Sometimes it’s easy to over simplify complex relationships with reductive personifications. That being said, Vice President Dick Cheney is Master of the World!

Yes, at this moment, it’s Dick’s world, and we’re all just living it.

It’s so easy to get distracted by all the politics, entertainment, and say to day plays of the world that we can lose sight of the big picture, but not America’s Vice President. The democrats win congress, Lindsay Lohan gets a DUI, Grandma loses her job; you’d think for sure something would rattle him. Not Dick!  Like a laser beam he stays focused on the task at hand.

An while lesser mortals busy themselves with winning compromises over the details and fighting the battles before them, the overall strategy of the war is guided by an unwavering hand, steadily griping the reigns despite the clashes around him, secure in his power. While the focus falls on the President, who himself shares some responsibility, the guiding vision and operational control.

The truth of the matter is it’s too late to stop what he has already been set in motion. Control is about influence. The words on the page are not determined by the hand that guides the pen, but the mind of the writer, the subtle organ unseen by the ants who marvel at the shapes of the letters.

As powerful as the Master of the World is, those who recognize his patterns have a measure of influence all their own. The bee that antagonizes the bear has his choice of the picnic once the rampage has scared the picnickers away.

Real control is a subtle thing, and understanding it has to do with recognizing what motivates people. Terrorist attacks are rarely about conquering a nation, they are about control and manipulation. And when the goals of two sides in a war happen to coincide, look out! For the main players, the “War on Terror” has never about winning, its about the war itself because war is the means by which both sides gain control and maintain their power.

This may come like a kick to the gut for the pragmatic realists out there, but the clash between the US and Iran is not only inevitable, it’s already here. The threads that control the puppets on stage just aren’t visible to the audience yet. On either side of the map, the progression of events in Pakistan and a lack of meaningful progress in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict guarantee a broader conflict.

There was a period when various players from any one of the governments involved could’ve changed the direction of events, but now we are past that point. Those with the will to see through a different course have lost the option.  This crisis built from a series of problems to the flashpoint in Iraq and now the fire can no longer be contained.

The people of Earth, all of us, are now at war.

The storm is coming, and no shouting to the wind can stop it. This is no longer even about predicting the path of the storm so much as it is preparing for its passing. The only question now is its strength and intensity, but that too is out of our control now. The structures that can be saved need to be reinforced, those that can’t need to be abandoned.

The key to storm preparedness is not “every man for himself,” but working together at all levels as a community to get things done. No one in their right mind who can leave stays behind because they want to wait for a savior afterward, and this shouldn’t be the case now either.

For most of us, one storm, no matter how terrible, will not be the end of the world. That means we need to look forward. And, if we’re to prepare for this and future storms, we need to start recognizing the causes now. If we can learn to isolate the pressures fronts of idiotic obstinacy that collide to form such storms, we might even be able to avoid them altogether someday.

 Politically, I don’t have high hopes for the 2008 US Presidential election, one way or the other we’re going to get someone from the same power structure. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as people need time to recognize the current limits on the election system before it can change. After going in reverse for so long, the vehicle needs to stop before we try to move forward, otherwise we’ll strip the gears.

In the meantime, something needs to happen first. A subject  I’ve pondered often is the path of the politician versus the path of the artist.  Unfortunately, I don’t think most of us have the luxury of choosing one over the other. The emerging global community has come about in no small part because of communication technology and developments in the media.

The difference between those who try to shape events and those who try to show the world to people has narrowed almost to the point of being non existent. In a democratic, who has the most influence, the decision maker or those that frames the terms of the decision to the people?

It is time to marry the two in a way that goes beyond Obama’s Girl and using the new media as another form of advertisement. It’s not just about feedback either; it’s about keeping those who are entrusted with the public good accountable to the people. This requires a greater willingness from those at the highest levels to sacrifice more than they’ve demonstrated in the past, and a willingness of those at the individual level to be more realistic in their expectations.

I’m not sure when the great American fantasy became confused with the American dream,  but we can’t keep knocking down those we put on a pedestal for failing to live up our expectation without recognizing the effort we put into the process ourselves first. This means ALL of US need to both be aware and contribute something worthwhile to both the reality and the images we create.

If I’ve made a mistake in the past it is that I frequently underestimate the importance of the role of working with friends in achieving goals. No one can go it alone. Left to my own device my gaze almost always turns inwards away from others. Maybe that’s just human nature, or maybe it’s more particularly my own personal weakness. I don’t know.

For the moment my vision is clear, and I see a way to help change things. Maybe it’s not “the” plan but it is a plan, and it’s going to take all of us here now to carry out. I can’t do it alone, and all the old boundaries we thought defined us we’ll need to cross to see us through.

Master of the World is, after all, a temporary position at best, and the lines that demark power are always in motion. Real influence is rarely an obvious process. The question now is what do you need to get involved?