Finding the Good in a Catastrophe

In Patrick O’Brien’s Napoleonic era, historical fiction naval series, Captain Jack Aubrey begins most missions with a mixed crew; veteran seamen, land lubbers, convicts, foreign seamen pressed into service.  Strife is the norm.  In each case Captain Aubrey confides to the ship’s doctor and close friend, Stephen Marturin, how he longs for a life-threatening storm or battle to occur.  This inevitably happens, drawing the crew close together and in turn begin performing to Captain Aubrey’s famed standard of proficiency; no more than one minute twenty seconds between broadsides.  The external threat of a great storm or foe forces the mixed crew to forget their petty differences and instead focus on their common concern.

My favorite type of board games are of the cooperative variety rather than the “every man for himself.”  A great example of this is Forbidden Island, which requires all of the players to work together in order to escape from a sinking island.  Dungeons and Dragons could be another example of this style.  The players quickly realize, some faster than others, that they need one another if they are to survive the threat.  The players become imminently aware of their own vulnerability, cured only by relying on one another.  I have noticed a greater sense of bonding and camaraderie among the players walking away from these types of games.

Natural disasters in real-life are world shattering.  Nobody wants them.  Yet, they do have an amazing way of fostering solidarity among humans.  The trivial matters that divide us take a back seat when we are faced with a common, external threat.  It is in these moments, working together, that humans are able to perform impressive feats.  We become aware, if only briefly, what we can accomplish together as a species.  Therein lies the problem, however; we are forgetful.  While catastrophes fortunately are temporary, so also is the boost to our collective good will and ingenuity.  We forget and soon again focus on the trivial trial one foot before us.  It is in this context that I say, thank goodness for the next catastrophe, because I like the thought of firing three broadsides in under two and a half minutes.  Don’t you?

Identity Politics and the Road to Authoritarianism

Politics in America is becoming ever more polarizing. We are expected to fall in one extreme camp or another. The collective is king. “You are either with us or against us…and your silence is agreement.” This is classic identity politics.

Identity politics is a crucial step on the road towards authoritarianism. In order to have complete obedience from a people, individual freedom of thought and action must be placed in subjection to the desires of the collective. Identity politics facilitates this process by convincing individuals that they belong to a collective, sharing mutual desires and concerns. To aid in this effort, flames of fear and hatred, already inherent to the individual, are fanned in a direction that suits the collective. The collective then claims to have a solution, but only lacks the necessary power to make it possible. Desperate for a solution, the individual willingly hands over their freedom of thought and action.

The Jewish-German philosopher, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), was a refugee from Nazi Germany.  She spent the rest of her life trying help herself and others understand how everyday people can be complicit with atrocities that accompany totalitarian regimes.  The result was her work titled, "The Origins of Totalitarianism."  Roger Berkowitz is a scholar of Arendt's work and interviewed here.  In the interview, Berkowitz explains how we are drawn to identity politics because we "actually prefer a lying world of consistency that upholds our sense of purpose and meaning in our movement and our identity, than the messiness of reality, which actually makes us feel unmoored from any meaning and purpose in life."

The Left's ongoing complicity with Trump and the Right in the falsification of reality is hindering productive public discourse. As the conversation continues to break down and drift from reality, the more likely we will see a totalitarian ideology take power in our time.

How do we fight identity politics? First, acknowledge one’s own fears and hatred. Second, be on guard against collectives that will try to use our fears toward their own ends. Finally, practice valuing and respecting one another. This means we ought not to assume the worst in one another. Through this, we rob the many collectives in the world of their primary tool for gaining power.

Is Our Military Force Structure Outdated?

Our military force structure once divided officer and enlisted based on class; nobility vs. the commoner. That was great when men still wore white tights, but we have since evolved beyond the taste of such civilities. We eventually replaced the often out-of-reach trait of nobility with higher education, our nation's version of an out of reach trait for commoners. Not so any more. 

The enlisted force is becoming more educated by the year. Many enlisted, most notably our senior enlisted, have bachelor’s degrees (31%) and master’s degrees (10%), while 77% of company grade officers only have bachelor’s degrees. And while these senior enlisted members bring far more experience to the table (usually 3 times the number of years), they are still out-ranked by the lowest of “wet-behind-the-ear” officers. 

All of this has led some to begin questioning the legitimacy of utilizing higher education as a distinguishing trait for organizing our force structure. This article goes even further by calling into question the legitimacy of an officer/enlisted structure entirely.

Total Solar Eclipse: No Mere Coincidence

Sun’s diameter - 1.3914 million km

Moon’s diameter –3,474 km

Sun’s distance from Earth – 147.1 to 152.1 million km (varies throughout the year)

Moon’s distance from Earth – 406,662 to 356,509 km (varies throughout the month)

Despite the above vast sizes and distances, the Moon will appear precisely the same size as the Sun in precisely the same location from the perspective of Earth today. One might just consider this to be an occasional coincidence. Consider for a moment, however, that this type of phenomena to this level of precision happens nowhere else in our solar system. As such, it is viewable from the sole location that supports intelligent life.

In addition, the phenomena occurs during a time in that intelligent life’s history where they are able to take advantage of the scientific treasure it bears, namely a greater understanding of our star’s outer corona. This was not possible centuries ago for two reasons; 1) the Moon use to be closer to our planet, completely obscuring the Sun during an eclipse (and hence our ability to study the Sun’s corona, 2) we did not have the technology centuries ago to take advantage of such a study even if it were offered.

The more we learn about our nearest star, the more we will come to understand other stars and the universe in general. The more we learn about creation, the more we learn about our Creator. This is called “General Revelation” in fancy theological terms. We truly are in the age of cosmic discovery, at the right place, at the right time. In other words, consider today’s total eclipse our Creator’s way of saying, “Look at this!” I consider that to be far too exciting to be a dull, mere coincidence.