Welcome Back, Halsey

So, like wow. I attended my high school reunion on Saturday and it was a trip and a half. There was the whole "wow I haven't seen a lot of these people for 10 years" thing, but there was also a kind of weird "this is exactly like it was back then" type thing. It honestly felt like I'd moved back 10 years somehow. I talked to more or less exactly the people I talked to back then, and I avoided exactly who I avoided back then. Everyone looked pretty much the same, with some notable exceptions. People were married, so it could be difficult to tell whether you were trying to put a name to an actual 10 year reunion-ee or a spouse. At least one couple actually brought a newborn to the reunion.
At about the point when Mills and Alex (and Sakura, who must have been about ready to strangle us) were leaving, I was hit by this big wave of existential angst and ennui. Or maybe not ennui but definitely angst. I was just looking around and the idea that nothing had really changed at all presented itself and kind of just took over. I mean, 10 years, for what? Had I made any real progress? Had anyone? They could drink without sneaking around and that seemed like the only difference between this party and dozens of others back in school That and I was invited to this one. Since everyone was invited. It was honestly just like high school. I had this feeling that nobody really knew who I was and no one cared that I was there (wearing my suit!!). Which was ridiculous, since several people I'd had no more than a nodding acquaintance with, and at least one person I was pretty confident I'd never even been introduced to, stopped me to say hi and to tell me that I hadn't changed at all. So, they at least knew who I was. I mean, I was wearing a nametag for crying out loud. Everyone knew who I was if they took the trouble to read it.
So, I'm really glad that Laurie and Stephanie came to the thing, because they're the ones that convinced me to stay. I was following Mills and Alex (and Sakura!) out past the fountain in Lake Anne Plaza, feeling really shitty and demoralized, and wanting to just go home. And Laurie and Steph basically talked me out of it. They got me to stay and if I hadn't stayed I wouldn't have gone on to Diana Boss' apartment after the reunion broke up. A group of us went and just hung out there for another few hours. And it was fine. It was actually kind of fun. The only person there I'd really been great friends with back in school was Laurie, and to a much lesser degree Reid. And to a degree even lesser than that Jen Sondag. I mean, honestly, they were more friends of friends. And okay, Lara Martin and I knew each other from elementary school, but we were more friendly than friends.
But that is why I'm so glad I stayed and went to this thing. Because they were all perfectly nice. We just chatted and reminisced, and it was really like we almost did have this kind of bond based on where we went to school ten years ago. Which really, it just now hit me as I wrote that, was what I was more expecting from the reunion generally. That was the disappointment. I didn't feel any connection to most of those people. And I expected to, or I expected them to and want to connect with me, or something.
And if I hadn't stayed and gone to Diana's I wouldn't have been invited to the Sondag residence for lunch the next day. And that really cemented it and I felt much, much better. Because I'd had this theory that the people in high school weren't as horrible as I'd thougtht at the time and that if I'd given them half a chance they would have included me in their reindeer games to a much greater degree than they did. And this proved me right. I mean, I was hardly an outcast, and this just served to show me that to the degree that I was exiled, it was a self-imposed exile. If I'd made an effort to get to know anyone I didn't already know.... anyway existential crisis averted. Although it's been replaced with a sort of regret that I missed out on the chance to have these people as real friends rather than "remember back in high school" reunion acquaintances. I'm thinking more of the Jen Sondags and the Diana Boss' here, since Reid really was a friend, even if he started out as a friend of a friend. Aghhh. So, to the Jen Sondags and Diana Boss' of the world... an apology. I didn't give you a chance to give me a chance, I sat in judgment on you and I absented myself from your society; and for that I am sorry. Not that I imagine you were heart-broken over it at the time, or even now, since I imagine I was kind of a jerk, but I feel like I was unfair, so I apologize.
And then AFTER lunch... I know crazy, right? I got home around 4, and at 4:30 Jason Coleman called. He was at Dulles with a 4 hour layover before he could fly on to Orlando. So, Monica, Rob, Mills and I piled into Mills' SUV and we went to pick him up. We had a very pleasant dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then we had to take him back to the airport, but I'm glad he had time and I'm glad he called. It's always nice to see friends. And he regaled us with tales of his globe-trotting and the quirks of other cultures. Sometimes I feel like Jason is a sort of reverse doppel-ganger of myself. We're so alike in so many ways, but he does everything I don't and he's everything I'm not. And vice-versa of course. Oh well, it's always nice to see him. Okay, that's all for today's entry. I havent' forgotten about the other things I promised, but they really need their own entries, or the whole entry system is going to break down. And then - CHAOS!!! So, let's just get to those in a future blog entry.

Brooklyn!!!

Big Aristotle, out.

Super Rip-Off Post! Now Without Color!

I've decided to cross-post all my blog entries everywhere I blog! Ha-ha! So, if you're dedicated, and something of a detective, you could read, discuss and comment on each post up to three times. Unless I've lost count...

So, with no further ado...


Welcome to World War III!!! Current mood: Ki-yah! Category: News and Politics
I almost called this entry "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid" but I decided the current title was more upbeat. Anyway, I've been neglecting the blog recently, but that aims to change, as a lot has happened. First off, however, a clearing of the decks. Andy has asked for a blog entry as geo-political crash course, and that's what he's going to get. Today class - The Middle East! Get my Gitmo Suite ready!
The problem in the Middle East (not the only problem, but the biggest one) is the United States. Surprise! You possibly didn't see that coming. Unless you know me.... Anyway, you could trace the roots of the problems in the region all the way back to the Roman Empire if you really wanted to. In fact, you could trace them all the way back to Biblical times, when the Hebrews slaughtered the previous inhabitants to the last man, woman and child and took up their first habitation of the "Promised Land". Back then of course, Israel was prime real estate, while now it's mostly desert. It doesn't even have oil. However, the question of Israel these days is mostly a side show, a distraction from the main point, which is the American domination of the region.
The modern problems in the Middle East date back to immediately after World War II. The handwriting was on the wall. The British Empire was in decline, their navy could no longer be depended on to maintain freedom of the seas. The Soviet Union was emerging as a global rival. The decision was reached that the United States had to become the new guarantor of global security if only to prevent the U.S.S.R. from taking over the role. This decision led to many regrettable, but perhaps inevitable, further decisions, but for the present we'll confine ourselves to the effect in the Middle East.
The :Middle East was absolutely crucial, both to America's new role as a global superpower and to the postwar American domestic society that would emerge in the 50's and 60's. Petroleum fueled the American war machine, petroleum provided the cheap energy that ran the American economy; that, indeed, was the only thing that made that economy, that way of life, possible. But again, the handwriting was on the wall. American petroleum production was not yet in decline, but its rate of increase was slowing steadily. Those in power could clearly see the day approaching when the the United States would go from a petroleum exporter, to a petroleum importer. Thus, securing the Middle East's vast reserves was, at least, as important as containing the spread of Russian communism, and it could be argued that the one was actually an important part of the other. That is to say, that securing the Middle East was necessary in order to contain the communist threat.
But all of that is neither here nor there, as a practical matter securing the Middle East for America's interests proved to be relatively easy. Virtually the entire region had been colonized by the British and on this matter Britain and the U.S. were of one accord. As the British withdrew, American oil companies moved in. Deals were cut, and events were managed and the new leaders of the former British colonies were essentially recruited on the basis of their attitudes towards American hegemony of the region. The new leaders got American backing, technological, military and financial; security guarantees and a voracious customer for their main export that soon allowed them to dispense with the financial assistance. And America got oil.
Happy ending, right? Wrong. You see, no one actually consulted any of the people that lived in these former British colonies as to whether or not they wanted to live in an American client state that basically only existed to pump petroleum for export. "Leaders" like King Fahd of Saudi Arabia used their American connections to get to the top, their oil revenue to bribe the populace into compliance and their new power as heads of state to suppress any dissent.
Essentially, the plan was to "autocratize" the region, replacing British control with a crop of homegrown strongmen to run things. The operating principle being "we don't care what you do as long as the oil keeps flowing". Of course, it didn't always go that smoothly. Iran alone in the region had never been colonized by another country although their oil industry was essentially run by the British in one of the typical "sweetheart deals" the U.S. would later take over. However, the head of Iran's elected parliament (Iran was at this stage a sort of constitutional monarchy, although the monarch or Shah, retained many powers as the head of government, including the right to dismiss the prime minister) was moving towards nationalizing the oil industry. These efforts eventually leading to a stand off in which the Iranians kicked out the British, but the British blockaded the Iranians, refusing to let any oil leave the country at all. This could not be allowed. In 1953 the CIA organized a coup ousting the prime minister in favor of the Shah, who immediately dissolved both houses of the Iranian parliament and would rule the country in an increasingly dictatorial fashion for the next 3 decades. British control of the Iranian oil industry was, of course, reinstated.
However, over those same three decades, unrest and discontent with the dictatorial governments that had been foisted on them grew, not just in Iran, but throughout the region generally. Since dissent was so vigorously repressed (beheadings) it became more and more radical and gradually became centered in the one area of public life that could mount some resistance to the regimes: religion. So, the people of the Middle Eastern regions burgeoning dissatisfaction with their governments slowly became increasingly radical and increasingly Islamisized. This is where Israel comes in to the picture.
Israel is both distraction and scapegoat for these governments. The idea that Israel is somehow to blame for all their problems is an extremely appealing one, especially to exactly the kind of radical, Islamisized people Middle Eastern governments are trying to reach with their anti-Israel propoganda. Now the fact is that the Palestinean-Israeli conflict is a very real human tragedy that may end up triggering the end of the world, perhaps much sooner than even Pat Robertson believes, but a lot of its punch comes from the cynical use that the other Middle Eastern nations put it to, with our tacit blessing.
The potential freedom fighters in these countries, you see, now turn into warriors of the faith pointed at Israel. This worked for a long time, and to a degree still does. These governments actually give money to the people that in another world would be fighting to pull down their corrupt, autocratic rule. That's why the saying goes that every time you buy gas, you're giving money to Hamas and Hezbollah. And Al-Queda.
To sum up, the problems in the Middle East, for my money, and leaving aside hundreds of years of Shi'ite/Sunni conflict and your standard regional rivalries, can mostly be lain at the feet of these U.S. backed (and in many cases U.S. installed) governments cynical manipulation of their own populace's religous feelings and stifled political activism to stay in power at the expense of long-term regional peace and stability. They're riding a tiger, and when you ride a tiger you cannot in safety either get off or keep riding, sooner or later the tiger eats you. They seem to be gambling that they can manage to stay on the tiger's back until they die of natural causes. One day, there's going to be hell to pay, and that day may arrive soon. Very soon.
Anyway, this blog entry was too long, sorry Andy. I know this is far too long for you too actually read. So, I'll also apologize to Bree if she has to read it to you. Actually, I'll just apologize to anyone that reads this. Sorry. I got carried away. Entries to come with everything that was pushed out by my rambling discourse on the short-sighted policies at work in the Middle East, including my 10 year high school reunion, and reviews of Pirates of the Caribean and Civilization IV!! Okay, Mork out. Nanoo-Nanoo.

First and Last Post

How many blogs does a man really need? Especially a man like me, who has nothing really going on in his life? How many venues to bore others with the inconsequential details of my life am I going to end up with before the world stands up and says "Enough!"? I do not know. Speaking of boring others, I'm going to try and get my roommates to watch some Farscape DVDs tonight!