Bush War rumination etc

[Wayne Johnson]

In my ruminations and research for my (shelved) novel (about Islamic/Native
US terrorism), I became aware of some of the  issues that the Islamic world
faces or feels that it faces.  One of these is the slow erosion of their
moral values.  Now this is an interesting question in that the same people
who cover their women head to toe find time away from their work and prayers
for their daily Bay Watch fix.  Just can't get enough of Pamela Anderson's
exposed body.

Still, they have a point.  This is glitzy trash by anyone's standard and
does nothing to raise the "moral" temperament of the modern world.  But
then...what is a 21st C. "moral temperment" for the new world.  Well, we
don't know.  We want unlimited and unfettered access to email and the web
and seem to be fairly slow to figure out how to resolve the concomitant
problem of our children watching pornography.  Then there is the question of
what is or isn't pornography.  To some Americans (and presumably prudes
everywhere) this would be full and naked exposure of the human body, both
male and female...especially with visible genitals.  The Greeks thought
fairly highly of the human body, especially the male (nudge, nudge...wink,
wink) and painted everything brightly.  (Marble is white but that is
incidental, it is also extremely cohesive as a carving medium...unlike
granite, for instance.)   To some, including myself, any kind of sexually
depicted act wherein their is real/implied harm to one of the participants
or use of animals or children or any combination of these, would be clearly
pornographic.  It is not that sex...even with animals, I suppose...is
physically dangerous (barring large carnivores and anything weighing more
than 10x human weight), but there is the real risk of permanent
psychological damage.  This is one of the reasons why incest and child rape
is considered so abhorent.    Anything that debases or reduces another
person to a "thing" is pornographic by definition...by my definition...also
Sartre's.

But this stuff abounds in our culture.  You can't show an SUV or sell beer
without pulchitrudinous, barely post-adolescent women leering sensuously
(sometimes silly-ly) at the camera.  Young men are shown as beer quafing
morons who can only have a good time when four sheets to the wind.  (Oh,
but...please drive responsibly...unless you are in a Toyota SUV going about
90 mph through some virgin wilderness or another, then its  ok.)  These
contradictions drive me crazy and I certainly understand why it would be
offensive to anyone who put religious or spiritual aspects of life/living at
the center of their existence.  The utter crassness of
American/German/French advertising is beyond belief.  Everyone is cheapened
(my opinion) by the inexeroble march of advertising and unfettered
Capitalism through our daily lives.  Not hard to see why some view Western
culture as the Devils agent.  We have begun to wallow in our own
excesses...just as the Romans did in the Silver Age.

Having said all this...at boring length...it is not my intention to suggest
that we simply stand idly by while a bunch of professional, Quran quoting
crazies use the United States as a shooting gallery or a cheap way into the
Islamic equivalent of Valhalla.  By no means.  But we may truly be seeing
the beginning of something I have feared for a long time: a new Holy War.  I
have been fairly vocal about this for the past several years, that THIS
would become the major conflict of the 21st Century.  How I hoped I would
NOT live to see it.   But there can be no idle standing by while Americans
die on our soil,  there must be retribution and costs for these acts.
Thus, a new series of world-scale Blood Feuds will be born.

I think the US is going to suffer many, many casualties before this "thing"
goes away or is even reasonably constrained.  We will NOT achieve any kind
of parity until we...and rich Islamic nations (read: the Saudis)...begin to
"share the wealth" and provide for their economic growth/stability in some
means not using the blood and bones of poor people around the world as
fodder for the machinery. Not to engage in Vulgar Marxism, but 19th and 20th
C. Capitalism has certainly seen "wealth" concentrated in the hands of the
few and conditions for the "many" kept in pretty bad states...in both the
micro and macro sense of the word "state".  "Winning" this war is going to
mean some drastic and hard changes for the US and its citizenry.  To wit,
our standard of living of the past twenty years ( and the so-called Cold
War) is going to seem like a distant dream for our grandchildren.  Rather
like the Haight-Ashbury is for some on this list.

I fear:

*  We will have to live with military presence(s) all around us, like
yesterday's USAF overflights of NFL games.
*  Marked loss of personal "mobility" and "privacy".  All will be known to
the Gov't.  Noone will be trusted.
*  Periodic catastrophic loss of life via terrorist acts, including nuclear
weapons.
*  Many things we treasure...the Louvre, St. Peter's, San Francisco, etc.
will disappear forever.
*  Many people we know and love will die from common diseases, previously
treatable, becoming rampant.
*  Killing of "aliens and foreigners" will become normal as we seek to limit
the number of "risky" elements in our society.
*  We will begin to "re-write" History to justify our actions abroad.
(Nothing new here, really.)
*  Demonstrations of "religious belief" may become accepted practices.
(Join now, the Protestant Church of your choice.)
*  Mothers and fathers will again tearfully recite the litany of how proud
they were to "give their children" to the "effort".
*  Dispersal of "resources" ie. food, water, heat, gas, shelter, etc.  will
be done on a "Utilitarian" basis. That is, are you able-bodied and 	able to
contribute to the "effort"?
*  Daily survival may become our only goal.

And...if it gets really ugly, we will become the "scourge" of the poorer
nations, that is, there may be a world wide war between Islam and the rest
of the world.   We won't become passive targets; we have all the weapons of
mass destruction ever thought of and, if the loonies continue to attack
American soil,  we will choose to use them.  Millions, if not billions, of
people will die and we will enter a new Dark Age.  I fear "Interesting
Times" for all of us for the next couple of generations.  Think fondly of
your past.  Memories may become all we have in the next few years.

Hopefully, these scenarios will remain just that...dire possibilties.
Personally, I vote for at least 6 of 11 being realised.

Yours in direst pessimism,

WJ