Dave's Blog

Friday, May 30, 2003 6:12:13 PM 

Balance.  There is balance on a personal scale, and then there's 
balance on a universal scale.  The two don't necessarily look the 
same from an individual perspective.  Some things track fairly 
closely, as when the "tech bubble" bursts and the individual laborer 
has to retune his expenses to meet a lower wage rate.  Some things 
don't seem to track at all, as when a lifetime of prosperity for one 
person is but a part of a centuries-long cycle that sways from 
famine to plenty and back again.  As we ride out the shorter cycles 
it is good to keep in mind the larger cycles of which they are a 
part.  

On the History Channel this last Monday and Tuesday we watched Russia, 
Land of the Tsars, which tracked a thousand years of history from 
a royal point of view.  One monarch followed another in a long 
procession of reigns and dynasties.  At one point a ruler proclaimed 
himself Tsar, at another point Emperor.  Sometimes men would rule, 
sometimes women, sometimes groups in compromise.  For hundreds of 
years the only way to the throne appeared to be to murder the parent, 
for other centuries the progression was relatively peaceful and 
orderly.  A tyrant would rule and the people would cower, then a 
benevolent dictator would succeed and the culture would flower.  Free 
thought led to treason, and another tyrant would take the throne.  
History must have looked very different to each ruler, depending upon 
his or her personal experience, the world around, and the attitude 
of the people.  Yet, as tyranny followed benevolence, and as 
city-building followed patricide, the long march of civilization 
slowly evolved.  None could say that 21st-Century Russian life is the 
same as that of the 8th-Century.  

Likewise, in the United States we glorify the progress made from that 
arbitrary date, July 4, 1776, to today.  A continent that was unknown 
to the revolutionaries of the 18th Century stands conquered and 
united in a sort of political harmony today.  I have lived in Virginia, 
Alaska, Missouri, California, Hawaii, and Arizona, speaking the same 
language and sharing the same social values, over a period of 33 years.  
Yet my personal life is but a slice of the lives of all Americans, 
which spans more lifestyles and more circumstances than I can imagine.  
As I try to imagine the variety of American life, I remember those who 
are to come in the future.  An infinite variety stretches before us. 
As we have looked upon the thoughts and values of past Americans as 
odd or archaic, the Americans who follow us will look upon our 
thoughts and values as archaic.  

Once it took a year to travel from Boston to San Francisco.  It took 
General Eisenhower and his convoy a hundred days.  Any of us may 
board a flight and make the passage in five hours.  Technology has 
changed our view of the country.  

Some common thread runs through it all.  Perhaps we need to read more 
of General Washington, of Thomas Jefferson.  Perhaps we need to pick 
up their writing, in which they strove to speak to us directly, and 
cut out the filters of the History Channel.  Perhaps, if we pay 
attention to the message and bear the annoyance of the shift in 
language, we can understand more clearly the principles upon which 
the nation grew.  In tuning into this larger cycle, perhaps we can 
understand more clearly where we are headed and how the choppy 
headlines of the daily news services fit into a grander scheme.  In 
finding the larger cycle, perhaps more sense can be made of the 
little window through which we, in a single lifetime, witness its 
progress.  


Friday, May 30, 2003 9:37:14 AM 

"God is on our side."  The inscription, I was told in my youth, 
adorned the belt buckles of the German SS troops in World War II.  
How appropriate, I believe, is this little tidbit as the United States 
of America gropes for a new, coherent, foreign policy.  The thought  
that "God is on our side" tends to foster in the ego is "We are 
invincible," and that is obviously not the case.  In sports we learn 
that the victor of the moment will not always be the victor, no matter 
how powerful, how radiant, how impressive he is now.  

The ancient Hebrews, when they were but barbaric roaming invaders that 
terrorized ancient civilizations, learned an interesting trick.  They 
would carry their god into battle.  Nota bene, this implies that 
at the time their consciousness of God as an omniscient, omnipresent, 
omnipotent entity was no further developed than their neighbors'.  To 
them, the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, in their little 
gold ark, with seraphim adorning it to protect the tablets, was as 
limited a god as Isis, Horus, Baal, or any other god that had to be 
carried in an ark from place to place.  Perhaps the tablets would not 
be adorned in fine clothing or taken to another god's residence for a 
wedding ceremony, but nonetheless it was limited.  What gave the 
ancient Hebrews their power in the battlefield was that they broke the 
rules of fair play.  No one in their right minds would dare oppose a 
god, and until that time none but the Hebrews would remove their gods 
from the temples to lead them into battle.  With a god on the enemies' 
side, what would be the point of resisting?  

Was the little gold box that led the Hebrews into battle the 
omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God that we turn to for guidance 
today?  In a way, yes.  In another way, no.  God is all.  Therefore, 
the little gold box on the battlefield was part of the all.  So were 
the opposing soldiers who retreated rather than face a conflict in 
their shared belief system.  

What belief system governed the "shock and awe" campaign carried out 
by the U.S. Armed Forces this year?  One that, by demonstration and 
advertising, led opponents to believe that should they resist they 
would be squashed like cockroaches in their own homes.  Better to lay 
down arms than to be destroyed in a flash without warning.  The god 
that accompanied our troops to the battlefield this year was 
television, the communication medium that has been so finely tuned by 
Americans that the World knows we are all gun-toting murderous 
cowboy vigilantes, and should we decide to roam in their backyards 
they had better give up and live than try to resist the terrorists 
that nearly exterminated the native population of North America.  The 
little box is still on the battlefield, still conveying the message 
that those wielding it are invincible.  

I hope that the general population, including the Federal government 
and its Generals, will soon understand the omniscient, omnipresent, 
omnipotent nature of the Divine.  That they should realize that God 
is all, that All is god, and that when they destroy human  beings 
like cockroaches in their own homes on the far side of the Planet, 
they are destroying a part of themselves.  No amount of destruction 
can raise a new consciousness.  It is in times of peace and harmony 
that civilization advances.  War is a defensive maneuver, and we 
should note that defense is a French word for stop, as in defense de 
fumer.  The wars our country rages upon the Earth do it no service; 
our military rampages are no more honorable than others' that we 
deride in our school systems.  It is time to replace the slogan "God 
is on our side" with a new one.  Perhaps, "We are on God's side."  
God is love.  God is your neighbor.  God is the Universe and all that 
is in it; material, ideal, and spiritual.  If you stand on God's side, 
you will find a better way than the infantile, cruel destruction of 
His creation as a way to improve your life and the lives of all of us 
who share it.  

What was the mission? What was the message?

Who was the intended audience? Who were the witnesses?

Sunday, May 11, 2003 10:34:44 PM 

I watched in fascination last week as the Warrior King George Bush II 
observed the National Day of Prayer in his White House chapel, then 
flew 4,000 miles to land in his trusty S-3B on the deck of the 
U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in time for dinner.  Then to declare that 
the "battle of Iraq" was but one chapter of his global war against 
the evil scourge of terrorism.  The symbolism was so Arthurian 
it was hypnotic.  No wonder Tony Blair couldn't help but rush to the 
Warrior King's side at the astonishment and disdain of the rest of 
Europe -- they speak the same language.  If Bush doesn't have the 
American public fooled, at least he holds the American and British 
governments in the palm of his hand.  I see why he denies that it is 
a Crusade, as well.  The Crusades were conducted in the name of the 
Pope, whom our Warrior King outright ignores. The Warrior King 
knows he is the Sword of the Lord, born of the Promised Land of the 
New World, and that he has every right to rain fire and brimstone upon 
the King of Babylon and to smite him with his mighty Bunker Busters.  

If the first three years of the 21st Century have taught us anything, 
it is that the World is still asleep and has yet to grow up and act 
like an adult.  I wonder sometimes what Congress was thinking the 
night of September 12 when it bended on its knee and gave the 
Warrior King unlimited power for the rest of his term to do whatever 
it takes to show the world you don't mess with Texas ... uh, the U.S.  
Now, knowing that he is not a real king -- yet -- King George 
Bush II is taking to the road to try to erase the memory of the first 
election and to use all his Associated Press power to stay in office.  
Eight years of King George?  It's so apocalyptic!  

So as the Warrior King is showing the rest of the world that the 
children of Aries still hold the reins of government, and can trash 
anyone's country in the Good Name of Justice, what's a child of 
Aquarius to do?  I'm hiding out in my laboratory, creating banking 
services that businesses and consumers have never seen before, 
incanting my Unix formulas such as 
    ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep java | cut -c1-80 
    eval cd \`dirname `find /usr/WebSphere -name app.cfg` \`  
and wondering, in the back of my mind, what the individual U.S. 
citizen can do to stop the madness?  My fourth grade teacher is there 
in the back of my mind, jumping up and down with her hands waving, 
shouting "vote, David, vote!"  

Let's see.  In the last general election I voted for the Libertarian 
Party candidates because, even though Democrats were screaming we had 
to stop Bush, I saw no real difference between him and Gore.  Cut from 
the same cloth, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the world would be the 
same whether we voted for the one or the other.  I'm not convinced I 
was wrong, as Gore has quietly stepped out of the picture.  I wonder 
who knows what.  But at the risk of being insulted by the Demipublican  
Repocrats nominating another pair of alleged criminals, I am 
inclined to vote for Change any way I can.  That means, perhaps that 
I will have to vote for the Person Most Likely to Defeat the 
Incumbent, in all branches of the Government.  After all, our 
Senators and members of Congress did act to unleash the Fire and 
Brimstone at the Hand of the Warrior King.  No more Mr. Nice Guy, 
rest of the World.  The American Wrath has been invoked.  But perhaps 
the American Wrath, the sword of Aries, should be retired.  Perhaps 
Aries, a.k.a. Ares, should be sent to his corner for a time-out, so 
Aquarius can pour a soothing balm upon the planet.  One must be sure 
the soothing balm cannot be destructive, but must be healing in every 
sense of the word.  "Make Love, Not War," we chanted 35 years ago.  
Perhaps it is time to act, instead of chant.  

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