BLOG FROM 10/01/08 TO 12/31/08
Gaza Again
The Israelis have once again perpetrated a "shock and awe" attack on the Gaza strip. So far there are over a thousand casualties and it is hard to imagine most are not civilians in these densely packed neighborhoods. Will these attacks accomplish any changes? No. Perhaps that is the reason for them. Certainly it is not a strategy for resolving the issues between the Palestinians and their conquerors including home-made missiles slung over the border.
12/28/08
The Data Disease
Data manipulation seems to be the disease of professionals in today's market place. Philosophies or ideals take a back seat to data. Before a person or group can make any decisions they must have input, information, data, interpretations, computer graphs and patterns and models. There seems to be an infinite regress of data, a whirlpool of it removing all contact with tangible realities. Such was the case with the Wall St. Standard and Poor/Moody's type "analysis." Data interpretation overlaid data interpretation until few knew, or even wanted to know, what they were trading. Wishful thinking and rationalizations prevailed until the whole system unraveled. I heard a presentation of a data pusher from the "Free" Enterprise Institute the other day on C Span. It seems that poverty really isn't poverty in the United States. I hope the current economic doldrums and fear will help us get our feet back on the ground.
12/23/08
General Motors
GM has always been an 'also ran.' Others innovate. GM follows with more and longer. In recent years it has been trying to catch up. But those SUVs were so profitable. Meanwhile, anxious to bail out Wall St. banks Republican senators drag their feet on the big three auto makers. Why? Bankruptcy would kill the unions and pensions. Unfortunately it would kill the companies too. Obama has the right ideas: fund health care, preserve the union living wages, and support those well-earned retirement incomes. With much of the social overhead sustained by society, as it is in other advanced industrial economies, our industry can do as well as anyone's.
12/15/08
Free Market
After Greenspan's confession that his whole economic philosophy had been an error, that markets cannot regulate themselves, the so-called "free-market" has been asserting its case. I decided I'd try to find the "free market." Like God it doesn't seem to have any physical location. It doesn't seem to have any churches or institutions either except perhaps the Cato Foundation. I also looked around for "manifestations" of this elusive reality reputed to be everywhere and nowhere. Large corporations seem to be in a socialist rather than a "free enterprise" mode, half of them not paying any taxes and the other half highly subsidized. The theological pillars seem to be "leveraging" and "derivatives" and "hedging." But these require professional theologians to reveal and you have to believe before you can see. Perhaps hedge funds are what I'm looking for. In short the "free market" seems to be a smoke screen for scoundrels and get rich quick schemes. If you meet a pure "free market ideologue see if you can get for the idea any form or substance. Let me know!
12/15/08
Anniversary 60
"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal
and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is
the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. . . .
How can we know what is good and right? How shall we live and let live? How shall we sponsor the opportunity of all to grow into the full potential of their humanity? How shall we go about loving our neighbor as ourselves? The mere presence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed in the United Nations 60 years ago, December 10, gives us an edge for responding to these questions. Each of the 30 articles of the Declaration has a history often thousands of years old. The religious founders, martyrs through the ages, have testified to their centrality. Enlightenment impulses towards democracy document their foundational validity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights places our rights at an institutional center of the world. Most nations have given it their signatures. It is honored, often in the breach. The United States has violated various of its provisions. But the fact of its existence in our midst affirms us as being on the right side of history. It will not be in our lifetimes but these inalienable rights must and will prevail. Google the Declaration! Read it! Live it!
12/10/08
Wal-Mart
I can't imagine shoppers, even dumb or semi-conscious ones, would be so desperate to enter a Wal-Mart that they could trample to death a guard at the door! They were not inside escaping a fire. They were outside anxious to spend their money. The "wisdom" in the credit crunch has it that people are so maxed out it is unlikely the "consumer society" will come back as it was before. We'll see about that.
11/30/08
Can "Change" Come?
In order to win elections one has to be, or appear to be, a nationalist. But of course we know the world as a whole is a system. Nations are organized out of that system. Climate change, global warming, is a world dynamic. We have to tackle it in a world perspective. What makes for a sustainable human future on the planet? What is good for the world trumps any short-term advantages for any nation. Likewise we can look at various instances of terror, the latest in Mumbai. The so-called "War on Terror" frame invented by the Bush administration doesn't fit reality. There will always be terror or sabotage by the aggrieved or fringe ideologues wherever they develop. But a perpetual "War on Terror" is a template which doesn't fit. Such instances as the Mumbai attacks require world police investigations, pursuit and judicial punishment, not warfare. The first test of a new administration will be its ability to disentangle itself from the rhetoric of the past, including its own from the exigencies of getting elected. Can "change" come in the form of our collective frame of mind; can we think in a global perspective? Our survival will depend on it!
11/30/08
Proposition 8
A democracy cannot justify taking rights away from its citizens. To impose ancient holiness codes on a twenty-first century secular society is absurd. (The prohibition of homosexuality now. The prohibition of the eating of pork next?) All in the guise of protecting marriage! Don't they remember that marriage in the time of Leviticus involved plural wives? And whether they liked it or not? Democracy depends upon protection of freedom of the individual and some semblance of the exercise of reason. Either the stupidity of Proposition 8 will triumph in a sea of archaic darkening of freedom or history will bend towards enlightenment and democratic values in our relationships and society will open once again. The marriage vows of lesbians and gays have no negative impact on the quality of my marriage and to the extent that these vows are honored and prosper to that extent all of us benefit in a general well-being.
11/17/08
Obama's Type
Back in August (see 08/01/08) I wrote that I believed Obama's type to be ENFP (extraverted intuition with introverted feeling). Then I read an article by Hile Rutledge, head of OKA (Otto Kroeger Associates), written a week before the election and believe he may be closer. He finds Obama to be INFP (introverted feeling with extraverted intuition). My daughter confirmed such practices as a "quiet zone" at the front of Obama's campaign plane, the scripted speeches, the intense behind the scenes considerations, thinking well before speaking and the high idealism, striving for consensus and harmony in governance. Thus I have deferred to their judgment. I expect he will age dramatically under the stress of the administrative side of the presidency. I find it encouraging that he has appointed tough-minded and capable people around him who can manage as well as think for themselves, leaving him to monitor the values and process considerations. And he may be of genius intelligence, able to manage his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses. I'm still optimistic about his prospects and rather awed by his progress. We'll see.
11/10/08
Money
Money is basically a lubricant to keep our life support moving. Food, clothing, housing, education, the tools to support our livelihood, talents and creative edge, all need a well oiled distribution system to bring sustenance to all in society. Problems arise when people along the way feed off the system and begin hoarding more than a reasonable share of goods for themselves. To be sure there is enough money it is manufactured by governments. Leeching and greed are managed by the social policies of governments through taxation and regulation. The goal in a healthy society is to encourage creativity and generosity and to discourage leeching and exploitation. During the last eight years our government has done a poor job of stewarding this process, in some quarters turning distribution into a feeding trough of self-aggrandizement, turning selfishness into a virtue. Public service I hope will slowly return to our economic vocations, a sense of the integrity of good work for the wellbeing of all.
10/27/08
The Election
I dutifully watched the Democratic and Republican Conventions, all the speeches and the commentary on PBS, MSNBC, CNN. After November 4 I look forward to finding more balance in what I admit to the reverberations of thought. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama is the superior leader and that it is a pivotal election. There is a good chance his presence will reawaken democratic ideals and confidence.
And he will need our support right down the line once elected, in the Congress, in our more local connections. Issues facing us: global warming, energy sufficiency, intrusions of militarism in our foreign policy, health insurance for all, financing of social security and medicare safety nets, infrastructure maintenance, government reconstruction – particularly lifting the veil of secrecy in the executive and the reconstitution of hollowed out departments (to private contractors), the woes of the economy, the undue influence of corporatism in our governing (a socialism for corporations), right-wing ideology rising in our court system, educational opportunity and quality. I’m sure I missed some but the delayed attention to this malaise may constitute an historical hinge as to whether the United States can be the leading influence among the nations and whether we will have a sustainable high quality of life to which we have become accustomed. So we will have to stay attuned even after the election. No one man, or even his party, can do it alone.
10/20/08
Purposes and Principles
Every so often Unitarian Universalists feel an urge to update and reconceptualize our common purposes and working principles. The old summary, attached to the Bylaws of our Association, has become too cozy, even used by some as a creed. So we must rewrite. Inevitably the first draft was awful, too verbose, not memorable or inspiring. A second draft will be out soon and hopefully several more before we ever vote on the new words. Here is a list of affirmations I see as essential. We can all affirm human potentiality and a social support for it; we can all affirm the democratic process, freedom, human rights, religious authority in individual discernment; we can all affirm a global spiritual embrace as our relationship to religious traditions; we can all affirm an interdependent web within which we live and move and have our being. It is important to acknowledge our local Unitarian and Universalist histories as backdrop for where we are now in our history. We can emphasize our welcoming of all in a diversity within our congregations. And just in case there are individuals here and there who would differ with one or more of the above, there should be some kind of “escape clause” so as not to infer our principles could be taken as creedal. Lets hope that these can be summarized in memorable language and that the authors have plenty of elbow room to develop them without undue pressure of deadlines.
10/13/08
Morality on Wall Street/Main Street
Would you, as a loan officer on Main Street, assure a client that they could buy a house knowing they could not afford it? What rationalization would you invoke for entrapping your would-be neighbors? Being a “nice guy,” “helping people out?” What rationalization would a local bank president use for urging more loans from loan officers? “Building market share,” “we sell mortgages to larger institutions” for protection? And the larger financial institutions that package and resell bundles of mortgages, are they honestly that naÔve and dumb, not to know the contents of their own products? Well, perhaps they are, or at least resign themselves to playing the game and making a (good) living.
10/10/08
Credit
The above paragraph builds on the common idea of what “caused” the current meltdown. I wonder if the “blame” might be in part misplaced. The key variable appears to be dropping housing values, not the percentage of sub-prime loans. In other words local bankers weren’t advising their clients as to the real value of their homes. As the market value went down some (particularly speculators) began to abandon their mortgages, as much of what they owed was paper, more than the real value of their home. Lets not blame the poor! Contractors built too many houses (on credit). Banks made too many loans on inflated home values (with credit). Banks borrowed too much from larger “banks” in order to make these loans (on credit). Wall Street extended too much credit (on credit). The Federal Government is now loaning Wall Street money (on credit) with the national debt. The bubble is a worthless pile of paper credit. Our real position in the world, pay as you go, is considerably lower. This crisis has something to do with paying our bills on time and taxing ourselves to pay our way. Now the house of cards (credit) is revealed for all to see. “They that hath eyes, let them see.”
10/10/08
“Tax Relief”
Both the Obama and the McCain campaigns are now advocating “tax relief.” Obama will “relieve” tax payers who have incomes under 250, 000 a year. McCain is somewhat more vague as to who would be “relieved” but it is more likely the wealthy than the rest of us. In Maine a new sales tax on beer and other beverages is under attack with a well financed ad campaign. “Tax relief” implies taxes are a kind of disease imposed on us by our governments. Taxation is cut and dried. If we want government to engage in maintaining roads, bridges, help for the poor and infirm, disaster relief, research on health for humans and the planet, maintenance for courts and legislatures, environmental, food and drug, banking and finance, air port and plane, inspections and regulations, etc. etc. then we have to pay for them. Of course we need substantial taxes! We are in this together. Paying taxes is the grown up thing to affirm if we have consideration for ourselves and our neighbors. It is not a malady!!
10/02/08
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