WHEN we lose our beliefs we often feel as though we've lost a part of ourselves. This is true even if those beliefs are superstitions.

IN early 2001 I attended a presentation by Thomas Friedman, columnist of the New York Times who was that day the main feature of the (Alaska) Governor's Lecture Series. Ostensibly the subject was the influence of the internet and the new electronic era, but hardly half an hour into his talk he brought up Osama as a 'super empowered individual' whom the United States had targeted with dozens of cruise missile weapons. "Imagine that, a modern country at war with an individual!"

OSAMA embodies a vision, a vision of Islamic redemption from backwardness through conquest. That vision is what makes him important in this battle of global will. Despite his methods which all civilized people condemn, his appeal is international and obvious to those who look upon him as some sort of answer to a common frustration.

HE is not waging a battle for Palestinian rights, nor for the sanctity of Saudi soil. He is attempting to impose a global 'Solution' to the perceived impotence of Islamic force in the world, and by force is meant industry, philosophy, social creed, and impact on the world stage. The world of Islam, which has some historical triumphs, has been perceived, rightly or wrongly, as moribund for generations. This has been a perceived problem in the Muslim world for a long time now, the development of the State of Israel is just a symptom on which it is possible to focus. Other symptoms would be the lack of creative institutions of learning in the Arab world as opposed to the 'Western' World, the lack of industrialization, the economy based on a single natural resource sold for export, political structures which at best simulate democratic institutions, tribal loyalties which outweigh all others at the expense of a unified political state, and government sponsored religions, or more correctly, religion sponsored governments.


OSAMA'S solution is rather than emulate the West, to go back in time to an idealized Caliphate. His tactic includes terror because that is what he's capable of at this time. His weaponry is anything he can lay his hands on. The surrealism of his views is a product of isolation and great wealth. And there are many folk who share his approach, or common sickness.

FOR a modern world society to accept this view is impossible. So with these circumstances there is no hope that "we can all just get along."

THE stresses that have led to the situation with old-world Islam has a similar resonance in any 'fundamentalist-driven' worldview. There is a passing connection between the Islamic terror campaign against secularism, and the 'faith-based' proclivities of current American politics (and truth to tell, it isn't just the United States with these forces operating, it's the world).

THERE is more than one war going on: There is the religious versus secular conflict that pits Muslim cleric against Muslim free media outlet, Muslim terrorist against Muslim policeman, Muslim suicide bomber against resort hotel (Muslim or otherwise). There is also a war of religion against religion: Christian fundy against Muslim fundy. The first war is inevitable. The second war detracts from the first war and will lead to chaos and old night.

Jed Marum's assessment of Osama on 08 July was perceptive, likewise Ladyjean's clever poetic reworking, which said in a nutshell what I'm posting here.

I have my own poets to add:

From the era in which the Christian world first had to face up to changing perceptions.

FROM Nosce Teipsum (1599)
by Sir John Davies
. . .

I know my body's of so frail a kind
As force without, fevers within, can kill;
I know the heavenly nature of my nind,
But 'tis corrupted both in wit and will;

I know my soul hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blind and ignorant of all;
I know I am one of nature's little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

I know my life's a pain and but a span,
I know my sense is mocked with everything;
And to conclude, I know myself a man,
Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.

FROM "Anatomy Of The World" (1621)
by John Donne
...
And new philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out,
The sun is lost, and th'earth, and no man's wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confess that this world's spent,
When in the planets and the firmament
They seek so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out again to his atomies.
'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,
All just supply, and all relation;
Prince, subject, father, son, are things forgot...

AS of now, we are in the middle of the technical social revolution ushered in three generations ago with atomic engineering. We are all entering the latest phase of the new era, highly techological, with genetics enabling an acclerated re-working of every aspect of humankind from what we wear, what we eat, to how we live and who and what we are.

It makes sense to be afraid of the issues therein. One of the common reactions is to seek refuge in the imagined surety of an earlier era. This is going on everywhere. Osama is the outer bounds of that reaction. He can no more succeed than we can undo the Trinity Test of July 1945, than Adam and Eve can disgorge the apple.

The only reaction which will actually save us is to "boldly go" forward, realizing that not everything we were taught to believe in was correct, that it couldn't all be correct, but we now living are the carriers to the future, and if nothing else, we should be carrying a book of poems.