Crazy Talk or Something Like It (On Empire, Neo-Imperialism, and Oil)

On a recent trip to Singapore, Phileena and I took some friends to see a movie. It was the Orlando Bloom film, Kingdom of Heaven, about the crusades. The most interesting part of the experience was the context I found myself in. Our friends that we watched the movie with were all Muslim. They are a dear family that I've known and loved for over 10 years and we often enjoy seeing films together.

After the show was over and we were on the subway back to their flat, the inevitable conversation happened. "What is a crusade?" "Why did they fight the crusades?" "What had the Muslims done to provoke the crusades?"

After trying to delicately answer some of their questions, one of our friends shrugged her shoulders and said, "We have that too, we call it jihad." With that comment, the others seemed to understand the concept and history of the crusades and the conversation moved on to other things.

In 2005, North Americans probably think they are more familiar with the concept of jihad than that of crusade. We are currently fighting an on-going “War Against Terrorism.” We might say we're just defending ourselves from the jihadist mentality of the Islamic world. At least, that's what the powers that be would like us to believe.

A quick side note (you better get used to these), is it really a war on terrorism? I thought it used to be a war on drugs, but I guess we lost that one so we had to find one we could win. Oops. Remember, Tupac sang about it in Changes, "Instead of a war on poverty we have a war on drugs so the police can bother me." But what does Tupac know; I mean truthfully, how seriously can we take someone who faked his own death?

Okay, back to my crazy talk. In fact, the reality in 2005 is that the Western world is once again on a crusade against the Muslim world-or should I say, the non-democratic Muslim nations with a large stake in the world's oil supply.

We once again are living in an age of Empire. Like all the great Empires of the past (Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Britain, etc.), the Empire of the day defines what is of most value.

But what defines Empire? Jon Sobrino took at stab at it, "Like a divinity, it possesses ultimacy and exclusivity. The accumulation of power is an expression of God's blessing, and a way of ensuring God's presence in the world. Also like a divinity, the empire offers salvation. It is beyond discussion, and no one can stand in the way of its triumph. It demands an orthodoxy and a style of worship, and above all, it must have victims to live on."[1]

Dang! Why does he have to be so negative?

Don't be mad, but Sobrino actually calls America the new Empire, "It imposes its will on the whole planet, with immense power. Its mystique is its triumph over all others, with cruel selfishness and in every sphere or reality: an economy with no thought for the oikos (community); an arms industry with no thought for life; international trade under iniquitous rules with no thought for fairness; the destruction of nature with no thought for Mother Earth; manipulated and false information with no thought for the truth; a cruel war with no thought for the living and dead; contempt for international law and human rights..."

I had better stop there.

Anyway, I just got home from another trip to South and South East Asia. On the ride from the airport to my apartment, we drove past a gas station and I literally gasped as I noted gas selling for $2.46 a gallon. Hey now, I live in Omaha, not New York or Los Angeles where gas could legitimately sell for $2.46 a gallon.

Oops... I just got home from another trip to South and South East Asia where in India gas was selling for over $5.00 a gallon[2], in Cambodia where gas was selling for almost $7.00 a gallon[3], and I had been traveling with a friend from Korea where gas was at least $13.00 a gallon.[4]

Did I just hear a gasp?

In 2005 the real war that is being fought isn't a war on terrorism and certainly isn't a jihad against the West. In 2005, globalization has become the newest form of imperialism, the free-market the newest version of the crusades, and oil is the religion that fuels (literally) all this insanity.

How's that for an introduction?

I'd like to call this essay A Rotating Devotional for all Imperial Holidays (Columbus Day, the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving), but I think that might get me in trouble. So how about instead of thinking up a clever name for this piece, you just pass me a hot dog and beer (you know, in honor of all those pork-and-booze-hating-Muslims that hate my freedom) and light a few more firecrackers so that we can celebrate our independence from accountability and justice.

Wasn't it our very own former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who taught us all about this? Something about security at the expense of justice? Eduardo Galenao writes, "In a world that prefers security to justice, there is loud applause whenever justice is sacrificed on the altar of security."[5]

What? Did someone just say something? I couldn't hear it because my ears were still ringing from those darn firecrackers.

Anyway, what does justice have to do with globalization? Is there a chance that those crazy suicidal jihadists from 9/11 might have seen the Twin Towers as a symbol of economic terrorism? The White House a symbol of political terrorism? MTV a symbol of cultural terrorism? Probably not, they just hate our freedom. Damn them.

Galeano goes on to write, "Wall Street, which some say was named for a wall built to keep black slaves from escaping, is today the center of the great global electronic gambling den, and all of humanity is enslaved by the decisions made there."[6] What? Does Galeano also hate our freedoms? Anyway, investing is as much gambling as insurance or farming.

In an essay titled, Peace is War, Arundhati Roy writes, "In the era of corporate globalization, poverty is a crime and protesting against further impoverishment is terrorism," and "According to the State when victims refuse to be victims, they become terrorists and are dealt with as such."[7]

What? How could someone write such nonsense? That's crazy talk if I ever heard it.

I remember reading that on opening night of America's unprovoked invasion of Iraq (affectionately called "Operation Shock and Awe" by non-Iraqi's), the price tag for the bombs dropped on Iraq was more than Cambodia's GDP from the previous year. Are we trying to stop terrorists or create terrorists? Why not offer a fraction of that to Cambodia in aid and create a new ally, and demonstrate some compassion to the plight of the world's poor rather than making the poorest of the world even poorer? Is it unreasonable to think that solidarity with the poor, not further disparity, might help us win this war on terrorism?

Jon Sobrino asks, "Is there solidarity on a planet where one child in the First World consumes as many resources as 400 children in Ethiopia?"[8] Is that even a fair question? Here in the West we believe that we have intrinsic rights to what we have access to-we even go as far as saying God has blessed the heritage of our Christian nation with the wealth we enjoy today.

Christian heritage? God's blessing? We might need to pause here (sorry for the brief interruption, I hope we don't get sidetracked) and consider whether we're actually blessed or cursed.

How should we go about this? I have an idea, let's ask a few people who might know something about how God helped us amass such tremendous wealth.

But before we run off interviewing folk, let's consider what Leonardo Boff wrote in Holy Trinity, Perfect Community. It goes something like this, "The dominant form of the representation of God is influenced by the way the dominant culture represents God, and it does so in the framework of its fundamental interests. Thus, in a capitalist society-which is based on individual performance, private accumulation of goods, and the predominance of the individual over the social-the representation of God usually accentuates the fact that God is one alone, Lord of all, all-powerful, the source of power."[9]

What in the world is Boff talking about?

Back to those interviews.

How about we start with the Native Americans. An Australian friend once told me, "at least we didn't kill all our aboriginals." Wait a second... neither did we.

It was the first missionary of globalization, Christopher Columbus, (who was actually a real-live Christian missionary) that first opened the channel for God to begin blessing us. Howard Zinn documents excerpts from Columbus's journals, "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."[10]

Did he really say "in the name of the Holy Trinity?"

What? Seriously though, Columbus's first missionary journey was a success. Not only did he get his slaves, he also found gold. However, he did run into some trouble when too many of the slaves he was sending back died in route. No problem, he instituted a gold collection law that required all Haitians in the province of Cicao who were 14 years and older to collect a certain amount of gold every quarter. When the gold quota was reached each person was given a copper coin to wear around their neck, those who didn't have enough copper coins had their hands chopped off and most died due to blood loss.[11]

Gold sure is a symbol of wealth, riches, and blessing if there ever was such a symbol (hey, real quick, fold the page in Revelation 18 and we'll re-visit all this talk about gold later, okay?).

Back to interviewing those Injuns, did you ever read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee[12] for any of your American history classes? Probably not. It's basically a tragic account of one Indian massacre after another. A pretty depressing read actually. Most of the massacres are entire villages of unarmed women and children-it's not that early American military forces didn't like killing Native American men too, of course they did. It's just that they liked warming up on their wives and kids while the men were out preparing a defense for their families or out hunting to provide for their families.

In the book we get some helpful clues to early understanding of God's blessings for America. We used to call it Manifest Destiny. It went something like this, "Europeans and their descendants were ordained by destiny to rule all of America. They were the dominant (did somebody say "dominant?" Boff? Are you telling people what to write?) race and therefore responsible for the Indians-along with their lands, their forests, and their mineral wealth."[13]

Thank God someone figured that one out... I wonder what we call Manifest Destiny today? National Security?

Sorry, back to the old version of Manifest Destiny, "no advocate of Manifest Destiny ever phrased his support of that philosophy more unctuously than: 'The exodus of this whole people from the land of their fathers is not only an interesting but a touching sight. They have fought us gallantly for years on years; they have defended their mountains and their stupendous canyons with a heroism which any people might be proud to emulate; but when, at length, they found it was their destiny, too, as it had been that of their brethren, tribe after tribe, away back toward the rising of the sun, to give way to the insatiable progress of our race, they threw down their arms, and, as brave men entitled to our admiration and respect, have come to us with confidence in our magnanimity, and feeling that we are too powerful and too just a people to repay that confidence with meanness or neglect-feeling that having sacrificed to us their beautiful country, their homes, the associations of their lives, the scenes rendered classic in their traditions, we will not dole out to them a miser's pittance in return for what they know to be and what we know to be a princely realm'."[14]

Excuse me as I wipe the tears from my eyes, was that not only eloquent, but beautifully stated? Makes me hungry. Anyone want to join me for an early Thanksgiving meal? Those generous Indians, helping us prepare the turkeys and stuffing and cranberry sauce right before we slaughtered the few that were left in the name of National Security-oops, I meant Manifest Destiny.

Wait a second... what am I saying? We didn't slaughter them all, remember the reservations and casinos and rural liquor stores? More turkey please. And one quick question, are you absolutely sure that an Indian didn't write that great song, This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land?

Hopefully all this talk of Manifest Destiny hasn't confused you. Hopefully you're familiar with it's cousin imperialism. In 1937 when speaking of the Palestinians, Winston Churchill (the high priest of imperialism), said, "I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade of race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."[15]

Maybe it was because of fine and stimulating comments like this that Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953-I mean, afterall, his logic is stunning.

Remember Boff, that crazy-talker? He also wrote, "As an institution in history, the church has developed within the Western framework, which is strongly marked by the concentration of power in a few hands. It has been inculturated into settings where monarchical power, the principle of both authority and property, prevailed over other values more oriented toward community and society."[16]

Someone better shut this Boff guy up or he might expose the imperialist nature of the Church. Just kidding, the Church isn't imperialistic, just opportunistic.

Back to those interviews.

How about the Africans that were sold and bought as slaves? Could we ask them what they think of God blessing America for our Christian foundations? They were surely used by God to help build our booming economy.

Wasn't it on the bleeding backs, whipped by Christian slave-owners, of involuntarily slaved Africans that American capitalism thrived? Shouldn't African Americans today benefit from the hard work of their own forefathers? Then why does Amartya Sen, the Bengali Nobel Prize winning economist, point out that the average Chinese, Indian from Kerela, and Sri Lankan has a longer life expectancy of the average African American? He's just talking crazy too.[17]

In 1998 the National Library of Congress published over 300 pages of transcribed recorded audio interviews of former slaves. The result was a moving and powerful book called Remembering Slavery.[18] But perhaps some of the most scandalous comments (let's just call it what it is, crazy talk) published by a former slave are some of the statements made by Frederick Douglas.

Douglas wrote, "between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference-so wide, that to receive one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land... We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunders for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of God who made me."[19]

Now you calm down Mr. Douglas and stop spreading so much negativity. If it weren't for slavery you wouldn't have even been exposed to Christ-you'd still be back in the bush somewhere in Africa running around naked with the rest of your pagan friends.

I'm getting tired of these interviews, not sure they're helping us figure anything out.

But we could go on. We could ask America's lucrative former child-labor force that suffered in the mining industry to help usher in God's generous blessing of industrialism. Or how about American women who were repressed, suppressed, oppressed, and silenced for a greater part of our nation's history-were their contributions ever noticed or affirmed? Was it part of God's mysterious plans to institute gender inequality so that the superiority of men's rationality could open heaven's gates to financial prosperity? That would probably explain why countries with higher percentages of women than man are usually so poor.

Wait. I better stop here, I think interviewing the history of Native Americans and African slaves is probably enough. Anyway, it just gets uglier and I'm afraid you might be forgetting that we're talking about the modern crusade of democracy, capitalism, free-markets, and American ideology in 2005.

I also better clarify something real quick (sorry for all the tangents, I've appreciated your patience). I feel like I better reassure you that I'm not anti-American because sometimes people think that I am (I know, seriously, what would give them that impression?). However, I might be a little anti-nationalism minded. Wait, didn't Arundhati Roy say, "it isn't necessary to be anti-national to be deeply suspicious of all nationalism."[20] (She also said, "Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead."[21])

Where were we? Anti-American? Anti-national? Okay, so I might not have to be anti-national either. But I am anti-fascism (especially when it comes to hanging an American flag in a church... but that's crazy talk for another time), even though I used to be a little fascist-I still have my Cub Scout uniform to prove it (oh snap, did I really just say that?).

About those interviews... I only wanted to dabble in our American history books for a moment because in George Orwell's classic, 1984, he writes, "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."[22]

Get it? It's always the winners who write history, never the loser.

The Native Americans and African slaves don't get asked to comment on the blessedness of America's present as related to the Christian foundations of its past. Orwell helps us understand this with another comment later on in 1984, "it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely."[23]

Now back to the present and on to our future.

What we're talking about here is globalization and neo-imperialism.

So what's all this crazy talk about new imperialism? I'm sure you have some questions. Does oil really play a part in our US's shortsighted foreign policy? And you're probably hoping I don't pick on our relationship with Israel when we start talking about oil and the Middle East, because only crazy jihadist correlate Zionism with cultural or racial terrorism (and we showed them when the US and Israel walked out of the U.N. Summit on Racism in South Africa when they hinted at including Zionism as a form of racism[24]-those jihadist, we don't have to sign a proclamation on racism to prove we're not racists... we love all colors-especially the color of crude oil).

Like I said, I won't talk about the US-Israeli conspiracy against the rest of the world, just review the U.N. Security Council voting records for the US and Israel for yourself and draw your own conclusions.[25]

I just want to talk about how in the West we've reconciled the contradictions of our history to set the stage for globalization. It's pretty simple, once we "flatten" the world enough to get all the oil we'll move on to a new war, maybe a War on Negativity so that someone can finally shut me (and the rest of all these crazy-talkers) up.

Arundhati talks about this too, "As the battle to control the world's resources intensifies, economic colonialism through formal military aggression is staging a comeback. Iraq is the logical culmination of the process of corporate globalism, in which neocolonialism and neoliberalism have fused."[26]

Oh, she sounds a little bit liberal huh? She's probably not a Republican so we don't have to take her crazy talk seriously either.

She also said, "The invasion of Iraq will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever fought. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it, and are now in the process of selling it."[27]

Why does she have to be so negative?

Remember, a long time ago I mentioned that we were gonna talk about the Bible? Maybe we should try and get some positive energy from the Word (even though I'm sure you're probably wondering after all this sarcasm how can I possibly bring the Bible into this).

I mentioned folding the page in Revelation 18. In the passage (we'll look at verses 11-13), the Scripture explains the hierarchy of value according to the economic structure of the day (even though it's a day LONG ago, I think it will still sound familiar though to a God-fearing capitalist).

"The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more-cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men."

Wow, that's along list of good stuff huh? If we look closely at the list, what's most valuable is gold and that's on top (good news for Christopher Columbus and his missionary enterprise). What seems to be least valued in the economy is listed last and at the bottom-the bodies and souls of men (thank goodness slavery is over, that's an investment that seems to have been inflated). But wait a second... this list is about the economy of the Empire-the kingdom of man.

I imagine if we wanted to figure out what was most valuable in the economy of the Kingdom of God (no, not that Orlando Bloom movie), we'd have to turn this list upside down. Really.

Remember? In heaven gold is so value-less that we get to walk on it because the streets will be paved with gold (only good news for Christopher Columbus if he wants a public works job repairing roads).

Remember? It was on the cross that Jesus died for ALL of humanity (even jihadists) and defined the value of the bodies and souls of men with His very blood.

Good thing that oil wasn't mentioned anywhere on that list. If it was we'd have to re-think neo-imperialism, neo-colonialism, unprovoked wars of aggression, globalization, and our understanding of justice-I mean, only if oil were to be listed above the bodies and souls of men.

Well, since it's not in the Bible then I guess we're okay.

I guess we can keep colonizing Iraq, we can continue our efforts to take over Afghanistan (oh, I almost forgot to tell you that for decades now there has been a power struggle for Afghanistan because of all the unexploited oil in the Caspian Sea-whoever controls Afghanistan will get to control the pipelines from the Caspian through Afghanistan, ultimately ruling the world's last great untouched oil reserve[28]), and I guess we can sit back and watch the free-market globalize the world in the name of US National Security (didn't you hear, even though China had a superior offer to buy Unocal, the US government made it illegal for the free-market sale of Unocal to be free to anyone other than an American).

I guess after all this isn't really A Rotating Devotional for all Imperial Holidays (Columbus Day, the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving), because the Bible doesn't comment on oil.

So how about wrapping this up with a hearty round of singing God Bless America and then we can close with a prayer for cheaper gas (those dang jihadist, if they only knew how much it costs to fill the tank in my SUV...) so we can put this oil crusade behind us.

Dear Lord...

Endnotes:

[1] Where Is God? Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope, by Jon Sobrino. Orbis Books, New York 2004: page xiv.
[2] According to http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm, the 2003 Gross National Income-GNI (GNP) per Capita (Head) in India was $530.00 as compared to $37,610.00 in the USA. Using a price per gallon ratio against the US 2003 GNI/GNP, an Indian using 10 gallons of gas each week would pay an approximate equivalent of $184,501.88 per year.
[3] According to http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm, the 2003 Gross National Income-GNI (GNP) per Capita (Head) in Cambodia was $310.00. Using a price per gallon ratio against the US 2003 GNI/GNP, a Cambodian using 10 gallons of gas each week would pay an approximate equivalent of $441,614.17 per year.
[4] According to http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm, the 2003 Gross National Income-GNI (GNP) per Capita (Head) in India was $12,020.00. Using a price per gallon ratio against the US 2003 GNI/GNP, a Korean using 10 gallons of gas each week would pay an approximate equivalent of $21,151.71 per year.
[5] Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World, by Eduardo Galeano. Picador, New York 2000: pg. 77.
[6] Ibid, pg. 157.
[7] An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (the Indian version), by Arundhati Roy. Penguin Books, India 2005: pgs. 101-102.
[8] Sobrino, pg. 20.
[9] Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, by Leonardo Boff. Orbis Books, New York 2000: pg. XI.
[10] A People's History of the United States of America: 1492-Present, by Howard Zinn. HarperPerennial, New York 1995: pg. 4.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, by Dee Brown. Owl Books, New York 1991.
[13] Ibid, pg. 8.
[14] Ibid, pg. 31 (note, this is taken from the U.S. 39th Congress, 2nd Session Senate Report #156).
[15] Quoted by Arundhat Roy in an essay called, “Come September” in An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (the Indian version). The original quote comes from an editorial, “Scurrying Towards Bethlehem,” New Left Review 10, 2nd Series, July/August 2001, p. 9, n. 5.
[16] Boff, pg. XII.
[17] Development As Freedom, by Amartya Sen. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1999: pgs. 6, 21-23.
[18] Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation, edited by Ira Berlin, Marc Favreau, and Steven F. Miller. The New Press in association with the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), New York 1998.
[19] Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglas. Barnes & Noble Classics, New York 2003: pg. 100.
[20] “Come September,” pg. 15.
[21] Ibid.
[22] 1984, by George Orwell. Penguin Books, London 1987: pg. 37.
[23] Ibid, pg. 225.
[24] The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, August 31-September 8, 2001, made news when the USA and Isreal withdrew during the summit.
[25] Check out http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html for details concerning the use of the veto on United Nations Resolutions by the USA in favor of Israel.
[26] In an essay called, “Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Thelogy” published in, n Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (the Indian version): page 334.
[27] Ibid, pg. 333.
[28] Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid. Yale University Press, 2000. Chapter 11 "Dictators and Oil Barons: The Taliban and Central Asia, Russia, Turkey and Israel" is particularly interesting concerning the Caspian Sea's oil supply.