Thoughts (Santa Rosa)
Friday, October 19, 2007, Santa Rosa, California
Today I was inspired to write again, something other than just work communications.
I am today away from my normal patterns of life, as I have travelled to the town of my parents and of my childhood, to attend the wedding of my nephew, my sister's son.
Being two time zones west of where I now live, I am awake before dawn, and while awakening began thinking about undertaking writing, and some things to write about.
First, the war in Iraq and the slip towards an Orwellian nation, and about how that relates to education and entertainment.
Then about specialization and the Renaissance Man.
Then about what I may contribute by writing.
As to the war and our nation. Much has been said by others about the shift towards a nation of fear. In part this is probably because we have become a nation of material substance and comfort, notwithstanding homelessness and poverty. But those who have homes and, by the standards of much of the rest of the world, wealth, become concerned about security, about protecting and holding onto what they have. Alarm systems. Rantings about illegal aliens. Terrorists, terrorists, who are the terrorists? We are willing to allow government to play to those fears, even to increase them. Homeland Security. Erecting a Berlin Wall (or a Chinese Wall?) on our southern border.
Why have we so severely curtailed funding for public education of our children in this nation? Some would say that it is easier to control an ignorant population, to manipulate their beliefs . At some deep level I find it hard to believe that a governor or president would actually undertake the de-funding of education for that reason, but here we are.
We no longer have Thomas Jeffersons and Thomas Paines. We have talk show hosts and soundbites. So who are the exceptions, who are the wise conscience of our nation, where are the true leaders? For sure, Al Gore. Not just my opinion. He’s a Nobel Laureate now. I am very grateful he was awarded that honor and recognition. Maybe Obama. He certainly inspires a move toward unity and a positive vision of the future.
Orwell, in the book 1984, spoke about a nation in a constant state of war so that the society could be controlled, and the manipulation of language to that end. War is Peace. War was on the lips of our national leaders and the media within a day of 9/11. It didn’t have to be so. The choice of language by leaders is powerful. We have an official colored thermometer now for our ongoing state of war, and does anybody ever believe it will be green? We are hearing that war on terrorism will last indefinitely, and that war with Iran is now probably inevitable. I was stunned to hear Terry Gross when interviewing an artist recently just slip into a sentence, as if it were nothing, something like “since war with Iran seems inevitable now, what do you think about….” Even NPR. It seems that CNN became, some years ago, largely a venue for trial-ballooning new administration initiatives before they are announced. Cable Notion Network.
Am I the only one who noticed that the explicit roadmap to fixing Iraq, Iran, Korea, etc. was laid out in the 90’s in the manifestos of The New American Century think tank, and signed by those who were soon to move into national leadership? These plans and the vision behind them (America, the last superpower, should use its power during this perhaps brief period of history to fix the world by fixing a list of rogue nations) have some arguable logic to them. But why have they never been a part of the public debate on who we are and what we want to do as a nation, before they became the de facto plan of government?
We lack leadership that lays out a positive vision of where we want to go proactively as a nation. Leadership that leverages our deep traditions of thought leadership, principle and goodness, to inspire us to work toward making our nation whole and well, and extending a generous and helpful hand to others. Our current mission to spread democracy and free markets throughout the world has a different flavor than that to those on the receiving end of it, and seems to be only a thinly veiled attempt to extend our control over areas of the world where we perceive strategic interests. Now we are moving toward extending democracy and help to Africa, the Gulf of Guinea. It is not coincidental that it has vast undeveloped oil reserves that China wishes to tap.
About specialization and the Renaissance Man. Is there a Benjamin Franklin or a Leonardo da Vinci today? We have adopted economic models in our thinking and acting to such a degree that we consider it now a virtue to specialize so narrowly that we are focusing on the thing we can be the “best in the world at”. Some of us cannot succeed in describing to our parents what we do professionally. Our education is increasingly narrow. Do our future leaders have a broad enough context of history and the breadth of human experience to be wise?
Our spare time, if any, is largely occupied with entertainment. The Roman Coliseum, which was created by the Roman emperors to placate and control the population through engaging entertainment.
Do we tell the stories of our culture, our history, our moral tales, to our children? The closest we have today to the elders telling the young about our history around the fire at night is the pressing of the pause button during a movie to make a few comments on the meaning of the story, if we dare.
So, how could I contribute by writing?
Some books still have real impact. An Inconvenient Truth. Thank you Mr. Gore and thank you to the Nobel Prize Committee.
Screenwriting can have impact, both documentary and fiction.
Song lyrics.
Can blogs and youtube have impact?
How/can teaching be done en masse today, introducing new perspectives, vision, inspiration that will move a nation, a people, to greatness?
Lack of vision engenders hopelessness. What do people hope for today, what do they envision the future to contain? We need great artists who can paint a picture of a future that we would actually desire to create. We have enough visions of dystopia and post-apocalypse. We need to see the glorious future which mankind can achieve on this planet if inspired to work for it.
Today I was inspired to write again, something other than just work communications.
I am today away from my normal patterns of life, as I have travelled to the town of my parents and of my childhood, to attend the wedding of my nephew, my sister's son.
Being two time zones west of where I now live, I am awake before dawn, and while awakening began thinking about undertaking writing, and some things to write about.
First, the war in Iraq and the slip towards an Orwellian nation, and about how that relates to education and entertainment.
Then about specialization and the Renaissance Man.
Then about what I may contribute by writing.
As to the war and our nation. Much has been said by others about the shift towards a nation of fear. In part this is probably because we have become a nation of material substance and comfort, notwithstanding homelessness and poverty. But those who have homes and, by the standards of much of the rest of the world, wealth, become concerned about security, about protecting and holding onto what they have. Alarm systems. Rantings about illegal aliens. Terrorists, terrorists, who are the terrorists? We are willing to allow government to play to those fears, even to increase them. Homeland Security. Erecting a Berlin Wall (or a Chinese Wall?) on our southern border.
Why have we so severely curtailed funding for public education of our children in this nation? Some would say that it is easier to control an ignorant population, to manipulate their beliefs . At some deep level I find it hard to believe that a governor or president would actually undertake the de-funding of education for that reason, but here we are.
We no longer have Thomas Jeffersons and Thomas Paines. We have talk show hosts and soundbites. So who are the exceptions, who are the wise conscience of our nation, where are the true leaders? For sure, Al Gore. Not just my opinion. He’s a Nobel Laureate now. I am very grateful he was awarded that honor and recognition. Maybe Obama. He certainly inspires a move toward unity and a positive vision of the future.
Orwell, in the book 1984, spoke about a nation in a constant state of war so that the society could be controlled, and the manipulation of language to that end. War is Peace. War was on the lips of our national leaders and the media within a day of 9/11. It didn’t have to be so. The choice of language by leaders is powerful. We have an official colored thermometer now for our ongoing state of war, and does anybody ever believe it will be green? We are hearing that war on terrorism will last indefinitely, and that war with Iran is now probably inevitable. I was stunned to hear Terry Gross when interviewing an artist recently just slip into a sentence, as if it were nothing, something like “since war with Iran seems inevitable now, what do you think about….” Even NPR. It seems that CNN became, some years ago, largely a venue for trial-ballooning new administration initiatives before they are announced. Cable Notion Network.
Am I the only one who noticed that the explicit roadmap to fixing Iraq, Iran, Korea, etc. was laid out in the 90’s in the manifestos of The New American Century think tank, and signed by those who were soon to move into national leadership? These plans and the vision behind them (America, the last superpower, should use its power during this perhaps brief period of history to fix the world by fixing a list of rogue nations) have some arguable logic to them. But why have they never been a part of the public debate on who we are and what we want to do as a nation, before they became the de facto plan of government?
We lack leadership that lays out a positive vision of where we want to go proactively as a nation. Leadership that leverages our deep traditions of thought leadership, principle and goodness, to inspire us to work toward making our nation whole and well, and extending a generous and helpful hand to others. Our current mission to spread democracy and free markets throughout the world has a different flavor than that to those on the receiving end of it, and seems to be only a thinly veiled attempt to extend our control over areas of the world where we perceive strategic interests. Now we are moving toward extending democracy and help to Africa, the Gulf of Guinea. It is not coincidental that it has vast undeveloped oil reserves that China wishes to tap.
About specialization and the Renaissance Man. Is there a Benjamin Franklin or a Leonardo da Vinci today? We have adopted economic models in our thinking and acting to such a degree that we consider it now a virtue to specialize so narrowly that we are focusing on the thing we can be the “best in the world at”. Some of us cannot succeed in describing to our parents what we do professionally. Our education is increasingly narrow. Do our future leaders have a broad enough context of history and the breadth of human experience to be wise?
Our spare time, if any, is largely occupied with entertainment. The Roman Coliseum, which was created by the Roman emperors to placate and control the population through engaging entertainment.
Do we tell the stories of our culture, our history, our moral tales, to our children? The closest we have today to the elders telling the young about our history around the fire at night is the pressing of the pause button during a movie to make a few comments on the meaning of the story, if we dare.
So, how could I contribute by writing?
Some books still have real impact. An Inconvenient Truth. Thank you Mr. Gore and thank you to the Nobel Prize Committee.
Screenwriting can have impact, both documentary and fiction.
Song lyrics.
Can blogs and youtube have impact?
How/can teaching be done en masse today, introducing new perspectives, vision, inspiration that will move a nation, a people, to greatness?
Lack of vision engenders hopelessness. What do people hope for today, what do they envision the future to contain? We need great artists who can paint a picture of a future that we would actually desire to create. We have enough visions of dystopia and post-apocalypse. We need to see the glorious future which mankind can achieve on this planet if inspired to work for it.
posted by Carl | 8:47 AM
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