Saturday, October 06, 2012

A Brief Reflection on Presidental Debate: 10/01/12


The Emperor was revealed without clothes.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Election 2012: "As the future dimishes, the past looms larger."


My friend, the cynic, long lost, has now returned for a short visit. He rails:

"Obama is an affirmative action President, a child and culmination of the 1960s. Inexperienced and mildly incompetent, he quite naturally sees the history of the United States, and its problem and possibilities, from the bottom up, from the black and slave experience, which he strongly and logically identifies with.

"He is a black Kansan trying to find his way in a white world. He is an outsider trying to be inside, to create a better inside for the marginalized citizen with little understanding (or empathy) for the Euro benefits in the overall American scheme.

"He is a man of his time: a blamer.

"He studied and taught constitutional law, but sees the Constitution as a deformed impediment to equality and justice; one that must be changed. (See Supreme Court.)

"America is too great a concept, a country, to be brought down by inexperience. The way to progress will be forward, but it unfortunately is not always a straight line."

A Blend

Where does memory end
     and imagination begin?
Where does science end,
     and art begin?
Where does reason end,
     and passion begin?

Is there a line of demarkation
     between any of them?

Or are they all fluid and one?

Simply at different stages of their respective history?

The Middle East

Internationally, many years ago--all this before 9/11--I warned all my Eurocentric and Amerocentric friends that the 21st Century was to be the century of Islamic challenge to  Euro-American Capitalism, as the 19th century offered Christianity's challenge, and the 20th century was the century of Communism's. No one wanted to listen to me because of the irrational fear and inherent arrogance of the west towards the inevitable resurgence (oil + money + an attractive community value system) of one of the great civilizations of the last 1300 years.

Those of us in the West, please remember that America started with revolution and Civil War, as did most of the countries of Europe (and had two World War besides). Why shouldn't the Middle East follow the common-to-humanity dictates of human nature and history? Dictators overthrown, revolution and civil war.

All men are created equal, right?

(If any of you would like to read the longer, fuller article, please let me know.)