[Arktwo] Sea Change

[Bruce Beach]

There has been a change.
I can sense it -
but not exactly define it.
It is perhaps a change in psychology.
Or a change in diplomacy.

A couple of weeks ago -
every day we heard about
Iran enriching uranium -
and we heard continuously
about North Korea's nuclear / missile
developments.

But -
little mention of them in the news now.
We also heard of confrontations
between the US and the Russian / Chinese diplomats
regarding the above activities.

Pakistan / India
missile tests and confrontations.
Chinese / Taiwan confrontation.
Mexico / Venezuela / Cuban / South American issues - all gone.

The number of bombs in Iraq -
and US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan -
now hardly get a mention.

Is it really that
the Lebanon / Hezbollah / Israeli confrontation
has forced everything else off the front page?
Everything else has become
sort of a one liner.

But on the Hezbollah / Israeli front -
there seems to be no movement either.
The lines have been defined -
and nothing is moving.
Just more rockets from Hezbollah -
continued air / ground assault by Israel -
and lots of words from everyone -
with no change in position.

THIS is what I mean -
by the sea change.
Rather than trying to force positions against
Iran
North Korea
Syria
China
Russia
Taiwan
U.S.
Pakistan / India
Mexico / Venezuela / South America
Hezbollah / Hamas / Lebanon / Israel -
the consensus seems to be
in people's psychology
and diplomatic proposals -
"Well, that is just the way it is."

In fact -
the consensus seems to be -
"That it could be worse -
and that will probably get worse -
and so don't hope for -
or press for any change -
because it will probably be
for the worse."

Consequently -
the UN is doing nothing -
and the US wants it to do nothing -
and Russia and China are doing nothing -
and the US feels that better -
than either of them doing something -
that the US doesn't want done.

The feeling is that eventually
someone is going to do something -
and that is not going to be
for the good.

Turkey may invade Northern Iraq.
Iran may choose to participate
in that confrontation.
Iraq may erupt even more.
Syria may get more involved with
with Hezbollah and Israel.
The Pakistan / India situation may flare.
Whatever.
Lots of opportunities for bad -
not many for good.

Don't you see how different this is
from a month ago,
with the EU giving proposals
and deadlines to Iran -
everybody rushing around getting ready
for the G-8 conference -
diplomats having meetings everywhere -
and China and Russia offering to intervene
with North Korea and elsewhere.

Then there were lots of proposals -
about a new government in Palestine -
interventions by Egypt -
Pan-Arab meetings in Saudi Arabia -
exchanges between North and South Korea.
Diplomatic meetings regarding
Mexico and South America.

Proposals, proposals, proposals -
and responses and deadlines -
but I have hardly one deadline
that I can point to now.
Iran said -
that it would respond by August 22nd  -
but no one even really mentions that now,
although when Iran gave that date -
everyone scoffed that it was way too late.

But not now.
No deadlines.
No hurry.
No real proposals to be accepted
or refused.
Just talk.

Just equilibrium in conflict,
waiting to be pushed in one direction -
into greater conflict.

That is the way that I see it.
This is different.
And all the countries and diplomats sense
that this is different.

----------
At this point in writing this -
something very unusual happened.
I received an essay -
that someone else had written
and which they had also entitled -
"Sea Change".

The essay reviewed many of the same facts -
and the broadly held -
(almost universally held conclusion)
that there is no solution.

HOWEVER,
based on that conclusion
the essay made a prediction
opposite to mine.
It expostulated that since there would be
no winners -
there will be no extended war.

Sort of shades of -
the 1983 movie "War Games"
in which the computer concludes
for Tic-Tac-Toe
and "Thermonuclear War"
that they are strange games -
in which there is 'no winner' -
so no one will play.

Okay, so that held true -
for the last half century.
And I have been repeatedly wrong
all that time.
But, I still don't buy into it
and I think - 'eventually'.
In fact -
I think 'Now!' -
as I have a half dozen times in the past.

I feel that my having had that attitude
has been ultimately beneficial -
because if I had not thought the event
to be imminent -
I would not have prepared.

If fifty years ago -
I had thought -
'not for fifty years'
I would not have spent the last fifty years
preparing,
and would never have reached
the level of preparation that we are now at.

Many people tell me that I have
'wasted my life'
and should have 'enjoyed it' instead.
Actually -
I have enjoyed the activity -
and they do not understand that
I am not preparing to survive -
but rather to help restore society.
I see it as my 'calling'
and something that will eventually need
to be done -
and my joy will be if I can be of service.

My assurety -
in the importance of what I am doing
comes from the Writings of my religion.
While these will not convince others -
of other religions -
I will share a small sample here
so that you can know in part
what motivates me.

Presently, Baha'is consider themselves
to be "the generation of the twilight -
before the sun of a new day rises.

To achieve that new day
it will be necessary
- as one Baha'i writer puts it:

"To tear off the time-honoured protective covering of innumerable societies,
each embedded in its own customs, superstitions and prejudices, and apply to
them a universal new frame of existence is an operation only Almighty God
can perform and of necessity a very painful one. This is made even more
painful by the state of men's souls and minds; some societies are the
victims of "a flagrant secularism - the direct offspring of irreligion",
some are in the grip of "a blatant materialism and racialism"...

Bahá'u'lláh Himself has said:

"The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of
this most great, this new World Order ".

"The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch
as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective."

"The world is in travail and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is
turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight that to
disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity will long
continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear
that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake. Then, and only then,
will the Divine Standard be unfurled, and the Nightingale of Paradise warble
its melody."

"After a time, all the governments on earth will change. Oppression will
envelope the world. And following a universal convulsion, the sun of justice
will rise from the horizon of the unseen realm."

---------
Such are the views, expectations, thoughts
that motivate me.

And,
highly motivated am I
at this point in time.
The preparations at Ark Two
are beyond other's imaginations.
>From early morn until late eve.
Still,
great is our need for help.
How I wish that others
were motivated
to prepare as am I.

But they are not.
Not even among Baha'is,
who know -

"full well whence it comes, and what it will ultimately lead to. Though
ignorant of how far it will reach, they clearly recognize its genesis, are
aware of its direction, acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its
mysterious processes, ardently pray for the mitigation of its severity,
intelligently labor to assuage its fury, and anticipate, with undimmed
vision, the consummation of the fears and the hopes it must necessarily
engender."
	 (Shoghi Effendi,
	  The Promised Day is Come, p. 4)

While other Baha'is
often do not approve of my type of efforts
it seems to me that I
'intelligently labor to assuage its fury'.
and work to mitigate its severity.

I think the end result
for all our efforts will be the same.
Mankind must pass through the fire -
and eventually the process of
spiritual re-education must take hold.

Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org