Posts Tagged ‘government’

Define irony.

The president of the country whose government shot a rocket at the moon was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Really? Really. Really NASA? What did the moon ever do to you? And if it did do something to you should you really have retaliated with such force? Who bombs the moon? Honestly.

Some, in their quest for intellectual greatness, may still be wondering, “I never learned it in 2nd grade. What does NASA stand for?” I’ll tell you what NASA stands for. It stands for violence, environmental toxification, monetary waste, and any activity that could mess with gravity enough to possibly throw the earth from its axis and implode the entire cosmos.

Yes, the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched a rocket at an object whose gravitational pull supposedly controls the ebb and flow of the earth’s oceans. As if the recent typhoons and tsunamis were not enough, the U.S. government had to spend millions of tax dollars and “money” borrowed from China to invest in what could have been and still could be the largest water displacement experiment in human history.

Don’t get me wrong, I highly value imagination, research, and exploration. My father was a chemistry and physics teacher. I earned state placement honors in a tri-state chemistry exam competition. I have visited NASA and even when I was younger, Colonel James Irwin, the first astronaut on the moon to drive the lunar rover, ate dinner at my house. My sister spilled an entire platter of turkey onto the floor which now seems to be rather minimal on the impact-o-meter compared to a rocket hitting the moon.

I have a difficult time justifying the expenditure of resources to send a rocket to the moon when many, many humans around the planet where we all live do not have access to clean water or healthy food. Surely, if the people in of the United States can imagine and figure out a way to collect lunar data through an observation and sensing satellite, there is a way to discover and implement processes of provision for basic life and health necessities for those who are oppressed by the otherwise gross waste of natural resources. How else might we spend our money and time in a manner that better cares for humanity?

That’s one small step for man. One giant lapse for mankind.

In a communicative speech given only minutes ago this first day of June, two-thousand nine anno domini, the United States empire’s president Barack Obama stated the government’s defense for the bankruptcy filing by the automobile manufacturer, General Motors. Evident by the majority shares purchase, Obama, his automotive task force, and the Department of the Treasury support the bankruptcy and the suppossed coming rise of a "new, leaner and stronger GM." Obama remarked toward the end of his address that the ultimate end is for American business to compete globally.

So…

If U.S. businesses are intended to "compete globally" then is the U.S. government ultimately seeking to send people who function within the economic system of another nation into the same type of jobless recession that the U.S. is currently experiencing? Is the drive to compete in business fueled by the longing for self-absorbtion, self-fulfillment, and self-gratification while promoting oppression of others? There are those who think that the people of the U.S. "deserve to be on top." Does such a philosophy reveal an ever-present racism?

What ever happened to loyalty? To friendship? To mutual respect and sharing? Why do our lives center around having more and being the best? What ever happened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream? Did that only apply to Americans?

And while I’m at it, why are we so dependent on automobiles?

Competition is violent. Just ask the gladiators in the Colosseum. Ask the guards on the offensive line. Ask the economically oppressed nations.

“Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.”
Henri Nouwen

Sarah and I were talking about all the hype surrounding the inauguration event for the 44th president of the United States. It is, indeed, fascinating to observe the opinions and thoughts of a people who all-too-typically refuse to recognize the limited power of a supposed leader of a national empire governed by hopes and aspirations to prove its greatness over-and-above all other empires. Though Barack Obama’s position is historic and formative with globally astounding implications, a new man in office is just that: a new man in office.

The monetary salary for the presidential office is approximately 400,000 U.S. dollars (I’m not quite sure what that is in Pounds or Japanese Yen). Sarah was amazed that the elected "leader" of a nation is paid a mere $400,000 compared to the multi-millions "earned" by athletic competitors in the same nation.^ Though the inauguration events fascinate and entertain me, I am more astounded when I consider that citizens complain about taxes that provide public services and government salaries yet "happily" spend great amounts of money on their favorite team jerseys or tickets to "the big game" which supply the salaries of professional athletes.

If one worships an empire, are gladiator-type events entertaining enough to ease one’s consciousness when the empire cannot sufficiently live up to its imposed messianic expectations?

^ Quotations indicate a term frequently used that may or may not be an adequate and/or correct descriptor.

I found out that I made a grand television appearance last week. During the week of the election of the first African-American president of the United States I appeared on BookTV on C-SPAN2 . When I went to the Envision Conference this summer at Princeton my learning track was entitled "Beyond Consumption" and was led my Ronald Sider. We took a break from our dialogue on consumption in order for BookTV to record a lecture on Sider’s book, "The Scandal of Evangelical Politics." The lecture is worth watching and you can see the first portion of it below (check me out furiously typing my thoughts). I am in the video more at the end of the lecture during the question and answer time and you can check out the full length video at www.booktv.org . I didn’t ask a question on camera due to the impersonal nature of the filming but I asked Ron the first question when the cameras shut down. That question is posted below the video. Immediately following our session, Sider left for Chicago to meet personally with Barack Obama to discuss "religious issues."

There can exist a certain form of idolatry toward certain candidates or partisan ideologies.
How would you suggest that one goes about influencing public policy with the danger of appearing as if one is placing trust in a certain candidate or party as the ultimate hope and solution for a community or promoting the government as the responsible body rather than the church?

Suppossed citizens of the United States cast their ballots to elect new "leaders" for an earthly empire. I would argue that we are global citizens and neighborhood communities (or pseudo-communities) rather than national citizens (that is another post for another time such as soon). I did end up "voting" (whether or not a vote matters is yet again another post for another time). I was one of the voters in Knox County , Ohio that selected Barack Obama on my computerized touch screen. John McCain won Knox Co. 59%-39% (16,207 to 10,702) yet the state of Ohio favored Barack Obama 51%-47% (2,683,043-2,483,805). The Obama campaign used language such "The New Hope" and "Change We Need." My questions I must consider are these: "Is Barack Obama ‘The New Hope?’" "Is Barack Obama the ‘Change We Need?’" What is hope? From where does hope come? What is change?

"Do I feel bad about betraying Jim? Not at all. That was the game-convince him we’re in an ‘alliance’ together, use him for info, then toss him to the wolves… It’s called politics, baby. It’s about getting what you can out of people and then destroying them."

Dwight Schrute
Assistant TO the Regional Manager
Dunder Mifflin, Scranton Branch

Politics: It’s about getting what you can out of people and then destroying them. It seems as though the writers of The Office have been paying close attention to recent foreign policy decisions. Since the "church" by and large has dropped the proverbial ball on caring for people, the government has implemented tax funded initiatives such as Social Security and welfare. Could it be that under our current systems of political functionality that the church must operate in cooperation with the government to care for people? If "followers of Jesus" don’t take care of the poor then should one be in favor of higher taxes so that said provision may be allocated by legislators? How should a follower of Jesus actively engage the public square so that money taken from people may be used in a life-giving manner rather than for destruction of a "lower class" or "other nation" (emphasis on quotation marks to distinguish language that represents something that doesn’t really exist)?

© Clint Fisher. Aenon Fire.
Notes from my Moleskine at the .08 Envision Conference:

9.09A
06.09.08
Princeton University. NJ.
Alexander Hall
Plenary I:
History of Evangelicals with Randy Balmer
Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University

Green v. Connely
June 30 1971: More influential than Roe v. Wade
Anyone discriminating against minorities is not a 501(c)3 active organization

1971 Southern Baptist Convention
Passed Resolution calling for legal abortion and members favored Roe v. Wade

Enter: Polarization of/by Religious Right

Evangelicals of the "right" were trying to defend and protect their own subculture

IRS went after Bob Jones University due to racial discrimination/other discrim.

Religious right appointed Ronald Reagan as their czar in 1980
.80 – Divorce was an operating issue so for Reagan the issues were shifted by the right from divorce to abortion and homosexuality
JESUS
is very clear about divorce but not abortion or homosexuality
Use of Scripture citation to support segregation and discrimination :: 20 years prior

"Intelligent Design" is one of the surest proofs for evolution
President Bush appointed a judge that turned down creation theory for text books
The canons of rational enlightenment do not determine life
To denegrate Genesis to the sciences is to flee God

Cornwall Declaration
Most cynical document signed by Dobson/Colston/etc. that empowers corporate to make decisions best for corporations

1st Amendment
Equal to those who deny the Holocaust are those who adhere that the founding fathers wanted to separate church and state
Roger Williams: Puritan in Massechusetts "Garden of Church Protected"
The church shouldn’t look to the government for sanctions
Truitt: Issues affirmation as a baptist that lines must not be blurred b/t church and state
Prayer in schools always exists
Faith doesn’t need approval from science or government
JESUS
is not interested in being an arbitor of religion
Recover the SCANDAL OF THE GOSPEL
:: Get quote from "Thy Kingdom Come"
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THE PRECEDING TEXT COPIED AND/OR ADAPTED FROM MY TYPED OR MOLESKINE RECORDED NOTES ON THE ENVISION CONFERENCE MAY OR MAY NOT BE MY OWN THOUGHTS AND MAY OR MAY NOT INCLUDE DIRECT CITATIONS OF ORATORS/FACILITATORS. THE ORATORS/FACILITATORS SHOULD NOT NECESSARILY BE CREDITED OR HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR SPECIFIC WORDS OR PHRASES THOUGH SOME WORDS ARE THEIR OWN.