This post was originally supposed to be an epilogue to my Japanese Story; but so many events have happened since the tsunami that my mind’s been sidetracked and this post’s digressed into something else. Something I’ll admit is more than a bit scattered thematically as my ideas and opinions are still in formulation. So I’ll apologize right now if this thing never really comes together.
That said reader, my folks might tell you I began my intermission from the human race back on 9/11. That early AM ten years ago when I exited the train station at 8: 45--just in time to watch the Muslims blow up our Trade Center here in New York.
My family’s wrong of course, I quit on mankind long before that; but I think the lie soothes them in a twisted way. They don’t want to feel responsible for my aloof detachment from society; and they certainly don’t want to consider my drug habits or sex life.
So when their southwestern friends and neighbors ask my folks why Lodo isn’t married. Or doesn’t own a house. Or have any kids. Or drive a car. Or never holds the same job for more than 3 years, its easier to just say It was those damn Muslims; a phrase thats morphed into somewhat of a blanket statement for all American disappointments this past decade. Shorthand for life sucks. Say that and people just nod their head and move on.
You do know it was the Muslims that blew up the Trade Center don’t you reader? All 20 of ‘em. Actually there’s 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, but I’m sure they were all in lock-step agreement to murder 3,000 + people. I mean, 20 of ‘em were willing to do it, so I don’t even need to talk to the other 1 billion 199 million 999 thousand 980 Muslims of the world.
I already know.
Something else I know, and you probably do too is that China’s gonna take over the world. Not that they’re gonna take over America--no one could do that. And China wouldn’t want to expose its people to our freedoms anyway. But the world’s gonna be Chinese. Asians account for close to 60% of the world’s 7 billion people; and (according to Wikipedia) China and India alone account for 40% of the human population.
As populations grow and resources become more scarce, I’m sure we’ll see the best in mankind--don’t you agree reader? I mean, if history’s any guide then I’m sure that...uhh...I mean,..people are really...well,...hmm
...well, you know. I’m sure we’ll all be fine!
Personally, I find it hard to feel too bad for for the human race and what’s probably in store for us. There are human beings (singular) and they can be pretty cool; but the human animal in large groups or societies is a very different thing; and as far as I’m concerned, can go fuck itself big time.
They say we humans first organized by necessity. To kill big-game animals and to protect ourselves against predators. As we became farmers, we organized ‘round religious concepts that justified resource distribution; until eventually we were successful enough to create concepts such as free-time, leisure, and made-up occupations such as lawyers and professional politicians.
Man’s first religions were allegedly polytheistic. Nature worshippers. Until the Jews--in an odd twist of irony, murdered all the Canaanites and forced the concept of a singular God on to the Western world. And we’ve never recovered since.
As societies became more successful and began to absorb large populations of foreigners, the hot-button issue of religion was relegated to a position behind business, law, and politics as the binding principle of nations. At least amongst the most successful societies. Those became nation-states and all the big ones seem to have had their moment in the sun before flaming out.
For the most part the nation-state has endured. Its how modern societies organize themselves. But its an open question as to whether mankind’s biology and temperament requires it to organize this way; or whether large groups of people can organize under other systems.
My guess is that mankind’s endemic psychology pretty-much locks us into the nation-state mentality. Individual men or smaller groups of people can organize a variety of different ways; but once populations reach a certain level, consistent resources are required. And land. And most of all--purpose, lest we begin to turn on each other. For Americans we had our manifest destiny. For the Germans it was lebensraum. Either way, the message was clear: We need living space!
So we rally around the flag and team colors and a bunch of high-minded principles that we all know are a bunch of BS, yet provide comfort to us that we’re not just a mob out to take what’s not ours.
But what happens when there’s no place else to go? The days of an Alexander or Napoleon, or Hitler--where an army gradually takes over a nation; and then another; and then another are long gone. As William Shirer noted, Hitler was the last. Nowadays the Allies would have simply A-bombed him if he’d taken Moscow. So the days of the expanding nation-state appear to be over.
Like a NYC strap-hanger on a rush-hour subway, the world’s nations now stand shoulder to shoulder. Their boundaries pretty-much set. Heavily armed, yet nowhere to move. Locked within their borders, yet still growing from within. At a rate of 450,000 babies a day worldwide. And those kids are gonna want opportunity.
But if the nation-state can no longer grow, and if the world’s economy isn’t going to create opportunities, how are the young people going to channel their ambitions? What’s going to replace these things?
For answers you have to ask the artists. They’re the ones who contemplate and define who we are and point the way towards the future.
All the best political leaders have been artists--or at least, had artistic aspirations. Politics is an art, and when practiced by someone who’s great at both they can change the world if the timing’s right. Unfortunately these guys tend to be supreme assholes like Napoleon or Hitler; but its a sad fact that those two guys were probably the most influential people of the last 300 years.
And we can add Osama Bin Laden to the short list. Who else has had more influence on the world in the last 10 years? Like the Joker from Batman the guy was a homicidal artist: the way the two “1’s” of 911 emulated the towers of the Trade Center; the fact that 911 is America’s emergency phone number. The way the guy always struck twice for maximum terror. Yep, America’s shit economy; our commitment to two wars; our overwhelming debt. Bin Laden called the tune and America still pays for it.
I’m happy for President Obama that Bin Laden was assassinated on his watch. My guess is that it assures his re-election; though America’s still a fairly racist, Republican country so we’ll just have to wait and see. That tribalism’s a lot to get over. Much will depend on the job market and economic recovery, so you know this next year of political ads (heavy sigh) is gonna be jobs, jobs, jobs.
And what if the jobs aren’t there? How can there be for over 7 billion people? Thanks to technology and out-sourcing, there’s not gonna be enough work for future generations. Young people are gonna have a lot of idle time on their hands. Disengaged, yet more interconnected than ever by Facebook and social media. The nation-state no longer able to provide them with opportunity. Well,...maybe we should topple the nation-state. That’s what they did in Egypt. And maybe now in Syria.
And replace it with what?
These may seem like fresh questions, but artists and politicians have considered them for decades if not centuries. John Lennon wrote about these issues back in 1971 when he wrote Imagine. A rather plain tune I never could listen to more than one time, but which I note here because of its lyrics. Imagine no countries. Nothing to kill or die for.
And no religion too.
Of course Lennon lived in his own world. A world of mind. Imagine. Back in 1971 only a few artists--most of whom were probably other Beatles, could afford publicity stunts like the War is Over, sleep-in campaign with Yoko Ono. Bypass governments and network news in a kind of primitive, pre-Facebook social networking to get their message of love out.
That was a pretty political moment for the hippie movement, but with Imagine Lennon took it even a step further. In his world the human race was to live in a kind of spiritual state of the mind as opposed to the nation-state. Where we’d live together in a vague brotherhood of man.
Well reader, that’s religion. In fact the Latin root of religion--religio, means to bind together. So the song creates a bit of a conundrum doesn’t it. Lennon tries to have it both ways. The agnostic-priest. The artist-politician.
And to a degree I guess he succeeded. He died premature like most great artists and was assassinated like all visionary politicians. Sort of like Bin Laden if you wanted to stretch your logic a bit.
Or more than a bit.
But Bin laden was the more pragmatic visionary. More real world. In his mind the nation-state would be usurped by going backward, not forward. Mankind would revert to small groups--cells or villages as opposed to actual sovereign bodies. The organizing principle would be tribal kinship and religious affiliation as opposed to loyalty to a flag or land mass. Like that radiated tuna off the coast of Japan, the new nation would be oblivious to artificial boundaries. It’d be a nation binded by spiritual concerns. Of matters of the mind.
So Bin Laden easily admitted what Lennon (perhaps to his credit) would not. If you’re going to overthrow capitalism. And materialism. And the nation-state. You’re gonna have to go back to the beginning.
Back to that old-time religion.
One can only imagine the future.
(*Take note of crowd at the 4:15 mark):
* NOTE: All pics copyrighted by their rightful owners. Including my pic, which is at the very top.
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