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SMOKE & MIRRORS - HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?: Our Editor, ROD AMIS, gets a little agro on certain issues and looks at how we need to take civic action in the United States.
SMOKE
"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.
In Spirit and In Truth
9 April 2007: In this editorial, I shall come back to issues I've openly addressed here, wrestled with - if you will - those of both faith (religion) and truth (knowledge.) Despite the fact that some prominently speak in defense of faith and in opposition to truth, I continue to give both issues thought, testing analysis and mean to do so as long as I produce this magazine.I'm brought back to this because of a recent debate in the United Kingdom featured in this article in the Science Extra section of the Guardian Unlimited and a podcast that it links to discussing just these issues.
I particularly encourage you to take the time to listen to the podcast, which is quite reasonable, and states in plain language the case against the faith argument as an anti-truth argument. Grayling cleverly puts it that atheist is probably a bad appellation because it too often leads to argument, where as we don't feel the need to call ourselves apixist ("I don't believe in pixies because there's not a shread of evidence that they could possibly exist.") or agnomists ("Gee, I just don't believe in gnomes.")
And therein lies the core of the argument militating against faith and pointing to the differences between truth and superstition, knowledge and false delusions.
Or, to put it another way, no one raises an eyebrow when I make the assertion that Zeus and Aphrodite or Odin and Ashteroth aren't real. Most rational people easily take the same position while then going on to make the case that Yahweh and Allah exist. Why believe in one to of these supernatural beings and not the others? Why not be a pan-theist or admit that there's an equal amount of evidence to prove the existence of them all? Finally, isn't it more rational to accept the historical and sociological evidence that people's faiths are based on geography, their families and little else?
E.J. Dionne, in a recent piece for TruthDig would likely refer to an editorial like this one as "neo-atheism." Doing so, another reason for my rejecting the term altogether is provided. I would argue, rather, that I'm simply one of those much-denigrated secular humanists. Perhaps I'm even just a pagan.
My sister-in-law, whom I love dearly, will likely read this with horror. Just the other day, she sent me a very poignant PowerPoint presentation entitled "Where God Wants Me." It was filled with homilies and anecdotes meant to make anyone viewing it feel that God cared about each of us and had a Plan for each of us, as well.
What I have found in my life, a hard one, is that it matters most if other people care about each of us and demonstrate their caring. Otherwise, we shall likely perish. Ask an Iraqi.
An easy dodge for people of faith, to be critical for a moment, is that they can take the position that God will take care of the poor, the oppressed, the victimized - if not in this life, then in the after-life - so they don't have to be concerned. People of reason believe that we are each responsible for each other and that it is our duty to make things change, to take action to end poverty, oppression and victimization. One is forced to ask which position has the higher moral authority?
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"Our" Mphuthumi Ntabenii has a Blog now. Mpush Spear On. Check it out when you're not here.
Is there an order to the Universe? Certainly, we have provable and demonstrated natural laws which govern that order which we have learned from physics, biology, chemistry, etc. We can test them. When you drop a brick, gravity makes it fall. Easily proven.
What cannot be proven is that some personality similar to our own framed these laws. Neither has it been proven that there's a need for a single, identifiable personality to have framed the laws of the Universe. It is "belief" and "faith" that keeps the conceit going, legend, myth and family tradition - and little else. (Miracles, a popular proof for those who are theists - almost miraculously, ahem! - always occur in isolation, in some other place, at some other time, with scant verifiable, testable or repeatable data. Like fairy tales.)
These things considered, if one has a commitment to Truth, it is impossible to be a theist. As Bertrand Russell so adroitly points out:
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.Thinking, the very process, leads not only to skepticism, my lovelies, but to a giant question mark that cannot be ignored. That question marks speaks to the very limits of knowledge - knowledge of ourselves AND knowledge of the true nature of the Universe. But it is that very large question mark, our distinguishing characteristic if we allow ourselves to think, that is the central challenge to faith.
I can only suppose that this is why the question mark makes all of the predominant faiths and their proselytizers on our planet so very uncomfortable.
As Dan Barker wrote:
Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.THOSE THREE WORDS
16 April, 2007: Please tell me that I'm not the only person in the United States who noticed, during all the breast-pounding and righteous indignation expressed during the Don Imus Affair, that it seemed like every media outlet - newspaper, radio or television broadcast - supposedly in the act of condemning Imus for using those three words on his show, Invariably and shamelessly repeated the racial slur.
Let's face it, no one except an African American could have their hair characterized in those terms; no one except a street-walker could have her character described using the last of the three words. And every single day for the last few weeks, those three words were repeated over and over and over again - adding to the original damage in a hypocritical fashion, as far as Yours Unruly is concerned - without the blink of an eye.
Don't even bother to give me some crap about how repeating the terms every hour on the hour (cable news programs) and every day of the week (newspapers) was to "give context to the story." That's bat guano! It was impossible for anyone over the age of six not to hear what Imus had said after the first forty-eight (48) hours of media saturation. YOU, Mouthpiece Media, simply repeated the term because you enjoyed having an excuse to utter it yourselves, cretins!
Number One with a Bullet
The position that I and this magazine hold toward violence - and particularly the gun violence endemic in the United States - has been unequivocal. Deplore is a light word. Our position has always been categorically in opposition to all forms of violence and we have viewed the love affair with the gun, much like the love affair with the automobile, in this country as toxic, malignant and inhumane.
While we know that this is an unpopular position to take, this has never been a journal concerned with popularity as much as with morality and being on the right side of history. We know that we are on the right side of history in our opposition to violence as much as we were on the right side of history years ago in our complete opposition to the invasion of Iraq by this country.
There is a difference between being morally right and being majority right and we have always chosen the former.
So, this latest mass murder in the state of Virginia, on a university campus here in the United States, we take as a call to action, a call to speak out against the American romance with guns. Silence is betrayal.
Most importantly, we need to stop attempting the wrong-headed practice of attempting to separate policy from civic responsibility and action. IF we allow weapons to continue to be easily accessible, we invite these kinds of incidents rather than discourage them. The litany goes on: the assassinations of Presidents and civic leaders in our society, Columbine, Luby's here in Texas, "going postal," and now this. The evidence is clear. Yes, people kill people, NRA, but they are much more efficient and effective if they own guns. Get real.
Just this past week, it was reported that the likelihood of suicides is higher in households where guns exist. Get a clue.
INSIDE THE MAGAZINE
I'm very happy and proud about the direction our international coverage is taking these days. Between the excellent reporting from MORAA GITAA over the last few editions and the addition of special reports from ATONIO GRACEFFO for G21 ASIA, we've moved up to our Golden Age level of covering under-reported stories from around the planet. The Editor and Publishers is chuffed!
MIRRORS18 April, 2007: THINGS IN ROD WORLD are very much in flux these days. As predicted, my return to Texas has thus far been one of the best things I've done in over a decade. Once again, I've become in demand as a journalist and as a consultant, while maintaining the level of freedom that I so cherish.
Rod Amis I'm actually beginning to dig myself out of the hole, begin to pay off some debts and have some exciting and exhilarating prospects for future projects and business relationships. Who would have thunk it?
Among the various things that have occurred - besides having my own place again, besides being able to work completely from home again - has been what happened yesterday. I'm go ing through my normal afternoon routine of doing research for future articles to sell hither and yon when LIGHTNING STRIKES!
The Return of El Gato
I get a tone letting me know new e-mails are coming in. The first one in the queue is from Henry Guerra, my first boss in the newspaper business, the man who was instrumental in my getting the job at the Rocky Mountain News Back in the Day and the person I've written about in these pages as The Best Boss I've EVER Had. (How many bosses invite you back to their house for lunch on your very first day at work?)
It was Old Home Week instantly. He is still as irreverent and funny as ever. He wanted to come over to my crib last night but I decided, as I was in Work mode, that we should do lunch today. He decided that we should meet at a place called "Zen." I thought that was totally appropriate.
Maybe I am HOME, at last.
KENT SAYS it seems like I'm very much in demand these days. It seems like I've got a lunch date with someone every week. My waistline is beginning to show it, despite my daily walks. I no longer resemble the "lean and mean" guy on back of my book about Hurricane Katrina. I've been thinking lately I need to do something about that. Thinking, that's about it. Laziness or the on-going production schedule continue to intrude.
Speaking of the production schedule, I'm behind. I have to do production notes for three podcasts before the end of the month, two for ITConversations.com and one for your World's Magazine (yes, we're offering our first ever in-house podcast next month) only one of which I've nearly completed. I had wanted this edition out on Monday but, as you can see, I had to move it forward so I could focus on pumping out articles for Day Jobs.
It certainly doesn't help that I can be such a moody S.O.B. either.
Meanwhile, Life is always there. Kent and Becky dropped in on a surprise visit this past weekend. They brought me a gift for my apartment wall. Kent found a framed wall-hanging in a gift shop with the words, "Work like you don't need the moneyä etc." - my well-known tagline - and thought of me. He said it was my house-warming present (I've lived here nearly seven months.) I thought it was a great gesture.
That, of course, brought up the on-going question of who actually used those words first. I had to explain that I'd heard attribution go from everyone to the late, great Satchell Paige up to LeeAnn Rheims. Truth is, I don't think anyone knows.
Kent observed that there was no attribution on the wall-hanging either. I find that most appropriate.
MIKE MALLEN, my buddy in California, who has become my new angel, is busily gearing up his new venture. We've been talking - and he's been sending background material to read - every week now as I prepare to become a consigliere of his company. We began working out my contract this week. (You know the rule, my lovelies: I don't become an employee anymore. I'll contract out my services only, much like a hit man.)
In the short-range plan, it seems I'll be going out to California at the end of the summer to house-sit for him while he's doing his shake-the-money-tree thang. It will be interesting to go back to San Francisco so soon, seeing as how I only left the area the last summer.
When I listened to Dionne Faris's album I realized that she understands pain as much as I do. Let me share it with you in her voice: "Don't Ever Touch Me Again"
You see, I am not surprised by how people look at anything. People say to me, "You should be happy, you are making money, you can pay your bills."
NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON asks me, "How do you feel inside, Rod? How are you really doing?"
I suppose I should not expect that question. All of life is only about money, after all. Isn't it?
It don't hurt like it did,
It hurts worse
Who do I kid? - Sheryl CroweDon't take this too seriously, my lovelies. Remember, I'm just an Internet Magician. Everything you find here is just... smoke and mirrors.
Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.
Thanks for coming back this week.
ROD'S PLAN THIS WEEK
1 - Getting back into The Game.
2 - Scheduling some time for the novel.
3 - Thinking seriously about managing my finances
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching ... "
Love,
Rod
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at the (U.S.) Public Broadcasting System (PBS's) WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS Internet magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.
He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. When he's not busy here, he writes technology columns for EnterpriseLeadership.org. Rod's more leftist writings can be found at Atlantic Free Press. (Don't tell his potential employers.) He writes a weekly column on social media issues for Leverage Social Media.His work will appear this summer in print and online for PR TACTICS. Rust never sleeps. He is being courted by California software company into going back into being a Made Man.
Our Resident Philosopher has decided to return to Austin, Texas, after over two decades away. Wish him luck..
In his spare time, Rod chases women in the way a fly chases a spider..
He continues to be committed to integrity,
chastityand a dose of humility.
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