OFF: [Fwd: Islands in the Clickstream. The Only Thing We Have to Fear. Sept 11, 2001]

Tue Sep 11 12:19:44 EDT 2001

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Islands in the Clickstream is an intermittent column written by
Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions
of computer technology and the ultimate concerns of our lives.
Comments are welcome.

Richard Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer
focused on the impact of computer technology on individuals and
organizations - the human dimensions of technology and work - and
"life on the edge."
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Islands in the Clickstream:
The Only Thing We Have to Fear

The world just changed forever. War was declared on the whole world.

A friend from the National Security Agency told me recently how
difficult it was
to convince audiences lately of the of the real threat from asymmetrical
warfare. The enemy is doing what it can to understand our collective
mind, he
said, and then will use the weakest link in our armor to strike terror
into our
collective hearts.

And so they have. With a simple coordinated attack the assumptions of
the
American people were changed forever. We live in America, I have been
saying, as
if it were America and not Israel. In Israel people know they are in
Israel.
They live accordingly.

Now we know too.

War is hell. It calls forth from us the best and the worse in our
all-too-human
natures. And now everyone knows what many have known for years, that we
are at
war.

Which means understanding who the enemy is and what it means to fight
this war.

The first war is against fear and terror, as Franklin Roosevelt said.
Nameless,
unreasoning fear that distorts our thinking and feeling and changes the
way we
live our lives. Fear in the face of real threats is appropriate. Our
collective
task will be to distinguish real from illusory threats, real from
imagined
enemies, and stay as clear-thinking and focused as we can as we identify
what is
important in our lives and makes efforts to secure and defend what
matters most.

So what, in moments like these, do we know?

We know that the first people we thought of are the most important
people in our
lives. The people we wanted to be with or who we feared were dead or
injured or
vulnerable to attack, those are the people that matter most.

Then that bond must expand and include all on whom we rely, all on whom
we
depend, all on whom we will call in the days and weeks and months ahead
as
comrades, friends, and allies. This is a moment that will ask everything
of us
as we struggle to attack and defend ourselves from real enemies and
define our
circles of loyalty and kinship with precision and care.

The enemy is fear, terror, and falsehood. Our allies are courage,
strength in
the face of adversity, resilience and flexibility and our capacity to
respond to
whatever life brings with genuine heroism. These are the marks of the
freedom
that lives in our souls.

Freedom is our capacity to live life as it is fired at us point blank
from the
barrel of a gun and never surrender that which makes us human and that
which
makes us free.

The world has changed, now, forever, and the boundaries that we draw
around
ourselves, who is in and who is out, will change forever too. We will
discover
who we really are in the weeks ahead.

But I know from fifty-seven years on this fragile planet who we are in
our best
moments and I pray that we have the courage to be who we are.

I think of how I responded to someone who was worried that when I left
the
ministry, it meant that I had lost my faith in the existence of God.

Do you believe, she asked, in God?

Yes, I said, in my heart I know that God exists. But, I added.

Thinking of the horror. Thinking of the oppression in people's lives.
Thinking
of the bloodshed.

That doesn't mean things aren't as bad as they look.

Our challenge now is to know both are true. Things are every bit as bad
as they
look and people do evil things and rejoice in the bloodshed. And in my
heart I
know that God exists and is manifest in freedom, freedom from fear and
terror,
the freedom to respond to whatever life brings with dignity, elasticity,
and
heroism.

The only thing we have to fear now is fear, the primary weapon of our
enemies.
Because I know who we are, I know that we have what it takes to do what
is
necessary now, how we must structure our world and our lives, and how we
must
rededicate ourselves to the creation of a global society in which
freedom and
not fear and terror are the hallmarks of our humanity.

**********************************************************************
Islands in the Clickstream is an intermittent column written by
Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions
of computer technology and the ultimate concerns of our lives.
Comments are welcome.

Richard Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer
focused on the impact of computer technology on individuals and
organizations - the human dimensions of technology and work - and
"life on the edge."

Feel free to pass along columns for personal use, retaining this
signature file. If interested in publishing columns online or in print
or employing Richard as a professional speaker, retreat leader
or consultant, email for details.

To subscribe to Islands in the Clickstream, send email to
rthieme at thiemeworks.com with the words "subscribe islands" in the
body or subject heading of the message. To unsubscribe, email
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www.thiemeworks.com.

ThiemeWorks on the Web:  http://www.thiemeworks.com and
http://www.richardthieme.com

ThiemeWorks  P. O. Box 170737  Milwaukee WI 53217-8061  414.351.2321
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