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God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
Of Prophets and Empires of Old
By Lu Su
The 2008 Presidential debates for Vice President gave our family one lingering souvenir. There is one phrase that my kids, particularly my boys, constantly say to each other. It's one of those phrases that is a little irritating, so that is all the more reason why my boys say to each other. I'm not sure who should get the credit for making this phrase popular, whether it be Sarah Palin or Tiny Fey, but it's definitely a popular phrase in my household. The phrase that my boys latched onto for months now is "You Betcha!". So words like"yes", "okay", and "alright" are now extinct from my sons' vocabulary and have been usurped by this new phrase "You Betcha!". And of course when my boys say it, they don't say it in a normal tone of voice. They have to shout it at each other, "YOU BETCHA ! ! !".
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In the first major interview as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared to be stumped when ABC News' Charlie Gibson asked her whether she supported the"Bush Doctrine". Palin stared blankly for a moment before turning the question back on Gibson. "In what respect?" Our media has such great power to shape who can and cannot be President and Vice-President of the United States of America. I believe this interview with Charles Gibson and later with Katie Couric did more harm than good to the Republican campaign. |
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Had Abraham Lincoln or Napoleon been around today and made a concerted effort to run for public office, I don't think either would have survived the intense media scrutiny. To my great surprise and pleasure, President Obama was able to overcome the issue of race. However, I told my wife that I think it will be quite some time before us Americans can elect someone of short in stature or who has a voice like Michael Jackson's. (Not that he has anything wrong with his voice). Everyone has a stereotype of what our Commander of the Arm Forces should look and sound like.
During that first interview with Governor Palin, I definitely would not have wanted to be in her shoes. Not only because I have wide feet and would have been in great pain, but I also drew a complete blank when the question of the "Bush Doctrine" came up. But being that it was live and the interview was being broadcasted around the entire country (and maybe parts of the world), I think I would have seized the moment in the height of my ignorance and attempted by best Gary Coleman impersonation by asking, "Whatcha Tawkin about Willis?" |
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I eventually came to the realize that our foreign policy of military preemption had been given a new label called the "Bush Doctrine". What confused me was that usually when you give a name to something, you are crediting that person of starting something newly discovered (i.e. Doppler Effect, Reagenomics). But the policy of military preemption is NOT a new type of doctrine that President Bush invented or started. I don't know how far you want to go back, but military preemption is a very old philosophy. |
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“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”
General George S. Patton quotes (American General in World War I and II, 1885-1945)
“Strength lies not in defense but in attack”
Adolf Hitler quotes (German Chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”
Niccolo Machiavelli quotes (Italian writer and statesman, Florentine patriot, author of 'The Prince', 1469-1527)
“Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the Attack.”
Sun Tzu quotes (Chinese General and Author, b.500 BC)
"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate.
And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.”
Now I do not think for a second that you need to be a military a general or an experienced statesman to understand this concept of preemption. Just ask any teenager or a mother that upon learning that there was a heavily armed terrorist cell operating in the vicinity, which strategy they would think would best protect the town residents?
1. Diplomacy
2. Surrender
3. Put in place defensive measures that would adequately protect every citizen wherever they are (i.e. home, office, school, car)
4. Ignore them.
5. Go on the offensive and de-capacitate their ability to do harm.
When it comes to fighting terrorism, in order to be effective in stopping it, you need an offensive unit. Now while we are on the offensive, why don't extrapolate what we do in fighting terrorism and apply it helping the prosperity of our economy? The amount of new debt that we are setting ourselves to take on is a staggering amount. Who is going to pay for all this new spending?
If I just fix my gaze onto Venezuela, Argentina, or even the little island of Trinidad, I see lands that are rich with natural resources. So what is stopping the United States of America from just taking it? Because it would not be morally right? Says who? Is that the only argument stopping us? Remember our county's biggest export is weapons; we know how to build them and we know how to use them. We know how to make war. Plus we didn't seem to have a big moral issue in removing the original Americans that were here before us. If the American people so wished, we could out do a Caesar or an Alexander the Great in territorial expansion. With our economy slipping deeper into trouble, does the world get more fearful about our intentions?
Last week I asked, "What did Moses and the Prophets say that could cause our destiny to change?" And this week I've asked, "if the United States just needs something (like a couple trillion dollars), why go through steps that might fail in generating it? Why not go south and just take it?" You think I'm going to try to answer moral question like these?
You Betcha! I believe the answers are tied into this little prophesy that is found in the Bible. Please read this interesting sequence of events which was recorded in the book of Daniel. Next week I'll try to unpack it.
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, "I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means. "
4 Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it."
5 The king replied to the astrologers, "This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. 6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me."
7 Once more they replied, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it."
8 Then the king answered, "I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided: 9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me."
10 The astrologers answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men."
12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.
14 When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. 15 He asked the king's officer, "Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?" Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.
17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said:
"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.
21 He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king."
Daniel Interprets the Dream
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him."
25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means."
26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), "Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?"
27 Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:
29 "As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.
31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
"The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery."
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel's request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
