The Ascent of Man

At the dawn of the 21st century when so many of us were hoping for a new century of accomplishment and great gains for mankind, the ugly head of racism and religious intolerance rears up to inject it's venom into modern life. It seems absolutely Neanderthal to most thinking people, but extraordinary ignorance and hatred still abounds , sometimes in the most unlikely places.

Places of supposed learning and in men of supposed academic achievement. Yes you will find these ignorant beliefs in the most educated of men. Because western education all to often ignores the heart of man. It's ultra secularism means that it often shies away from ethics, and philosophy , trying too hard to be politically correct, and not offend any idiots in the audience. We pander to the lowest common denominator. We are afraid of the truly revolutionary thought and discourage discourse of ethics and philosophy because we cant stand the controversy. Instead we throw rocks at each other from opposite banks, never venturing into the water, because we might get dirty. We are cowards is the best way to explain it. We can't stand the argument, the disagreement. We cower at the possibility that our thoughts could be questioned so we don't express them. That is why so many western educated academics can be some of the most ignorant and bigoted people you will ever meet.

When do we start to put the old musty stench of racism, and religious intolerance behind us. Racism, bigotry and intolerance that runs red with the blood of a thousand generations of man. Isn't that enough blood, when is it enough? Shall we ask the dead, or is it us, the living, who don't get the joke.

That this is our lot. As a man I can profess intentions, expectations and hopes that things "could be different", we say, I "wish" it were different, but as a scientist I must admit that this is what humans do, this is what they always do.

Perhaps to expect humans to do otherwise is just wishful thinking, it certainly is not based on any evidence that mankind has the ability to outgrow his propensity for violence. There is a reason why the Bible, Torah and Koran are revered and sacred documents, because they hold so much human wisdom. These books preach tolerance and beg us and our leaders to honor the dignity of man. they beseech us to nurture what is best in mankind. Our better natures.

We are heading once again to global warfare because that's what we always do. We have haters, we covet, we are greedy and small, we practice revenge, and it spirals out of control, it always does. It's really an old story.

Granted the weapons of war and death are much more powerful and heinous that ever before, but only in their ability to kill large numbers of people at once. The methods are no less brutal or pitiless than at any other time. In fact our 'so called' modern culture, and intellectual and moral growth (LOL) means we may actually feel a pang of guilt or two when we drop the bomb on our enemies.

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding, well maybe the funny part is that an animal that has never practiced it, would even write a song about it.

We tell our modern history in terms of wars, it's a procession of battles and wars, we love the hero who kills 'all the bad guys'.

We are entranced by the drama, the irony, the gratuitous and arbitrary violence of war. Next to Love, umm perhaps even surpassing love, it is conflict that is at the heart of our literature, music, culture and art.

Certainly the discourse is becoming more and more strained towards war and conflict. Instead of being horrified at this turn of events, maybe I should be taking it for granted. Of course there will be more war, misery, death, despair. It is man's lot, war his medium, war his opium. He needs heroes, and battles, and glory in defeating an enemy. We need strife and pain, and seek it out if it is not present.

Religion really doesn't matter, it's window dressing. It's the enemy at the end of our spear we crave. Throughout time we have shown a propensity for dogmatic adherence to things that we know are not true. A "willful ignorance", that is at once, crass, boastful and loud and yet strangely seductive. Forget the fact that the three monotheistic religions of the world are founded in peace, love and tolerance. Never mind that we may not know what Moses, or Mohammed or Jesus would do, but we certainly know what they would not do. They would not demonize others and preach hatred and violence. They spoke of the universal dignity of man, and their words a challenge to us and our leaders to honor and treasure it.

Like the antagonist in the book "Epiptaph of a Small Winner" we are stuck on this wheel of time, that is greased by the blood of humans. Destined to replay and relive this same scenario over and over. A procession of war and violence, misery and despair, a nightmare that man never escapes. A kind of cosmic "Goundhog Day" we advance in time, the players strut and fret their hour on the stage, but the script is always the same.

What we need is a new way of thinking, a new paradigm of human interaction and survival. To stop the deadly treadmill we are on, we must be able to take the next step in the ascent of man. We have mastered the earth and all it's lifeforms. We have mastered the elements with our chemistry and physics. Our genetic heritage and our cultural evolution has allowed us this much. To take the next step in the ascent of man, we must learn to master ourselves.

Many of the great moments in the ascent of man were punctuated by one thing, there were men and women who were not afraid to venture beyond the common thought of their day. They were not afraid to challenge the dogma of the past.

A century and a half ago, a young President said exactly what I mean. This is what Abraham Lincoln said in 1862, and I leave you with that:

It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?"

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

(Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)

Michael Trachtenberg

MTMIND

Beware False Prophets

I would like to direct you to an article written by Susanne M. Reyto, on a website called Family Security Matters. Her article "Interfaith Dialogue – A Dangerous Road down a Slippery Slope" lambasts participants in an interfaith effort at tolerance and understanding, Islamic leaders are insincere and the rabbis are fools being used by an evil enemy.

Let's take a look at some her more colorful fabrications.

She says, "Jews have suffered, have been persecuted, yet have never advocated killing, blowing up mosques"

Of course that is false, while it is true that Jews have suffered in history so have most other groups at one time or another, Jewish terrorists bombed mosques, advocated killing and carried it out on a grand scale in furtherance of the creation of modern Israel. And Jews have been on both sides of the sword throughout their history, from the conquest of Canaan which brought the ancient Jews into the land of Israel (now called their ancestral lands), where Jews, the Israelites conquered the land and displaced the previous occupants, to infighting amongst themselves when the kingdom of Solomon was split after his death into Israel and Judah and on into modern times.

She goes on, to smear the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, MPAC.
"As an immigrant and naturalized American, I have a problem with such an organization – why should they need such an agency? What civil rights have they been denied? When immigrants arrived in this country before, they simply assimilated and no organization was established to fight for their rights. They accomplished their goals by hard work. I am one of those proud and grateful naturalized citizens."

Of course this is another lie, Immigrants to America have long created groups to advocate for their rights and protections. B'Nai Brith, Anti-defamtion leagues etc. B'nai B'rith International, the global voice of the Jewish community, is the most widely known Jewish humanitarian, human rights, and advocacy organization.

She rambles on with more crap, an offhand reference to Barack Obama (seems she is really scared of Obama also), and bunch of false references, a 'chlling' example of a muslim who knew another muslim who later sympathized with Al Queda, yada yada yada. The she writes, that to attain better interfaith understanding both parties must be honest and tell the truth, implying further that this is not possible for Muslims to do.
"This may be difficult for many Muslims because according to Islam, followers can say one thing and do the opposite – or, say one thing to us and say exactly the opposite to their people in their language. It is perfectly permissible to lie or deceive as long as you advance the cause."

Right, another lie, all the three monotheistic religions have prohibitions about deceit and bearing false witness.

She say's Islam is not "only" a religion, that it is also a political ideology. Wrong again, Islam is only a religion, just a religion. And in typical fashion for bigots somehow hatred for Jews is not the same as hatred for Muslims, Antisemitism is not to be equated with Anti-Islamic sentiment. Anti-Islam sentiment as it turns out is based in facts, while antisemitism is evil.

She goes on with more ramblings about how Rabbis and Jews who advocate peace are blind, naive and being used, and are just sad and misinformed. Peace is not a rational objective when dealing with Muslims, and these people are just kidding themselves, Peace efforts just aid the terrorists, and of course the common sickening narrative of the "Jew as victim", who always seeks to help others and is persecuted for their goodness, yada yada yada.

She writes, "We know the majority of Muslims are peaceful, but approximately 10%, about 150 million, are radical. Unfortunately, the peaceful, moderate Islamic community did not condemn the attacks prior to 9/11 or since."

Another lie, every major voice in Islam has continually repudiated violence and the 9/11 attacks. Not sure where she derives 10% as the number of radical Muslims within Islam, although I am certain her source is as suspect as the rest of her assertions. I would venture a guess that of those who self identify as Jewish there are a much higher percentage that also identify with Zionism, a radical perversion of Judaism.

"Interfaith Dialogue – A Dangerous Road down a Slippery Slope"

http://familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1907/pub_detail.asp

We hear some who like to proclaim that Islam is "bad religion". That somehow it is not equal to Judaism or Christianity. That Islam and the Koran is flawed and violent and intolerant. That somehow Judaism or Christianity are superior to Islam. Naturally, and not surprisingly, this is often proposed by Christians and Jews.

Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. This kind of bigotry and ignorance is hard to imagine in the 21st century, not to mention enormously disappointing. Many of us can remember the character of Archie Bunker on television. How we laughed at his ignorance and racism, it was funny. But there is nothing funny about real bigotry and racism, nothing at all.


Her article and those with similar sentiments are nothing but the most venal hate filled lies and homage to ignorance and intolerance. I will however borrow her parting line, because ironically it is most apropos, a line from her book about her families experience in the holocaust and the communist rule that came after in Europe.

"We must learn from the past and be prepared for the future."

Let's remember what happens when a group of people are allowed to be demonized and scapegoated.
And let's say, Never Again!


Haters must Go!

Michael Trachtenberg
MTMIND

Let It Burn

According to the Christian fundamentalists awaiting the return of Christ the Lord, the 'End of Days" crowd, the world must turn against Israel for the Armageddon to begin.

(Are you Rapture Ready? http://www.raptureready.com/)
(Or are you a Muslim awaiting the return of Christ - http://www.endoftimes.net/index2.html)
For our Jewish friends don't forget
(Actively waiting for the Geulah hastens its arrival -http://www.moshiach.com/)

Shouldn't be long now. And who will be the "anti-christ", (pins and needles) well I gotta tell you the tension is building. The Muslims await the return of Christ 'the prophet', fanatical Jews are awaiting their Moshiach.

Should be a good show, the Armageddon will in all likelihood be televised. An extraordinary gala of misery, despair, hatred, intolerance, depravity and death. Of course biblical Armageddon will never happen and this only "proves" that men are still far more likely to follow the advice of their penis than their brain.

Though there are many forces allied in this dance of death, who are going to try their hardest to prove that they alone worship the one true God. Gotta love em. The creator of all things would not have to pit us against each other in a brutal blood bath to make himself or herself known to us. But I digress.

And of course it's an old story, (ignorance, intolerance, greed, hatred, hypocrisy, mistrust and war) but never before have we had such spectacularly powerful weapons and intensely morbid ways of killing so many people at once. YES! It's gonna be big.

Seems the ascent of man creeps along in fits and starts.

There were many of us, so hopeful, that this new millennium, filled with such promise, would bring incredible new rewards (he writes with a tear in his eye). With our new technology and understanding of physics and chemistry, along with incredible breakthroughs in biology we are poised to take a big leap forward in engineering and science, as well as human health and prosperity, it seemed as though never before had mankind had at his disposal such powerful tools to remake his world, but alas it seems that there are many among us (powerful forces) that are determined to take one giant step backwards.

Religious fanatics from the worlds three great monotheistic religions are determined to 'prove their point'. They worship the one true God, their religion alone hold the keys to knowledge righteousness and eternal truth. Religion aligned with enormous political and economic power (the alliance of religion and politics is always a bad sign, and has heralded death and despair throughout time).


You can tell them that we can all live together, they don't want to hear it. You can tell them that God is God, no matter what you call him/her or how you choose to pray, if you are praying to the one God, you are all praying to the "same God" (HELLO), "a rose by any other name" , but they don't get it. You can plead with them to think about what they are advocating (and raising money for ?) , death, misery and pain on an unimaginable scale, and point out that all the prophets preached the exact opposite. Jesus was not the prophet of "Zero tolerance". But they don't see it that way.

These people are convinced that they are doing God's work, and we know from many many experiences that when man tries to do God's work he fails utterly. I mean c'mon it's God for God sake, we are not exactly a replacement for the judgment and wisdom of God. But it is to no avail, these forces are determined to rumble, and the drums of war grow louder with each day.

Not with a bang but with a whimper.

Michael Trachtenberg
MTMIND

Cyber Police

While government regulation always comes with strings attached, the reality is that the internet, an evolving term, that attempts to describe the growing networks of connected computers, databases and devices IS the future. At the invention of television few saw its power to transform the world, although it soon became evident, and yet the impact of the internet will be even more profound. The digital or cyber or information or whatever revolution you want to call it, is the platform on which the next industrial, engineering, scientific and cultural evolution will rest.

Within its promise, a new economy, a new social paradigm, a new global connectivity that will transcend nation states. Wherever the future is taking us, the internet and its incredible potential is leading the way.

When we made roads we made laws to regulate their safe use, when we made television we did similar, we must make 'rules' for the internet, and indeed we do already in many ways, but not from one coherent authority. The US should form a global group of advisers to help sheppard the growth and development of the internet. First with an eye towards our safety and to foster it's ethical use, second to preserve it's 'democratic nature' and secure its 'freedom' to grow, it's intellectual freedom. And the US should look to strengthen not weaken international law enforcement that can tackle cyber crime and emerging threats to this new frontier. We are still in the wild west days. And the hard ridin, hard drinkin types don't want to see the prairie tamed and paved over. But we're gonna have to get past the tendency to romanticize anarchy, and realize how important this next step is in the ascent of man.

Don't be scared, get involved. It is coming, it is here.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83156
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/081211_sanderson_intlcollab_web.pdf


Michael Trachtenberg
MTMIND

The Big Picture

If you cannot see Zionism and Fundamentalist Christianity is exactly the same as radical Islamists, then you are only seeing part of the picture, and will never understand the dynamics of what is really going on. Zionism is NOT Judaism, just like radical Islamists do not represent Islam. Jews don't kill, steal and brutalize other people to take by force that which they cannot
provide for themselves, Zionists do. The same is true that Muslims do not gun down innocent women and children, Jihadists do. A radical perversion of Biblical, Talmudic or Koranic thought, combined with a dogmatic intolerant view of their own superiority and righteousness. If you want to understand, you need to see the big picture. You cannot begin to understand radical Islamic movements without knowing the history of the world in which it was bred. Just like you cannot understand Zionism unless you understand the world in which it was bred. Indeed Zionism makes no sense at all, unless you understand the people and motivations behind the movement, it's relation to current and historic events and the evolution of its ideology to present day.

To say that modern Zionism and the pogroms of Europe, the anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe at the end of the 19th century, the holocaust are not related is flawed intellectually. To see a radcial Islamic movement form and trying to understand it without looking at the persecution and oppression of Muslims in the middle east at the hands of Perverted Arab governments, Israel and the west, the "Muslim Holocaust" in Bosnia and Kosovo is equally ignorant. The fundamentals of Zionism, like the fundamentals of Radical Islamic thought are twisted perversions of the meaning of current events.

Zionism born of Jewish oppression and mistreatment, Holocaust in Europe drives terrorists to create war in Palestine which issues in the birth of Israel a so called Jewish State (does not end the war however). Muslims oppressed, creates Jihadist movements, war in Afghanstan with Russia, holocaust in Bosnia, Kosovo and continuing oppression in Palestine drives terrorists to... well you know the story.

Radical Islam formed in an environment that held nobody would come to the aid of Muslims in dire need. And that only through strict dominance of Muslims "lands" could the Muslim be free to worship and live with respect and dignity. If this sounds familiar to Jews it should, because the Zionist movement began and was propelled by the same rationale.

Examples abound in recent history where that concept is reinforced for Muslims, and held true over and over, so these radical and violent 'solutions' can seem tolerable, even welcomed, and the justification for the hopelessly depressed, forlorned and forsaken becomes rooted in GOD, the only one with the power to make the impossible happen (that you will always be accepted and safe) . And it is simple to understand how that message is received when talking with a Palestinian, an oppressed minority in Saudi Arabia, a Jew fleeing the holocaust in Europe or a Muslim in Bosnia or Kosovo. The natural solution to that assumption is simple , if no one cares, and justice does not exist, the solution lies in a "mono culture" state, where "one people" can live in "safety" and peace from the "other people" and of course this "utopia" has one drawback, it comes with total strict control as prescribed by the leaders in these movements (the well known "US" as in "Us And Them", also known as "Your either with us or against us", or in Liberal circles, it reciprocal statement "If you not part of the solution, your part of the problem"). This is the same mono culture utopian state that Christian fundamentalists ascribe when they proclaim that the United States of America is a "Christian nation".

The roots of Zionism are exactly the same, when you look past the meaningless dates and he said she said of history you find the same social and cultural dynamic that drives these extremist ideologies. Zionisms roots are in the so called "Jewish Problem" as first "described" by Theodor Herzl in the 1890's.

"The Jewish problem", the premised on the "fact" that the Jews, as an ethnic minority, would never fully be accepted by their host nations and almost always be blamed for the troubles of those nations. Enter God, stage left, the only one with the power to make the impossible happen, It was God who had foretold, through His prophets, that the Jews would never be accepted in the nations of their exile and would suffer much persecution as a result.


Sound familiar?
The Muslim Problem, The Christian Problem, The Jewish Problem, the same problem, intolerance, dogmatic theology, hate and mistrust. And if these "problems" have their roots in intolerance, dogmatic theology, hate and mistrust then solution to these 'problems' is...
well I'll leave that to you to figure out.


Michael Trachtenberg
MTMIND