A Story to End Israel

Posted on April 2, 2025 by josuter

Stories can be created by anyone, but stories that create a culture mostly come from people above us in the social hierarchy – people like politicians, religious leaders, parents, teachers, and older siblings. Time-tested stories provide a structure to help guide beliefs and behavior. When reality changes, however, the story must also change to match reality. That is not the case with Israel. Enemies of Israel, frustrated for decades, are setting a trap to destroy Israel. Using a known martial arts technique, they are using the force of the opponent turned against the opponent themselves.

Zionist Christians and Jews in United States, the largest and most powerful country, are force feeding the Zionist war machine with financial and military support. With war as the primary mode of foreign policy, the coffers of the leaders in Israel are overflowing from well-meaning Jewish and Christian Zionists who are mostly ignorant about what is happening.

What is happening? Younger brother has grown up. Younger brother has developed supersonic missiles with ranges of thousands of kilometers and using pinpoint accuracy from advanced guidance systems. These missiles have already evaded the Iron Dome to strike military bases within Israel. Yet Zionists are kept in the dark about this due to censorship and misinformation by government, mainstream media, and local religious leaders.

Is there a way out? Maybe. First, it must be understood that God and Government are not the same. Secondly, pressure must force better choices by the warring parties. This pressure can come from leaders in other countries but the pressure itself can be started anywhere at any level. Leaders must be pushed to find or create alternative pathways. A Dynamic Democracy could allow significant input by any minority in a new government. Grassroots people, who primarily want stability and predictability, will also have input in a Dynamic Democracy process.

Realizing the bad blood between United States and Iran stemming from the 1979 overthrow of the Shah, third parties can host public hearings on why the Iranians felt strongly about charting their own course and their need for a change in government. This may help to clear the air.

Writers of the Old Testament, knowing the types of people whose minds were closed, may have been led to write about their demise. Stories of Armageddon in the Bible may have been written specifically about the end of the Nation of Israel. Zionists today remain unaware of the impending destruction of the land they say God has given them. Even if nuclear weapons are used in a war between the US and Iran, Israel will be merely a footnote.

The Old Stories will not work in a new time and new environment. Ignorant about what is happening on the ground, Israel is going out on a limb soon to be cut off. Ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel are already gone. The last two are headed for a buzz saw. This is sad for those of us who want Israel to survive. Tens of Thousands of Zionist supporters within the United States could rise up and demand a change in the government of Israel – but will we? Can we imagine another future?

A New Story to Avoid Nuclear War

Posted on January 30, 2025 by josuter

A New Story to Avoid Nuclear War

I was a young boy when my father told me something that I realized was not true. I loved and admired my father, but why would he do that? Maybe he believed it. Maybe that’s what his father told him. Both grew up in different times and different environments. For that I could forgive him.

When the environment changes, the story must change. A powerful story must touch reality at some point yet leave room for imagination. Culture is a collection of stories that work and have value in a particular environment.

Metaphors reflect our vision and understanding of the world. We think in metaphors and use them to influence other people too. Memes are metaphors with feet. Allistair Crook says the fever of misleading memes should be broken. But how do we do that? It takes a long time for a bad meme to burn out. Because of this lag it may be necessary to take counter measures simultaneously at multiple levels.

The Story of The Emperor’s New Clothes is just as true today as it was when written nearly 200 years ago. The Big Lie in the tale was not that the Emperor had no clothes. That fact was evident. The Big Lie was that people who could not see the new clothes were stupid. This made people shut up. When political leaders are afraid to look weak, it increases the resistance to finding Useful Information, both for themselves and others. In the same way, censorship destroys language. People hide what they mean and some others may create a new language.

Israel needs a New Story. Their Old Story worked in the past but not today in this new and different environment. Can they forgive their fathers, or will they continue to be prisoners of an Old Story?

Environment

By themselves supersonic missiles (SSM) can be viewed as a dangerous and destructive weapon. But this is a nuclear weapon environment. If only the Big Players have SSM’s they will simply be another weapon on the shelf and potentially destabilizing. As a part of a larger system with feedback loops, SSM’s can be distributed to both nuclear and non-nuclear countries where they could be a stabilizing force, allowing us to back away from the Nuclear War precipice.

Even several SSM’s fired by mistake or by malice will not destroy the whole world. There will be time to investigate. On the other hand, detonation of a single nuclear weapon will likely lead to thousands of them being launched. Henry Kissinger noted that after the first nuclear weapon is launched everything beyond that point becomes unpredictable. So it is highly likely that all the missiles will be launched. Consideration of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during WWII are not helpful in thinking through this problem since the United States was the only one who had them at that time. This situation is more like the old-fashioned gun fight with two gun-slingers – except we are using nuclear guns and everybody dies, including the crowd. Is this how we will treat God’s Creation, this great and miraculous Creation?

Jonathan Schell’s book “The Gift of Time” was a reflection on the luck – or maybe providence – that kept us from using nuclear weapons in the decades since WWII. But time can be so short and even disappear when leaders have only minutes to make a decision that will affect the fate of the world. “He who hesitates loses”. We must not put anyone in that position. Yet some leaders believe that a nuclear war can be won. That is the Story they tell each other – but it is misleading.

Motivation of those who are Gender-Queer might be, in part, a statement that the alpha male model does not work anymore. The alpha male model has brought us this far but continuing along the same path will lead to destruction of everything. The risks go up even further when more nations want nuclear weapons. Yet Queer people want to be protected too, so we and they must find some other type of defense.

Nuclear weapons are not a “great equalizer” as some have said, but rather a “great destroyer”. They warp reality and make individuals blind. SSM’s could be a key stabilizer and function to keep the larger system stable, but only if distributed among all nations and using interlocking regional groups.

Types of Power

A Story can definitely have power but it must match the environment. It should be obvious that we need other types of power. It may be up to citizens to find and use those powers since current leaders are too busy and may have no motive to do so.

Education is power. 30 years ago, Jackie Jackson, a public school teacher speaking as a guest on The Newshour, clearly stated that the value of education is survival of the group, not just getting a job. We argue over school funding while the Russians educate their students in STEM subjects, allowing Russia to build SSM’s while the US lags behind.

Government, business, and mainstream media use BOG (Barrel-Of-a-Gun), money, and information as tools of power. This aligns with the task of government to set boundaries, business to produce goods and services, and media to gather and filter information.

These types of power might be called Type I or material powers since a person who possesses them has power. Type II and III powers are process-structure types of power and include Division of Labor (DoL), Competition, PIE Games, Feedback (FB), Bottlenecks (BN), Focusing on a Few (FoF), or changing Target Learners (TL).

Other types of power include: Discovery of better Questions, Discovery of Points of Resistance, Creation of New Stories, and various Information Games. These are all types of power if they help to get things done. Organization itself might be considered a power, though it may be more a manifestation of power since many organizations will collapse when the power is shut off.

What is the purpose of the Nation-State?

The Treaty of Westphalia that ended the 30 Year’s War in 1648 was the result of exhausted warriors agreeing on some boundaries and promising to keep their hands off others’ property. Since that time the Nation-State has evolved to become the primary protector of its citizens, plus creating a stable and predictable environment. So the Nation-State can evolve, but can it change itself? How? And in what direction? Feedback will be key.

Can democracy handle these increasingly complex issues? How do we Start? Thinking about HOW we talk can be power.

Small seed groups (2 or 3 people) can start something with one of these powers. A discussion or debate does not have to save the world. It only has to take one step or discover one idea. The next step is a “process” discussion like “How do we get this idea into a larger group?” Alternating Issue Debates with Process Debates will move us forward.

We cannot simply point out mistakes or accuse someone of “hubris”. There is hubris at every level, even among children who are unable to hear others from a lower station. Maybe it’s boredom or not wanting to repeat things already learned. Maybe it is a fear of looking bad or an effort to maintain the social hierarchy. So we must help find a new path.

David’s Slingshot

Posted on November 23, 2024November 23, 2024 by josuter

David’s Slingshot

by John Suter November 2024

David the shepherd boy must have practiced a lot with his slingshot. Maybe a friend showed him how to use it to fight off wolves. Maybe they had games to shoot targets. In any case, he was really good with the weapon. When he picked up a stone to fight Goliath, he knew he could take down the giant. Accuracy over brute strength here was a key lesson.

A similar situation exists in the proliferation of nuclear weapons today. The weapons themselves have only grown larger, large enough so that one megaton bomb can wipe out an entire city. Despite the fact that there have been at least two episodes since the Cuban Missile Crisis that came very close to triggering an all-out nuclear war, many nations believe they will be safer if they get the bomb. The confluence of these events should make us search for other solutions – starting now.

The change in the story is that the new supersonic missiles (SSM) are highly accurate. The new incoming Secretary of Defense notes that Russian supersonic missiles can take out all the US aircraft carriers in 20 minutes. This is a huge change. This is also an opportunity to re-think the need and usefulness for these Goliath nuclear bombs themselves. It must be an inducement to find and make real change in how we approach national security.

How do we change this situation? Decisions on the use of Nuclear Weapons (NW) are being made not only by Decision Makers (DM) near the top of the government and military, but by advisors who, because of their ignorance or hubris, believe that a nuclear war could be won and we (they) could survive. (The consequences of a nuclear war are spelled out clearly in several books, including “The Doomsday Machine” by Daniel Ellsberg who worked for the RAND corporation and the government). People at or near the top need better information and better feedback that they will not get from their colleagues.

The changeover to a nuclear weapon-free world will take some thought, but it seems obvious that the SSM will have to be put into place first, primarily in countries that are near nuclear powers. These can be both nuclear and non-nuclear, large and small countries. Then they must communicate with Decision Makers and the Family, Friends, and Colleagues (DM-FFC) of existing of Nuclear Powers using hand-delivered letters every few months, letting them know that if any nuclear weapons are detonated in an offensive or defensive manner, that the DM-FFC will be “taken out”. This requires cooperation and planning by small groups of state and/or non-state actors from three or more states near a nuclear state. Target DMs must be specific and must be frequently reminded, both privately and publicly, of the consequences of their decision. Ironically, this may provide cover for those DM’s who can now say “we have no choice”. Alliances between nations can lead to traps, as we learned from WWI, but alliances of small nations to create feedback loops are more likely to stabilize the system.

What will stop us from looking for such new security structures? Fear. This includes personal fear of looking weak or being different. The folk tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a tale about the fear of appearing stupid to others. It reflects how leaders can be fooled by their advisors and continue to move forward, even when the truth is blurted out by a child. But why did the people around the Emperor not give better feedback? Fear and ignorance. We live as social beings in groups, not simply as individuals. We take cues for our behavior from those around us. This is both a strength and a weakness. It can create a fear that makes us want to become stupid – or at least appear so.

The question of allegiance has taken a step down since the advent of dual citizenship for many leaders and advisors at high levels. They can hardly demand that anyone else say a pledge of allegiance when they themselves cannot do it. This may, however, reflect an evolution of the role of the nation-state. It also raises questions of religion, philosophy and other functions of government. Is the purpose of humankind to forever fight one another? Or is this warring behavior a function of the discovery of new weapons in the Christmas stocking of leaders who have no vision but want to remain in the fraternity? Most of this can be rectified with better communication and better feedback to leaders and to each other. Robert McNamara’s “In Retrospect” was a search for the reasons for the misleading and misguided sources of advice and information that led us astray and into the war in Vietnam. He never really found a way to counteract this problem.

At any level there are many decisions that are not really explicit decisions at all. There is no specific logical reason or information that causes the decision. There is a fear of looking weak or different. Members behave according to what they think is expected of them, either from their common Story or from a “thought leader” who may be re-living their own fears. Soldiers act differently toward civilians when they are in pairs versus being alone.

We must create processes and structures to Find, Filter, and Move Useful Information (FFMUI). Leaders alone, even with their advisors, do not have time to do it. Such a processes can be created by decision makers at the top without giving up power, but with the possibility of gaining useful information. Such structures should enhance privacy of discussion, integrity of the information, and efficiency.

Another situation that may benefit from a better process of information gathering and filtering is the Ukraine War with the obvious need for a future European Security Structure. If current political leaders cannot imagine such a structure, there are others waiting in the wings to move forward. People who have been elected but not yet officials cannot presume to negotiate with other governments but there are other people without office who could still meet and exchange ideas now to get the process started. These meetings can start at any level with stories, seeds of ideas, and tools of communication. This cannot be ordered but could be suggested by the new incoming administration.

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Tag: supersonic-missiles

A Story to End Israel

A New Story to Avoid Nuclear War