With God on our side ...

... a message from the Ol' Master himself:

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side

Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war

Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
Available online at http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/god-our-side

Some things are worth repeating

Yes, here we are again at my absolute favorite holiday. Yes, it is about the food, too, regardless of what I might have said elsewhere, but it's also about family, and whether we like it or not, whether we realize it or not, whether we've managed to deal with it successfully or not, family is something we should invest more time in.

This year, Thanksgiving is a bit more special than usual. Not only have we moved and have more family closer, we're getting more visitors than usual this year -- extended family in the best sense of the word: "adopted" children and extended-family in-laws. Oh, I can hear the hair rising on the back of some necks, but I wouldn't have it any other way. No, our extended family get-togethers are not nearly as interesting or exciting as the Griswolds (cf. "Christmas Vacation"), but they are every bit as intense, and that's a good thing.

Thanksgiving is one of the two times each year (Christmas is the other) when I don't mind getting up earlier than usual (usually about 5:00 am). It's one of those rare times in the year when I get to spend the following seven hours (at a minimum) in the kitchen, and not alone: everyone in the family, or whoever else is there, stops by at least once, and most folks more than once. Most importantly, though, it is a day in which practically every conversation, every exchange of observations, every sarcastic and insightful quip has to do with how good we have it. Yes, I am eternally thankful -- and I believe all others as well -- for absolutely everything that we have and what we are blessed enough to enjoy. I will admit that we live in decadent abundance. Life has been good to us. We are fortunate. We have more than enough so that we can share with others. Our adversity has kept itself within limits. Our calamities are more like inconveniences. Our disasters are, by comparison to others', distractions. And it is not only today that I give thanks for all I/we have, but it is today that most of us have the time to stop and think about it.

I would be remiss if I did not note at the same time, however, that there are too many people in America (only because this is the big holiday there) who have not been as fortunate as I have, who have not been blessed as we have, who don't share in the abundance that we too often take for granted. All of these people -- without exception -- don't deserve that fate.

I don't care which politics you think are right, and I don't care whether you consider yourself religious or not. The fact remains that if the joy of the day is not tinged with the sadness, is not made the least bit bitter by the fact that an increasing number of people -- not just in the USA, but worldwide -- are having difficulty finding reasons to be thankful, then you haven't truly understood what it is you have.

As one of my heroes, Bucky Fuller, pointed out: there's more than enough for everyone on this planet; and as another of my heroes, a humble Nazarene carpenter brought home: if you're not ensuring that the least of us have enough; you're missing the whole point ... of everything.

Today's the day. Wake up. Get real. Get the point. The real point of giving thanks is in the giving. You've got more, so give more. It is really that simple.

There but for the grace of God ...

The events of the last week or so have brought out many folks' true nature. One of the (dis)advantages of being involved in modern, social media is that you get a glimpse of everyone's foundation of life. Oh, I know, this is not what most people think, but it is nevertheless what is. Even if I don't place a lot of faith in what people "say", since I'm much more concerned with what the actually "do", social media is one of those "places" where the "the truth will out" and what you post says more about you than you may like to acknowledge.

Most of my social-media "friends" are American, but not by much. The vast majority, of course, find their roots in the "West"; that is, western, post-Enlightenment, Judeo-Christian, ever-increasing secular culture. In short, they're "Westerners". This is not bad, in and of itself; indeed it is merely an observation of fact. What most of my friends don't know, or are not aware of, is that belonging to this particular group brings with it a number of significant advantages, and at the same time, a number of disadvantage as well. How could it be otherwise? After all, this is life that we are talking about.

Before we examine what these advantages and disadvantages might be, it would do us well to reflect upon how it is that we ended up here in the first place. I don't know about you, but I just "woke up here" one day. I mean, there came a time when I became conscious of the world around me, and, lo and behold, I was the first son of a striving-to-be middle-class family in the so-called richest (not to mention, freest and bravest) country in the world, at a time when striving to be middle-class meant something. To the best of my knowledge, I was not involved in that particular decision. It just happened. It was a purely random event. I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Like I said, though, I was "lucky" by our Western standards. The family I grew up in wasn't rich, but we weren't poor. We always had enough to eat and my life was as good as free from crime and violence. I had lots of opportunities and I was able to take advantage of them. I believe, as well, that most of you reading this ... most of you ... had a similar experience, but not everyone, and certainly not everyone else on the planet. The vast majority of humanity doesn't have it nearly as good as I did. The vast majority. Their lives more likely resemble Hume's struggle of each against all, a struggle for survival, more often than not.

Why? Because they're ignorant, uncivilized savages? Because they are violent by nature and love fighting and killing? Hardly. Regardless of where I have been in this world, I have found that just about everyone I meet wants pretty much the same basic things as me: enough to eat, some family, a roof over their heads, some time to spend with others, a feeling of security and to live their lives in peace.

What we fail to remember, what we love to repress is the simple fact that we were born where we were by the luck of the draw. Some lives have been easier than others, and most of you reading this, for all the pains and travails have had, by comparison, easier lives. I certainly don't begrudge what you have, but I do have a problem with you thinking that in some way you "earned" what you have, that you somehow "deserve" what you have. You were lucky. That's it. Damn lucky. For, there but for the grace of God ...

Fear will be our undoing

FDR's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" is one of those quotes we learn about in school and don't understand until many, many years later. When he said it, the Depression was wreaking its havoc and WW2 was on the horizon. There was, to be sure, lots of reasons why lots of Americans were afraid. And, the same is true today.

Terrorism, be it domestic (the preferred American variety) or foreign (what the rest of the world gets), has but one goal: instilling terror in those in some way close to the victims. For the most part it works, and the knee-jerk reaction to anything that terrorizes us is to fight back. Against what? We don't always know. But when we're "thinking" with our spinal columns, it doesn't really matter. Better a bigger bunch of bodies lying around than to do "nothing", whereby not reacting in a knee-jerk manner is probably the best thing you can do. And here, the emphasis is on "do". Having the presence of mind, willingness, and courage to not simply lash out in fear is an act, an action, worth applauding.

Problems are never, and have never been, solved by violence. It doesn't matter what the problem is. Problems aren't, and never will be, resolved, by blindly reacting aggressively. Frustration (and a feeling of powerlessness) is poor counsel for smart decisions. Don't get me wrong, I know just how easy it is do simply strike back; I know how much we'd like to just "put an end to it all". But, truth be told, that's not how things work, and it is long past time that we grow up and recognize that all the approaches we have tried thus far have not produced the results that most of us want. It is time most of us realize, though, that the results that "we" want are not necessarily the results that others -- in particular, others with more influence with decision-makers -- may want.

Terrorists live from terror. The more afraid we are, the more effectively they've "done their job". If we all don't immediately react with abject fear, we've got a huge, well-paid, and submissive media industry which will do what it can to keep us shaking in our shoes. And, there are untold numbers of large and small corporations who start rubbing their hands in glee, for nothing sells weapons like fear. Yes, the first question we always have to ask ourselves in "cui bono" (Who benefits?) And, the fact that the question shows up in Latin (a language spoken by the world's last great empire, two millennia ago) should tell you how long "we, the people" have been having to put up with this.

Power lives off fear. It is really that simple. The more you're afraid, the more power others have. We really need to start asking ourselves just how much we need to be living in fear. We need to ask ourselves whether our willingness to submit, to kow-tow, to defer to the "wisdom" of others is really worth the benefits we supposedly gain.

When you're afraid, you can't think clearly. When you're afraid, you're more than willing to compromise. When you're afraid, you can be too easily led and misled. And all the blustering, bravado, macho, military, fire-power, talk will -- I can assure you, and history proves me right -- remain just that, talk. Why? Because you can't bomb an idea out of existence. Ideas ... and their evil spawn ideologies ... can only be countered by sounder, stronger, more substantial ideas. Resorting to force, pure and simple, merely "proves" that you have no ideas left.

Yes, fear will be our undoing, if we continue to be afraid, but what we should be more afraid of than random terror itself is the calculated terror we are fed day in and day out from those who allegedly want to protect us.

No, I didn't say that at all

I have long maintained that the wonder of communication is that we manage to communicate at all. The reaction(s) to the Paris terror attacks have made this clear once again.

There are lots of smart people running around out there and some of them use their brains (at least sometimes) and some of them don't (or not very often), others are more emotional than reasonable, still others have such fixed ideas that no manner or volume of facts or arguments is going to change their minds. Unfortunately, I must say, that's how people are.

What is particularly tough these days, though, is have a view of things that is not mainstream or mainstream-sanctioned. We have arrived at a point here in the West when disagreeing with a given (generally speaking, accepted) point-of-view is automatically interpreted as advocating the precise opposite. This isn't faulty thinking, it's unacceptable behavior, and I don't care how smart you are or think you are, if you make this mistake, you're just being stupid. None of us lives in a world of black-and-white, regardless of how much most people, the mainstream media, the powers-that-be, or anyone else would like it to be so.

Let me repeat what I've said so often in the past few days: what happened in Paris is reprehensible and inexcusable. There is no justification for it; end of story. Let me add what I've also had to say so often in the past few days: I understand all your shock and sadness, but the fact remains that this kind of thing happens to "us" (I'll come back to that) once every couple of years; for too many others on this planet, this is their life every single day. Why is that so hard to understand? Why is it so unwanted when someone -- like me -- brings it up? I think those are legitimate questions.

Our reaction to the tragedy of terrorism should be (and yes, I'm being very prescriptive here), how do we stop things like this (read: acts of terror) from happening? what can we do to make it stop?

This shouldn't detract us from our mourning, but our mourning itself should sensitize us to the real issues involved. We've got a problem, and by "we" I mean all of us, every single human being on the planet. Terror happens everywhere but in some places more than other. We, in the West, have been exposed (NYC, London, Madrid, Paris, to name the most familiar), but others have been immersed (Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, to name the most recent) in it. It matters. It matters a lot that we have to go through it, but it matters that others have to live with it.

While I have never claimed that we don't care about the terror inflicted on others, there is a good bit of factual evidence available that we don't know about it, don't recognize it, don't accept it, and don't feel as moved by it as we should. This "we" is all of us in the West, and all our countries that believe that we know what's better for others than they know themselves, which we claim fear and hate us when they would probably just prefer that we leave them alone, which just happen to be sitting are geographical areas that we have decided -- for whatever reasons -- are in "our interest". Just what the hell is that: our "interests"?

Personally, I'm sick and tired of all the blaming, all the blathering, all the threatening and the theatrics, all the conflict-seeking and the killing. When are we going to get it? When are we going to understand that every act of violence and revenge that we yearn for only makes things worse? When are we finally going to practice what we preach?

The death toll rises

We're stunned, and we should be. We're shocked, and we should be. We're feeling vengeful, and we should not.

What happened in Paris last night deserves our strongest condemnation: the killing of innocent civilians, for whatever reason, is a reprehensible act of barbarism. There is no justification for it. None. And yet, it our shock and sadness and, yes, anger, we must beware ... of ourselves. Can we -- you and I -- become what we hate. We must be careful, for it can happen all too easily.

Two mistakes must be avoided right now: identifying one, singular, unified enemy and blaming victims. I'm concerned that both are about to raise their ugly heads.

Let me repeat: last night's actions were committed by individuals, acting together, it is true but hardly representative of anything but themselves and their own distorted vision of reality. It will most likely turn out that they will have claimed adherence to one particular flavor of a faith, and in our anger and lust for vengeance, we run the risk of placing all adherents of that faith into one basket. There is not a single religion on the face of this planet that is singular, monolithic and the same to all of its adherents. Every religion has its major and minor groupings and individually accented believers. Such diversity is celebrated in one's own religion, but too often mistakenly denied to others. That would be a mistake. We in the West celebrate the individual, and we need to carry that view over to those with whom we disagree and, above all, to those whom have done us wrong.

It would be just as mistaken to use this incident to justify a rejection of the flood of refugees coming to Europe at this time. First and foremost, the vast majority of these refugees find themselves in Southern, Eastern, and, most recently, Central Europe, not in France. It would be naive, to say the least, that there are no terrorists or terror-inclined individuals amongst that flood. The thing about terror is that it has the ability to take advantage of all opportunities it finds. These refugees are fleeing from precisely that terror -- the unreasonable, unexpected, sudden and drastic taking of human life -- that we are mourning today, only they have experienced it longer and on a much larger scale than any of us. They are not fleeing for the fun of it. They are being driven. The refugees are the victims of a greater terror and we need to acknowledge that.

A pitiless, merciless retaliation -- as has already been promised -- is hardly the appropriate response. It is said that and eye for an eye can only make the whole world blind, and although we are getting there, we are not all blind yet.

We can not respond in kind to senseless, irrational actions. What terrorists do is meant to instill fear, but it is the light of reason that keeps us from falling into the darkness of fear. Terrorist, regardless of how murderous and bloody their actions may be, act for a reason, they feel justified in what they do. Until we recognize that and deal with those reasons, we can only expect more of the same.

I don't know about you, but I've had more than enough of this insanity.

St. Martin's Day

The 11th day of the 11th month of the year was for the longest time and for the shortest of times, reason to celebrate, (I'll come back to the other reasons next time,) but there was a time when today was a much bigger deal than it is today.

Oh, I know, we're (post-)moderns now and all that mumbo-jumbo, hocus-pocus religious superstition has all been superseded by ... well, by what? rational, objective, de-mythologized ... nothing. Yes, the emptiness we feel so strongly these days has something to do with the so-called "detritus" that we sent to slag heap some time ago. Old "holidays" and (what's worse!) Feast Days are well-deserved, forgotten relics of a by-gone age ... or are they?

We live in a post-industrial -- and as many like to claim, a new, information-based society (though, actually I should say "economy", since we even banned the ghost (read: spirit) of a society some time ago). All those once-important autumn, or harvest, festivals are no longer important, even though once, at a minimum, they marked the passing of the year, and above all, the passing of our consciousness from one temporal phase to another.

Today is St. Martin's Day, which I'm sure most of you don't know, so I'm here to remind you.

Saint Martin (of Tours, who died in 490), a former Roman soldier is known once cutting his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying from the cold. The beggar was allegedly Jesus. Not unsurprisingly, he's the patron saint of the poor (and hence more relevant today than ever). In his honor, the medieval church mandated fasting three days a week from today till Epiphany (which I've mentioned before); that is a period of 56 days, but mandating 40 days of fasting (cf. Lent).

Here in Germany, goose is the traditional dish. (OK, OK, my vegetarian and vegan friends will have to close an eye, but I'm still working from the top of the food chain and still have my -- in your eyes -- "weaknesses".) This is because -- as the legend tell us -- when trying to avoid being ordained bishop he had hidden in a goose pen, but was betrayed by the cackling of the geese.

My goose dinner will have to wait a few weeks for other reasons, but the point of all of this is that we have a day that was meant to inspire us to stop, reflect, and acknowledge the Christian "truth" that it's good to help those less fortunate than ourselves, and to stop, reflect and give thanks (it is after all, harvest time) for all that we have.

You can think what you want about the "evils" or "redemption" of religion ... it doesn't matter, really. Any time -- and for any reason -- that we can stop and reflect on what might be good not only for ourselves but for others or that gives us pause to give thanks for all that we have is time well spent.

We used to be reminded of these things as a matter of course. It seems today that I have to keep reminding us. But, that's OK, the reason for pausing is irrelevant. That we pause, that we reflect, and that we give thanks is all that really matters.

Paradox paradise

When choosing the lesser of any number of evils, aren't you are still choosing evil?

If "by their fruits you will know them", why is so much emphasis placed upon credos?

Can good guys be allowed (or even expected) to do bad things and still be good guys?

If G-d is the ultimate judge, why do so many of His followers spend so much time judging?

Why do alleged lovers of freedom coddle ruthless leaders who suppresses those in their power?

If you are sanctioned for exercising your rights, do you even have rights at all?

Did I miss a memo or since when is there such a thing as "good" (or even "moderate") terrorists?

Is stealing someone's heart a crime?

If gamblers are looked down on, why are speculators looked up to?

Why does Justice act like she can see even though we're all equal in the eyes of the law?

If truth is arguably relative, why do we argue about it at all?

How is it that might make right but right can never make might?

If knowledge is power, why are so many stupid things done in our name?

Given that certain truths are self-evident, why must laws be made to enforce them?

If actions speak louder than words, why do we put so much faith in what people say?

If you can't turn around, at least turn the wheel

Although I don't know how many times I have to say it before it becomes clear, it should be dawning on you -- even if ever so slightly -- that we can't go on with "business as usual", as if "business" were a good metaphor for anything.

The difference between what we say and what we do is huge. The difference between what we know would be good for us all and what we have is huge. The difference between what we believe and what is real is huge. The days of small-step changes are, well, for the most part behind us, if they even exist any more at all.

Don't you just hate it when that happens? Here we are, like frogs in the pot of water, thinking that things aren't as bad as everyone says and that with a tweak here, a small adjustment there; a declaration of commitment here and a gee-wouldn't-it-be-nice there; with a mere "return" to some odd values that were never actually there; well, then things would just be peachy keen and the world would be a nice place again. The water's boiling, however, and if we weren't frogs, our goose would be cooked.

But hey, as George Orwell once said, "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." And he also said, "The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." George was a wise man, and insightful on top of everything else. No, don't get me wrong: I'm not comparing myself to him in any way. I think he got it, and I like to think I understand what he's saying. I'm not (yet) despised by many (OK, a few, but who isn't), and for the most part those who don't want anything to do with me feel that way for reasons much more personal than whether whatever I say might have some similarity with "the truth". Fair enough. What I am thinking, though, is that in these days and times, even looking for the truth is close to revolutionary. I've never really thought of myself as such, but with each passing day, I find myself closer than I would have ever imagined.

Revolutionaries are a strange breed, that's for sure. You've got your Lenins, your purveyors of the guillotine-driven French Revolution, the slave-owners-seeking-freedom types of the American Revolution ... hell, all advocates of violent revolution have been short-lived, ending up like the despots they drove out (the Beelzebub-Devil problematic, as I like to call it). On the other hand, there are the Mandelas, the Gandhis, and Jesus, just to name the most well-known, who knew that if you want real change -- even necessary change -- you've got to find it in yourself first. And who is really ready for that?

And that, dear reader, is the rub: Folks much smarter and wiser than me (e.g., Buckminster Fuller, Jacques Fresco, Jim Hurtak, Stan Tenen, Valentin Tomberg, Gar Alperovitz, E.F. Schumacher, Erich Fromm, Jean Gebser, just to name a few) have all made the case that any and all real change starts with ourselves. We can't wait for others to set the tone. We can't wait for others to show us the way. We can't wait for others to take the lead. We can't wait for others at all.

I know -- and believe it or not, I understand -- that not many of you are willing to (radically) "turn around". I wish you could, but I know that's expecting too much. Given that we now think what we've always thought, we've simply got just more of what we've always got. Nevertheless, you can make a start, and this start involves simply stopping to think what you think and take a step back to give it a good look-over. Regardless of how compressed time-frames are becoming, the least you can do is ask yourself whether there might be other options for a better future available.

I pledged but not necessarily allegiance ...

As I noted last time, saying the words is just a way of "talking the talk". The real test of anything we say is whether we're willing to act on it ... to "walk the walk", to keep in tune with the rhyming metaphor.

I know lots of talkers. Lots. At the moment we're talking about American talkers, but I'm here to tell you: mutatis mutandis (a Latin phrase that means, "all the relevant changes having been made") what I'm saying here applies everywhere else I've ever been as well, and beyond. Again, this is one of those cases in which my fellow countrypeople carry their obsessions on their sleeve, but they're really not as exceptional as they might like to think they are. No, what I'm looking for are "walkers": people who are willing to put into practice what they preach, folks who are willing to do, not just say.

Even once we get past that swearing-one's-allegiance-to-a-piece-of-cloth thing and leave the realm of the actual for the more ethereal realm of the possible, what does this "oath" require? Assuming that the sayers are serious about that "one-nation" stuff, how long does it take for it all to break down? Two more words, as Fate would have it.

The original pledge, written by a fascist-friendly Baptist pastor who wanted to have it said with right arms extended forward (yes, as in "Sieg, heil"), didn't include the "under God" part. That was a 1954-we've-got-to-distance-ourselves-from-those-atheistic-Commies addition. If it's included, what does it mean for Americans today? If it's an essential or mandatory part, then, quite simply, no atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto, Taoist, and, conceivably, Moslem (though the stretch is not far) can say it in good conscience. I don't know how many of these there are in America, but it's more than a handful. There are those who insist that the phrase be included, even if it excludes so many fellow "patriots". Personally, I think we can leave it out because it wasn't there to begin with, and since the Commie threat has passed, it's doubly unneeded, but that's just my own little view of things.

No, what interests me more than anything else is what follows, that short little phrase, "indivisible, with liberty and justice for all". When I look across the Pond these days, I see anything but something "indivisible": right and left, Democrats and Republicans, gun nuts and concerned citizens, North and South, East and West, the racial divide, and the treatment of immigrants -- just to name the most obvious -- point to anything but indivisibility. Which talkers are doing anything about that?

The very last six words, though, are the killer: in a country that recognizes "affluenza" as a disease, that has a disproportional number of minorities in prison, most often for negligible offenses, that has the starkest income inequality in the Western world (and is in the top 3 worldwide) and that is home to the Patriot Act, the NDAA, the CIA and NSA, that has the most militarized police force in the "free world", well, I have to ask myself, what are the pledgers doing about this?

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that all those "rising to defend the pledge" are actually just doing their part to ensure that nothing about it holds true. It's just so much hot air. What we should be doing is protecting and helping the weak and maligned, seeking ways to come together, and speaking truth to power. But we're not. We're wishing for the "good old days" that were never really good, and are nothing but old.

The way out of the darkness is not behind you, it's in front of you.