Another Perspective on Perspective

In any event or observation we bring to it the sum of our experience and knowledge. We interpret it according to our values which may be totally inappropriate or outside of what we experience. We like to think that we are objective. We abjure that we are not subject to bias and prejudice.

Here is an example of simultaneous misunderstanding:

When the Pilgrims met the Native Americans they found their faces covered with gooey colored muck. The found it frightening and primitive. Even their bodies would be coated in some strange substance that, despite their superior hygiene (they felt the natives were obsessed with bathing and were sure it was the root of their weakness to disease) caused a not always pleasant aroma. Meanwhile they were unsure why the mosquitos and flies didn’t bother these savages as they attacked and ravaged the English. They were sure it was their superior English blood that attracted the pests.

The Native Americans looked on to the Pilgrims as a bunch of incredibly ignorant, primitive people. They didn’t understand how to build a structure that would stand up to basic weather. All of their buildings leaked. Worst of all when they were congested they would take a clean white linen cloth from their pockets, blow their noses into it and then return it to their pocket for safekeeping. Ewww! They tried to teach the English to block one nostril and eject the mucus into the bushes with a forcible exhale through the nose. The Pilgrims found that revolting and just couldn’t do it.

In 2001 the United States began “military operations” (another great euphemism) in Afghanistan. From our perspective we are there to bring democracy to our brothers of the world. We want to save them from the totalitarian fanatics that would wish to subjugate them in religious subservience under the guise of an Islamic state. We absolutely KNOW that these fanatics really don’t represent true Islamic values and that we are justified, even praiseworthy in our goal to liberate them from oppression and allow them to choose their own rulers. I sincerely believe that many of us share this altruistic motive. I would like to.

The Afghans see a bunch of people from thousands of miles away with superior technology killing members of other Afghani tribes. Sometimes, that’s not so bad if it’s a tribe they would be killing themselves if we weren’t there, but still, they would rather do their fighting themselves. If we defeat their foe, they have no honor in it and they are people with a highly developed sense of honor through battle. And they are tenacious. Just ask every other group that has tried to “liberate” them. In the end most of them wish we would just go home and mind our own business. They can then return to the internecine warfare that is their history.

When the American Revolution started there was NOT a consensus for separation from England. It wasn’t even close. The Sons of Liberty had a real problem on their hands. Most of the country saw a bunch of rich hotheads in Massachusetts that were profiting from smuggling with the Indies and were upset that the King kept sending ships and soldiers to stop it. This King even levied taxes on Americans to help pay off the debt of fighting the French and Indian War to protect its colonists. Not many of us are willing to risk our livelihoods and our lives for someone else to get richer or avoid servicing a debt.

Then it happened. After being pelted with ice clods, rocks and rocks encased in snowballs, viciously taunting the British sentries, the soldiers fired into the crowd. Martyrs were made, but it still wasn’t enough. As the English got wind of the colonists stockpiling arms they decided to nip this one in the bud. They were successful in a couple of instances up north, but Lexington and Concord brought “the shot heard ‘round the world.” That was it! Once the British started killing the Kings subjects in the colonies, they became “Americans” and, if the British would kill those Americans, no Americans could stand idly by and wait their turn. It finally became a battle between “us” the Americans and “them” the British from far away across the seas who were meddling in OUR business with their superior technology and wealth.  When lives are taken a brotherhood is extended and people who were “Them” (New Englanders) become “Us” (Americans).

Immediately what had been a mutually beneficial relationship of colonies and mother country became an obvious case of exploitation of brethren by a foreign imperial power.

There may also be another perspective to the war in Afghanistan. We are on the cusp of new age where it is exigent that we develop cleaner energy. We are doing very well in the development of these energy sources from sun, wind, tides and currents. We still face a massive problem of how to transport and store this energy which in the end turns up to be electricity. The obvious use that is common to all of us is transportation. Without transportation we can’t go to the hospital or the grocery store. Even the groceries can’t go to the grocery store. Probably the greatest limiting factor in Native American expansion was the lack of transportation. When this problem was solved with the horse, their influence took off. Our next horse is the electric vehicle.

Today when we need the energy to go somewhere we pull up to a pump and fill up a tank with liquid energy. Our greatest challenge in transportation is to use our cleaner energy (electrons instead of hydrocarbons) in the same way. It’s easy to build a “bottle” to hold liquid energy. The bottle for electrons is called a battery and our progress for the last several decades has not been monumental. In my lifetime we’ve gone from carbon “dry cells”, lead acid “wet cells”, through NiCads, NiMh and now the miracles of lithium ion (LiON). We are pretty certain lithium will be involved in making electron bottles. Where can we find lots of lithium? It just happens that Afghanistan is rich in lithium; incredibly rich. And it is lithium that is cheaper to process into electron bottles. Not only that, but they boast vast reserves of gold and silver which make much better conductors than copper and aluminum.

When Eisenhower left office he gave the first Farewell Address. You can watch part of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9_fyDV7Mnk. In his speech he coins a new term as describing a dire threat to our national security and wealth. He warned of the power of something called “The Military/Industrial Complex”. You can be sure that the huge supra-governments we call multi-national corporations are aware of the reserves of minerals in Afghanistan. A further coincidence is that the same companies who own and manage the energy technology requiring these minerals make things like C-6 explosive, JLTVs and things that go “bang”. These same people control the companies that process corn, wheat, steers and pigs into Cheerios, hamburgers and MREs that feed people who make things go “bang”. This small percentage of people are in a position to acquire even greater wealth as we struggle to control the source of raw materials and then use that control to improve our technology and power.

This is not some silly rant warning of some silly conspiracy by people aiming to control the world. This is not a conscious business plan that includes “dominate Afghanistan” as a project milestone. These people already control the world and we are generally better off because they do.  There are just some things that unleashed capitalism can accomplish with which no other system can compete. These people did not lay out some plan of illuminati to subjugate our wallets. This is just how the system works. It is good and it is evil. It must be fed. The food is energy and the lowest cost for them get it, sadly, is the lives of the people who live where that energy comes from and those who are sent to secure it for the system to continue running.

I don’t think I really agree with that last statement. History has demonstrated that the cost of war to procure wealth ALWAYS exceeds the value of the wealth; at least the total cost overall to society. In the limited attempts to incorporate the wealth in benefitting the local inhabitants it has generally been less expensive to develop the source and easier to coopt the permission and assistance of the people already there. A couple of cases that come to mind are the Alaska Pipeline and some of the attempts of Charles Goodyear to bring benefits of health and education to the natives who could help him develop rubber trees. Examples of the prior logic might be the empires of Greece, Rome and Spain. I wouldn’t want the balance sheet of any of those countries.

The other problem with war as a means of acquisition is that it generally backfires at some point and the aggressor finds himself in the cross-hairs of the world. Imperialism tends to have a limited half-life. Once the citizens discover there is more benefit OUTSIDE the empire than INSIDE, Berlin walls fall, Hadrian’s walls are toppled and Chinese walls become tourist attractions.

America must have a secure energy supply to maintain her economic growth and technological progress. It remains to be seen whether we will pursue that with universal benefits or continuing a zero-sum game.

By the way, when we look at something it seems that every perspective is correct to some degree according to some value system. I pray that we will work to acquire the value system that provides joy to all parties.

We all see things from our own perspective. A great movie that demonstrates this and keeps you riveted at the same time is "Vantage Point".  Give it a watch.