What Happened to "The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number"?

The human experience begins with and is primarily about the individual. However, if it stops there, there is no humanity. Humanity is the persistent condition when in the end the individual is driven towards the greater composition of individuals.  Put another way, the individual's first responsibility begins with oneself, then to another, then to others (i.e. the family), then to the entire community and group of communities, and ultimately to the whole country of communities. At which point the greatest number must account for the greatest good.  The responsibility of the many is to seek, work and aspire for the good of the many.

When American democracy was born in 1776, it was hailed as a noble experiment by many around the world and an inspiration to those from the outside looking in who sought freedom from the bondage of monarchies and oligarchies that were then the prevailing systems upon which societies were held and under which individuals were the subservient entities.  American democracy not only survived its birth, it grew and flourished for almost two and a half centuries today. And today millions from around the world still consider it one of the places, if not the top destination upon which to anchor their hopes and aspirations for a better life than what they have at the present moment, wherever they are.

Two years from now in 2026 America will be 250 years old.  It will have reached that age of maturity when empires and regional civilizations attained their peak before waning; all of them  ruled either by monarchy or oligarchy. Indeed, America was the first world power to have achieved empire status that was not a monarchy or oligarchy and will likely, hopefully anyway,  defy the common path other world powers ended up with. Before then, it was Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the Caesars, the Tzars, the Queens and Kings of Europe that powers were projected from the thrones where they sat. 

America made possible for the will of its people to be collected and collated through regularly held elections to fill both legislative houses of Congress where laws are written, signed by the president (also elected) who then wields power through the executive branch while the judiciary decides when and where there are legal disputes.  It is important to have a quick review of how a republic government works lest we forget. Worryingly, civic classes are not exactly in the top 10 list of today's high schools' priorities.  And there lies the danger.

However, the greatest peril in a democracy is when the majority no longer realizes that it is what constitutes the greatest number and that its greatest responsibility is for the greatest good of the whole.

Today, America is the most diverse in terms of the makeup of its population when compared to every other nation in the world.  You will not find such diversity anywhere else - not in Russia, China, a lot less in N. Korea and Japan, and clearly not in many places in Europe. Of course, that does not say a lot if the rights of its citizens are not equally protected. In the early stages of its inception, for a new nation, its record for allowing for the rights of those in the minority to be recognized and given equal treatment under the law was not one of its proudest moments, i.e. in the treatment of the indigenous people and blacks during the years of slavery, etc.

However long it took, and however the many ways tried, the country made amends. It did take some time. A century and a half after its founding, the country made unprecedented changes.

For the record, because this is not well known, long before the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) had already been established long before then; the earliest was in 1837, first as African Institute and now named the Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.  Of the 101 HBCUs today, most were founded by Protestant religious leaders.  Martin Luther King and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall were graduates of HBCUs.

By the time of the Civil Rights Act, the country's racial healing begun. Long before Michael Jackson and Beyonce and so many black luminaries who received the embrace of the general population, lest we forget, Nat King Cole was singing Christmas carols in the 50s that sold well in record (pun intended) number and Althea Gibson became the first African American to win the French Tennis Open in 1956 and 1958 and was voted the Best Female Athlete in that year by the Associated Press; before Arthur Ashe had his signature on what became a sought after composite tennis racket in the 70s and 80s.

The Civil Rights Act cemented the country's will and determination to end racial discrimination.  Despite that, there are still too many seeds being sown today - seeds of doubt, discontent and faithlessness in the system - and the danger is that the soil upon which the seeds are thrown are being cultivated and nurtured.  But we must ask, "Why?"  But first we ask why today's political divide is still fueled with combustible ingredients of racism and ideological differences that has kept the chasm  so far apart and ever widening.

Today, if we look around, read the headlines, listen to political and social pundits, scour the social media for named and nameless proponents of one cause or another, we see and hear a multitude of grievances and aggrieved pockets of population who feel oppressed or offended. What was created was a panoply of numerous minorities - though no longer about skin color or ethnicity - who claim to be oppressed and discriminated against who want attention and relief by special accommodations and specific legal and moral protections.  However, what is not often discussed is that there are already laws in existence protecting them and everyone else simply by being citizens and law abiding members of American society.

We should recognize that equality and equity are not synonymous. Nowhere else than here that equality of opportunity is available to anyone willing to work but it must be recognized that equality of results is not guaranteed.  Equity is only available to those who   have already willingly invested something they have already earned; hence equity is not a guaranteed result unless one took the opportunity to invest.

Forty five years ago a family of four from one of the Pacific Islands came with nothing but four suitcases of clothes and a few children's toys to avail of the same opportunity available to everyone willing to take it.  I can proudly say that we are enjoying the equities earned from all those years of investing in hard work and every opportunity available but always mindful that all along we knew that results were not guaranteed except for a chance to take part in one of the greatest experiments ever tried. And it still works.

How many more "less-than-one-per-cent" pockets of groups that the majority must create special accommodations for?  It is reasonable to conclude that this country has dealt with one too many already. But the perceived wounds are often created not from a blood-gushing injury but from what starts as a small itch, rash or inflammation that could have easily been mitigated by a simple salve of common sense. But as always the case, people find a way to turn it into an infection.

No wound will heal for as long as we keep scratching the scabs.  Old wounds will seem fresh every time we scratch them and it is as if we will not stop until it bleeds once more. And there will be no end if we keep creating new rashes and itches to add to the collective sensitivities.

I hope the reader will see that in between the lines of these musing are many snippets of common sense that are often missed or ignored.

 

 

Can You See What I Hear, Can You Hear What I See?

 

Three years ago,   on my birthday, I wrote, "Why Growing Old Beats the Alternative?" I quote from that musing a paragraph, below:

If the price of the ticket to growing old are chronic pains, a bigger medicine cabinet, a thicker medical file, fading vision and straining to listen to normal conversation, or having hip or knee replacements, always keep in mind that that ticket is not due to be collected till towards the end.  So, enjoy the journey to its fullest.

I and so many of you and readers from different stages of their journey through time are now realizing, bit by bit, that the price of the ticket is accruing interest. That is because it was purchased on a term plan - paying as we go along on installment - since we couldn't have known then for how long we will use the ticket. So, we'd like to hold on to it, not quite ready to relinquish it yet,  but ever mindful of and are accepting the accrued interest as time goes by until it is due. 

Installment payments in this case are the way to go, accruing interests notwithstanding, because as always the alternative is not so great once full payment is due for collection. I hope that the reader can relate to what I write here - anecdotal episodes that make up the story of life - personal, yet universal in a way, as a basis upon which most of you may reflect on the many stages of growing old or older and how we deal with the inevitable challenges of aging. The good news is that we are living today in an age where technology and modern medicine work together to help us navigate the one and only direction available to us because no one is exempt from the movement of time.

It must have been close to four decades ago, still very much actively playing tennis, when I noticed little changes.  It was usually after work  that most of my tennis were played with the same players from my subdivision with similar work schedules, which meant playing as the sun was about to set. 

The tennis court lights which ran on timer and light sensors didn't come on until the sun did its  slow descent below the horizon. I noticed that I wasn't hitting the tennis ball as well as when I played on weekends which are usually in the mornings or mid afternoon.  

Some months later my driver's license came due for renewal about a month or so before my birthday.  The renewal letter required that I appear  in person (as opposed to renewal by mail) for a vision test since it's been years since the last one.  

"You failed the test", said the lady behind the counter. I protested that that can't be right.   "I drove to the license office, didn't I"? Then I quickly added, "I can read the words on that poster by the far end at that wall there and I can read the finest print you have".  She replied, "Go on, read it".  I did.

She took out her pocket Bible from her drawer.  She opened to a page I'm sure she was very familiar with - John Chapter 11.  She said, "Read the shortest verse you can find", handing me the Book.  I read on Verse 35, "Jesus wept".  I wept silently with joy for proving my case.

"Okay, I'll renew your license but I think you need to see an optometrist".

It was about three weeks later that I went to the optical clinic  just a block away from where I worked.  I was given a full vision test.  The optometrist said, "You need prescription glasses". I responded with the same tone I had at the driver's license office and asked, "Why?". 

The optometrist replied, "It's  about getting old, welcome to the club. However, in your case, one eye became nearsighted, the other farsighted.  One in 30,000 adults get that, but don't hold me to the exact statistics. I mean it's rare but it happens. You were able to get by because one eye was seeing far and the other near, complementing each other, so to speak. On the other hand, you may have been born that way, perhaps. But you lack depth perception". 

Aha, I thought to myself.  That was why I wasn't hitting the tennis ball as well as I used to, especially at dusk as it got darker.  I agreed to have the prescription glasses. That was my first introduction to interest accrual in the bookkeeping of life.

Three weeks later, the glasses came. I picked them up and had another visual test and for some adjustment on the temple and nose bridge, etc. Back at the office, the  huge trading room, to my amazement, looked like a different place.  The whole third of the entire floor was open concept design where all the desks were arranged from end to end with only low dividers in between. Everybody's face at the far end of the room looked crisply recognizable. It was like everything was in 3-D. I might be exaggerating now but indeed it felt like I had 3-D glasses on, the way my views of the world around me had changed, literally speaking that is.

For years that followed, I kept playing tennis though with mixed results. Improved vision notwithstanding, aches and pains, my opponents were getting better, a few more birthdays and my reflexes were a tad slower, not as quick with my legs as I used to - became my new realities. But technology on eye wear continued to improve with featherweight frames and transition lenses (that would turn gray to dark when exposed to sunlight and back to clear once indoor), bifocals with no visible lines (for vanity sake, no doubt), etc. Not so bad, but with a lot of good.

One evening, it was late, a tennis buddy, who was originally from Holland, and I finished playing one sweltering July summer night when he suggested we take a dip into the adjoining community pool.  I said the pool was locked for the night.  He said, "So?". Like excited teenagers which we were not by two decades removed, at least, we climbed over the fence.  He dove first and I followed. I felt pain on my left ear when I surfaced.

I couldn't sleep that night from a throbbing pain in my left ear.  The next morning at work I went to the medical department that was on one floor of the building (this was in the early 80's when our company still maintained a fully-staffed medical office). One look from the doctor and he said, "What did you do to your eardrum?" He concluded that I  perforated my left eardrum when I dove into the pool, after I told him about the night before. I skipped the part about climbing over the fence.

That was accrued interest of my own doing that I found out later to have more lasting collateral effect.

A few more years later I had surgery on that ear to fix the hole because of chronic ear infection. The surgeon took a tiny tissue from the inside part of the ear drum to patch the hole that was on the outside, a complicated micro-surgery that decades earlier was unheard of. The scarred tissue on the eardrum is still noticeable to every doctor who looked into that ear years later. So they had to hear the same story, to their amusement except for  one doctor who was prompted to say, "I've heard of all kinds of stories from patients but this tops the cake. Not so much about shattered eardrums but  adults, who should know better, climbing over a fence to get into a pool at night is a first". I agree totally. 

Another decade passed.  I had surgery on my right wrist. So I can keep playing tennis. The surgery helped but another few years later I switched playing lefty because the right wrist can't handle it anymore. But it brought another problem. Changing my serving stance and hitting the ball lefty apparently did not set well with the other parts of my body - the one to lead the protest was my left Achilles tendon. This was accrued interest plus amortized asset depreciation.

The orthopedic doctor sat me down for some serious conversation after a third visit for the same problem. He asked, "How much do you want to keep on playing tennis?"  Silently I said to myself, "What kind of a question is that?"  But I said, "I love to keep playing  I even switched playing lefty when my right wrist no longer could".

The doctor said, "Wrong answer", he said. "Look, if you keep playing, your Achilles tendon will give up and the surgery I will do is not so you can keep playing tennis but just so you can walk. I strongly suggest you find another way to stay fit".  The office was quiet but I heard the thunder clap that followed when he said it. Accrued interest and some penalties for late payments?

The drive home was miserable but it called for some serious introspection. And by the time I got out of the car in our driveway I was at peace with saying goodbye to tennis. A few months later was when I switched to swimming. Of course, the painful memory of the perforated eardrum came to intrude but modern day ear plugs designed for swimming took care of that. I've been swimming for nearly twenty years now, doing the 1000 meters free style non-stop for 25 minutes, plus/minus a few seconds.  

I summarize that part of my life this way. I had  fun playing tennis and enjoyed it but the best that ever happened was when I could no longer play and quit and the best thing to have followed was when I took up swimming.

But the accrued interest over the left ear drum had turned red on the ledger of aging. Finally I agreed to have a hearing test.

The ear doctor had to ask, "What brought you in today?" I don't know why doctors still have to ask when they are reading the chart that says exactly why you're there. I said, "My wife says I need to have my hearing tested".

"Ah, yes, I know. I'm a husband too".

"Why is it that it is always wives that is the reason husbands go to see the doctor or have our hearing tested?", I exaggerated, hoping for the doctor to take sides with me.

"Well, it's spouses generally speaking but the majority of our referrals do come from the wives".

"Why is that?"

"For one thing, they want to remove any doubt you are not simply selectively hearing what they say. Secondly, they want to make sure, 'I didn't hear you', is no longer a valid excuse".  He was kidding, the doctor added. I know he wasn't.  Then he went on to examine both ears.

Again, the scar on my left eardrum did not go unnoticed. However, there was no time for me to tell the swimming pool story, as the audiologist came to whisk me away to another room for the hearing test.

The test. She had me wear a set of headphones.  I was to press a button on a hand held device every time I heard a sound which could come from either left or right of the head set at random. There were high pitch tones, middle range ones and low frequency notes. Some tones were stronger than others, and some were barely audible.  And for sure there were tones I didn't hear at all.

After several minutes of it the test was over.  The results were printed in a two-page chart.  I was able to click the buttons only 68% of the time on my left ear but better than 90% on my right. What I was missing the most were high frequency tones on my left and mid frequency sounds, typically of women's and children's speaking voices.  My own unbiased conclusion: I have unassailable excuse not to hear my wife very well when she is speaking to me because female and children's voices are in that critical frequency range my left ear had trouble picking up specially when she's in one room talking while in front of her desk top computer while I am in the next room.  By her account I should be able to hear if she can see me when she turns around.  It doesn't matter that I myself was focused on typing away on my laptop (like writing this musing, for example). I have not shared that conclusion with anyone till now.

First the eyeglasses, now the dreaded hearing aid? The audiologist explained to allay any apprehension on my part that today's technology has come so far from what it used to be. Advances in microchip technology, bluetooth pairing of hearing aids to smartphones, precise measurements, tiny rechargeable batteries so that the weight of the whole hearing device" is literally imperceptible to the wearer, etc., are all available.  While premature hearing loss has many causes,  everyone will have it in varying degrees with aging.  It is gradual, hardly noticeable by the individual because in one good way most will cope or get by. As with eyesight most will feel fine and not notice unless they go through the testing procedure.  In other words hearing loss is not usually earth shaking.

There are over ten million people in the U.S. today who have hearing aids, relatively a small fraction of the population. However, some estimates indicate that there are several times that number who have degraded hearing in various stages that, like me, get by in their normal daily lives with little serious consequences, indeed. This is one accrued interest that can easily be overlooked in the accounting ledger of aging.

The need for hearing aid is for the most part optional because one can always ask, "Please say that again", turn the TV louder or opt for closed caption; or both, unless it is so severe as to be classified from extreme hearing loss to total deafness. The latter is hardly the case.  The degree of hearing loss has brought three levels at which hearing aids may be prescribed or designed.

Three weeks after the audio test, the hearing aid I ordered came. It was in the middle range in sensitivity and pricing (naturally). The fitting session lasted for forty minutes.  First, the audiologist made calibrated measurements of the hearing aids with a machine that showed on the screen some sort of sine waves and numbers, attenuation data, etc. She made me practice putting them in and out of my ears, then a primer on how and when to charge them on the charger, etc. With one little instrument she measured the shape and volume of the ear canal (apparently because it's different from person to person, customization of the feedback is necessary).Then she made me wear a headband with both ends that touch both my temples as I looked in front of a screen. I was not to move, focusing on the blue dot, while she fiddled with different tones. Not quite sure what the test was for but it must have been that the hearing aid can be tuned so as to let the wearer discriminate sounds during conversation with someone while sounds and noises around, say, at a restaurant or any crowded places, are de-emphasized.  It was really quite sophisticated, it really surprised me.

She had to leave the room, briefly she said, while I had the aids on.  Her office was so quiet but then I could hear the ticking of the second hand on the wall clock. She must have left the room intentionally, I surmised. I told her about the ticking sound of the clock when she re-entered the room. I heard her footsteps on the padded carpet. She said, "You see, you can hear it and I don't anymore because my brain has come to ignore it.  You'll be hearing more than what you couldn't in the past but some of those your brain will learn to ignore, including what seems like an echo of your own voice. 

I could hear the paper when she slid them across  her desk for me to sign. I had thirty days to try the hearing aids and if I decided it's not for me, I can just simply return them, no obligations, no questions asked. She loaded on my phone an app for pairing the hearing aid to my phone and ran some tests. I was able to hear, loud and clear, without turning the speaker on and I can talk to the caller even if my phone was in my pocket or anywhere nearby.  No one else around me can hear the voice of the  person on the other end of the call but I hear it clearly and distinctly.  

The drive home was exciting.  I had to turn down the radio to a mere third of the volume and for the first time in ages I could hear the turn signal ticking even with the radio on.  I know my wife told me a few times in the past that I must not be hearing the turn signal ticking when failing to reset it after changing lanes.

I stepped out of the garage after I parked the car when I got home. Birds even from three houses away and around were audibly bantering about. 

I had to try the TV and the surround sound as soon as I settled inside.  That was going to be the ultimate test.

Let me backup for just a bit to show the point of this new hearing aid technology and why. When we moved into the home we're living in now, nineteen years ago, the floors in the formal and family room areas were all tiles - not ideal for TV and musical acoustics.  One audio company was the only one (at that time anyway) that allowed for the user to "tune" the listening area to one's personal taste or just simply to remove the "harshness" of the sounds because of too much reverberation from the tiled floor.

The technology was quite impressive. The "tuning" had to be done on a quiet evening. It required  the user or owner of the home to wear a head band no different from what the audiologist made me wear. They were not headphones with speakers. Instead, the head band had left and right tiny microphones on the user's temples.  A cable connected it to the stereo receiver. At one sitting position, the listener/wearer of the head band will have to sit still looking at the TV while the computer sends different frequency tones and loudness from each of the eight cube speakers back and front and one rectangular center channel plus the sub-woofer. The left and right microphones on the temple pick up the sound and feed it to the computer in the receiver.  The listener then may move to another location (five are allowed) and the process is repeated. After it's finished the computer in the receiver analyzes the data, then it will adjust the output from each of the speakers for an acoustically balanced reproduction of the sound to the listener's ear (from five different locations). In other words, five people at the five locations will hear the "tuned" output from the speakers.

The reason I went through all that is that today the microchips that were in the technology nineteen years ago were condensed to the size of the hearing aid that it is today.  And done wirelessly, at that.  That is the technology.  When I thought my old sound system was past its shelf life, it is still  capably performing as designed. It was my ears that needed rejuvenation.  Once again,  movie sounds are located where they come from, the sound stage in a jazz hall is up close while the concert hall would loom large with  direct and reflected sounds arriving milliseconds apart as they should be, the short strings of the harp, the high notes of the violin, the clear diction of a well played piano piece, sopranos and mezzo sopranos come alive, the TV anchor speaks like he is in the living room, etc., - that is how I am re-discovering what I missed.

The bottom line:  As mentioned I have a month to decide. For me, it is a "buy".  I'd recommend it to anyone who has hearing loss even if he or she is able to get by.  If for just one simple reason.  Hear how you used to when you were under twenty one.  Incredibly, I can even hear the house thermostat on the wall as it clicks on and off,

Now, we may realize that all the installment payments, accrued interest and all, may pay dividends because the longer we live is at least not quite the dreaded phenomenon that generations past endured.  I can attest to the fact that indeed we are living under very fortunate conditions our grand parents didn't have.  The added bonus to me is that I do not need either glasses or hearing aid to engage in swimming.  I do need glasses (safety and prescription) in my woodworking hobby but definitely not hearing aid.

So, accrued interests and amortized bodily asset depreciation we can accept in lieu of the alternative.  We should not easily relinquish the ticket to life, at least not yet anyway, because there is still plenty of time to relish it for as long as we can.  Remember, the more accrued interests can also mean that you've been current with your installment payments.

If only one reader is convinced, I think this was worth writing this musing. 

Below are what came with the whole package:

Below is what it is like next to a U.S. penny. The "in-ear" model and those you see in TV commercials work too but in my opinion this one is more capable for my needs.

Below is how the user can adjust the volume for each ear from a smart phone. 

P.S.  If you're wondering about the title of this musing, "Can You See What I Hear, Can You Hear What I See?", imagine what a dolphin or bat, or creatures that rely on sonar, might say when they can "see" with their ears. Bats can "see" with their ears a single mosquito in mid-flight.  On the other hand a viper, such as a rattlesnake, can "hear" a mouse moving about  as it senses infrared light exuded by the warm body of its prey.  Snakes do not have ears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Angel and A Devil Were Talking

Through a  rare cosmic oddity, unfathomably irregular if not  weirdly improbable, an angel and a devil were sitting at a table having drinks. The devil had one unimaginably strong cocktail while the angel settled for a tall glass of cold lemonade.  The devil (D) looked haggard but still menacing while the angel (A) looked calm but uncomfortably intent.  They started talking with each other.

D: What a day I'm having. I needed this drink.

A: Don't tell me. The furnace at the head office broke down?

D: Don't you dare tell a "Hell freezes over joke".

A: Sorry, what's the problem?

D: My boss has been on my case two days in a row now.  Says I'm not meeting my quota on recruiting sinners.  And he's criticizing my technique on how I dangle temptations.

A: Too bad.  Where has he been sending you? Any one particular place I should know about?

D: The worst place I was ever assigned to cover.  Tibet!

A: What? What's wrong with Tibet?

D: Those Tibetan monks won't hear or listen to anything once they get on that trance-like mode of meditation foolishness.  You know. They'd get into the meditation thing and no one can get through to them.  What happened to me was like sending a  do-gooder like you to Las Vegas.

A: Oh, I've been sent there.  Yes, right smack at the casinos. Did you know that on a per capita basis, you will hear more prayers there than in any cathedral? Or at the Vatican for that matter.  I was sent there as a neophyte early in my career. I once answered some desperate young man's prayer.  I tweaked the slot machine he was on which won him a $3,000 windfall.

D: Good for you.  I didn't mean good.  How devilish of you to do that.

A: Sadly,  he lost everything before midnight.  Including his tuition money for U.C. Berkeley.  You see, he was just passing through on his way to college.  That was a tough one. I think one of you guys took over but I didn't keep track.  I was told later in my assessment report  that that was a rookie mistake I made. I moved on.  It was almost as bad as my assignment to Congress. My other co-workers had the same experiences with all seats of government everywhere else.

D: I'm sure we hooked your Las Vegas kid. Especially if he was going to Berkely. Ah, Congress!.  Did you know that's where we send all our neophytes?  They go in as lobbyists. Then they think the devil's work is easy. Hah! Wait, till they get sent to Tibet.  

A:  Forget Tibet already. Be thankful your boss is not sending you to Antarctica?

D: What?  There's nothing there but penguins and smelly sea lions. Though I did enjoy once watching those killer whales tormenting those seals.  Penguins too.  But it was like munching on peanuts with those penguins. I'm still talking about killer whales.  You know, eating penguins. 

A: I got it.  You don't have to explain.

D: So, what's your problem?

A: I didn't like my last assignment.

D: Las Vegas?

A: No. Los Angeles. You know, I thought I was sent on vacation. Los Angeles - city of angels sounded .. well, angelic, you know what I mean. I thought I'd make a difference in Hollywood.  Nope.

D: Hollywood.  Do you know what we call that place?  The devil's playground.  Hollywood is our  R & R location.  You know, Rest and Recreation.

A: You don't have to explain that to me either.  I got you.

D: No, you don't. You think it's easy to be a devil or even just a devil's advocate.  People are mean. When they do something wrong, their first instinct is to say, 'the devil made me do it'. When something beneficial happens,  'a guardian angel saved that kid'. And they'd come up with expressions like, 'between the devil and the deep blue sea'.  What does that mean? You've not asked me, "How do I sleep at night?"

A: How do you sleep at night?"

D: I don't.  We all don't. Even associate devils don't.  Our boss certainly doesn't.

A: Is that hard for you?

D: Not sleeping? Nah. What's hard is when we're not appreciated.

A: You expect to be appreciated? 

D: Yeah, people are so ungrateful.  You give them everything they ask for and there's not even a thank you.  Serial killers are the worst.  They're never satisfied.  They keep doing it until they get caught. 

A: Listen, I can't say it's good talking with you.  You know what I mean.  I need to write a report and wait for my next assignment.

The two parted ways.  No handshakes; no "have a nice day"; no, see you next time either.

The devil reported for work the next day.  The boss wasn't around but the assistant boss was there who called him in before he could even settle in his chair.

"I heard you were talking with an angel. What did it have to say?"

"Wow, word spreads quickly, doesn't it? Why did you say, "it"?

"They are genderless, you know that, don't you? So are we all.  Only humans have genders.  And boy, don't they have more than two now. And they keep adding to it.  Our boss is happy.  Anyway, it's a small victory we don't celebrate over".

"Is that a win for us"?

"What do you think"? Don't worry about it.  The boss is sending you to your next assignment".

"Los Angeles"?

"No. By the way, we're done with Ivy League schools - in the U.S. and Europe as well.  Our boss is happy with our progress there.  We're sending you to the annual Competition for the Soul of Men. It's the Olympics for who can get the most number of sinners in the span of seven months. Or conversions, if you're working for the other side. This is one chance for you to excel. A promotion is at stake here".

"What? Where, when"?

"You're leaving today. But not before you've assembled your team of ten associates".

"Associates? To do what"?

"You'll know what to do before you leave.  Motivate yourself, for dear Satan's sake".

The angel who had met with the devil for drinks earlier was also summoned to report for the next assignment. The regional director spoke.

"You and a team of ten new angels  will be part of the Competition for the Soul of Men.  Your team individually will be sent to ten high schools in different parts of the world.  There each one of your team will be competing with a corresponding devil competitor.  The idea is to win over as many young kids as possible to our side. The devil competitors will do their best to tempt as many as they can.  Whoever can bring the most to one side or the other wins.  You will all have seven months each to accomplish the task".

"Soul of Men?  Those are young children!. And why only the male"?

"It's a figure of speech.  It's for all of humanity.  The future of humanity. Those children will soon become adults.  We  start early because by the time they get to college or the labor force or the military, it will be too late. Satan protested that part of the rules but he was overruled. But truth be known, Satan always start with young minds. He simply doesn't do it the same way each time".

"Okay, I'll start right away".

"Choose wisely. The specific schools and locations will be in the packet of information you will be receiving this afternoon.  Satan has an unlimited advertising budget.  You will not have any at all. Except for the fact that - you already know this - you have one advantage. You know that every human has both good and evil receptors in their minds. The one advantage you have is that there are twelve receptors for evil for each individual mind but there are thirteen for good. So, use that advantage".

The angel went to work.

That was a few days ago now.  It's an uphill battle for them. Actually, this has been going on throughout history.  These skirmishes are only a preview of what could become the final competition. But we can't know when that will be.  

We see everyday signs of these skirmishes. Every day we - all of us - are asked to take sides.  Choose wisely. 

 

"Who are you going to listen to. Me, or the boss from hell?"

"What Could Have Been" Went into a Bar

"What Could Have Been" (WCHB) went into a bar.  He took the one empty bar stool, ordered a drink and while waiting, he struck a conversation with the one next to his right, "What Will Be, Will Be" (W.WBx2).

WCHB: "Been here long, it seems?"

W.WBx2: "Just my second drink, been nursing it slowly. What brought you in?"

W.WBx2: "Been feeling like Marlon Brando lately, everyday. Double scotch, or two or three makes the day and night easy.  What about you?"

W.WBx2: "Marlon Brando, whaaat?" (elongating the word, in obvious bewilderment)

WCHB: "You know, the movie 'On The Waterfront' where Brando famously bemoaned: 'I could have been a contender!' He won his first Oscar in that movie in 1954".

W.WBx2: "Not a big fan of movies but I know Brando.  But what has that quotation got to do with you? Me, I drink each night to prepare myself the next day for what will be, will be".

WCHB: Ah, you see that makes you Doris Day.  From "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

Within one and a half seconds, W.WBx2 got off from his stool, and blind sided  WCHB with a savage right hook to the jaw. WCHB was flat on the floor for a bit before the bartender broke through the crowd to break up what could have been a melee of some sort.

That evening the policeman who processed the assault charge and wrote up the report was having dinner with his wife.  Over dessert, he told her  about the incident and the report he wrote. He said, "I filed the report but here, read this alternate one I wrote for my eyes and yours only".

His wife read the exact ones that were italicized above. "Wow, you are one frustrated script writer, aren't you? I know you are a psychoanalyst too, that's in quotation marks by the way, just so you know.  So .. oh, the night is young.  The dishes can wait.  Tell me what's behind all these.  Tell me more. Help yourself to another scoop of ice cream while I brew some tea.

Over a steaming cup of tea and the scoop of ice cream now a mere memory on the saucer nearby, the policeman begun.

"WCHB is someone who is stuck with a life he keeps rehashing with myriad scenarios of what could have been.  I spoke with him as he was treated  on a stretcher at the EMT truck. He explained that all he did was spoke about his life. "What could have been if only this or that happened", he said.  W.WBx2 claimed it an insult that WCHB called him "a Doris Day and the man who knew too much".  Clearly it was all a misunderstanding.

His wife said, "That's it?  You have no psychoanalytical gems you want to share?"

"W.WBx2 could have shown some restraint, you see. But, talking with him at the precinct while I booked him for assault, he was nonchalant about it. He claimed that what happened occurred because it was to be."

"I have to ask", his wife had to ask. "What did he mean by it?"

"I will have to guess what he meant.  Unlike WCB who seems to live a life weighted down by the past or endless what-could-have-been scenarios, "W.WBx2 lives by a probabilistic future of what-will-be will-be. Or, put another way, I think he merely believes in future agnosticism."

"Wow!", his wife, seemingly feigning adoration, responded quickly.

"You're making fun of me.  Let me explain as I usually do when dealing with ordinary mortals.  Before you get smart alecky with me, you know you're a goddess to me, but try to be an ordinary mortal for a minute" his quick recovery was smart and effective because his wife smiled approvingly.

"Wait, explain Doris Day first".  Again, his wife had to ask.

"Doris Day starred with Jim Stewart in what was a suspense spy movie, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" made in 1956.  It was in that movie that she sung the song about the future to her son.  The song was "Que Sera, Sera".

His wife was squinting that familiar squint of, "I don't know what you're talking about".

"Ser is a verb for "to be" in Spanish. Conjugated to future tense, it is sera for will be.  Que sera, sera is what will be, will be".

"I see.  Go on".

"I looked this up on an English grammar reference website", the policeman admitted.

"What could have been is a standard phrase in references to things that do not actually exist, but which seemed possible at one time in the past"

"WCHB was apparently  projecting everything from the past.  He is prone to daydreaming in reverse".

"Wow, wow again".  This time his wife's adoring smile was genuine. "I adore you for coming up with that phrase, "daydreaming in reverse". What about W.WBx2"?

"W.WBx2 clearly does not care much about knowing the future because to him what happens will happen. He claimed that his present moments were all predicated from before they happened by a series of "what will be-s" that he had little control over and until they happened, everything was just simply a probability".

"So W.WBx2 not only doesn't care to know  about the future, he really does not care what happens at all, does he?" his wife asked.

"Perhaps, but not really.  He has a job and a family so he must care about the future.  I think it's just the alcohol that is doing it for him.  And the right trigger mechanism of some sort that sets him off".

"I think WCHB has real problems.  You made fun of daydreaming in reverse but it is real for some people.  We reminisce about the past, the wonderful moments or the no-so-happy ones and sometimes the sad ones too. We daydream only about tomorrow. We all have 'What could have been-s' but they serve very little purpose".  The policeman was done with his tea and was going to call it a night but his wife wouldn't let him yet.

"Were you serious when you said I am a goddess to you"?

"Yes".

"Can a goddess have wishes?"

"My goddess' wishes are my commands".

"Will you clear the dishes from the table? Wash them or get them into the dishwasher before going upstairs?  Please, please"? She had that smile that captivated him seven years ago and can still hold him hostage even now.

The policeman's reply - well tested through time - is the surest thing to eternal peace and tranquility in any household throughout human history.

 "Yes dear!"

"She always gets her way. Everything is always 'Yes, Deer.'"

 

Who Will Tame The Beast?

Historically, the world has had its share of heroes and villains. Heroes were enshrined in monuments and public altars that proclaimed what was good with the human spirit: unquestionable bravery, steadfast morality, personal sacrifices, and unselfish devotion to serve others. Villains, the world had its share too of those who caused so much anguish, cruelty, death and destruction, desolation and the indelible definition of  human suffering.

A popular quote of anonymous origin, popularized on T-shirts for merchandising, says:

"The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn’t Exist."

From generations to generations the world had seen one and several versions of the likes of Atilla the Hun, Hitler and Pol Pot and many others too long to enumerate here. History as written about those men tells us of the horror of their reign that as a consequence they were and are remembered by those who survived directly from their cruelty to depict them as the worst of their nightmares - they were "beasts" that continued to haunt them for as long as they lived.  If we were to lump together everything  that had been written, told and retold in the past about the beasts referred to across centuries and many generations ago to as late as the 1970's, they will apparently pale in comparison to the beast yet to come in our future if we are to subscribe to the idea of the "ultimate destiny of humankind". 

Almost all faiths - certainly for Jews, Muslims and Christians - have their versions of the end time, defined as eschatology, the "branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind".

On one hand, we've had two major world wars and not only are we still here, the world's population has quadrupled since the last one. Could this be  justification to harbor skepticism over the end of time as depicted in both Biblical texts and messages from the Quran that are the source upon which the three major religions rely for guidance and predictions?  

Or, does  the ever increasing world population over the projected shortfall in food and water supply create the kind of turmoil for the possibility of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in our future?  Is there a way to look at this objectively?  We can without attaching, even just a little bit, our own personal inclinations toward one or another belief system. We can, say, view current events and what can be reasonably projected into the future based on the present conditions. More on this in a bit.

There is no doubt, there had been much fascination with the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", fearfully or as a matter of religious resignation to the eventual fulfillment of prophecies. Additionally, doomsday movies on screen and TV are feeding into the collective psyche, stoking fears with zombies, environmental disasters, and invasion by extraterrestrial beings, etc.

In the midst of WWI (1914-18), a Spanish novelist, Vicente Ibanez, wrote in 1916,  a book with the subject title,  "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", depicting a storyline around 1914 and WWI.  It was made into  into a "blockbuster" movie in 1921 that propelled the career of Rudolph Valentino as a superstar of silent films of the time. A remake of the movie was made in 1962, updated to depict the story beginning in 1939, before and at the beginning of WWII.  It was a critical and commercial flop despite an all star cast and premier direction.  Another movie was made with the same title, different plot, in 2022, which also received  lukewarm reviews.  

The sign  The End of the World held up in caricature has also both become fodder for humor and cynicism. 

Today, "wars and rumors of war" persist but the subject of the end time is hardly a topic of regular conversation on any given day but once broached, it can be a contentious one among those who are dogmatic about their beliefs.  We can look at where this all began.

One of the Christian disciples in about 90 A.D. named John was attributed to have written the entire manuscript of the Book of Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos (now part of Greece) although there are a few scholars who speculate that there may have been others who contributed to the writings.  At that time Patmos was under the control of the Romans who exiled John to the island.  That was ninety years after the crucifixion at Golgotha and two hundred years  before the reign of Emperor Constantine who converted the Roman empire to Christianity.

What John of Patmos (as he came to be known) wrote were about the visions shown to him supernaturally by his recollection. He described what was foretold to him that were predictions of the future state of humankind filled with detailed symbolic references about how it will happen at the end and the return of the Messiah but not specifying when.  It must be noted that all three major religions subscribe to the idea of the messiah or promised redeemer or expected savior. 

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the symbolism they represent as in the visions of John can be all too real.  Unsustainable growth in population, political instability, unpredictable resurgence of virulent microbes and resistance to antibiotics, war mongering from states with powerful weapons indeed make the scenario of the Four Horsemen to occur within the lifetimes of at least 60% of the people alive today. 

Luke Kemp, a researcher  at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and others like him have written about past collapses of civilization regionally and by eras and the projected collapse of the entire world population in the future.   

"Our tightly-coupled, globalized economic system is, if anything, more likely to make crises spread".        

".. the world is becoming increasingly complex, and our demands on the environment are outstripping planetary carrying capacity."

 -- Luke Kemp

"Studying the demise of historic civilizations can tell us how much risk we face today", says collapse expert Luke Kemp. Worryingly, the signs are worsening".

Put another way, what researchers like Kemp and others are saying can be consistent with what John of Patmos saw in his visions.

Let's put just one present day world context to wrap around just one of those that John wrote about in Revelation, specifically in Chapter 13. Keep in mind that John wrote in symbolisms and if we allow that the visions he saw were incomprehensible to him, he was describing them with images he could only put context to  that which were familiar to him as indigenous people in the American west first described the locomotive as iron horse, or guns as thunder sticks.

John wrote about the beasts (not just one but two) right at the start of the chapter in verse 1: "Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads; on its horns were ten crowns, and on its heads names of heresy".

Did the ten crowns mean kingdoms or nations?

Verse 3: "I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but this mortal wound was healed.* Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast".

If it were a nation, did that mean that "this mortal wound was healed" refer to one nation that earlier had suffered a serious defeat in its history but has now recovered? A past empire, or one nation like Germany after WWII, defeated, mortally wounded but now fully back as an economic power? Is it regaining military development and regional leadership?

Verse 11: "Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon".

Earlier in Verse 4: "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"

This is where present day context will seem to be meaningful.  If the so-called beast is a group of nations, i.e. the European Union, for example, or NATO for that matter, or some yet to be named organization of nations, it would make sense that if such a group becomes a strong and cohesive military alliance, its power could be so overwhelming that no one nation can make war with it. It will also by necessity become an economic power, as in ..

 Verse16: "It forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to be given a stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads".

Verse 17: "so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name".

During John's time, he could not have understood identification through credit card numbers or some other coding systems that would allow people to do business or engage in commerce. 

This is obviously an abbreviated contextual explanation which the reader is encouraged to further read up on and perhaps come up with other interpretations but the key is to put present day context for any of what John saw in his visions if indeed he was writing about events way, way into his future at the time.

The reader may take this with a grain of salt and that is fair and fine but let's get back to the earlier quote, "The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn’t Exist."

1. By that, if the devil were real but a deceiver then most of the atrocities and horror he wanted to do will be through "men committing them against other men, people against other people, nations against other nations, etc. and by wars and rumors of wars" only perpetuates his goal.

2. By convincing the world he does not exist is his most potent argument for God also not to exist either. 

But then ..

3. “God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercials.”     ― William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist  

True to one of the goals of this musing, to put forth, "provoking issues you did not have the time to consider but now you may want to look into because you have a moment or two to spare or you just want some of your brain cells to be tickled out of slumber", I hope this is one of those. 

Now, as to the question, "Who will tame the Beast?", your answer is as good as anyone else's.

{By the way, most recently a new book just came out, which I haven't yet read, written by Randall Sullivan, "The Devil's Best Trick", with sub-heading, "How The Face of Evil Disappeared".  Looks intriguing and the good reviews, so far, makes it probably worth a look}.

The Serpent's Trail of Dan

From "Maddeningly Unthinkable Road to Megiddo", we can look into more additional history. I found the explanation of the path that the presumed lost tribes of Israel took to make good the promise of, "a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee" even more intriguing. If anything, the predictions surrounding their plight and eventual fate may have at the very least a host of circumstantial evidence or to the skeptics a bunch of coincidences.  A little more digging and I think I found both.

But first another historical example of migrations from a relatively earlier era to put some context and insight.

From 19,000 to 11,000 years ago during the last ice age, also known as the Last Glaciation Maximum (LGM),  sea levels went much lower than it is today when much of the water was frozen at both polar regions, resulting in "land bridges" that connected many island archipelagos and present day island nations from Japan to the Philippines to Indonesia.  During that time those bridges enabled ancient migration on foot from island to island.  The Philippine population today traces its roots to Indo-Malay origins. In fact, Filipinos and Indonesians even today are indistinguishable from one another in physical features and skin color.

At the end of LGM as the planet warmed up, sea levels around the world rose again (there were a total of five glacial and warming epochs in earth's history) thus isolating the present day island nations.  Not only that, but island nations like Indonesia and the Philippines presently have 11,000 and 7,000 separate islands, within each country, respectively.  People, pockets of populations, as a result were isolated from each other from island to island.  Language and culture evolved.  In the Philippines, distinct "island languages", not just  dialects, are spoken today.  For example, in one of the central islands where I grew up, we speak one particular "language" different from the other side because at one time the mountain range in between separated the people from the west to the eastern side of the island.  On the other hand, we speak the same "language" as those from the island directly across from our shores because trades existed between both sides through sea going vessels.

Today, lots of words have common etymologies between Indonesian and Philippine languages.  

That little backdrop from one side of the world gives us a comparative perspective to the plight of the Hebrews from the time of the exodus from Egypt, the exile that followed and centuries of population growth, relocations, displacements, assimilations, political and cultural, even religious turmoil that fueled conflicts only to be settled by warfare, subjugation that led to enslavement, in many cases.  Keep in mind we are talking about a time frame that took centuries of history. 

As depicted in the Biblical story, Jacob was the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham.  Jacob's name was later changed to Israel and he had  12 sons from whom descended the 12 tribes. While Reuben was the eldest and Benjamin was the youngest, we will only focus on the fifth son named Dan and what happened to his tribe.

Dan's  lineage was a warring tribe, adventurous and prone to restless movement to other lands.  Genesis 32: prophesied that "Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that its rider tumbles backward".  

One interpretation of the first half of the verse, "A serpent, when it slithers and crawls, leaves a trail or track in the sand. Even so the tribe of Dan would leave signs or "waymarks" showing where it had journeyed. They tended to leave their "name" behind as an identifying sign!" More on this in a bit.

The Danites were descendants of Dan.  For centuries that followed they ventured into lands farther away.  They, among some of the other tribes who did stray from their faith and traditions, were the most to rebel. They developed a close affinity to the Phoenicians with whom they battled against for a period of time before making peace with them.  The Phoenicians were pagans, master shipbuilders and experts at navigation.  Danites worked in shipyards and on ships, perhaps as slaves in the beginning but later acquired the skill to build their own vessels and mastery of seafaring to further their restless and adventurous nature. By that time, they had become idol worshipers and practiced paganism.

Do we see the signs and waymarks that Dan's tribe left behind?  In prophecy, the Israelites were to follow "Road Signs' and "Guideposts", to pave the way for those who were following behind. The tribe of Dan was the trailblazer and the path they took was dubbed the serpent's trail.  Now always remember the timeline to be centuries long.

{Note: "In ancient times, when the Hebrew writing system was developed, vowels were not used. Native speakers could understand the words without the use of vowels, just as you can probably make out this sentence:

Tr wrtng wtht vwls. (Try writing without vowels."}

So, the name Dan would have been written simply as DN, or its equivalent in Hebrew.  Phonetically then, Din, Den, Dan, Don, Dun would have all correspondingly represented the name Dan.

A quick look into the World Atlas will show us a possible route the Israelites took from the time of the exodus from Egypt.  They spent forty years "in the wilderness" that would have placed them in and around the area of Mt. Sinai. They could not go east from there because they would have faced hostility from the people that occupied those lands that earlier had pushed them towards Egypt in the first place. Those land areas that prevented the Israelites from going east then are the same places today occupied by Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, just to name the major ones.

What follows are what I've read from a few sources who espouse one area of history apart from what is generally accepted.

So, they could have traveled up along the coastline to reach what is now Turkey and by sea to reach Greece.  Let's get the quote earlier: Even so the tribe of Dan would leave signs or "waymarks" showing where it had journeyed. They tended to leave their "name" behind as an identifying sign!" Along the way, territories changed hands through tribal skirmishes and all-out warfare.

A quick look at the map of the upper Middle East and Europe helps to see the trail they took and the waymarks along the way.

The Strait of Gallipoli in northwestern Turkey is also known as The Dardanelles.  Easterly, still along the coast is today the fourth largest city of Sidon in Lebanon.  By sea to Greece and from there they would have reached a place later named Macedonia.  Thus begun the naming of "waymarks and guideposts"

The island of Sardinia may have come from Shardana or Sardana. In Hebrew Shar or Sar meant princely, or chief from which the words tsar, Caesar, kaiser came from.  The Shar Danas were the prosperous Danites that occupied that island for a time.

They moved east and north reaching what is now Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.  Rivers like the Danube and Dnieper are still called that today; so is Gdansk, Poland. Before the state of Israel was created, it is widely known that the known Jewish population was in all places in Europe. Hence, preceding  WWII, German and Polish Jews suffered the most from Hitler's regime.

But here is something even more intriguing. The tribe of Dan kept moving and northerly they settled in what we now know as the Scandinavian countries; most prominently, Sweden and Denmark. Today citizens of Denmark are called Danes.

From there they went down southwesterly in ships.  They reached Ireland first.  In Irish folklore we come across the "Tuatha Dé Danann".  There are many explanations for that phrase, such as to describe tuath Dé as the tribe of gods; Tuatha (plural) Dé for tribes of the gods. In Irish mythology, supernatural beings are described as well in reference to the same. On the other hand, a more natural explanation could be that Tuatha de Danann simply referred to "the tribe of Dan".

Now, there are so many places and names in Ireland and Scotland and throughout the British isles with dan, dun, din, etc. but just to name the popular ones, we see that the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh and of course we have London.  

All of these are circumstantial when taken alone or simply coincidences?

The Roman geographer Ptolemy described northern Scotland as Caledonii or Caledonia, "such as Dùn Chailleann, the Scottish Gaelic word for the town of Dunkeld meaning "fort of the Caledonii".  In Ptolemy's map was a region there called the Otadini.  Further down into the "lowlands" of Scotland we find places like Averdeen, Dundee and of course the capital named Edinburgh.

The last one geographical patch I see that was a pivotal place in English modern history was a place called Dunkirk, France, when in May, 1940 close to 350,000 British soldiers were rescued with British ships and civilian vessels who risked their small boats to cross the English Channel to ferry the survivors of a defeated British force back to England.  'Operation Dynamo' was hailed as a miracle or providential because for some reason the Germans did not pursue the British soldiers to their end as they were fleeing. Many of those soldiers went back on D-day to liberate Europe.  It was at the end of the war when the world found out about the concentration camps and the death of six million Jews.

Do these places prove the prophecy about Dan's tribe/s fulfilling their task to name "waymarks and guideposts" to pave the plight of the lost tribes of Israelites?  The reader can look up the maps, as I did, and one may take the position that these are all circumstantial or total coincidences or perhaps mere misinterpretations.  Are Biblical prophecies, such as, "for a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee"  (Genesis 35:11) to be interpreted as Great Britain (British Commonwealth to mean company of nations?) and the United States just lucky guesses?  Where does that put the rest of the world? That will be for another day of discussion.

From today's headlines the world seems headed towards an unprecedented escalation of antisemitic protests as a result of Israel's push against Hamas in Gaza. Some of the chants heard were, "Go back to Europe'', a clear reference to where most of the Jewish population used to reside.   This takes us back to an Old Testament prophecy, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land” (Ezek. 36:24), fulfilled in 1948 on the creation of the state of Israel.

Unfortunately, history has provided us, time after time, humanity's proclivity for conflict that goes back  thousands of years. However, lessons remain unlearned, forgotten and ignored. My previous musing on the road to Megiddo is not an exaggeration if only to agree with this quote, "The history of man is a history of war."

Perhaps, "wars and rumors of war" (Matthew 24:6) will finally end in that one last battle at Megiddo if only for that to be the last war man will ever have to fight. And never again because either we have at last learned our final lesson or because there is no one left  to do any more battles. 

 

 

  

MAD-deningly Unthinkable Road to Megiddo

"MAD-deningly Unthinkable", two years ago, was a cautionary tale  I wrote about the possible rekindling of humanity's greatest fear of a nuclear war where "MAD" stood for Mutually Assured Destruction. For decades it was what reassured world leaders, politicians, military strategists, even philosophers that WWIII will be avoided because none of the nations who will engage in it will survive.  But what does that really mean?

It is not even a valid point of re-assurance because for MAD to work, everybody (from all opposing sides) should be convinced that each other's capability is exactly equal in magnitude and infallibly effective in every measure that no one side can survive. But we know that all it will take is for one or the other to believe that they have a winnable position through miscalculation, misinformation, self delusion, fueled by a misplaced sense of national pride or misguided  national hatred  towards the other side; just a few that can cause the perceived balance to tip disastrously. The news cycle, currently in today's geopolitical turmoil, does seem like a daily refrain constantly stoking that fear.

So, we have that and the history of humanity from which we are supposed to learn from but which we ignore or neglect to acknowledge. Either history is a poor teacher or man is a horrible student. If real events in history are not worth the pages they are written on, what are we left with to rely on to help us navigate through and prepare  for a future that is yet to come?

The future.  We can skip the so-called "think tank" projections, game theory probabilities, even artificial intelligence-aided scenarios because they are still based on human calculations and human parameters that we cannot trust.  What are we left with? Nostradamus, Jeanne Dixon, doomsday prophets..?

It appears then that many attempts by us to govern or assemble a sustainable order for all of humanity to live peacefully with one another have failed throughout our history.  From the time of the Magna Carta to all peace treaties that were signed and torn asunder to the Geneva Convention to the League of Nations to the United Nations, failure was a constant end to achieving eternal peace. Where else can we turn?

What we have not included from the first paragraph at the start of this musing (above) are the words from those who espouse predictions from the different points of view beyond what can be naturally explained - from the realm of faith-based or religious (if you will) prophecies.  We might as well, since so much has already been  tried but which has failed to live up to sustainable peace and harmony.

Referring to the first paragraph again, we may now include the religious leaders who were and still remain much less optimistic of the prospect of man-made solutions because ancient prophets have foretold the eventual end of the world from a different perspective.

Of late, we see and hear of the Middle East as the powder keg that can no longer be ignored that once lit could very well be the beginning of the world's real existential threat never once seen or experienced, except as depicted in Biblical prophecy.  Has the fuse already been laid out? Is there hope it can still be defused? Or, is there little we can do?

What different contexts can we then extract from a never tried source before?

The two major faith-based sources that were written from ancient times were the Quran and the Holy Bible subscribed to respectively by Islam and the combined designation  that we know as those belonging to the Judeo/Christian faith.  Both written references are considered by their respective adherents as divinely inspired and direct messages from God.  

It is critically important to note that, "The Quran assumes the reader's familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical and apocryphal scriptures".  Furthermore, "The Quran contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible". The Quran was written centuries after the Holy Bible was already in use by the faithful who switched from believers in multiple-god-worship to monotheism - the belief in one God.

Most, if not all, who read this will be from the Judeo/Christian faith so we will focus only on the perspectives from the Bible (Old and New Testaments). The contents of the Bible may be divided into historical events, moral and ethical prescriptions for righteousness and piety, the  Gospels (New Testament) that pertain to the Messianic teachings, His life, and eventual return for the final battle between good and evil, prophecies of events yet to come.

It will take a very long foray into historical and Biblical research to get into the nitty gritty of how this leads into making the Middle East as the center for much of what is predicted to be an all out conflict to end all wars. We will take a short cut because, for one, I am not a Biblical scholar, and two, neither is the reader. There is a short version from countless Biblical scholars whose conclusions on the validity of the predictions I leave to the reader to assess. Let's just take the following that scholars use as proof.

1) Before 1948, there was no state of Israel but its establishment was prophesied in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land” (Ezek. 36:24). Thus followed one extraordinary migration of Jews  after the war (WWII) when in 1948 the state of Israel was created.  They came from almost every patch of Europe, the U.S., Great Britain and from refugee camps everywhere.

2. Jacob was renamed Israel by God. Out of that lineage were the 12 tribes that spread from the time of the exodus from Egypt into the desert then followed by centuries of migration to places farther away that later became what is now known as Europe.  Only a portion of those tribes kept practicing what is now the Jewish faith to retain their identities as such.  The rest are what historians would later refer to, rightly or wrongly, as the lost tribes of Israel. But they have kept their affinity to the Bible for their faith so that even after centuries of migration  and assimilation and the spread of Christianity, these people adhered to what is now known as the Judeo/Christian faith that retained the Holy Bible central to their beliefs and for spiritual guidance.  

Centuries later the constant movement through either migration on their own or banishment through political persecutions, many went to settle lands of Scandinavia, later crossing the channel to settle westerly into what is now known as the British Isles. From there came the settlement of the New World, later to be called America.  Biblical scholars, not all but some, proclaim that the creation of the British Empire and later that of the USA is fulfilment of the prophecy that was God's promise to Abraham, "Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.  (Genesis 35:11)

The same scholars claim that "a nation and a company of nations" refer to what would become the British (commonwealth) Empire and the United States, that helped liberate Europe that  saved the Jewish survivors and kept its iron clad support of Israel even today. Farfetched?  Debatable? Believers in it cite the rapid growth in terms of political, military and economic prominence of Great Britain and the USA as nothing short of miraculous in the time frame and scope that they occurred.

This takes as to today.

Megiddo from the title of this musing refers to the Biblical prophecy that is a real geographical location "as the site of the final battle between the forces of good and evil at the end of time, known as Armageddon. (Revelation 16:16). The word is mentioned only once. Today it is believed that, "Armageddon comes from Har Megiddo—Hebrew for the “mound” or “mountain” (har) of Megiddo".

Presently, it is a kibbutz in Northern Israel, created in 1949.

3. "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come" (Matthew 24:6). From today it will still take a long time before Armageddon.

It will perhaps take a decade or more before Megiddo becomes the central point of conflict.  That is how long it will take for the conditions to happen  before the final war.  Meanwhile, regional conflicts and rumors of conflicts will continue.  Anti Semitism will continue to escalate here and abroad (particularly, Europe).  

Germany will once again become a military power and so will Japan.  Why?  In Europe, NATO will continue to be under pressure from Russia which will impose real economic blackmail through the oil and gas supply to western Europe and the constant threat of the use of nuclear arms.  Germany  will use its technology and economic leadership to re-arm.  Japan is concerned about China's military and economic power in the region, so it too will re-arm.  Both countries have in their constitution that prohibits them from re-armament, except for civil defense. That prohibition will be waived by  conditions that will make re-armament a necessity.

One crucial thing to watch is the alignment between Russia, China and Iran. Oil - Middle East oil - will play a key role. 

All of these shall come to pass first. But not sooner than a few years from now or at least a decade or two.  At that point, other things will happen.  Food will become a major issue for much of the world  population, recurrence of health threats (regional or worldwide pandemic) will re-immerge and there will be turmoil in governments from many areas of the world.

Britain and the U.S. will by then be perceived to have weakened from within - cultural divisions, moral degradations, political turmoil and economic hardships, perceived erosion of their military - that will result in the other nations to miscalculate and misinterpret as to embolden them into the unthinkable.

That is how we will get to the end before eternal peace can begin.

Now, we can ignore all of the above.  We can treat this as nothing more than a thesis. Of course, it will also mean continuing with what had gone on for millennia; let history continue to be unlearned; let the future unfold purely from human machinations. We can  take that position.  Actually, we have done that exactly for all the centuries that have already elapsed. As such, it will have to take a catastrophic event  for humanity to learn its final lesson with or without spiritual or faith-based introspection. The question then is, "Are we ever going to learn on our own and only through our efforts without supernatural intervention?"