As Jesus Said, “We Will Always Have the NeoCons Among Us”

by Dr. Robert D. Crane

  Enver Masud, founder of The Wisdom Fund, and long one of the most perspicacious pundits on the Washington scene, is skeptical about the role of nations in a world of states, especially if it involves changing geographic borders to fit human identities, rather than the reverse. 

  For example, in my view, both the extremist Jews and the extremist Muslims in Palestine need to change their exclusivist identities. The name of the game is culture and history, not alleged “blood.”  The Jews and Muslims throughout history have been each other’s most reliable friends.

    Since professional long-range global forecasters, like Enver Masud and myself, enjoy mind-games, which is what forecasting is all about, he should consider that redjusting borders should pose no problem for Americans (though a few Native Americans - Indians - might disagree).  Most people who have come to the United States do so with a willingness to adopt a new culture, which makes us unique among all the nations of the world. 

  On the other hand, why not let the southern border states form a independent region?  Who needs Texas and California anyway?  God’s country, i.e. New Mexico, however, would probably opt for joining Old Mexico, so the reshuffling might indeed become quite complicated. 

  Alaska, of course, would opt out of the United States in a flash if it could keep all the taxes that otherwise would go to Washington (at least after the “ecologically safe” pipeline is fixed).  In 1980, the Alaska legislature came within one vote of doing just that.  And the Quebecois probably would not deign to form any confederation, perhaps preferring to join the mother country, France.

  The problem is that we associate culture too closely with geographic territory.  This can best be overcome not by independent statelets but by great confederations.  Then, of course, we would face the problem of conflict among those who claim to be the greatest confederation of all, which might lead us right back to the vaunted clash among civilizations.

  On the other hand, once we start thinking in terms of confederations of peoples, why would anyone oppose a confederation of humankind? 

  As a congenitally pessimistic forecaster of the long-range future, I would expect that some day (century) we would have a new problem of re-educating some future NeoCons against inter-galactic warfare among planetary confederations.  As Jesus said (or might have said), “We will always have the NeoCons among us.”

See also my article Forecasting the Future of Southwest Asia: The Role of Nations in a World of States