On the cusp of a rant

I am on the cusp of a rant, so I’ll keep this brief.

In the United States our politicians are obsessed with “national security”, (‘tis probably true in other countries).

So we have a huge “national security apparatus” including the military, the CIA, the FBI, the “Patriot Act”, and a myriad of other agencies.

The focus is on supposed terrorist threats at home and abroad. The costs are enormous and beyond comprehension.

I believe that there are far greater and more urgent threats to our security. I list them.

1.   Climate change

2.   The need for pure and potable water

3.   The depletion of the ocean’s stocks of edible fish

4.   The wholesale pollution of many of our planet’s oceans

5.   The unhealthy and dangerous foods which are hawked by agri-business

6.   Over population

7.   The international “house of cards” in banking, derivatives, and other dubious financial schemes

Enough already, but I fear that our “civilisation” is close to imploding.

Of course I hope to be proven wrong, but my “reading of the tea leaves” suggests a scary scenario.

In all of this I express two great sadnesses.

a.   That my President, Barack Obama has been co-opted by the national security apparatus and therefore he fails to see the greater threats.

b.   That the Churches are so concerned with doctrine and survival that they have lost a moral compass with which to help to shape the future.

Psalm 55 verses 11 and 12 seems to be so very apposite to my mini-rant.

11 Day and night the watchmen make their rounds
                             upon her walls, *
    but trouble and misery are in the midst of her.     12 There is corruption at her heart; *
    her streets are never free of oppression and deceit.