Globophobes

Book: Fences & windows by Naomi Klein

Rating: 3/5 ***

Here are some quotes from the book:

• '...it is possible to challenge imperialism while embracing plurality, progress and deep democracy...to expose all the invisble worlds between the economic fundamentalism of mcworld and the religious fundamentalism of jihad. The strength of the movement of movements has ben that it offers a real alternative to the homogenization & centralization represented by globalization. No one sector or country can claim it, no one intellectual elite can control it and that is its secret weapon.'
• 'In this new kind of war terrorists are finding their weapons in our tattered public infrastructures. This is true not only in rich countries such as the US but also in poor countries, where fundamentalism has been spreading rapidly. Where debt and war have ravaged infrastructure, fanatical sugar daddies like bin laden are able to swoop in and start providing basic services that should be the job of government: road, schools, health clinics, even basic sanitation. In Sudan, it was bin laden who built the road that enabled the construction of the talisman oil pipeline pumping resoiurces to the fovernment for its brutal ethnic war. The extreme islamic seminaries in Pakistan that indoctrinated so many taliban leaders thrive precisely because they fill a huge social welfare gap. In a country that spends 90% of its budget on its military & debt and a pittance on its education, the madrassas offer not only free classrooms but also food and shelter for poor children.'
• 'What do we hold on to when so much that is powerful is virtual - currency trades, stock prices, intellectual property and arcane trade agreements?'
• 'Marcos in gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a gypsy n Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro @ 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slims, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and of course a Zapatista in the mountains.'
• '...NGOs that might otherwise collaborate often compete with one another for publicity and funding.'
• 'If they are angry, as millions clearly are, its because they have seen the promises betrayed by the US policy. Despite president bushs insistence that Americas enemies resent its liberties, most critics of the US dont actually object to Americas stated values. Instead, they point to US unilateralism in the face of international laws, widening welath disparities, crackdowns on immigrants and human rights violators - most recently in the prison camps of Guantanamo Bay. The anger comes not only from the facts of each case but also from a clear perception of false advertising. In other words, Americas problem is not with its brand - which could scarcely be stronger - but with its product.'
• '...first create a climate of fear and tension, then suspend constitutional rights in the interest of protecting public order.'
• 'Napster defenders argue that they dont pirate CDs but rather swap mix tapes. They get to know and trust one anothers taste and they argue they end up buying more music becayse they are exposed to more of it. They also say they have been driven to create this alternative by inflated CD prices & the hideously homogenous rotation of pop on video stations & commerical radio.'
• 'It increasingly seems that what is on trial in Europe is the tyranny of economies of scale that governs every aspect of food production, distribution and consimption.'
• 'When we debate this model, we are not discussing the merits of trading goods and services across borders but the effects of profound corporatization aroudn the world; the ways in which the commons is being transformed and rearranged - cut back, privatized, deregulated - all in t he name of participating and competing in the global trading system. What is being designed at the WTO is not rules for trade but a template for one-size-fits-all-government, a kind of 'McRule'. And its this template that is under dispute.'
• '...their direct experience with communism & capitalism has taught them tha the two sustems have something in common : they both centralize power in the hands of a few, and they both treat people as if they are less than fully humans. Where communism saw them only as potential producers, capitalism sees them only as potential consumers; where communism starved their beautiful capital, capitalism has overfed it, turning Prague into a Velvet Revolution theme park.'
  

Open-minded Skeptic

The last part of 'Been there, done that, now what': Appeal to Open-minded skeptic:

Because Ive read 'Holy Grail Holy Blood', I cant quite agree with the author of the former book. Simply put, people have meddled with the Word and its no longer the Truth. Thats the best I can do in one sentence.

Im going to try working on putting in exercepts of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' but for now Im doing bits and pieces of

'Been there, done that, now what' - Ed Young

The material is Ed Youngs and not mine. I am basically sharing what I found note-worthy.

My rating: 2/5 **

Id even go as far as giving him a 1/5 but because I have the book and I wanted to speed read the book and have picked up bits to put up here I give it a 2/5. The reason I do that is because its mostly things an educated, well-read person already knows. Its the repeated preaching you hear, just worded differently. Nothing original in this one!

Irony:
The current Biblical book Im reading is Solomon's Ecclesiastes. And I come across this book which basically uses the very same book to expand on lifes cliche lessons. Nothing we dont already know!

A hedonists solution: party hard!

A philosophers solution: think deeper!

An intellectuals solution: study further!

A materialists solution: acquire more!

A religionists solution: do church!

Ecclesiastes is the uncensored report from the front lines.

The pieces begin:

1. There are only 5 avenues man has pursued to give his life meaning...
wisdom,
ethics,
hedonism,
materialism and
religion.

2. The line between temperance and temptation is a fine one and many never see it until they have crossed over.

3. Many folks have said to me 'I dont believe in God'. When they do, I usually say, 'Tell me about the God you dont believe in'. They begin to describe what they think is Gods nature and his character and I am almost always forced to say 'I dont believe in THAT God either'. Jesus would say 'Im sorry you have such a distorted view of Me. That is simply not who I am'.

4. People who seek to hide from lifes questions generally do so in 5 ways: by
propaganda,
indifference,
the pursuit of happiness,
subjectivism.

5. Ted Koppel - Tv journalist:
We now communicate with everyone...and say absolutely nothing. We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel and it is a television antenna. A thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy in which everyones opinion is afforded equal weight, regardless of substance or merit. Indeed, it can be argued in televisions ocean of banalities. Our society finds truth too strong a message to digest undilted.
- Truth is out there somewhere. But it is buried beneath the propoganda of special interest acitivists whose view of life never extends beyond their own corner of creations blanket.

6. The triumphs of life are gifts, not merit badges.

7. A new age preacher captured the attn of ordinary folks and well known celebrities with its grab-bag of psuedo-religious 'choices'. It used traditional Christian terminology, incorporated tenets of eastern mysticism and pop psychology and prepared a soft, benign gospel of love as the answer to the worlds ills.

8. This world was never designed to fill our deepest hunger. There are God planned answers to every desire in this world, save one.

9. Some scientists say that one day we will be able to explain everything about the world we live in. If that sad day ever comes, I hope Im not around to see it, but Im not convinced that it will come. Because we live in a universe that is filled with awe and wonder 'crammed with heaven' as Elizabeth Browning said, but 'only he who sees takes off his shoes in revernt fear'.

10. Worship in spirit is an affair of the heart. Worship in truth is a matter of mind.

11. The great Russian writer Dostoyevsky said that we need worship more than God does, a fact Solomon discovered late and mant othgers have never known at all. 'The one essential condition of human existence is that man should alwats bve able to now down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great, they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and the Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells'. Of all the choices available to us, none holds more promise than the choice to worship the Living God in spirit and in truth.

12. Peter Kreeft:
Morality means choice.
Choice means priorities.
Priorities means a hierachy.
A hierachy means something at the top, a standard.
This is the greatest good.
If you have no greatest good, you have no hierachy of goods.
If you have no hierachy, you have no priorities.
If you have no priorities, you cannot make intelligent choices.
If you cannot make intelligent moral choices, you have no morality.

13. Wolfgang Mozart, perhaps the most brilliant musical genius to have lived on this earth, died a pauper at 35. Not a single person attended his burial. What other symphonies could he have written, with what more could he have thrilled future generations, if he had lived another decade atleast.

14. This is a great line from the book:
The super righteous are not only just as vulnerable as the wicked, theyre offensive to almost everyone. Youve probably seen them in action. They are the sanctimonious 'saints' who speak down to 'lesser mortals' attempting to impart their exclusive knowledge of the Almighty to anyone who will listen and to some who will not. The Bible speaks of them as immature but they would never view themselves that way. Oh no their quiet times are always anointed and their understanding of Scripture is bullet proof. Just ask them (if you have to). The only trouble is that their piousness doesnt guarantee them justice or protect them from lifes dilemmas.
note:
I also think that God wont give these 'holier than thou' people any preferrential treatment or that they are saved only because of their beliefs. Their lifes will need to mirror what they preach.

15. It matters not how much we love God, how much we pray or how sorry we are for our shortcomings. Moreover, our depraved nature acts like a magnet, drawing all that is depraved in this world to it this beginning a vicious cycle.
From our depravity we move to permissiveness.
From our permissiveness we move to promiscuity.
From our promiscuity we move to guilt,
from guilt to rationalization,
and finally from rationalization to rebellion.

16. Satan is not stupid, he knows we will brace ourselves for a full frontal attack but we may be oblivious to a series of small skirmishes.

17. Here was Solomons unstated thesis - Somewhere, somehow, some way under the sun, I will do something, discover something, get something, achieve something, or become something that will give life meaning.

18. There is a difference between submitting to existence and choosing to live.

19. When people tell you to 'just believe, its all faith' they generally speak out of both good intentions (??) and insecurity. The problem is , its not all faith. I never advocate a blind, a stick-your-head-in-the-sand variety of faith. That is foolish. I do advocate a reasoned faith, a trust built on solid, unimpeachable reason and facts. Christanity is rooted in time, space and history. It certainly requires a measure of faith but reason and fact create a tremendous foundation on which to build that edifice of faith.
Christanity affords an awesome arsenal of intellectual firepower to its defenders.

20.
Atheist:
Not only is atheism unsound, it is extraordinarily arrogant. Atheists claim to know about the non-existence of things in realms where they admit they have no knowledge.
Agnostic:
If there is no comparable place to rest in atheism, perhaps one exists in agnoticism. Not only are the views of the agnostic humble, but they are defensible. One can certainly know that he does not possess knowledge of something else.
Arguement from design using the famous illustration of finding a watch:
As you walk along you discover a watch,
and as you examine its intricate inner workings you notice an impressive array of wheels, springs, bolts and watch hands, all whirring together in perfect symmetry. Assembled by random chance? Not likely. Logically, you conclude that this device points to a Watchmaker.