My kids' Dad

Inspirational reading

I just came back from a week's vacation and had the good fortune to be introduced to these books. Each one is inspiring and insightful and focuses on the human spirit and our relation to the material world.

The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho is a novelized story of the prophet Elijah during a period of biblical silence. The story is about faith and how we relate to God.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is an inspiring story about keeping our dreams alive.

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho is a fascinating recounting of the author's journey along the ancient Road to Santiago where he seeks wisdom and develops humility.

The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho is another autobiography about the author's quest to see an angel and discovers hope.

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho is his latest novel which explores the lines between religion and spirituality.

Power vs. Force by David Hawkins describes levels of enlightenment experienced by people throughout history and around the world.

There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Wayne Dyer was given to me by my Aunt. The author describes how we can prevail over obstacles through a positive approach (very much like one of Coelho's messages). The book is patterned after the 'Instrument of Peace' prayer by St. Francis of Assisi.

I am also planning on reading Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle after seeing this at my relatives house.

The common thread throughout these books is that there is a point where human reason and logic fail us and we need something more.

Toward a Satisfying Life

Eminent social scientist Charles Murray discusses his new book on BookTV, In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State, which is available via Real Audio stream. The key arguments he makes are that governments are inherently incapable of providing for complex human needs and that we in the West are in desperate need of creating lives that fill us with satisfaction in an age of plenty. Is it our ethos to while away our time as pleasantly as possible until we die? He states that vocation, family and community are the most likely sources of satisfaction we can turn to and that the welfare system is ineffective at providing such a complex human need yet we think that our immense efforts are the best we can do. What is remarkable are the similarities with many of the basic principles that the former Rebbe of Chabad articulated and can be understood in the book, Toward a Meaningful Life, namely that Charles Murray states that it is not enough that you preach living a virtuous life but you must act upon it as a virtuoso pianist must perform.

While in Europe in the spring one of my travel companions was considering why the European culture bothered him. I offered that the greatest difference between cultures was a lack of a fear of God. This really resonated with him and explains the seemingly impassible gulf between Europe and the US, between liberals and conservatives, between secularists and those of faith. Indeed the wise Rebbe describes the humility and love that entail a fear of God. Rapper Matisyahu has been wildly popular with youth in the US (and I am hoping to take the family to see him in concert soon) and his message is a strong echo of the wisdom of Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. It is refreshing to experience the deeper meaning of life that is often obscured by what appears to be rampant materialism (and emptiness) in our culture.

A Creaking Shell

While in Orlando in April one of my relatives gave me a copy of Menace in Europe. While the title is rather sensational the content is far more measured and reasoned. From the opening I found the author's reasoning and experiences compelling and believable then another relative browsed through it he quickly declared that he was in complete agreement with the statements he read. This lent far greater credibility to the material because he was a German citizen up until a number of years ago. The statement that really inspired him was one about the self destructive path that Europeans are on. A central premise of her work is that Europe has lost its faith in God and is now lost in emptiness.

A section that was particularly insightful for me was about Marseille Espérance which is the "hope of Marseille" that offers a way to stem the tide of extremism that has swept France. It pays lips service to the official French policies of the preeminence of individual rights and secularism but in truth recognizes separate ethnic cultures and organizational structures.

[after] September 2001... demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, marchers shouted, "All Arabs are Palestinians. We are all suicide bombers." ... The violence in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, and other major French cities has continued, and in some places worsened. In these cities, anti-Semitism appears uncontainable. But in Marseille, the animus has fizzled out. The city reacted with revulsion to the burning of the Or Aviv Synagogue. Citywide protests against anti-Semitism were immediately organized; Arabs participated in [these] demonstrations. The leaders of Marseille's Islamic community firmly condemned the attack. By contrast, after similar violence in Toulouse, Muslim community leaders offered not one single gesture of solidarity.

The author also looks at other European attitudes, such as her interviews with members of Rammstein, a self described left wing German band that emulates Nazi habits. These men are very popular and oppose the American intervention in Iraq. But they dismiss the behavior of Saddam Hussein. As a scholar from a German institute explains that the Germans have a chip in their shoulder because Americans did the ultimate injustice of having liberated the Germans from Hitler then protecting and supporting them for decades. He also states:

"...more than 60 percent of Germans believe that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is worse than the German treatment of the Jews under the Nazis. ... And with Israel, one could say, they just will not forgive the Jews for putting them in the black box of history."

Pretty classic (and now all too common) stuff in blaming the victim for your deficiencies.

The final chapter is short and sums up the situation very well. She describes:

"European anti-Americanism is a cultist system of faith, rather than a set of rational beliefs, and as such is impervious to revision upon confrontation with facts, logic, evidence, gestures of good will, public relations campaigns, or attempts on the part of the American secretary of state to be a better, more sensitive listener. ... The American Left's contention that it is the current administration's foreign policy that has made the United States an object of hatred is a naive delusion."

In many ways we are seeing these attitudes imported into the U.S. for similar reasons and with similar potential impact. A majority of Americans still have faith in a greater power - I don't know what it will take for that to happen in Europe (short of an Islamic takeover due to demographic shifts). Of course as the Kingdom of Heaven film about medieval Europe and a Crusade reveals you can also have faith and passion without heart or reason.

Refreshing debate

I have been intrigued by the writings about noted contemporary French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. He takes heat and gathers respect for his unorthodox position within liberal thinking, so I was very pleased to actually hear him this last weekend on BookTV.

This panel discussion featured Francis Fukuyama, William Kristol, and Bernard-Henri Levy about Levy's new book, "American Vertigo: A Journey in the Footsteps of Tocqueville."  Don't let the title mislead you, the topic is modern day culture and politics as seen in the light of a great historian. They respectfully discuss their different perspectives in ideology along with their admiration of one another despite obvious disagreements. The discussion was illuminating into each of their perspectives, by Levy's was harder to comprehend due to his occaissional grasping for English and  frequent reference to other philosophers which I had difficulty placing in context. Despite Fukuyama and Kristol's strength of argument, Levy comes across as a serious and responsible intellectual - as well as one full of good humor.

The Tipping Point

It often seems in the blogosphere that there is an 'us and them' mentality when in fact sometimes we are 'us' and sometimes we are 'them' but often we are somewhere in between.  Our lives fluctuate between positions and philosophies - whether micro changes such as deciding some blogger no longer completely agrees with you to some major conversion such as that by David Horowitz or Keith Thompson. It is a rare thing to find someone who really fits a stereotype and doesn't alter from that position which is why I dislike the debates that paint people as simple 'this or that'. This is most obvious with the ludicrous statements about Bush being a 'liar', a 'terrorist' or a 'criminal'. These statements have no basis in fact and the people making them resort to dehumanization to reach their positions. Chomsky and George Galloway come to mind as people that typify this condition predicated on indefensible postulates. Part of this may be generational in that many of these folks were weaned on the socialist dream of the early 20th Century. Recently I listened Peter Wege decry the need for the government to fix a variety of ills around us - understandable for a child who grew up under the shadow of the "New Deal" and the "Great Society". To his credit, Peter Wege has taken some of the great fortune he has inherited and personally invested some of this in environmental projects even if he complains that this should really be paid for by the taxpayer.

This idea of position and action based upon context finds better illumination in the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. He uses a number of examples such as the transformation of the New York Subway a couple decades ago to show that people often act and react to the environment (entering into the chaos of the subway in the 1980's led people to act in ways that were atypical for them) and by simply making small changes such as enforcing tolls and keeping the trains clean the overall behaviors changed. He takes on the "Birth Order Book" by stating that birth order works in the context of family members (you act in that manner when around family but not necessarily in other contexts such as work and friends). He describes studies whereby children cheat in certain contexts regardless of intelligence or background. This realization can be important when it comes to judging the character of your children or others. Think back to Hurricane Katrina when folks were looting stores to obtain food - certainly not something any of us would condemn given the lack of ability to provide through society's normal channels (although I suppose a truly exceptional person would offer to reimburse the business for the items taken as well any damaged inflicted to get those items).  Indeed, Gladwell shows that displaying absolute moral positions are radical and perhaps the sign of a real rebel. On the other hand, most of us vacillate between these extremes and may on rare occasion point to our great 'success' and 'failure'.

The book also offers some other great insights that can be applied to other areas such as terrorism. His description of the teenage suicide phenomenon in Micronesia (a cultural trend that 'gives permission' to the impermissible) can be related to suicide bombing in the middle east. Consider that (like the treatise by Marc Sageman) the demographics apply to young men who are proving their 'nobility'. This also help us realize that not all 'terrorists' are the same - the young men who kill themselves and others are not driven by the same motivations as the strategists (such as bin Laden) who have a motivation more in line with Tom Barnett's thinking. Gladwell displays really radical and thought provoking concepts to tobacco addiction and AIDs which could be applied to the aspects of terrorism.

As an aside - Gladwell also describes cool hunting in a very William Gibsonesque manner - that is the very commercial side of setting trends.

The Bulldozer and a variety of books

Michael Oren offered a concise and lucid background of Ariel Sharon in his WSJ piece called The End of the Beginning last Friday. This single sentence of his captures the essence of the article:

The blond and handsome commando and severely overweight politico, the "bulldozer" who pushed thousands of Israelis in and out of settlements, the lover of Hebrew culture whose first language was Russian, the secularist who revered Jewish faith, the fighter of many wars and the champion, ultimately, of peace--Ariel Sharon has had multiple identities.

I love "...the secularist who revered Jewish faith", doesn't that describe a man of wisdom and respect? Great men throughout history have displayed such respect especially when dealing with something as personal as faith and religion.

On other fronts:

Yossi Sheffi discussed Enterprise Resilience on BookTV where among other corporate disasters he reveals how Cantor Fitzgerald survived the September 11 attacks. Whereas Tom Barnett focused on their losses and how the technology helped Cantor Fitzgerald, Sheffi highlights how it was their customers that kept them from going under because their customers valued (among other things) the relationships that had developed and wanted to resurrect those relationships.
Sheffi is profound is his statements about the businesses that don't fail require leaders that come up through the business. Real leaders know their business and inspire their people - notice that he recognizes leaders that focus on the staff and not the customers.

Alan Sears gave a clear background of the ACLU in his book discussion on The ACLU vs America on BookTV. He documents the campaign against democracy the ACLU has waged since its foundation and reveals the thin veneer of duplicity behind which they stand. I have long ago noticed their selective causes (supporting NAMBLA while attacking the Boy Scouts) but this book or DVD presents solid evidence for those seeking detail.

On the other hand not everything on BookTV is credible. On our vacation last week in Florida, I couldn't resist watching BookTV (they normally run the shows on the weekends and over holidays) where I stumbled upon Richard Florida's talk about his book called The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent. Now I figured he would offer another perspective upon Globalization which for the most part is in agreement with my own. Florida has plenty of statistical data about the impact of designers upon economies as well as successful geographic areas. I agree with him about the importance of creativity, but he loses me in some of his definitions (such as where he can't see creativity within the manufacturing industry). He also launches into a weird Red State/Blue State thesis that basically sees creativity as being the solely centered in large urban centers. I would argue that technology allows creative individuals and youth to be able to tap into the collective creativity in remote locations where quality of life can be balanced by a vibrant social interaction. I suppose he simply is a victim of an elitist attitude that views most parts of the country as filled with dullards although I shall buy his book to get a clearer understanding of his views and research.

I also received some very nice books from the family getting me started on Gladwell's Tipping Point. So far the characterization some people as connectors, mavens and salesmen is brilliant.

Tammy Bruce rocks

Tammy Bruce delivers a powerful presentation in discussing her new book, The New American Revolution: Using the Power of the Individual to Save Our Nation from Extremists, on CSPAN.

She has some very provocative comments (paraphrasing): 'Fascism is only capable of developing in a Leftist government'; 'when the Left starts losing ground as they have in the last few years they resort to deception and violence'; the U.S. is a nation that does not seek expansion of its borders like European and Asian nations, but of its ideas of freedom and liberty (I find this similar to Barnett's imagery of the U.S. export of open source globalization); Leftists and dictators around the world fear and oppose the rise of the individual and our willingness to stand our ground; watch how Jews are being treated by the world for this is an indication of the danger around us; The U.S. and Israel share the same struggle against tyranny; and the Left justifies submission of the individual by saying that 'there is a little Hitler in each one of us' whereas Tammy counters that in reality 'there is a little Thomas Jefferson in each one of us'.

What I find interesting is that Tammy Bruce has identified 'group think' as the poison of the Left wing groups, but that this danger can be seen in unrelated groups such as terrorists as well as presenting a potential pitfall in any organized group from Republican to Libertarian. I saw this in evidence last week listening to Mary Mapes discussing the 'vast right wing conspiracy' as being the highly organized nature of conservative groups. Of course Mapes has this wholly wrong, and indeed is the mistake of the Left, in that most conservatives are highly independent sharing common beliefs in freedom and liberty while eschewing organized talking points. Tammy illustrates this with the rise of  the 'Minutemen' as a private reaction to George Bush's policies surrounding the Mexican border. I see the criticism of the administration's policies in Iraq by conservatives as being another example without being a repudiation of Bush himself.

Along with David Horowitz, Camille Paglia and Keith Thompson, she represents the face of the new liberal - rational, compassionate, smart and reasonable. This is the other political party that our nation needs now.

Precolumbian Geography

Holidays are a great time to indulge in my vice of watching BookTV, today I have so far caught two of several very intriguing presentations.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann is a discussion about the forgotten civilizations of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Mann refutes the notion that the Amazon is fragile and virgin, but that perhaps as many as 100 million indigenous peoples lived throughout the Amazon basin at any time within the last several thousand years. He shows evidence of the aggressive land management techniques used to tame these now wild places and how the civilizations were quickly laid waste by disease as Europeans engaged in trade with these civilizations. Mann also notes that the lack of available domesticable animals led to culture that had little resistance to disease since the great pandemics have typically been the result of disease mutations where the sicknesses have jumped from an animal species to human.

Mann also describes the diversity of cultures within the Americas, the Incas were very centralized and rigid - whereas tribes in the North East of North America were libertarian in nature.

Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America -- Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism by Harm de Blij is a powerful discussion of the impact of geography upon human fate. He tries to show us that despite all of the debate today we are living in a golden age.

Harm de Blij warns us of the coming global cooling and that he has great faith in the ability of the Earth to recover from most types of events whether human induced or through some externality such as an asteroid. He states simply that climate change has been part of the planet's life for 460 million years and that we are in the middle of a 35 million year ice age, which in the last 450,000 years features 4 periods of global warming (called interglacials) lasting each around 10,000 years separated by glaciations (cooling periods) of around 100,000 years each. The current warming period has lasted 13,000 years so we are due for a sudden and prolonged cooling period.

But Harm de Blij is also brilliant as he discusses topics such as the spread of global terrorism, which he states is fostered by failed nation-states and inaccessible terrain (such as the Pakistani mountain ranges). Just like Tom Barnett, he warns of the spread of terrorism into sub Saharan Africa due to these conditions.

Better stock up on blankets.

Watch Your Affiliation

Just finished listening to John Tierney's discussion on C-SPAN about the Anti-War Movement and have determined to buy his book The Politics of Peace: What's Behind the Anti-War Movement even though his delivery was modest.

Tierney went to some length to separate those who are pacifists from being lumped in with the Anti-War Movement. He defines a "Movement" as being highly organized with its members taking orders like an army. Perhaps the greatest source of controversy is his position that if you affiliate with a Movement then you endorse its principles, although some might claim that marching in a parade organized by ANSWER does not mean that they endorse all of their positions, Tierney counters that if the KKK organized a parade against the war most anti-war advocates would never dream of donning a hood and participating:

In looking at the activist strategies and radical backgrounds of anti-war organizers, Tierney concludes that the movement’s leaders are anti-American rather than anti-war. Indeed, the anti-war movement wants war and violence, not peace—if it will lead to the overthrow of American institutions and government. That a militantly secular anti-war Left def ends and justifies the violent actions of Islamic religious extremists is only one of the many strange alliances created by those whose ulterior motives are to oppose the broader War on Terror.

...But the radical and subversive links detailed in The Politics of Peace have been obscured in false media depictions of a grassroots and idealistic anti-war movement.

Tierney offers that his book details the historic connections between the Anti-War Movement and its members and anti capitalism organizations such as the WWP. He states that these Anti-War groups are in essence those that espouse revolution of the Che Guevara stripe (the Soviet model having fallen out of favor in the 60's and 70's) and hide behind any banner that suits their purpose - Anti-War during the first Gulf War - then once that goal disappeared resurfaced as Anti-Globalization ala Seattle WTO protests. The common traits of these organizing groups is that they are anti-capitalist, anti-Semitic, anti-free speech and anti-democratic - John Tierney's sage advice for those with a principle against a war is to consider your 'bed fellows' very seriously  lest you find ourself endorsing an organization that does not at all represent your position.

As I suspected, Tierney's work complements the positions of former "Liberals" such as Christopher Hitchens and David Horowitz. George Galloway is unmasked by such knowledge.

UPDATE:
Marc Cooper validates Tierney's assertions - from the Left. No one seems to be able to tolerate them - now if only the Democratic party could get its act together the nation would benefit... sometimes I think the only viable option is for the Republican party to split into conservative and moderate halves to get a rational national debate in gear.

The EU and personal travel

The gap between posts just shows how preoccupied I have been lately and not without a shortage of material to write about. Much of the 'load' is due to family duties. We are preparing for another cross country road trip this summer to meet family (including cousins from the EU) on the west coast. We are using timeshare points and hotel points to 'pay' for most of our lodging and so far have calculated 6,800 miles of driving (just under 11,000 km for my metric friends). This works out to about $500 in fuel - double that to include wear and tear on our minivan - but this is still much less than airfare for four and far more interesting as we see the country en route plus we have the luxury of having our own transportation while visiting. Highlights of our plans with family include Yosemite, Sequoia National Forest, San Diego, Mexico and Los Angeles.

Today I have heard a couple rants about the Department of Justice not prosecuting Felt for his role as 'Deep Throat' in Watergate. While this make for great theater, what a preposterous idea... regardless of whether Felt broke any laws or not you must consider two factors that make this whole idea impractical and silly. First Felt is suffering from senility and doesn't have many days left - how far would an impartial system take this case? Not very. Second this case is so politically loaded that a Republican administration would be foolish to want to attack those that brought down a previous Republican administration that was admittedly guilty of the charges. A Democratic administration could possibly get away with it provided the first factor wasn't extant.

How about that EU? The results of the French vote are not surprising but some of the statements made around the issue are:

The prevailing view among European elites was summed up by a senior EU bureaucrat we spoke to last month who said about the French and the constitution: "They haven't read it. If they had read it, they wouldn't understand it. If they understood it, they wouldn't like it." Nonetheless, he thought that the French should vote yes anyway.

The snippet above comes from the Wall Street Journal and reveals an arrogance towards the populace that our own elitists would not dare utter... had they been so bold the spanking at our last election would have been that much more severe. This shows a great difference between cultures as we jealously guard our inclusion in participatory democracy not trusting others to decide our fate. Perhaps this is germination of self determination on the continent or perhaps it was a miscalculation on the part of the EU bureaucrats wanting to give the appearance of representative democracy. Jacques Chirac offers his assessment:

"France has expressed itself democratically. You have rejected the European constitution by a majority. It is your sovereign decision and I take note of it," he said.

Jacques sure sounds like he is governed by the will of the people, doesn't he? If this is the sort of attitude the French people appreciate or even tolerate, then c'est la vie! Despite this and more recent defeats, I don't see any crisis looming for the EU, this is more of a procedural road block than any kind of foundational problem. T.M. Lutas offers a fine discussion of core issues that Europe faces as it attempts integration as it struggles to fins its roots in a self sustaining model.

Meanwhile Mark at Zenpundit teases with an alluring review of Freakonomics. Mentioning 'counter intuitive' and noticing the anomaly along with horizontal thinking is irresistible.

And over at tdaxp it seems that while the cat is away the mouse will play...

And more work is awaiting me here as I have been trolling ebay for the best deals in a set of crossbars for the roof rack, an overhead DVD player for the minivan (meaning that I get to cut big holes in the headliner soon), some new car speakers, and some games for the kids. Being in a profession that involves a lot of conceptual and symbolic work, there is something very satisfying  about using your own hands to produce a tangible result. I'll try to post some photos of the install once complete. Tomorrow off to the final chess tournament of the school year.