What Say the Tea Leaves?

I'm an historian, so I'm not very proficient at reading tea leaves. When I was an undergrad, I read Alvin Toffler's prediction (Future Shock II) that, within a couple of decades, it would be common for people to own small, desk top appliances called "personal computers" that would allow them to work from home, etc. Not being able to foresee the invention of the microchip, I scoffed.

The government employs very smart people who are experts in game theory and who know how to model possible outcomes of actions and events. These experts do their damnedest to help "all the criminals in their coats and their ties" (Bob Dylan) to hedge their bets and get away with as much murder as they possibly can. I think they are pretty efficient at it.

But I am a student of Tolstoy and Al-Ghazali: rationality can work wonders but it is not all-encompassing. Nor does it work alone: greed, conceit, bigotries and garden variety stupidity all have their hands in the mix as well. So the experts are always in danger of conforming to the archetype of Daedalus, who overlooked one small detail. Or like the captain of the Titanic who, as she set sail on her maiden voyage, stood on her deck and confidently asserted that "Not even God could sink this ship." At least that's a tale I've heard; it may be as mythical as the Daedalus story, and no less true.

What I see is that the violence-prone wealthy white Protestants who run the U.S. government through financial influence have been working (since Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1980) to reverse the many gains that the 20th century's run of democracy-in-the-streets had provided the middle class and historically marginalized peoples--both within our borders and without. They are not a stupid bunch (for the most part); their problem is that they are self-interested to the point of blindness and corruption. They are risk-takers, though their risks are carefully calculated and always indemnified with other people's (i.e., the U.S. taxpayer's) money. I see them underwriting moves (like the Supreme Court's decision to treat multinational corporations as individuals with free speech rights or the decision to dismantle part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965) that appear to me to be rash in the extreme. I think they are pushing their luck as they re-invent the world to conform to their own self-aggrandizing and self-indulgent ambitions (which they mistake for vision). And, with their self-serving version of Jesus on their side, they believe they can continue on this course with impunity--indefinitely. I'm betting that they are wrong. But I could not begin to say where the tipping point lies--what are the precise elements of the "perfect storm" that will leave them (and, unfortunately, the rest of us--whom they hold hostage) reaping the whirlwind.

I just try to be as aware of my surroundings as I possibly can and keep in shape by practicing my duck and roll. The prophetic tradition has warned us all--since the Axial Age--that there are consequences to our actions. And Khidr, the green-man/trickster, wanders the earth unnoticed, while his traces are everywhere.

So my traveling companions are Moses and Khidr. The Jesus of Mark's gospel runs out ahead, waving me on. Muhammad reminds me to trust God but, pragmatically, to tie my camel. And he also tells me this.

The tea leaves appear to be saying: Keep your weather eye open.