Category Archives: Culture

Sharia Law

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Mariner was reading his daily mail this morning when he read an article about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The new leader of the government encouraged women to join the new government – as long as they followed Sharia Law. This statement is far beyond anything Donald would say. No woman in her right mind would voluntarily support Sharia Law.

Comparatively, Sharia Law is a guidebook for Muslim judges to use when hearing cases brought before them. The cases are similar to cases brought before lower courts in the United States.

While other legal codes regulate public behavior, Sharia regulates public behavior, private behavior, and even private beliefs. Compared to other legal codes, the Sharia Law also prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation and favors corporal and capital punishments over incarceration. Of all legal systems in the world today, the Sharia law is the most intrusive and restrictive, especially against women.

Thanks primarily to Wikipedia and the billionbible website, below is a list of specific mandates included in Sharia Law:

  • Theft is punishable by amputation of the hands.
  • Criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by death.
  • Criticizing Muhammad or denying that he is a prophet is punishable by death.
  • Criticizing or denying Allah is punishable by death.
  • A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death.
  • A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is punishable by death.
  • A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punishable by death.
  • A woman or girl who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).
  • Testimonies of 4 male witnesses are required to prove rape of a female.
  • A woman or girl who alleges rape without producing 4 male witnesses is guilty of adultery.
  • A woman or girl found guilty of adultery is punishable by death.
  • A male convicted of rape can have his conviction dismissed by marrying his victim.
  • Muslim men have sexual rights to any woman/girl not wearing the Hijab.
  • A woman can have 1 husband, who can have up to 4 wives; Muhammad can have more.
  • A man can marry an infant girl and consummate the marriage when she is 9 years old.
  • Girls’ clitoris should be cut.
  • A man can beat his wife for insubordination.
  • A man can unilaterally divorce his wife; a wife needs her husband’s consent to divorce.
  • A divorced wife loses custody of all children over 6 years of age or when they exceed it.
  • A woman’s testimony in court, allowed in property cases, carries ½ the weight of a man’s.
  • A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits.
  • A woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative.
  • Meat to eat must come from animals that have been sacrificed to Allah.
  • Muslims should engage in Taqiyya (saying something that isn’t true but supports the Muslim position) and lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam.

There is a moderate wing of Muslims who have incorporated a modern ethical code into their beliefs but still generally accept the principles underlying the Sharia.

In nations which have Islam as national law, at a minimum the Sharia reaches across all nations ending in –stan [seven and Iran which should be a –stan except for a shift in dominant language at the time] .

Yet another new situation in these changing times.

Ancient Mariner

Living like bears

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A recent article from Science Magazine reported on a study performed on the west coast of Canada that wanted to know why, over thousands of years there were distinct genetic differences between bears that existed in close proximity. The environment was rich in food and environmental support; bears did not travel much over thousands of years. The geography, in part, has many large islands.

What made the study intriguing was that when the human genome of several indigenous human tribes from the same area was examined, there were genes that appeared similar to those in the bears and, interestingly, in the same part of the genome.

The conclusion by the scientists is that we are closer to our environment than we may think. Over generations, our bodies adapt to the environment – not just globally but regionally!

The finding contributes to the observed quick differentiation between human races that did not intermingle for many thousands of years. The concept even applies to smaller regions where the Irish, Germanic and Spanish tribes lived, for example. What is most fascinating is that the genetic changes for bears, the Irish and racial differences are located in the same part of the genome. Mariner wonders whether there is racial prejudice among the different bear colonies.

Oh well, this is fascinating science but it no longer applies generally to humans. Humans invented ships, planes, cars, highways; intermingling is inevitable. Perhaps, however, class distinction over many generations still may be a cause for adaptation. This is not as presumptuous as it sounds. In the latest edition of The Atlantic, David Brooks wrote an article that suggests that very thing.

David wrote an excellent commentary about what has brought the United States to the circumstances found today. Largely, it is a separation of what is defined as ‘successful’ among the various classes of society. It turns out that assumptions about what defines successful living have a direct effect on the society as a whole. David says that today in the U.S. culturally, the only successful lifestyle is the meritocracy built on being educated, smart, inventive and contributing to society through some form of creativity. He calls it the ‘creative’ class and is largely represented by today’s Democratic Party and very wealthy Republicans.

Society in the U.S. suggests that those who work with their hands, do monotonous work and have no need to indulge in ‘smart’ stuff cannot by definition be successful. This has led to the many variations of class war that are present today. The national turmoil will increase because the creative class is too small to survive in politics – the only frontier where being smart is not an absolute virtue.

So look forward to attacks on big data, socialist issues, tax advantages, science in general and the ideological fantasy of freedom and success – as in guns, law enforcement, racism and any other issue – even to the extent of whether one ‘must’ participate in fighting the pandemic that is now playing out in more conservative states.

Why can’t a gun-toting stevedore be seen as successful as a computer programmer?

Ancient Mariner

What Price Laxity?

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Mariner mentioned in an earlier post that he had entered a ‘homesteader’ phase. What that means is that he is interested in self-sufficiency, simplicity and a liaison with the biosphere. While his muscles ache a bit from the added labors of keeping busy physically, he has begun learning more about the Amish, whose whole philosophy of life is based on family and community working together and finding salvation through labor.

The Amish philosophy of valuing community and family above convenience or, dare mariner say, ‘aspiration’, is close to pure communism save its commitment to a literal interpretation of the words of Jesus. The economic model is communistic in that the political superstructure never extends beyond a certain geographic range where ethical authority remains totally internal to a tribe-sized collection of families. Further, the economic needs of any individual in that community are shared by the full community.

In his search for information about the Amish, he came across a documentary called “The Amish: A People of Preservation”. It was produced originally by PBS but mariner is not familiar enough with the ROKU world to tell readers where to search. The writer of the documentary is gifted; every closed caption is a quotable comment. For example,

“The old order Amish man is not yet ready for self-propelled equipment. This, he fears, will set off a chain reaction whereby everybody would follow the principles of efficiency and convenience to the neglect of humility and communal discipline.”

If there’s anything our American culture lacks, it is humility and communal discipline.

While the strength of Amish communism is sustainability, its moral structure is weak with respect to humanist reality. Justice is an informal opinion of a gathering of elders strictly bound by the grace of Jesus’s forgiveness. Punitive gestures destroy the Amish ethos. There was a case several years ago where a boy continually raped his sister. In each complaint brought before the elders, he confessed and repented. The elders forgave him as Jesus would. The boy returned to rape his sister yet again only to repeat the process to be forgiven.

Still, there is merit in not pursuing aspiration – particularly in the most capitalistic economy in the world. Resources are not endless; as the wealthy accrue more wealth, resources for everyone else diminish. Mariner has no idea how the future of this century will play out. It certainly will be different.

Ancient Mariner

 

Fire up some briquettes

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As regular readers know mariner is home alone for a couple of weeks. As a result of cooking only for one, he dug out his old hibachi to grill food instead of using the regular gas grill. His experience was positive enough to wonder why he hasn’t used the hibachi all along. True, it takes a bit of patience to start the briquettes but the efficiency – if only measuring that the hibachi is just outside the kitchen door – was significant. A five-gallon bucket of briquettes easily will last as long as a 7 liter LPG tank. A bucket of charcoal is about 30 pounds at an average cost of $25. A tank of LPG gas costs about the same.

The hibachi is convenient as a substitute for a campfire to cook hotdogs and make s’mores. Does anyone still have an old metal 6-cup percolator coffeepot? Make morning coffee and toast! The hibachi can substitute as a crockpot, too.

When mariner was in Taiwan, many restaurants had nothing more than a couple of ceramic style hibachis shaped like large flower pots. In Tainan mariner visited a restaurant which claimed to have the longest continuously burning hibachi fire in Taiwan. The primary menu items in these restaurants is what a crockpot or wok is used for in the U.S. Interestingly, a standard wok always seem to fit those flower pots perfectly. Genuine Chinese herbs and spices made the best stir-fries mariner has ever tasted.

Many small neighborhood restaurants were totally portable. Each morning the kitchen and seating were set up in what we would call a garage with no utilities. Customers ate outside on the sidewalk. In the evening these restaurants lit up the entire block with colorful lanterns. When the restaurant closed, everything was packed and removed leaving an empty garage. This setup method was common among many small retailers.

Being a foreigner, these kinds of social experiences were enjoyable. But alas, across from mariner’s hotel was a McDonalds. At least the food was still Asian. Mariner worked in the ‘down country’ of Taiwan. Visit the City of Taiwan on the north end and one would think they’re in New York City except everything is written in mandarin.

There are many other ways of living besides living amid Interstates and gazing at smartphones. Perhaps next our travelogue will visit Kazakhstan.

Ancient Mariner

 

Significant Moves

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֎ If the reader has ever vacationed on South Padre Island and visited the town of Brownsville, Texas they know the laid back, mostly Mexican culture and the abundance of retired old people. It’s just a single purpose town with a pleasant atmosphere and a notable marsh sanctuary. Until now. Elon Musk is moving from California to build his launching pad to Mars. It consumes a lot of beach and open area in Brownsville. Brownsville never will be the same.

֎ Now fly back across the continent to Windsor, Connecticut where construction has been halted at a new Amazon warehouse; Amazon has temporarily shut down its construction site in Connecticut after a seventh noose was found hanging over a beam. The suspected cause, although mixed with doubt, is racism in very New England Windsor. Both construction and future employees will have a significant number of non-whites and, given the enormity of an Amazon warehouse, the quiet style of Connecticut – just as in Brownsville – never will be the same.

֎ Disney has decided to move many of its operations to Orlando, Florida. Is this another gold brick falling from the golden world of California?

֎ Last month, Oracle, the tech giant, announced it is moving its corporate headquarters from Redwood City, California, to Austin, Texas. Hewlett Packard Enterprise also announced last month it was moving its headquarters from San Jose, California, to a Houston suburb.

Several journalists suggest that decades of fighting with California’s effort to restrain blatant capitalism but not doing it very well has become wearying for super big business. So they are moving to two of the most conservative states in the U.S.

Mariner’s first reaction is dismay. Is it a right of big money corporations to move wherever they want with no regard for cultural impact? It would be like an invasion into mariner’s garden by a rabbit that will consume the garden display but the rabbit is the size of an elephant. Brownsville and Austin were nice places back when . . . It takes some imagination but think about Congress before PACs and billionaire businessmen; has big money crushed the democratic culture of Congress in the same way? Corporate profit grows more and more expensive and not just in terms of dollars.

On a less personal tangent, Mariner suggests this may be an interesting transition. Texas, in particular, has a citizenry growing with liberal blue as northern businesses and the new phenomenon of ‘work from home’ move into the state. The last election showed a purple shadow in its profile.

As to Florida, the transition may not be caused by big business but rather by global warming where the bottom third of Florida is seriously threatened by destructive flooding and may actually disappear. In other words, it’s the privatized wealth that will move out of Florida. Think of Tiger Woods’ $44.5 million Florida home on Jupiter Island.

Change can be disabling. Suppose that regular basketball had to be played in knee-deep water. . . A few summers ago Mariner and his wife returned from a California vacation deliberately avoiding the Interstates. We came back on Route 66. Yes, it’s still there like an old jigsaw puzzle with most pieces missing. It was colorful, culturally entertaining and every bit as clean and with good food as any Hampton Inn. A similar experience can be had by dropping off Interstate 80 between Omaha and Pittsburg, where small, clean towns haven’t aged since the Korean Conflict.

Trade Brownsville for Mars? Jesus, have mercy.

Ancient Mariner

Wasteland

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As some readers may know, mariner is playing bachelor for a couple of weeks. The sudden absence of a life partner is surprisingly distracting for a few days. It took three days for mariner to set up routines, refocus thoughts and chores and establish a bit of energy about it all.

After a few days, desperation sets in with no one to interact with and a horrible, horrible void called television. Internet news was rehashing Covid yet again and provided little that was genuinely new.

Last evening, sitting silent in a silent living room and waiting for bedtime, mariner discovered a show on Smithsonian channel about six Obama speeches.

The atmosphere, the intelligence, the legitimacy of actions was so vividly different than it is today that it was akin to rapture. Not to give Obama what is not due but the reality of his Presidency, the reason, the humanness, the national unity was breathtaking. Mariner felt as if he had taken a soothing drug.

Check out the show: The Obama Years; the Power of words. It’s just like taking an aspirin for a headache or an antacid for the stomach. The rest of the evening was more pleasant – there is joy in the world, just not right now. But it did exist!

Drawn back to reality, these are dangerous times for democracy. Do not be slack in your support of democracy, you may lose it.

Ancient Mariner

Friendship

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AXIOS published an article this morning that talked about the fact that each of us has fewer friends today than we had in 1990. If one is a baby boomer it would seem so as friends and relatives slowly pass away; apparently there is more to it.

Friendship is a strong influence in our happiness. The term BFF is not a flamboyant term but speaks to residual accountability for support and growth. Among the AXIOS comments is one that says, “Context: This trend is nothing new, of course. Robert Putnam’s bestselling “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” was published in 2000 — 21 years ago.”

See: https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top

– – – –

All of a sudden mariner is again flooded with phony political polls that actually are fund raisers. Mariner doesn’t respond to these ‘national’ fund raising organizations because he believes they shouldn’t exist in the first place. Fund raising should be limited to the district covered by the election. A lot of graft and plutocracy would disappear. Sorry, shouldn’t lament over and over. Damned electorate.

Ancient Mariner

Intellectualism versus totalitarianism

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If the reader is thirsting for pure 100 percent intellectualism, read Harper’s Magazine. The journal always has looked to the abstract reasoning behind society, writing about the contribution of those who already concentrate on the ideas of reality rather than reality itself. Featured online and in the print copy this month is an article by Rebecca Panovka about author Hannah Arendt. Hannah Arendt (1906 – 1975) was an outspoken critic of the trappings of totalitarianism.

Hannah’s most noted work, a book about Nazi totalitarianism, ‘The Horrors of Totalitarianism’, has been brought back into the popular mainstream because of its close similarity to Trumpist authoritarianism. Instead of a crooked government as Trump accuses, in Germany it was the crooked Jews but the effect was the same – to dismember social unity and fragment political influence. This fragmentation allows a small minority to control the direction of society’s ethos.

Further, The Guardian is a British newspaper that also published an article about Hannah Arendt. Apparently Donald’s brand of authoritarianism is similar to Adolf Hitler’s style for dismembering the collective authority of society.

Both publications speak to the incompetence of government and the unsubstantiated reasoning of populist movements when confronted by an elaborate, organized and well-advertised myth that has no foundation in fact. The myth blames the wrong source for the hardships of the people, allowing rebellion against legitimate, if inept, political processes.

The articles imply that there are only two processes to deconstruct growing totalitarianism: war or counter movements aimed at unity – neither of which can guarantee wholesomeness.

Yes, yes. It is up to the electorate and we know how that will turn out in 2022.

Ancient Mariner

How to have a balanced economy

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֎ AXIOS distributed a concise and clear statement about why world population rates are dropping. It is a quality statement about a topic that doesn’t get much news coverage but can be a significant interpretation of social response to unsympathetic governments. It is typical that economic health is measured by GDP, inflation, and stock markets but the Axios article suggests that it is the condition of the population that determines the efficiency of a given economic philosophy. Some excerpts:

Why world population is slowing – Population growth is continuing to slow in the U.S. and China . . . Why it matters: Population growth spurs economic growth because it can increase innovation, workers and goods produced and consumed . . . What’s happening: U.S. immigration, life expectancy and fertility are all trending down.

We focus way too much on percent growth like quarterly GDP. We should think about what people want. What level of immigration people want. What age would people like to die.

Americans still want multiple children, but they’re worried about child care costs, their own student debt and a pause in their careers . . .

China has relaxed restrictions on the number of children families can now have. But the new policy seeks more to bolster the workforce than to promote population: The Chinese Communist Party is also raising the country’s retirement age, curtailing a key source of child care . . .

The bottom line: If countries want population growth to pick up, leaders must first fix underlying causes of the slowdown, including cost of child care and fear of immigration.

֎ From his lofty spot in the esoteric atmosphere, Guru suggests that the problems confronting nations in the 21st century will not subside until it is understood that political theories work best only in tailored economic situations. Guru said:

COMMUNISM works best in primitive conditions where authority is based on contributing to the wellbeing of other citizens and the economy is sustained solely by local labor and predictability. If one watches any of the homesteading shows on television they are watching classic communist behavior. Dictatorships that call themselves communist nations are misleading. Even the term ‘nation’ is stretching the concept. The reader may remember the commune movement in the US during the 60’s and 70’s but it failed because the surrounding economy was too sophisticated.

CAPITALISM works best when authority is based on assuring the freedom of all citizens to compete for available resources – but this works well only in economic conditions where there are plenty of resources to go around. The US was created at a time when an entire continent of unused resources was available and the expansion of worldwide economic resources was exploding as new places were discovered around the world. Capitalism was the perfect economy to scarf up resources at a geometric rate making the US the richest nation in the world. Alas, these resources have been depleted; in the 21st century there no longer are enough resources to go around for everyone. The population is too large to have everyone freely compete for resources.

SOCIALISM works best when authority assures equality among the citizens and the economy is stable and predictable. The Native Americans sustained a socialist economy for thousands of years because the resources, especially on the plains and seacoasts, were stable and predictable – until the capitalist authority killed all the buffalo, beavers, doves and destroyed important estuaries.

AUTHORITARIANISM works best when authority enforces social order in an economy that is inadequate or out of balance with the existing authoritative role. Once authoritarianism is in place it is difficult to remove; authoritarianism has no scruples other than power – just like Lord Acton said in 1887.

There are many other variations on the four basic economic philosophies. Corporatism is a style of capitalism; plutocracy is a form of capitalism; militarism is a variation of authoritarianism; Sheikdoms, China’s communist party and monarchies all are variations of authoritarianism. Tribalism, populism, classism, insurrection and other social movements can become significant and derail unbalanced economies – often allowing authoritarianism to emerge.

To use an allegory, consider the tight wire walker. The walker is authority, the wire is population and the long balance pole is economy. If the wire and the pole aren’t in sync, the situation becomes unstable.

Ancient Mariner

Another Road Metaphor

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The authoritarian revolt of the belligerent right still deserves our attention and requires some serious effort to contain the movement. Whether the electorate understands that movement’s threat to the constitutional government known as the United States of America will be shown in the results of the 2022 election. Aggressive authoritarian behavior is a failed consequence of many different economic and cultural changes.

While we keep one eye on the fires started in the last century we must keep the other eye on the road to the future. Another form of authoritarianism is corporatism. If we don’t manage the road properly, the division between the few wealthy and the many poor will become wider and more adverse, perhaps even superseding the role of government – which many claim is already happening. Many of the business regulations and institutions that were created in the last century are virtually irrelevant in this new world of computers and instant communication. The entire perspective about antitrust must be reconstructed. Further, one nation can no longer control an international corporation. It will require a new set of international laws.

Riding the road into the future already is heavy laden with issues. One issue that should be left on the curb is racism. Many millennials and most Zs don’t have this issue. Older folk should just be done with racism and move on – there’s not enough energy for all the issues let alone worrying about skin color.

This is made more complex by domestic police departments which have been trained in abusive racism for generations. Decommissioning a militarized police force will be difficult. It must be done or a significant portion of our society will be stunted as we ride the road into the future.

Just as old or older than everything else is the concept of taxation. Mariner’s old saw about the plains indians whose hunters shared their hunting success with the tribe doesn’t exist in American capitalism. As a consequence the billionaires who hunt money sit on untold trillions of dollars that, from a societal point of view, simply gather dust. Taxation – especially in times when labor jobs are disappearing – should redistribute a significant amount of the hoarded wealth to help pave the road into the future.

So, let’s hop on our hover boards and get moving down the road. Uncross your eyes; it was a bad metaphor.

Ancient Mariner