Interesting Times
The recent accidental downing of
the Navy’s P-3 Reconnaissance Aircraft by Chinese aircraft was a sudden case of
“interesting times”. The ancient Chinese curse of “May you live in interesting
times.” is a subtle curse. For much of
history in China, a person had to be interested or they could die from a simple
misstep among a hundred hidden dangers, many of them political or military. The
impact of this kind of attention on a person’s psyche is closer to trauma than
the pleasure produced by a satisfaction of intellectual exercise. No one who has lived through such times finds it a pleasant
experience or can forget the terror at the heart of such times in history.
Thankfully,
we are capable of learning from both types of experience.
The curse of interesting times is to be cursed with
potentially fatal crisis. The kind of crisis’s which require deep thought and
dramatic risks in order to survive. Unfortunately, such a crisis was at the
center of the 11 days the previous to China’s release of the plane’s crew. It
was not a totally unpredictable event for reasons clearly discernible now. But
it’s always surprising, even after all these years, how rapidly these sorts of
things can cause one to feel they have suddenly slipped and fallen down stairs.
It riveted the national consciousness in a very short a time and seems to have
released it just as quickly but we need to understand the implications of the
great diplomatic drama that unfolded. It’s very speed and sudden high stakes
indicates a sore point in our existence. We must heal it before it brings us
serious harm. We cannot leave such a climatic event as war with China to such
uncontrollable events such as we have just witnessed.
Not that either government should be much faulted
for their handling of the crisis. Though the delay in the release of the crew
seemed overly long to us, in the end the decision, could be interpreted as firm
and well decided in favor of a peaceful resolution to the crisis by the Chinese
government. We were given a peace offering when the crew was released. We
should accept it graciously and I am proud to think we have. The general public
will never truly know at what price this gift of peace was obtained but it
seems not to have been too high. Both sides drew back quickly from a precipice
of war so high both great nations saw they could be swallowed completely by the
abyss. Such fears subsided in America with the release of the crew, but that
the specter of war should rise so quickly because of an accident caused by
youthful hi-jinks remains a continuing source of nervousness and needs to be
adequately addressed. The question is too important to be left only to governments.
How strange it was, to suddenly be confronted with
thoughts of war with China. It surprised us, even though there nothing was said
in public, each one of us calculated the population ratio of 5 to 1, speculated
quietly with friends, and shivered with the thought privately. The thought
seized us in the darkest regions of our history, racism mingled in the light of
the Great Power struggles of the last 200 years. We are reminded the great wars
have been East-West not North-South. Are the United States and China following
some pre-ordained pattern of conflict? Such beliefs are superstition.
It is not the first time a challenger in the West
has arisen. Not so long ago we struggled with another Asian nation for
dominance of the great Pacific trade basin. We should be remembered we won that
one ultimately through the use of nuclear weapons and it has stained our
reputation ever since. The logic of their use remains a frightening precedent.
Such history must be being pondered in the think tanks of both Nations right
now. The only thing they know with certainty is what the rest of us know, the
outcome is completely unknown and unpredictable. They must be fearful. It is
time for leadership and it is weak because of our own internal politics and a
President with little known aptitude for foreign policy. Though to be fair, I
think the seasoning and experience of his cabinet was displayed with aplomb and
we were lucky to have it in place in this moment of difficult and high stakes
diplomacy. Let’s hope Chaney’s heart holds out. Otherwise Bush and the
Republican right, like a street gang with a bad attitude, seem to be on a
crusade to antagonize almost every foreign power and make them think they are
insignificant to our decisions. This is a formula for disaster. We can not
claim world leadership if we are not cooperative with others in the world, nor
expect the world to be ultimately gentle with our arrogance. Undeterred, George
W., unlike his father, continues to make enemies among former allies at an
alarming rate.
Fortunately we found the idea of war shocking, but
it is not good we were surprised. The challenge to both nations is to
understand the difficulties they face and find ways to overcome them. Let us
focus on the primary question which threatens our survival in the 21st
century.
Can we create peace faster than we can poison the
Earth?
War is a sure way to poison it faster. A framework
of peace and cooperation must be established if we are not descend into war.
It became an International Zen moment.
First what is a “Zen moment”? This is a moment in
which stays with us for one reason or another. It is a moment so revealing and
surprising in its conveyance of truth that we remember it for the rest of our
lives. It becomes part of us in our pondering of things, for the rest of our
days. Hopefully it is a beautiful moment. However, such moments are only loyal
to truth, esthetic or moral meaning is not assured. Reverence for the pure
beauty and intensity of truth is the only promise such moments fulfill with any
certainty. Our identity is compromised in such moments. Depth and meaning
stored as dramatic blips of memory forming islands in the vast but boring ocean
of existence we call our lives.
Romance, is a good example of this. Does a woman think about her chore
as she takes out the trash, or is she wondering about the faithfulness of her
lover around the blip of desire for him, overcoming her doubts while she sorts
through the re-cyclibles. Which is more important to her, the chores she must
perform to get through the mundane business of daily survival, or the moments
of her life in which she found profundity. Which characteristic is important to
our understanding, her obvious actions or the things she “thinks” are
worthwhile. We would not be content if she was merely described by the obvious,
simply as a “garbage carrier”. We would be insulted and outraged by the
insensitivity of such a comment, because it diminishes human nature, our
nature. Our lives are largely composed of the low but we live on the higher
peaks of experience.
To try to be concise, a Zen moment is a shocking
moment of clarity, which enters the warp and weave of our existence. It changes
us forever in some fundamental way, largely because of its overwhelming nature.
Overwhelming because of the power of truth is revealed. Some say it is a
glimpse of God seen in an instant. I give credence to the notion. If he created
the universe in an instant then he could certainly reveal himself in an
instant. A Zen moment is more than a moment because it lives with us forever.
War could be considered a kind of Zen Moment. Both
change our existence permanently, but a Zen moment, unlike the experience of
war, lasts only a moment. As bitter or as beautiful as the Zen Moment may be,
it passes without real harm and leaves us healthier and wiser. It shocks and
disturbs us profoundly but it sweeps away old ways of thinking making way for
new. After the shock has passed we feel lighter, clearer headed, stronger,
filled with greater resolve to face our problems. While war may bring forth
such feelings, they are trivial in comparison to the finality of death
produced.
In war, all are weakened, winners and losers are
brutalized, the goal of one side is the destruction of the other and this is an
ugly business. Entire populations devote their lives to the killing of other
peoples. One side is destroyed. One side is crippled. Scars are left which take
centuries to heal.
Just ask the Europeans, but the Europeans have been
deafening in their silence in this matter. We who have allied with Britain and
France their times of need now feel friendless in the face of the heavy lifting
such a conflict might require. This is a seemingly small thing but it is not an
insignificant shift in the balance of power. It must be remembered the
Anglo-French-American alliance dominated the twentieth century. A weakening of
this alliance seems inevitable as the European Union dilutes the decisiveness
of these two formerly independent powers. If an alliance of such historical
importance is uncertain, shouldn’t we be concerned as we try to discern what
the 21st century might look like? They us owe some comfort but the
possibility of a war of such magnitude has made them understandably cautious and
it has made the alliance appear weak at a moment when strength might have been
necessary. In one of the many ironies history holds, only the Russians seem to
have some sympathy for us. Would they be our allies? We don’t know, we only know we are suddenly alone. Perhaps
undeservedly so, but alone nonetheless. If the Europeans want to abandon the
Asian theater we Americans have no one to count on except our Asian allies and
ourselves. Our Asian Allies are not insignificant,
but such a war might make for new alliances and revive simmering anti-Chinese
sentiments. This may cause China or other nations to act unpredictably thereby
bringing dramatic and permanent instability in the region.
It is time to remind ourselves we are not Europeans.
This may be a very good thing because we are free to choose a new and historic
course for the world, one that brings peace and prosperity to all. This may
seem utopian but it wouldn’t be the first time America has accomplished great
things in history, nor China either. Let
us set this as our mission, it is our only option. Let the Europeans destroy
themselves with their undisciplined violence. Neither America nor China should
be interested in such a foolish course of action. Fortunately, we have the
benefit of a largely positive history with one another over the course of the
last 200 years. It is perhaps fitting I attend a church, built in the early
1800’s with the profits of the Chinese-American trade, the source of the first
great American fortunes.
We must draw on our positive experiences to overcome
the pull of uncontrolled rivalry. We Americans must carry the burden of reason
into this era of new decisions as our founding fathers wanted us to do. A new
world is at hand it will be of our creation and our responsibility to see it
well done. It will be reason which will bring forth a decent world, if there is
to be one for our children. We must
seek a path of peace and not allow ourselves to be drawn suddenly into war by a
chance event, like the assassination that started World War I, or the
accidental downing of a spy plane. The consequences of another “War to end all
wars” would be just as catastrophic for us as it was for the Europeans. We, the
Americans, would probably win such a conflict in the end, but only at great
sacrifice of people, ships, material, and moral stature. Whether the American
public would bear such costs for long in such a war is a question that will
almost certainly serve to prolong such a conflict. Where it might end is too
awful to contemplate. Let’s always remember, war is full of bad surprises.
We must find divine portent in the fact the world’s
oldest power and the world’s newest must come to understand one another if they
are each to survive and prosper. The philosophy of the Chinese can understand
this as can the reason of the Americans. The Spy Plane incident could have been
the opening salvo in a great conflict, but at the moment the crew was returned,
it became an opportunity for peace. I salute the decision makers who made this
happen for their experience, discipline, and wisdom.
Now we can think of the incident was an important
first step in a great dance of enormous historical importance to both
countries. As dance partners let us treat each other with grace, strength, and
agility. Let our guiding principles be those of trust, gentleness, and a
reverence for life, the essential building blocks of our civilizations. Let us
come to appreciate the beauty of each other, as we have historically always
strived to do. The grace of each partner will be the pleasure of the other. But
both countries must step lightly, because the toes stepped on may not be those
of our partners, but those of God. This dance can be our blessing or our curse.
Let us look upon this as a dance of the divine, not a march of the damned. We
have had the good fortune to see this opportunity without a disaster. It was
only a Zen Moment not a war and a good omen for the future. So step lightly and
lively me hardies because,
as any of the crew of the Spy Plane can tell you, one would be privileged
indeed, to know when, they dance for God.
May 11, 2001
An
Appeal For Grants to Develop a Private Refugee response system.