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 Saturday, October 4, 2003
False gods: Idolatry and the "first superpower". It finally hit me this morning at about 5:30 AM: The "first superpower" idea and geopolitical approach is a form of idolatry. In this case the false gods are military and economic power. Idolatry is defined in the Christian and Jewish traditions rather precisely as seeking to control God's universe through man-made means (the "idols"). The idolatrous stance is contrasted with that of a person humbly and respectfully and with gratitude embracing God's universe and appreciating his or her place in it.
And trusting that if we follow paths of truth and care, forces in the universe come together and help us, often in ways that can't be understood by us.
You do not have to be a Christian to feel the wisdom in this approach to life. The great cybernetician and anthropologist Gregory Bateson pointed out that the human tendency to rely on will power and (illusory) physical domination is a kind of "bug" (in the computer sense) in our mental programming. It leads to addictive traps, where the more we try to control, the more we are helpless. Bateson thought of the AA Prayer as a useful corrective: "God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot control, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
The problem with the Bush administration (and, in fairness, most governments) is that they lack the wisdom to know the difference between what they can and cannot control. This problem seems to stem from a toxic combination of the generic seductions of power, made more virulent because it's illusions are encouraged by very a specific meme or ideology: The idea that the US is the "essential nation" and the "only superpower." The result is an idolatrous worship of American military and economic power. The predictable result is that we break our sword on challenges like Iraq. The more we seek to control the world though military and economic dominance, the more out of control our situation becomes. And the farther we move from the means of action and the modes of understanding that further a world at peace.
I am surprised that more Christian commentators are not picking up on this problem of idolatry. [Jim Moore's cybernetics, politics, emergence, etc.]
A very interestingt twist and some nice insight into today's world. If we had to have a Republican, why couldn't it have been the first George Bush. he at least had some appreciation that the US could not go it alone and was strongerif we seeked help. 11:22:33 PM 
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At a time the Wolfowitz and Cheney were saying that Iraqi oil would fund the reconstruction, their own analysts were contradicting that. Instead of $30 billion a year, they are now predicitng half of that. Should we beleive them? 11:00:56 PM
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Dave's Rule of Win-Win. Check out Dave's Rule of Win-Win. A nice introductory thought for BloggerCon, which starts with a party tonight!
[Jim Moore's cybernetics, politics, emergence, etc.]
Read this NOW. Dave Winer is a crusty man who ticks a lot of people off. But you have to listen to him because he is right so many times. This is one of them. Win-Win describes how the net works best. Truth, trust and respect. We link to others, even if they have a very different viewpoint, because those that follow these 3 principles will generate more links to themselves, raising the reputation of each other. Breaking any of these breaks the links, weakens the group and results in the gradual withering of the rich vine that had been created. Commit this line to memory: When you become the only winner, you plant the seeds for your own loss at the same instant. This may well be one of the founding pricinples of the coming age and one that many people, especially in our government, will need to learn to appreciate. 10:10:01 PM
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John Dean has an illuminating article at Salon where he reveals that the Nixon White House responded like a stuck pig to a civil lawsuit filled by the DNC during the initial stages of the Watergate investigation. See, they controlled the Justice department and the FBI was kind enough to let John mitchell know daily what was happening. The White House felt that they could control the damage, prevent the FBI from finding anything.
But a civil suit would have its own path, its own subpoenas, its own orders without any dominance from the White House. What might the cvil suit reveal that they could not control? In fact the presence of the civil suit kept the FBI on their toes.
Dean recommends they fill a suit and has several Washington lawyers who would love to take it pro bono. Well, Wilson and his wife have retained counsel and are contemplating civil action. I wonder what the sound of a stiuck pig sounds like? 9:41:42 PM
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Corn just gets better. He does a wonderful job of illuminating the dissembling that the White House has done the last few days. The press secretary has used a combination of intimidation and misdirection to refrain from answering questions, such as does the President condone the smear campaign by partisan Republicans against Wilson. No answer to that question. No signal that the President feels that this is the wrong thing to do. Claims that the President is out front with this are revealed to be misleading if not downright lies.
Rove was using the leak back in June. Instead of being angry that a CIA operative had been outed, Rove was calling up reporters apparantly asking them if they had seen what Novak had written, that Wilson's wife was fair game. They were not looking for the source leak, they were exploiting it purely for partisan gain, to intimidate their 'enemies'. Even if they were not the source (I know pretty unbelieveable), even if this just fell in their lap, the Administration DID nothing but attempt to exploit this. What other things will they exploit for their own gain? We know that national security is not going to hold them back. Maybe our fear of terrorism to preemptively attack another country based on facts that they knew were incorrect? To get some huge contracts for their cronies? Lie about the economy to get a tax package passed. You do not even need a tin-foil hat too start believing the possible conspiracies. Is it any wonder that we have feew foreign friends anymore? We have allowed ourselves to be governed by those with no soul, who view winning as the only thing, who feel that what is best for the adminstration is whats best for the US.
This house of cards will come down eventually. That is what is so great about the US. We eventually right the ship of state. It had better be soon, though 9:24:54 PM
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This is how this 'war on terrorism softie' describes a picture on his desk of him and the first George Bush as the were walking throught he Rose Garden.He was asking all the questions you would want a president to ask as we were contemplating war,' he said. 'All the human questions.
When he wrote his first article criticising the direction the war debate was taking (October 2002), he sent a copy to the elder Bush first, who sent back a positive reply. The first Bush appears to have been an honorbale man. I wonder just what he is going through these days, seeing his son's adminstration smear the life of a man he recognized for his patriotism during Gulf War I and destroying the career of this man's wife working for the organization that Bush pere felt so strongly about. Watching your son destroy not only the multilateral approaches to governing that you did so well but also damage the one entity that you did so much to support must be especially horrible. Sort of like having a son who committed some awful crime. You still love them even as you have to watch them demoslish the things you hold dear. 9:14:25 PM
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Noval will just not let up. He claims that the company that Plame put down for her perfectly legal campaign donation was a fake one, in violation of the law. Nope, it really was a company, one most likely serving as a front. Now, the info was public info, but Novak was totally offbase. This company existed. While the info is public, its connection to this business as a front company is only known because Novak decided to be a Administration lapdog and reveal the operative in the first place. Now anything she was ever connected with is also open. If ANYONE else ever used this company name as a front, they are now revealed as CIA operatives. The first repugnant leak may now be spreading, causing other CIA personnel to be outed.
One hope is that when a CIA operative retires, they are much more free to speak about things. Several CIA people have announced they will retire shortly. Could be interesting. 9:00:32 PM
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Kay No Longer Sure Trailers Were Labs [CommonDreams NewsWire]
Anone reading would have known this 4 months ago. Kay was grasping at straws this summer when he said that these were the smoking gu, the proof that Saddam had mobile bioterror labs. Nope.
The original tip on the trailers was provided by a defector working with Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress and now a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq.
Make sure you commit the name Ahmad Chalabi to memory. HIs n=band of Iraqi expatriats provided most of the so-called intelligence to Cheney and the White House. Intelligence that the CIA was often unable to verify. No matter, these were the guys they chose to believe, rather than Americans. No hesitancy that Chalabi might have his own reasons for lying or misleading our leaders. Gee, it looks like he is going togain control og the country. Now that we have put him on the main council, he would like us to allow elections real soon. I expect him to start asking us to leave real soon now. We got him what he wanted and he has no further use for us. So, we continue to end up in a worse situation with regard to terrorism, world opinion, etc. Great. 8:50:09 PM
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'Slime and Defend'... (Paul Krugman). 'Slime and Defend'... (Paul Krugman) [Common Dreams]
How twisted is this administration? When someone disagrees with them in public, they attack his wife, destroying her careeer and damaging out ability to recruit overseas. Who in Iraq would ever want to work with the US or CIA when their identitiy could be revealev purely for partisan reasons? It is no longer about Wilson or his wife. This administration continues to damage our ability to effectively fight terrorism. Allowing Wilson to be called 'open opponent of the U.S. war on terror' would be ironic if it was not so disgusting.
They are attempting to do more than just intimidate Wilson, his wife or the CIA. They are also intimidating EVERY American who donated money to the Democrats, since this now seems to be the latest slime attack. Novak tried to slime her again by saying she gave $1000 to Gore. See, she is not worth listening to because she is a Democrat. What happens if I give money to a cause that this administration does not like, say the Democrats. Well, I just guess I could just look forward to losing any job I had, getting my name dragged through the mud and perhaps have the FBI show up. Sure makes me leery of donating any money. Which is just an added benefit for them, I am sure.
WIlson was pretty brave to go up against this Adminstration. Reading his words from last year it is obvious that he was no more a maddog than Jogn McCain. Attacking critics is a Wshington game. But attacking his wife, destroying her career was meant to send a bigger signal. Outing his wife was exactly like putting a horse's head in the bed. It was meant to terrrify and intimidate. It seemed to work for 11 weeks but I hope to God not anymore.
The first Bush really did have loyalty to something greater than just hos own group's advancement. He created a coalition to go into the Persian Gulf and do 1 thing:Get Saddam out of Kuwait. Once we did that, we stopped. That is what he promised the coalition and us. He did what he told us he would do.
This adminstration built up the war last year for one reason - midterm elections. It used the run to to war and Saddam to browbeat the Dems and to smear any who were 'soft'. Hell, they even smeared Senators who fought in Vietnam, something most in this Adminstration who were pushing for war from the beginning had not done. They used this war for partisan reasons from the begining. Why should we be surprised that their partisanship and dirty tricks would be used against a critic? What is just unbelievable was the utter stupidity to blow a CIA operative.
but this is often a hallmark of those whose need for increasing their power directs everything they do. They lose perspective and do things that we can all see are incredibly stupid. Look at Watergate for an example. Why in the world would a Presidential campaign, one that was well ahead and pretty sure to win, undertake a 'third-rate burgulary' in the first place? It was just stupid and eventually brought Nixon down. Luckily for humanity, these guys always seem to be unable to stop themselves from doing something incredibly stupid. At least so far. 8:41:05 PM
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