Saturday, February 28, 2004

World progress and nature Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 5:16:19 PM     Let's assume some progress in world issues. 1. world human population stabilizes at about 6b (I know!) 2. violence declines 3. greater spread of economic benefits and some saftynet 4. a more humane culture (anticipated by world reaction to Diana's landmine campaign, resistance to American incursion in Iraq). 5. new methods of accounting and taxation that shift costs and benefit analysis, hence redirecting business activity. 6. some increase in human optimism. 7. an broader acceptance of a world spiritual/scientific culture that was more humane, less technocratic and profit driven, more realistic and appreciative. What then could be the emerging design principles about how humans and other species and landscapes cohere? ********

Great awakening - impact and origin Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 4:25:28 PM     This is suggestive of what could happen,, Some Results of the Great Awakening (1) One of the major results of the Great Awakening was to unify 4/5ths of Americans in a common understanding of the Christian faith and life. Americans--North and South--shared a common evangelical view of life. (2) Dissent and dissenters enjoyed greater respect than ever before. Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians--all non-established groups--took root and grew. Despite the fact that these denominational lines remained, they shared a common evangelical voice. Typical was the sentiment of John Wesley: "Dost thou love and fear God? It is enough! I give thee the right had of fellowship. This catholicity of spirit became common. (3) Great emphasis came to be placed on education. George Whitefield founded the school that would latter become the University of Pennsylvania, and UNC was originally a Presbyterian effort. Indeed, the first generation of faculty members there were all Presbyterian ministers. The focus on education was rooted in a concern for souls, but it also reflected the fact that if the ground is level at the foot of the cross, education should be available for all as well. (4) A greater sense of responsibility for Indians and Slaves emerged from the revival. George Whitefield, for instance, was among the first to preach to Blacks. The evangelical experience was common to both whites and blacks, making both aware that the ground level at foot of cross. This led most evangelicals to denounce slavery as sinful, and at the first General Conference of Methodism, slave holding was viewed as grounds for immediate expulsion from the society. (5) The Awakening reinterpreted the meaning of the covenant between God and his creature. In Puritan theology the focus was on what God has done for us. In the aftermath of the Awakening, the new emphasis was on what man can do in response to God's great gift. The responsibility for salvation is not God's but man's. (5) A complete dissolving of the theocracy occurred. The establishment in Virginia and North Carolina began to fall apart. Ministers could no longer control the direction of religious life. It had been democratized and made accessible by people. (6) There was a break down in theological consensus. The New Lights (the revivalists) versus the Old Lights (traditional orthodox). Those who wanted to adapt the faith to changing times and circumstances versus those who wanted to hang on the old order. (7) The Awakening responded--like the English Puritans of the 16 and 17th centuries--to needs of the people for reassurance and direction, to give them release from anxiety. (8) It served to revived a sense of religious mission. Everyone believed there was some greater purpose behind the revivals, that God's Kingdom must be near. It is important to think through why so many are so in need of relief. Drugs and alcohol may help clarify the extraordinary desire to escape 1. modern anxiety and 2. social restraint on ego and sex. Control through repression has very high social costs. ********

Trade sanctions from Europe Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 11:44:59 AM     On trade sanctions European Union Says U.S. Faces $4 Billion in Trade Sanctions By ELIZABETH BECKER http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/business/26CND-TRAD.html WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 - The European Union's trade commissioner told senior lawmakers on Thursday that the United States would face $4 billion in sanctions starting Monday because Congress had failed to eliminate overseas tax shelters for American exporters that were declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. Pascal Lamy delivered a similar warning in November as Europe was preparing to levy sanctions against the United States for tariffs on steel imports, and one month later, Mr. Bush lifted the disputed tariffs. The admin is caught between fre market and protecting friends. Will this be another line of unravelling the US economic dominance and hurt the admin? ********

slate on buggimng the UN. Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 11:43:24 AM     at is striking in the Slate summary is the degree of creeping cynicism. The old value seemed to me pretty good. A former British Cabinet minister alleged yesterday that her government bugged Kofi Annan's office at U.N. headquarters in the diplomatic wrangling leading up to the Iraq war, according to NYT and LAT fronters and stories the other papers run inside. But a separate piece in the WP explains that the charges aren't so shocking. "It used to be a shame; now it's a matter of status," the Spanish ambassador to the U.N. explained to the Post. "If your mission is not bugged, then you are really worth nothing." In fact, when the Russian ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, told the WP that Russia would never bug Annan, another Security Council ambassador scoffed. "On the record, if Lavrov says so, I have to believe Lavrov," the anonymous diplomat said. "Off the record: Is he joking?" ********

Fernandez-Ernesto's Civilizations Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 10:26:56 AM     There is an interesting book, Civilizations, by Fernandez-Ernesto, in which he argues that the civilizational impulse is very strong in humans, and successful empires of necessity exploit their own and surrounding people (energy and food considerations, as wll as labor to build). If this is true, how close to nature can we be and still have civilization?  I look at the salmon situation and despair of the complexity of this "simple" adaptation? ********

Tasks Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 10:11:36 AM     We need 1. A history of the US that shows why it is an interesting experiment, even crucial, and why its history is to terrible in violence. Hint: the first that came were religious fundamentalists avoiding the enlightenment, and the second wave were the enlightenment types, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Washington, who carried enlightenment values. the conflict has never been resolved. 2. A view of how economic activity and political activity become enmeshed rather than as checks and balances. Democracies without restraint become tyrannies, markets without restraints become monopolies, and the two share goals. The result is fascism. 3. A view of human nature in relation to technology, with regard for how tech is itself an outgrowth of religious goals, and how mathematics reduces the spirit  of all living things to digitalized approximations that are false at the core. 4. A review of what we know, from the most physical of facts about humans, such as demographics, to the organizing around food systems, to the organizing around myths of death and resurrection, to the vie of humanity through its arts, and integrated with primate studies and anthropology and early hominid evolution.   ********

Critique of NYT on Iraq Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 9:46:14 AM     A good review of a few articles critiquing  the problem at the NYT on "news" that overly supported going to war in Iraq. ********

African multilateral police.. Posted here Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 9:13:19 AM     This seems very sane. If only the US had been the leader in this kind of initiative. Leaders of African Union nations, meeting at a summit Saturday in Libya, are set to establish a multinational peacekeeping force aimed at resolving conflicts throughout the continent. Delegates from the Union's 53 member states say details of the African peacekeeping force -- including how it will be funded -- are to be approved before the summit concludes later Saturday. The multinational force would have the authority to intervene militarily, where necessary, to end local or regional conflicts. ********