01-18-2011 Cultural Post #6: The Cultural Challenges Of Civility

 

“All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals…”.

(Joshua Lederberg)

“Civility costs nothing, and buys everything…”.
(Mary Wortley Montagu)

i have often seen people uncivil by too much civility and tiresome in their courtesy…”.
(Michel de Montaigne)

“So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that

civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof…”.

(John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

There has been much talk in the wake of the Arizona shootings about “civility.”  Tricky thing, that civility.  Tricky because almost no one means the same concept when they use the same word.

Thursday will be the 50^th Anniversary of JFK’s Inaugural Address, which (i think, although i wasn’t yet aLive) it seems to me most people remember fondly — whatever their political persuasion.  Personally, my opinion of JFK is like my opinion of a lot of U.S. Presidents: mixed.  However, i do think (as someone who studied rhetoric & analysis in college, is a trained researcher, and had dreams of being a political speechwriter when i was younger) that JFK’s inaugural address is one of the great speeches in U.S. Presidential history.

Civility was not necessarily something i think people remember as a key point of that speech, but given the hatred that dogged JFK’s presidential run toward Catholicism and the brutal way his presidency ended, it seems appropriate for me to broach the subject of civility and appeal to both Kennedy and the larger U.S. political climate and culture of the times.  While many remember either the family Life of “Camelot” or the shameful, playboy behavior of JFK on the extremes, the period of his presidency with its space race and pending racial battles, the foreign policy issues such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the election of the first Catholic president and the issues that raised of U.S. sovereignty and religion make it a very important time, at least in my mind.  So, civility, huh?

What exactly is civility?  i mean, i think a lot of people i know would say that one man’s civility is another man’s censorship or another man’s political correctness or even another man’s conceit.  Ralph Waldo Emerson used to quip, “There can be no high civility without a deep morality.”  If that’s True, then it seems to me that both how we define the word and how it is substantiated with whatever values lay behind it to back it up are very important matters, indeed, and worth considering.

Much of the talk in the last few days has been generated by Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” to respond to her critics who asserted that she was, at worst, responsible and, at least, complicit in the Arizona shootings because she had “cross hairs” on a website talking about targeting political races and officials as people who should be voted out of office, in her opinion.  So, people who were ideologically predisposed to disagree with her manipulated the Arizona shootings and took advantage, as Rahm Emmanuel has said they should, of this crisis in order to gain politically for various reasons (gun control, anti-Tea Party sentiment, Democratic support/Republican opposition, etc., etc.).  In the back-and-forth, there was much talk about the topic of “civility” that was only heightened by President Obama’s speech that focused squarely on the topic.

So, let’s start by defining the term.  The typical definition of “civility” tends to be something like “courtesy” or “politeness” or “manners.”  Cicero (Marcus Tullius), a Roman senator known for his oratory skills, argued, “A man's own manner & character is what most becomes him…”.  Ironic, given his seemingly incessant attacks on Marc Antony in speeches that eventually got him proscribed and murdered, but his appeal to character as the baseline for the essence of a person is exactly right.

Being polite or exhibiting manners of civility or acting courteously toward others can be a show.  In fact, in politics, it almost always is a show — a facade intended to deceive and garner what can not be obtained with sincerity.  Politicians are normally insincere and inauthentic by nature, for their trade is getting what they want from people who want something different, and that involves, at best, disingenuousness and, at worst, the dark arts.  Most fall somewhere in between, worse than merely disingenuous and less than completely sinister.  The mandate to rule is always best administrated by those who never seek it, but who, rather, have it thrust upon them by fellows due to the strength and depth of a character forged in temptation and self-denial, a courage galvanized into faith from a trusting response to elements such as injustice, assault, & tyranny, and a goodness cultivated in humility as one who knows that no person is good inherently.  The mandate to rule is never well administrated by those who have thought very much about how they would exercise it, and that includes both those who would like to lead while out front and those who would like to pull the strings from on high….

If civility is going to be an exercise in manners, then that will largely depend on what has been modeled to those who have grown up to join the public discourse.  i can scarcely think of a series of American generations less well-prepared to take on the mantle of something long lost like civility than the current set which have witnessed the last 50 years of our ancestors deteriorating and diminishing moral character.  i won’t go into generational theory here, but looking back at the rigidity of the G.I. generation, the naïveté of the Silent generation, the self-absorption of the Boomer generation, and the brokenness of the Buster (Gen X) generation, (not to mention the alternating nature of the idealistic/jaded dichotomy of the Millennial generation), there is little reason to think that “manners” (as something modeled & taught and watched & caught) will ever appear again.  We are beyond what tragedy can accomplish as a catalyst now; hoping for “manners” would be better suited to a hope linked to the beginning of a culture or nation than to a response by an entrenched one to any particular event or series of them.

So, that leaves us with politeness and courtesy.  Of the two, courtesy seems to be more weighty, and so i might choose eventually to hope for that one (although i doubt it).  Either, though, stem from the same core value of hospitality or hosting.  This is more a theological concept than a political one, although most people would think exactly the opposite of that.  Hospitality is mentioned in scripture as a spiritual gift, but people don’t seem to even know that, much less understand it or embrace it.  However, suffice it to say, for now, that one cannot be Truly polite or authentically courteous without hospitality under-girding the surface appearance.

Courtesy, best defined, would suggest that there is a social etiquette, a behavioral code that accompanies ideals to morph them from wish to reality.  Those behaviors, both admired & disdained, accepted & rejected, tolerated & punished, come from a culture (which is why i’m writing about it today as a cultural issue instead of tomorrow as a theological issue).  The American culture is adversarial.  It always has been and always will be.  It’s in our DNA, and You can see traces of it from Plymouth Rock to Arizona.  We prize ourselves on being worthy adversaries, but adversaries nonetheless.  Don’t mistake the American call for “civility” for unity.

It is my contention that to call for civility in a culture based on adversity is a little like arguing over the rules for gladiators: a matter of degree and not kind.  Whatever You want in terms of civility, try and imagine a way of asking for that without asking those with whom You disagree vehemently, viscerally, & vocally to change.  If You can find a way of appealing for civility by asking for change in Yourself and not in others, then i’m interested in what You have to say.  If not, then i just don’t think You have anything of substance to contribute.  But, hey, i have a different culture than most people have, so that kind of posture should be expected.  The main point i want to make today is this: try and be realistic about Your expectations, because, generally speaking, civility lies in the eyes of the beholdened….

01-17-2011 3P Post #6: The Cost Of War

 

“The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants & ethical infants.

We know more about war than we know about peace,

more about killing than we know about Living…”.

(Omar Bradley)

“The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst…”.

(Henry Fosdick)

“Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself…”.

(Francis Meehan)

“In war, Truth is the first casualty…”.

(Aeschylus)

“Everyone's a pacifist between wars.  It's like being a vegetarian between meals…”.

(Colman McCarthy)

“We make war that we may Live in peace…”.
(Aristotle)

“Si vis pacem, para bellum:”

“If You wish for peace, prepare for war…”.
(Latin phrase)

One of the fundamental tenets of Sun Tzu’s philosophy of war as articulated in Art Of War is that the victor succeeds through the high-level thinking of strategy and, therefore, doesn’t have to fight very often.  In his philosophy, You never fight unless You have to fight.  To fight when not absolutely necessary is too risky in terms of human Lives, natural & manufactured resources, and political capital.  Not only does it not make sense from any cost-benefit analysis (except the nationalistic unity of a scared home-crowd), but it actively works against You.  For example, whatever political side You are on regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that started with Bush and have continued under Obama, the fiscal cost ($2 Billion per week and rising), casualty, wounded, & broken soldier count (in the tens of thousands with no real way of knowing how many), and the vulnerability it has cost us in being able to respond to North Korea or any other hostile nation (just to mention a few of many detriments) are undeniable.

While many political pundits, cultural commentators, or intellectual ideologues will broach the usual topics such as the moral standing of our nation, the loss of so many talented children, the unintended civilian “collateral damage,” the legality of war motivations or morality of war rationale, the nature of the action as preemptive, rushed, or exhaustive relative to diplomacy & other means of prevention, the point i wish to make today is a simple one: War cannot always be avoided, but it should be engaged or avoided based on strategy and nothing else.

It doesn’t seem to me that most people reach this same conclusion.  If we were to survey contemporary opinions, You might be shocked to see what i mean.  As but one example, General Colin Powell articulated during his years of active military service what came to be known as the “Powell Doctrine.”  It stated (as i understand it) that a country should never go to war except as a last result when every other option was exhausted, but — if a country indeed went to war — then it should wage the war with an overwhelming force so as to keep the war as short as possible.  While this is similar to my perspective, it is not quite the same.  The element of surprise is a strategic one, and i believe war should be waged strategically (as does Sun Tzu).  Therefore, a country might not want to exhaust every possible means before waging war in order to keep the element of surprise.  Had General Powell kept this in mind (and been able to convince George W. Bush of it), we would have handled the back-stabbing French in a different manner in the leadup to the Iraq War and had a totally different situation with respect to the coalition supporting us.

So, while many will argue “just war” rationale, i don’t think that matters at all.  To me, there is no such thing as just war.  There is war.  If You must engage in it, win at any cost including using deception, ruthlessness, or any other means.  It reminds me of a scene in the movie Wyatt Earp where Wyatt’s father (a lawyer’s son and person familiar with law himself played by Gene Hackman) informs young Wyatt (played by Kevin Costner), “Wyatt, You know i believe in the law.  Next to his family, it’s about all a man’s got in this world to believe in.  But not everyone believes in law.  When You find Yourself confronted by men such as these, by such viciousness, hit first — if You can.  And when You do hit, hit to kill.  Don’t worry, You’ll know when it comes to that…”.  Put another way and more succinctly, General Patton once was quoted as saying, “The point of war is not to die for Your country; the point of war is to make the enemy die for his…”.

With almost no exceptions, i view war as instigated, started, and brought on by people with evil motives.  The motives of the respondents, at least in my mind, doesn’t make war right or wrong.  If You respond by warring, then You are at war and have to Live with that, and i can Live with that.  i don’t see anything inherently wrong with war morally; i see all war as a choice.  Just as self-defense is homicide but not murder.  Not all homicide is wrong.  Self-defense is acceptable, because to not engage in self-defense is suicide.  To kill without the benefit of self defense is murder.  It’s not the killing or the homicide that is in question, but rather the motive for it.  With war, it’s not the intrinsic act of war itself, it’s the posture of it.  There will be war.  Period.  If You engage in it — for whatever reason — my position is that it ought to be done in the most strategic way possible to bring about the political end desired.

And there is the rub: war occurs because of what is politically acceptable.  When Hitler tried to assert German dominance over Europe, we decided to sit it out and watch.  If not for the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Europe might be a very different place today.  Pearl Harbor galvanized our political will into a politically acceptable response.  One might look back today and think that the U.S. entered WWII as a moral imperative to stop tyranny, but that would be naïve and unTrue.  We entered WWII, because we were attacked and deemed it no longer acceptable to be a sitting duck once the war was brought to us.  All the hindsight morality crap is just window dressing to make us all feel better.  Europe begged us for years to enter the war to no avail, and we heard — but didn’t heed — their cries.

However, once we entered the war, we decided to win at all cost.  Failure was not an option.  And it never should be.  Get in or get out, but don’t watch.  Besides the fact that it’s not becoming of a decent human being to observe war, it also serves no purpose.  War was not meant to be watched; war is meant to be suffered and won.

If there is no political purpose behind it, then war is stupid.  Now, just because a political purpose lay behind it does not make war profitable, much less “right(eous).”  However, that gets into the matter of ruling and authority, which is another conversation altogether.  For today, suffice it to say that war is only worthwhile when it is a means to an end to provide a political remedy to an untenable circumstance.

The point i want to make today is that our country is not waging war properly.  War should be waged for a political purpose in a strategic manner and with only one acceptable outcome.  That is not our motive politically, practice strategically, or endgame militarily.  How do i know this?  i know it, because a war should not be hard to describe, define, or defend, and all of our leaders combined have still not provided a coherent, cogent, or cohesive rationale to these longs years of war.

i am not against war; i think war is inevitable and necessary due to the fallen nature of the world in which we exist.  i am not against the Iraq war or the Afghanistan war necessarily.  What i am against is the lack of clarity regarding why we are at war, the strategy being implemented, and the desired result.  It is time someone stood up and said, “Enough” without stridently arguing for either a conservative, kill-as-many-young-people-as-it-takes, let’s-just-borrow-the-money, hawk posture or a liberal, pacifist, no-war-is-worth-it, dove perspective.  There are other ways of looking at war, even though You never hear about them on TV, radio, the internets, or the coffee shops.  i, for one, am tired of everyone thinking FOX or MSNBC are the only alternatives.  They are not.  It has often been said, "Peace through strength," meaning, presumably by implication, that strength prevents the likelihood of war.  Well, i don't believe that.  It is also often said, "Peace through Love," meaning, presumably by implication, that Love makes war unnecessary or preventable.  Well, i don't believe that, either.  i believe in Peace through intelligence (and that includes war, sometimes, waged intelligently).  Peace is, to me, the state of being whole that may occur in the absence of war but also may occur as a result of it.  Personally, i believe every person should be both a warrior and a priest.

 i am lamb – hear me roar….

01-14-2011 3FA #5: Qn Tribe Morning Blessing

Lots of people have asked me for the various rituals i have employed in my family over the years.  So, i'm going to use Fridays (for a while and also while reserving the right to comment about something else anytime i want) to post some of the things i have created to Bless, instruct, remind, or otherwise impact my family.  For today's post, i am going to post the Blessing i give to Rebekkah every morning (now when i am with her, but it used to be every single day - no matter what - before she left the house for the first time).  She absolutely Loved this time with me each day, and we would follow it up by Blessing Amanda in the entryway before Amanda left for work with Rebekkah to take her to school.  So, my daughter both received a Blessing from her father, and then she participated with her father in Blessing her mother.  It was one of Rebekkah's favorite parts of the day.  Feel free to use it with Your children, if You'd like.  It may seem long to You, but they don't think so.  They Love it.

It's in four sections, and each section has three parts to it (each component is separated by an elipsis (...) so You can tell it, but each component speaks of a different body part).  When Rebekkah would Bless Amanda, we would ask Amanda what she wanted for that day and what she needed for that day.  Amanda would tell us, and i would make sure to cover what she said in my Blessing of her.  Rebekkah would often say simpler things like confidence from God or grace or patience or whatever.  So, that part would go like this,

Rebekkah: "Mommio, what do You want today and what do You need today?"
Amanda: "i need vision and productivity and the capacity to finish projects (since it's Friday)..."
Rebekkah: "OK, Mommio."
me: "Rebekkah, what do You want to give Mommio?"
Rebekkah: "i want to give her vision and something else.  How about fun?"
Amanda: "O yes, fun would be great, too!"
me: "i think fun is a fabulous idea, Rebekkah!"
Rebekkah: (placing her hand on Amanda's side or stomach), "Blessings to You, Mommio, from the LORD Most High of vision and fun...":
Amanda: "Thank You, Rebekkah..."
me: "And Blessings to You, Queen Amanda of the Tribe of Qn, of productivity to move forward in excellence and efficiency on Your projects, of the capacity, ability, & focus to accomplish today the finishing of tasks for the sake of everyone involved, and of vision to be able to recall in Your mind what You saw behind You, to see accurately what is the reality around You, and to be able to dream the future...Selah & Amen"

Then, they would leave the house.  What is next is the manner in which i Blessed Rebekkah as she would sit on my knee with Amanda & i touching her before we Blessed Amanda.  (As we said each body part, both Amanda & i would touch that part of Rebekkah, and she would touch that part of us as well):

Princess Rebekkah of the Tribe of Qn, may YHWH (Blessed Be His Holy Name) Bless:

Your Eyes to be focused on LORD Y’shua and to see with His faith...

Your Nose to smell the fragrant offering of LORD Y’shua’s Love, and...

Your Spirit to be led by the Spirit of God – as are all sons of God

May Abba Bless Your Ears to know LORD Y’shua’s voice and

to be quick to listen to God’s gentle whisper…

Your Mouth to impart our Father’s Blessing to others,

To say Abba’s words that are seasoned with grace,

to speak the Truth in Love, and

to restrain Your tongue with LORD Y’shua’s self-control, and...

Your Body to submit to the Holy Spirit and

to give LORD Y’shua physical territory for His residence, reign, & use

May Abba Bless Your Neck to bend to His will alone,

to hold Your head in confidence in the LORD Most High &

in humility befitting a mature heir, and

to bear the easy yoke of LORD Y’shua - which perfectly fits His design of You

in order to make You useful for His purposes of both bringing glory to Your Holy Father

and also granting benefit to those with whom He ordains You to come into contact...

Your Back to be as strong as an oak of Mamre, so that

You will be called an “Oak of Righteousness” and

known as a tree planted by the LORD Most High to reveal His splendor, and...

Your Soul to exalt the LORD Most High and find rest in LORD Y’shua

May Abba Bless Your Knees to bend in His presence only...

Your Feet to walk in the Light as LORD Y’shua Himself is in the Light,

to carry You on His straight & upright path of righteousness, and

to be shoed with the shalöm of LORD Y’shua’s Message of Good News...and

Your Heart to be tender toward Abba, pure like LORD Y’shua’s heart,

full of wisdom to allow LORD Y’shua’s shalöm to rule Your Life, and

willing to obey the LORD Most High today as You walk together with Them in Love

Selah, and Amen...

Morning Blessing (Gabriel Menken, mshane kuhn) 
© 2005 Gabriel L. Menken / © 2010 mshane kuhn
All Rights Reserved.  Used by permission. 

Hopefully, this will give articulation to the desires many of You have as parents to Bless Your children each day.  And, if You can, begin saying very short Blessings on people You see each day.  i treat people in different ways, but i try to always greet people in the Name of Y'shua.  With family and close, covenant friends, i usually kiss them on the cheek and say "Greetings in Y'shua," while with others i may say "Greetings in Y'shua Christos."  When i am departing a meeting or separating from someone, i try to say something like, "Blessings to You from the LORD Most High to You, Jack" (or whatever they will let me).  Often, with close friends or people who trust me, i will actually pronounce a Blessing over them as i listen to the Holy Spirit about what to give them.  So, i may say, for example to someone who is not feeling well physically, "Blessings to You, Fred, from the LORD Most High of His wholeness via wellness, recovery, & strength that passes from His hand into Your Life today...".

Anyway, hope this Blesses You today.  It has changed my Life for the better to be more conscious of what i say to people and how i say it, and also to be intentional about representing Abba as His son, ambassador, & Blesser.  May You rise up in the authority given to us as His emissaries and be one who pronounces His Life onto people all around You every day: beginning with Your family, flowing over to Your covenant friends & partners, and extending to even those God appoints for You to grace with Your presence each day....

01-13-2011 Personal Post #5: Glimmers Of Hope Amidst Splinters of Brokenness

“Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased.

Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken.

But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever….”

(Unknown)

“To Love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.

If You want to make sure of keeping it intact,

You must give Your heart to no one – not even to an animal.

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements;

lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of Your selfishness,

but – in that casket: safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change.

It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable….”

(C.S. Lewis)

“Hold fast to Your dreams, for

without them Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly….”
(Langston Hughes)

i am learning these days that the human desire for equilibrium is not as simple as hoping for balance.  i have had balance in my Life, and it doesn’t equal equilibrium.  No, what i am looking for is what the Bible calls “shalöm,” which is often translated as “peace” in various translations.  However, “peace” doesn’t really accurately translate or fully encompass the meaning of shalom.  i think the best definition i have personally ever heard of shalom is “nothing missing, nothing broken.”  Yea, that’s pretty much what i’m looking for….

This week has been a week of moderate highs and lows.  It has been full of other people’s sufferings and my own struggles, but those draining factors have been met with the encouragement and investment of people who are close to me.  i am a fortunate man; i am a rich man.  i am owned by the best Master: Y’shua, and i am surrounded by some of the most amazing people a person could ever know.  There are covenant brothers, supportive parents, close friends, family, and more.  i rarely lack for someone to care about me, even if they aren’t caring for me.

For me, a big part of this past three to five years’ season of surviving deep personal assault from the enemy has been trying not to react in kind and become a terrorist instead of a son of the King.  Instead, the LORD Most High has been trying to train me to respond instead of react, when necessary, and – ideally – to be proactive instead of either reacting or responding…to stay my fear with a steady & faithful hand, an indefatigable resolve, and a single-minded focus on His call on my Life…to not grow cold or calloused or indifferent…to guard against apathy regarding either myself or others…to not be shaped by the ongoing war with all its smaller battles and impromptu skirmishes and incessant ambushes to become more like the enemy, but rather to embrace the Light in the midst of darkness as a method of being shaped in this war to become more like Him.

Today, i had lunch with a spiritual father, a trusted counselor, and a good friend (all the same person).  As i was sitting there and confessing my weaknesses, sharing my struggles, and recounting God’s faithfulnesses, i was struck by the dichotomy in my Life of glimmers of hope amidst splinters of brokenness.  i am not perfect – far from it.  However, i am heartened by the direction in which my Life is heading.  It is filled with both struggles that seem to always end in defeat and some that regularly climax in triumph.  The struggle is beneficial, though.  Today’s lunch reminded me that i am just a work-in-progress and that my journey is ongoing.

Nobody's Got It All Together Cd!

It feels natural to return in kind: to return hurt for hurt…to insist upon justice until it is my turn and then plead for mercy…to let the immaturity of another serve as an excuse for my immature response instead of rising above the pettiness to establish a higher standard.  That is natural: to pray for friends to prey on my enemies instead of praying for my enemies to be won over as friends…to mock in the thoroughfare where grace once paved streets of second chances instead of offering cups of water to marathoners…to find vindication in the demise of others who hurled inaccurate, indiscriminate, & infuriating insults.  Yes, natural, but not godly…

It is my call (our call) to not Live naturally, but to Live supernaturally…to not lean on sight or sense or conditioning, but to trust in faith…to not exist with survival as the pinnacle but rather to flourish amidst adversity with abundance as the norm and sharing as the posture.  i confess to You all that i don’t always do that well; in fact, i rarely do that well.  i am trying, though…

i want to Love despite failing at it previously…to Love in spite of not being very good at either giving or receiving it…to Love, because it is what my Dad does…to Love, because it’s what i was made to do as a reflection of my being.  i want to migrate – not towards balance with an equal supply of good canceling out the bad, but towards shalöm where everything that should be present is present, occupying its appointed place, serving its anointed purpose, and driving away deficit, preventing loss, and defying lack.  i want to dream dreams and have my vision altered with His visions.  i’m tired of being an organism aLive struggling to achieve homeostasis to avoid to dynamic change; i want to rest in shalom and embrace the journey, whatever it involves for His glory and the benefit of those whom He places in my ChristLife.

Just where i am today on this Personal Thursday.  Shalom to each and all of You.  Blessings to You from the LORD Most High today...

01-12-2011 Theological Post #5: Not Feeling "Theological"

i’m not feeling particularly theological today.  Someone who was once dear to me hurt me very badly today.  Another person who is still dear to me had to take steps this week to keep his child from suicide.  Another friend lost a Loved one close to her.  It’s just been a hard week, and it’s only Wednesday…

It’s in times like these that i try to remind myself that “this, too, shall pass…”.  Difficulties are part of Life, because struggle is part of Life.  There are going to be times, to quote the old Blues musician Junior Kimbrough, when we’re “gonna have sad days and lonely nights…”.

i wish (most of the time) that it wasn’t so.  It is appealing to think of being able to eradicate suffering, alleviate pain, and divert difficulty.  It seems desirable to be able to alter our circumstances or change our situation for what we perceive to be the “better.”  In those rare, cogent times, i am not so convinced, but – in those normal times where i long for static stability – it sure seems like that would be nice.

Despite the fact that many of You seem to think i always have something profound to say, there are days where i just sit and marvel at how hard things get and how powerless i am to affect them to change.  Today is one of those days.  It’s on days like this when i consider my humanity and ponder my vulnerability.  It’s on days like this when i run home and hope to find safety and peace and comfort.  i hope You do, too….

01-11-2011 Cultural Post #5: Balancing Technology

“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal….”

(Albert Einstein)

“Many people see technology as the problem behind the so-called digital divide; others see it as the solution. Technology is neither. It must operate in conjunction with business, economic, political, and social systems….”

(Carly Fiorina)

“We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements

profoundly depend on science and technology….”
(Carl Sagan)

“Technology is a way of organizing the universe so

that man doesn't have to experience it….”

(Max Frisch)

About four years ago (or more, i can’t remember for sure), i foreran a movement.  i didn’t know i was a forerunner, mind You, but such is not altogether unusual to hear people who know me tell it.  The movement has become known lately as the “unplugged” movement, and it includes people who have decided to “unplug” themselves from at least some of the technological devices which have become commonplace in our society.

my own journey toward balancing the insanely mesmerizing technologies available to us was a mix of circumstances somewhat forced upon me and somewhat discovered after looking intensely for the right calibration.  i lost my mobile phone, and i didn’t want to become the person i was watching many other mobile-phone users become.  my wife worked for a mobile phone company, and everyone she knew who worked there (and, therefore, many people i knew by proxy) were not addicted to their mobile phones.  Addicted would indicate a choice and possibly a level of what might otherwise be considered normal functioning that would be attached to and most likely adversely impacted by the usage.  No, no.  This is way worse than that….

i’m talking about otherwise normal, rational, and often highly intelligent & capable people who would take a chance on killing someone by texting as they drove on the interstate or – worse – the small, residential street on their way home from their corporate job at dusk…who would go through entire lunches with their colleagues while on the phone and never once acknowledge the waiter (often someone else ordered for them) or engage with who else was at lunch with them…who would use so many minutes that it would dwarf the largest plan sizes…who ceased to use any other form of computer…who would become so oblivious to those around them in public that they would sometimes lose their children.  No, i’m not kidding….

Now, i’m all for technology.  i’m a musician, a writer, a researcher, a theologian, a philosopher, and other roles.  Technology has made most of those jobs easier, and it’s made better the ones it hasn’t made easier.  i like technology, and i embrace much of it.  However, here’s the problem with technology: the user.  As my dad used to tell me, it involves “operator problems.”

Guns don’t kill people – people kill people.  Cars don’t drive drunk – people drive drunk.  Computers don’t sabotage nations – people working for nations or terrorists sabotage electrical grids and national security databases and such.  Televisions don’t watch pornography – people watch it.  It’s the same with mobile phones, digital music players, etc.  i get that, and i’m not saying anything different.

However, i am concerned about the cultural impact of embracing technology.  Recently, due to the recession, i was listening to an economist discuss why this particular recession has had such a drastic impact on retirement savings, career options, home values & the attached lack of geographical mobility, and other sub-factors.  He made a very astute observation: the last depression (the Great Depression) occurred in a time when people still knew how to basically take care of themselves and were allowed to do it.  This recession that is bordering on a depression (the latest job figures are that the real unemployment rate is either at or above 20%, according to government figures, and that still doesn’t include underemployment) is occurring during a period of American culture where very few people know how to farm.  Unlike the Great Depression, people can’t just go out back and plant food to eat later – they don’t know how to do that.  They don’t have those skills.  However, even if they did have those skills, in some instances they could not use them.  Municipalities don’t allow You to have Your own water supply or septic systems or to just not use electricity or garbage collection services.

In college, i learned (as a math major) to graph on computers and to use calculators for complex calculations.  Also, my professors (at a leading math school in Texas) required me to use calculators to “check” easy calculations, too.  i wasn’t allowed to just do the multiplication in my head.  i understand the reasoning.  They wanted engineering students to be used to checking everything on a calculator before signing off on a civil project and certifying that a particular bridge was going to actually hold the load required by the transportation department.  However, now i know adults who were part of that generation who can’t quickly and without paper tell You what 75 * 65 is or what pi is or how to figure a derivative in less than 5 seconds.  Before calculators, most people could tell You those things as a part of “common sense.”  Today, however, “common sense” is not so common anymore…

In the end, my problem with the use of technology is that people have let it master them, and yet they have failed to master it.  And that – in sum – is the problem with any inanimate, mechanistic tool: will it master You by Your own choice as You give the enemy a foothold in Your Life?

Personally, i mostly find the investment of time, energy, and skill to master software programs or technological devices to be not worth the return.  As a musician, i have chosen to master some skills that are, for others, just not important enough to merit such an investment of personal capital.  It’s like that with everyone.  However, there is another factor that is not so requisite.

i have chosen to quit eating with people unless they turn off their mobile phones.  It dawned on me one day when i was watching football with a couple of friends who are in their twenties.  They would watch the TV sometimes, but mostly they just watched their laptops for updates on their fantasy players.  That day woke me up to the fact that the younger generations just simply don’t process information the way i do as a forty-year old male.  i know hardly anyone under the age of 30 years who has a favorite football team, because they don’t watch football for the purpose of rooting for their favorite or hometown team.  They watch, because it determines how their fantasy team fares.  And, in that realization that they are much more interested and vested in the success of individuals than teams, is the basis of my rebellion against being completely consumed by technology.

So, why don’t i eat with people unless they turn off their mobile phones, You ask, and what does that have to do with fantasy football?  What a fabulous question, and – since You asked – i’ll be glad to answer it for You.  i don't eat with people unless they will turn off their mobile phones because they are worth too much and i have too much respect for myself.  Let me explain....

It is now one of the highest goals of my Life to pay attention to people.  i consider it a matter of great and substantial personal importance to me that people know i will grant them my undivided attention if they so desire.

Listening is the forgotten courtesy of our time.  No one does it anymore.  Pay attention?  How can You pay attention if You can't even listen to someone?  Invest?  How can You invest in someone if You can't focus on them for more than 15 seconds before getting Your next email on Your PDA fix?  Care about someone?  How can You care about or for someone if You can't even be sensitive to discern what they are experiencing or how You might aid them due to Your lack of empathy as a divided-mind technocrat?

It is not annoying to not be able to pay attention to people; it is the result of being consumed by something from which You cannot break free.  If that’s not You and You assert that You are not consumed to the point of not being able to break free and pay attention to people, then not paying attention when asked is annoying.

Now, being annoying is nothing new, and people have been annoying for as long as they have existed.  my hope is that the next time You are being annoying, You won’t blame technology anymore than we blame cars for killing and maiming via drunk drivers.  Seriously, put down the mobile phone – it will be OK.  You’ll be fine through dinner.  You might even enjoy the company.  Your body will process the food better (a proven scientific fact, by the way).  And Your brain and eyes will be appreciative – not to mention Your kids or friends or whoever else has lost You….

01-10-2011 3P Post #5: The Place Of Rhetoric

“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men….”

(Plato)

“Power is the most persuasive rhetoric….”

(Friedrich von Schiller)

““He steps on stage and draws the sword of rhetoric,

and – when he is through – someone is lying wounded and

thousands of others are either angry or consoled….”
(Pete Hamill)

Words.  They are powerful.

Words, linguistically speaking, are signposts or markers of concepts.  For humans, words are not necessary to communicate, but they allow a depth and a sophistication of communication that is difficult in any other way.  This is not because of the words themselves, but because of what words denote.

When i was getting my graduate philosophy degree, i studied a linguistic / philosophical pursuit called “deconstructionism.”  Basically, it is the work of philosophers to say that words have either no meaning or – more accurately – only the meaning that the person reading or listening assigns to them based on his/her linguistic contextualization and not the meaning the author intended to be conveyed.  At least, that is one of my perspectives on what it means (no ideological pun intended).  i was fascinated by deconstructionism (and still am), but i found it mostly pointless.  However, i do think that what i consider to be the primal impulse of it is valid: to point out that communication is based more on the exchange of concepts than on the description of them.

Words function in many ways for human beings – and other types of beings, too.  For example, vows are made, generally, with words and sealed in blood.  The blood is obviously important, but the words define what the blood consequences.  Where would we be without the words of those who Love us, hate us, support us, oppose us, encourage us, belittle us, or provide other contexts for us.

When i was a kid, people used to say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.”  Well, those people are just flat-out wrong.  i know what they meant, though.  In high school, i was the main basketball player on my team.  i LOVED it when opposing players, fans, or coaches would run their mouth about me to the newspapers or their players or whoever.  It made me play better, because it motivated me.  It wasn’t my primary motivation, but it supported my primary motivation of winning.  Words cause us to react, and – often – they do harm and harm greatly.

When i leave this earth, for many of my Loved ones my voice and what i have said to them over the years will be the only thing they can recall about me besides isolated events.  When the “tapes” play in my beLoveds’ heads, i want them to recall that i said constantly to them, “i Love You.”  i hope those tapes yield hours and hours of me telling them in all kinds of circumstances and environments and situations that i Love them…of encouragement to fight the temptation to merely exist and press forward in war to Truly Live…of mercy and grace and compassion and hospitality…of wise counsel and godly advice and shrewd strategy…of kindness and gentleness and affection….

Words are most powerful when accompanied by other phenomena.  This is because words appeal to the mind, which is part of our physical being but also impacted greatly by our emotional and spiritual components as opposed to the “heart,” which is the biblical term used to refer to the nexus of Your soul, spirit, and body.  So, when words are combined with passion (the soul) or with action (the body) or with eternal perspective (the spirit), they become more than just words.  They become a glimpse into Your heart.

People today have been talking about the shooting over the weekend of an Arizona congresswoman, judge, congressional staffer, and others.  They have been wondering about the place of rhetoric in our society.  There is talk of “toning down” the rhetoric, of being more measured in our speech, of considering that our words have impact beyond just breath formed like smoke rings into sound waves that penetrate ears of all types.

When i was a kid, i remember being told often by many adults around me that cussing was a sign of stupidity.  It was a forgone conclusion that the only people who cussed were those who were so undereducated and, therefore, incapable of forming a thoughtful, rational, & clever response to any given situation because of a deficit of analytical & rhetorical skills and also a lacking & poor vocabulary.  Well, rhetoric ought to serve a purpose, and i later discovered that cussing was funny, for example.  i was a great trash-talker when i played basketball and frequently embarrassed my opponents equally with my words and my skills.  Over the years, i have learned that any words – whether they are rhetoric, poetry, confession, teaching, testimony, admonishment, pronouncement (Blessing or cursing), instruction, information, treaty, speech, etc. – should serve the people hearing them.  The people listening should endure little to walk away having gained much.  That is what is not happening in our society.  The words spoken in our society cause us to endure much to pick over barely-carcassed bones for little nutrition – and, indeed, often for poisoning.

Contrast that with Y’shua – the Word of God.  He is the epitome of what words should be: simultaneously just & merciful while all along humbly injecting the Love of God into the world.  A mystery, indeed.

Words, in the end equation, reflect the character of the speaker.  And while non-verbal signals are more cumulatively than the spoken signals, words are the most overt and obvious signals.  They can also be the most unTrue – often the Truth of words is hard to discern while other types of signals such as body language, electrical impulses, glandular secretions, and the like are more telling harbingers of the integrity of the linguistic.  But whether or not someone is lying still reveals their character.  This is why it is important, for example, that people put their trust in Y’shua instead of Scripture, because Scripture can be twisted, perverted, and distorted by the enemy himself whilst Y’shua is always “Faithful & True.”

We need to listen to what people say.  When the leader of Iran says he wants to remove Israel from the map or Hitler makes radical statements, they should be heeded.  But so should the sweet whispers of snakes in the Jungle Book story or the Garden of Eden.  Rhetoric betrays thoughts, and thoughts betray intentions.  When You listen to politicians, be careful to evaluate anything but fruit, for all else is often preceded by rhetoric, occasioned by excuses, and results in harm.  Words are the decoration on the corpses that lay silently in lost promise, on the prison bars holding those who dissent, and the uniforms of those who succumb to the overpowering tyrants who talk in platitudes without substance....