Saturday, April 26, 2003

¿Y EL FUTURO DE MANIQUEISMO?

Raven has had a short life, but his historical memory is very long. And because of his canny grasp of the Past, he’s nervous about the Future.

“You know,” he turns away from the computer screen and picks up his coffee cup, “I would like to be optimistic. I just don’t know if I can be.”

Well, Rave, I hear you. I believe most of us would like to think that the polarization that is being generated—the critical mass of positive energy that is gathering against the plan of the Bush Gang to grind the world’s population into chorizo and soak it in oil—will eventually prevail.

“That the Real Good will stand up against the Real Evil—and not be suckered by the Doublespeak of cynical bastards?” Raven sips his coffee, puts his cup back down.

Right now Manicheism is on pretty shaky ground, I think. Ever since George W. said we were either with him or against him. But dualistic thinking does allow us to draw the line against the intolerable.

“Careful. Didn’t Bush Padre draw a line in the sand against Saddam Hussein—somewhere back in the Dark Ages?”

In 1990, I think. We’re still in the Dark Ages, Rave. Looking for the Light at the End of the Tunnel. Trying to be hopeful.

“Here’s a hopeful guy. Writing in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Phil Steger—executive director of Friends for a Non-Violent World says:

‘The time is coming when regimes that threaten the peace and security of the world's people will be promptly and peacefully removed from power by the nonviolent, political force of the people. It might have happened in Iraq. It will happen in America.’”

There isn’t much time though. Either 8 and a half years or 9 and a half, depending on whose calendrical correllation from the Mayan to Gregorian calendars you choose to believe. After that, even if the new consciousness does prevail, we won’t have an Iraq. Nor an America.

“If the choice is between being oil-soaked chorizo and having a peaceful process of regime change, I am inclined to be optimistic.” Raven shuts down the computer, goes to the sink and rinses his coffee cup.

You and Winston Churchill, Rave.

“How’s that?”

Churchill said he was an optimist because he didn’t see the point in being a pessimist and continuing to live. In those terms, I guess I am an optimist, too....

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