Selling a Vision of Hope: A Refreshing Alternative to Armageddon

Contents

Introduction

Part I:

A Vision of Hope

A Two-Minute History

of the Universe

A Two-Minute History

of the Middle East

Lessons to be Gleaned

from History

What Vision of Hope Would You Prefer?

Part II:

An Ideology of Common Sense

The Mystery Box

What is Common Sense?

The Golden Rule, The Golden Mean, The Greatest Good

The Death Penalty: Right or Wrong?

Does God Exist?

Why is there Good and Evil?

Does God Care About Us?

Is There Heaven, Hell, or Reincarnation?

Does Life Have Any Meaning?

How Does Religion Fit Into The Big Picture?

Common Roots, Common Values, and Common Aspirations

Part III:

Economic Incentives

There Are Poor People

in the Midst

Investing in The Middle East and The Muslim World

Economic Globalization: Good or Bad?

Part IV:

Selling the Vision

Finding the Right Words

Part V:

Propping the Vision Up andCarrying It Forward

Keeping it Alive

Part VI:

Curbing the Terror

Who is the Enemy?

How Do We Optimize a Military Presence?

Perception is Reality

What Would You Say to Deconstruct the Hate?

A Dignified Exit Strategy for the U.S.

Is a Complete Victory Against Terror Possible?

Part VII:

Rallying the Masses

A Speech to be Given by the President

Part VIII:

Charting Our Way Forward

Sneaking a Peek at the Vision, and Putting it on the Road

Part IX:

Just Another Conclusion,

Or Maybe a New Beginning?

Where Do We Go From Here, You and I?

END Notes

Introduction

Is it just my imagination, or do you also sense that as a species, we may well be inching our way toward a bad place? With the looming crisis between the Western world and the Muslim world, and with so many other crises brewing, like global warming and nuclear proliferation to name a few, things aren’t looking quite as rosy as they should. We seem to have painted ourselves into an existential corner, in which our very survival is quickly becoming an open question. And if that is the case, what if anything can we do about it?

When the President of the United States gives a speech, he usually stands at a podium that has the Presidential Seal affixed to it. The Presidential Seal features an American eagle who is holding two things with her talons. See if you remember what they are? With one talon she holds a cluster of arrows, which probably signifies America’s military might. But with the other talon she holds a branch. But not just any branch. She holds an olive branch, the symbol of peace since the time that Noah sent a dove to see if there was any dry land nearby, and the dove returned holding an olive branch in her beak. Perhaps the olive branch was God’s peace offering to man, in the final days of the great flood. After the flood waters began to recede, God promised that He will not undertake to destroy mankind again. But unfortunately, He didn’t promise that man will not end up destroying himself. To the best of my memory, the American eagle doesn’t hide the olive branch behind her back. Her foot would probably not be long enough to do that. And if she tried, she’d probably lose her balance, and fall over. No, she holds it out in full force and measure for everyone to see, even as she holds out her fearsome arrows. The message resonates loud and clear—while America is ready to wage war whenever necessary, she remains eager to make peace whenever possible.

The picture of the American eagle, holding her arrows and her olive branch, at the same time and in equal measure, is what this book is all about. We will argue that the arrows are certainly necessary, and that a military presence is indispensable to the quest for peace. But we will also argue that the West has more than enough arrows out there. What is missing is the olive branch. And in today’s globalized world, an olive branch means nothing less than Selling a Vision of Hope. Give the man on the street a sense of hope, and you will have turned the corner on world peace. Nothing less will suffice and nothing more is needed. But how do you sell people on a Vision of Hope? If I were an American eagle trying to sell a Vision of Hope to the world, I would also hold two things with my talons. I would hold a good measure of common sense with one, and some considerable investment dollars with the other. I would use an Ideology of Common Sense along with Economic Incentives to sell a Vision of Hope on the Arab street, in the Muslim world, and in the world as a whole. Let’s begin, therefore, by explaining why hope is so important in our time.

Part I:

A Vision of Hope

A Two-Minute History

of the Universe

We can begin with a two minute history of the universe. If you’re looking for a lot of facts and figures—forget about it. It’s not that kind of book. What I’m talking about here is a worldview—a view to the world that helps us make sense of it. So let’s begin at the beginning. It’s usually a good place to start.

The universe came into being approximately 13.7 billion years ago. With the phrase came into being, I’m being politically correct. Some would say that God created the universe. Others would say it was a great explosion, appropriately named The Big Bang. I don’t want to waste your time getting bogged down in semantics in an endless debate over God’s existence. My point is: Is God that different from The Big Bang? Who’s to say that God didn’t use The Big Bang as a way of creating the universe? Or alternatively, wouldn’t the fact that The Big Bang happened seem to indicate that God exists, because someone or something caused that explosion to happen? Suppose we simply choose to call that someone or something God? Do you have any problem with that? We may be getting a little ahead of ourselves here, and I certainly don’t want to confuse anybody. Not this early in the game anyway. The point is that there are some words, like God, that are so heavy with meaning, that they can get in the way of understanding the meaning behind the words. We’re supposed to communicate with words, not just fight about them. So let’s not let certain controversial words get in our way. What do you say?

The earth came into being, or was created, approximately 5 billion years ago. It helps to think of the earth as a satellite floating in space, on which a laboratory experiment, of sorts, is being conducted. You fill the earth with equal parts of good and evil, add a pinch of common sense and a whole bunch of nonsense, for good measure, and see which way the world will go. Are there other experiments being conducted on other planets? Possibly. But as far as I can tell, on this particular planet, the planet earth, the dance between good and evil is the only game in town—the main event, so to speak.

Man came on the scene about 2 million years ago. There were different kinds of men, at different periods of time. One version of early man was Homo Erectus. (Don’t get any funny ideas. The name Homo Erectus just means we could stand up…on two feet, that is.) Then there was Neanderthal, who was three times stronger than modern man, but not quite as smart. Later, Cro-Magnon man showed up. Cro-Magnon was most similar to us. Like all the ancient men, he was a hunter/gatherer, but he was smart enough to get his chores done quickly, and have enough time to paint pretty pictures on the walls of his cave. You may think that the violence we see swirling about us today dates back to the brutishness of the cavemen. You’d be wrong. It turns out, as indicated by the fossil evidence I dug up in my backyard, that cavemen were actually quite gentle with one another. They took care of their sick, and watched out for each other. As hunter/gatherers there was no real reason to kill. Would you kill your neighbor just to steal a couple of peanuts? Why bother?

For two million years, common sense pointed in the direction of getting along, and helping each other out. This is important—common sense kept us going for two million years. That bears repeating but I’ll spare you. A recent documentary on the Discovery Channel called The Rise of Man makes the point about common sense. In one scene, a bunch of Cro-Magnons were hanging out in their cave, when lo and behold, a different clan came along in search of food and shelter. Would the Cro-Magnons kill the new and strange clan, so as to protect their turf? Nope. They took them in, and made their clan even bigger, thus increasing their gene pool for procreation. Would you treat your fellow caveman the same way? If a weary caveman came knocking at your door, would you take him in? No you wouldn’t. Admit it. You’d call the cops and get him arrested. So would I!

About 10,000 years ago man decided to get civilized. With the advent of agriculture, came stored food, and with little towns, came permanent shelter and the beginnings of civilization. Ironically, as we became civilized, we gave each other the incentive to kill and steal, so that we could easily take what wasn’t ours. For two million years common sense had pointed our prehistoric ancestors in the direction of getting along. Now, civilization would point in the direction of vigorously defending what was ours, and violently taking from others what we thought we needed for ourselves. So much for the civility of man toward man.

For most of the last 2000 years, the human population was relatively small, about 250 million, and for the most part, everyone was pretty poor. There were a few rich royals here and there, but mostly everyone was struggling for a living.

In the last 200 years, the Industrial Revolution, and countless cultural and technological advances caused the world population to shoot way up, to over 6 billion today, and a great deal of wealth has been created, particularly in the Western world.

And finally, in the last 20 years, technological advancements have made it possible for the nations of the world to move toward a global economy, as part of the phenomenon we call globalization. There is the potential today for the West to partner economically with The Second World and The Third World to improve the lives of people around the world, and to virtually eliminate extreme poverty.

So there you have it, a two-minute history of the universe. Is it just me, or do you also see a pattern here? Keep in mind the key highlights:

1. 13.7 billion years ago: The universe is created with a Big Bang.

2. 5 billion years ago: The world comes into being.

3. 2 million years ago: Friendly cavemen hang out, hunting and gathering.

4. 10,000 years ago: Man pretends to be civilized.

5. 2000 years ago: Not too many people around, and most of them are poor.

6. 200 years ago: The Industrial Revolution populates the earth and creates wealth.

7. 20 years ago: Technology allows for the possibility of a global economy.

So what’s the point? What lessons can we draw from the history of the universe, or at least from the history of man?

Here’s one idea—while man has been around for two million years, in the last 200 years he has asserted, ever more aggressively, his supposed dominion over this world. For two million years, we lived in a world created by God, and used our God-given common sense to survive. In the last 200 years, however, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to create the world as we see fit. (We will address the existence of God a bit later on, so all you atheists and agnostics… hold your pants.) For 99% of our history on earth, we were part of the natural kingdom. Now, we choose to create our own kingdom, with our countries, and our cities, and the technological toys which make them tick.

In a way, we are anointing ourselves with the powers which have been traditionally thought of as pertaining to God. For example, we think of God as all-knowing. Well, we are not exactly all- knowing. But we do have the internet—a way of bombarding each other with snippets of knowledge and a whole slew of half-baked notions. We think of God as the Creator of life. Well, we can’t as yet create life, but we’re sure making good headway on cloning it, and we take great delight in mixing up the genes a bit. We think of God as all-powerful. Well, we’re not all-powerful, but we do have plenty of weapons of mass destruction hanging around, just itchin to be used. Would it be going too far to suggest that man may just be a half-assed version of God? We were supposed to have been created in the image of God. But even to the most observant, it is sometimes difficult to recognize the image of God in us.

So where are we heading as a species? In the last 20 years globalization has allowed for the possibility of a global economy, in which people the world over will have the chance to better themselves, and to reclaim their sense of dignity. Is that where we’re heading? Will we, in fact, use our technology and our wealth to come together as part of a new world order, a global economy where everyone on earth has a place at the table—a stake in his or her future? Or will we instead allow our technology to be turned against us in war: in Death, Destruction, and Despair? (We’ll call these the 3-D’s.) We have taken control of this world, or so we believe, and are therefore responsible for its fate. We have drifted far from the common sense of the caveman. God used common sense to keep us going for some two million years. We have the brainpower to be technological. We have endowed ourselves with godlike powers. But do we have the wisdom to be God? Will we have the wisdom to survive another two hundred years, let alone two million? In today’s world, the balance between war and peace, between hate and hope, between nonsense and common sense, is a tight balance. Which way will it go? This is where a Vision of Hope comes into the picture. If we are able as individuals, and as a nation of individuals, and as a nation among nations, to sell a Vision of Hope, then perhaps we can tilt the balance in our favor, in favor of peace, in favor of what makes sense.

A Two-Minute History

of the Middle East

I hate to do this to you, because so far you’ve been such a cooperative reader, but if we’re going to sell a Vision of Hope in the Middle East, we may have to begin with a brief history of that precarious place. However, as with the history of the universe, this will be a quick two-minute history of the Middle East, because as you well know by now, we don’t have any time to waste on senseless blather.