The Death of a Terrorist

Almost all Americans spent today celebrating the death of Obama bin Laden. I have to say that I was one of them, for the most part. Now, I feel there is a need for a post other saying something other than “our God loves mercy” or “our God loves justice,” because I know that God contains both of those qualities and there are plenty of people smarter than me giving intelligent arguments in defense for whichever trait they prefer God to have.

I believe the Christian response to this situation is much more complex than mourning or rejoicing.

The killing of Osama is an issue of government. (I’ll be basing most of this argument off the discussion of secular government in Romans 13:1-7) Since Christian morals have no place in government (you cannot “force” someone to be Christian or to live a Christian lifestyle), the usual rules of Christian ethics do not apply. Instead of considering only the effects of one’s actions before God, one must consider the consequences of one’s actions to other people.

Now that was a lot of big words written at a level I’m not even sure I can comprehend, so let me provide two analogies:

1. (Christian ethical principle) You’re sitting by yourself at home when a killer comes into your home. You’re able to get a jump on him and and gain an advantage so that the killer is held at your mercy. The killer threatens you from his defenseless position, saying that he will never stop coming to your home trying to kill you. You’re in a position to kill him, but you hold to the Christian ethical principle and let him go. For the rest of your life you must live in constant watch for the killer, and must repeat the encounter (forgiveness) an infinite number of times.
2. (Christian government principle) You’re sitting at home with 300 million other people when a killer comes into your home. You’re the only one in the room who is able to gain an advantage on the intruder so that the killer is held at your mercy. The killer threatens you and all the 300 million other people from his defenseless position, saying that he will never stop coming to your home trying to kill you and everyone else. For the purpose of the defense of 300 million other innocent people, you must kill the intruder.

The Christian government principle must consider not only one’s own situation, but also the interests of others. While it is perfectly Christian to turn one’s own cheek, it is completely unacceptable to subject another’s cheek unwillingly to the same punishment.

What angers me most about the “Christian pacifist” is that they show no concern for the welfare of their neighbors. If a terrorist came into your neighborhood, would you really stand by and watch them murder everyone else in your neighborhood? While standing by may be showing love to the terrorist, it surely couldn’t be considered loving in any way in relation to your neighbors! While there are a lot of Christian bloggers right now saying that we shouldn’t think of “us” as American, it’s hard to say that other Americans aren’t our closest neighbors and the people who will see our actions most clearly. What greater human love is there than someone who is willing to lay down his life to protect his neighbor?

I think there are few people more noble and honorable than Christians serving in the military. Christians who serve for the protection of those who cannot protect themselves. Christians who are mentally confident enough to not avoid complex ethical issues (or gray areas) but rather make the choices that few of us have the stomach to make. Christians who can kill a terrorist plotting the murder of innocent people rather than hide in a corner and hope someone else does the dirty work.

Yes, I wish Osama would have repented, but he didn’t, and was plotting murder until the day he died. Yes, I wish we could have captured him alive, but I can’t justify putting innocent men of the armed forces in further danger in order to do so. If Osama was plotting to only kill me, James Laugerman, than I would take a bullet from him in an instant. But Osama was plotting to kill my friends, neighbors, co-workers, and everyone else I know, and I think it’s cowardly and foolish to put those people in danger and ask them to turn the other cheek for the sake of my conscience.

So, did I rejoice today? Yes, and no. Yes, because Osama was brought to justice and the innocent lives of my neighbors will be saved. No, because I believe that God loved Osama, and that he died with an unrepentant heart.

I’ll finish this post with a brief comment on some Scripture I’ve heard incorrectly quoted around the internet today.

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; 
   when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, – Proverbs 24:17

Being far removed from the situation makes this one inapplicable. Frankly, I don’t know any members of any terrorist clan, and I therefore have no one to boast over. When my co-workers were celebrating today, feeling free from living in fear and the satisfaction of justice, it would have been extremely inconsiderate to be the sour guy in the corner mourning the death of someone I never knew and not rejoicing with those who I do know. There are times at work to stand for Christian principles, but they must reflect a personal ethical issue, such as refusing to celebrate by engaging in binge drinking. Furthermore, the next verse in the proverb states, “or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them,” implying that God fully intends to punish the enemies of the righteous, but he will not do so if we are to become prideful as a result.

Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’ – Ezekiel 33:11

The context of this verse is interesting. It’s found in the middle of a chapter of God’s warning to Israel’s watchmen, in which much is said about the moral justification for violence in self-defense. Verse 9 says, “But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.” The point of verse 11 is that even someone as wicked as Osama bin Laden is not beyond God’s grace. If he had repented, God would have granted him salvation. Try explaining that to a relative of a victim of September 11, and it’s not going to seem as simple. How powerful is it that God desired the heart of Osama bin Laden! How powerful is it that he gave him nearly 54 years to repent! I’m sure God did mourn his unrepentant death! But it is not in my place, here in America, to pretend that I have God’s understanding of grace, and to know the grief that He has for one of his loved creations.

If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. – Luke 6:29

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. – Matthew 5:39

While I can turn my own cheek (Christian ethical principle), I cannot expect another, especially an unbeliever, to willingly turn their own (Christian government principle).

Vote for Sanity

According to the NY Times, John Stewart’s rally this past weekend had over twice as many people as Glen Beck’s rally back in August. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the rally that I found through the Washington Post website.

The Evil of Ignorance

I’m currently writing a research paper on the economic impacts of the Black Sea drought on the world wheat market. Pretty boring material, or so I thought. Then I came across this little quote, in one of the articles I read:

“A wheat stockpile in India that could feed 210 million people for a year is starting to spoil because the government lacks enough warehouses to store it.”

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/massive-wheat-stockpile-rots-in-india/article1664176/)

In one of the poorest countries in the world, with a population of millions of people struggling for survival, hundreds of tons of food is going to waste. It’s important to remember that this isn’t the result of a fascist regime; this is the result of a DEMOCRATIC government policy.

Or rather, the result of sheer ignorance. Seriously, think about it. Food for 210 million people for a year?!? Just thrown away because they didn’t have enough grain storage facilities?!?

So what does this have to do with Jesus?

There’s no question that what is happening right now in India is horrible. Everything about it seems as though it is purely evil. The truth is that it is evil, but not in the traditional sense. This story contains no rogue cowboy with a pistol out to pillage the town until the the sheriff or John Wayne comes back to town.

No, this is evil in a different kind of evil; the evil of ignorance.

The evil of people choosing not to care.

As Christians frustrated with the extremists in both political parties, it can be easy to throw in the towel in the political arena. Politics is exhausting, and we tell ourselves that arguing never gets anyone anywhere.

But that’s exactly how something like this happens. History is full of stories like this; terrible things that happen for seemingly no reason. As the English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Researching global issues isn’t fun. Becoming educated doesn’t hold the same luster as taking on John Wayne’s persona and riding into town to restore justice. Looking up where and how GAP and NIKE make their products doesn’t leave anybody with a good taste in their mouth (corpwatch.org/globalexchange.org). Figuring out how to build grain factories in India can mean getting involved with a lot of paperwork and government messes.

But we can never become ignorant.

Ignorance keeps people from loving their neighbor. Ignorance keeps people from acknowledging what Jesus did on a cross. Ignorance keeps people from living a life of the full potential God has for them.

The opposite of ignorance is truth. Truth may not always be something we want to hear, or something that makes us feel good, but truth is the only thing that has power to overcome an evil as devastating as the ignorance that is wasting 17.8 million metric tons of food in India right now.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

I Want None Of This

(title = radiohead song)

This is a picture from Glen Beck’s rally in Washington D.C. yesterday. I consider myself a fully recovered tea-party-aholic. For better comments than I could make, read this:

http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/

“When we truly discover love, capitalism will not be possible and Marxism will not be necessary.”

– Will O’Brien, The Alternative Seminary (found in “Irresistable Revolution” by Shane Clairborne).

“The Image”

The brilliant professor Deam assigned The Image (Daniel Boorsin, 1962) for reading over the last few weeks. I would have to say it would have to be one of the few books I’ve ever read out of academic necessity that I can say has been more than worth my time.

The thesis of the book is that in modern times, reality is often confused with images of reality (at best), or images of other images (at worst). Here are some memorable quotes:

“Nowadays it costs more and takes greater ingenuity, imagination, and enterprise to fabricate travel risks than it once required to avoid them.” (speaking on the evils of modern tourists)

“People go to see what they already know is there. The only thing to record, the only possible source of surprise, is their own reaction.”

“Expecting more novelty than there is, more greatness than there is, and more strangeness than there is, we imagine ourselves masters of a plastic universe. But a world we can shape to our will — or to our extravagant expectations — is a shapeless world.”

“In the twentieth century our highest praise is to call the Bible, ‘The World’s Best Seller.’ And it has come to be more and more difficult to say whether we think it is a best seller because it is great, or vice versa.”

“American audiences are incapable of confronting a book unless it is successful.”

“We risk being the first people in history t have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them. We are the most illusioned people on earth. Yet we dare not become disillusioned, because our illusions are the very house in which we live; they are our news, our heroes, our adventure, our forms of art, our very experience.”

And my personal favorite, on spirituality:

“How surprising if men who make their environment and fill experience with whatever they please could not also make their God! God himself becomes a pseudo-event with all the familiar characteristics. he is not spontaneous or self-created. He has been planned or planted — primarily for the desirable effects of having him reported or believed in. He is to be viewed like a television show only at our convenience. His power can be measured by how widely he is reported, how often he is spoken about. His relationship with underlying reality is ambiguous. As with other pseudo events, about God too, the most interesting question is not what he does but whether he exists. We worry over his prestige. By creating him we intend him to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. He is the Celebrity-Author of the World’s Best Seller. We have made God into the biggest celebrity of all, to contain our own emptiness. He is The Greatest of ‘the greatest.’ What preoccupies us, then is not God as a fact of nature, but as a fabrication useful for a God-fearing society. God himself becomes not a power but an image.”

Moderation

Alright, so my political leanings have taken a big shift towards reason this semester. I no longer wish to be associated with anything “libertarian” or “conservative.” I don’t know if I can say that I’ve made the full immersion to the “liberal” philosophy, but I’m definitely on the right track. For the record, I still disapprove of Obama, mainly for that whole terrible stimulus idea, but I’m not opposed to having an honest health care debate.

Now, I’m writing this mostly because Travis once told me way back when he was supporting Obama as he took on Hillary in the primaries that, “someday I would see the light.” I don’t know why that quote stuck in my head, but it was at his annual pancake party, and I remember it quite better than I remember things I should probably try harder to remember… like the names of the 58 people on my floor.

Anyways, here’s the situation that got me turned over to the dark side. It involves a young entrepreneur, who I’ll refer to as “Sno Man.”

Now Sno Man was telling me about my great uncle Ken Rector, who happens to be an extremely wealthy venture capitalist (as well a fictitious member of the Sounds of War 4) and lives in the country of Texas. Although Ken was a hard-working and talented architect, who was involved with projects including Legoland and a basketball stadium in San Antonio, he has made far more money in his lifetime investing in cattle, land, small businesses, and the like than he ever made on his architectural salary. This got the Sno Man’s attention, and although he is young, he has met with real estate agents and cattle owners and discussed all sorts of business terms that should be beyond his understanding until he gets a M.B.A. and has several prestigious internships on his resume.

Analysis time. The liberal economic mantra has always been, “the rich get richer.” The conservative has always responded with, “the rich earn their pay.” Hmm. Alright… let’s propose a counter-scenario to see if this clears anything up.

An esteemed journalist graduates with high marks from a well known university and gets a real job at a newspaper. We’ll call him “Jimmy P.” Jimmy P. works hard, gains a respectable reputation, and gives his time helping others at the local church. Jimmy P. reads the newspapers (since he writes them), and knows there is a real estate and cattle boom happening. Jimmy thinks, “if only I had $100,000 to invest, I could double my investment in less than 6 months!” Sadly, Jimmy’s salary only allows him to pay the bills and save enough cash to buy a lucky girl a ring someday.

All things considered, in a capitalist slugfest, it appears that Sno Man knocks out Jimmy P. in the first round.

Or let’s examine another conservative example; the start-up business owner.

J. Hobbes is a Korean immigrant adjusting to life in the big midwest. He’s renting an apartment, and he quickly realizes that he needs money if he wants to avoid getting kicked out by his roommates. He reads an economic book that tells him he can be successful by starting a business. J. Hobbes goes and gets a government loan to start a business (on a program that was introduced by an esteemed democratic representative). J. Hobbes understands the business world, and has the knowledge and work ethic it takes to succeed. The problem, however, is that the start-up costs of his business are going to take every penny out of his loan. J. Hobbes estimates that it’s going to take about 2 years before he can start to turn a profit. The only problem is his roommates aren’t too happy when they find out that he won’t be able to pay rent for two years. They threaten to kick him out, so J. Hobbes gets a job at Stuff World, where he saves up his minimum wage salary so he can buy a house and trade his roommates for a wife and children.

Conservatives since Nixon have characterized the government as evil, and have won elections by running against the government. They say we can’t have government running America, and that America belongs to the private enterprises of Sno Man and Stuff World. They say the government won’t tell you the truth, and that for-profit media sources are the enlightenment and the Glenn Becks and Limbaughs are our prophets. They say America’s founders framed the Constitution so that the government would stay out of people’s lives.

What if the government wasn’t evil? What if we, the people, were truly informed, and could actually do something to change it? What if the people held politicians accountable for what they do (even the ones who get elected because they “don’t want to run America”)?

Idealistic liberal mantra? Of course. It’s hardly realistic to expect to our tv/facebook generation to change the trend our parents started. But the key point here is that something can be done, and has nothing to do with angry outbursts against the politicians who go to Washington and say they’re going to change things. It is healthy to have a skepticism about government, but I believe pure capitalism is turning America into madness.

What should be done about it? Leave me alone, I’ve only been a liberal for a few days… but I believe that something should be done other than leaving the final authority of this country out of the government, and out of the hands of the common people.

I leave you with a youtube video. It’s from the film “Network” (1976), which we’re watching in my political science class (American Media). I think it’s one of the greatest films ever made.

This scene is the highlight of the film. Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is a fictitious newscaster who went insane on live television and became an instant hit. This is one of his television programs, which someone from youtube juxtaposed with modern newscasts. Try to watch it all the way through, and enjoy!”

Narcissus and Echo

Along with Psalm 115, this was required recording for my political science class.

Now for the 99% of who didn’t click the link and read the story (don’t feel bad… I wouldn’t have), allow me to summarize.

The story is actually an ancient Greek myth entitled, “Narcissus and Echo,” which takes up a few chapters in Ovid’s book, “Metamorphosis.” The main character, Narcissus (from which we derive narcissism) is a handsome young lad who doesn’t really care about any of the young maidens who are hopelessly in love with him. One of the maidens, Echo, has been cursed by one of the gods so that she has no voice of her own; only the echo of others. She follows Narcissus into the woods, where they have a “conversation.” When Narcissus sees her, he runs away, leaving her in tears. Echo and the other maidens pray to one of the gods requesting that Narcissus “may love himself, so may he fail to win the one he loves.” The god answers the prayer, and as Narcissus passes by a pool of water, he is entranced by his own reflection. Narcissus becomes so entranced that he loses complete touch with reality, believing that his love is literally in the water. He refuses to leave his love, and so dies at the edge of the pool.

Pretty deep stuff.

We made all sorts of connections to Rush Limbaugh and the media falling in love with itself in the political science class. It was quite fun, but I think the meaning behind this story translates quite well into the personal realm as well. And, like Psalm 115, it’s a little more dense than, “don’t love yourself” (or you’ll die by the pool).

However, as this is a work of art, rather than Scripture, I will address it as such. This is a new song I’ve written (“Narcissus“) that both steals phrases from the story verbatim as well as attempts to construct new poetic images. Lyrically, it is the deepest song I’ve ever written. The meanings can be interpreted as incredibly personal, although they are written to be completely objective. It is written from the first person perspective of Narcissus. Most of the lyrics are him talking to himself, with the exception of his conversation with Echo. I realize this is incredibly abstract, but I’ll try and help with the interpretation at the end. Parenthesis indicate Echo’s voice. This will eventually be a James & James song, where harmonies will be included on all of the lines where Echo feels exactly the same way as Narcissus (underlined).

Has anyone ever had a crueler love than mine
The ivory tones upon the neck
The beauty of the face, the glowing of the skin

Just ’cause you’re here doesn’t mean it’s right
You follow me around when I need to be alone

May I die before you hold me in your power (hold me in your power)

Has anyone ever had a crueler love than mine
Water like glass to separate
Desires of my heart from the skin I’ll never hold

Just ’cause you’re here doesn’t mean it’s right
You follow me around when I need to be alone

May I die before you hold me in your power (hold me in your power)

Broken-hearted you stretched out your hands
An echo for the youthful voice who prayed this curse on me
“So may he love himself
So may he fail to win the one he loves“

I found my love (found my love)
In the water (the water)
So close to me (close to me)
Yet out of reach (out of reach)
Come see through my eyes (see through my eyes)
Come out to my world (out to my world)
It’s everything and I can’t look away (look away)
No I can’t look away (look away)
I am the enchanted one (enchanted one)
The enchanted one (enchanted one)
The enchanted one (enchanted one)
The enchanted one (enchanted one)
But I’ll die alone

I’m sure I lost you, but that’s ok. Let me attempt to explain. First, let me say that every word of every line matters. Does that help? Probably not.
The first verse is straight out of the myth; with Narcissus commenting on his predicament with the reflection in the water.
The next stanza is him addressing Echo, expressing his complete disinterest in her and need to be alone.
The third stanza is him addressing Echo, referring to her love as “power.”
The fourth stanza (second verse) is him refocusing on the pool of water and remarking on the hopelessness of his love.
The fifth and sixth stanzas are repeated for emphasis.
The seventh stanza is him telling how he was cursed; by another youth with Echo repeating his words.
The last stanza is the climax of the song. Picture Narcissus staring at the pool, slowly moving towards insanity with Echo helplessly watching him. Echo repeats his own words back to him, wanting him to listen and come back to reality. (This is the part of the song I’m especially proud of).

Another way to think of it would be the five acts of a Shakespearean tragedy:

Act I (stanzas 1 and 4): Hero falls in love
Act II (stanzas 2 and 5): Hero leaves behind everything for love
Act III (stanzas 3 and 6): Hero makes declaration of sacrifice for love
Act IV (stanza 7): Villain curses hero
Act V (stanza 8): Hero progressively becomes insane and eventually dies

The greatest irony of the story is that Narcissus would have been equally unsatisfied had he fallen in love with Echo; who could never be more than a reflection of himself.

(Note on the recording… here’s your second chance to download it: CLICK ME!

This is a rough recording I could have to get my ideas straight…not final by any stretch, as it doesn’t include James Pusey yet. His harmonies will be far superior to mine… guaranteed.)

It’s the economy, stupid!

Alright, so after a summer of political radio listening, I can say with confidence that I “disapprove” of President Obama. It’s pretty clear that the rhetoric of his speeches doesn’t really match up with what he’s done from the Oval Office.

In his inauguration speech, he promised to reduce government size wherever government was inefficient. He promised to increase government only where it was found to be efficient at creating jobs and stimulating the economy. It doesn’t take too hard of a look at the “stimulus” package to realize that most of the money was used for bailing out inefficient state governments. Even after spending a trillion dollars, it’s pretty clear that the economy hasn’t really been “stimulated” all that much. As there are now talks of a second “stimulus” bill in the works, this makes me nervous.

I was livid when I heard about the forced closings of hundreds of local Chrysler dealerships; many of whom had shown a profit. It was a perfect example of the flaws of “top-down” management that takes a concept that may be true in the abstract sense, (that fewer, larger car dealerships will make the company more efficient) and ends up ruining the lives of many hard-working Americans. You can say it was Chrysler, not the government, that did this, but it was the government who forced Chrysler to come up with a better “business model” and stood by with approval as they carried out this new plan.

There was an interview on Jan Michelson back in June about an Iowa Chrysler dealer who had been told by Chrysler earlier this year that he needed to purchase more inventory to help bail the company out. Although he knew it was a risky business move at best, he obliged to the company’s wishes, only to find out a few months later that he would not be able to sell that inventory a few weeks later. Even though he owned it. Worse, Chrysler (or the government) wouldn’t buy back his inventory. He said he plea to the appeals court. Jan informed us a month later he had been denied. He went from being a successful life-long car dealer to an unemployed worker a million dollars in debt overnight.

I think the President’s original proposals on the environment and health care were far from “bipartisan,” and it infuriated me how the legislators ignored the opposing views and wrote bills (that no one actually read) behind closed doors. Quick timetables were set to leave no room for debate or revisions to the bills, although fortunately some Democrats were smart enough to realize that they were going to quickly lose their positions if they passed something that held such a low public opinion.

And then, of course, there’s the national debt. I’m tired of hearing “it’s not as bad as Bush” because for one, it is (if not at an even greater pace), and two, because that was one of Bush’s biggest problems. The average American is now born into $40,000 (probably a little high… but that’s the right wing radio statistic) of debt. About 1/10 of our annual budget goes to paying interest for past debt. China doesn’t believe we’re good for our money, and there seems to be no interest in lowering our expenses. There was some talk of increasing taxes, which actually wouldn’t be the worst idea considering the crises, but no one in Congress (save Ron Paul) seems to be interested in passing any sort of “equal budget law” which would prevent Congress from passing irresponsible budgets.

The problem, of course, is that its really easy to get re-elected if you can show how you’ve spent money to help your constituents. It’s easy to spend money on your constituents if you’re using money from people other than constituents. Taxing future generations to create spending money is politically smart, but is going to ruin this country, if it hasn’t done so already.

Which brings me to the economy…

I’m not an economist by any means. I took Econ 102 (Macroeconomics) last semester and I think I squeaked by with a B. It was a challenge for me, mostly because the professor was horrible, but also because I just didn’t see the connections between the textbook diagrams and the way the politicians talked about the economy.

Politicians talk all the time about the need to create jobs. There is a need to create jobs to produce products to make money, and the jobs also allow people to buy products, which allows our economy to grow. It’s a circular diagram. It makes sense, I suppose, especially in a micro sense of thinking. If I have a job, I’m being productive, as well as having spending money.

I thought about it a lot this summer (while killing bugs), and I’m just not convinced it’s that simple. This isn’t my final dissertation on the subject, but rather questions that I haven’t been able to answer.

I’ll start with jobs. A long time ago, America used to make things. From toys to t-shirts, chances are it wasn’t made too far from your hometown. The people employed by the toy factory had money to buy t-shirts, and the people that made the t-shirts had money to buy the toys. Of course, there was always all sorts of labor disputes between the workers and the managers, and often the workers were taken advantage of and not given a fair wage, but eventually fair labor laws were passed. The price of toys and t-shirts went up, but the people at the toy factory had more money to spend on t-shirts.

All along the way, people from other countries began to take notice. People would come to America to buy our products. Our economy not only became more domestically efficient, but began to grow due to the inflow of capital. Where we may have started with 100 tons of gold, thanks to foreign investment, we now had 1000 tons of gold. Everyone assumed America would continue to grow, and continue to make better products more efficiently. People would soon be able to work fewer hours during the week for more money, and America would always be the envy of the world.

But slowly, everything changed. Everyone knows the story from here; American jobs were sent abroad, where labor was cheaper, and Americans began to work in “service jobs” rather than “manufacturing jobs.” People talk about the dangers of this all the time; how Wal-Mart’s low prices are going to kill our economy.

But there’s something I still don’t understand. I don’t understand how our service jobs help our economy at all. Unless your service makes me more efficient at manufacturing something, it all seems to be sort of an endless cycle. We have services to help make our services make our other services more efficient.

And then there’s advertising jobs. The advertising industry is one of the fastest growing in America, and an advertising degree from Iowa State is one of the most promising degrees a student can graduate with. The average first year salary of someone with an advertising degree is much higher than those graduating with teaching, journalism, and all degrees form the LAS College.

But what does an “advertiser” do? Obviously, they help people sell their products. Sounds innocent enough, I suppose. In theory, the more product information that is made available, the more likely it is that the consumer will make a better choice, leading to a more efficient economy rewarding good manufactured products. In practice, consumers usually choose the product that is best advertised.

Consider Coke and Pepsi, two comparable products. The CEO of Pepsi wants to sell as much as possible, so he invests a billion dollars in Pepsi advertisements. The CEO of Coke notices his sales have dropped, so he decides to invest two billion dollars in advertisements. Pepsi comes back with four billion dollars, and the CEO’s go back and forth until they have each spent fifty billion dollars, and the sales of each have equalized because people are seeing so much advertisement for each that they don’t notice the difference if they see 100 advertisements a day for Coke and 110 a day for Pepsi.

The problem is now that Coke and Pepsi are both more expensive. Neither company is necessarily more profitable, and customers aren’t necessarily making more informed decisions. While Coke’s marketing director is now a millionaire, I would argue that the kids detasseling corn over the summer are actually making more of a contribution to our economy, as we export our corn all over the world. (sidenote: considering only Coke’s marketing for domestic purposes… international advertising may be a worthwhile investment, actually, but only if it is competing against foreign products)

Now, what if someone invented a machine that was able to detassel corn without any human intervention? Wouldn’t that be great? Of course! Except all of a sudden thousands of teenagers are out of summer jobs. The cornfield owner is happy with the machine, and becomes much more profitable, but he sees no reason to share the wealth with the teenagers. The teenagers aren’t able to save up for college because they have no job, so they vote Democrat and force the cornfield owner to pay for them to get Liberal Arts and Science degrees. The teenagers get out of college, presumably much wiser than the cornfield owner, and now need jobs. The teenagers write letters to their Democratic representative and tell him of their plight. The Democratic representative sits down and writes a bill that will increase the cornfield owner’s taxes to provide government jobs for the new graduates. The psychology, sociology, political science, and women’s studies majors all start work for the government, and they all perform their specific services for each other. They are grateful to the cornfield owner for paying his taxes, and offer their services to him free of charge. The cornfield owner is not happy, however, to be making the same amount of money as the “Director of Public Psychiatric Services,” and refuses to pay him a visit because he doesn’t consider himself to be a headcase.

On a larger scale, I think this is what the U.S. economy is turning into. There are approximately 300 million people living in America. We’ve become so efficient at producing everything that I would guess we only need about 100 million “real” jobs. That number is not scientific at all, and is probably way too high. Only 1% of our population works on a farm. I would say that another 1% of the population works service jobs to make our farming more efficient. Other than that, our economy is mostly “creating jobs,” and its only going to get harder. The internet marketplace will one day replace even the Wal-Mart jobs, new mechanical inventions will require even less labor, and fewer and fewer people are going to control more and more of the wealth. Not because they’re scumbags who take advantage of their workers, not because the working population is lazier, and not because the government tax system messed everything up; it’s just because of advancing technology.

I believe this is what is happening in America. Everything is changing, and the argument shouldn’t be controlled by a socialist/capitalistic debate.

I listened to President Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope” this summer on audiobook, as read by the President himself. I was actually really impressed. I felt like he had written the book for his cynics and critics, rather than for his celebrity following. He addressed both sides of issues, and talked about why he believed the way he did. It was all very interesting, actually. I even enjoyed hearing the story about how he met his wife, and what family life was like while he was running for Senator. I feel like I would genuinely like Barrack Obama, like I would genuinely like George W. Bush if I were to get to know them personally. Obama even said that he admired and highly respected George W. Bush on a personal level, and his only problem with Bush was his policies. I hope Obama learns from his spring and summer mistakes and is able to match the rhetoric that I’ve come to admire him for.

As for the larger questions about the economy… I just hope I have a job when I graduate.

Music + Politics = Best Comedy Ever

If you haven’t heard of the Gregory Brothers yet, I urge you to watch every single one of their videos.

They tickle my sense of humor. Add Ron Paul to the mix … and you can complete the euphoric analogy yourself.

Reflections of God

April has been very good to me, thus far. 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice! … Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the PEACE OF GOD, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Phillipians 4:4-8

Update since my last post — I now have a girlfriend, a great job for the summer, an apartment in Ames for three months, a James and James CD release show scheduled (April 25 @ Zeke’s!), a perfect fall semester schedule, a friend converted to the political science major, a nearly-finished gigantic political science project, and even some breathing room for free time. Wow. I know I didn’t deserve any of that. Except maybe the nearly-finished political science project. 

I think I can easily say that I’m happier now than I’ve been in a long time. 

I’ve learned something spiritually, though, that I think is worth sharing. Surely, one would expect me at this point of my life to have little difficulty exalting the name of God. Sure, all of my gains might be hard to see as direct gifts from the Father himself, but I’d like to believe that they are. I also see that much of my past experiences were direct gifts from God, even though many of them weren’t nearly as pleasant, and I was less than grateful for them. I’d like to believe that right now, however, I’m doing my part to add to the glory of God.

Which leads me to a question that has puzzled me for quite some time: How can humans, even those who know Christ, bring glory to God? If God is really as powerful as He says he is, than why does he need us? What could we possibly bring to him?

I never was able to completely answer this question before recently. My thinking always floated something along the lines of, “Well, I’m doing all the right things, so I must be bringing glory to God.” I tended to ignore the assumed irrelevance of my actions. 

It’s true, we can’t really add anything to God’s glory. Believing that we can tends to add the unnecessary burden of the works of God onto our backs. Any fruit of our labor comes because we are a part of the vine of Christ, and he remains in us. It is His work, not our own, which is reflected in us, that causes us to do anything in His name — that we might boast in Christ. 

We are reflections — created in the image of God.

The closer we are to God, the closer we are to his glory. It is a perversion of truth to believe the closer we are to God, the closer He is to our glory. 

He has shared his glory with us. He has given us the chance to have our names in the eternal book of life. He has sent the Holy Spirit, part of the very person of God, to be with us in our lives on earth. We are here to be witnesses and reflections of His glory.

It’s a change of perspective. The focus isn’t, “How can I prove myself a godly person?” but rather, “How am I a reflection of God himself?” The focus is inward, knowing the fullness of Christ will allow one to exert outward. 

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” 

This is the verse that I had based my former perspective on. Looking three verses earlier, however, in John 15:5, Jesus makes it clear what he means by bearing fruit. 

“… If a man remains in me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

What gain is there to being a good person without knowing Christ, if all are condemned and God isn’t watching? 

And what loss is it to live your life for love, kindness, and mercy, thinking they will bring you any closer to God!

The fruit of my faith is not the good things that have happened to me recently; the fruit is that I have the PEACE OF GOD within me. I have accepted Christ’s gift that I might “have life, and have it to the fullest.” With my future secure, there is nothing to be afraid of, and nothing to worry about.

Or, as Thom Yorke wrote, “There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt.”

Elements of Radiohead: Truth

Elements of Gay-Marriage Proponents: Truth

Elements of teaching in Church: Truth

But it is the PEACE OF GOD which transcends all understanding, and will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.