1 Boring Old Man

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME < MF < ML *dominiōn- (s. of *dominiō) lordship, equiv. to L domin(ium) dominium + -iōn- -ion]

Throughout much of my remembered life, the abiding principle of America was freedom, and the enemy of my youth was the World Communist Movement. The Communists in Russia and Red China were, in our opinion, dead set on spreading their utopian vision of government all over the planet. We, on the other hand, saw Communist Dominion as a plague and fought back at any opportunity. When Communism collapsed, one might have surmised that the world would settle down and live in peace. We had our Democracy, our freedom. In our Action Movies [which rely on an evil enemy], the Communists were replaced by Arab Terrorists – and the new fear was of Middle Eastern Dominionists who would seek to take over the world in some kind of Global Islamic Movement. Same song, new enemy. Again, our freedom was threatened. I don’t really know if Global Dominion is what the Arabs want. They seem to be fighting for Dominion over what they consider their own part of the world – fighting with us, fighting with Israel, and fighting with each other. 

In the post "Cold War" world, something I personally never expected happened. We were swept up in two Dominionist Movements of our own. The first was religious. America is a Christian Nation, we were told. The new Christian Trinity became American Democracy, something called Family Values, and the morality of the Torah [Old Testament]. Fundamentalist religious leaders were joined by organizations like the Traditional Values Coalition, Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council. The resultant Religious Right forces elected our current President. The other Dominionist Movement came as part of the neoconservative foreign policy – the Bush Doctrine. America would become the dominant force in policing the world. We would spread Democracy to the four corners of the earth. Like the World Communist Movement, or the Islamic Jihadists, we knew what was right for the world and we would deliver it – American Dominion.

I guess Dominion is just part of being human. When we were photographing that beautiful rainbow in Colorado, I moved back to get the cannon in the picture – a testimony to some forgotten assertion of Dominion. No matter what rationalization is used to justify a claim of Dominion over the lands, lives, or minds of others, it’s just about personal greed and fear. People who care about others leave them alone. People who trust others leave them alone. People who love the land, don’t need to own it. Frightened, greedy people fight for ownership. It’s that simple. That cannon is left over from a time when the place was a Frontier Trading Post. It was there to ward off Indian attacks [Is there any question about why the Indians were attacking?].

We know about Dominion – our history books are filled with stories of conquerors and Kings rampaging across the earth. My memory of all those history classes is about power politics – groups subjugating other groups; rebellion of the underclass; upstarts unseating the old guard; etc. I don’t recall much that wouldn’t fall under the categories of greed and fear. In fact, I can’t recall any off the top of my head. All I recall is bigger and bigger cannons.