Earthquakes and Fracturing: A Possible Connection?

A number of articles have been released in the last week or so speculating on the possibility that hydraulic fracturing was the cause of the recent earthquakes in Oklahoma, largely in response to the previously-unimagined 5.6 earthquake that shook Oklahoma and neighboring states in the Midwest…obviously a source of confusion seeing as Oklahoma isn’t exactly an earthquake-prone state.

I will provide links to a few articles at the end of this post, but I wanted to muse for a moment on how real this causal relationship might be.

First of all, what is “fracking?”

Hydraulic fracturing, or simply ”fracking,” is a process by which modern technology seeks to obtain oil reserves found underground.  Many have heard of the large (or even enormous, depending on who you listen to) reservoirs of oil and natural gas in the continental United States but what isn’t always articulated is that these fossil fuels are contained within layers of underground rock.  The idea behind fracturing is to drill a well into the ground, detonate (small) explosives deep within this rock layer, pressurize the well with water and other (highly) toxic chemicals to induce the flow of the oil and gas and then pump it out.

Now, before I even touch on the earth-moving subject, I should point this out:  there are a number of health and safety concerns with hydraulic fracturing already.  The EPA has yet to obtain from the oil companies a list of the highly toxic chemicals, and indeed has exempted the oil companies from some safety requirements.  There are numerous articles and reports you can find on the internet that point to fracking as a cause of cancer, groundwater contamination (and not on a small level either), and other environmental damage.

But wait…can fracking cause earthquakes?

The answer is easily…maybe.  Take Oklahoma as an example: before 2009, there were an average of 50 quakes in Oklahoma per year.  Then, in 2010, that number increased to 1,047.  The presumption is that this is a direct result of hydraulic fracturing…and an oil company in the United Kingdom recently admitted that their fracking operation led to seismic activity.  In addition, there have been other instances where much less than something as sophisticated as hydraulic fracturing resulted in seismic activity (like a dam filling a lake with water; see articles below for details).  Nevertheless, even the most vocal are merely saying that there is a connection between fracking and seismic activity; they are not saying (yet) that there is a direct connection, though one could certainly make that argument.  Some are arguing that the amount of actual activity that is being done underground isn’t enough to cause earthquakes on such a scale (and certainly not on the scale of a 5.6 earthquake).

Not being a scientist myself, I cannot accurately say one way or the other.  However, I do think that I can bring some common sense to the conversation, and my first thought is this:  how do we know what fracking does?  That is to say, we don’t have cameras watching the fracking process occur miles underground.  For all we know, the fissures created by the explosions  – even small explosions – are much larger than we would anticipate.  And that doesn’t even have to be a universal truth; maybe it’s just in one or two places where explosions used to create the fractures cause more underground movement than we would suspect.

In response to those who argue that the underground activity from fracking is insufficient to cause earthquakes, I would argue that little things we do all the time have huge consequences.  That’s simply a fact of life, from my perspective.  Those who believe that humanity is causing climate change are accepting that human activity on a small scale does impact the larger environment.  Even if removing oil was all that happened underground, we are removing liquid mass from deep underground.  At some point, there comes a time when there are holes and caves underground that do not have structural support to stay open.  So, when there is a collapse, it becomes more than just a cave collapse; it’s an earthquake.  And (potentially) the longer that area goes without collapsing, the larger the collapse will be when it does occur.

Okay…so let’s stop hydraulic fracturing!

And here’s where I think that we run into the real problem.  Based on the articles I perused and the points I just made, it certainly does seem likely, though not certain, that fracking causes earthqaukes.  But that is really not the point.  As I pointed out earlier, the EPA has relinquished a lot of its powers of enforcement over the hydraulic fracturing industry.  Why?  Because we in the United States are very focused (perhaps even…obsessed?) with finding the fuel necessary to power our economy, keep our cars going, our lights on, and so forth.  Energy is a fundamental part of our nation’s very existence.  The hydraulic fracturing industry has the potential to meet our energy needs for some time to come.  In a lot of ways, I believe that in spite of a few jostles every now and then, people will not turn against hydraulic fracturing unless it can be said to cause a major, destructive earthquake…and the reality is, even though a 5.6 is significant for a region of the world that has previously had very few earthquakes at all, a 5.6 is nothing compared to a 6.0 or a 7.0.

Which, to me, is kind of sad that, if hydraulic fracturing is causing earthquakes, most people will focus more on the pros – jobs, energy, economic development – than on the possibility of some major catastrophe.  Who knows, maybe such a catastrophe will never happen and the central midwest will just have to get used to a few jostles every now and again…but with the kind of crazy weather everyone has been having lately, I’m leaning more towards the line of, “Let’s not cause any more natural disasters than we have to.”

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

SfC

References

Is Gas Fracturing Inducing Earthquakes?

Did Fracking Cause the Virginia Earthquake?

Fracking Pros and Cons:  Weighing in on Hydraulic Fracturing

Incredible Weather Events (Follow-Up)

Well, perhaps I posted too soon.

The unusual weather just keeps coming.  For one, a reader mentioned that I completely forgot about the unusual and unexpected “East Coast” Earthquake that rattled most of the northwestern United States mere days before Irene.

For two, this last weekend has seen a spike in seismic activity in Oklahoma.  The central midwest experienced the most powerful quakes - based out of Oklahoma – felt in the region for many years.  The article I have provided a link to also states that since 2009, the volume of seismic activity in Oklahoma has increased tenfold.  (In the spirit of my last post, I happened to be watching a news article about how hard a year Oklahoma has had, starting with Snowmaggedon; my thought was, “who hasn’t had a hard year due to weather at this point?”)

And just in case Alaska happens to be on your mind in response to that question, fear not; it looks like before the week is out, Alaska will be on the list of weather victims for the year, too.  The Weather Channel is reporting that a “superstorm” is descending on the “Last Frontier” state within a few days.  They are calling for hurricane-force winds across an area the size of Colorado as well as destructively powerful (freezing) surf that could cause massive coastal erosion.  So, more reasons to keep your eye on the weather these days, folks; there’s no telling what could happen.

Me, I’m personally hoping nothing originates from New Madrid.  That would be a heap of trouble for everyone.

Keep safe and warm.

SfC

A Year of Incredible Weather Events

Note:  I am not going to cover all the weather events everywhere that have shattered records and turned heads in the last 10 months, but I will briefly mention the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan, earthquakes in Turkey and New Zealand, historic flooding in Australia in January, and the record-breaking flooding currently taking place in Thailand.  These too deserve mentions as part of a very turbulent and extraordinary 10 months when it comes to the weather.

I will also warn that, as a resident of the Midwestern United States, I will most likely give extra coverage to the weather events that directly affected me, simply because I have personal experience with them.  I will attempt to be fair in my evaluations of non-local weather phenomena as well.

First of all, we began this year with:

Snowmageddon:  February 2011

Affected areas:  Northern, central & southern Midwest; East Coast

Very few of us in the Midwest can quickly forget the incredible snowstorm that slammed at least a third of the United States in early February.  I was attending a state-funded public university whose enrollment numbered in the tens of thousands, and the university was completely shut down for three days (to my knowledge, an unprecedented event).  Of course, some of our classes weren’t meeting even after that if the professors couldn’t escape from their own residences.  Friends of mine who attend the high school from which I graduated had two weeks out of school.  Chicago – not exactly a city unequipped for wintry weather – was completely shut down.  Overall, a stunning weather event that seemed likely to be the weather event of the year.  Sadly, we were all mistaken.

The Tornado Super-Outbreak: April 2011

Areas affected:  Midwestern and southern United States; Alabama hit especially hard

Tornadoes do happen; it wasn’t like this was the first time that tornadoes hit.  What was so remarkable about this event was watching the national weather and watching vast lines of tornado-producing storms tracking across multiple states, leaving behind them vast stretches of devastation that boggles the imagination.  The most destruction was felt in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; a major tornado descended in a major city doing damage on a scale that seemed like it was out of a weather disaster film, only this was no Hollywood production; this was real life.  Again, this was an event that seemed unrepeatable in its devastation; the Weather Channel just this last week released their data that indicates that this tornado outbreak was on par with the most destructive tornado outbreak in United States history.  No small deal…but hardly the last time we’d see devastation on such a scale.

Historic Flooding of the Mississippi River:  May 2011

Areas affected:  Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana

I think this weather event was less reported on, but it was still significant.  Heavy rains in Missouri, Arkansas, and further upstream of the Missouri River all converged to create a level of flooding of the Mississippi river that was on par with the historic flooding of the Mississippi during the Great Depression (and, ironically during another national economic downturn).  Many towns several feet above the Mississippi were inundated with water and many thousands of crops were annihilated by too much moisture.  Ironically, parts of the United States would soon be asking for even more.

Joplin Tornado:  May 2011

Areas affected:  Joplin, Missouri

I have always had a primal fear of tornadoes, to the point of being a recipient of some ridicule when I was much younger.  Yet even I had never imagined that something like this could happen…and I was within 100 miles of Joplin when this event took place.  One tornado striking one town killed more people than the Super-Outbreak a month earlier, destroying many thousands of homes and businesses and slicing a big gash through the heart of the town.  The only silver lining for Joplin has been a very positive out-flowing of generosity from their neighbors not only in Missouri but around the United States and the world.  Extreme Makeover recently built seven homes in seven days for seven different surviving families of the Joplin disaster.  Sadly, that is a drop in the bucket compared to all of the years worth of rebuilding that it will take for Joplin to fully recover…and the psychological wounds from that kind of event will likely never fade.

Historic Drought:  Summer 2011 (still ongoing)

Areas affected:  Southern United States, Texas hit especially hard

The northern Midwest started the year with record rainfall, yet starting in the summer, huge portions of the southern United States have had no rain.  Texas, which was already covered by significant drought in April, has felt the full force of an unending dry heat wave.  Meteorologists are saying that it will take many years for the state to recover (assuming consistent rainfall), and in the meantime many major cities of Texas are having to crack down on water consumption just to get by.  News agencies have caught wind of the fact that peanut butter prices are about to increase by as much as 30% due to the drought killing crops, but peanuts aren’t the only food affected; many millions of acres of farmland have failed to produce viable crops, meaning that food prices across the board are likely to increase…a very significant strain on many global citizens already struggling to put food on the table at night.  If people didn’t have reason to be frustrated with rising living costs and falling wages, they might now.
Hurricane Irene: August 2011

Areas affected:  Eastern and Northeastern United States

Irene was probably one of the only major weather events that received proper publicity.  For a time, it looked like Irene would be a major hurricane as it closed in upon New York City and images of shattering skyscrapers and The Day After Tomorrow filled our minds.  Thankfully, the disaster was not that bad…but that’s hardly a comfort to the people who lived through it.  Torrential rains brought upon mudslides and forced people well inland from their homes.  Others were left trapped in their own homes because the rains washed out roads and bridges, meaning that it took days for road crews to get aid to some people.  And if one round of torrential rain wasn’t enough…

Tropical Storm Lee:  September 2011

Areas affected:  Southern, Eastern and Northeastern United States

After dropping tons of rain in Louisiana (scarring some people into suspecting another Hurricane Katrina), moisture from the remnants of Lee raced to the northwest and dumped more rain on the region that had just suffered from a major blow from Irene.  The one-two punch of the two systems dumped more rain in parts of New England in a month than some places get in a year.  Again, I find it remarkable that the two systems weren’t stronger; if they had been, there’s no telling how much damage could have been caused.  But even then, New England can’t seem to catch a break.

Snowtober:  October 2011 (still ongoing)

Area affected:  Eastern and Northeastern United States

Well, I suppose the good news is that it feels like we’ve come full circle.

A freak storm that developed off of the defunct Tropical Storm Rina’s moisture combined with unseasonably low temperatures to create a snow storm that easily matches the one we in the Midwest had eight months ago.  It isn’t often that Halloween anywhere gets canceled from major snowstorms, but this is what happened.  Millions were left without power due to tree collapses (since many trees hadn’t shed their fall leaves) and more chaos and devastation carpeted the same region, which has now been hit by three major weather events in two months.

Very Short Thought

As I stated earlier, I almost wish that I could take the time to recount all of the weather events that have affected the rest of the world and not just the United States, but I fear that time would fail me.  Suffice it to say that this has been an incredible year for weather disasters.  Many people are already saying that it is global warming…and I must say that I can see why.  As I have articulated on this blog before, I find myself in the camp of Global Warming skeptics.  Not to say that I am dismissing all of these events altogether; I’m certain that one could make a compelling argument as to why these are evidences of global warming.

However, rather than starting a debate that I cannot finish at the end of my blog post, let me simply say this:  when I think of all the weather disasters the Northeastern United States has suffered from for two months, I find myself thinking of how Texas hasn’t seen almost any rain…and I wonder if perhaps the weather patterns have simply shifted the moisture away from certain places (like Texas) into others (the Northeastern U.S.).  Does that mean it’s not global warming?  No.  Theoretically, any number of strange and odd weather patterns could emerge if global warming was happening.

However, strange weather patterns alone are not proof of global warming.  These weather events, though bizarre and awe-inspiring for sure, can be explained by a simple misalignment of traditional weather patterns to bring greater amounts of weather-inducing factors to certain areas and shift them away from others.  And such a misalignment may be entirely natural to happen every hundred years or so, yet how would we know?

Well, whatever happens, I hope my readers are buckling down for a hard – and interesting – winter.

SfC

What Does It Mean: “The Faithful Mind?”

I happened to be thinking yesterday, “what does it mean to have a faithful mind?”  When someone reads this blog, I’m sure this question has come out before.

Well, first of all, my original intention behind “faithful” was simply to indicate my desire to stay faithful to my religious beliefs, which is entirely true and valid; I put a very high value on my faith and consider it the most important part of me.

However, I do think “faithful” in the context of my life has a double-meaning: I also consider faithfulness to be a prized character trait.  If you know me, you know that when I make a commitment, a decision, or any such thing, I will very stubbornly carry out all the duties and responsibilities to that decision, no matter the personal cost to myself.  I take commitments very seriously; the most personally painful thing that can ever happen to me is when I learn that I have failed to be faithful to a relationship with a family member or friend, a commitment that I failed to follow through on, and so forth.

As for why I choose “mind” over heart in my title of “The Faithful Mind.”  I did consider “The Faithful Heart” because  it just sounds better.  However, I chose “mind.”  I have since learned that this is perhaps a better thing; according to the Bible and modern psychological research, what goes through our mind eventually affects our heart.  Do you have strong feelings for a person?  Are you angry with someone?  Do you struggle with fear or loneliness?  The more you allow those thoughts to pulse through your mind, the more they will bleed into your heart and become who you are.  A person’s heart is really a reflection of what thoughts they have allowed to dominate their mind…or which thoughts they have  chosen to dominate their mind with.

And that is really the remarkable thing.  We all know that we as human beings are capable of great things: we’ve built guns, castles, cathedrals, skyscrapers and ships that take us into space.  However, if there is a lie encapsulated in today’s post-modern technologist society, it’s that by advancing technologically, we can change the human condition.  We can in fact make the human soul better with technology.  If that were true, then wars, criminal violence, and selfishness should be on the decline today, right?  Especially in the developed and developing world, we should see crime and vice on the decline.  However, what we see is the opposite.

Now, I would personally coach that if you really want to change the human condition within yourself, you would do well to consider faith.  Christianity has much to offer in the way of life-changing, human condition-changing truth.  However, the Bible does also coach that what you allow into your mind is who you become.  Again, this is remarkable because this may be one of the only ways in which we humans can directly impact who and what we become.  It isn’t an easy road; changing the way you think is not like flipping a switch.  It is more like turning the rudder on a ship: you won’t always perceive the course change immediately…and it is far more normal that you won’t recognize how your change in thinking changed your behavior and your heart for some time.  Even so, this is a positive way to impact who you become and where your life goes.

Just some random thoughts on a Saturday morning.

thefaithfulmind

Divorce: Economically Destructive

I came upon this article recently, and I wanted to provide a link to it and comment on it.  The article is entitled “Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty.”

To begin with, I want to make it clear that I count myself a very blessed man in that I grew up in a nuclear family; my parents loved me and they loved each other, as much as we all drove each other crazy from time to time.  So, this whole thing of divorce is not something that I have experienced directly the destructive pain of divorce.  That being said, I do have something to say about  the topic.

As I am a Christian, I feel that an adequate place to begin would be the Bible.  What did Jesus say about divorce?  In Matthew 19, the Pharisees came before Jesus asking him about divorce:  “Is it lawful for a man to divorce?”  For one, I wonder why they even asked him this; according to the law of Moses, divorce is permissible, so I wonder if this was the first time Jesus taught on this.  But notice that in Jesus’s response, he does not focus on the lawfulness of divorce but the intent of marriage:  man and wife joining together and becoming one flesh (v. 6).

Then, when the Pharisees ask why Moses permitted it, Jesus explains that it was a concession to the “hardness of your hearts;” in other words, God permitted it only because the people were going to do it anyway and thus he gave them guidelines for making divorce a legal proceeding (which at the time would’ve made men think twice about divorce).  Now, however, Jesus is saying that the only proper reason for divorce was sexual unfaithfulness.  So strict was this stance that Jesus’s disciples said, “Then it’s better not to get married!”  Why would they say that?  Because suddenly they realize the gravity of the issue of divorce and how important marriage is in the eyes of God.  Surely they were thinking, “What if I marry a woman, and she turns out to be horrible to live with?  I would have to live with her until I died!”

Now, do not misunderstand this:  I love marriage, and I think it’s an incredible institution that, when done properly, infuses the married couple with life.  And as a Christian, the Bible is my first argument against divorce.

But, if you want other reasons to not divorce, read the article that I posted at the top of this post.  In that article you will find statistical data that will tell you that divorce is a major cause of child poverty; only 6% of children in a married two-parent family are poor.  Compare that with 36% of children in a one-parent household.  That is not a small difference.  That means that if you are married and are thinking of getting a divorce, then you are thinking of putting your children at risk of living in poverty.  You can cover that by saying that you love them and that you are getting divorced because you don’t want your children to live with parents who don’t get along, but statistically speaking, that is untrue.  Divorce destroys wealth in the family that goes through it, not just in the spouse divorced but also in the spouse that is getting the divorce, and it seems to me that the real losers in the whole scenario are the children.

Now, I’m not saying that you cannot deal with really important issues in your marriage.  In fact, if there is a major issue in you marriage that needs to be confronted, then confront it now and stop waiting for the issue to get out-of-hand!  And also stop waiting until you have multiple issues with your spouse to confront because then they all get mixed and mashed together.  Resolve them one at a time in as clear-thinking a mindset as you can.  And more than anything, stop using divorce as the first option you go to when you have a marriage problem; if you’re a Christian, then the only – the only scenario in which a divorce is permissible is if your spouse has been unfaithful to you.  Don’t divorce your husband because he called you fat (literally heard of it).  You can stop cooking his dinner, or maybe make his bed on the couch for a couple of nights, or stop doing his laundry.  But don’t just throw in the towel just because of something someone said that irritated or hurt you.  Don’t divorce your wife because your cats don’t get along (literally heard of it).

Now, some people will say, “But what if my husband beats me?” or “What if my wife does drugs?”  Well, those things are illegal and wrong, so I would highly suggest you call the police on him and let them throw him in jail, but don’t divorce him.  I’m not trying to downplay the seriousness of these offenses; believe me, if you experience these sorts of things, I have the highest sympathy for you.  But there comes a point where these bad behaviors reflect badly on those who are suffering at the hands of these badly behaving spouses.  After all, they got married to these horrible people.  That’s why this marriage stuff is really serious; you have to choose very carefully and not just decide on a whim who you are going to marry.  I heard of a woman who wrote in to a show that helps married people: she met a man, 3 days later they were married, and 3 days later, he was deployed with the military.  And then, she writes in to this marriage show wanting help with her marriage.  How could they even begin to help her?  She was the one who chose that situation, and as much as others can try to help, there’s a point where there is not help to be given except encouragement to stick it out.

At what point do people literally understand and ascent to the vows, “For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do we part?”  I think there are a lot of people who are lying when they say these vows today.  Maybe we should rewrite these vows to say very simply, “No matter what happens, no matter how much money we have, no matter how we feel, the only way we are getting out of this is in a body bag.  And that does not authorize either of us to kill the other while he/she is sleeping!”  Either that, or we rewrite them to say, “I’ll stay married to you…until circumstances get bad.  I’ll stay with you…until we run out of money.  I’ll stay with you…until you get cancer.”

Anyway, so this much is clear from the article: if you are married with children, and you are thinking about getting a divorce, then think of the effect that will have on your kids; for all you know, they could be scrapping a living below the poverty line for the rest of their entire lives if you go through with your divorce.  Do you really want that?  Is the possibility of that existence worth going through the painful process of divorce so you can be free of your “horrible” spouse?

Earth Day Thoughts: Global Climate and Malthusian Scare

Global Warming.  It’s happening, right?  Ever since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, everyone has just assumed that global warming is a real thing, and based on many scientists’ stances toward climate change, we need to reduce carbon emissions and try to save the world from some kind of The Day After Tomorrow scenario.

Well, perhaps not.  Here’s a post by a fellow blogger which is entitled “Earth gives us an Earth Day present:  Arctic sea ice is highest for this date in 8 years.” In summary, the author points to recent studies that indicate that the ice in the arctic sea has actually returned to a near-normal level.  So…how does this fit in with global warming?  “Well…it’s global cooling, which is caused by global warming, which is caused by people.”  Does anyone else detect something amiss in this?  Because this is really what some scientists are saying:  that global cooling is the natural result of global warming.  So wait a minute…that sounds oddly like a cycle:  a global warming trend causes ice cap melting, which causes in influx of cooler air into the world’s oceans, which brings about a trend of global cooling, which causes the ice caps to refreeze.

Now personally, I at this point have decided that human activity has little to do with this global climate.  I am not saying that human activity doesn’t affect the climate; for certain, pollution, urban sprawl, and other such human issues cause environmental damage.  What I am saying is that, based on the data we have, the climate really is cyclic, not just in that it’s a cycle itself, but it’s built with cycles on top of cycles on top of cycles, and I highly doubt that after 100 years of our current technologically advanced culture, we will have all of that figured out.

Let us suppose, however, for the sake of argument, that human activity does affect global climate.  So the world gets a little warmer…which means that it gets a little cooler next time around in the cycle, which the next warm cycle counterbalances, and so on until we’re approximately where we’ve started.  Now, legitimately, if enough of a global warming trend occurs that all the ice caps melt and the world is drowned, that would be an…apocalyptic problem.  However, that is not what the data we have is forecasting.

Now, if there’s been two alarmist trends over the last 50 years, it has been the fears of the changing global climate (cooling during the 60′s, warming during the 90′s) and the Malthusian scare:  “The world is overpopulated! There aren’t enough resources for everyone!”  As a result, many modern philosophers have proposed euthanasia, abortion, and other such measures to help control the world’s overwhelming population.

Well, it appears that the Malthusian scare might be a total farce as well.  A recent article called “Sleepless in Shanghai” has stated that the very opposite of a Malthusian scare may soon occur.  Instead of world overpopulation, we may soon be experiencing world underpopulation.  Let me explain: in most developed countries on Earth, the birth rates are falling.  I remember when I was younger, the average children per family in the United States was 2.3.  Recently, I’ve heard that it’s dropped to 2.1.  Now, the Malthusian alarmists will say, “That’s good!  We need fewer people to feed!”  But wait a minute, let’s think about the effects that this is having and is going to have.

First of all, overpopulation is a localized problem.  There’s cities in the United States that have hundreds of people per square mile, and there’s places in the United States that have become wilderness because there’s less than one person per square mile, and that’s just in the United States.  The majority of the world’s population is concentrated in Asia: China and India alone have 3 billion people – over half of the human population on Earth is concentrated in two countries that are no larger than the United States and Canada.

Now, the real concern with the overpopulation debate is the need for resources:  The more people there are, the more resources need to be produced for them to consume.  Well, if people are really concerned with this overpopulation thing, then why aren’t people simply suggesting that we stop sending so much food to the United States and send more of it to Asia?  After all, we’re only 300,000,000 people, while China and India come together to possess about 10 times that number of people, yet the United States alone controls and consumes over half of the resources produced on the planet – in fact, one figure I’ve heard says that’s actually closer to 2 out of 3 global resources are consumed in the United States.  But most people don’t want fewer, scarcer resources in the United States.  They see a problem, but they aren’t willing to change their lifestyle in order to help fix the problem.

So, what about underpopulation? To be honest, I think underpopulation may become a far more real problem than the Malthusian scare.  For example, Social Security in the United States is under a constant threat now from the Baby Boomers.  Why?  Because not enough young people are working to support the older, more numerous generation.  (Interestingly, recent statistics have shown that approximately 50 million people have died in the last 50 years in the United States from abortions.  Now, I don’t care whether you think it’s right or wrong; that’s still 50 million fewer people that are working to support our faltering economy).  That’s just scratching the surface too; imagine how bad the housing market will be when we have too many houses and not enough people to live in them.  Yes, this is a financial disaster in the making.

Oh, and this article also points out that China, infamous for it’s famed one-child policy, is now encouraging their couples to have 2 instead of 1.  Why?  Because they’re having the same problems we are.  Their economic system is threatened.  Perhaps we should take some clues from them.

Now, inevitably, some people would say, “Well, these are all problems for the future.  Why should I care?  I like how things are right now.”  Ah…I hear these words, and the word “selfish” sneaks to the front of my mind.  So, I would say that if you don’t care enough for your children to try to give them the best kind of culture and future they can have, then I would say go ahead and don’t have any children.  Live on your thrones of materialism…and don’t expect me to be very sympathetic when you’re freaking out because the world is falling apart.

Okay, rant complete.

SfC

My Journal Entry: February 18, 2009

For a couple of months now, I have been keeping a journal, where I try to write what thoughts have been going through my head lately.  Here’s what I wrote today:

“February 18, 2009:

Here’s what’s been going on in my heart lately:

In History class today, we talked again about the illegal and hateful removal of Native Americans from the Great Plains by American miners, soldiers, and the government (itself).

…

In Music History class today, we started covering how the Americans began blending European music traditions with African musical traditions.  What sickens me is, it was done to make fun of Blacks.

And, of course, I heard yesterday that over 50 million babies have died of abortions (since 1973).  Fifty million friends, families, loved ones, snuffed out.

And now, everyone is saying that we don’t have enough food to feed the world’s population, that we don’t have enough money (50 million people missing from the workforce) to support the elderly in our country, so influential, atheist ethicists are saying that elderly should voluntarilly euthanize themselves to remove the strain from the world’s economic system.

Isn’t religion accused of supporting and validating corrupt, unequal systems of government (and society) by atheists?  What about atheism?  Doesn’t anyone see what’s happening right now, in our enlightened society in this enlightened age?

Doesn’t America waste more than any other nation on Earth?  Don’t we spend more (money) on trash bags than some nations have to spend on such essentials as food and water?  And now, with this economic crisis, are we asking our grandparents, the old and wise and experienced among us, to sacrifice themselves so we can afford our bucket of chicken from KFC?!

When will this insanity end?  When will man stop hurting man?  When will Sin’s Cycle of Death be broken?  When will death be wrong again, instead of something people accept as something that others must experience so we can live as we please?”

I suppose I should add, it would cost $10 billion dollars to build wells for everyone on Earth to drink clean water.  Compare that with the $450 billion Americans spend on Christmas.

I know I’ll probably make some people mad, maybe even furious with this…but I can’t be sorry for speaking out against perceived wrongdoings, not when so much suffering is allowed to go unnoticed.

SfC

Personal Frustrations With Politics

It is a rare occurrence for me to take my blog down the road of politics.  In fact, I was thinking yesterday and realized that I had never even taken the time to congratulate the President-elect, Barack Obama, so congratulations to Mr. Obama on his electoral win.  I truly hope that he turns out to be a better president than I expected of him before the election.  I don’t think I’m the only one who sees that Mr. Obama will be leading our nation through a turbulent period of our nation’s existence, and I hope that he is up to the task.  I feel compelled to also add that I, for one, am uncertain as to how to react to the impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. On one hand, Mr. Obama has certainly made it clear that he has maintained a distance from the Governor because of his corrupting influence, but through this sequence of events, I have also become aware of the corruption of Illinois politics, which I was previously unaware of.  Of course, this casts a small shadow of doubt on Mr. Obama in terms of how he might have been involved behind the scenes.

If any of my readers are highly supportive of Mr. Obama, please do not misinterpret these thoughts.  I, for one, find it ridiculous that in some presidential elections, it seems that the nation is so completely polarized by the elections that it is a challenge for the President-elect to reunite the nation behind a single banner.  I honestly hope that I am not being a part of that; all I am stating is that I do still have some reservations about Mr. Obama, but that does not stop me from wishing him a good presidency and supporting him as our new president.  Anyhow, the focus of this post is on another matter.

I have recently heard a lot of bile being directed toward our president leaving office, Mr. George W. Bush.  I have heard titles such as “Worst President Ever” and other such degradation.  I want to simply point out some of the reasons why such hostility toward our president is unwarranted.

For starters, I truly believe that character attacks are not conducive to the freedoms that have been given in the United States.  Such attacks betray the feeling in the United States that we can judge what the President does, so I must ask the question:  “Can we common citizens really judge how the President has done in office?”  If I was asked this question, I would have to say “No.”  Now, I’m obviously not saying that the President can’t be impeached or anything like that, but I do think that people should be more careful and hesitant in making a judgment on the President.  After all, especially in the modern world, I must say that the Presidency would have to be the most demanding and stressful of occupations imaginable, and I do believe that Mr. Bush, for all of his failings, has done the best he could.

Secondly, I tend to wonder how many of the complaints raised against Mr. Bush are the result of people observing something and thinking about it, or if their complaints are simply the parrot-talk of the “geniuses” that get on television and tell us what to think about our President.  I fel obliged to point out that this is politics we are dealing with, so 99% of the people who get on television and comment on Mr. Bush have politic aims and agendas that they are seeking through their comments on him.

Third, I believe that if Mr. Bush has been a bad President, then we as the United States public need to take some responsibility.  After all, Mr. Bush is an elected official, which means that he wouldn’t be in the seat that he has been for eight years unless we (the public) put him there.  It seems to me that so many people want to attack Bush because he has involved us in two wars in the Middle East, but the way I see it, he did that in his first term in office; if we were so against these wars, then why was he reelected?  Now, I will admit that at the time of the 2004 election, many of these events were still unfolding, i.e. the lack of weapons of mass destruction and the subsequent investigation into how these errors were made.  To this, I can only say that I will admit that Mr. Bush disappointed me in this scenario.  However, I do believe that some good has still come to Afghanistan and Iraq because the United States has deposed of the former governments and have brought development and some form of hope for the future to the peoples of both of these countries, regardless of whether all of them embrace this new hope or not.

I have also noticed how everyone seems to want to blame Mr. Bush on the credit crisis.  Let me emphasis this as much as I can:  even if he knew about it (and I think he did), he was very limited in what he could do to try to stop the crisis before it started (and I believe that he attempted to do this, but his efforts failed).  You see, Mr. Bush is the president, but when it comes to economics, he is not responsible for making sure that the economic machine of the United States continues to function.  I also tend to think that Mr. Bush (one person) did not wield enough power (or influence with Congress) to help the crisis.  I fear that Mr. Bush has become the scapegoat that people have used to for their problems.

Finally, I want to make one more note about Mr. Bush:  he is a human being.  I can only imagine how much of a strain these last eight years have been on him -physically, emotional, and mentally -and no one seems to want to even thank him for the service that we asked him to pay to us.  Everyone seems to want to take out their frustration at the government on Mr. Bush, but he is only one person.  In fact, politically, I would think that Congress would be more responsible for many of the problems that we, as a nation are facing (Housing Market Crisis, Recession, etc.).  However, I fear that the convenience of a single scapegoat for the public overrides that logic in most cases.

Anyhow, those are some of the thoughts that I have had lately.  As I said at the beginning, I wish sincerely wish Mr. Obama a good, safe, and successful presidency.  May God see fit to bless him with wisdom and understanding in leading our nation.

SfC

Some Thoughts: Why American Seems to Lack Great Thought and Art (Creativity & Consumerism)

These are some thoughts of mine that have been taking shape for several months now.  I have often looked with awe upon the great minds of our past:  Da Vinci, Jefferson, Washington, Luther, Luther King Jr., Leonardo, Aristotle, Socrates, Moses, Jesus, Chaucer, Milton, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Einstein, Curie, and the brotherhood of great minds that they, along with so many others, have formed in the modern conscious, great men who, with their lives, changed the course of humanity in their respective fields,  changing the face of the globe as a result of their thoughts, words, literature, and convictions.  However, when I look at the United States and simply modern times in general, I see something very curious: there seems to be a diminished respect in the modern society for men and women that are striving toward the betterment of mankind, not to mention that there seems to be very few of this breed left.  I have often wondered why this is the case, and I want to explore this topic.

First of all, I believe that our civilization doesn’t really lack great minds.  I believe that, in truth, great minds have always been among us and always will be among us.  The key to recognizing them, however, is to be listening for them and looking for the signs of a Great Mind.  Let me also clarify that, when I’m talking about Great Minds, I’m not just talking about someone with a high Inteligence Quotient.  Sadly, I have found that some of the high-IQ people I have met in my life are also the least motivated and the least determined to do something with their gifts.  When I say a Great Mind, I’m placing a person in the company of the men and women who have changed the course of humanity by their contribution.  High IQ might have something to do with it, but I’m convinced and convicted that having a high IQ isn’t enough to qualify for this elite-of-the-elite group; one must also have a drive to change something wrong with this world (M. Luther King, Jr.) , to take humanity to the next level of exploration (Hubble), or to simply make the world a better place (Jesus).  In achieving this, I believe that IQ is secondary, and our society’s push on IQ tests totally misses the point of what the point of our existence is.  What am I saying?  I’m saying that the point of our existence does not begin and end on a test score, whether that be your IQ, ACT, SAT, or whatever.  If that was the point of our existence, Jesus would have taken an IQ test, scored perfect, and then gone to get baptized, but he didn’t, so it isn’t.

So, if our civilization really does have some great minds, why can’t we recognize them, or why do they seem to be so difficult to locate?  To be honest, I believe that not all of them are so obscure; there are plenty of effective and pioneering writers, mathmaticians, scientists, and historians in today’s world, not to mention artists, musicians, and every other occupation concievable.  The ones that are obscure are more difficult to find because ours is a large society of 300 million people, and sadly, when you have that many people, locating any single person with any outstanding characteristics becomes categorically difficult.  In a society that is so full of so many people producing so many works of art, music, and thought, I believe that the most brilliant works are obscured by the overwhelming flow of passable or even deficient counter-parts.

However, I believe that the central reason for our apparent lack of great minds and artists comes down to the society in which we live, which has become saturated with a new breed of hyper-individualism, hyper-consumerism, and hyper-capitalism.

This is based on this thought:  I believe, as a Christian, that God created the world (I do believe that God did it in a week as well, but that piece of information is hardly useful for this thought).  Thereby, when I look at the cosmos as a created order -when I look at the Earth and the numerous and complex life that exists here, and look up and see the stars without number that have been placed in the sky -I must draw the conclusion that our God is an infinitely creative and imaginative God.  Now, the Bible tells us that humanity was made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), so it logically follows that our creativity and imagination are a gift from God, having been made in his image.

Of course, creativity is not impervious to corruption.  There are plenty of ways in the modern world in which creativity has been used not for the joy that comes with creating something, but it is instead done out of greed, pride, hatred, or malice.  However, it is also a personal conviction of mine that creativity is a gift to our personalities from God’s personality, that we are most like God when we are being creative out of pure reasons.  These reason could be simply for the joy of creating something, or out of service to Him and His Church.

So, this also brings forth a question that I believe can be answered a couple of different ways:  what is the opposite of creativity?  When I have asked some of my friends this question, most of them responded “destruction,” which is correct.  So, I ask, what is the mentality that accompanies consumerism, especially the hyper-consumerism that has prevaded and enslaved our society?  Consumerism is all about consuming, which is another form of destruction.  In essence, I’m saying that our society is so busy consuming things -food, clothes, vehicles, electronics, and media -that we have lost the innate desire to be building something rather than destroying something.

This hyper-consumerism is a double-edged sword against creativity in this society:  on one hand, it distracts people from recgonizing thruly great minds among them.  This has a lot to do with our standard of living, which is defined by the movies and television shows we watch, the commericals we see, and what everyone else in society seems to by consuming.  You see, we don’t want to fall behind in our work, so we work extra hard to get ahead; we don’t want to live below the standard of living, so we try to exceed it; we don’t want to appear deficient, so we all try to appear superior.  It reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ chapter on pride in Mere Christianity.  The end result of all of this is that we have all become brainwashed participants in a rat race to achieve a standard of living that goes beyond what we need to all of our numerous wants.  We are so busy trying to “live the life” that we miss the real point of living.  So, what is the real point of living?  My answer is based on my Christian faith, but I do believe that the answer is as near a universal answer as possible: relationships.  Most of us know that, that regardless of our faith, color, gender, or personal background, we desire relationships more than we desire money, cars, houses, and wealth.  However, we are so caught up in checking the clock, racing to meet our deadlines, and trying to live luxuriously in-between that we miss real life, and reserve it to the “someday” category of our life.  This last paragraph is a bit of a tangent, but my point is, if people aren’t even willing to slow down their busy lives to really live life, then how much more are they not slowing down to pay attention to the great minds among us when they do speak.

One perfect example of this is a story my old youth leader at my high school youth group has told of a very famous musician who performed one day at one of the Monorail terminals in Washington for a newspaper article.  The man was an exceptional musician, performing on a 300-year-old multi-million dollar violin, performing some of the most advanced and difficult music ever written for violin.  This guy was used to living a very upper-class life, and most tickets for a concert performance by him would start in $700-$900 range.  Yet, of the 1,000-some people who walked by this man during his hour-long performance, less than 1% actually stopped to listen to him.  The other >99% walked by, completely oblivious to what was unfolding in their midst.  One man who was later interviewed for the newspaper article was able to remember every single lottery number he played that morning (10 or more, I believe), but when asked, he could not even remember that there was a musician playing a violin at that terminal.  Unless I’m mistaken, only one person who stopped to listen to the musician and was later interviewed by the newspaper recognized what happened:  when asked, the man replied that there was a musician at the terminal whose performance was absolutely stellar, complimenting the musician’s form, style, precision, and the performance as a whole.  Sadly, I believe that the other 1,000 people who walked within feet of the musician and missed it are the chorus of today’s society:  “I don’t want any fancy art, music, or thought-provoking treatises; all I want is a multi-million dollar lifestyle, whereby I can live as I please.”

The other wound that consumerism deals out to creativity in our society is by distracting not only the public at large, but people who have real potential to be among that brotherhood of great minds.  I honestly believe that, with the advent of all of the technology available to us in these days, there is no limit to the societal flaws that could be corrected, the injustices that could be rectified, and the betterment that could occur in our society if people would only use the tools that have been provided to them for the sake of mankind at large.  However, it isn’t that we own our electronics; ours is a materialistic society as well, so our stuff owns us.  We try to live life by waking up early in the morning, rushing to work, rushing around to our various activities, and rushing home to sit in front of a television screen for a couple of hours before going back to sleep and starting the cycle over again.  I don’t think I’m the only person whose saying, “Surely there has to be something more than all of that.”

That is why I have chosen to pursue that brotherhood, to attempt to change the world for the better.  I might achieve something with my life and I might not, but I find more excitement and happiness in the pursuit of changing the world for the better than I can imagine finding in simply existing.

SfC

The Failed Government Bail-Out Bill

When I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher at the time made me aware of peak oil and his own understanding of economics. Ever since then, I have been paying distant but increasingly curious attention to the developing economic conditions that will likely shape my future adulthood. Of especial interest to me right now, however, is the government bail-out proposal that failed to pass in Congress sometime today (I think). I just thought that perhaps some of my thoughts were worth consideration.

1) I found Barrak Obama’s rebuff of McCain’s proposal to postpone the Presidential debate in the name of finding a solution to this problem rather crude, at the least. Obama stated that as a President, McCain should be able to tackle multiple problems at once. I would counter that, in the event of a crisis (of proportions best illustrated by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as so aptly illustrated in the following blog post on the Teeming Brain), one should focus one’s attention on rectifying the crisis at hand instead of focusing on what I consider personal matters (though admittedly, a Presidential campaign can also be seen as a public commitment as well as a private decision). Anyway, in spite of his attack, Obama seems to have joined forces with McCain for the time being, arguing in favor of the Bail-out bill in Congress.

2)  I question the necessity of the bail-out bill.  That is, if a small company failed to operate successfully, whether by mistakes, competition, or simply bad luck, there is a relatively nonexistent chance for them to get bailed out by the government.  Why should a larger corporation expect more than that?  In addition, why expect taxpayers to agree with spending their money on a corporation that might continue to tank and do badly even after such a bail-out?  Maybe the corporation CEO’s and policy-makers are inherently bad economists (I’m not meaning to imply this, but I just want to make sure that everyone is thinking of all possible outcomes)…

Even with this in mind, I recognize that this is a difficult situation with many thousands of variables, not the least of which is investor confidence…and of course, if keeping those companies afloat is necessary to keeping the economy afloat, then I concur that this is what must be done.  Even so, I also think that, before such action is taken, I hope that it is considered by all if this is really necessary.

3)  Since the bail-out bill in its present form (whatever that is) failed in the House today, I wonder what the next incarnation of it will be (since I have no doubt that they will try again).  Will it be even bigger?  Will it involve more taxpayer money, or will it involve asking for a loan from another country (which will dig our national debt even deeper, as if it will ever be paid off as it is)?  Will we just have to wait out the economic downturn (or recession or depression or whatever it turns out to be)?

Just some quick thoughts for you.  Now, off to read for my World War II class.  Take care!

SfC

The American Cornerstone and More Reading of Bloom’s American Mind

In a conversation with another writer and thinker that I am acquainted with, this thought came to me about America’s origins:

Psalms 118:22 is a well-known verse to studied Christians. It states, “The Stone that the Builders rejected has become the cornerstone (or capstone in some translations).” It is referenced several times in the New Testament, pointing to how Christ, though He declared himself to the Jewish people as the Messiah that had been prophecied of since the days of Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness, was condemned by the religious leaders of the time and was crucified. However, because Christ lived the perfect life and bore the sins of the world, He rose to new life and spawned a movement within Judaism.

However, even though the movement was peaceful, the leaders of the time (and for the next 300 years) continued to reject the teachings of Jesus. However, from the perspective of history, the stone that the builders the builders rejected truly did become the cornerstone for today’s largest sect of faith on Earth’s surface as well as one of the dynamic elements within the dialectic that is Western culture.

Similarly, the values that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas Paine, and many of their co-conspirators (I use the term loosely to refer to America’s Found Fathers) held to political (and in some cases, religious in the form of Protestantism) ideals that had faced persecution in Europe. However, in America, these same ideas held strong and eventually became the cornerstone of the U.S.’s government, ideas about “all men being created equal” and having freedom to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Again, the rejected stone became the cornerstone.

Of course, this might be why the United States and Christianity have seemingly walked hand-in-hand for the last couple of centuries; both share similar histories and, regardless of what people say, freedom to practice religion are one of the central reasons as to why people came to (and still come to) the United States since its birth.

Of course, from my perspective, I see that both are facing (and losing to) the same enemy. The United States and the American Christian Church faces many struggles ahead, not the least of which is the death of the American culture, consumerism, egalitarian ideals towards both people and ideas, and lack of concern over these problems, which multiplies the potential damage they could inflict on our nation exponentially.

When I speak of Egalitarianism as a danger to our democracy, I do not contest the belief that the Declaration of Independence is true in that “All men are created equal” insofar as men all have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as well as the many other rights that the Constitution grants. The egalitarianism that endangers us all is to take the phrase, “All men are created equal” and not continue on. The purpose of the statement was to assert that men are all, in the eyes of the government, the same (which in today’s society is not true in total practice; I know people who are given leniency from speeding tickets because their relatives are police or city government officials). The assertion was not that all men were created completely equal in mental capacity and capability, which is an idea that has broken our education system.

To illustrate this point, I will reference something that my director at church camp told me and the rest of the counselors in relation to caring for the students. The gist of her thought is, “Equal is not fair.” From there, she elaborates that some of the campers coming to camp will have lived perfect (or at least passably normal) lives and will need no extra attention. On the other hand, there will be other campers who struggle with obesity or who have abusive parents or who have had no exposure to God or Godly people in their lives. These campers will need more attention, more care, and more love than some others.

I believe this to be a very meaningful phrase to consider in a world that is constantly pushing for fairness through equality. With first-hand experience of passing through the public school system, I can safely say that equal is never fair. I have seen it; students who are ultra-high achievers who are capable of being the next Abraham Lincoln, Frederich Nietzsche, Rene Descartes, or J.R.R. Tolkien are put in the same institutionalized holding pen as kids who won’t learn to read or write until they are ten or twelve and are expected to receive the same training and exposures (in the public school) as everyone else. This not only can’t be achieved; it shouldn’t’ be. The end result would be taking the standard Bell curve that illustrates a class and manipulating the whole thing until all you have is a straight line: no incredible geniuses, no mentally challenged students either. So, here’s my question to this philosophy of education: is the squandering and suffocation of our greatest minds worth the effort of trying to hoist everyone onto the same level? Remember, “Equal is not fair.”

I have also continued reading Allan Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind. His chapter on relationships is highly interesting to me who, as a Christian, am taught that our relationships with other people are the most important part of our life on Earth. I also think that the “Relationships” chapter is one of the longest ones in the book.

First, Bloom discusses the “niceness” of his students and how they, living in a society where they have no great need, are neither greatly good or evil, though they do seem without ambition. Next, Bloom notices how Equality seems to have shattered all racial barriers save for the one between Caucasians and African-Americans, where a new barrier called affirmative action has reinforced some of the barriers that were nearly completely destroyed and might become a catalyst for greater racial unrest in the future. Also (and this is as far as I have read thus far), Bloom talks of how the new modes of sexual relations (brought on by music and media that promoted release from sexual inhibitions during the sixties) have given rise to feminism. Unfortunately, even now, I do not fully understand the full extent of what Bloom is trying to say here, though I do recognize that, at the point I am in the book, he is only making observations of his students, not stating opinions. From what I could understand, his observation is that sex is so easy (by easy, I mean to mean simple or common to obtain) as to be common knowledge and thought for today’s youth (especially young girls, who were expected to be the “proper” ones in cultural periods past).

Because of this, we have the rise of feminism, which to my mind’s eye seems like affirmative action and the rising “tyranny of the minority” that I observe: for a long time, blacks and females seemed to have fewer cultural (not political, mind you) rights than Caucasian men and, in government, political minorities were respected though not calling the shots. Now, this is not to say that the principles behind affirmative action are wrong; I would hazard a guess that there are good intentions in those who do this. However, the end result is that, instead of a stabilization of equality between Caucasian and Blacks, men and women, we know see that the ball is rolling further into their court; instead, Blacks, women, and even political minorities are receiving special treatment, which goes against the principles of equality that were the basis for the push towards abolition of slavery and Woman’s voting rights as well as the Constitutional assertions that the majority vote rules.

However, that leap-frogs into an entirely other political ballgame that I don’t have enough time to cover. I’ll likely comment further on Bloom’s observations of feminism when I better understand them. Thanks for reading!

SfC

The Nature of Music and the Corruption of the West

Music is something that I thoroughly enjoy. Even as I am typing, I am listening to Chris Sligh’s “Empty Me,” a major hit on Christian radio. I also respect music, acknowledging its impressive power. After all, music is one of the most powerful forces in the world, and in my mind arguably the most powerful force ever conceived by man: guns, missiles, and nuclear bombs have the power to take life on an enormous scale, true enough, but music has the ability to affect the state of one’s soul in a more profound way than anything else. I look at it this way: a gun can take someone’s life; music can convince that same person to give their life for you.

The youth group that I have attended for three years has covered a unit of music a couple of times and our teacher puts it this way: music is a combination of two of the most powerful forces in the world. One is sound with a beat, rhythm, a sense of organization, etc. With music, we are taught our ABC’s when we are five years old and we never forget them. I learned the books of the Bible through song, and I remember them to this day in perfect order. The other force is words, which are one of the most powerful forces in the world. With words alone, the President can cause the deaths (or continued existence) of thousands or millions of people; with words, a husband can either reinforce or end his relationship with his wife. Put words and rhythm together, and what do you have? Music, a synthesis of two ultra-power elements.

So, the question becomes, how does this relate to the “Corruption of the West” spoken of in the title? Think of it this way: a great man once said that you can gauge the health of a society by hearing its music. Okay, fair enough, right? I don’t know about you, but when last I was listening to the mainstream radio, I was hearing a song entitled, “The Seven Things I Hate About You,” written from the perspective of a girlfriend who is vocally (and vehemently) expressing her anger at her boyfriend for the many things that frustrate her. If I was to gauge the values of the entire society on that one song, I should think that our society values hatred and intolerance. Of course, I believe that in reality, that would be an accurate though incomplete evaluation of Western society.

As a Christian, I believe that such music corrupts our society because of the exact nature of music. I know that when I listen to a song that talks of anger and rebellion, if I hear the song enough times, I start to find myself reciprocating the emotions expressed in the song. This is because of the way our brains are hard-wired: the same part of our brain interprets speech and maintains the beat and rhythm when performing music.

Music is by its nature emotional, and this is not a bad thing. Aldous Huxley is quoted saying, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music,” and I concur with this: music seems to awaken within us an otherwise-unresponsive longing, which is best expressed through music. The danger is to deactivate the rational aspects of our minds and completely switch on the emotional side.

This also hits on a major part of my personality, the closely-contested dialectic tension between the rational and emotional aspects of my soul. I understand that I require my mind to guide my emotions; I need my emotions to give life and joy to my mind. To lean to much in either direction is to lose life either in the form of lost joy or direction-less emotion. I also believe that this makes me a stronger, more complete person, much in the same way that Jeffrey Hart acclaims that the Science-Religion dialectic of the West has granted it greater vitality than any other civilization in Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe.

The reason I speak of this at length now, however, is because I have just this afternoon read more from Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. In it, he has already posed that the “openness” that American society preaches as actually an openness to closeness: to the lack of Absolute Truth, which results in the inability to discern Good and Bad (with no truth, there is only endless interpretation, whereas the belief in a good requires that there be a Truth), the inability to seek the Greater Good (other than societal and personal good insofar as what we enjoy and what keeps society going), and so on.

In Bloom’s chapter on music, he takes on a position that brings new light to my evaluation of pop culture music. He talks of how, using music, the “love and sex” ideas infiltrated our culture in the sixties and have become commonly accepted in our culture today (which might be our downfall). Of course, it is nearly impossible to change what the music industry is churning out after allowing it free reign for forty years; it has become part of the culture.

Bloom pointed out, in addition to the immorality of it all, as far as education is concerned, today’s pop music cuts students off from their own souls; in combination with the many other cultural problems America faces, the students are taught through modern music that sex, hatred, and self are all there is. It isn’t necessarily that youth refuse the freshness of the writers of the past in their quest for the fountain of truth (though it is likely some do); for many of today’s youth, the existence of that fountain and the relative ease of seeking it are masked from them. It isn’t that they don’t want what Truth is selling; they are ignorant that Truth is on the market. They are indoctrinated from birth that the only fulfillment on the market is available for small periods of time in the form of the new and catchy, the newest gadgets, clothes, and accessories for their iPod: the triumph of Capitalist marketing.

Bloom also points out that those who do unplug themselves from the music machine of modern culture are left on a permanent low, like someone who has been off of drugs for the first time in years. Suddenly, that person realizes that they will never have another high quite like the first one they had; all they can hope for is something that helps them vaguely remember what their first high was like or the infinite dullness of daily living. Of course, Bloom states, liberal education is meant to show these people that this is not the way things have to be, regardless of what they are told on television and by modern culture.

Bloom also points to another strange and, when examined, alarming trend among modern youth: many have no heroes to look up to, no one who embodies what they want to be. Of course, when you get do to it, many modern youth point to people who have “made it” according to cultural standards as people worthy of emulation. Few people try to emulate Christ (after all, he had no multi-million dollar mansion, no awesome car, not even a family; he just taught us to live right and something about “storing up riches in heaven,” whatever that means, and “the last will be first,” whatever that means, and “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” whatever that means), I’d bet that no one tries to emulate Hercules, Odysseus, Moses, Achilles or any other hero of the past. If students are honest, many would likely say that Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Donald Trump have lives they wished to have; others might say the name of some movie actor or Olympic athlete that is all the rage today and unheard of tomorrow. After all, if most of today’s youth accept the propaganda that there is no Absolute, then Jesus was just another preacher or even a heretic, Achilles was just foolishly clinging to foolish traditions when he allowed Priam to bury Hector honorably, and Bill Gates is the greatest man in the world because he, having the most money, is able to watch out for himself the best.

Music as it is will probably continue as it has been for the last forty years, which I’m almost certain will be one of the final elements that bring our society to its knees. Something else that Bloom points out is when he tells students of Socrates’ desire to censor music in his perfect society in The Republic, many of them feel as though Socrates is assaulting something precious to them. However, it is in light of our current situation that I see that Socrates may have had a more valid idea than is readily apparent at first examination. I do not think I am quite ready to advocate the censorship of music, but I do now see that such censorship might be necessary if we are to turn back the tide of relativism and remind people that there is something else besides sex, hatred, and selfishness. Of course, some would be turned away by the fact that, in all these years, none (outside the field of religion, anyhow) have claimed to discover the Absolute face-to-face…yet we must also see that men of the past have found more fulfillment in the search for Truth than we have in the abandonment of this search. Perhaps that is what we were built to do…

As a writer, I also feel I must mention that, as a creative writer, I find today’s music destructive in that, instead of conveying otherwise-inexpressible longing and thought, today’s pop music is used to convey our baser instincts: sexual love, hatred, and despair. Such music doesn’t promote creativity; it destroys it, incapacitates it, limits it. From this perspective, it is no wonder that America hasn’t produced any recognizably great thinkers or politicians or artists for the last century or so.

SfC

Progress on my Novel

As I have said, I am a writer and I have been attempting to write a high fantasy novel since the end of my sophomore year. It has been a fascinating experience. For instance, last week, I was trying to create an original 365 1/4 day calendar for the fantasy world I have created. To that end, I searched for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire calendar to see what sort of ideas I might obtain from it. I was (and continue to be) amazed at the creative talent of Tolkien; how he structured the calendar for simplicity, how he named his twelve months of the year, etc. It is also quite a jaw-dropper to know that he was that thorough in every aspect of his creation of the world that we now know as Middle-Earth.

Anyhow, at one point last year, the size of my book exceeded 100,000 words, which was quite a landmark for me. However, when I reread some of the beginning of my book, I found myself saying, “This isn’t interesting. This isn’t even that well-written. It’s vague in a lot of places where it needs detail and its excessively detailed in other places.” So, I scrapped the entire first manuscript and have since been working on a second, improved version of my story. As of right now, my notes include nearly a dozen different races of creatures including humans all situated on a chain of islands, the largest of which being where the story launches from. I have also drawn a rough outline for a continent where half-a-dozen or more human nations exist and compete with each other, which will also be a part of the story later on. I am planning on a seven-day week and am currently trying to write histories for the world, from which I hope to draw the basis for the names of those seven days.

Since I am a Christian, there will be some references an overarching belief in a Theist God, though that belief will also be in competition with other tribal and polytheistic beliefs. I have wondered precisely how much of this sort of thing will be in my book and have eventually decided that I want to clearly indicate the writer’s (my) belief in a loving, just Creator of the universe, but I also want to make the book a) an enjoyable read for many different people, and B) thought-provoking. Simply from my perspective, I see a lot of people around me accept other people’s word and believe everything they are told, whether by the Nightly News or by the History Channel and everything else, and I honestly believe that this world will improve greatly when people start to think for themselves instead of allowing others to think for them.

Anyway, as of right now, my novel is stalled out at Ch. 3; while constructing an effective seven-day week, I’m also laying out the back-story from which I derive much of the unfolding story. I’ll gladly admit that it is a life-long project and I might never be done, but it forces me to grow and explore as an individual, so I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish so far. I’ll keep the blog informed of major progress.

Have a good day!

SfC