“You may say this to Théoden son of Thengel: open war lies before him… None may live now as they have lived, and few shall keep what they call their own.”– Aragorn, speaking to Éomer on the eve of the War of the Ring; from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers

A month ago, my wife attended a town meeting here in Hadley, Massachusetts, concerning prevention of war with Iran. The meeting was sponsored by a number of local organizations, including the Order of the White Oak. Given the events in the last few weeks, which appear to be bringing us closer and closer to war, we felt it essential to distribute this information as widely as possible.

These are the notes my wife took at the meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so for about 6,000 years humanity has been running a little experiment in a kind of social order known as the “state”. In my opinion, it’s been an unmitigated failure. Time to give it up and go back to tribalism.

Why the State is a Failure

Note I’m talking about the State, i.e. large government bodies, not states like Rhode Island.

What is the purpose of a state? Up to about a hundred years ago, the states of the world were justified by nonsense like the “divine right of kings”, but nowadays people usually have other justifications in mind. Some would say its purpose is to protect its citizens from aggression; others say it should also protect its citizens’ liberty, and provide a system of justice; others say the state should help out the general welfare with education, food or wealth redistribution, health care, etc. Does a state do a good job of these things, compared to a tribe? Read the rest of this entry »

This post is going to be rather more controversial than most. I’ll be getting deep into politics. But this is at the forefront in my mind and conscience, and the shape of government and society is a spiritual issue for me.

The Fall of the Empire

The name of America tells a tale, as I outlined in this Word of the Day:

“The sounds in America seem to parallel the history of the United States. The first syllable, “a”, is pronounced “uh” and indicates both freedom and thoughtfulness, and is appropriate for the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. Its primary syllable, “mer”, is similar to the Middle English mere of mermaid, and Latin mare of maritime – the sea – and suggests a manifestation of strength and power, appropriate for the military and economic strength of the United States as it extended its domain across the continent. The next syllable, “ric”, is similar to rich, reach, and Reich, and indicates solidification and containment of power, appropriate to America’s imperial ambitions. The final syllable, “a”, is pronounced “ah”, and indicates a return to Source energy. This corresponds to nothing in America’s history… so far. We can only hope.”

Something I didn’t mention is that each phase of America’s history above corresponds to about one hundred years. The short “a” syllable pairs up with the end of the 1700’s; “mer” is the 1800’s, and “ric” is the 1900’s. Now we’re at the beginning of the final “a”, which means the American Empire – by which I mean our dominance in the economic and geopolitical sphere, despite the fact that our borders haven’t changed much since the 1800’s – should be ending.

And it is – though this may not be obvious. Read the rest of this entry »