seeks to comfort. Where one seeks to persuade, the other seeks to understand. Where one seeks to profit, the other seeks to empower. Let the mammals rise in the world, and let the dinosaurs collapse under their own weight.
The end of the twentieth century brought us the dot com decade, and the perfection of commerce. As with every creature that inhabits this world, its perfection precedes it decline and demise. If we are to survive to witness coming ages, then we must engage in a decade or more of dot org. Altruism must replace capitalism as our guiding principal. No longer can we seek to exploit resources and people, no longer can we maintain order by promising the oppressed that someday they too may rise to the high position of oppressor. To the contrary, a new age of care and concern for our planet and its inhabitants must replace entirely the model we now know.
The flaw to which I referred above has accompanied capitalism since it seized the baton from the feudal lords and land owners. When manipulation replaced brute force as the means by which those who were born into a world that they perceived themselves to be the masters of, exerted control over those who were born into the same world perceiving themselves as slaves, capitalism was born. When this means of control proved much more effective at projecting the will of the master into the population at large, a new character appeared on the scene. The master had morphed, from a brutally regimented and tactically guided killer, into an impeccably clean cut intellectual and statistician who managed those beneath him not with blows, but with bits of bread and the promise of a bright future among the ranks of the elite.
How then did this new class of master subdue and subjugate the old? Was there not a struggle? The age in which we have lived is the age of this struggle. An epic clash, punctuated with nuclear blasts that halted the march of armies, and revealed the terminal weakness, in the end, of brute force. Who might have imagined before then that a weapon of such destructive power, the final development of military innovation, once held by two great powers, would reduce warfare to a second class means of domination. Undoubtedly, it is still the choice of imbeciles, motivated by their reflexive fears and visceral responses to personal insult, or their juvenile impatience.
The possible redemption of this violent catastrophe of human endeavor that we call the twentieth century, is the emergence in this next century of an age so great that all that has been lost in reaching it can be counted as well spent. Have we not always justified suffering and sacrifice in this way? Whether on the plains or in the trenches, the greater good, and the promised future always lifted the spirits of those so engaged. Let us make and keep this promise to ourselves. That we will aspire to redeem this century past, by assigning our efforts to the realization of a century that does not attempt to fix the flaws of the past, but instead seeks to overcome them.
What then is the greater flaw in capitalism than avarice? The great flaw of capitalism is that it seeks to deceive. What can never be told the customer, else they would surely cease to exist as one. This is the secret that must be revealed about capitalism; that it lies. It lies actively and proudly and with a smirk on its face. It asks those aware of its deceptions to join in the knowing smiles, and it prays mercilessly upon those who are not so well equipped. In this, I believe, is the first clue to how we might proceed to overcome capitalism. The antonym of capitalism is altruism. Where one seeks to exploit, the other seeks to comfort. Where one seeks to persuade, the other seeks to understand. Where one seeks to profit, the other seeks to empower. Let the mammals rise in the world, and let the dinosaurs collapse under their own weight.
The end of the twentieth century brought us the dot com decade, and the perfection of commerce. As with every creature that inhabits this world, its perfection precedes it decline and demise. If we are to survive to witness coming ages, then we must engage in a decade or more of dot org. Altruism must replace capitalism as our guiding principal. No longer can we seek to exploit resources and people, no longer can we maintain order by promising the oppressed that someday they too may rise to the high position of oppressor. To the contrary, a new age of care and concern for our planet and its inhabitants must replace entirely the model we now know.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Eudaimonia
"Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping"
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
In this aphorism, we are the tightrope walker. In the darkness behind us a beast. In our fearful imaginations we are pursued by it. In fact it has been dead for ages, and it is only a ghost that haunts us. Our historical memory, a human conscience.
Moment by moment we balance impossibly upon the world of objects. It is taut beneath our clinging feet. Along the way is uncertainty, and death. There is not an end to this rope as far as we can see. Before us, the blinding light of possibility. Its form for us to imagine. An apocalypse lurks behind some future moment, or something of such exceptional quality that our minds are not capable of its comprehension. This future is for us to decide.
The overman that is referred to in the quotation is not easily conceived. It would not be a culmination of human efforts, as it would not be terminal. Neither would it be some perfection of our species, biologically or intellectually or spiritually, as then that too would have to be overcome. The essence of this being exceeds our capacity to comprehend. It must be left as an uncertain and always distant beacon. How then would one chart a course to such an uncertainty? What Nietzsche suggested is that we have direct access to our nature, and to the nature of the world. This world must be our guide, and he pleaded with his readers to look no further for the clues to divining the way forward.
The critical concept is that what we know today as human civilization, is a way station along the path between our ancestral origins as a subconscious beast, to a high being beyond our current capacity to understand. It is this concept that replaces God in Nietzsche’s philosophy.
The concept of Eudaimonia, developed by the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, is a very similar idea. It literally means ‘benevolent spirit’. Aristotle defined it as ‘Living and doing well.’ Humble as it may seem, it is the greatest of all ideals. The final outcome of Virtue.
The Good (God) is the thing that we arrange our metaphysical furniture around. Good, like the fire at the center of our camp, or the television in the living room. Virtue is the gaze that we fix on this fire. According to the Greek philosophers mentioned above, we have a compass that reliably directs its needle to the good, and so inversely indicates its opposite. To them, this compass is a core element of our human nature. In this way the late nineteenth century German agrees with his progenitors the ancient Greeks.
In this age it seems critical that we envision ourselves on the way to somewhere. Our greatest danger; the stagnation of grim satisfaction. Our future is threatened by the profound nihilism of our era, that rejects progress in the name of ideological certainty, and dismisses hope as false.
It is not enough for us to resist the desire to annihilate, or defend ourselves from it when it threatens. We must offer a concept of greater power, that is not a reaction but a ‘first movement, a self propelled wheel’.
As we divest ourselves from particular outcomes, and empower ourselves by rejecting the notion of ideological certainty, we still must retain a vision for our future. A vision that allows us to exceed our expectations, and expresses our great potential. A vision that does not reflect the ancient fears and uncertainties that haunt our human conscience.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
In this aphorism, we are the tightrope walker. In the darkness behind us a beast. In our fearful imaginations we are pursued by it. In fact it has been dead for ages, and it is only a ghost that haunts us. Our historical memory, a human conscience.
Moment by moment we balance impossibly upon the world of objects. It is taut beneath our clinging feet. Along the way is uncertainty, and death. There is not an end to this rope as far as we can see. Before us, the blinding light of possibility. Its form for us to imagine. An apocalypse lurks behind some future moment, or something of such exceptional quality that our minds are not capable of its comprehension. This future is for us to decide.
The overman that is referred to in the quotation is not easily conceived. It would not be a culmination of human efforts, as it would not be terminal. Neither would it be some perfection of our species, biologically or intellectually or spiritually, as then that too would have to be overcome. The essence of this being exceeds our capacity to comprehend. It must be left as an uncertain and always distant beacon. How then would one chart a course to such an uncertainty? What Nietzsche suggested is that we have direct access to our nature, and to the nature of the world. This world must be our guide, and he pleaded with his readers to look no further for the clues to divining the way forward.
The critical concept is that what we know today as human civilization, is a way station along the path between our ancestral origins as a subconscious beast, to a high being beyond our current capacity to understand. It is this concept that replaces God in Nietzsche’s philosophy.
The concept of Eudaimonia, developed by the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, is a very similar idea. It literally means ‘benevolent spirit’. Aristotle defined it as ‘Living and doing well.’ Humble as it may seem, it is the greatest of all ideals. The final outcome of Virtue.
The Good (God) is the thing that we arrange our metaphysical furniture around. Good, like the fire at the center of our camp, or the television in the living room. Virtue is the gaze that we fix on this fire. According to the Greek philosophers mentioned above, we have a compass that reliably directs its needle to the good, and so inversely indicates its opposite. To them, this compass is a core element of our human nature. In this way the late nineteenth century German agrees with his progenitors the ancient Greeks.
In this age it seems critical that we envision ourselves on the way to somewhere. Our greatest danger; the stagnation of grim satisfaction. Our future is threatened by the profound nihilism of our era, that rejects progress in the name of ideological certainty, and dismisses hope as false.
It is not enough for us to resist the desire to annihilate, or defend ourselves from it when it threatens. We must offer a concept of greater power, that is not a reaction but a ‘first movement, a self propelled wheel’.
As we divest ourselves from particular outcomes, and empower ourselves by rejecting the notion of ideological certainty, we still must retain a vision for our future. A vision that allows us to exceed our expectations, and expresses our great potential. A vision that does not reflect the ancient fears and uncertainties that haunt our human conscience.
Monday, February 23, 2009
On the Nature of Human Identity
From the first assemblage of DNA, a curious phenomenon sprung. In all of its splendid vulnerability it leaped into existence. As these infinitesimal proteins wound their marvelous way, something grew. Surrounding itself, channeling in, excreting out. Every corpuscle doing its part to sustain the whole growing organism. Grow it did. It was not long before it could generate its own heat and motor its own muscle, moisten its own glistening eye and clench its opposing digits. Yes, something truly miraculous had come into existence; identity.
How was this different than the stone or the tree? What made this such a unique development? Well beyond the less obvious, the most obvious addition to the land of predicament is the special condition; perspective. Predicament itself had long existed, but the for-itself, much later observed by a frenchman named Sartre, was novel indeed. All of these individually lovely motorized cells had conjoined and created a glorious oneness. Something to work for and contribute to. Something to invest in and model around. Something to act on behalf of and even defend. Oh how this junction of object and subject changed everything. The mind like a prism to the white light of objectivity, divided the world into the myriad facets of infinite possibility; ideas.
Now the world had exceeded the miracle of simple existence, and compounded itself an infinite number of times. The newly conceived identity would not be limited to a single being, as it rose biologically, ever nearer perfection. Soon it would spread from the few to the many. As each of the cells had collectively assembled the individual, so these novel beings composed a clan or a tribe and soon a nation. The same forces applied, and the motives remained. Self interest and expanded powers. A wider array of skills could develop, and art and science were not far behind. As biology dictated, procreation continued identity into successive generations. History became an element of identity; memory.
With the development of nations came homelands and borders. Farmland supplanted forest as the source of sustenance. Land and memory became intertwined in identity. The body expanded itself to include the predicament earth itself. Soon conflict would arise, as resources were sought. The national body would have to be sustained, and the identity did not extend beyond the familiar ones. The competitor emerged, the opponent, the other, the enemy. Around a flag identity grew, forged further in merciless battle. Great crimes were committed that tempered the bonds. The nation grew stronger when tested.
It may seem like this was long, long ago, that these elements appeared on this Earth. I ask you though whether, it seems much to you like we have come very far since then? More importantly though I ask with concern where do we go from here? It may be time, that we consciously aim to overcome the loyalties that have so far sustained us. Not to forget, as memory is fine, but to intentionally move forward together. A wider net does need to be cast, a larger skin extended. Let it encompass us all in its embrace, and enable us to imagine a common future. As those primordial cells took that chance of coordinating their efforts then, so let us propose that we do the same while before us this opportunity extends.
How was this different than the stone or the tree? What made this such a unique development? Well beyond the less obvious, the most obvious addition to the land of predicament is the special condition; perspective. Predicament itself had long existed, but the for-itself, much later observed by a frenchman named Sartre, was novel indeed. All of these individually lovely motorized cells had conjoined and created a glorious oneness. Something to work for and contribute to. Something to invest in and model around. Something to act on behalf of and even defend. Oh how this junction of object and subject changed everything. The mind like a prism to the white light of objectivity, divided the world into the myriad facets of infinite possibility; ideas.
Now the world had exceeded the miracle of simple existence, and compounded itself an infinite number of times. The newly conceived identity would not be limited to a single being, as it rose biologically, ever nearer perfection. Soon it would spread from the few to the many. As each of the cells had collectively assembled the individual, so these novel beings composed a clan or a tribe and soon a nation. The same forces applied, and the motives remained. Self interest and expanded powers. A wider array of skills could develop, and art and science were not far behind. As biology dictated, procreation continued identity into successive generations. History became an element of identity; memory.
With the development of nations came homelands and borders. Farmland supplanted forest as the source of sustenance. Land and memory became intertwined in identity. The body expanded itself to include the predicament earth itself. Soon conflict would arise, as resources were sought. The national body would have to be sustained, and the identity did not extend beyond the familiar ones. The competitor emerged, the opponent, the other, the enemy. Around a flag identity grew, forged further in merciless battle. Great crimes were committed that tempered the bonds. The nation grew stronger when tested.
It may seem like this was long, long ago, that these elements appeared on this Earth. I ask you though whether, it seems much to you like we have come very far since then? More importantly though I ask with concern where do we go from here? It may be time, that we consciously aim to overcome the loyalties that have so far sustained us. Not to forget, as memory is fine, but to intentionally move forward together. A wider net does need to be cast, a larger skin extended. Let it encompass us all in its embrace, and enable us to imagine a common future. As those primordial cells took that chance of coordinating their efforts then, so let us propose that we do the same while before us this opportunity extends.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Sallow Nihilist
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!" As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, the madman provoked much laughter. Has God got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Emigrated? Thus did they shout and jeer.
- Friedrich Nietzsche The Gay Science
Who are the characters in this morality play, created for us by one renowned for his rejection of State and Nation and God Himself? There is of course God, who seems to characteristically stand idly by. He has not had a speaking part of late. There is the madman, who’s frenetic supplication heralds the great loneliness that awaits the crowd. Then there is the crowd itself, populated with last men (der letzte Mensch), the sallow nihilists. Cynics who’s abusive condescension stands to insulate them from the threat posed by the God-seeking madman in their midst. Oh how they reject the earnest consternation of the lantern bearer, they condemn his attempts to enlighten them. They have long found comfort in their despair. For them nothing changes, nothing matters and above all nothing reigns. Were it that they had the strength to give the world new meaning, instead they conceal their vindictive motives in the guise of political aims. In the end they threaten every earnest endeavor, as sincerity is seen by them as the ultimate sign of weakness and naiveté. Beware of them, those who carry lanterns in the bright morning hours, their darkness is threatened by your light.
It would be easy to argue that what the European Nietzsche thought he saw in humanity’s immediate future was in fact, still a long way off. He though was keenly aware of the depth of this well, and the time it would take for the descent to occur. What the exceptional among us know today the entire world may indeed never know. Humanity is not a homogenous mass, and the good of one is the ill of another. These axioms are not intended to defend, though defend they may. The death of God for some has initiated a terrible, debilitating disease. The vitality that marks the ancestors of the Übermensch in our midst, is not seen in these bitter individuals. Ah to call them individuals even seems too generous. They are just sullen members of some Godless fold. Deep, gaping, weeping wounds betray the provenance of their festering resentment. That these last men could see that for them the death of God was not a victory, but a terrible defeat. They mourn the death, all is false, and they have not the power to give meaning again where none is given by God.
The madman may not immediately appear to be the most heroic creature. It is however sincerity that fuels his super human potential. When one is sincere, when one has hope, when one has the courage to risk conviction, when one lights lanterns in the sun and seeks, then one reaches a kind of individuation that precedes progress. There is many an instance that calls for the sacred No, the somber rejection, the tearful goodbye. Those moments too should conceal a joyful wisdom, an ecstatic embrace, a jubilant welcome. At the very core of our being this paradoxical energy resides. What is so often forgotten by the nihilist is that essence follows from existence. That it is incumbent upon us to give the meaningless world value, to hold it in high regard, to respect the ideas of our contemporaries and our predecessors, to take on the responsibilities that accompany the exceptional existence, more readily than we claim exceptional rights. The right to defy is the product of a willingness to yield, and the capacity to create is a prerequisite of the will to destroy.
- Friedrich Nietzsche The Gay Science
Who are the characters in this morality play, created for us by one renowned for his rejection of State and Nation and God Himself? There is of course God, who seems to characteristically stand idly by. He has not had a speaking part of late. There is the madman, who’s frenetic supplication heralds the great loneliness that awaits the crowd. Then there is the crowd itself, populated with last men (der letzte Mensch), the sallow nihilists. Cynics who’s abusive condescension stands to insulate them from the threat posed by the God-seeking madman in their midst. Oh how they reject the earnest consternation of the lantern bearer, they condemn his attempts to enlighten them. They have long found comfort in their despair. For them nothing changes, nothing matters and above all nothing reigns. Were it that they had the strength to give the world new meaning, instead they conceal their vindictive motives in the guise of political aims. In the end they threaten every earnest endeavor, as sincerity is seen by them as the ultimate sign of weakness and naiveté. Beware of them, those who carry lanterns in the bright morning hours, their darkness is threatened by your light.
It would be easy to argue that what the European Nietzsche thought he saw in humanity’s immediate future was in fact, still a long way off. He though was keenly aware of the depth of this well, and the time it would take for the descent to occur. What the exceptional among us know today the entire world may indeed never know. Humanity is not a homogenous mass, and the good of one is the ill of another. These axioms are not intended to defend, though defend they may. The death of God for some has initiated a terrible, debilitating disease. The vitality that marks the ancestors of the Übermensch in our midst, is not seen in these bitter individuals. Ah to call them individuals even seems too generous. They are just sullen members of some Godless fold. Deep, gaping, weeping wounds betray the provenance of their festering resentment. That these last men could see that for them the death of God was not a victory, but a terrible defeat. They mourn the death, all is false, and they have not the power to give meaning again where none is given by God.
The madman may not immediately appear to be the most heroic creature. It is however sincerity that fuels his super human potential. When one is sincere, when one has hope, when one has the courage to risk conviction, when one lights lanterns in the sun and seeks, then one reaches a kind of individuation that precedes progress. There is many an instance that calls for the sacred No, the somber rejection, the tearful goodbye. Those moments too should conceal a joyful wisdom, an ecstatic embrace, a jubilant welcome. At the very core of our being this paradoxical energy resides. What is so often forgotten by the nihilist is that essence follows from existence. That it is incumbent upon us to give the meaningless world value, to hold it in high regard, to respect the ideas of our contemporaries and our predecessors, to take on the responsibilities that accompany the exceptional existence, more readily than we claim exceptional rights. The right to defy is the product of a willingness to yield, and the capacity to create is a prerequisite of the will to destroy.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Exception
No, such people aren't made like that. The real master to whom all is permitted storms Toulon, commits a butchery in Paris, forgets an army in Egypt, wastes half a million men on his Moscow campaign, and gets off with a pun at Vilna. And when he dies they dedicate monuments to him. So it follows that all is permitted. No, it's clear, such people are made of bronze, not flesh and blood!
- Raskolnikov Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"To every rule let there be an exception." These words the goddess spoke on the first day in the life of the universe, and her voice still echoes today through creation. Now what is the nature of this most curious rule? Would it apply to the ethic in question? That is that even this rule should have an exception, and occasionally there are rules that should not be broken? I ask this in relation to many things, maybe first on the list would be killing and war. Is war the exception to the commandment thou shalt not kill? The most curious case of this particular rule being broken I believe, is Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. You may remember this character for his theories about the exceptions and the rules. He believed himself to be the exception in matters of life and death. That is, if he could create some greater good with a terrible deed, he may not only effect that good, but further demonstrate himself to be an exceptional being. You may also remember that he came to a terrible end, as much a consequence of an accident as because he was not up to the original intent. In this case he had to kill to protect himself from the repercussions of his action. An innocent standing by became a collateral death. It haunted him to the extent that he was broken by it, only to be rescued by a pious woman who secures his salvation with her own devoted forgiveness.
It occurs to me that we as a nation are in the throes of just such a transformation in relation to Afghanistan and Iraq. Regarding the latter we, I believe, are deep in the agonies of self conscious realization of the terrible sin we have committed. All our plans best laid have been misdirected, and met with the realities of a resistant world. If only the minds in think tank chambers had considered the risk to our collective sanity when they sought a greater good by breaking sacred rules. Not only have we killed those who stood in the way, but we have killed very many who could not get out of the way. It seems this is a pattern formed in this modern world, of nations sacrificing their souls to effect greater goods that never seem to be the consequence anyway in the end. In Afghanistan more blood will be shed, and no greater greater good is to be had in that land than in the other. Instead we will only reap more anger and resentment. Soon the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan will all but cease to exist. Or at least much of what exists to the north of it, will exist equally to the south. Can we then as a nation further bankrupt ourselves to pursue with ever more high priced weapons and priceless human lives, those who threaten us from that mysterious land? Is there not instead an alternative?
What would the world be like if some rules applied without exception? Would there be fewer gruesome examples of mans inhumanity to man if as a nation we lived by an exceptional creed? If certain rules applied to all, equally, and without aberration. If those who were guilty were civilly treated and sanctioned in ways that did not violate our oath. Would not there be a degree of fairness that bound us together as an exceptional nation? I understand the need in the world we are emerging from for might to prevent the malign from trampling the meek. Although, it is hard to find examples of our use of force to prevent such atrocities. Rather we have most often used force to defend our financial interests, or our interests in other people’s resources. I propose that it is now that the transformative power of peace can be an alternative to our failed foreign policy of dominance and force. May our aspirations to equality, assuring every person the respect they deserve, enable the inspirational uniqueness of each one of us to be freely expressed at liberty, and let justice prevail when human nature does not compel us to do good. This I do believe would be the true exception to the rule, and it may even restore our sanity in time.
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Present Age
If someone were to overhear what people said ought to be done, and then in the spirit of irony, and for no other reason, proceeded to act accordingly everyone would be amazed. They would find it rash, yet as soon as they had talked it over they would find that it was just what should be done.
- Soren Kierkegaard The Present Age
The age in which we live is the age beyond invention, the age in which everything has a reference, and nothing stands uniquely alone. It is an age in which institutions from political parties to religions have become cowardly simpering caricatures of what they might have been in some deeper more sincere age. The towering American edifice lay in smoldering, belching, stinking ruin. From baseball to automobiles to agriculture to motherhood the age is replete with tawdry, hollow imitation. It is of course not a condition limited to America, we are very much a global society in a stupor. I think of China’s hollow communist party and still more hollow capitalism, Russia’s gilded iron fist and India’s hidden castes. There is not the courage among them to embrace fully their own ideologies, everything must be tempered so as not to upset the markets. The great armies of the earth built on noble principle are ranked with corruption. We fail to even respectfully elevate war to its demigod station.
It seems as though we sometimes achieve great things in spirit, but in practice we fail to manage the really exceptional outcomes. Not long after the stimulus package began to gel around a particular monetary value, the critics including those voices on the economy I most respect, began to warn that it simply was not big enough. The moment had come to pass legislation that could remake the American economy, retool our energy infrastructure and modernize our public facilities and institutions, and we had not (yet) seized it. The calm rational voices reassured us that we could not likely have gotten more, considering the slim victory in the US Senate and the opposition in the House. The remnants of the Republican party in Washington were going to reinforce their positions and obstruct to the last congressperson. The media was going to play the advocate of the diabolical, and after all, no one was sure it would work. It is here that I will introduce the idea that there is nothing necessary for the legislation to do beyond all of the particulars. I mean the tangible projects directly undertaken. I think it is clear to most by now that we should not be attempting to restore the economy as we knew it. On the contrary, the intention should be to initiate the creation of something new. If instead the efforts are judged by their ability to reinvigorate the broken system of exploitation and greed we are now emerging from, then I do sorely hope that they fail. Here we are, at this point of opportunity, not unlike the one we stood upon on September twelfth in 2001. May we not see this moment in the same light from some future vantage point.
I wonder about this present age, and about what is possible for us. So much of what we dared not imagine emerges momentarily. It is in these times when it seems there is something in fact to seize, that contemplation may become the subtle obstructor. It will not be a sound excuse to claim that we faced opposition, or that there were doubts, or that the media misled us in a most naive and innocent way. In fact we are now compelled to reach for the exceptional. The exception of which I speak is not a further perfection of something that already exists, it is the invention of some thing entirely novel. Nietzsche refers to “great” individuals or ideas, and how one either exists before or after them. An element of the exceptional is an exceptional impact. Before there can be that impact, we must act. This exceptional action cannot be left to the governments or the institutions that loom above us, but it must be how we all proceed from here.
- Soren Kierkegaard The Present Age
The age in which we live is the age beyond invention, the age in which everything has a reference, and nothing stands uniquely alone. It is an age in which institutions from political parties to religions have become cowardly simpering caricatures of what they might have been in some deeper more sincere age. The towering American edifice lay in smoldering, belching, stinking ruin. From baseball to automobiles to agriculture to motherhood the age is replete with tawdry, hollow imitation. It is of course not a condition limited to America, we are very much a global society in a stupor. I think of China’s hollow communist party and still more hollow capitalism, Russia’s gilded iron fist and India’s hidden castes. There is not the courage among them to embrace fully their own ideologies, everything must be tempered so as not to upset the markets. The great armies of the earth built on noble principle are ranked with corruption. We fail to even respectfully elevate war to its demigod station.
It seems as though we sometimes achieve great things in spirit, but in practice we fail to manage the really exceptional outcomes. Not long after the stimulus package began to gel around a particular monetary value, the critics including those voices on the economy I most respect, began to warn that it simply was not big enough. The moment had come to pass legislation that could remake the American economy, retool our energy infrastructure and modernize our public facilities and institutions, and we had not (yet) seized it. The calm rational voices reassured us that we could not likely have gotten more, considering the slim victory in the US Senate and the opposition in the House. The remnants of the Republican party in Washington were going to reinforce their positions and obstruct to the last congressperson. The media was going to play the advocate of the diabolical, and after all, no one was sure it would work. It is here that I will introduce the idea that there is nothing necessary for the legislation to do beyond all of the particulars. I mean the tangible projects directly undertaken. I think it is clear to most by now that we should not be attempting to restore the economy as we knew it. On the contrary, the intention should be to initiate the creation of something new. If instead the efforts are judged by their ability to reinvigorate the broken system of exploitation and greed we are now emerging from, then I do sorely hope that they fail. Here we are, at this point of opportunity, not unlike the one we stood upon on September twelfth in 2001. May we not see this moment in the same light from some future vantage point.
I wonder about this present age, and about what is possible for us. So much of what we dared not imagine emerges momentarily. It is in these times when it seems there is something in fact to seize, that contemplation may become the subtle obstructor. It will not be a sound excuse to claim that we faced opposition, or that there were doubts, or that the media misled us in a most naive and innocent way. In fact we are now compelled to reach for the exceptional. The exception of which I speak is not a further perfection of something that already exists, it is the invention of some thing entirely novel. Nietzsche refers to “great” individuals or ideas, and how one either exists before or after them. An element of the exceptional is an exceptional impact. Before there can be that impact, we must act. This exceptional action cannot be left to the governments or the institutions that loom above us, but it must be how we all proceed from here.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The End of the Republican Party
New Struggles - After Buddha was dead, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave - a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. - And we - we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
Could the irony be any more striking? With the swearing in of Barack Obama on the bible of Abraham Lincoln, the age of the Republican party has all but come to an end. As the last foolish utterances ring out in the radio station studios, and those wise enough among the members move to join the blue dogs and centrists or welcome the new president into their states, I can see the future of the Grand Old Party and it is grim. It will be said that bitterness and self interest in the end did them in. Their frantic babble screeching over the airwaves, demanding that their sophistry be heard as truth. Ah how satisfying it is to finally see the people of America awakened by the double dealing and dirty deeds of their Republican masters. Finally aware of having been lied to and misled they seem to have awakened from some ill gotten unconsciousness.
Could this in fact be the final days of the Republican party? Their extensive free market habitat has been decimated by mismanagement and human nature. The range that once supported herds of unbridled capitalists is now populated with advocates of sensible trade policy and even a few rare specimens willing to nationalize banks. Yes, I think it will not be long before the now ancient belief in a ‘center right’ America is seen to be false, and the country is understood to be ‘center left’ as it is. Thus the fraud that has enabled the persistence of the radical ideology of Republicanism, wrapped in the guise of conservativeness, will lose its enabling mythology and drift into oblivion.
There can be no question about the associations between right wing media and rabid capitalism and exaggerated fear of foreign enemies and the amplified uncertainties of society. What was it after all that provided the Republicans with one final age of significance but foreign revolutionaries driven by religious zealotry and urban unrest in America fueled by incongruities among the people based on race and means? What was provided the capitalists if not an opportunity to exercise rampant greed and self interest? The American people, concerned for their safety fixed their eyes on uncertain enemies and entrusted the country to the Republicans. In the intervening years of corruption and unscrupulous governance, American wealth and influence has been drawn into the pockets of the sleek suited millionaires of Wall street assisted by the dimwitted nationalists of the airwaves. Their age of influence is now drawing to an undignified close.
What then is it that finally vanquished this enemy of rationalism? This counter to progress? This impostor who feigns piety and scruples in order to win the praise and loyalty of the naive devotees of the ancient religions? This murderous and despicable assemblage of compassionless and hard-hearted self interested villains of the modern age? I will answer this uncomplicated question with the most complex answer imaginable. Hope. What lies beneath this hope and elevates it to the status of dragon slayer? Courage. What bolsters this courage and enables its steadfastness? Rationalism. What fuels this rationalism and builds it into a sound and unfailing footing? Transparency. What capacitates this transparency and imparts its almost magical power to build hope upon courage and courage upon rationalism? Truth.
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners, and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 125
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
Could the irony be any more striking? With the swearing in of Barack Obama on the bible of Abraham Lincoln, the age of the Republican party has all but come to an end. As the last foolish utterances ring out in the radio station studios, and those wise enough among the members move to join the blue dogs and centrists or welcome the new president into their states, I can see the future of the Grand Old Party and it is grim. It will be said that bitterness and self interest in the end did them in. Their frantic babble screeching over the airwaves, demanding that their sophistry be heard as truth. Ah how satisfying it is to finally see the people of America awakened by the double dealing and dirty deeds of their Republican masters. Finally aware of having been lied to and misled they seem to have awakened from some ill gotten unconsciousness.
Could this in fact be the final days of the Republican party? Their extensive free market habitat has been decimated by mismanagement and human nature. The range that once supported herds of unbridled capitalists is now populated with advocates of sensible trade policy and even a few rare specimens willing to nationalize banks. Yes, I think it will not be long before the now ancient belief in a ‘center right’ America is seen to be false, and the country is understood to be ‘center left’ as it is. Thus the fraud that has enabled the persistence of the radical ideology of Republicanism, wrapped in the guise of conservativeness, will lose its enabling mythology and drift into oblivion.
There can be no question about the associations between right wing media and rabid capitalism and exaggerated fear of foreign enemies and the amplified uncertainties of society. What was it after all that provided the Republicans with one final age of significance but foreign revolutionaries driven by religious zealotry and urban unrest in America fueled by incongruities among the people based on race and means? What was provided the capitalists if not an opportunity to exercise rampant greed and self interest? The American people, concerned for their safety fixed their eyes on uncertain enemies and entrusted the country to the Republicans. In the intervening years of corruption and unscrupulous governance, American wealth and influence has been drawn into the pockets of the sleek suited millionaires of Wall street assisted by the dimwitted nationalists of the airwaves. Their age of influence is now drawing to an undignified close.
What then is it that finally vanquished this enemy of rationalism? This counter to progress? This impostor who feigns piety and scruples in order to win the praise and loyalty of the naive devotees of the ancient religions? This murderous and despicable assemblage of compassionless and hard-hearted self interested villains of the modern age? I will answer this uncomplicated question with the most complex answer imaginable. Hope. What lies beneath this hope and elevates it to the status of dragon slayer? Courage. What bolsters this courage and enables its steadfastness? Rationalism. What fuels this rationalism and builds it into a sound and unfailing footing? Transparency. What capacitates this transparency and imparts its almost magical power to build hope upon courage and courage upon rationalism? Truth.
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners, and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 125
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Farmer or the Financier
Again I come to you with questions. The scalpel this time in my hand. For farmers are not a monolithic herd, nor financiers in matters of variety. Undoubtedly there are those who see their wealth as a means to encourage and enable. They see every dollar as a dream that can be realized by another. It has occurred to me in the past that if you have too many good ideas to develop on your own, then giving them away is the ethical course. It has also occurred to me that intellectual property will be seen very differently in the future. What one can amply develop is not only an opportunity but a responsibility. If this development is novel, and cannot be matched by another, then so much more incumbent is the task. However, should one be unable to pursue an endeavor, it seems to me that it is an ethical responsibility to make it available to others who are able and capable. A sort of licensing that is driven not by the potential for profit and control, but instead motivated by an ethical imperative. I think the twenty first century will be a century of selflessness, or a century of despair.
I myself am a farmer. I say this with some reservation, as the farmer is an iconic image and I do not measure up to the ideal. The pigs see me as a farmer I think, and the goats. The milk tastes like the milk a farmer would drink, the pork tastes like meat that a farmer would eat. The myriad fruits and vegetables in cans and burlap seems to me to be the provisions of a farmer. I think I am a peasant farmer, much like my Irish ancestors were farmers before the famine. What enables this largely is the richness of this country. Truly America is a land of plenty even today, even after so much has been extracted an abundance awaits our endeavor. So as a consequence of kindness, I am able to be a peasant farmer and rejoice in my opportunity well aware of the blessings bestowed upon me. The loans come at very fair rates, so fair in fact that I invent ways to overpay my lender. If only it were this way in the wider world.
When the financiers reverted to some wild state of being, crept back into the jungle and cultivated the predatory spirit, they sought soft prey to exploit. It was the plump juicy flesh of the tender consumer that they sought, led into a condition of being beyond their means. Ripe for entrapment, they followed the voices on their televisions. They listened to the voices from the radio in their sport utility vehicles. They obeyed the waving and dancing fool beside the road who sufficiently enticed them into wanting things, things upon things. Awe what a trap we have laid for ourselves, and now we will indemnify the beast and damn the gentle lamb. Let it be said of us at least that we saw the crimes committed, even lamented, although we did nothing to stop it.
So, to the question. Who is it we will revere, who will have our solace in these trying times? Will it be the farmer? Whether she sits in a massive machine, tending a thousand acres in a day, or creeps from row to row on her knees speaking in hush tones to each seed, the farmer today embodies an ancient spirit. One that seeks to multiply and understand and adapt and produce. Or will it be the financier? Whether he bends his knees beneath a mahogany desk, or sits on squeaky wheels with elbows on formica, the financier is too an icon in America. One that seeks to calculate and amortize and dictate terms and profit. I above all things seek to appreciate the world in its entirety. I read the first commandment from my childhood to demand this of me, worship no single thing above the unity of all things. Yet in this case I ask myself and I ask you who shall it be; the farmer or the financier?
I myself am a farmer. I say this with some reservation, as the farmer is an iconic image and I do not measure up to the ideal. The pigs see me as a farmer I think, and the goats. The milk tastes like the milk a farmer would drink, the pork tastes like meat that a farmer would eat. The myriad fruits and vegetables in cans and burlap seems to me to be the provisions of a farmer. I think I am a peasant farmer, much like my Irish ancestors were farmers before the famine. What enables this largely is the richness of this country. Truly America is a land of plenty even today, even after so much has been extracted an abundance awaits our endeavor. So as a consequence of kindness, I am able to be a peasant farmer and rejoice in my opportunity well aware of the blessings bestowed upon me. The loans come at very fair rates, so fair in fact that I invent ways to overpay my lender. If only it were this way in the wider world.
When the financiers reverted to some wild state of being, crept back into the jungle and cultivated the predatory spirit, they sought soft prey to exploit. It was the plump juicy flesh of the tender consumer that they sought, led into a condition of being beyond their means. Ripe for entrapment, they followed the voices on their televisions. They listened to the voices from the radio in their sport utility vehicles. They obeyed the waving and dancing fool beside the road who sufficiently enticed them into wanting things, things upon things. Awe what a trap we have laid for ourselves, and now we will indemnify the beast and damn the gentle lamb. Let it be said of us at least that we saw the crimes committed, even lamented, although we did nothing to stop it.
So, to the question. Who is it we will revere, who will have our solace in these trying times? Will it be the farmer? Whether she sits in a massive machine, tending a thousand acres in a day, or creeps from row to row on her knees speaking in hush tones to each seed, the farmer today embodies an ancient spirit. One that seeks to multiply and understand and adapt and produce. Or will it be the financier? Whether he bends his knees beneath a mahogany desk, or sits on squeaky wheels with elbows on formica, the financier is too an icon in America. One that seeks to calculate and amortize and dictate terms and profit. I above all things seek to appreciate the world in its entirety. I read the first commandment from my childhood to demand this of me, worship no single thing above the unity of all things. Yet in this case I ask myself and I ask you who shall it be; the farmer or the financier?
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Life by a Thousand Breaths
I remember how I felt upon returning to Washington State in September of 2004. I had completed an incredible journey that had taken me to the Democratic and Republican national conventions, in Boston and NYC respectively. I returned hopeful that Bush would be defeated, it seemed then that everything I had learned on that trip pointed to a Bush defeat. It is hard to say what really happened a month or so later, but even if Kerry had won, my enthusiasm for him had been limited to the speech he had given to congress as a young Vietnam War veteran. Beyond that I found him to be practically free of character, he was a man without qualities.
It seemed like days after the election, in a hopeless gloom that I believe will be unmatched by any future period of my life, the phrase “He’s ready. Why wait?...” first entered my ear. I had missed his speech to the convention in Boston, I was outside in the streets. When I found my way to the exceedingly lovely home of a good friend’s parents outside of the city that night, it was all they were talking about. Later when I saw the speech, heard it first and then later watched it online, I saw a nervous man, who was anything but tenuous. It was the urgency in his tone, it was the clear recognition by him of the weight of his responsibility to his message. I always said that I liked it best when Jerry Garcia stepped to the microphone to sing a lyric after a long mystical jam that had exceeded his own expectations of it. He appeared to me to be ‘at gunpoint’ he had no choice but to step forward and sing. His life depended on it. That is what I saw in Barack Obama when I watched that speech from the convention.
For the interceding years, I have suffered in my heart the travails of our world. I would have done that no matter what had happened regarding the executive branch of the US government. I am sufficiently skeptical of the government to not blame it for all of the worlds troubles. My pain was compounded however by the reckless, arrogant, ignorant, incurious, absent and sometimes plain malign occupant of the White House. It was not the major events, the big decisions the tremendous errors that eroded my spirit so much as the daily degradation, the ocean of despair filled with a million tears, shed for a million tragedies.
Throughout those years, the tune would ring again in my head on occasion. In fact I sang it out often. Interchanging the lines of the verse randomly, annoying the hell out of my daughter. I am sure a few people first learned who Obama was from me, singing that tune. Many of them said then that there was no way a black man would be elected president of the United States. Especially one named Barack Obama, William Jefferson maybe but... I attended our caucus in Washington State, and vigorously supported Barack Obama. I spoke on his behalf, and dismissed the concerns about too many rednecks in the country for a black president to be elected. I assured the concerned woman by citing my own red neck concealed by my own long hair, and citing my childhood in Pennsylvania as a source for evidence about why he would in fact win the state in the general. Without my encouraging, my precinct was overwhelmingly supporting Barack Obama.
Today Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. I breathed a sigh of relief. Utah wilderness was spared the drill bit and the hydraulic fluid spills that accompany exploration and extraction. Yesterday millionaire executives were publicly humiliated for their solipsism. An offer was made to Russia that would reduce ICBMs by 80%. An attorney general who considers torture illegal, and believes justice applies to everyone equally was confirmed. A few days earlier an envoy was sent to the middle east with instructions to listen. School children were read to by the first black president. Secret prisons were closed. Rendition was returned to its pre-Bush era criteria. Aid agencies were relieved of the fear that religious zealots would demand they return funds for discussing forbidden medical procedures with clients. Science replaced desired outcomes as the means to determine policy. A president addressed the muslim world as a coherent and sensible partner for cooperation. After what feels like many years of the steady dripping erosion of my spirit this is what life by a thousand breaths feels like.
It seemed like days after the election, in a hopeless gloom that I believe will be unmatched by any future period of my life, the phrase “He’s ready. Why wait?...” first entered my ear. I had missed his speech to the convention in Boston, I was outside in the streets. When I found my way to the exceedingly lovely home of a good friend’s parents outside of the city that night, it was all they were talking about. Later when I saw the speech, heard it first and then later watched it online, I saw a nervous man, who was anything but tenuous. It was the urgency in his tone, it was the clear recognition by him of the weight of his responsibility to his message. I always said that I liked it best when Jerry Garcia stepped to the microphone to sing a lyric after a long mystical jam that had exceeded his own expectations of it. He appeared to me to be ‘at gunpoint’ he had no choice but to step forward and sing. His life depended on it. That is what I saw in Barack Obama when I watched that speech from the convention.
For the interceding years, I have suffered in my heart the travails of our world. I would have done that no matter what had happened regarding the executive branch of the US government. I am sufficiently skeptical of the government to not blame it for all of the worlds troubles. My pain was compounded however by the reckless, arrogant, ignorant, incurious, absent and sometimes plain malign occupant of the White House. It was not the major events, the big decisions the tremendous errors that eroded my spirit so much as the daily degradation, the ocean of despair filled with a million tears, shed for a million tragedies.
Throughout those years, the tune would ring again in my head on occasion. In fact I sang it out often. Interchanging the lines of the verse randomly, annoying the hell out of my daughter. I am sure a few people first learned who Obama was from me, singing that tune. Many of them said then that there was no way a black man would be elected president of the United States. Especially one named Barack Obama, William Jefferson maybe but... I attended our caucus in Washington State, and vigorously supported Barack Obama. I spoke on his behalf, and dismissed the concerns about too many rednecks in the country for a black president to be elected. I assured the concerned woman by citing my own red neck concealed by my own long hair, and citing my childhood in Pennsylvania as a source for evidence about why he would in fact win the state in the general. Without my encouraging, my precinct was overwhelmingly supporting Barack Obama.
Today Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. I breathed a sigh of relief. Utah wilderness was spared the drill bit and the hydraulic fluid spills that accompany exploration and extraction. Yesterday millionaire executives were publicly humiliated for their solipsism. An offer was made to Russia that would reduce ICBMs by 80%. An attorney general who considers torture illegal, and believes justice applies to everyone equally was confirmed. A few days earlier an envoy was sent to the middle east with instructions to listen. School children were read to by the first black president. Secret prisons were closed. Rendition was returned to its pre-Bush era criteria. Aid agencies were relieved of the fear that religious zealots would demand they return funds for discussing forbidden medical procedures with clients. Science replaced desired outcomes as the means to determine policy. A president addressed the muslim world as a coherent and sensible partner for cooperation. After what feels like many years of the steady dripping erosion of my spirit this is what life by a thousand breaths feels like.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
We Are All Humans Now
Members of the Olympia Community gathered for a funeral procession through the streets of Olympia in honor of those individuals killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza. In attendance were Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer in Raffah refugee camp in Gaza in 2001. I remember meeting the Nasrallah family, who’s home Rachel had been protecting when she was killed, with the Corries at the KAOS radio station in 2005. We were there for consecutive interviews. I remember looking painfully into the eyes of Samah Nasrallah and reaching for words to convey my good intentions to her. The feeling that I could not effectively communicate how much I supported them and their family and their community. I was struck by how helpless I felt. How I was left feeling powerless and disconnected.
In the days leading up to the procession on Saturday January 17th 2009, Gaza had been the target of the most mercilessly violent assault I have ever personally witnessed. In the name of national security, Israel had unleashed her arsenal of high tech high power weapons with tremendously destructive effect. Innocent and defenseless women and children and non-combatants representing those most devastatingly impacted. Images of dismembered children, eyes burned shut, legs reduced to stumps wrapped in bandages, lips clenched with pain and confusion streamed onto the internet. Segments on Al Jazeera told of medics so brave that they rushed back out into the streets to retrieve wounded as soon as their own injuries had been tended. One recounting the words of his lost comrade saying, even if he lost one of his own legs he would hop back into the streets to save the innocents. Israel shamelessly targeted these brave and devoted Palestinian medics, shooting at them as they attempted to retrieve the wounded.
Nothing was safe from the weapons of the IDF. UN schools where children huddled with their mothers in fear were hit, dozens died. Whole families were rounded up and herded into buildings where they were prevented from leaving when the shelling began, they died as they had lived, together. In the end even relief supplies, medicine and food, were hit. Burned by phosphorous munitions that are banned by international law for use in such a criminal fashion. Miles of roads were destroyed with heavy machinery, making a return to normal life impossible. The people of Gaza were in desperate straits before this assault, the blockade having reduced them to captives in a refugee camp. Now that refugee camp has been destroyed, detonated and inflamed with white phosphorous. Fathers and mothers like the Nasrallahs have lost children. Children are without parents and brothers and sisters. Whatever semblance of civility and normalcy there had been in Gaza, is now reduced to rubble.
When the trade towers fell in 2001, the citizens of the United States of America felt a distinct camaraderie. The flag that had been burned and torn in its decent from the top of the tallest building in Manhattan was raised up. The rally around the flag began. I wondered then as I do now; why that flag? I mean, why not the flag of NYC or New York State? Down the street the flags of every nation fly, why not the flag of the United Nations? Certainly people of many nationalities died that day. The strike may have been intended to hit US targets, but in the days of globalization it is easily argued that it was a strike against the western world as much as it was a strike on American soil.
On September 12, the Paris paper Le Monde printed 'We're all Americans now'. With this they bridged the Atlantic and the many political divides between the left in France and the rapidly right moving 21st century America. This was how they showed their deep concern for the horrors perpetrated that day, they had taken on the mantle of our national identity. But in the end, innocents in Afghanistan payed the price for this alignment. They could not claim to be Americans, and seek the protections and opportunities it affords.
When Russia rolled a column of vehicles through a tunnel into a disputed Georgian province, then candidate McCain stated with artificial meaning the same line with the substituted Georgians in place of Americans; 'We are all Georgians now.' In addition to wishing to rekindle the fears of Americans that had worked so well to keep Republicans in the white house in the intervening years, he was also wanting us to take sides. Choose a flag, choose an identity. In the end the apartment blocks burned in South Ossetia, and innocents died in the rubble.
I can only speak for myself. I have not been given any greater authority to speak than that. But what I see in Gaza today has led me to a different conclusion than those I cited above. The burned and tattered flag in this case is not a national flag, but the flag of humanity. I am not a Palestinian today, I am a human. I choose the human identity, the one that leads me to defend humanity from inhumanity. The identity that leads me to seek peace and prosperity and a future for all of our children that they can rejoice in. It is in this way that I end my isolation and empower myself to strengthen my connection with the Nasrallah family and all of those good and noble who have lost so much in Gaza. It is not up to Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Israel, it is up to all of us. After all; ‘We are all humans now’.
In the days leading up to the procession on Saturday January 17th 2009, Gaza had been the target of the most mercilessly violent assault I have ever personally witnessed. In the name of national security, Israel had unleashed her arsenal of high tech high power weapons with tremendously destructive effect. Innocent and defenseless women and children and non-combatants representing those most devastatingly impacted. Images of dismembered children, eyes burned shut, legs reduced to stumps wrapped in bandages, lips clenched with pain and confusion streamed onto the internet. Segments on Al Jazeera told of medics so brave that they rushed back out into the streets to retrieve wounded as soon as their own injuries had been tended. One recounting the words of his lost comrade saying, even if he lost one of his own legs he would hop back into the streets to save the innocents. Israel shamelessly targeted these brave and devoted Palestinian medics, shooting at them as they attempted to retrieve the wounded.
Nothing was safe from the weapons of the IDF. UN schools where children huddled with their mothers in fear were hit, dozens died. Whole families were rounded up and herded into buildings where they were prevented from leaving when the shelling began, they died as they had lived, together. In the end even relief supplies, medicine and food, were hit. Burned by phosphorous munitions that are banned by international law for use in such a criminal fashion. Miles of roads were destroyed with heavy machinery, making a return to normal life impossible. The people of Gaza were in desperate straits before this assault, the blockade having reduced them to captives in a refugee camp. Now that refugee camp has been destroyed, detonated and inflamed with white phosphorous. Fathers and mothers like the Nasrallahs have lost children. Children are without parents and brothers and sisters. Whatever semblance of civility and normalcy there had been in Gaza, is now reduced to rubble.
When the trade towers fell in 2001, the citizens of the United States of America felt a distinct camaraderie. The flag that had been burned and torn in its decent from the top of the tallest building in Manhattan was raised up. The rally around the flag began. I wondered then as I do now; why that flag? I mean, why not the flag of NYC or New York State? Down the street the flags of every nation fly, why not the flag of the United Nations? Certainly people of many nationalities died that day. The strike may have been intended to hit US targets, but in the days of globalization it is easily argued that it was a strike against the western world as much as it was a strike on American soil.
On September 12, the Paris paper Le Monde printed 'We're all Americans now'. With this they bridged the Atlantic and the many political divides between the left in France and the rapidly right moving 21st century America. This was how they showed their deep concern for the horrors perpetrated that day, they had taken on the mantle of our national identity. But in the end, innocents in Afghanistan payed the price for this alignment. They could not claim to be Americans, and seek the protections and opportunities it affords.
When Russia rolled a column of vehicles through a tunnel into a disputed Georgian province, then candidate McCain stated with artificial meaning the same line with the substituted Georgians in place of Americans; 'We are all Georgians now.' In addition to wishing to rekindle the fears of Americans that had worked so well to keep Republicans in the white house in the intervening years, he was also wanting us to take sides. Choose a flag, choose an identity. In the end the apartment blocks burned in South Ossetia, and innocents died in the rubble.
I can only speak for myself. I have not been given any greater authority to speak than that. But what I see in Gaza today has led me to a different conclusion than those I cited above. The burned and tattered flag in this case is not a national flag, but the flag of humanity. I am not a Palestinian today, I am a human. I choose the human identity, the one that leads me to defend humanity from inhumanity. The identity that leads me to seek peace and prosperity and a future for all of our children that they can rejoice in. It is in this way that I end my isolation and empower myself to strengthen my connection with the Nasrallah family and all of those good and noble who have lost so much in Gaza. It is not up to Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Israel, it is up to all of us. After all; ‘We are all humans now’.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thoughts on Gaza
Language prevents us from understanding these events well enough to stop them or prevent them. The details of the truce and the rocket fire and the settlement agreements would matter very much if all parties to the conflict agreed that justice should determine the outcome. Contrarily, the parties have allowed their ideologies to extinguish their idealism.
I have a natural predisposition as an Irish Catholic to hold in high regard militant resistance, it is a romantic appeal that circumvents my rational mind. It is evident that many people of Jewish descent are quite satisfied to see a nuclear armed Israel pummeling its helpless neighbors with the most advanced weaponry on earth, immune to the worlds castigation. These emotions crush our humanity.
Through a carefully crafted campaign, we have all been deceived into believing that the two state solution is the just outcome, and the parties need only follow a roadmap to peace. This language is intended to beguile us, making real peace and justice impossible. In reality the two state solution is a cover for genocide, the roadmap to peace is a gilded veil for strategic warfare. Separate but equal is a conception of ruthless oppression. The strategists use language to conceal their treachery in the guise of law and order and self defense.
Without question there are individuals worthy of condemnation who claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians. This in no way indicates a moral equivalency between the actions of the Palestinian people and the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. As was the case when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, civilians are the target of Israeli fire. Any analysis of available statistics will support this conclusion; Israel intentionally kills civilians. They kill children because they will grow up to be militants, they kill women because they will bear more children to replace those killed. I say this without hesitation and with every confidence that it is a stated objective within the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces. I do not defend the firing of primitive rockets into Israel, they are the consequence of failed Israeli policy, and serve the Israeli government far better than they threaten the Israeli people or further the cause of the Palestinians.
Israel has a national policy of genocide. Israel has a national policy of demonizing and dehumanizing its enemies. Israel undertakes psychological operations to manipulate political figures and the press in Europe and America to further its agenda. Any attempt to excuse Israeli actions in Lebanon or in Gaza is a dishonest effort born of an ideological loyalty to the state of Israel that will not be altered by empirical evidence. I conclude this as a result of careful analysis and not as a result of any ideological discrimination against Israel based on the race or religion of its citizens.
Palestinians are Semites. I reject any accusations of anti-semitism. I reject ideology that does not modify itself based upon empirical evidence that stands to contradict it. I oppose the willful murder of women and children and non-combatants to further any ideology, wether it be Zionism or America's own Manifest Destiny. I will never weaken my condemnation of the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces by equivocating their actions with the actions of the resistance in Palestine. I vehemently support and defend the right of individuals to participate peacefully in the conduct of global affairs, and I further support and defend the right of peoples to take arms in their own defense when their lives and liberty and culture and ancestral land is threatened by force, even when it is overwhelming force. I strongly and unequivocally support the people's resistance in Palestine.
I remember when Israel withdrew from gaza, and the analogy of the huge open air prison came into common parlance. The thought of families crowded into refugee camps become slum cities, dependent upon hostile and unsympathetic neighbors to provide them the necessities: fuel, water, electricity, medicine. The rumor at the time was that it was part of a larger plan, a model devised by Israeli strategists. They would be back with a vengeance when the opportunity presented itself.
The duplicitous goal of Israel has historically been to demonize the Palestinian natives while simultaneously ruthlessly destroying their way of life. There has been no hint of shame from Israel nor from her allies. These include, of course, the United States of America, after all she too demonized and destroyed her natives. What surely cannot be said is that Israel has any greater right to exist than the native peoples of Palestine, additionally it cannot be said that Israel is a democracy in any meaningful way. Israel is a state of entitlements based upon loyalty and blood.
At one time Judaism was a bastion of the disputative process. Today the skills developed over generations of devoted intellectualism are being bent and misshapen to sophisticatedly defend the indefensible. The sophists are equipped and willing to defend their cause regardless of its failure to adhere to the truth. Today Israel and her apologists are careful and calculated with their language, knowing that truth and morality and the demography of the future are not on their side.
The Israelis have been offering 'warnings' to civilians to abandon their homes in the north and the south of Gaza. Wether the effected families heed these warnings and run for their lives or not, Israeli military operations proceed, killing or wounding anyone who might have stayed behind. Should medics attempt a rescue of wounded civilians they too are fired upon. Once these military operations are complete, Israel is bulldozing the homes that have been emptied.
This is not an attempt to end the firing of Hamas rockets into Israel. This operation is an attempt to humiliate the Palestinian people, punish them for their election of the political party Hamas, and further the careers of Israeli politicians, effectively wiping their defeat in Lebanon out of the minds of the Israeli populous.
These events are extremely painful to witness, and the natural instinct for those of us so removed from them is to deny them or manufacture simple exculpatory conclusions that do not abide by the facts. There is no question that war crimes are being committed, and that we and our government are complicit. What is most painful is to witness Israeli and US officials reading intentionally deceitful talking points that are designed to sophisticatedly mislead and mischaracterize. These are the most brazen crimes, even beyond those crimes of warfare, crimes of deep deceit. Those of us who vehemently condemn these acts are in good company, and as long as our resistance is unrelenting we will be remembered fondly. Our condemnations should be unequivocal, these crimes are inexcusable. The merciless killing of captive civilian refugees with the most advanced and destructive weapons ever devised by humanity is infinitely amplified by the brazen and heartless defense made by the well groomed masters of humanity in Washington DC and Tel Aviv. If we allow these crimes to be committed in our silent midst, we are in a meaningful way as culpable.
I have a natural predisposition as an Irish Catholic to hold in high regard militant resistance, it is a romantic appeal that circumvents my rational mind. It is evident that many people of Jewish descent are quite satisfied to see a nuclear armed Israel pummeling its helpless neighbors with the most advanced weaponry on earth, immune to the worlds castigation. These emotions crush our humanity.
Through a carefully crafted campaign, we have all been deceived into believing that the two state solution is the just outcome, and the parties need only follow a roadmap to peace. This language is intended to beguile us, making real peace and justice impossible. In reality the two state solution is a cover for genocide, the roadmap to peace is a gilded veil for strategic warfare. Separate but equal is a conception of ruthless oppression. The strategists use language to conceal their treachery in the guise of law and order and self defense.
Without question there are individuals worthy of condemnation who claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians. This in no way indicates a moral equivalency between the actions of the Palestinian people and the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. As was the case when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, civilians are the target of Israeli fire. Any analysis of available statistics will support this conclusion; Israel intentionally kills civilians. They kill children because they will grow up to be militants, they kill women because they will bear more children to replace those killed. I say this without hesitation and with every confidence that it is a stated objective within the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces. I do not defend the firing of primitive rockets into Israel, they are the consequence of failed Israeli policy, and serve the Israeli government far better than they threaten the Israeli people or further the cause of the Palestinians.
Israel has a national policy of genocide. Israel has a national policy of demonizing and dehumanizing its enemies. Israel undertakes psychological operations to manipulate political figures and the press in Europe and America to further its agenda. Any attempt to excuse Israeli actions in Lebanon or in Gaza is a dishonest effort born of an ideological loyalty to the state of Israel that will not be altered by empirical evidence. I conclude this as a result of careful analysis and not as a result of any ideological discrimination against Israel based on the race or religion of its citizens.
Palestinians are Semites. I reject any accusations of anti-semitism. I reject ideology that does not modify itself based upon empirical evidence that stands to contradict it. I oppose the willful murder of women and children and non-combatants to further any ideology, wether it be Zionism or America's own Manifest Destiny. I will never weaken my condemnation of the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces by equivocating their actions with the actions of the resistance in Palestine. I vehemently support and defend the right of individuals to participate peacefully in the conduct of global affairs, and I further support and defend the right of peoples to take arms in their own defense when their lives and liberty and culture and ancestral land is threatened by force, even when it is overwhelming force. I strongly and unequivocally support the people's resistance in Palestine.
I remember when Israel withdrew from gaza, and the analogy of the huge open air prison came into common parlance. The thought of families crowded into refugee camps become slum cities, dependent upon hostile and unsympathetic neighbors to provide them the necessities: fuel, water, electricity, medicine. The rumor at the time was that it was part of a larger plan, a model devised by Israeli strategists. They would be back with a vengeance when the opportunity presented itself.
The duplicitous goal of Israel has historically been to demonize the Palestinian natives while simultaneously ruthlessly destroying their way of life. There has been no hint of shame from Israel nor from her allies. These include, of course, the United States of America, after all she too demonized and destroyed her natives. What surely cannot be said is that Israel has any greater right to exist than the native peoples of Palestine, additionally it cannot be said that Israel is a democracy in any meaningful way. Israel is a state of entitlements based upon loyalty and blood.
At one time Judaism was a bastion of the disputative process. Today the skills developed over generations of devoted intellectualism are being bent and misshapen to sophisticatedly defend the indefensible. The sophists are equipped and willing to defend their cause regardless of its failure to adhere to the truth. Today Israel and her apologists are careful and calculated with their language, knowing that truth and morality and the demography of the future are not on their side.
The Israelis have been offering 'warnings' to civilians to abandon their homes in the north and the south of Gaza. Wether the effected families heed these warnings and run for their lives or not, Israeli military operations proceed, killing or wounding anyone who might have stayed behind. Should medics attempt a rescue of wounded civilians they too are fired upon. Once these military operations are complete, Israel is bulldozing the homes that have been emptied.
This is not an attempt to end the firing of Hamas rockets into Israel. This operation is an attempt to humiliate the Palestinian people, punish them for their election of the political party Hamas, and further the careers of Israeli politicians, effectively wiping their defeat in Lebanon out of the minds of the Israeli populous.
These events are extremely painful to witness, and the natural instinct for those of us so removed from them is to deny them or manufacture simple exculpatory conclusions that do not abide by the facts. There is no question that war crimes are being committed, and that we and our government are complicit. What is most painful is to witness Israeli and US officials reading intentionally deceitful talking points that are designed to sophisticatedly mislead and mischaracterize. These are the most brazen crimes, even beyond those crimes of warfare, crimes of deep deceit. Those of us who vehemently condemn these acts are in good company, and as long as our resistance is unrelenting we will be remembered fondly. Our condemnations should be unequivocal, these crimes are inexcusable. The merciless killing of captive civilian refugees with the most advanced and destructive weapons ever devised by humanity is infinitely amplified by the brazen and heartless defense made by the well groomed masters of humanity in Washington DC and Tel Aviv. If we allow these crimes to be committed in our silent midst, we are in a meaningful way as culpable.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
