Reflections Summer 2002 [antikvár]

From the Founding Editor EDITORIAL Last summer, my wife and I saw a wonderful production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen performed beautifully by the Seattle Opera. In studying for this event, 1 learned that when Wagner first conceptualized the final opera, Götterdämmerung, or The Twilight of the Gods, he thought the earth should be destroyed, but the Gods would live on. As Wagner matured and saw more of the world, he changed his mind about the ending. He decided that the only way humanity would learn anything is if the Gods and all of their creations die with them. The message I took from this is that it requires a large catastrophe before we wake up, reexamine our mental models, beliefs, and values, and try to improve on them. I can't help but feel that the destruction of the World Trade Towers comes about as close to a Götterdämmerung as we can imagine. The big question is, "Will we learn anything? Will we reexamine our assumptions about the nature of the world and our role in it?" The theme of this issue, though it comes almost a year later, is addressed to the possibilities for learning that September 11 provides for us. There are several such possibilities: 1. We can reexamine our beliefs and assumptions about global values. Are there values that apply across all cultures, or do we have to face the uncomfortable possibility that different cultures have different but equally strongly held assumptions, and that even within a culture or a religious group there are irreconcilable value differences that have to be dealt with? New kinds of intercultural and interreligious dialogues will have to be found. 2. We can reexamine our own political role in international affairs and face the uncomfortable proposition that not everyone shares democratic values of the sort we cherish. New kinds of coalitions and roles may have to be found. 3. We can reexamine our economic assumptions about what kind of economic help is most helpful and what kind of economic and political system would be most helpful to the poorer nations of the world. New assumptions might have to be entertained about what kind of political system works best under what circumstances. 4. Finally, and an extension of the last point, we might have to confront the possibility that as long as there is the great North/South divide between the developed world and the less developed, often impoverished world, the problems of terrorism won't abate because the economic, social, and cultural soil in which such levels of anger get nourished continues to characterize large portions of the world. We might have to consider that "evil" is born of anger and frustration. Until we deal with the conditions that produce such anger and frustration, we will continue to see the fruits of those feelings. New roles for the major sectors of society will have to be found. Many of the articles in this issue try to deal with these dilemmas. The assumption that any one sector of society—industry, government, nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations, and so on—can solve the problems of poverty and powerlessness is perhaps the least tenable. Yet, inventing new roles for business and government is not easy. September 11 was a wake-up call. I hope that enough of the globe has woken up to rethink how we are proceeding. si / / /v