POSTER WK 7: THE TOWER OF BABEL

The Tower of Babel is another type of creation story explaining the reason why the world has multiple languages and not just one language. (Necessary to explain if we came from one source)

National Security 

The Tower of Babel story from a National Security perspective is expressed by a CIA document regarding linguistic policies for Intelligence Officers. Basically, the CIA expresses frustration regarding the amount of energy and resources wasted on linguistic training. It states that the problem is so huge it would be impossible to plan which languages should be learned by whom. Therefore, they continue to adopt a bushfire approach.

Public Health & Welfare

Health agencies in the United States have so many organizations providing resources that it is very hard to achieve a common purpose, except in general terms. The tendency has been that government encourage new immigrants, for example, to adopt North American ways of speaking and acting.

1. Image: The Twin Towers

The Word Trade Centre in New York was not just the most conspicuous symbol of US capitalism. It was also intended to be a symbol of human unity and human greatness.

2. Images: Ziggurat

There are two ziggurats (tallest buildings in the world) shown in the poster.
One ziggurat is made up of the names of computer languages. Computer languages at root are zeros (0) and ones (1). This is the most basic unified language. In a very short time thousands of different computer languages have been developed all starting from zeros (0) and ones (1), each with complex syntax.

3. The other ziggurat is from a renaissance painting. It shows the explosion of the airplanes that slammed into the World Trade Center and represents: things haven’t changed much in thousands of years. However, for the terrorists that flew the airplanes, the symbolism of Babel, in the heart of Islamic Mesopotamia, couldn’t have failed to incite their sense of mission.

4. Image: EfM Newspaper

The Wednesday Evening Newspaper announces only numbers, which everyone in the western world understands. 911, which was the date of the destruction of the twin towers, is also the number for an emergency call.  ‘0s’ and ‘1s’ are the basis of computer language.

Conclusion

We live in a very complex world. For people to work together there must be tolerance for other faiths and cultures. Toleration implies disagreement. In North American society we grant everyone the freedom to hold different views. The Anglican Way is via media (the middle road). This is an important principle that others may recognize in us.