"How the West Really Lost God"

How the West Really Lost God
By Mary Eberstadt

A new look at secularization.

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For well over a century now, the idea that something about modernity will ultimately cause religion to wither away has been practically axiomatic among modern, sophisticated Westerners. Known in philosophy as Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous story of the madman who runs into the marketplace declaring that “Gott ist tot,” and in sociology as the “secularization thesis,” it is an idea that many urbane men and women no longer even think to question, so self-evident does it appear. As people become more educated and more prosperous, the secularist story line goes, they find themselves both more skeptical of religion’s premises and less needful of its ostensible consolations.

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http://www.hoover.org/publications/p...w/7827212.html

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Originally Posted by kaur

How the West Really Lost God
By Mary Eberstadt

A new look at secularization.



http://www.hoover.org/publications/p...w/7827212.html

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Ok, I will go where angels fear to tread - What exactly is your point relating to Small Wars by posting this?

Whoever has God in their corner wins....????

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Originally Posted by goesh

Whoever has God in their corner wins....????

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Hmmm...... Goesh, I can guess which demographic this one is going to appeal to... there goes all the hope of objectivity and reason...

Allah's Water

Your flowing thoughts are not the attraction
that binds us together on this sacred earth
His oneness is the stillness
but who can bring you to silence
and how do you enter His garden
if you can't hear His thunder of silence?
amidst your constant movement
dedicated to flesh and its support
forever thy focus
and all thy pillars to uphold its transience
when He upholds the very sky without pillars
you flow to neither the beginning nor the end
like drops of rain upon the sand
converging into torrents of motion
that came from His stillness
by attrition will you hear His silence?
what manner of loss can I impose
to hasten thee into the water
and drift back to Him?


(18th century Sufi mystic, attribution unknown)

I see it more as a homily on the dichotomy of polytheism (secularism) and monotheism and not so much a poem, demonstrating the imbalance of life as we know it and suggesting that conflict is from a mystical standpoint a form of celebration and not resolution.

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Originally Posted by goesh

I see it more as a homily on the dichotomy of polytheism (secularism) and monotheism and not so much a poem, demonstrating the imbalance of life as we know it and suggesting that conflict is from a mystical standpoint a form of celebration and not resolution.

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I would give that sentence a High Distinction for post-modernism 101.

And resubmit any Subaltern or Intern who tried to get a sentence like that past me!
I am having a Forest Gump moment - what does that sentence actually mean in English??? - (I only did a sub-major in English Lit).

OK, I've tried and tried to resist, but you keep posting poetry, so now I feel compelled.....

Baghdad April

Who would have thought even minutes ago
Blackhawk swept from the taupe
Medieval California Kuwait to the quivering sandust of Talil
Sweat, Al-Hilah, Marine bird, older than damp crew, machine
Smell, vibration ammo cammo scraped paint web belts, still
Tighten gray roar and chaos, nose down, brown. Just get us there.

Now green. For ten thousand lives this river ran brown with blood
Helping reeds limber bodies once passed as blind. Just get us there.

Down, then BIAP, destruction for glory
Spurts and unthinking tremors, the shakti of nonduality,
Bills unpaid as crushed planes kneel lame,
Torn tarmac shattered with dust
Fade, then the comic book cantos: a prince of
Babylon, sword of Assyria, builder of Ur, heavens perturbed,
Trauma hung close in crumbled glass, a facade (yet more)
Meaning deep to those who looted that brief cosmic day
Missed by those who watched.

Stories, reprise, thunder run
Endless dust nights of expendable men
blind (they must have been)
To spin a rusty truck against a tank
With only, what? passion? hate?
fear?
Perhaps no thought at all
Except to hope the engine would start (or not)
and no one else would see.
No matter. They are now mist, counters in a game.

We hurry, are watched, relief, no love and
Bomblets are toys, slipping through dry canals with a last black smoke
to please a small hand as
Green towers turn red, mating in the night.
Somehow we must have known (even a
first summer wind will dry the eye). Yet
Rank on file is an army of shrouds, mist,
And hot days turn gray, crafting wry smiles.
Then fade. Finally,

to destroy and build, Shiva in web gear
While somewhere a bridge is lost. But what?
Who is destroyer, who a builder? We know
Often great power is only owning the detritus.
Still there is BIAP, flight out, home, strong shoulders and
Hiphop, path to insanity and relief.
And then, a tiny point of blood receding on the glass.

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

OK, I've tried and tried to resist, but you keep posting poetry, so now I feel compelled.....

Baghdad April

Who would have thought even minutes ago
Blackhawk swept from the taupe
Medieval California Kuwait to the quivering sandust of Talil
Sweat, Al-Hilah, Marine bird, older than damp crew, machine
Smell, vibration ammo cammo scraped paint web belts, still
Tighten gray roar and chaos, nose down, brown. Just get us there.

Now green. For ten thousand lives this river ran brown with blood
Helping reeds limber bodies once passed as blind. Just get us there.

Down, then BIAP, destruction for glory
Spurts and unthinking tremors, the shakti of nonduality,
Bills unpaid as crushed planes kneel lame,
Torn tarmac shattered with dust
Fade, then the comic book cantos: a prince of
Babylon, sword of Assyria, builder of Ur, heavens perturbed,
Trauma hung close in crumbled glass, a facade (yet more)
Meaning deep to those who looted that brief cosmic day
Missed by those who watched.

Stories, reprise, thunder run
Endless dust nights of expendable men
blind (they must have been)
To spin a rusty truck against a tank
With only, what? passion? hate?
fear?
Perhaps no thought at all
Except to hope the engine would start (or not)
and no one else would see.
No matter. They are now mist, counters in a game.

We hurry, are watched, relief, no love and
Bomblets are toys, slipping through dry canals with a last black smoke
to please a small hand as
Green towers turn red, mating in the night.
Somehow we must have known (even a
first summer wind will dry the eye). Yet
Rank on file is an army of shrouds, mist,
And hot days turn gray, crafting wry smiles.
Then fade. Finally,

to destroy and build, Shiva in web gear
While somewhere a bridge is lost. But what?
Who is destroyer, who a builder? We know
Often great power is only owning the detritus.
Still there is BIAP, flight out, home, strong shoulders and
Hiphop, path to insanity and relief.
And then, a tiny point of blood receding on the glass.

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Steve,

Brave stuff,

I would offer a review except that it is 2230 on a Friday night here and my brain is fried after wrestling with a piece of my monograph that is not appearing on the page as my brain wants it too. Alas, I am always a far better writer in my head when I am thinking my thoughts rather than trying to write them down

I wonder if the world is ready for poetry rather than prose in my COIN strategy monograph? I suspect not .. especially since my creative poetry ability is more like some of those USMC limericks recently posted on another forum..

"Shiva in webgear" - what a metaphor! This smacks of Allan Ginsberg and "Howl". You can make a few bucks off that line I think but neither of us better give up our day jobs to become poets.

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Originally Posted by Mark O'Neill

Steve,

Brave stuff,

I would offer a review except that it is 2230 on a Friday night here and my brain is fried after wrestling with a piece of my monograph that is not appearing on the page as my brain wants it too. Alas, I am always a far better writer in my head when I am thinking my thoughts rather than trying to write them down

I wonder if the world is ready for poetry rather than prose in my COIN strategy monograph? I suspect not .. especially since my creative poetry ability is more like some of those USMC limericks recently posted on another forum..

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My life's objective is to distill ideas to the most perfect and sparse, zen-like prose possible. I've told my boss that one of these days I'm going to publish the first haiku Strategic Studies Institute monograph.

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Originally Posted by goesh

"Shiva in webgear" - what a metaphor! This smacks of Allan Ginsberg and "Howl". You can make a few bucks off that line I think but neither of us better give up our day jobs to become poets.

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For what it's worth, the thing is copyrighted. I'm sitting here in my doublewide on cinderblocks, with three major appliances on the porch and a half a pack of Camels, waiting for the royalty checks to come rolling in so my wife can afford that big hair she's always wanted.

Grunt

There was a Marine from Nantucket
who told the Old Man to piss in a bucket
the Old man raised his boot, ya' know where he stuck it
at his Court Martial the Marine said f*** it
when he got to the brig the lifers said suck it
swung a lead pipe and the Marine couldn't duck it
thus ends the saga of the Marine from Nantucket

I am reminded for the memorable line from John Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down" -- which fictionalized the German occupation of Norway; the invading army takes over a coastal town after a brief, decisive battle, then settles in to administer it and try to make peace with the locals. Instead, the invaders who are portrayed with a fair amount of understanding if not sympathy, find themselves slowly losing their grip as townspeople launch increasingly sophisticated insurgency attacks. Toward the end, one of the invading officers says a line which becomes a theme of the novel: "The flies have conquered the flypaper."

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

My life's objective is to distill ideas to the most perfect and sparse, zen-like prose possible. I've told my boss that one of these days I'm going to publish the first haiku Strategic Studies Institute monograph.

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I can see Doug buying that......

Good luck with finding peer reveiwers for that effort:D

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

For what it's worth, the thing is copyrighted. I'm sitting here in my doublewide on cinderblocks, with three major appliances on the porch and a half a pack of Camels, waiting for the royalty checks to come rolling in so my wife can afford that big hair she's always wanted.

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Guess that someone in the family should have some hair.....

- speaking of occupations, I recall from a tv special on post-war Germany that displaced people caused all kinds of problems after the war. They were roaming around the countryside by the thousands - looting, stealing, bushwhacking people, etc. Eisenhower established a 38,000 man task force to deal with these folks. That's roughly 1/4th of our force deployment in Iraq today but I believe this force of 38K was responsible for other areas besides Germany.

Most concentration camps were turned into Displaced Persons camps after the war. A lot of stateless people continued to live in them for years. If I recall correctly, former Joint Chiefs chairman General John Shalikashvilli spent time as a young man or boy in a DP camp in Germany run by the American Constabulary before his family immigrated to the U.S.

Mark O'Neill asked:

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What exactly is your point relating to Small Wars by posting this?

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My point is that there has been a lot of talk about motivation and narratives. Partly this is related with religion, about concept that some people are beliving in. My link explains how faith evolves and there are variables that are influencing this.

Hi Folks,

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Originally Posted by goesh

I see it more as a homily on the dichotomy of polytheism (secularism) and monotheism and not so much a poem, demonstrating the imbalance of life as we know it and suggesting that conflict is from a mystical standpoint a form of celebration and not resolution.

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Originally Posted by Mark O'Neill

I would give that sentence a High Distinction for post-modernism 101.

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LOLOL. Goesh, the only problem with your homily, outside of it definitely being PM :D, is that secularism is polytheism - it's exactly what the Gnostics and Cathars accused the orthodox churches of doing; worshiping the "Lord of this world". O course, the characterization of bin Ladin as Azrael and Nancy Pelosi as Madame Pedacoque do have a certain charm...

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

My life's objective is to distill ideas to the most perfect and sparse, zen-like prose possible. I've told my boss that one of these days I'm going to publish the first haiku Strategic Studies Institute monograph.

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Strangely enough, that may be one of the best ways to present it. Hmmm, "29 Haikus and Koans for the COIN Warrior"??

Marc

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Originally Posted by kaur

My point is that there has been a lot of talk about motivation and narratives. Partly this is related with religion, about concept that some people are beliving in. My link explains how faith evolves and there are variables that are influencing this.

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Agreed, "religion", loosely construed, does have a lot to do with it, especially in the area of narratives. After all, what is "democracy" except a non-theistic religious narrative?

Marc

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Originally Posted by marct

Strangely enough, that may be one of the best ways to present it. Hmmm, "29 Haikus and Koans for the COIN Warrior"??

Marc

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Several of the analysts who "work" for me (using a very broad definition of that term) are of the school that says, "Never say something using 10 words if you can think of 50." I'm the opposite.

Seriously, the book Write Tight by William Brohaugh changed my life. I implore anyone who writes to read it. I try and re-read it once a year or so.

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

Several of the analysts who "work" for me (using a very broad definition of that term) are of the school that says, "Never say something using 10 words if you can think of 50." I'm the opposite.

Seriously, the book Write Tight by William Brohaugh changed my life. I implore anyone who writes to read it. I try and re-read it once a year or so.

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Also this famous essay by George Orwell sums it up beautifully:

http://http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/ind.../language.html

I have a copy on my desk at work, and when I finish any piece I want to get published, I check my words against it. I am taken by the phrase " Have I written anything unnecessarily ugly?".

I believe that once you have read (and 'got') Orwell's essay you cannot regard a lot of modern writing with respect.

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

Several of the analysts who "work" for me (using a very broad definition of that term) are of the school that says, "Never say something using 10 words if you can think of 50." I'm the opposite.

Seriously, the book Write Tight by William Brohaugh changed my life. I implore anyone who writes to read it. I try and re-read it once a year or so.

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As an analyst here I edit as much or more than I write. Favorite words or traits:

Conduct--we conduct more than the New York Symphony. As a result we put more emphasis on the"conduct" in our thinking than we do in what we are actually doing. Mission statements get longer and longer. As for commander's intent, pull up a couch, light a pipe, and prepare to wander.

IOT also spelled out "in order to" used as expanding filler for "to"

'ing on any verb. After readING too many 'ING words, my ears and my mind end up ringING and I cease thinkING.

And of course, passive voice because one should never identify who actually is responsible.

Favorite article on this subject: "The Caudal Appendage of the Domesticated Ruminant" by Horace Rundell, republished in Army magazine in 2006 or so as the "50 Years Ago in ARMY" entry.


Tom

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Originally Posted by Tom Odom

As an analyst here I edit as much or more than I write. Favorite words or traits:

Conduct--we conduct more than the New York Symphony. As a result we put more emphasis on the"conduct" in our thinking than we do in what we are actually doing. Mission statements get longer and longer. As for commander's intent, pull up a couch, light a pipe, and prepare to wander.

IOT also spelled out "in order to" used as expanding filler for "to"

'ing on any verb. After readING too many 'ING words, my ears and my mind end up ringING and I cease thinkING.

And of course, passive voice because one should never identify who actually is responsible.

Favorite article on this subject: "The Caudal Appendage of the Domesticated Ruminant" by Horace Rundell, republished in Army magazine in 2006 or so as the "50 Years Ago in ARMY" entry.


Tom

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This is one of my recent favs:

"Deterrence achieved via the threat of cost imposition or the denial of the prospect of success certainly cannot impact the likelihood of a nature disaster."

Military Support to Stabilization, Security, Transition and Reconstruction Operations Joint Operating Concept, December 2006, p. 10.

Tom,

Just read the 'cows tail' article on 'looksmart' via google. superb.

Mark

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Originally Posted by SteveMetz

This is one of my recent favs:

"Deterrence achieved via the threat of cost imposition or the denial of the prospect of success certainly cannot impact the likelihood of a nature disaster."

Military Support to Stabilization, Security, Transition and Reconstruction Operations Joint Operating Concept, December 2006, p. 10.

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I was going to say that the goose who wrote that line should have it included in his OER, then I remembered that it wouldn't make any difference because irony is a dead in our modern militaries.

I thought I had clarity by the short n' curlies with my take on that Sufi poem.
PM pastiche? - sounds like a post-modern haiku title