This weekend I read an unusual article that was put forward in the Yahoo face page from the Financial Times. The title was something like, "What the Knights Templar can tell us about defeating ISIS," which it used in an interesting play of political science theory. The Knights, the author explains, were non-national, held together by ideological rather than national ties, which dove-tailed nicely with the power structure of the Islamic countries during the period of the Crusades (about 1100 to 1300). The point was: to combat a non-national, ideological entity like ISIS, we need a similar force that is ideological and meta-national. The author did not mention a Christian entity like the Knights, and now that I think about it, really didn't put a finger on exactly who that group might be.
But while discussing it, he made an even better point by exposing the limited nature of today's nation-states: that is, that they satisfy or seek to satisfy a demand for consumer goods, but offer little else. In so doing, they have left those starving for meaning in life to join groups such as ISIS, which fills both the spiritual and social vacuum left by the modern state.
What a shockingly deep and clear point to be made in a political essay! It is, from my perspective, stunningly accurate as well. In a purview of current nations, which among them offers its members the key to the meaning and importance of life? The Marxist ideologies tried and failed miserably, and now there seems little else to fill that big vacuum but GDP and how many cheap goods - or government entitlements - we can manage to get in our lifetime. With such a vacuum, it is then not surprising that young men run off to join conquerors who claim to be the hand of God's will. We only have to wait for an equal and opposite reaction to that. But what might that be? And which state could possibly allow it?
In the USA, the government was not supposed to offer purpose - rather, it was to exist only to allow individuals to pursue their own purposes. And yet, there has been a constant downgrading of centralizing purposes in our nation, as well as most nations globally. Religion is now seen as a private affair, so much so that even to express it outside of its church or temple box is to invite ridicule. Ideology? We are left with the tatters of Marxism and soft venues such as environmentalism. Social cohesion? We are supposed to be open to the world now, and are chided for cultural specificity as if that is racist (which it generally is not) or ethnocentric (which it might be - but what coherent culture is not?). We are left, then, with nothing in the center, nothing to hold us together as either social units or souls. And the lunacy of Islamic fundamentalist murders continue.
While writing my memoir, "Dream Weaver," a certain chapter forced me to think about this - about how America in particular was rapidly becoming only a multi-cultural shopping mall, and in this I found a hidden strength. In the world of the shaman or the mystic, to reach the goal of Truth, one must first be stripped of all previous ties and conceptions, to pass painfully through the famed "Dark Night of the Soul." And so it might be for America and perhaps for the rest of the world. Perhaps having a center, as ISIS members now believe they do, is not always a good thing. Perhaps every now and then, we must be left bereft, to find a deeper truth than we had previously believed. It could just be, then, that what looks like the end to many of us is really the beginning of something far better than we can now imagine.
What that would look like would be interesting to explore, but one thing is for sure - we do not have all the time in the world to find it. In a vacuum, those with any ideas will outlast those with none, and some of the ideas moving people today are not of the highest moral caliber. God comes to the mystic when He will; hopefully, He will come to the rest of us when He must. FK
But while discussing it, he made an even better point by exposing the limited nature of today's nation-states: that is, that they satisfy or seek to satisfy a demand for consumer goods, but offer little else. In so doing, they have left those starving for meaning in life to join groups such as ISIS, which fills both the spiritual and social vacuum left by the modern state.
What a shockingly deep and clear point to be made in a political essay! It is, from my perspective, stunningly accurate as well. In a purview of current nations, which among them offers its members the key to the meaning and importance of life? The Marxist ideologies tried and failed miserably, and now there seems little else to fill that big vacuum but GDP and how many cheap goods - or government entitlements - we can manage to get in our lifetime. With such a vacuum, it is then not surprising that young men run off to join conquerors who claim to be the hand of God's will. We only have to wait for an equal and opposite reaction to that. But what might that be? And which state could possibly allow it?
In the USA, the government was not supposed to offer purpose - rather, it was to exist only to allow individuals to pursue their own purposes. And yet, there has been a constant downgrading of centralizing purposes in our nation, as well as most nations globally. Religion is now seen as a private affair, so much so that even to express it outside of its church or temple box is to invite ridicule. Ideology? We are left with the tatters of Marxism and soft venues such as environmentalism. Social cohesion? We are supposed to be open to the world now, and are chided for cultural specificity as if that is racist (which it generally is not) or ethnocentric (which it might be - but what coherent culture is not?). We are left, then, with nothing in the center, nothing to hold us together as either social units or souls. And the lunacy of Islamic fundamentalist murders continue.
While writing my memoir, "Dream Weaver," a certain chapter forced me to think about this - about how America in particular was rapidly becoming only a multi-cultural shopping mall, and in this I found a hidden strength. In the world of the shaman or the mystic, to reach the goal of Truth, one must first be stripped of all previous ties and conceptions, to pass painfully through the famed "Dark Night of the Soul." And so it might be for America and perhaps for the rest of the world. Perhaps having a center, as ISIS members now believe they do, is not always a good thing. Perhaps every now and then, we must be left bereft, to find a deeper truth than we had previously believed. It could just be, then, that what looks like the end to many of us is really the beginning of something far better than we can now imagine.
What that would look like would be interesting to explore, but one thing is for sure - we do not have all the time in the world to find it. In a vacuum, those with any ideas will outlast those with none, and some of the ideas moving people today are not of the highest moral caliber. God comes to the mystic when He will; hopefully, He will come to the rest of us when He must. FK
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