The importance of a society and it's survival

               Afghanistan's long and tragic story will tarnish the American psyche for generations to come. Blood, bullets, and books did not stop the Reconquista of the hermit kingdom. After two trillion dollars of American treasure and thousands of American GI lives, it was all in vain. The tears on American flags didn't defeat a humble and illiterate insurgency. Men who could barely read or understand thermodynamics defeated the most powerful military in the world. All the trillions and billions of dollars of military hardware, missiles, and Apache helicopters could not defeat a jihadist warrior with a scimitar and sandals.               The Taliban sang phrases from The Quarn as they shot American m-4s into the air as they took Kabul. Even as women wept and children screamed at the Kabul airport, Marines were left helpless and unable to save the tens of thousand...

I must write so I can speak. I fear destruction and ruin for a country and civilization I love: America. Many cultures and nations fall and rise on one principle: remembering. Remembering the past so the future may be safe. Remember the principles and virtues that make a society flourish and grow like a beautiful garden. Why does a simple act of memory save or doom a nation? Because if you don’t know where you came from, you are doomed to repeat the failures of the past. Why do certain things work in building a bridge and other things make it crumble? Why did the Aztecs sacrifice babies in blood rituals, and the Spaniards stop them? Why did the Spaniards have steel and Aztec warriors wear jaguar skin while wielding obsidian blades? Today in America, her youth does not know the past. They do not know why they live in abundance of material goods and food. They have iPhones with unlimited computing power; scientists in ancient Babylon and Alexandria would weep if they had such devices. Bu...

What is Culture? Is it earned or learned? The idea of culture has been permeating my mind for a while. What is it? Is it the breath of populi of activity in the streets at an organic street farmers market? Is it a select stylized handshake on Lake and Hiawatha? Is it two merchants arguing over spice prices with animated hands? No and yes. Culture according to Webster is: “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time”.   Now I’m not talking about culture in the sense of a posh, snobby art showing of post modernism where two ants are being eaten by a toad in a pond made of mayonnaise. What I’m trying to understand is culture in the sense of human interaction and understanding of themselves and others in their social environment.   Why do I notice in the Mid-west that no one takes the last slice of that very fine Chicago pizza? Is the act of not appearing selfish in the context of pizza etiquette universal, or is the social mores mor...

Multiculturalism: A Lack of Cohesion With the Olympics coming to the U.K this year, the British are showcasing their culture, country , and society.  What is Britishisness? What first must ask what is culture.  There are many definitions but one of them is "T he customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group" The U.K by extent the British and its long history of formation of its language and its social and legal institution have greatly benefited man, one of them being the paternal parent of the U.S. American law based is on common law which began in Britain and no where else. Britishisness is not just tea, bowler hats, or even fish and chips but the foundation of the concept of separation of powers in modern western history. This proud lineage is over a thousand years ago with the merger of Saxon and Normanism until the full Union of 1801 which is the Union jack today; Scottish flag and Britannias flag...

The shooting massacre  With this recent massacre we have a moral obligation to reflect on this evil crime. Last night, twenty four year old James Holmes went to a midnight showing of Batman and proceeded to kill people at random in the theater. What would bring a man with a middle upper class background, education ,and son of software engineer and a mother with a psychology background to commit murder. It's simple: art. More specifically, life imitating art. There have been many cases in history of men taking inspiration to do acts of good and evil from what they seen in plays of drama of ancient Greek plays or Japanese samurai and the 40 Ronin. In the Romance period (18th-19th century)  of Europe, star crossed lovers of middle to upper class backgrounds would commit suicide to dramatize or express their "true" love advertising to their parents that disapproved of their...

Is Batman Right Wing or Leftist? With the new Batman coming into theaters near you we as movie goers delve into the world of myth and escapism of Batman the Caped crusader.  He is a hero against evil for the sake of justice and a moral society. My argument would be that Batman is not only right wing hero but a neo conservative one. Like many origin stories his his one of loss of innocence and guilt that transformed him into not an apathetic bystander of injustice but an active agent whose goal is stop evil in society. His family was part of the 1%, the aristocracy of Gotham city. His early childhood was a leave it to beaver life: a traditional patriarch where his father worked and his mother was a stay at home mom. His father ran a multi-billion corporation while still   helping out his fellow man by means of philanthropy not taxes. One night, Batman as ...