Wouldn't it be fucking ridiculous (WIBFR) if the
human race decided to eliminate itself through some sort
of semi-autonomic reflex built into various warring cultures
equipped with the modern technology now readily available,
practically at ``street'' level.

This is because the technology is largely running things,
as it has a way of doing.  The most honest interpretation
of history is as the record of the human interactions of cultures
and technologies.  And we don't always win.  Not having had
IT happen in the past and having had a guardian angel, as
perhaps we all must to have survived this far through some
of the murderous nonsense propagated at state levels in
the rather recent past, doesn't mean we are off the hook.

WIBFR if the common sense (in Tom Paine's sense) idea that
we need to understand technology and be way better at it than
the bad guys were somehow viewed as subsidiary - as opposed to
being the crux of the issue, and our most advantageous response.
Always play the game you want to play, not the other guy's.

WIBFR if people who are afraid of and ignorant about science,
math and technology were allowed to get hundreds of thousands
of young men and women killed through large-scale war.

But also WIBFR if we are not able to locate and neutralize
the key individuals behind the organizations that proclaim 
their inalienable right to blow up thousands of inncocent
civilians as a gesture - not even brave enough to own up to
their actions.  Dealing with these men and their assistants
will require something new in warfare - a high-tech ninja,
able to penetrate current defenses like a hot knife through butter.

And don't we at least agree that right now the bad guys
are rather clearly defined?

Organized crime and the drug cartels
depend on a healthy and prosperous society; the last thing they
want is to have the machine crash.  (Good parasites improve the
health of their host - and thus evolve into symbiants, which can
enjoy a quite privledged existence.  Think of our mitochondrial
brethren (indeed, my people defines itself this way ;-)
Living inside animal cells, the mitochondria provide energy
for metabolism and so are fed first.  

Some claim a link with ``narco-terrorists.''  Some products,
such as heroin, might have a transient connection, but perhaps
legalization would remove the necessity.  With the amazing
pharmacopia being delivered to the U.S. public right now, what
real difference do a few more make?  And do we want a federal
agent devoting time and energy to interdicting a particular plant
preparation that goes against certain customs?  Aren't there more
valuable foci?

I'm reading an article about songbirds and it reminds me
of the odd tropisms (i.e., adaptive behavioral cycles) that
animals develop.  Lemmings are known to wander en masse off
a cliff.  I think a better analogy for us human critters is
that of a bus.

We are really in a technological vehicle and it is by God
going somewhere.  Our business is predicated on artificial systems
which are vulnerable and in fact, even before being stressed by recent
events, they were showing signs of crumbling around the edges.
The bus was already spinning faster and faster down the hill,
but the driver, conductor, navigator and engineer understand
very little of the complexity of the machine.  On reflection,
one can see them as Van Gogh painted the Postman: a primate bound
in chains of fabric and paper.  Well, some are not bound at all
and we had better be just as tough but much smarter.

So WIBFR if the powers-that-be continue to discuss and legally
analyze and militarily brutalize, as this giant bus of civilization
goes smashing into chaos and ruin.  The monkey in the suit doesn't
understand the machine at all and so the vehicle just keeps going
where it is going.  Why is there no call to examine the machines
with which our ``war'' is to be fought?  For the war must be to
take back control of the machine.

Look, just plot the points.  The next level or two of escalation
could prove fatal to our civilization - probably the Taliban,
however, would do just fine - short of the glass option, which
would rather also make the point.

Ok, how do we take back the machine?

Think global, act local.  At Georgetown University, where I teach,
it is my understanding that there is no requirement for courses
in mathematics or science for students in the School of Foreign 
Service - with the notable exception of the Science and Technology 
in International Affairs program.  For starters, it would be sensible
to train our foreign service officers and the other folks that Georgetown
contributes to our nation's frontline  (cultural, economic, etc.).

As the world is now wrapped up inside the machine, you've got to
have a working knowledge. Clearly, our students are smart enough and
they have good background preparation.  But focusing on the
machine helps us to see areas in which technology can use improving.
That is one of the few things we can do, but it is potentially
open-ended in terms of control.  In principle, we can pull it out
at the very last fucking instant - and have in fact numerous
times in the past by many acconts.

So I recommend optimism and focusing on a commonly acceptable
scenario which determines a future that almost everyone can live with.
There must be a way, but it will require lots of creative thinking.
Advanced technology in particular niches is our best hope to jurry-rig
the rolling juggernaut.

All of us have areas of expertise and with the common realization 
that our entire civilization is vulnerable, we could maybe work it out.
But ignorance of science and technology will be a liability to one
who must anticipate its consequences.

There are doubtless many particular services which, for example,
a diplomat might wish to have on-call, transparently to those around
him.  But if she has no knowledge of science and technological
possibilities - available in a time-frame of months - how can the
best options be found?

Now much of the conflict can be blamed on Israel - or on the 
International Community, which created Palestine - or on Hitler or
guilt for previous behavior.  Having been created, a little babe
left alone in a rough neighborhood, run however by some guys who
were among the baddest in town.  WIBFR, the gangleaders must
have thought to themselves, if the only way a Jew can get respect
is when he carries (and uses well!) a submachine gun!

And that's basically what's happened. Well, it's a fete accompli
so get over it.  Leaders of a country should be able to maintain
order and the Arab governments should get around to recognizing
Israel, establishing normal relations and controlling any would-be
terrorist groups.

I specifically do not say that Israel has been blameless, nor that
there are Israelis who have carried out evil plans. Alas, evil is
part of the human condition. They will have to atone for their
sins.  And mental illness and rabid zealotry will continue. But
if one tenth of the initial cost of the war we must avoid were
applied to building schools and gardens, bridges and oases, where
human resources plus smart technology could make more of the
desert bloom, then suddenly the advantages of a partnership,
with an immediate huge expansion of Earth's tourism could make
them (and us, as their investor ;-) quite wealthy.

In other words, the direction of the dialogue should shift so
that the endless circles of mutual recrimination could be replaced
by a reinforcing creative partnership of Semitic peoples, who
really have more in common than they generally will admit to.

Once again, technology can play a critical role but to break the
cycle of violence, an infusion of support from America and Europe
to Arabs and Israelis alike could remake the context.  Compared
to the cost of war, which could mushroom literally into catastrophe,
for a fraction of the cost we could have
a techno-peace in the mid-East and techno-secure systems throughout
a peaceful and prosperous world that recognize and immobilize
the agents of terror while leaving citizens free and unfettered.

Of course, the cowards who perpetrated the atrocities of the eleventh
will not like to see these developments.  But I do not think they are
able to match us in technology and science; our resources are so
much greater.  By becoming smarter as a civilization and at last
coming to terms with the collision of cultures and technology,
we can not only defeat terrorism with a minimal degree of violence, but
open new vistas for humanity - both on the planet and in outer space.

WIBFR if the only way that people could learn to share their ideas
and constructively cooperate was the sacrifice of thousands of the
innocent?  Are we men or are we monkeys?  Of course, we are both.

Healthy monkeys love life and each other.  We must make ourselves
whole and so many things can intrude.  No one wants to take on
extra demands - it's so much easier to just follow the status quo.
Those tropisms again.  Semi-autonomous reflexes.  The nukes sit
there waiting to be used ... there is the Great Satan. Like
Poe's Imp of the Perverse the button lies lasciviously in our grasp.

Ironically, it is science, technology and mathematics, which require
something above the primate level of behavior, that must make the
world safe for young animals - my children and yours.

If America and the ``Civilized'' world act wrongly, as we well may,
we shall need to atone for our acts.  But let us resolve to work
as effectively as we may to pull it out at the last second.  Our
bus is effectively going down a ski-jump and, whatever we might
have wished, it is going to become airborn.  Only by understanding
the process and acting quickly and intelligently can we fashion wings
before we fall.  Not acting like Icarus out of overweening pride
but instead, with Yankee ingeneuity, we must save lives by learning
how to fly.

Paul C. Kainen, Washington, DC       September 26, 2001