What can we do?

Editorial

Some people never give up, and the Neocons are proving that adage. Not only do they have Rudy Giuliani already in tow, they now have an advocate in the body of Fred Thompson. Thompson is a Neocon at heart. His actions support their agenda, so he might as well be a card carrying Neocon.

All other Republican candidates are pro-war. Having been interned in Vietnam, one would expect more from John McCain. But Mitt Romney would double the size of Guantanamo--which implies doubling and redoubling until.......

A remaining question is whether the interference in American freedom and liberty established by the unitary president will be rolled back. That question is equally critical if the Democrats win the White House in 2008. Human nature being what it is, this is all pretty gloomy. America has arrived at a crossroad in governance, not by its deliberate choosing but because the American electorate was conned by the Neocons. To be sure there are many warriors in the American trenches who advocate war and world dominance, but they are outnumbered by the doves and moderates by a multiple or two. The latter prefer democracy from the precinct to the United Nations for many reasons from faith to hardheaded science. Because democratic nations rarely war on each other, it seems that world peace would come if all nations were democratic.

Now comes the rub. To begin traveling that road without losing our way, we need to look at what has worked historically.

• On the societal level, folks having at least as much concern for the world at large as for themselves and for whom dialogue is the communication style of choice, it seems necessary.
• On the societal level, social, political and economic integration must happen to remove the GAP that alienates and humiliates the have-nots.
• Nations that do not embrace market economies will need special help, for democracy follows naturally. Democracy cannot be imposed for its imposition is antithetical to the very concept of democracy.
• Nations must forgo the temptation to seek empire.
• Nations must yield enough sovereignty in the nuclear area to insure they are never employed in any way other than what might be necessary to divert a bolide or comet from its earth collision path.
• Nations must bring their local biospheres into energy balance.
• Nations must reach and maintain zero population growth.
• Achieving the foregoing will require more than lip service.
  • It requires each citizen to attain a state where their external and internal loci of control are in reasonable balance.
  • It requires that societies manage the dangers associated with their psychopathic elements.
  • It requires true separation of, mythos and logos in governance. That is, faith on the one hand and science and technology on the other, must be accepted as separate features of life, providing for qualitatively different needs. At the same time, the limits of each must be recognized for what they are.
  • It requires a societal ethos of a new sort in rearing and educating children about themselves and nature.

Since most of us are authoritarian by genetic make-up, every child that is born must learn about that feature in him or herself. Most of us know of the animal within. Most of us also know our animal within is rarely compatible with all the demands of a stable society. The candid among us freely acknowledge that fact. Many others know it but cannot face the fact; so it winds up buried deeply in the psyche, perhaps too deep to ever be revealed. These people are defended in the psychological sense. They are still mostly good people. But defenses, unrecognized, can get in a person's way when relating to others.

How we address this issue will govern both whether and how we approach the problem of peace on earth. That ideal may never be completely met, but moving closer is surely desirable. It will take the best of mythos, and the best of logos within us to seriously progress toward peace on earth.

Our immediate problem is that none of the candidates for president have mentioned reversing the special and unprecedented powers Mr. Bush has reserved for himself.