The essence of morality and humanity...

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Love,
Ben

The bottom line for humanity...

As I watch so many people foolishly arguing that the most recent attacks on Hezbollah will weaken Israeli's attacker from the North...a shortsighted notion that ignores the ways that Hezbollah has been politically emboldened through the killing and displacement of Lebanese civilians and an Arab world that is far more pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel and anti-American, today, than when this whole situation started with the kidnapping of one Israeli soldier, then an Israeli offensive, then the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers...and an equally shortsighted notion that military victories can somehow trump serious political setbacks, that generally bring greater hostility and military response (the war in Iraq should have cured people of that notion, if they were open to learning the lesson)...

It is beginning to occur to me that the bottom line for humanity...for our progress...is whether and to the extent that we can recognize how our impatient, aggressive, less thoughtful, defensive ways can give way to more patient, less aggressive (least possible necessary aggression), more thoughtful, more responsive and proactive ways...

Put more simply...

The bottom line is how much we can face what dicks we can be...

And how much we can create room -- psychologically, emotionally, socially, politically, etc. -- for all of us to face that...

And to be more decent...

The truth is that we're doing a really shitty job of it, right now:):)...

Largely because not only are we being really serious dicks...to one another...and definitely in handling the most serious problems (dicks, here, used to distinguish stupid, macho, aggressive thinking and behavior from thoughtful, patient, proactive, practical, and responsive behavior)...

But much worse...

We keep pretending that somehow we are being better than we really are...

Part of that is a good thing, I think...meaning, part of that is because none of us wants to be attacked or have it laid on thick or to face ongoing recrimination over dickish behavior...

Mel Gibson's situation, right now, is the one of the better examples I can think of...

Mel definitely said some stupid shit the other day in a drunken stupor...which seemed to prove to many Jewish leaders and liberals, who were convinced but failed to convince me or the general public that Mel's wildly successful Passion of the Christ was anti-semitic, felt that they had found a smoking gun for Mel's anti-semitism...

But Mel's anti-semitic remarks were really pretty mild, especially in the context of a drunken stupor...and his anti-semitism was about as innocuous as the drunken racist or homophobic remarks I heard a million times from family and friends, growing up, which are generally a sign of some foolish bitterness held onto too long or a frustration with politically correct strangleholds on their free expression rather than something more dangerous or nepharious...

And the lack of class and recrimination coming from the Anti-Defamation League and other groups, saying -- laughably, really, from my standpoint -- that they won't accept Mel's apology and that his apology just isn't enough, really is the far more offensive thing being said, right now, as far as I'm concerned...

In a million years, I would rather spend time with a drunk, mildly anti-semitic Mel Gibson who made a really beautiful movie in the Passion of the Christ, if you haven't seen it, yet, than listen to all that self-righteous, recriminatory bullshit coming from Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League, these days (Foxman well on his way to becoming the Jesse Jackson of Jewish and religious causes)...

Is Mel Gibson an asshole for saying all kinds of anti-semitic nonsense in a drunken stupor? Obviously...but a forgivable asshole...an offense for which he immediately apologized for...

But who, in my mind, is the bigger asshole between the guy who makes the anti-semitic remark and the guy who won't let it go?

Definitely Abraham Foxman and self-righteous folks like him...
Because what keeps all this bullshit in place is the recrimination...it's what makes people afraid to talk about it or share it openly...it's what makes it so goddamn hard for people to apologize...it's what keeps all the ugliness swimming...

And the worst part of all is that it is a bunch of real assholes prouncing about the world acting as if they aren't really as big of assholes as they really are...

It's insanity, is what it really is...

And if people really believe that it is the smallness of the response of folks like Abraham Foxman and the millions of other unforgiving, rationalizing, foolish dickheads in the world that is going to move humanity forward (to create the illusion of logic to this position, most people who justify such recrimination don't believe that humanity can ever get better...because they've spent so many years being such dicks, I imagine...and because they're whole worldview is determined by a self-centered, victim notion of how badly they've been treated by the world, all the while ignoring what dicks they are)...

If people really believe that such obvious nonsense and bullshit is going to move humanity forward...

They are far more deluded than I have ever imagined:):):)...

I'll take Mel Gibson's mild and drunken anti-semitism and his apology...along with his real gift for making good films (Mel Gibson's Hamlet is still the finest version of that movie/play that I've ever seen) as well as some fun, crazy ones (the Lethal Weapon series were funny as shit)...over the self-righteous posturing of Abraham Foxman and Mel's critics anyday...

Though I would certainly prefer if Mel Gibson and Abraham Foxman and everyone could maybe sit down together and have a beer and just kind of face up to what dicks they've been (to Mel Gibson's credit, he has...which is why, I suppose, I'm so pissed at Abraham Foxman...because Abraham still hasn't faced up to what a dick he's been...and uses his self-righteousness as a defense against having the face up)...

Here's the bottomline for humanity...

Either we give up the act and start acknowledging what dicks we are, much of the time...which we only create the space for when we offer forgiveness freely and unconditionally...and honestly...

Or we don't move forward...

That's it...

That's the bottom line...

So as much as people have been weaseling their way around the whole forgiveness question for the last 6 years or so (at least)...

There's no fuckin' way out of this one until we face up...

We can continue to weasel...

And things will both stay as bad as ever...and/or get worse...

Or we take forgiveness seriously...

Prime Minister Olmert can either acknowledge that a realistic peace process is the only way out of the situation in Lebanon and Palestine right now (and in dealing with Syria and Iran)...or his country can continue to be terrorized by Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all their supporters in perpetuity, until the cows come home...

There is no other way out of this situation...

There is no military campaign that will somehow do what 18 years of occupation of Lebanon could not accomplish...there is no incursions or more aggressive occupation in Palestine that will somehow stop decades of terrorism...

Either we get to a realistic peace process where Israel and her neighbors commit to a world looking forward and leaving behind recriminations about the past and become more committed to a peaceful and vibrant future for their children and their families or they continue to be dicks (but slightly less dicks than Hamas and Hezbollah, as Israel is perpetually reminding us) and live with all the bloodshed and violence and terror in their country and in the region from here until perpetuity...

Choose, I guess is what I would tell Prime Minister Olmert if I were to speak to him, today...

And it's not just Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and the rest...

It's much larger than all of that, of course...

It's on most political issues that humanity faces today...internationally, not just in America...

Either we face up to what self-righteous, recriminatory dicks we can be...give ourselves and one another the space to face up to that legacy among our many dickish legacies...

Or we live with the consequences of our dickishness from here until eternity:):):)...

That's it...that's the bottom-line:):)...

Steroids, Mel Gibson, Israel and Lebanon, North Korea, Iran, resolving the bloody mess in Iraq that we've all gotten a little reprieve from in the news media, lately...

...welfare reform, education reform, universal access to health care, environmental concerns, gay rights...

Generally...whatever issue we face...

The larger issue is...that we can all be such fuckin' dicks...

And if we want those issues to get some resolution...

We're all going to have to stop being such fuckin' dicks...

And start treating each other and each others' freedom to express their humanity better...and treat more seriously the thoughtful conversations that are needed, from here until eternity to continue to proactively and responsively and patiently and thoughtfully work collaboratively to resolve such issues...

And when we must act more aggressively...because there really are no other options...because we've thought, seriously, about how to avoid aggression and considered alternative routes...and we've talked with one another about it...and debated with one another...and discussed the matter with one another...and we've listened to one another...and we've worked, genuinely collaboratively to create constructive alternatives to more aggressive action...

Then we should use the least possible necessary aggression...so that we can avoid the pitfalls of thinking that those who are even bigger dicks than us will somehow give up their recriminatory ways because we've beat the shit out of them, enough, rather than out of our generosity...

For all of the World War II analogies that have been used in Israel and Lebanon, Iraq, and a million other situations...

The one lesson of World War II...which was the most important...that just never seems to register for so many of us, these days...

Was what the broke the cycle of imperial ambitions and aggressive nationalism was not the punishment of the Versailles treaty in vanquishing our enemies...it was the generosity of the Marshall plan...and taking seriously the self-determined interests of those that so many Americans hated, openly or not-so-openly (my grandmother articulated some of that hate in a drunken stupor much similar to Mel Gibson's when I was younger that helped me understand how such awful legacies as Japanese internment occurred...but which also helped me understand just how human those feelings really were...like Abraham Foxman's feelings and the feelings of Mel Gibson's critics, as well, I guess...and I'm closer to her, today, for being so human in my presence)...

After the Versailles treaty and World War I...we took the dick route...we punished our enemies...and that punishment only humiliated and emboldened them to build a bigger, nastier war machine...the German people, humiliated and hopeless, popularized the ugly, imperial, enslaving, and genuinely anti-semitic ambitions of Adolph Hitler...

The Marshall Plan, on the other hand, was America at her best...generously supporting the rebuilding of Germany and Japan and making them allies rather than foolishly punishing them as enemies...

It's amazing to me that so many people who constantly sing the refrain of the Greatest Generation would forget the most important lesson they had to offer...

Being a dick has consequences...one of the more serious consequences in the 20th Century was Adolph Hitler and the rise of Nazism...

Being decent, on the other hand, also had consequences...notably, the rebuilding of Germany and Japan and the building a coalition of partners that America and her allies completely take for granted as a consequences of more decent efforts from her World War II history...

And the bottom line for humanity, today, is that either we dig deep and learn that bigger lesson...the generosity, the forgiveness, the commitment to peace and democracy and freedom...for real...to support others' self-determined interests and not just our own...

Or we deal with the legacy of being dicks...

Matt Stone and Trey Parker were right in Team America...

Pussies do hate dicks because dicks fuck pussies...

And, as Matt and Trey with all the class and decorum they can muster point out...

Dicks also fuck assholes...

All true...

Hitler...definitely an asshole...Hezbollah...definitely assholes...Hamas...definitely assholes...

But being a dick has consequences...

And in the real world of politics, as the war in Iraq should make eminently clear, for anyone whose been watching the last few years or so...

One of those consequences is that it emboldens and antagonizes all of the folks in the world who support the assholes...

To complete Matt and Trey's beautiful analogy...

The reason why dicks can't always be fuckin' assholes because as the brilliant and beautiful Tenacious D explains...

Sometimes you gotta fuck her gently...

Meaning, making love is a much better way to sustain a real relationship than fucking your neighbor, all the time...

Or at the very least, you gotta make some peace and learn to live with one another in a way that resolves underlying issues but puts priority on the peace rather than on winning the battle...

Ehud Olmert and Hezbollah leaders may not be ready to make love just quite yet (hope springs eternal:)...

But, while an interesting theory of changing the face of Middle East relations, military incursions have created most of the enmity that stands in the way of the peace process, today, rather than resolving it...not likely that one more battle is going to do what 20, 40 years of otherwise battling have not resolved...

If you watched two or three of your neighbors attacking one another like Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel are going after one another, right now...

Hopefully, you'd think...

"It really sucks that Israel keeps getting fucked by these assholes who keep intentionally killing innocents, even as Israel does all the real legwork to promote a genuine peace and sometimes kills innocents inadvertantly in their efforts to end this nonsense...

But goddamn...enough all-fuckin-ready...

Find a room...or make some peace...but God knows that this shit isn't getting resolved with more fuckin' bloodshed"...

And that would about sum up the situation in the Middle East, right now...

No setback to Hezbollah's military apparatus could compare, really, to the political springboard that Israel is creating for them, right now...the killing of 500+ innocents in Lebanon and the displacement of 800,000 leaves Arabs in the region and around the world seeing Hezbollah (and Hamas) as the freedom fighters they claim to be, and providing support for their murderous ways...even as Hezbollah and Hamas have made no real initiation of any commitment to real peace, freedom or democracy in either Lebanon or Palestine and have remained serious and persistent obstacles to peace, freedom and democracy in both, as well as in Israel...

Military setbacks are a dime a dozen in the decades long war between Israel and her terrorist enemies...

The real money, so to speak, is in political victories that provide support for military actions which are the oxygen and lifeblood of terrorist movements...

Alan Keyes makes an intelligent but ultimately unrealistic and foolhardy argument for the idea of military offensives for rooting out terrorism and threats from Middle Eastern autocrats in this July 28, 2006 column for World Net Daily...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51276

There are many interesting permutations to the arguments of hawks like Keyes who oppose peace efforts...the softness of liberal democracies deluded into the quest for peace in a world that requires war is my personal favorite...thank goodness for warmongers like Alan Keyes I always think to myself, every time I hear that line that I've heard a hundred times, from rescuing us from peace agreements like the Belfast Agreement in Nothern Ireland and all the soft, pansy delusion that it threaten to lull us into...

But the essence of Keyes' argument and the argument of hawks like him comes down to his concluding paragraphs...

"Rather than pressing for a cease-fire in any form, people who really want to see an end to war in the Middle East should press for the total defeat and elimination of the forces who now represent the settled determination to do battle. Though Israel's short-term security may be served by a result that merely pushes Hezbollah away from the Israeli border, regional peace can only be served by the effectual elimination of its war-making capability. The same is true of Hamas, and in the long run of Iran.

It should be the clear and unyielding policy of the United States and all who truly desire peace in the region to insist that no peace talks of any kind can take place until, by word and deed, the leaders and regimes who have declared their settled inclination to do battle renounce that inclination. All support for and involvement in terrorist activities in any form must end. All unprovoked attacks must end; all declarations of holy war, battle and struggle must cease and be vigorously disavowed. Leaders who have declared their irrevocable commitment to such things must step down or be removed. Absent these steps, taken and confirmed beyond doubt, the United States and any others determined to make real peace possible should hold firm in the determination to prosecute the war these others insist upon until either their means or their will to make war are eliminated. "

It sounds a lot like what you hear coming from the far right, taken all together, these days, doesn't it?

The way to bring peace and democracy in the Middle East and in the world is to war on every country, every terrorist group, every enemy of America that does not know the fruits of peace and prosperity until they end their enmities with America and the international community...

80 odd years of warfare in the Middle East (and millenia of warfare before then) are just a sign of just how weak and soft Westerners are, Alan opines...

As with those on the far left...and as with terrorists...and as with all extremists of every stripe (and Alan Keyes, for all his self-righteous self-delusion is most definitely an extremist...not a violent one, thankfully...but definitely far right)...

No amount of fighting or force or power struggle will ever satisfy their bloodthirst or desire for a fight...no amount of people dead or hurt or sacraficed will ever satisfy their quest for final victory...

And, most frustrating for me...

No amount of success with efforts like the Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland will ever convince people like Alan Keyes that peace is possible...

Because Alan isn't accountable to reality and its limitations the way that those of moderate sensibilities are...

Alan is right in one very important respect...

If people who romanticize war and force to solve problems they cannot solve, like Alan Keyes, like Ehud Olmert, right now, and like Hamas and Hezbollah...

If such folks will not commit themselves to a peace process...the process clearly will not work...obvious to any lunkhead observing the insanity in the Middle East right now...

As today's New York Times indicates, lots of folks share Alan's desire for some kind of military confrontation:

"But there is a feeling among some political analysts that the events in Lebanon will, at least for now, strengthen the hand of those who, like Iran’s president, have equated democracy with tyranny and international integration with surrender.

'It seems that the law is the law of the jungle and such acts strengthen the position of those countries which favor violence,' said Hermidas Davoud Bavand, a political scientist at Tehran University. 'It gives a free hand to radical governments to say that they will not be attacked if they have powerful military capability to act as a deterrent force for them.'”

That doesn't mean that peace isn't possible...

It just means that until the lunkheads involved with the insanity in the Middle East right now and the lunkheads that egg them on commit themselves to a peace process...

The bloodshed and displacement and terror that we see right now is the only result we can ever hope for...

This is not a war that will be won by vanguishing the enemy...because the enemy is forever emboldened by the very military and other defeats that such warfare inflicts upon them...

Very much like Germany post-Versailles...

And the only hope for an end to that perpetual, seemingly neverending self-fulfilling prophecy...

Is for the dicks and assholes involved to get committed to peace...

Where oh where is General George C. Marshall when you need him, I'm asking myself today?

Hopefully he lives somewhere deep in the hearts of Israelis and Americans, alike, I can only hope...

Because there is no end to this insanity without his spirit animating our political decisions in the Middle East and in much of the international community...

Humanity inches forward as we begin to face what dicks we all are...all of us...it cannot move forward without us recognizing it...and it cannot inch forward without us genuinely committed to accepting and forgiving our own flawed humanity...

And that is the bottom-line...

Everything else is bullshit...

Have a great week, everyone...

Love,
Ben