Diogenes, where are you?

The following is from a letter to a youthful enthusiast:

You asked if I had read any of Lyndon LaRouche. Yes, I have, or at least I've tried. I find his writing to be fairly obscure, written, I suppose, for an insider-group to whom his jargon is well known. He seems to me to lose focus, to go on too long, and not to know when to stop after a point is made. He could be right or wrong, but I find him unconvincing because he is not concise in his arguments.

I think he suffers from a problem described by Nicholas Kristoff (who was writing about something unrelated in the NY Times). He said (liberally emended), "The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that [some] groups are too often alarmists. [For whatever reason,] they've lost credibility with the public. Some do great work, but others can be the [left on the fringes -- right, left, or otherwise]: brimming with moral clarity and ideological zeal, but empty of nuance."

I put Bush, LaRouche, religious fundamentalists (Baptists, Muslims, Catholics, whatever), the Sierra Club, OPEC (maybe), and too many others into this class. They lack credibility with me because they are so totally sure that their way is THE way that they don't hear or see other sides as having any merit. In my world view, even the "bad guys" have a point, however obscure it may be. To deal with them in whatever fashion, one must be aware of their self-justified motives.

What do you think?

Spring?

Nah, too soon. The tripod only went up this week. (For the uninitiated, that refers to the Nenana Ice Classic, an annual lottery for when the ice goes out on the Tanana River at Nenana, AK. They don't even start selling tickets until April 5. The (liquid) water dripping from my roof and pooling on the roads just can't be serious. That isn't to say I haven't seen grass -- green grass, even -- in March, but there is still a lot of snow out there.

All that said, it is beautiful outside today. A day to share with the world. Bright sun, blue sky, warm enough that just a sweater is plenty. It's great. Not earth shaking, just great.

Show, not tell

The fundamental principle in many writing classes is to show what is happening in your story by having characters speak and act, not to narrate events. This has often seemed to me to be a good model for daily living. Don't rely on telling people what to do. Show them what you mean by your own actions. Be a role model. Lead instead of push.

Unfortunately, the American government today doesn't seem to have caught this message. As reported in the New York Times, the State Department has detailed an array of human rights abuses last year by the Iraqi government in the department's annual report on human rights. [Link]. The report cited "reports of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, impunity, poor prison conditions - particularly in pretrial detention facilities - and arbitrary arrest and detention," but did not mention abuses at Abu Ghraib.

Is this the same American government of which we hear charges of abuse in Abu Ghraib, about detention without legal recourse in questionable conditions at Guantanamo Bay, about seemingly arbitrary arrests of people on suspicion of terrorism, and the remarkable practice of extraordinary rendition?

Before I am written off as a bleeding heart liberal Bush basher, let me slip in the idea that my concern is with fundamental principles of our government and of future treatment of our troops in the field. I understand that it is much harder to stay within the law when the other guy doesn't bother. It is difficult to have open trials while protecting your agents. And it is enormously frustrating to be convinced that another is a threat and evil to boot, but not to be able to do anything about him (or her) because of legal restraints.

And yet, if we do not follow "the rules", it becomes that much more difficult to demand that the other guys do so. Were I the other guy, I would laugh at the posturing of a government that demands a nuclear free condition for me while building a new generation of nuclear weapons. I would say to America, "Show, don't tell" me what to do.