Narcissism Writ Large

 

The headlines on Friday really got to me.  Thousands are dying in the streets of Libya, and the headlines were: “Gas Prices Going Up”.  Is that really all we care about?

 

When I saw this on a major news website, I looked for the comments.  Surely many would be offended by this absurd narcissistic way of looking at the world.  Wrong.

 

The wing nuts were anxious to point out that this was Obama’s fault.  This didn’t surprise me.  For these people solar flares are Obama’s fault.  But what did surprise me was the protracted battle over whose fault it was that the U.S. was in a recession.  There was no interest at all in the people of Libya.  All that mattered was how their dying might affect our oil prices and who in U.S. politics could be blamed for it.

 

This narcissistic world view has been a national preoccupation most if not all of my life.  Thousands dead somewhere in the world?  How will that affect the U.S. economy?  Hundreds of thousands murdered by a maniac dictator?  How will that affect U.S. interests in the region?

 

Throughout my lifetime the United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has supported dictators and even engineered revolutions to put dictators into power.  All because it would further “U.S. interests.”  Humanitarian interests?  That’s for wimps.  I disagree.

 

I would propose a new doctrine.  Call it, if you will, the Declaration of Independence from a Narcissistic Foreign Policy.  “The U.S. supports the aspirations of all of humanity to be free.  The U.S. does not support dictators or oppressive regimes.  The U.S. will not support the oppression of a people because it suits our short-term economic interests.”

 

I will admit, there are places where I part company with many of my friends on the left.  I believe the U.S. has the obligation to protect and defend itself.  And when, as an example, a Taliban government in Afghanistan nurtures and then protects terrorists who attack the U.S., then I think the U.S. government has not only the right but the obligation to retaliate and in strength.  Someone hits us, we hit back, and we hit back hard.

 

But I would rejoice greatly if the era of cowboy diplomacy could be declared dead. This doesn’t mean we don’t help our friends.  It doesn’t mean we stop humanitarian aid.  It does mean we stop pretending that we are the “elect” of the world, and that the U.S. knows best how other countries should act.

 

The era of coddling dictators because it’s in “our national interest” should be declared dead.  The world does NOT exist to provide the U.S. with cheap food, cheap clothes and cheap oil. 

 

Henry Kissinger notwithstanding, morality has a place in our lives.  Ethics has a place in our lives.  We are all brothers and sisters.  It’s time we acted that way.

Good Food

 

More and more there appears to be a “healthy food” accent to marketing.  Organic is gaining more prominence.  All this is, I believe, a good thing.  Mother Earth will certainly benefit from a bit more respect, and less pesticides in our food certainly can’t hurt!  But there’s an aspect to good food that may well get left behind if we let it.  The question I would like to ask today is, “What is good food?”  More specifically, who is it good for?

 

I would truly love to see a slogan develop.  “Good food must be good for those who harvest as well as those who eat.” 

 

The truth of it is that even some organic foods are harvested by people who are barely receiving a living wage, and under conditions we would consider unlivable.

 

In an earlier blog we asked ourselves the question, “Can I consider myself a success if my neighbor is hungry?”  Today we ask, “Is what we eat ‘good food’ if the people who made it possible for us to eat it weren’t paid a living wage?"

 

We have long been trained to disassociate ourselves from how we get our food.  We eat pork, not pig meat.  We eat beef, not cow meat.  And we certainly have disassociated ourselves from what happens at most slaughter houses.  If you’ve never seen “Food Inc” I would strongly suggest you do so, but not with young children.

 

Several months ago we talked about the high cost of cheap.  It’s all related.  In our “me, me, me” culture what counts is “What do WE get?”  We rarely think about let alone ask about what someone else has had to give so that we could get.

 

And I definitely include myself among the “we.”  I have been a bargain hunter much of my life.  No questions asked.  Show me the bargain.  It’s a hard habit to break.  But much too often, I now realize, my bargain came at someone else’s expense.  At this very moment some friends are fighting a new Wal-Mart in Monroe because much too often Wal-Mart’s bargains have come at too many other people’s expense.

 

Slave labor is unacceptable.  That’s why Fair Trade is so important.  Inhuman labor conditions are unacceptable.  That’s why labor unions are important. They are important even though higher wages means higher prices.  What we who are bargain hunters conveniently forget is that our bargains much too often (not always, but much too often) come at someone else’s expense. 

 

I complain as much as anybody (and perhaps more than most!) about the sad state of American politics and American politicians.  But for those complaints to carry any moral authority, I need to be sure my own house is in order.

 

We are all brothers and sisters.  We are in this together.  A bargain is no bargain, if someone must go hungry, or work in inhumane conditions so I can save a buck.   “Good food must be good for those who harvest as well as those who eat.”

Some Thoughts on Egypt and Interfaith

 

I look at the victory of “people power” in Egypt and I smile.  My heart warms.  It’s not over.  Nothing is sure except that the people of Egypt have a chance to be free.  I believe in that.  I believe in it with every fiber of my being.

 

But I think it’s worth pondering for a moment: how did this “people power” movement succeed?  Yes, massive numbers of people came out and spoke.  Nothing would have happened without them.  Nothing.  But there have been massive numbers of people demonstrating before.  Remember Tiananmen Square?  I do.  Vividly.  Yes, Egypt’s wonderful demand for freedom was truly a democratic effort.  But there have been democratic efforts before.  Remember Iran?  I do.  I believe the essential difference between those two valiant efforts and this one is this: the soldiers of the Egyptian army refused to assassinate their own people.  Nor were they willing to stand by and let others (the one day of real violence before the army stepped in) assassinate their own people.

 

We need to remember the horror of Tiananmen Square, where the Chinese army was perfectly happy to assassinate their own.  We need remember much too recent horror in Iran, when the Iranian army was perfectly happy to assassinate their own.

 

Not that the Egyptian army is without fault.  They have clearly been a part of a wide-spread and long-time effort at torture.  But bottom line is this: not only would they not assassinate their own people, but last night, when their own political leader forced them to choose between him and the people, they chose the people.  Democracy may or may not follow.  But the Egyptian army has made democracy possible.

 

This is bigger than Egypt.  Much bigger.  As an Interfaith minister I am well aware of sustained efforts, particularly under President Bush, to “Christianize” the American army.  Efforts at our military academies.  Efforts within the armed forces themselves. 

 

The question I pose is this?  What happens when an army loses its allegiance to the people and instead becomes loyal either to the dictator (as in China) or their idea of a one  “right” way to worship God (Iran)?  What would it mean to the United States?

 

For myself, I am an anti-war believer in the draft.  I don’t like us going to war.  But if we do go to war it should be all of us.  Our armed forces should be made up of people from all walks of life, all religions.  I am glad our army is integrated.  I am glad that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has at last been tossed in the trash bin.  But there should be no religious, gender, or ethnic tests either. 

 

As Egypt has shown us, when push comes to shove, a free country needs an army that is dedicated to the people of the country.  All the people. 

Confessions of a Bleeding Heart

 

For whatever reason, I was contemplating the other day an expression I remember from my youth, nearly (yikes!) half a century ago.  To be called a “bleeding heart” was to be called something negative.  That didn’t make a lot of sense to me as a teenager.  It makes even less sense now. 

 

I will confess openly and to the world, I am a bleeding heart.  And my only question here would be, why isn’t everybody?

 

Yet again we return to the foundation stone of virtually every spiritual path on earth.  It finds words in Jewish tradition in Cain’s eternal question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 

Yes.  The answer of Buddhism is yes.  The answer of Islam is yes.  The answer of Humanism is yes.  The answer from the spiritual traditions of the First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest is yes.  The answer everywhere and throughout time is yes.

 

I am a bleeding heart.  I not only care if my neighbor is hungry, I want to help do something about it.  I not only care if my neighbor is homeless, I want to help do something about it.

 

I’ve never seen it worded quite this way, so I will offer this up as a credo of the bleeding heart.  “No one can be considered a success, if his or her neighbor is hungry.”

 

And the words of one whom I will admit is a hero of mine, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., come back to ring in our ears.  “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

 

Being an unabashed bleeding heart, I agree completely that just throwing money at beggars is too simple and lets us off the hook much too easily.  We need to recognize that having homeless and hungry among us speaks to an edifice that needs restructuring.

 

And, since this is a blog about confessions, I must confess that my bleeding heart doesn’t stop at our own borders.  My heart bleeds for the Egyptians who are now in the streets demanding their freedom.  It also bleeds for the Iranians who were shot down in the streets by a brutal government that has felt no compunction murdering its own citizens.  My heart bleeds for the Palestinians struggling to be recognized as human beings and for their rights as human beings.  And my heart bleeds for the Israelis who have suffered terrorism and fear all their lives, from the very beginning of the State of Israel, when the nations surrounding it vowed to push the Israelis into the sea.

 

We are one.  That is what the card-carrying bleeding heart understands.  Palestinian and Israeli, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Baha’i, and Buddhist.  Citizens of the United States, and citizens of Egypt, China, Iran and every corner of our planet.  We are one.  We are all brothers and sisters. 

 

And I pray, every day, that we will at last begin to act like it.