Drinking And Fighting Proper

The Thesis

Terror in Terms of Terroir

"Once established, this empire, [a pan Islamic state], could then turn its attention to the subjugation and conquest of the rest of the world, particularly the liberal West, as the Ottoman Turks did in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries... Our Fight [therefore] is against those who want to turn Islam into a terrorist creed preaching global violence and revolution..." Thomas McInerney and Paul E. Vallely

In order to understand how I will allow viticulture and terrorism to converse I need to know where to cue in terror, terrorism, and terrorists.

Where, for instance, is the terrorist's vineyard? Clearly the reign of terror extends throughout national borders and over international waters. Because the fruit of a terrorist's labor is as simple as seeds, meat, and skin it is vulnerable to the elements it encounters. In the New Order of day (post 9/11), such encounter answers to the name "Counterterrorism". (In the days of our elders the encounter reeled through public policy as "Counterintelligence" or "Counterstrategy".) As the seasons change so too change the threats.

Working within the progression of climate--be it political, economical or societal-- a terrorist must understand the preparations demanded by the sow of his labor and essential to the structure and resonance of his or her final product. What fruit is good to preserve the terrorist should next consider which bottle best carries out the job. ZEALOT Considering the tangible realness of simple materials mingling and tingling, leavening from such basic constituents as the heat of light and willingness. The mild experiments that take place throughout the season just after curing the juice of the fruits of terror reveal to those who planted the seeds and tended the fruit a kind of satisfaction as well as engage with those who unknowingly import the fruits of terror into their harbors and ports. As the cured fruit of terror ages it also is also likely to establish itself as a vintage or as a reserve blend. In regard to the former, that of terror as vintage, the events of 9/11 made an example of terror locked in time. In regard to the latter, that of terror as a reserve, it is not unlike the actions made by the United States or the Soviet Union during the cold war to create stockpile after stockpile of nuclear weapons. While such an action plays on the palate like a simple table wine, it does not pertain to an immediate engagement, but rather to a foreseeable threat. While the effects of cured fruit are no different in a vintage blend than a reserve blend, the effects are lucid, palpable and do not leave the body quickly.

To even stand a chance of passing the fruit of terror, the body requires an enzyme. In the event that a terrorist pours you a glass of his or her finest yield, he or she demonstrates the first submission of control over the fruit: the ways in which terror is circulated, internalized, and digested within another human body now propagates and regulates the future of terror. Without the enzyme necessary for proper digestion of terror, the side-effects appear in the face as the consumer becomes flush with embarrassment and anger. (The enzyme required to properly break down the alcohol in wine is called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 and indeed any indulgent consumer who has a deficiency of this enzyme will appear flush in the face.) Not only is the future determined by those who directly consume cured fruit. Control also plays a hand with the community, with those whose children attend school with children from the vineyard, with those who shop with or cut the hair of the wily and willing producers of terror. Such says the passage of McIreney and Vallely as they continue the thought posed at the beginning of this essay:

"...Ultimately, it is up the world's Muslims to make a commitment to peace, freedom, and tolerance; to determine how they will reconcile their religion with modernity..."

Sure terrorism is a trade as characteristically Old World as wine, and it is easy to see A in terms of B. It is also easy to understand the urgency that extrapolates the need to develop a defense against terrorist attacks; to counter terrorist attacks. While my position in Boone as a student allows me enough distance so as not to feel that urgency to counter terrorism, allowing me, on the other hand, room to play, it also excludes me from resources and networks. For example, I have not been able to track down any one who grows and makes a biodynamic wine, nor do I know any one to talk with about terrorism at the scale of 9/11, which apparently threw the United States into a watershed.

Sorting Thru Suicide

I want to talk about Osama bin Laden because in 1998 he issued a fatwa against the United States and her allies for her "declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims", he issued the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and he predicted that the U.S. could only avenge the attack by dissolving her system of government. Essentially, in regard to the latter, the values and backbone of democracy would fracture and spoil on the fulcrum of the War on Terror. In the name of National Security the retaliation required of the U.S. would expose the depth of its evil. The wealth of democracy would in other words, remain unseen in the face of death and destruction. The military might of which a superpower would use to restore justice would render the power and reputation of its authority and democratic beliefs impotent in the end. Strategically futile and inept, the potential of the U.S. to lose face is not only among Muslims, but among her European allies as well.

"Amid the rift that opened over the Iraq War, Europeans began to question whether they could still look to the United States to provide responsible international leadership." (4, "How Enemies Become Friends," Kupchan)

The United States did not invade Iraq with the blessings of the United Nations. Further, the ways in which she handled her suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp became the object of international disgust. The endgame of her conflicts in the Middle East and Asia seems to alternate between the lesser of evils. The United States had international support after the atrocities that befell the country. The ways in which she responded however made that support run scarce and they played into the ideal endgame of the very villain she sought.

When the air is poisoned with horror, fear, pain, suffering, and grief, only one deep breath of it would be enough to kill. Osama bin Laden used 9/11 to expedite the suicidal path of democracy. When bin Laden sold the noose on 9/11, the U.S. just had to put her head in. And by his regard, America did not disappoint. This is what I mean by the expansion of the battleground into the environment. My generation is witnessing a case study of our country indulging in assisted suicide.

More context: Caught in The Middle of an Expanding Battleground

In 2009, 2 days prior to Labor Day, and just a day shy of the Day of Rest, I shared a day with my mentor family as arranged by the International Rescue Committee over the summer. Although my experience with this family extends through my employment at the IRC, the event I wish to illustrate took place between 10AM and 3PM Saturday, September 5th in a room outfitted within the metro atlanta suburb.

The family includes the mother, Rajaa, the father, Abdel, a little girl, Marianne, and two young boys, Yousef and Ameen. While the family seeks refuge from the quarrels of Iraq, the children were born while Rajaa and Abdel were stationed as asylees in Jordan and most recently, in Syria.

Our morning progressed through puzzles, pretzels, and tea. The mother, Rajaa, has a limited understanding of English, and invited a Sudanese woman living in the same complex to come over. Our guest worked in several embassies as a translator for Arab-English conversations after attending college some years ago. Her disposition was kind and very intentional, and her presence was of great help for our conversations.

As the children plowed through the puzzle I brought in tow, Rajaa, her friend (whose name I cannot recall), and I "met as women". The Sudanese woman shared with me that it is common place for the women to talk over tea, and that our visit was to carry on in no exception. Mostly, we talked about our families. While I thought my family of six to be of impressive size, Rajaa's family took trump. To paint a picture, Rajaa is a very strong Arab woman and she currently stands to match her husband barrel belly for barrel belly--she's pregnant! The urgency of a woman to have children comes from Iraq she told me. Rajaa's mother and household matriarch stands with 85 grandchildren to her name. 85! I thought such number to be serious misunderstanding--a number mixed in translation, but our tea-time translator confirmed the remark.

Well, morning turned to noon and Abdel returned to a house laced with the smells of slow-roasting lamb, fried rice and potatoes--lunch! By this time our morning's guest had returned home to prepare lunch for her husband, the children had showered and dressed for lunch, and Rajaa had bowed in prayer. Since I was well aware of the income of an unemployed refugee I intended to leave before lunch. Also, I was a vegetarian and quite unsure about how to explain such reality without being disrespectful and within the margins of her limited vocabulary. Although I thought my pre-lunch departure was an act of kindness and respect, Rajaa felt just the opposite and insisted that I stay for a meal.

She adorned the table with plates, platters, onions, and olives ("veryyy old, from Syria" she explained) while Ameen, age 3, serenaded us with a song and dance routine. He was quite the charmer and ever so entertaining! When his song ended, we sat down for lunch with Rajaa and I seated at the table's ends. Even though the smell of meat still filled the air, Rajaa aborted the dish -- much to Abdel's dismay.

As we finished our plates the children ran upstairs for an afternoon nap, and Rajaa begin to clean the table. Abdel waved me into the living room and Rajaa later joined us equipped with three cups of orange soda. We talked about Iraq, about starting a new home in the United States, and about the soon-to-be new addition to the family. After some time, Abdel rose in excitement and retrieved a film depicting the crucifixion of Christ. He placed it in the old VHS player at the end of the room and pressed play. The video was confusing for several reasons:
1.) I'm not Christian, and neither are Abdel and Rajaa
2.) The language was Farsi--one in which was foreign to all 3 of us
3.) Why now?

At the close of the film, I had the impression that I was imposing uponAbdel's nap time. I packed away the puzzles, books, and colored pencils, and Rajaa and Abdel saw me to the door. Sharing smiles of pearly whites, we said our goodbyes and good evenings.

The global scope hones in on and concludes with one thought. In the few visits I have shared with this family I have come to articulate a question:
How do I act among a family displaced in a country that invaded, now occupies, and promises reconstruction for their own country of origin?
While I never felt like the question was at the forefront of our relationship, it was indeed the parameters for our introduction. Thus far, I have not an answer.

Viticulture

While viticulture describes the cultivation of grapevines, biodynamic viticulture narrows in on cultivating grapevines for the production of wine under the authority of the cosmos, to the life giving forces of the universe. It barters with the land to yield a high quality wine, revealing not only the character of the soil in which it grew, but also a total embodiment of the energies that filtered through from roots to must. Those energies are archetypes for “anything under the sun”. Forces of gravity, of magnets, of light, and of heat; follies of weather–droughts, humidity, floods; and faculty of objects or ideas of higher sophistication such as the use of the cow horn as an for growing bacteria–the quintessential elementals that influence and motivate every living organism. Biodynamic viticulture does not like weak or passive adherence, and those certified by the Demeter Association rarely cite market incentives as reasons for adherence. Rather, the strict practice and belief of Biodynamics files under one general motive: Return earth to the Earth.

By its own right, Biodynamics claims that certain forces of the universe have been numbed so that the cavity of a growing population could be filled quickly as well as to reconcile the pain of hunger and war that might ravage such a future if those desperate people maintain such a path. While wine could not sustain a hungry civilization, it heeds to the same soil as wheat or corn and shares a common language with the science of the intangible elements of the human experience. Aromas, tastes, and harmonies are among several nouns --be them reminiscent of places or things-- cited in a glass of wine. Laws of light, gravity, and time lollygag in the relatively basic theories and conversations that people have with the universe. True, the fact that we can bottle wine to a certain level of stability and preservation as well as maintain light by a bulb and switch indicates a fairly clear example of an understanding worldly and intentional in temperament. To say a bottle of wine is your finished product however, is as silly as saying that the infant is the finished product of a man and woman: Both wine and an infant are living organisms, interacting and engaging with their self and the environment, forever developing until death do them part. Wine indeed sours into vinegar and children wrinkle into raisins. While the processes between wine and vinegar and child and elder are no enigma, the capacities that give rise to life at all are rather mystical.

Go on..

My ideas are indeed the bastards of curiosity and ignorance. At the point where my curiosity with terrorism and viticulture gained authority I approached a single question, "What have you learned as an undergraduate?" The right by which ignorance named the dance was the very same right that asked me to take another step.

Restoring revolution: Wahhabism is to fundamental Islam as Biodynamics is to the cosmos.

Reorder: Jihad is to foreign and domestic encroachment on Islam as "preparation 500" is to sterile soil on the vineyard.

Restart: Osama bin Laden is to radical Islam as Nicolas Joly is to alternative agriculture.

Voilá the return to the constitution of being. Now to write without sounding like two girls chit chatting on a long, hot bus ride ("She said..." "He said..." "She was like..." "He was like..." "I can't believe he said...!").

Buh-buh-buh bold

The origins of two green revolutions anchor on the historical harbors of the early 1900s: Biodynamics and Wahhabism. The former is a response to the use of those chemicals that were advanced as weaponry and sustained on the farm. The latter speaks to the taint that resides in interpreting the Koran and applying that personal interpretation. Together in history, Biodynamics and Wahhabism penetrate our present in a very real way: Together, they show our role in the environment; seperately, biodynamics is a reproach to using chemicals as "an expansion of the battleground in the environment," and Wahhabism was most recently used to show the demise of democracy by the hands of democrats. Industrialized farming and radical Islam dictate the value of and play a role in the assisted suicide of its members and audience.

Viticulture and Osama bin Laden are casted as major characters in these revolutions at large and my endeavor at small. They are the "Life Forces" of my research.

-the final stretch before the cardiovascular workout-

Can my concentration go by the name, "Sequacious Relations" considering that "International Relations" is already taken?

I need to re-visit my statement of purpose.

I need to outline my course of study.

I need to assemble my portfolio.

I want to condense my project into one body of work by clearer articulation; as opposed to the limbs that lead to the ambiguous body of my original curiosity.

peAce Ventura

“From the masculine perspective, peace has meant the prevention of violence through institutional control; security is found in deterrence against aggression and degence of the homeland. On the contrary, the feminist security agenda seeks protection from organized state violence and the fulfillment of fundamental needs. Security also means individual well-being and personal safety in various social relationships, including family.”(Peace And Conflict Studies, Jeong, Ho-Won 85)

Begging: Why do women link more frequently to peace than men?

Because peace more readily identifies with the culture-imposed qualities of feminine, the peace process is woman’s work by association. Regardless of it sexist connotations the link between peace and women is not necessarily and certainly not always one made out of malice. Patience is a virtue of teachers, as is heightened sense of smell is of viticulturists; as discipline is well received in the military, so too peace may be a virtue of women (disregarding the exceptions in each case).

Essentially, Jeong argues, women embody survival through her ability to regenerate life. The destruction of life by strategy—either in warfare and its expansion into the environment, or through official policy concentrating malnourishment, illiteracy, and disease-ridden conditions within certain places—is within contradiction to the very being of the woman and her ability to ensure the viability of the human race. Ultimately, any society that vows respect to its women is sure to prosper.

What does the incorporation of homosexuals and women (the marginal sideliners) into the ‘fight for one’s country’ do to the military? A friend of mine once justified his attraction for other males as a natural response to over-population. Such justification has been drawn on the side of genocide, as well. And, in such event as ‘Eddie Izzard’ and his view on what place transvestites could have in the army, I wonder about the reorganization of internal affairs within the military. (Skip to 3:44) Interestingly enough, it appears that the fight for one’s country would not dissolve because “less-violent” persons were drafted into uniform, but rather that the social dynamic between sexed people would strip the U.S. army of it’s ability to be “standing” or “on reserve”. And certainly, this is a different direction then I intended to run.

Originally, I saw the contradiction laced in sustaining civil rights in an organization designed to protect the civil society by wave of violence, force, and intimidation. Then again, perhaps the contradiction is a valid and familiar extension of struggle; for indeed those who, on a micro (or personal) level, are emboldened by their victory might look to commission their power or finesse to the commonweal. Here, the contradiction is not completely undone, but rather diluted.

Quite simply though, I like the argument that men bring violence—historically and predictably; women bring peace—reproductively; and homosexuals bring—SURPRISE!—or discomfort to those trained to use violence. (Even on military submarines women reproductively interrupt the daily regiment. Submarinas)

A Lament

There may always be two heros: he who triumphs "'the absolute value' of human life" at the wreckage of a terrorist attack and will send a flood to dilute any derision with vengeance; the other who terminates the man willing to elect an army and deport the youth of the nation. (Or as it is so portrayed in the manifestos of Mikhail Bakunin and Nikolai Morozov.)

Every radical is an extreme extension of the circumstances of his environment. Caring for an environment en radiation involves nausea and financial strain, but the greatest hardship of all is ensuring the environment that not only has the tumor been removed, but so too was the environment addressed that allowed the tumor it's membrane and nourishment. (Membrane, because concealed within, the tumor was stable and allowed space to grow, to further mutate its distinction.)

(Is this the mindset of those biodynamic farmers practicing in Ireland? --In that, by common regard, they're allowed space to further their personal ideologies about the universe and the conversations between the like-minded and otherwise establishes both distinction and their allowance to mutate. Divergent of terrorism or revolution by terroristic terms, these people do not intend to use violence, and are therefore allowed their space.)

[Edit]

I’m tired of physics. But let me explain—

My professor echoed our assigned passage from the night before:

Rope is placed before two men. One end falls before Mini Me, the other before Arnold Schwarzenegger. At the whistle, the men take up the rope and pull in a classic game of ‘Tug-of-War”. Clearly Mini Me is no match for the Terminator in this test of strength. Further, Arnold only exerts as much strength or force as exerted by Mini Me to keep the rope in place. To win the match, Mini Me requires only that Arnold equal his strength plus 1. Mini Me may muster the greatest strength of his ability, but Arnold does not.

This is illustrative of my frustration with an eye for an eye, with tyrants requiring tyrants to rid a society of tyranny, of a revolution to undermine the revolution, of a counter-terrorist for a terrorist. The prescription in highest demand among a people insistent upon studying history and highlighting main events as red lanterns strung between “now” and “then” is homeopathy, a system of likes.

Systematic terrorism as revolutionary is a condition by all those involved. The enactment of terrorism by rule of law against those represented by such authority calls for the same measure in the reproach or revolution. If establishing power is the only service provided to the people under law them those people must pool their allotment of resources (mostly, organization, vitality, and gunpowder) and rise to power. The impact of such a situation upon society is usually drawn out through several generations of repression and suffering; a condition conducive to achieving no greater innovation than access to basic needs.

According to Sergei Nechaev, a revolutionary must compile a wanted list of persons compiled according to how such extraction will further the cause for revolution (and, at which speed the revolution will take full form). The equation is as follows:

-Force of revolution in certain time = #10 person to further cause of revolution

-Greater force of revolution (thus gained from the sacrifice or extraction of #10 from society) at a later time = #9 person whose death would further the cause of revolution; and so on…

It’s a matter of physics and is a proclamation of history as ‘homeopathic’.

(Excuse me, we're proclamating here, "Homeopathic![!!!!]"

[I’ve always wondered if the moon ever exerts the greatest strength of its ability when placed within in relation with the ocean (and vice versa)… Is a monsoon an example of the force of the moon = the force of the ocean, plus 1? Who was it that mentioned that physics can teach you nothing about the human condition?]

Tardy (and less than hearty..)

Tracing the seams to where the basics of my composition begin

My beginning will originate at the seams; at the very basic stitch that maintains a quilt. If ever my beginning should conceal the patterns of its creation then that beginning and that creation do not coincide. In the event that a kinship should escape the pact of beginning and creation like light eludes the sun, then the relationship may persist with parts only common to the history of the organism of study; not, rather, as a point of origin commensurable to the organism itself. For instance, one could not excavate the Iraq War by brushing the rubble of the World Trade Center. The motivations for declaring “Conflict!” precede the rubble and its heyday. Beginning in this way will allow a familiar introduction like producing a birth certificate before the Department of Motor Vehicles. The primer of my print registers under the number and year 1914.

For me, Sloterdijk makes an obvious correlation between industrialized farming and the use of chemical gas as weapons during WWI, noting how the production of chemical gases such as Zyklon B continued under the justification of parasite extermination. During WWII, The German army experienced typhus en epidemique, but resulted with only 10% mortality among the infected. Condemning cloth lice as the carrier of this disease, parasite extermination was still clearly sited as a cause for concern.

Insomuch as they were common to the Germany army, parasites were also a consistent fixture on the farm.

“The principle base idea, after peace has been restored, is to make, in addition to the hydrocyanic acid, other combat substance that the war produced useful for the advancement of farming through the struggle against parasites.” Fritz Haber (50)

More, the term ‘parasite’ spread to embody the stronghold that the Jew, the gypsy, the homosexual etc. had on German society. The enemy of the farm and that of the human race were one and the same in all matters—extermination included.

It’s principle lies in surrounding the enemy long enough—which in practice meant at least some minutes—with a cloud of polluting materials, with a sufficient ‘tactical concentration’, until he would fall victim to his own need to breathe. (45)

How does this idea of using the environment as an ‘expansion of the battle ground’ an area where biodynamic viticulture can comment upon?

A reoccurring theme: Measuring awareness

I wonder about the application of psychology, receptivity, perceptions, tendencies, etc. engaged during other times of war. Consider the following statement from a report assembled by the RAND corporation under the name, “The Iraq Effect: The Middle East After The Iraq War”.

“The ousting of the Iraqi leader created the perception of increased vulnerability on the Arab side, resulting in a tendency to exaggerate the specter of Iran and its associated nonstate allies.” (xii)

Biodynamic viticulture may be very well equipped on measuring those involuntary or indirect draws of nature upon that of the situation.

My largest problem: I don’t know how to cast my characters.

Considering how radical both parties appear, my net of “characters” is large, but where do I get them? —From interviews, reports, articles, videos and books? How do I allow my characters to talk in scenes they have not visited in reality all the while maintain my non-fiction footing? Without encroachment, is there a way to observe the behavioral patterns of a person for a proper projection into my association?

(Or, am I thinking too much?)

Bah Humbug.

I am not inspired because I am not sure where to start this project. I’ve been reading.

That much I have traveled.

I am supposed to write a creative non-fiction. This supposition asks that I develop characters who act upon values, morals— upon a behavioral trend, be it ever changing or ever constant. Then, I am expected to employ them into relationships amongst each other and project their livelihood into a community of my imagination. Whether this creates drama, suspense, or lyrics, I have to be careful never to allow my creative license to infringe upon the rights of my non-fiction work.

I don’t know how to develop characters, yet.

From: The Future of Terrorism by Luke Alison (SmallWarsJournal)

Many groups still view the application of terror as a useful approach. While political dissatisfaction seems largely endemic to the human condition: the thought that new sensational displays of violence might help reorder society is never entirely outmoded. The continued appeal is the notion (at least conceptually) that terrorism can become easier to apply, but harder to counter. Basically, the framework here is a type of schism that increasingly negates strategic prevention, but intentionally courts sanguinary pitched battles. In that respect, someone is always thinking about what comes next, and:

“There are several reasons behind this trend. One is the terrorists' natural tendency to ‘out-do’ their previous attacks, stimulated by the perception that if the present level of violence has thus far failed to succeed in forcing a radical change in the status quo, the campaign needs to be intensified. Another reason is the fact that no matter how horrific a terrorist campaign might be, the intended audiences become desensitized to the current level of violence over time, forcing the terrorists to escalate further in order to maintain or heighten the atmosphere of panic and fear among the general population, and to stay in the spotlight. An escalation in terrorist violence is also sometimes stimulated by the actions of other organizations with which the given group competes for power or popularity. Another reason for the gradual escalation of overall terrorist violence over time has been the formation of new groups. Upon emergence, new violent organizations usually do not undergo the full step-by-step process of radicalization, but rather pick up at the level of violence where other organizations active in the same struggle have left off. Alternatively, many existing organizations can give birth to new formations through the process of splintering, which usually results in the new entity being more radical and more violent than the core group.” (Adam Dolnik & Keith M. Fitzgerald, Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists, )

Patience is a virtue...

...Look, what are human, bodily impulses? Are we reactive, better stirred with a wooden spoon?

Bare in mind that some people [scientists, really; from the general hobnob conglomerate for research and data] assert that Jupiter is "vast radio electric receiver more powerful than the sun" (128, Joly Biodynamic Wine Demystified).

We've simulated a world without the sun and even gone so far as to project a timeframe for which such simulation might be realized. But, is there a word shared with consideration for a world without Jupiter (to name one example)? (My line of thinking follows the idea that Earth without Jupiter may be akin to the status of the human body without iodine.)

Joly cites research on the relationships shared between earthly and cosmic forces with a narrow investigation on the vineyard itself. He concludes (along with other likeminded biodynamic practitioners) the following alliances:

Fruiting is a response to heat impulses.

Blossoming is a response to light impulses.

Leaf growth is a response to water impulses.

Root growth is a response to earth impulses.

In general, giving the vine too easy and comfortable a time--that is, through too much manure, or excessively clean soils without competition from other plants, or planting too widely per hectare--i.e. always giving the soil too much strength--will nurture the vines' leaves excessively, giving rise to a rather feeble and spiritless wine." (22, Joly)

Feeble and spiritless, hey Joly?...

Indulge.

Upon Request: A Statement of Study

“A clear defensible statement of goals explaining why such goals can be best met through interdisciplinary means.”

The greatest value I hold to my education is illicit in questioning. At the discursive depth of my scholarship, I credit my understanding to the retorts I make to the prompts of my professors. As the countdown toward graduation begins I will pivot from my position at Appalachian State University to the plot of my profession, and the most nerve I have to my next move is the fact that I will move away from the environment of questioning. Therefore, my goal in declaring Interdisciplinary Studies as my major is to develop the equipment I need to not only articulate the questions that arise out of instinct, but also illuminate the questions hidden in front of me (in newspapers, journals, conversations, etc…).

The interdisciplinary studies major is a mindful way to relieve the tension felt between two, three, four, or a hundred distinct sources of knowledge. Regarding my specific tension, my readings on foreign affairs, declassified CIA analyses on the use of torture, the regiment, treatment, and general regard for the vineyard and its wine, and the extreme measures a man uses when the cogs of history are hardest to stop are as distinct as they are numerous. The specific tension embedded in reading about Osama Bin Laden while relating to a passage about biodynamic viticulture instigated my declaration of major in this program.

On the fuller side of my thesis, I realize the tension that held my mind in contesting dissatisfaction came from a collection of narratives—some in which were recognized with a traditional academic integrity (political science), and others were not (relationships with refugees). In this regard, the interdisciplinary program allows for a larger and deeper analysis to take place between traditional and non-traditional forms of knowledge and thus instigate an interesting relationship with and responsibility for the environment at large. It stems from a personal dissatisfaction with the strength of a lens or the range of motion allowed of a scope, and indeed any package that claims viticulture and terrorism requires flexibility.

As case studies, oenology and international security operate within unique modes of culture, technology, history, economics, and goals. Both realms of research began in respect to the raw capacity of each to sustain itself, all the while maintain and true the efforts made by predecessors. By every account, the security of both vineyards and political relationships require a myriad of adaptations to be sustainable. Sustainability works to ensure the viability of all life forces amidst parasites and improvised explosive devices. Charting the patterns and unique instances of societies in reorganization became a kind of obsession.

The core curriculum required of the major as well as the curriculum I charted for myself placed me in an environment that allowed me both to indulge the curiosity of my superiors and to indulge my own. Within this attractive framework, I received coalmines of resources, wells of passion, and barns of advice. The orientation, direction, and degree of self-discipline of which this program generally entailed and my research specifically demanded equipped me with the means to further self-enrichment when I no longer enjoy a classroom setting.

Revolution... Refine!

I could study terrorism as a rare element in human behavior, as biodynamic viticulture

I could study the two side by side as elements and practitioners of the necessity of change.

I could study the two as rare occurrences found in specific regions if not, more specifically, measurable by their consistency in countries, states, or capitols (i.e. hot-bed, fertile crescent, axis of evil, old world, new world, etc).

These are practices of devout followers meticulous in their practice and unwavering in theory; radical by some approach, alternative, by others, hoaky still, or resourceful—as it is not the tools of modern technology, or the finances of modern capitalism that equips these people. I would like to study them side by side because I'm curious about what it will do.

Refine. Refine. Refine.

A Sideliner

I want to keep biodynamic viticulture in my research as a kind of educated entity--of its own right--to talk with about issues of 'demographic changes', 'geostrategies', and 'perceptions' and ways of measuring such things.

Exposure to these issues reels through the text of The Rand corporation's report, "The Iraq Effect: The Middle East After the Iraq War".

A Tickled Tilling

The context:

I argue that their relationship to their farming and‘Others’ resembles a form of religious life defined by asceticism, repetition, sacrifice, and an emphasis on spiritualism and purity. Their reserved relationships with the outside world, particularly in communicating their ideas on agriculture meanwhile recall the search for solitude of religious hermits. They reject a strategy of direct proselytising as attempting to persuade may involve compromises, it would mean revealing their difference and alienating themselves further from the wider community, and some of them question their ability to influence people and wider systems.

McMahon 'Biodynamic Farmers in Ireland: Transforming Society Through Purity, Solitude, and Bearing Witness'"

Steiner had a vitalist vision of the universe in which “ethereal” qualities infuse raw matter in order to give it life; this distinguishes living things from mere amalgamations of chemicals, however complex...We must confront this problem, not just as wine lovers and wine writers, but also as citizens who do not wish to live in, nor present to our children, a society in which pseudoscience and esoteric fantasies are considered reality. Irrational thinking, or reliance on mystical gurus with claims of clairvoyant intuition, does great harm to society.

Smith 'Biodynamics in The Wine Bottle"

When terrorist attacks occur and hundreds of people get killed or wounded, is this regarded by Iraqis as comparable to another day of car crashes in the United States?We might think so, because on the surface, life continues on--people go to work, they open up their shops just hours after an explosion on their street, people send their kids to school. But it has had a significant effect in terms of human investment. Those Iraqis--many of them middle class, a lot of the engineers, the doctors, the professionals needed to rebuild Iraq--will look at the headlines and say, "Why should I want to come back to Iraq? What is there to come back for?"

"Anxious Iraqi's Look at Uncertain Future"

The goal of this work is to advance understanding of the regional implications of the Iraq War by offering an assessment of trends, threats, and opportunities in the Middle East, drawing from extensive field-based research and primary sources.

"The Iraq Effect"

My vision (please forgive any and all soupy introductions--the ball on this topic can be pretty heavy):

What if the events in Iraq (i.e. a concluding 7-year occupation and 5 billion dollar investment) are activated on the same level as those Dr. Steiner witnessed in the soil of his prime? What I'm seeing with Iraq is a setting of Democracy that is as invasive upon the viability of its governed as Industrialized Agriculture was for its invested consumers.

Currently, there is a market for exploitation. Potentially we could begin seeing a greater use of warfare as a means of conflict resolution, and it will be attractive (like the oceans for the moon) for those directly and, most crucially, those who are indirectly involved ('sideliners' looking at this kind of environment as a game of double dutch).

This comes to mind in parallel with the model of industrialized agriculture promoting the use of pesticides and chemicals as just tools of employment for wielding crops for food for a growing population.

More, 'hokey' as it may seem, biodynamic viticulture consistently chimes in with one (thus far) redeeming quality for me. It describes a pattern in theory and practice of elements that naturally coincide like oxygen in fire. The terrestrial tessellation remains largely unnoticed as such and therefore is not widely cited as useful information. No matter, these elements will continue to exist (even unnoticed) just as gravity continues to permeate our third-dimension. (Do you think of the tree crashing in the forest, too?--"does it make a noise if no one is there to hear it?")

It is this quality to which I credit my stubborn insistence to let this methodology guide my studies in the realm of international/national security, of the terrorism/counter-terrorism relationship embedded therein, and in the Iraq War.

I realize the harm of superimposing. As of now however, this project is but a learning exercise. My largest concern...What can I infer when the hokey becomes reasonable? Don't hold it against me. After all, we all experiment in college.

Tyrannical Tangents:

I may be looking for a practice that regards terrorism like biodynamics regards wide-scale agriculture. Biodynamics began as a theory by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist in the early to mid 1900′s as a reproach to industrialized agriculture.

While industrialized agriculture satisfies a human race well-endowed in number it is an inefficient way of farming for nourishment. His theoretical bedrock came not from full bellies, but from the malnourished and exploited condition of the soil; a reality that effects the quality of the soil adversely and results in a sterile produce. In other words, industrialized agriculture fills the stomach but requires you receive nutrients elsewhere. The practice he incurred employs earthly and cosmic forces in the correlative relationship that both forces enjoy, but in which the human race stopped using–and, Dr. Steiner retorts, much to their disadvantage. And why? Why should we extort resources and time into a food that only satisfies hunger? Our food should be exemplary and imbue the precious mineral of ‘invested time’.

On this course, my exploration would persist on an analogy: Counter-terrorism is to Terrorism what Industrialized Agriculture is to Food. I am not quick to suggest that we cannot stretch sustainable agriculture to fill the mouths currently feeding off industrialized farms, but in order for such stretch to be successful new eating habits may be required (with consideration to the idea that obesity is as inefficient and harmful to the body as the farming practice that allows it). The innovation and research of food, terrorism, and numerous other age-old suchities have coursed through the minds and fingers of many akin. However, it is not my intention to insist upon the forfeiture of 'Big Macs'. NAY, heed caution! I would like to learn from the biodynamic theories and practices on the vineyard and the success it maintains in its mission to restore nutrient-starved food, and apply the methodology to engaging more efficient ways of countering terror.

On a side note, I would like to further my project with the such vulgar homologies as "Old World" and "New World" as they regard the political atmosphere of both viticulture and terror. As well as how geography intersects at strategy and character.

But more on that later. Rest your eyes. I suggest cucumbers.

Filing Citations

At present, I seek exposure to both fields of biodynamic viticulture and terror (academically speaking, of course) to develop a sound statement of intention.

There is an interesting draw in both 'New' Terrorism and Biodynamics to cite cosmic forces as they manifest on Earth. I cannot imagine the cosmos in time or space: a call for a new method of approach distinct from one which is linear (i.e. time/line).

Access to valid experiences with Biodynamic wine is fairly restricted. But this morning I came across a new link on the World Cat database to a vineyard in Oregon that is fairly forward with their application of biodynamic viticulture[!!!!].

On y va...

Top-Pick!

THE BIODYNAMIC VITA-CULTURE OF TERRORISM AS THIS MEANS OF PERSUASION REGARDS THE UNITED STATES AND HER PLATFORM FOR THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’ IN IRAQ.

Justification: My path of exploration will follow the coalescence of the literal and reclaimed meanings of ‘biodynamic viticulture’ and the means to reveal and establish a new dimension of measuring terrorism. My allocation for place and time (The United States, Iraq, and the new millennium) will narrow my attention, and hopefully allow for a reasonable endeavor to complete within a semester.

Not From Concentrate. (no pulp, either)

The fields of International Security and the vineyards of Oenology are the investments of my college career. What’s more, I have marked off a smaller plot to care for with greater attention. Before I list the coordinates of my design, I need to massage the fibers and branches that begin this root-bound endeavor.

While the origins of interests are never so clearly marked as a fire hydrant, I can faithfully say that a spark turned blue with heat in a white, 15-seater van en route to a Purdue Chicken Processing Plant during one of many Georgia summers. Buckled inside were 10 young Iraqi men—all fresh with leather shoes, starched collars, and manicured hair, 1 older man from Sudan, 2 teenage Nepalese siblings, my superior—a beautiful Kenyan refugee, and myself. The mission was resettlement and self-sufficiency by way of employment. We were in the car no more than 2 hours, a time lost between Rockabilly and Arab pop music, and the day was ours for spending. Once within a 5-mile radius of the chicken compound we no longer had the lung-capacity for music. The smell was foul (literally), lingering in the city’s summer haze, and it wrapped around everything—your grocery store and friendly, neighborhood ‘Mick-a-dee’s’ included. I then became conscience of how strange it was to engage those Iraqi men in particular as refugees in a resettlement plan of The United States—the invading and occupying republic of their homeland. The sentiment, “I’m sorry about the war, but we’re glad you’re here” was washed over with contempt. Watching the confident, sharp-looking Iraqi men walk into the processing plant for casual job interviews while the last shift filtered into the parking lot adorned in plastic smocks and fitted knee-high galoshes was awkward to say the least.

While my interest in international relations extends in many other directions, an occurrence of this sort was most poignantly felt and raw.

The vineyard on the other hand is the aesthetic outlaw of my academic career. After spending 9 months upon the French terroir, 4 of which spent under the instruction of my university in Paris and Bordeaux, I preserved interest in one insight: Wine is alive, a singled embodiment of the earth that engrossed its seeds. Never in my adolescence had I considered wine to be of any great consequence—spare, of course, for bad breath and the occasional headache. But never mind that—wine is geopolitics incarnate! The distinction between a Cabernet produced in the same country on different terrain in different soil amidst different vegetation and animals stimulated a very cordial setting of relationships. In a way very much like, “Oh, so this is how it works,” I set off to envelope the ambiance of this setting in that of my topic to follow.