The Promised Land Project: Analogy to the Manhattan Project

Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.

Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Analogy to the Manhattan Project

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

I can be a real dreamer and even to myself, aspects of The Promised Land Project can seem rather, shall we say, far-fetched. There are significant obstacles to overcome and though I see no impasse, still, my vision is limited. Furthermore, I've had my share of failure in life. But if one can learn from failure, whether it's one's own or from others, it's not in vain.

As the American Scientists gathered for the Manhattan Project, some hoped that the atomic bomb wouldn't work. No one knew unless they tried. But the atomic bomb did work and with the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, nuclear weapons continue to proliferate around the world to threaten our destruction.

While the Manhattan Project strived to tap the power of the atom for military purposes, the Promised Land Project strives to tap the power of the soul for peaceful purposes.

In this blog I try to articulate as reasonably as possible why this can work. The project provides a collective narrative that will have to be picked up by others to be promoted in various forms. But to work it must capture the imagination, it must engender inspiration to be sustained and renewed on some level, and it must be the truth -- as much as we understand that to be. Ultimately, like the scientists of the Manhattan Project, we can only know if it will work by trying it.

As it was American scientists that unleashed the nuclear weapons into the world, let it be American poets to unleashed an imaginative disposition that renders the use of such weapons unimaginable.