Monday, September 20, 2004

Posted here Monday, September 20, 2004 at 4:40:41 PM     How do you take six billion people who are not so smart, and their leaders who are not so smart, and put them together in a system which by its nature attracts some to want to own it and control it? The founding fathers opted for checks and balances, a government that actually doesn't work well, on the idea that if it did, it would be a tyranny. What would a future equivalent of the founders' vision, deep in tolerance and curiosity, look like? ********

Posted here Monday, September 20, 2004 at 9:00:31 AM     Difficult times. The mess in Iraq has no obvious solution. leaving, not leaving, elections, or not. If we put it as Bin Laden or the US gets to win, we see the difficulty. And then connections to Israel, and Iran, the near certainty of a deeper war based on those alone. And  Palestinian civil war, and an Israeli civil war. Then we have the economy, with diminishing resources for the US to do anything, including repairing its own society. Lets look at the longer term, the phases of a large society going from hope to despair. Ten ears, twenty years. We know that, at the worst, there will be a recovery, probably not to something completely familiar, but also not completely unknown. Building toward the new emerging decency, belief in people and institutions, in art and education, children and private time - these should be a major part of our concern, being ready to breathe along with the emergence of a better sense... ********