Thursday 5 July 2007

We have looked at components for the practice of hope so now we will let Walter Brueggeman share his consideration about the particular shape of despair in dominant Western society. This is the despair that our hope-filled communities must respond transformative ways.

#1 The maintenance of a "national security state" creates an environment that is inimical to dissent and that be lives that all questions can be solved by power and control. Such an environment leads to a sense of self-sufficiency that relies on the capacity to control the global economy, and consequently a readiness to engage in violence and an equal readiness to collude in the violence of others, all in the self-justifying name of security.

When we are unable to dissent and questions are ignored and the "powers that be" are able to go ahead with their patterns of maintaining control, people despair. Most often, I would suggest, we don't know that we are living in despair. One way of gaging that is to take note in how often we see resistance move us to a new place and how often we see ourselves not participating in movements of resistance...because it will do no good or it will rock the boat. Just look at what we have come to be since we entered into the fear-filled and anxious state of life following the attacks of 9/11. There has been such a movement to control and use force that we are literally out on a limb. We talk of security, but in that talk comes the great insecurity that comes with our actions of domination, control, and violence. When security rules, we fall into a state of ruin and that state can never make for a new world in which all people begin to have some breathing space to think about living cooperatively with each other.

Connection: Try to take note of how many times in this day you feel secure or insecure. Maybe also take note of what it is that brings about those feelings. To maintain a security state, there needs to be the constant food of fear and anxiety and threat. Where are you tasting such food in your day?

Lord and Master of Life, though we attempt, in many ways, to secure ourselves and make sure that we will "make it" through all things. You alone are the Power of Life that brings the new day and promises to carry us home into that day with you. Amen.