hey you. come here. get up.
ah, this is the era where everybody creates.

The lines above are from the song, So You Wanna Be (A Rock 'N' Roll Star), by James McGuinn and Christopher Hillman. Ah, this is the era where everybody creates.

Indeed, if you shop carefully, you can get all the stuff you need to make your own movies and distribute them on DVD's, for about a thousand bucks. If you go to a thrift store, you can get an Internet-capable computer for a hundred bucks, and publish your own blog. If you've got a pencil and a piece of paper, you can write your own poetry:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Squeeze my hand, as we lay by the river
Moonlight caresses the canyon
I ask your permission, after I kiss you
Body heat builds between us
We giggle together, then kiss again
Cool rain patters the piñon
Suddenly serious, a moment of stillness
River sounds ramble above us
Inquiring yet knowing, we touch forever


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yet, in the ying/yang sturm/drang twenty-first century, the dawn of the third millennium, we are not seeing an explosion of creative expression. We have a government that wants to discourage community-wide wifi access. We have a government that puts secret codes on output from color printers. We have a home-grown movement that wants to hijack the government, in part to establish dominion over creative expression. We have restrictive policies that have scientists going to other countries, to pursue their research with less moralistic interference.

It is difficult for us normal people to know what to make of this, but there are serious people who are worried about this. From Theocracy Watch:

The theocratic right seeks to establish dominion, or control over society in the name of God. D. James Kennedy, Pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries, calls on his followers to exercise "godly dominion ... over every aspect ... of human society." At a "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference in February, 2005, Kennedy said:

Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.

Twenty-five years ago dominionists targeted the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could advance their agenda. At the same time, a small group of Republican strategists targeted fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches to expand the base of the Republican Party.

Like I said, it is hard to know how serious of a problem this is. For ordinary citizens, it is sort of like the threat of avian influenza: There definitely is a threat out there, but we do not and cannot know when or if it will turn into a pandemic. We do know, however, that we must be on guard.

posted by : Joseph j7uy5 | link | | |