Technology: Bad Neighbors

Technology Can't Sustain Bad Neighbors

By Roy D. Follendore III

April 10, 2002

If I could get a single clear line of communication to the leaders of this world I would say one thing. Governments are not autonomous, though some politicians may think that they are. Governments depend on the support of the people and people all depend on each other as neighbors. This fact was proven in 1776.

The thing that we all need to be careful of today is the convergence of new technologies that could one day make governments autonomous. I do not think that this has happened yet, but we are getting closer. However, the biggest concern at this moment remains the ancient confusion between the human cultural problems and the subsequent application of technological solutions as social solutions. We see this in the Middle East where technological ideals have mixed with cultural ideals. There is a new kind of monarchy out there but it does not involve a king but a kingdom.

The primary problem in Palestine that no one apparently wants to write about arises from the simple fact that citizens are not being represented by the dominant ruling government, which is Israel. When Israel was created, a minority religious "country" was artificially carved out of the center of an indigenous native population. The Israeli's became the rulers through technology and that ruling minority does not want a majority vote. They cannot afford it. What they can afford is the implementation of advanced technologies that enforce their will. It is a techno-military solution to a political problem and rightly or wrongly, the United States has been responsible for it. It is American technology that has been and is being used against the populations that the state of Israel believes are their enemies. America cannot walk away from this fact even though we may be sympathetic to Israel.

The uncontrolled advancement of technology can be a dangerous thing, particularly when it is delivered into the hands of paranoid fanatics. Certainly, anyone who hears someone constantly speak of the danger to "their very existence" should be able to determine for him or herself if that is the statement of a cool and calculated individual or the statement of a paranoid. If that was a person standing on your street, you would probably call the police to take them away. This is exactly the cry of the current administration of Israel. The paranoia is not that the very existence of everything is at stake because all things constantly risk their existence. That is the nature of change. The paranoia is the fear that the Israeli system of values will change.

It is inevitable that the state of Israel will change. Israel is certainly not an ancient state regardless of the claims to the contrary. But that fact makes no difference with respect to what is happening today. Basing any country completely on the transfixed religious ideals of 2000 years ago is never a good idea because all things contextually change. Things change when they are not working or things die. It is as simple as that. Maybe that is what the leaders of Israel are saying when they talk about the danger to their very existence. Israeli leaders are not willing to change Israel because they do not see the world as what it is, but as what they would want it to be. The politicians and generals of Israel are willing to use technology to enforce their will just as the politicians of Germany were willing to do so in World War II against their neighbors.

Israel has put itself in a corner because they felt they have the military might to come out of that corner by unleashing their full military might. However, in spite of this, it remains a hard cold fact that if the people of Israel are not able or willing to exterminate the Palestinians as a final solution then ultimately they must change as a culture. The Palestinians are simply betting their existence that the Jewish people do not have the stomach for such a thing. They know that the state of Israel constantly relies on the holocaust of World War II for public opinion. Jews have not previously been represented as members of an oppressive religious government directing their dictatorial and genocidal military at cultures that defy them. Jews within the United States have been stereotyped as the oppressed and the acted upon. It is for this reason that the destruction of enemy cultures like the Palestinians by Israel would mean the self-destruction of Israel itself. It would certainly mean the end of United States economic and military support on which Israel depends. Americans can challenge the reasons why the Palestinians do not choose to continue at the negotiation table all we want. The fact remains that as long as a people have little to lose, the option for betting everything or nothing always exists at that table. This does not mean that the Palestinians have been idle.

Simultaneously with current events, within the United States dramatic public relations improvements have been occurring with respect to the Palestinians. There are college students willing to protest the Israeli attacks. The Israeli government is for the first time successfully being represented in the United States as oppressors. A stalemate in Palestinian negotiations is an utter defeat for the politicians of Israel and the leadership of Israel fully appreciate this. The ultimate result of such a defeat would be that the most advanced technologies of Israel could be delivered into the hands of an unprepared culture. The long-term result is that a new nation is emerging, not because it is the best solution but because it is inevitable. What such a nation means to the national security of the United States remains unknown.

In the end, with respect to the outcome, it does not matter if Israel drives their tanks through the refugee camps to destroy the infrastructure of the Palestinians. The application of military technology of tanks and air strikes are ineffective tools for modern negotiation. The economics are one sided. The cost to the Palestinians is nothing in comparison and all that has been accomplished is the loss of faith by the Palestinian people that constructive change can take place with Israel. On the other hand, the cost to Israel for using inappropriate destructive technology is very high with regard to the success of the outcome. This can be seen by the fact that there are ten times more enemies of Israel now than before the tanks went on the offensive. If this were not enough, what is also not accurately being accounted for in the press is the fact that there will be a thousand times that number in sixteen years. The Israeli people can not increase their population fast enough to compensate. For the culture of Israel, the problem of the Palestinians they have displaced and abused for decades will not go away. Ultimately Israel must formulate a plan for the integration of Palestinians. When Israel eventually does this, they will be outvoted and must trust their enemies. Turning over the lands taken from the 67 war is tantamount to exactly the same result.

The lesson we Americans need to learn from this is simple.

Technology cannot indefinitely sustain humanity as bad neighbors.

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