Comprehensive Global
Perspective: An Illuminating Worldview
Book Seven of the Earth Manifesto
A
PREAMBLE IN WHICH THE AUTHOR OFFERS HER SERVICES AS AN INTERPRETER, GUIDE,
COMPETENT ASSESSOR AND VISIONARY AND FIGURATIVE SEDUCTRESS, AND SUMMARIZES THE
BROAD TOPICS CONTAINED IN THIS EPISTLE:
LIFE AND DEATH, HOPE AND LOVE, FAITH AND DOUBT, INDOMITABLE SPIRIT,
LYRIC STORIES, PARABLES, PREDICAMENTS, PROPHECIES, MYSTERIES, VAULTING TRIUMPH
AND SHAME-FACED IGNOMINY, INTRIGUE, AMBITION, THE ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES
OF POLITICIANS AND THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY, VAINGLORY, VILLAINLOUS TREACHERY,
THE THIRST FOR POWER, THE FOLLIES OF PREEMPTIVE WAR, PERVERSIONS OF JUSTICE,
DENIERS OF EVOLUTION, FEAR OF GOD AND THE SNARES OF THE DEVIL, CURIOSITIES AND
CONUNDRUMS, SMOKE AND MIRRORS, SLINGS AND ARROWS, MUSINGS AND AMUSEMENT,
ABSURDITY AND LAUGHTER, SESQUIPEDALIAN SPECULATIONS, INDULGENCE AND ABANDON. *
An Introductory Ode.
Oh, Muses of divine Inspiration, your evocative powers are summonsed
Nine daughters of all-powerful
Zeus, the supreme ruler of the Greek heavens,
And of fair and reasonable
Mnemosyne, the graceful Titan goddess of Memory
Please provide us with clear Insight, and
all the best understandings we can deduce.
Let heart-felt and passionate
ideas ring forth --- ones that address the basic question
Of how our societies can balance
today’s needs with tomorrow’s health and well-being
For it is quite crucial that we
accomplish this vitally important and salubrious goal
So that we can achieve
salvation, true security, clearer perspective and sane-seeing.
An integral new morality is
needed to allow humanity to prosper and survive;
A natural reverence for the
health and vitality of individuals, communities and ecosystems
And a cooperative respect for fair balance between competing interests,
bound by a bold movement
Towards ecological sanity,
international peace, and other essential wisdoms.
“I am the Poem of the Earth,
said the voice of the rain,”
Whispering wistfully to us of
our connectedness to the elements,
To the wild animals, to the
birds singing, to ourselves, and to each other
Bringing our attention to the
wonders of life, and to our joys and laments.
At this current juncture in
time, open-mindedness and receptive versatility are needed
As ever-changing conditions
favor nimbleness and adaptability, and far-sightedness
And conservative’s support of
the Status Quo proves to be inadequate in coping with rapid change
Mandating that we explore and
embrace new ideas with courage and boldness.
Truly,
Dr. Tiffany B. Twain
March 5, 2015 (First begun in 2005)
This Earth
Manifesto manuscript contains understandings that have been evolving for many
years.
* A big
Thank You to Brazil’s foremost novelist Jorge Amado for the idea of the
stylistic introductory device in this Preamble.
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Comprehensive Global Perspective:
An Illuminating Worldview
© 2015 Dr. Tiffany B.
Twain
ISBN: 978-1-300-85023-6
Comprehensive Global
Perspective: An Illuminating Worldview
Introduction
This manuscript consists
of 121 Chapters, roughly organized as follows:
Introductory Thoughts and Declaration of
Interdependence (Chapter #1)
The Astonishing Parable of Nauru (Chapter
#2)
Understandings of a Big Picture Nature
(Chapters #3-36)
Primary Principles and the ‘Bet Situation’
(Chapters #37-38)
Insight, Ideas, Opinions and the Search for
Wisdom in America (Chapters #39-43)
Economics, Capitalism and Politics
(Chapters #44-66)
Energy Considerations, Peak Oil,
Neoconservatism and Corruption in Politics (Chapters #67-94)
Philosophical Perspectives on values, women, healthy societies, sex,
astrophysics, beliefs, philosophy,
extinction, creativity and reason
(Chapters #95-114).
Insights into Religion and
Culture (Chapters #115-121)
AUTHOR NOTE:
My aspiration in
writing this manuscript has been to create a modern-day version of Thomas
Paine’s Common Sense, an
extraordinarily influential pamphlet that advocated independence from the
power-abusing monarchy of the British Empire back in the year 1776. To readers, men and women, I submit the same
caveats as Thomas Paine:
“In
the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments,
and common sense: and have no other
preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of
prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to
determine for themselves … and generously enlarge his views beyond the present
day.”
And to
paraphrase Thomas Paine: “Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary
to the Public, as the important thing is the IDEAS THEMSELVES, and not the
author. Yet it may be necessary to say,
that she is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of influence, public
or private, other than the influence of reason and principle.”
Detailed
distillations of the ideas, policy prescriptions and recommended initiatives
that are included throughout this manuscript can be found summarized in Common Sense Revival (Book One of the Earth
Manifesto), and in Part Four online.
Table
of Contents
1. A
Declaration of Interdependence
2. The Astonishing Parable of Nauru
3. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
4. Overarching Theme
5. Profound Perspective
6.
Macro-Economics and the Value of Incentives
7. A Vast and Rash Uncontrolled Experiment
8. A Transformation Is A-Comin’
9. Crisis as Dangerous Opportunity
10. The Embrace of New Ideas
11. The Sustainability Revolution
12. Redefining Progress
13. Intelligent Redesign
14. The Importance of the Precautionary
Principle
15. Morality and Right Action
16. Three Basic Considerations
17. A Big Perspective
18. The Decline and Fall of Civilizations
19. Machiavellian Machinations and Their
Shortcomings
20.
Historical Developments
21. Better Plans for Global Security
22. The Gaia Understanding
23. Carrying Capacity and Far-Sighted Ecological
Perspective
24. Rueful Reflections
25. In Defense of Reason
26. Political Madness
27. The Tragedy of the Commons
28. On Climate Change
29. Earth Advocacy
30. Reflections on Feminine Perspective
31. Youthful Insights
32. Arguments Against Maintaining the Status Quo
33. Endangering the Tree of Life
34. A Focus on What Is Really Important
35. Conflict and Its Undesirable Consequences
36. A Cautionary Tale
37. Primary Principles
38. The Bet Situation
39. Insight into Pyrrhic Victories
40. Greatness, or Ignominy?
41. Ideas and Beliefs
42. A Thoughtful Digression on Opinion
43. Searching for Wisdom in America
44. The Nature of the Wealth of Nations
45. Capitalism and Democracy
46. Pathological Aspects of Capitalism
47. Problems Associated with Corporatism
48. The Best Political Philosophy
49. Clean Money Campaigns and a Healthier
Democracy
50. Waste Not, Want Not!
51. Clarifying Rational Ends
52. So Many Choices, and So Hard to Make the
Right Ones!
53. The Causes of Problems, and Some Solutions
54. The Failings of Congress
55. Advocating a Better World
56. My Simple Dream
57. Ideals and Reality
58. Sensible Strategies
59. The Conjunction of Idealism and Pragmatism
60. Seductive Sirens
61. Inequality and Its Implications
62. The Wisdom of the Golden Rule
63. The Selfishness of the Wealthy
64. To Be or Not To Be
65. Bubble Economics
66. The Failings of Business and Government
67. Our American Achilles Heel
68. The Ramifications of Peak Oil
69. Other Addictive Behaviors
70. Global Warming
71. Intelligent Energy Policy
72. The Problems with Misguided Subsidies
73. Introspection into Government
74. Power and Corruption
75. More Thinking Outside the Box
76. The Consequences of Corruption
77. On Improving People’s Lives
78. The Need for Progressive Reform -- and
Revolutionary Change!
79. A Call for Political Change
80. Negative Nabobs of Neoconservatism
81. The Continuum of Political Perceptions
82. Is Fascism Encroaching on America?
83. Speaking Truth to Amoral Power
84. Neoconservatism and Right-Wing Think Tanks
85. The Foolish Toad
86. The Hero Archetype vs. Wisdom
87. The Truth
88. Misguided Priorities
89. The Federal Budget Is a Moral Document
90. Considering Deeper Causes and Consequences
91. Constitutional Principles
92. Liberty and Justice for All
93. Progressive Principles
94. The Politicization of Science
95. The Dalai Lama and Wholesome Values
96. True Values
97. Healthy Societies
98. Beliefs, Convictions, and Philosophies
99. Good Fortune and Generosity of Being
100. Personal
Universal Point of View
101. The
Evolution of Life
102. Ecological
Revolution
103. Only Reason
Can Save Us
104. The
Importance of a Positive Attitude
105. Women of
the World, Unite!
106. A Call for
the Education and Empowerment of Women
107. Proactive
Initiatives for Women
108.
Preventative Medicine
109. Sex is
Natural
110.
Perspective on Abortion
111.
Absurdities of Inflexible Religious Dogma
112. The Need
for a New Feminism
113. More Noble
Motivations
114. Striving
Not to Be Nobody
115. Insights
on Religion and Culture
116. The
Dangers of Fundamentalism
117. The
Importance of the Separation of Church and State
118. Spiritual
Understandings
119. Religion
and Drugs
120. We Need a
New Religion!
121. Literate Ideas
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Chapter
#1 – A Declaration of Interdependence.
The overarching drive that has sparked the writing of this manuscript is
a vivid and passionate belief that we could collectively create a fairer,
safer, and saner world. As an American
who cares deeply about the future health and well-being of our children and communities,
and our country, and the biological health of life on planet Earth, it is my
strong conviction that a dramatic transformation in our societies should be
undertaken that will give greater respect to longer-term considerations.
There is a profound
interconnectedness and interdependence of our fates with all other forms of
life on Earth. Natural ecosystems are
astonishingly resilient, but since all species of life have survived by
adapting to existing conditions and their natural surroundings, living things are
vulnerable to rapid changes in habitats, competitive influences, excessive
harvesting, increased temperatures, introduced pollutants, and shifting climate
and precipitation patterns.
The survival of a
species is, by definition, indefinitely sustained biological existence. The
human race needs to more clearly recognize and respect the fact that we cannot
continue to consume far more than can be supplied by natural resources,
regeneration, and healthy ecosystems.
The carrying capacity of damaged ecosystems is less than that of healthy
ones, so it is an overarching necessity for us to act to prevent harms to
habitats that will upset the providential balance in nature that serves as the
foundation of our prosperity and survival.
Chief Seattle, a Native American leader in the
Pacific Northwest in the 1850s, warned the U.S. government against the misuse
of the land, rivers, lakes and animal life. He reputedly said the
following words, which have cogent meaning to us today:
“Whatever happens to the
Earth, happens to the children of the Earth … All things are connected, like
the blood that unites one family. Mankind did not weave the web of
life; we are but one strand within it. Whatever we do to the web, we
do to ourselves.”
We should honor this wisdom, and the sagacity of
other far-sighted philosophers who have gone before us. Jacques-Yves
Cousteau was a great French ecologist, researcher, explorer, inventor and
filmmaker who summarized our basic obligations best when he said:
“Each generation, sharing in the heritage of the Earth, has a duty as
trustee for future generations
to prevent irreversible and irreparable harm
to life on Earth, and to human freedom and dignity.”
In the course of satisfying
our basic needs for food, water and energy, we are inexorably depleting natural
resources. Rapid population growth and
stimulated consumerism and mindless greed generally make these dilemmas worse. Aggressive resource exploitation tends to
damage and alter ecosystems, and to contribute to heightened international
conflicts over resources, with critically detrimental environmental
impacts. It is becoming increasingly
crucial for us to recognize and acknowledge that we are completely dependent on
a healthy balance in natural ecosystems, and with this greater awareness, we
should begin to find good ways to mitigate the most damaging of our activities.
Theodore Roszak provided a valuable perspective in
2001 in his profound book, The Voice of
the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology
“In the nineteenth century, anti-capitalist critics like Karl Marx
insisted that economics must be contained within an ethical context; they
contended that social justice counted for more than industrial efficiency or private
profit. In the late twentieth century, the environmental movement is trying to
teach us that both economics and ethics must be contained within an ecological
context.”
We clearly need to
boldly adopt a new trajectory of ecological concern. We should restructure
economic incentives and our political system to change the unsustainable mega-trends
in human affairs. Our public policies
are fundamentally flawed by their excessively heavy emphasis on economic
drives, to the exclusion of adequately satisfying vital social and ecological
needs. We should strive to see the
shortcomings and follies of our current systems in a clear light, and to heedfully
invest in plans that are more socially just, fiscally sound, and environmentally sane.
The purpose of my
creating this manuscript has been to advance perspectives that are practical,
progressive, fair-minded, and far-sighted. Fresh and comprehensive Big
Picture insights into complex issues could help create a powerful impetus for
positive change. An expansive awareness
of the challenges we face, in all of their complexity, is a valuable
precondition for energizing us into making salubrious changes in our habits and
institutions. Valid and expansive
knowledge serves society better than ignorance and misconceptions.
Another purpose of all Earth Manifesto writings is
to capture and express a positive perspective that broadly expresses a true understanding
of the state of the world today. With an
all-encompassing sense of issues and best practices, and a better comprehension
of the lessons of history, we should be able to confidently debunk the
misleading ideas and inaccurate orthodox beliefs that are promoted by vested
interest groups, partisan think tanks, scheming politicians, and assorted
demagogic talk show hosts and economic fundamentalists and religious
conservatives.
This would be a positive step toward making the
world a significantly better place for all, and it would help ensure a greater
probability of our leaving a fairer legacy to posterity.
“Consult your own
understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what
is
passing around you.”
--- Jane Austin
For those who seek concrete and detailed ideas right now about how we could
be making constructive and pragmatic changes in our national policies to
significantly improve our societies, see the proposals in Common Sense Revival or in Part Four of the
Earth Manifesto online.
The bottom line is that public policies are
wrong-headed when they are designed to benefit the few in the short-term rather
than the many, both now and in the long run. Social inequities are made worse
by national policies that cause income inequalities to increase, and such
policies make the majority of people less secure. This tends to motivate the powers-that-be to impose
more strict control in order to maintain the anti-democratic injustice of
prevailing conditions. When the
disparities between the rich and the poor are mercilessly increased to an excessively
big extreme, it makes our societies less safe for everyone. As a result, it becomes even more difficult
to achieve true justice, societal stability, cooperation in problem solving, peaceable
coexistence and sustainable living.
Let’s be honest with ourselves,
and learn as much as we can, and develop the most accurate understandings. This will help us create a revolution of
economic and cultural ideas that would provide a spark that enables vitally
needed reform and social progress. When
we take into account the root causes of problems, we are better poised to be able
to formulate good solutions that are more holistic and comprehensive.
And let’s not only
strive to be more perceptively aware: let’s
also get better organized!
Senator Gaylord Nelson of
Wisconsin founded the first Earth Day in April 1970. He referred to it as a “battle to restore a proper relationship
between man and his environment”. Nelson
wisely noted that this struggle requires a political, moral, ethical and
financial commitment that is long and sustained, and one that is far beyond any
efforts yet being made.
The number of human beings alive on Earth has grown
by about 3.5 billion people since the first annual Earth Day almost 45 years
ago. Environmental problems have become
starkly worse during this time, and the evidence of potentially catastrophic
human population overshoot is growing conclusive. Particularly stunning is the Living Planet
Report 2014 that reveals a decline of more than 50% in the number of mammals,
fishes, birds, amphibians and reptiles in the past 40 years alone. Nonetheless, the voices of those who deny the
damaging impacts we are having on our home planet are still overly influential. These voices are basically denying our
responsibility for the mitigation of these damages. Entrenched interest groups generally strive
to perpetuate the unsustainable exploitation of people and resources, and to
facilitate profit making no matter what impact it has on the greater good.
During the years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the
proverbial pendulum swung sharply toward expanded corporate and presidential
power and Neoconservative ideologies.
And the Supreme Court shifted from a 5-4 majority of liberal-minded
Justices to a 5-4 majority of “conservative” pro-corporate Justices. But the proverbial writing on the wall is
clear: positive change and reform needs
to be put into effect, and we should act to cause the pendulum to swing back
toward greater reason, fair-mindedness, sensible regulation, better accountability,
progressive politics, support for family planning options, long-term
sensibilities, and ecological sanity.
“It
always seems impossible until it's done.”
--- Nelson Mandela
The election of Barack Obama in November 2008
promised hope of a potential dramatic shift in the political landscape toward
fairer and smarter ways forward. His
first term in office proved how difficult it is to achieve auspicious change in
our sadly dysfunctional political system.
The need for positive change, meanwhile, continues inexorably to grow.
Let’s be honest with ourselves about
the scope of our task: the average
“ecological footprint” of most Americans has been growing larger for
decades. Never in history have there
been more people on the planet, and never have these people -- us! -- been
consuming more resources on an average per-person basis, or in total. Think about your own individual footprint,
and correlated impacts. For most people
today, it is larger now than it has ever been in their life. And our average longevity has been on a
dramatic long-term upward trend.
A tipping point of ecological awareness seems to be gaining
strength. At the same time, we are also
teetering on an ominous tipping point of accelerating change that portends
irreversible resource depletion, destabilizing climate disruption, encroaching overpopulation,
and intensified conflicts. We would be
wise to have the foresight to lend our support to a far-reaching reorientation
and restructuring of our societies to
make them fairer, more sustainable, and more conservation-oriented.
"Human history becomes more and more a race
between education and catastrophe."
--- English writer H.G. Wells
People worldwide have been marching lockstep down a path that invites
cyclical instability and is at risk of ecological collapse. We are leaving a sad legacy to our descendants
that will be significantly less providential, in general, than the legacy we
collectively inherited from our parents.
This makes it imperative that we demand our representatives begin to
exhibit an overarching concern for the greater good. More honest leaders are needed who will guide
us toward smarter national policies in order to rectify this situation.
A Bill of Rights for Future Generations, with specifics
similar to those proposed in this manifesto, should be ratified in nations
worldwide to provide this guidance.
Let’s boldly embrace the serendipitous idea of beginning to
“pay forward” good deeds to people in future generations by making
revolutionary changes in the way we structure our economies and our collective
activities. Sticking with the status quo
of constantly BORROWING from people in the future will almost certainly prove
to be woefully ill-advised. Minor
reforms are simply not adequate. We can
no longer afford to allow misguided people to implement wrong-headed
priorities.
Naomi Klein offers a modern caution in her recently published book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The
Climate. She explores the
overarching problem of why the
climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our
time, and to restructure the global economy and remake our political
systems. “In short, either we embrace
radical change ourselves or radical changes will be visited upon our physical
world. The status quo is no longer an
option.”
“We have not
been borrowing, we have been stealing the future of our children …”
--- Jane Goodall
The way we perceive things has a profound affect on the way we
live and act in the world. One of the
freshest and most entertainingly provocative books I’ve read in recent years is
Spontaneous Evolution - Our Positive
Future (and a Way to Get There from Here).
The authors of this book give readers surprising insights into how we
interpret our perceptions of the world, and of the nature of our brain waves in
various frequencies that range from sleepy Delta to meditative Theta to dreamy
Alpha to attentive Beta to intently-focused Gamma. They point out how strongly our individual
and collective behaviors are influenced by behavioral conditioning and
programming, and by commercial advertising.
They also provide great hope for transcendent changes through proper
understanding, enlightened education, cooperative problem solving, and a more
knowledgeable body politic.
I particularly love the second chapter in Spontaneous Evolution, “Act Locally … Evolve Globally”. It contains a discussion concerning the four
principal paradigms of perception that have pervaded the conscious awareness of
humanity since ancient times: Animism,
Polytheism, Monotheism and Scientific Materialism. I look forward to re-reading this book, and
to thinking further about its concepts, so that more of its insights and humor
can be incorporated into Earth Manifesto essays.
“In a shrinking world that could use a good
shrink,
We don’t need another theory of
evolution.
What we need is a better practice of
evolution.”
--- Swami Beyondananda, Spontaneous Evolution
Many people know the concept of someone being an undesirable ‘persona non grata’. What the world needs now is a contrasting and
more valuable type of person: a ‘persona grata’, a good person, a decent
sort, an honest person, an honorable mensch.
Millions of people like this are needed to lead us to pay forward some
sensible and fair-minded deeds. To
harvest good outcomes, we have a pronounced need for leaders who understand and
communicate clearly the existential need for us to champion fairer and more
ecological sane public policies, and to sow justice and other sensible seeds.
These insights are dedicated to the great American
author and humorist, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. The 180th anniversary of his birth will take
place on November 30, 2015, and the 105th anniversary of the day he died will
be commemorated on April 21, 2015. In
addition to having written quite marvelous novels like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain involved himself in
trying to beneficially influence the foreign policies of the United States to
stop American imperial involvements in wars and occupations of Cuba and the
Philippines. Mark Twain cleverly
lampooned the distinctive foibles and absurd behaviors of the human race, and he
provided us with keen insights into the true nature of political power,
corruption, greed and human folly.
Wallace Stevens once poetically opined: “Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around a
lake”. Before continuing, let’s take a
break, think about things, and wait a moment for guidance. Let’s dare to anticipate -- aha! -- some
epiphanies. Breathe in slowly and
deeply, and as you calmly exhale, imagine making a spiritually purificatory and
Nature-respecting circumambulation around a body of fresh water. Do some invigorating and mildly exhausting
outdoors exercise, or soak for a while in a tub of hot water; whatever!
Breathe deep, and let go; then focus!
Let the paradigm shift begin!
Thanks
for joining me on this odyssey of philosophy.
“Entertain your brain!” Let us
seek inspiration that springs from the lovely Greek Muse Calliope, the
feminine muse of eloquence and epic poetry, a goddess who was regarded as
the eldest and most distinguished of the nine divine Muses.
Chapter #2 – The
Astonishing Parable of Nauru.
The true story of
the history of the island republic of Nauru provides us with a compelling
parable and valuable cautionary tale. A
careful consideration of this story illuminates dilemmas
associated with a lack of foresight and the shortcomings of short-term oriented
planning in human affairs.
The Republic of Nauru is a small
oval-shaped island in Micronesia that lies northeast of Australia and New
Guinea in the South Pacific, just 26 miles south of the equator. It is the smallest island nation in the
world, and the smallest independent republic.
The island of
Nauru once had rich resources of phosphates.
These mineral deposits were mined for about 100 years for use as
fertilizers, because phosphate is one of the three primary nutrients that
plants require for growth. Nauru’s
non-renewable phosphate resources have now basically been completely depleted,
and more than three-quarters of the island has been turned into a barren
wasteland with a jagged central plateau that is like a moonscape of deep pits
and tall remnant rock pillars. Most of the
extracted phosphate was exported to Australia to enrich agricultural soils
there.
When Nauru gained
independence from Australia in 1968, the native inhabitants began to receive most
of the financial benefits of phosphate mining for the first time. They became relatively rich virtually
overnight, and gained one of the world's highest per capita incomes. A kind of generous welfare state was
implemented soon thereafter.
The government of
Nauru took much of the income from phosphate sales and invested it in secretive
trust funds. Some of the investments
went awry and failed, and others suffered heavy losses due to bad investing and
financial mismanagement and corruption.
Nauru today has a stunning unemployment rate near 90%, and its outlook
for the future is dreary due to the republic’s dwindling assets, its few
sources of income, and the environmental devastation of its home island.
Nauru’s history
provides a compelling and illustrative, but decidedly non-illustrious example
of the colossal folly of dominant forces of greedy shortsightedness in human
endeavors. This story makes us viscerally
aware of the reasons we should soon begin a radical redesign of our own
economic and political systems. One of
my pet theories is that the most effective and freedom-honoring way to
undertake a revolutionary modification of our aggregate habits is through the
effective use of intelligently targeted incentives and disincentives.
Nauru’s experience sends a potent message
to business leaders and politicians in America:
we should not be so closely mimicking the policies that Nauru followed. We should NOT be so aggressively exploiting
and depleting non-renewable resources.
We should not be consuming unsustainably, causing excessive environmental
degradation or investing unwisely and allowing corruption in government and
business. We should reject shortsighted
leadership, have the discipline to create fair and affordable entitlements, and
prevent the wealthiest 1% from imposing harsh austerity measures on everyone.
All the nations
of the world are acting in similarly ill-advised manners, but on a far grander
scale, a global one. The example of Nauru serves as a “canary-in-a-coal-mine”
warning to all nations that we should be acting in less myopically exploitive
and impetuously improvident ways. The
resources that we are currently depleting on Earth are not limited to oil,
natural gas, coal, and fresh water. Many
minerals are also being depleted to critical extents worldwide, and one of the
most essential for food production is phosphorous. Yes, the very same resource that has been
basically exhausted in Nauru!
The depletion of
phosphorus is not an isolated incident;
it is part of “the gravest natural resource shortage you’ve never hear
of.” Supplies of this critical component
in fertilizers are being used wastefully worldwide, and this could lead to
severe food shortages. The availability
of mined phosphorus, which plays so crucial a role in plant growth, could peak
in the next 30 years. This would
naturally lead to falling yields of crops on cultivated lands. Within 50 years, the severity of this crisis
could result in big increases in food prices, and possibly large-scale famines
and related extremes of social and political turmoil.
Some say that the
peak of phosphorous production in the world has already taken place. It seems like it should be imperative that we
begin to recycle this indispensable macronutrient, and that we start to reclaim
it to decrease the need for mined phosphorous to fertilize crops.
The century of exploitative
mining on Nauru harmed the native people's culture and traditional way of life,
and it also took a curious physical toll on the islanders themselves. The people of Nauru have been forced to
import nearly all of their food because of the island’s lack of soil,
vegetation and crops. As a result of
eating processed fatty foods like potato chips and canned meats, and of
drinking alcohol, there has been an increase in high blood pressure, diabetes
and obesity. These problems have reduced
the average life expectancy of islanders to only 64 years. This compares to 85 years in Japan, on
average, and 80 years in the U.S. (ranking us, oddly, 36th in the world.)
It is interesting
to note that the source of phosphates in Nauru’s 8-square mile landmass is not
fossiliferous sediments uplifted from the seafloor, as with most phosphate
deposits that are being mined in the world today. Nauru’s phosphate consisted, instead, of a
deep accumulation of decayed bird guano.
Yow, Mc Now! -- This cautionary ecological tale has a messy poetic
irony, indeed!
Another fascinating aspect of Nauru is its
early history. Seafaring Polynesian and
Micronesian explorers first settled on the island in small clans. They believed in a spirit land, Buitani,
which was also an island. They believed
in a female divinity named Eijebong, and they traced their family descent on
the female side. The rest of the world
would arguably be much better off to believe in a female divinity, and to fervently
and protectively worship her -- like Gaia (Mother Earth), for example! And females in families should be shown
greater respect than they currently are in our patriarchal societies. Honestly!
Stories, myths, legends, and ‘holy book’ tales
are provocative because they invoke our imagination and feelings, and touch us
in universal ways. They evoke human
needs and timeless themes that are a part of the collective human
inheritance. They often contain valuable
lessons, or “morals to the story”, just as folk tales or wisdom tales do. In the mythology of ancient Greece, Athena
was the Goddess of Wisdom. She was known
for thinking clearly and monitoring events and noting effects and changing a
course of action when it became unproductive.
Athena’s wisdom counsels us to use our wits resourcefully and to act
perceptively to save ourselves, much like Hansel and Gretel did in the fairy
tale that tells of children having been abandoned in the forest.
We need not act
like tortured souls to be able to give careful consideration to the lessons of
Nauru and other prudent understandings.
Optimism and hope are valuable traits, so readers are encouraged to
maintain positive perspectives and attitudes of Olympian detachment while they
read these words.
“A
healthy and wholesome cheerfulness is not necessarily impossible to any
occupation.”
---
Mark Twain
Another tale with an urgent and sobering
message for our times is found in the story of Easter Island in remote southeastern Polynesia. Monumental iconic stone statues carved from
quarried volcanic rock there reveal a story that is both provocative and
compelling. Check this story out in the Open Letter to Barack Obama in the Earth
Manifesto for illuminating details.
Remember: perspective literally
means clear seeing! We would be well-advised to strive to see
more clearly!
Auspicious Live
Earth concerts took place on 7/7/07, and a great Concert for Sandy
Relief was held on 12/12/12 that featured an amazing lineup. These events gave humanity hope and belief
that artists and musicians and activists among us can help launch a spirit of
collaboration and renewal that will yield positive efforts to find better ways
of getting along, and of respecting others, and of improving our societies, and
of better managing crucial resources, and of healing the ecosystems of our home
planet.
“Rebel
against something, because everything ain’t right!”
--- A message seen on o green T-shirt at a
Blues concert
Chapter #3 – The
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Humans’
Basic Needs Destroying Planet Rapidly
--- A March 2005 headline in a national newspaper
This sobering piece of news was astonishingly not on
the front page of the newspaper; in
fact, it was buried more than a dozen pages back in the front section.
Such critically important information was ostensibly deemed, remarkably enough,
to be unworthy of more prominent coverage.
The headline concerned a study called the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment. More than a thousand experts in 95 countries had
spent four years compiling its findings. This makes the report one of the
most extensively researched understandings in the history of humankind. The Assessment concluded that the human race
is unsustainably consuming natural resources and significantly degrading the
ecosystems upon which we depend. It warned that we essentially need to
develop new methods of economic activity, so that in the course of living our lives
we will simultaneously better protect the vitality of our environment and the
future prospects of life on Earth.
These findings profoundly concern each and every one
of us. Yet the news barely made a splash. It seems to have
practically disappeared from the radar of public attention like a skipping
stone sinking in the riffles of a river.
“The first rule of intelligent tinkering,” noted
Aldo Leopold in the Sand County Almanac,
“is to save all the parts.” Save all the
parts! One way to do this in the grand
scope of human affairs would be to develop a better
appreciation of synergistic relationships between the health of natural
ecosystems and the well-being of human societies -- and to respectfully plan
and act accordingly.
Either ecologists “are wrong about the
human need for other species and for the well-being of Planet Earth as a
life-support system; or our species is
intent on suicide; or there is something
we are overlooking. Our life-endangering
and habitat-destroying ways are like “a kind of failure in some fundamental
dimension of human existence, an irrationality beyond mistakenness, a kind of
madness.”
--- Deep ecologist Paul Shepard
The Earth’s biological support systems consist of a
vast network of interdependent life forms that live in a variety of habitats,
ranges and ecological niches. We rely on this biodiversity and these
natural ecosystems for our well-being and survival. In particular, we
depend on the bounty of fertile soils, forests, oceans, wetlands, rivers and
aquifers for our food, nutrients, fresh water, building materials, flood
protection, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe. As the Nature
Conservancy succinctly notes, “Human well-being is derived directly from the
health of natural systems.”
According
to Genesis 1:26 in the Bible, God
said: “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Who the heck was ‘He’ talking to? Gaea, Cronos, the Titans and the Olympians,
perhaps?)
About
two thousand years have elapsed since Biblical times, and we seem to have
gained little more respect for all the ‘creeping things’. But it is preposterous to suppose that God
would be in favor of our striving for ‘dominion’ without demonstrating a more
responsible stewardship of wildlife and resources, and without a more profound caring
for the ecological underpinnings of our well-being. Buddha, Brahma, Jesus and Mohammed would
almost certainly agree, if they were around to pass judgment today on this
transcendent issue. Instead of waiting
for God to get really angry with us again and bring on another globally
devastating Flood like ‘He’ is said to have done in the Genesis story, I
suggest many ways in this manifesto that we should be taking bold actions to
help ourselves and to improve the prospects of our descendents.
The
overarching guidance of a Bill of Rights for Future Generations would be a very
smart start. One primary way to help
ourselves and improve the prospects of people in the future would be by moving toward sustainable uses of resources. This course of action necessarily involves a
revolutionary shift from the profligate use of non-renewable resources to a
reliance on renewable resources. Such a transformation
would help assure that we will leave a more auspicious legacy to our
descendents. It is shortsighted for us
to wastefully consume resources, and to inexorably deplete them, just as it is
foolish to intentionally or inadvertently damage Earth’s vital natural
ecosystems.
It is only because of our myopic perspective and the
short-term orientation of our economic systems that we can continue to
aggressively clear-cut forests, overfish seas, pollute the commons, and
incessantly encourage unsustainable development. We cannot afford any longer to resist
adaptive change, and we shouldn’t allow the status quo to remain the way it
is. We should reject ideological denials
of the fact that it is folly to continuously degrade fertile farmlands, damage
rivers, destroy wetlands, slaughter wildlife, poison waterways, harm habitats,
spew record amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and assault
Earth’s biological diversity by contributing to the extinction of numerous
species of life.
It is particularly crazy to continue emitting
climate-disrupting greenhouse gases into the skies without bold cooperative
international efforts to make deep and decisive cuts in the quantity of emissions. The British government’s Stern Review (named
after former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern) provided a turning
point in understandings in 2006. It was
asserted in the report that there will be substantial economic costs for doing
nothing about the things that contribute to climate change. The report’s conclusion stated that the benefits of strong, early action on climate
change outweigh the costs by a considerable margin. Billionaire
industrialists are spending heavily to sow doubt about this crucial
understanding, but deceptive propaganda is not full-fledged truth.
Widespread
adversities are being caused by global warming, and much more extensive and
costly harm is predicted to occur in the future. These facts are starkly outlined in reports done
by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. more stories like this
With
strikingly blunt language, the 4th report of the IPCC in November 2007
described climate change as “the defining challenge of our age”. It called on the United States and China, the
world’s biggest emitters, to play a more constructive role in reducing
emissions. The report reads like "a final warning to humanity," noted Time Magazine. The Panel chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri
declared: "What we do in the next
two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment." NOW is the time to act!
More
than seven years have passed since the IPCC sounded this clarion call, and yet
governments worldwide are continuing to dither on this issue. It is becoming crystal clear that we are not
dealing with these challenges in appropriate ways. People are continuing to figuratively bury
their heads in the sand by using rationalizations, denials, obstruction or
proposals for mere baby steps of remedial action. Voluntary efforts at emissions reductions,
however, are not enough. We must ‘Step It Up’ to
truly mitigate climate disruptions being caused by a warming atmosphere. It is time for us to act to prevent
potentially abrupt and irreversible climate change. Otherwise, risky feedback loops will increase,
and this will likely have very negative consequences. These issues are discussed below in The Gaia Understanding (Chapter #22).
The sound of the
disintegration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is providing a scary and audible
backdrop for these words, as scientists realize that the melting of this ice
sheet has “reached a point of no return”.
We should take such understandings into account when policies are
formulated. We can no longer allow
governments and big businesses to suppress valid scientific understandings of
on-going developments related to climate disruptions and overpopulation
pressures. Effective responses to
gathering threats are unconscionably delayed by such self-serving deceptions. These risks will get worse until we give them
our alert attention, and until we devote committed action to mitigating the
severity of the effects of resource depletion and anthropogenic climate
disruption.
The ideas of the Skeptical
Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg that are summarized in the film Cool It should be taken into account and
thoroughly analyzed in global efforts to intelligently and practically
prioritize world problems and determine how we should make bold investments in
greener solutions..
Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a
virtue.
--- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s
Dictionary
Chapter #4 – Overarching
Themes.
One theme of this
manuscript is that more comprehensive Big Picture perspectives could lead to
more responsible collective actions. To
prevent the perceptible ecological degradation of our wonderful home planet, we
need to find good ways to reduce the insider influence of short-term thinking,
greed, overly ruthless competition, mismanagement, excessive alarmism,
ignorance and hubris.
One of the best ways to change our
country for the better would be to shift the focus of our political
representatives from tactics that win elections to solutions that benefit
society. Citizens should demand that all decision-makers
begin to establish fairer priorities, and to heed more enlightened
understandings of important issues. We
need to make our policies and institutions fairer, more
ecologically sound, and longer-term oriented.
There is nothing high-fallutin’ about it!
Unfortunately, the
entrenched influence of vested interests dominates our societies. Congress and the Executive Branch of the
government are essentially owned, operated and directed by wealthy people and
giant corporations in our “political duopoly” system. The primary aim of the federal government has
become to advance the interests of large corporations and vested interests, NOT
to promote the general good or to ensure greater fairness, and it is certainly
not to maximize people’s civil liberties or to protect people from abuses of
power by wealthy people or big corporations.
Charles Ferguson, the
director of the compelling 2010 documentary film Inside Job that concerned the financial crisis, made this
characterization of our system of government as a political duopoly. The few
are effectively dictating policies, and corporations are tools used to further
concentrate wealth and power, and banks and Wall Street are abusers of power
and influence peddling.
One fortunate aspect of
the necessity for us to make our societies greener is that businesses can often
“do well by doing good”, especially in areas such as efficient uses of water,
energy and materials in green building construction. But the business-as-usual status quo is
primarily concerned with short-term profits and myopic understandings of
self-interest, so it strives to keep economic and political systems the way
they are, or to change them in retrogressive ways. In doing so, entrenched interest groups
impede progress and oppose common-good reforms.
They also strive to prevent changes that would be beneficial to the
majority of people -- and to posterity.
These interests lobby successfully for the privatization of profits and
the socialization of costs and risks, and always for more corporate perks,
privileges and subsidies. And they favor
the bottom-line short-term interests of big businesses over the best interests
of the people.
Disciples of Milton Friedman
and his Chicago school of economics champion privatization as if it is the
panacea for all social ills. But it
turns out that privatization can create severe problems. Rather than advancing positive and salubrious
goals like lower costs, greater efficiency, better management and social
improvements, the outcome of privatization is often a spike in unfair cronyism,
costly no-bid contracting, excessive fees, price gouging, cost-externalizing
gambits, increased fraud, inadequate monitoring and less accountability. The privatization of government functions and
the elimination of sensible banking regulations create big opportunities for
corporations to swindle taxpayers. These
are not good things!
The outsourcing of
government activities to corporations has more-or-less doubled in the last
decade in the United States. The outcome
of this development has generally been detrimental, in distinct contrast to
ideological arguments to the contrary.
Just consider how the contracting of war services turned out in
Iraq. Exorbitant costs resulted, along
with a disastrous failure to achieve optimistic reconstruction goals. Billions of dollars disappeared without a
trace, and there was much deception and misinformation. Accountability was distinctly lacking, Iraqi
civilians were murdered, women were raped by U.S. military contractors, widespread
social upheaval took place, sectarian strife spiked, millions of people became
refugees from violent conflicts, and many injustices were perpetrated by our
occupation forces.
One way that corporate
interests gain advantages is by foisting costs of their detrimental social and
environmental impacts upon society as a whole. Corporations should not be allowed to indulge
in this corrupt expediency of externalizing costs onto society, and these costs
should be required to be included in product prices. These costs include living
wages, adequate worker protections and benefits, the prevention and mitigation
of pollution, the clean-up of toxic wastes, and a well-designed system of carbon
emissions green fees that would be effective in reducing the amount of
climate-change-causing greenhouse gases being spewed into the atmosphere.
Here is a valuable
insight: every one of us partially
favors the externalizing of costs onto society.
We do this through our demands as consumers for good deals and cheap
prices, and through our expectations as owners and investors for maximum
profits. These twin influences make
consumer and investor goals paramount in our economy. Our economic and political systems weaken our
focus on contrasting priorities that
we all want in our roles as good citizens. These good citizen goals include secure
communities, greater social fairness, better quality public education, an
adequate social safety net, reasonable health care for all, democratic
safeguards, environmental justice, healthy ecosystems, clean air and water, and
public lands and open spaces that are protected from undesirable development, unwise
exploitation and unnecessary damages. It
is becoming obvious that we need to establish a better balance between consumer
and investor goals and vital good citizen goals. The greater-good nature of these goals is
being given short shrift by our political representatives.
The
fairest way to adjudicate between competing interests is to have fair
institutions and fair laws that are fairly applied with the purpose of securing
the best interests of the common good over the long term. Entrenched interests, however, strive
stubbornly to gain greater power and make bigger profits and expand their
privileges. Consequently, they obstruct
efforts to make reasonable national commitments to good citizen goals. Unfortunately, these interests control our
political processes and pervert our national priorities. Instead of advancing true justice, human
rights, smart planning and the prospects for healthier societies, the interest
groups that dominate our society promote laissez-faire economic policies and
stimulated increases in inequality, along with deregulation, more highly leveraged
risk-taking, exploitive profiteering, privatization, and the movement of
operations overseas to countries with cheaper labor and fewer environmental
regulations. And instead of advancing
peaceful coexistence, vested interest groups often favor aggression in
international interventions and reinforcing advantages in our sprawling
American economic empire.
Many interest groups
strive to gain the support of social conservatives and those who evangelize for
orthodox and doctrinaire concepts of God, generally in order to help them
achieve narrowly self-serving goals.
This manipulation of religious people is critically dysfunctional. The outcome of such strategies is generally
unfair to the majority of the world’s people, and it even threatens the
well-being of all life on Earth.
Revolutionary change must come!
How can we transcend preconceptions, fixed beliefs
and misunderstandings? What is the true
nature of reality? How do we really fit
into the world? What impacts on the
natural world do our activities actually have? How can we lead honorable and
meaningful lives in ways that help improve our communities and protect our
beautiful home planet and guarantee a better legacy for future generations to
come? Can we find ways of living that
give greater respect to the well-being of other forms of life on Earth?
Our thinking and philosophizing is important because
future generations depend on the legacy we leave. More than 12 years have passed since the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and I feel compelled to express the
following point of view: “War is not
peace, Camerado!” George Orwell and Walt
Whitman would surely have agreed, as would billions of others. If we want a peaceful and sustainable world,
then we need greater social justice and fairer foreign policies and effective
strategies to emasculate extremism. We
do NOT need bigger disparities of wealth in the world or more ruthless
aggressiveness in warfare.
To achieve wholesomeness and peace and stability in
the world, we should strive to be better friends and neighbors. We should make a transcendental commitment to
reducing inequities and preventing wars and avoiding military occupations of
other countries. And the United States should
use its superpower status more judiciously.
Mark
Twain called war “a wanton waste of projectiles.” Intrinsic in the sardonic and irreverent wit
of this observation is the recognition that war is terribly wasteful. It can also be indiscriminately violent to civilians
caught in collateral damage circumstances.
Civilian casualties in our aerial bombings of places like Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan serve to turn more people into enemies. This invites blowback retaliation and erodes
the moral rectitude of our cause, as well as our true national security. Such methods are crude, and essentially make
our Air Force the police, judge, jury and executioner all in one broad
stroke. War lacks fairness, moderation,
mutual respect and sanity. More of my
views on this topic, and of Mark Twain’s, are contained in Reflections on War -- and Peace! Check it out!
War is the ultimate expression of competition. But we cannot allow competition to become a
rogue’s economic free-for-all dominated by brute force, manipulative marketing,
unscrupulous profiteering, and prerogatives for capital and investors that unduly
harm workers or the environment. We
cannot allow unbridled competition to take place without accountability or
effective oversight. We should sensibly
control monopolies and corporate conglomerates, and limit predatory banking
practices. We should work to prevent
supremacist ideologies from empowering an ‘anything-goes-to-get-what-you-want’
morality or an ‘any-means-is-justified’ approach to accomplishing narrow ends.
To create a less dangerous world, competition should
be made fairer by regulating it more wisely.
We should also eliminate absurd provisions in bureaucratic red tape, and
simultaneously ensure that the rules of our economic and political systems are
fairer. These rules should be designed
to ensure that our societies more propitiously protect the common good. If we develop and implement enlightened
initiatives and farsighted incentives, and support radically broad-minded new
ideas, the aggregate choices people make will be channeled into healthier
directions that are more likely to be sustainable. New commitments should be made to responsibly address wrong-headedness in government and
business planning, and to mitigate conflicts and prevent unjust wars.
“An inglorious peace is better than a
dishonorable war.”
--- Mark Twain
A more expansive concept
of peace should be formulated. It’s not nearly
enough to consider peace as merely the absence of war. Peace, in more enlightened terms, is a state
in which there is a presence of social justice and respectful goodwill. In even larger terms, peace has a meaning
similar to the one that it has in the Great Lakes region of Africa, where the
word for peace is kindoki, meaning a harmonious balance between human beings and
the rest of the natural world. Peace!
Chapter #5 – Profound
Perspective.
We live in an extraordinary time in history.
The combination of capitalism, democracy, industrial agriculture, free
enterprise, abundant quantities of fossil fuels, and technological innovations
in mining and medicine and communications have allowed humanity to feed more
than 7 billion people, and to create enormous wealth. We have built increasingly complex
civilizations, and dramatically improved literacy, sanitation and public health. Life spans have been significantly lengthened
and the material quality of life has gotten better for the majority of
people. Political freedom has been provided to more people than ever
before. Hooray for humanity for these
accomplishments! Yay for us!
The range of human needs and desires has also been
substantially enlarged, along with an overly heavy focus on consumer
materialism. It is one facet of human
nature that when resources are freely or too cheaply available, we tend to lack
a proper appreciation of them.
We do not need to look far to see that many of these
great accomplishments have come at a high [rice -- and one that is largely
yet-to-be realized. Every living system on Earth is in decline. We
have used more natural resources in the last 100 years than in all of previous
human history. The planet’s rainforests are being rapidly destroyed, and
more than 95% of old-growth forests in the continental United States have been
logged at some point. Ocean fisheries are being depleted wastefully and
unsustainably. Wetlands, grasslands, and
coral reefs are being damaged worldwide. Vast areas of wildlife habitat
are being altered. Billions of tons of fertile topsoil are lost each year
across the planet. More than 20 billion gallons of fresh water from
aquifers are being used in excess of the amount replenished annually by
rainfall.
In addition, we have burned 50% of all known
reserves of oil, and our demand for this non-renewable resource is increasing
wantonly. The volume of plastics pollution and electronic wastes is
growing rapidly. Billions of tons of greenhouse gases are being spewed
into the atmosphere each year, and this is contributing to ominous changes in
weather patterns around the globe. More
than 400 nuclear power plants in 25 countries around the world are generating
both high-level and low-level nuclear wastes that will be radioactive for
thousands of years, and very few good long-range solutions to the problem of
storing them safely have been implemented anywhere.
We are essentially living rashly, and “high on the
hog”. We are profligately wasting
resources and recklessly damaging and upsetting the healthy balance of
nature. We are engaging in unwise development schemes and causing
practically irreversible ecological damages.
These conditions are staggeringly unwise. As a result of these and accompanying trends,
the number of political, economic, environmental and war refugees in the world
will increase dramatically in this century, as is happening now in places like
Africa and the Middle East.
It is virtually certain that these trends will get
worse unless we address the compulsive drive to achieve growth in consumption,
and unless we simultaneously find better ways to reduce strong political and
religious opposition to any means other than ineffectual sexual abstinence of
limiting the rapid growth in the number of human beings on the planet. Our sanest endeavor would be to find
comprehensive ways to address the issues that are contributing to our
unthinking embrace of risky outcomes and increasing vulnerabilities.
The
bottom-line goal of democratic capitalism is to create jobs and wealth by
encouraging economic activity and stimulating economic growth. This goal is being pursued no matter how
foolish the actual impacts of this growth may be. One driving reason for this state of affairs
is that stagnant economic conditions crimp profits and disappoint the
influential wealthy. On the other hand, high
rates of unemployment cause dissatisfaction among workers, and this contributes
to social unrest and heightens political risk for incumbent politicians.
A
small number of powerful people pull the strings behind the scenes in societies
worldwide. They help ensure that many economic
stimulus mechanisms are used to prime
the pumps of growth. These mechanisms
include tax-cutting, deficit financing, and a variety of subsidies and tax
breaks that are given to businesses and investors. Indulgences in pork barrel spending by various
government entities often make matters worse. Great sums of money are expended
on the military and government bureaucracy and federal bailouts, and a strong
impetus is given to the depreciation of the dollar by allowing the Federal
Reserve to print trillions of dollars in new money. Powerful incentives are created for people to
profit through speculation in equities and housing and commercial real estate,
and the demand for products is hyped through seductive advertising and sly
sales tactics. Meanwhile, wrong-headed
public policies encourage suburban sprawl and population growth.
An enlightened perspective of these stimulus
mechanisms is needed to provide the motivation for us to change policies, and
to improve long-term planning, and to invest more wisely. Courageous actions are needed to restore
natural ecosystems instead of focusing on activities that squander and deplete
resources. It
is the antithesis of true conservatism for our leaders to support policies that
endlessly stimulate consumption and create economic bubbles and facilitate
population growth. ‘What would Jesus
buy?’ Read on!
Chapter #6 –
Macroeconomics and the Value of Incentives.
There are essentially two ideas of
macro-economics. One is that we should
strive to maximize consumption and wealth creation in order to generate a
prosperity that will allow us to mitigate the harmfulness of our activities. The other idea is that we should place
emphasis on harmonizing our activities with the foundations of our prosperity
by acting to ensure the health of natural systems. The latter idea posits that by nurturing and
protecting and restoring the soundness of natural ecosystems, a longer-term and
more general prosperity will come about that may be sustainable long into the
future.
Effective market mechanisms exist that could help us
to solve many of the daunting challenges facing us. But we lack the will and courage to change
policies and establish smart new incentives that dare disappoint the current
beneficiaries of existing policies.
It seems indisputable that we should reform
government regulations to eliminate foolish subsidies and cumbersome and costly
bureaucratic red tape. In their place,
smart and socially beneficial incentives should be enacted that are sustainable
by design. The principal way we should
distinguish whether regulations and incentives are good or bad, smart or
foolish, is to make an objective analyses of their impacts on the common good,
and of reasonable probabilities that the long-term consequences are favorable
for the greatest number of people over the longest period of time.
The
authors of the 1972 book The Limits to
Growth cautioned readers about the potential for “overshoot” in resource
consumption. Now, 42 years later, the
indicators are significantly clearer. We
are living in unsustainable ways. Limits
are beginning to affect us that will pose serious risks to people in future
generations. But we are failing to
sensibly adjust to limiting factors and changing social, financial, and
environmental realities. Stop in the
name of love! We must not figuratively
pave paradise just to put up a whole bunch of spiffy new parking lots and
shopping malls and factory outlets. Let
us recognize what we’ve got before it is gone -- and work together to protect
it! Let’s work together, and organize
better for the common good!
“It
was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was
the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going
direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good
or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
--- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Chapter #7 – A Vast and
Rash Uncontrolled Experiment.
“Let us
cease thinking only of ourselves and reasoning only in the short term. Let us assure for
the children to come the same rights that
have been declared for their parents.”
---
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
In
times of trouble we need someone to speak cogent words of wisdom to us, with
honesty and clarity. Rachael
Carson did this when she wrote the impactful book Silent Spring in 1962, stirring a great awakening of public
environmental consciousness. Her writing
taught the world about the basic lack of responsibility that industrialized
society demonstrates toward the natural world, and particularly about the
dangers of wanton usages of chemical pesticides like DDT.
The worldwide impacts of human activities
have never been as all-encompassing as they are today. The course upon which humanity is embarked
has many parallels in history, but at the same time it is unprecedented in
global scope. Technological and
demographic changes are affecting societies and the natural world with a broad
scope, and with accelerating speed.
We are all inextricably involved in a rash
uncontrolled experiment in (1) industrialization, (2) urbanization, (3)
stimulated consumerism, (4) profligate resource use, (5) rapid population
growth, (6) large-scale monoculture agriculture, (7) economic globalization,
(8) excessively high levels of deficit spending, (9) asset speculation, (10)
financial deregulation, (11) status-seeking behaviors, (12) inegalitarian
social policies, (13) divisive political strategies, (14) militarism, (15)
extensive habitat modification, and (16) the generation of a myriad of
pollutants, toxins, wastes and greenhouse gas emissions into the
atmosphere. Almost every species of life
on Earth is affected by this complex concatenation of activities. No one knows exactly what the outcome and
consequences of this risky experiment will eventually be.
One of our worst predicaments is that our
cumulative activities in this experiment are causing unintended consequences
that are likely to prove to be highly negative.
We are committing all species of life to impacts caused by our
collective activities that are radically unwise. We are doing this instead of acting in ways
that are precautionary, ethical, truly conservative or benign. In Chapter #38 of this Comprehensive Global Perspective, the Bet Situation is examined to clarify the real nature of some of the
choices we are making, and incisive insights are provided about fourteen of the
most significant and foolish gambles that these choices entail.
Who has the most control over this
experiment? There is no doubt about it: rich people and our business and political
leaders have outsized and determinative influence. Yet many of these leaders have the hubris to
pretend that they are certain that most of the doctrines driving these
risky behaviors are right, best, necessary and socially good, even in the face
of mounting evidence that this is certainly not the case. Their actions are narrowly partisan and
short-term oriented, and often contrary to the greater good. Deep and extensive conflicts-of-interest
abound, and the result is that our national decision-making and public policies
lack propriety and wisdom. It is often only
an illusion that our leaders in government have a foremost concern for citizens. Spike Lee makes this clear in his 2006 HBO
documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A
Requiem for New Orleans in Four Acts”.
Oddly and paradoxically, “conservatives” are
the ones who, instead of advising that we proceed with caution, clamor for us
to go along, headlong and wholeheartedly, with imprudent extremes in this experiment. It is one of the more supreme ironies in the
history of human thought that conservatives are among the most stubborn deniers
of scientific understandings about environmental risks, and that they are often
prominent and reactionary voices opposed to sensible precautionary actions that
would protect the economy from systemic risks -- and the environment from
destructive exploitation. This is stunning and pathetic!
Dr. Pachauri of the United Nations’ IPCC
encouraged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Bush White House to
cease their “unprecedented obstructionism” of initiatives that would address
the anthropogenic causes of global warming.
He said they should come to the table to help solve looming problems
related to greenhouse gas emissions.
While some progress has been achieved under the Obama Administration, we
need to come together to more effectively deal with this issue, and vested
interest groups should stop their stubborn obstruction.
Gordon Brown, the British Prime
Minister in December 2007, indicated that nations who met in Bali that month for
13th Session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference should agree on
binding emissions caps for all developed countries. Brown said, "I know this means facing up
to hard choices and taking tough decisions.
That means governing, not gimmickry."
Politics is too often about gimmicks rather
than real solutions. This perspective
was confirmed when a record-late California state budget was passed in
2008. At the time, a preposterous
gimmick was proposed to borrow money from lottery profits in future years to
reduce near-term budget shortfalls.
Smarter ideas and more fair-minded plans need to be enacted, along with
more sensible solutions to national and global problems. Americans should demand wiser and more honest
leadership.
When Barack Obama was first elected in
November 2008, many Americans sincerely hoped and believed that he would be
able to lead us in far more intelligent directions than the ones in which we
have been proceeding for so long. But the
forces of inertia are proving to be very powerful and the status quo is hard to
change, so our political system is beginning to appear to be almost incapable
of adequately addressing the problems we face.
Radically different visions and policy prescriptions by conservative and
liberal partisans have led to a paralysis of action in Congress.
Times have gotten significantly more
complex since Thomas Malthus, an English political economist and demographer
(1766 – 1834), proposed a “Principle of Population”, which held that humanity
faces eventual disaster unless population growth is somehow better controlled. Doubters still debate whether the contentions
of Malthus are valid, even though there are now 7 times as many people on Earth
as when Malthus was around, and the negative impacts of our growing numbers are
becoming more and more apparent. It is
becoming ever clearer that we need to begin adopting sensible Precautionary
Principles, as discussed in detail in Chapter #14, rather than continuing to endorse
policies that ignore gathering threats.
R. Buckminster Fuller once said, “Nature is
trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.” We should cultivate a profound understanding
of Albert Einstein’s meaning when he said: “The release of atom power has changed
everything except our way of thinking.”
In a starkly similar manner, our rash experiment is creating a heavy
burden on planetary ecosystems that threatens to overwhelm them, yet we
continue to obtusely march down the same path of thinking and acting that has
gotten us into these current predicaments.
The stakes are enormous. We risk not only the quality of life for
every child and for all people in future generations, but ultimately even the
very survival of our species. When we
see that we are collectively contributing to irreversible climate change,
serious environmental damages, widespread extinctions of other species of life,
societal instability and intransigent conflicts, we should also see that new
ways of thinking and acting are needed to reduce these risks. Albert Einstein was surely correct when he
observed, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used
when we created them.”
To better manage our economic, social and
environmental challenges, we should cultivate new ways of thinking, and behave
and act with more broad-minded intention.
Strong resistance generally arises in opposition to ‘paradigm shifts’,
but when we are able to understand these challenges in bigger-picture
perspectives, the opportunities accelerate for achieving important progress and
propitious change. Among the many things
that we should unflinchingly reform are socially irresponsible aspects of
unbridled capitalism and unfair imbalances in globalization. National policies that create speculative
bubbles should be scrupulously evaluated to preemptively prevent the need for
costly bailouts. We should invest in
measures designed to gain independence from fossil fuels. We should make bold commitments to avoiding
hawkish nationalism and imperial aggression.
Sensible and open-minded attitudes should be adopted toward women’s
reproductive rights and family planning policies and contraception and abortion. And our electoral system that obeys Big Money
over all other influences should be reformed.
Carved in stone at the Temple of Apollo at
Delphi in ancient Greece were two wise maxims: “Know Thyself”; and “Nothing in Excess”. In ancient times, Delphi was considered the
center of the known world, the place where heaven and earth meet. This was the place on earth where mankind was
supposed to be closest to the gods.
Delphi was the center of worship for the god Apollo, a divine son of
Zeus who embodied the virtues of moral discipline and spiritual clarity. A trip to Delphi was, for many centuries, a
spiritual experience that offered hope of enlightening revelation.
Know
Thyself. Nothing in Excess. These are not just primitive or irrelevant
clichés. The goddesses and gods of
ancient Greek mythology personified archetypes in human character and behavior. They also contained deep truths underlying
the cultural expressions represented by these mythological conceptions. Compare
these precepts to the oracles of today, where relentless competition and
pervasive advertising have etched in our minds, and practically wired into our
bodies, entirely different messages:
“Buy More!”; “Go Shopping!”; “Supersize Me!”; “Be Cool”; and “Get Yours Now!”
Many influences urge us to consume
mindlessly, to use wastefully, to borrow heavily, to act in self-centered ways,
and to abandon the virtues of moderation and self-discipline. It is no wonder that so many Americans have
become physically obese and intellectually unmindful. Let us strive to achieve a better understanding
of ourselves, and to embrace a modicum of moderation -- for our communities,
our planet, and ourselves!
“The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new
landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
--- Marcel Proust
When we strive to achieve the clarity of greater awareness and
honest realization, we will be better able to shift our understandings, and to resist
the potent power of opportunistic exploitation and manipulative persuasion and
misguided ambitions. “Don’t believe
everything you think!”
Bertrand
Russell gives us pause for thought when he opines:
“The fundamental cause of trouble in the
world today is that the stupid are cock-sure, while the
intelligent are full of doubt.” Whoa! -- Woe is us!
Chapter #8 – A
Transformation Is A-Comin’.
Planet Earth speeds through space, traveling more
than 65,000 miles per hour in its annual orbit around the Sun. The moon seemingly stoically and magically
revolves around us, affecting the ocean tides and evocatively changing moods,
its reflected sunlight bearing silent witness to the evolving saga of life on
Earth.
Humanity is collectively faced with a critically
serious choice: either we can make intelligent and courageous choices to
transform our activities into ones that are more fiscally secure, ecologically
sound, and mutually safe -- or we can foolishly choose to stick with
business-as-usual activities until devastating crises arise that force
wrenching changes upon us. There is a
natural propensity for us to wait until a crisis arises before taking remedial
steps to make course corrections. A
crisis provides a clarion call that urges us to begin to act more wisely and
responsibly.
The cranial capacities of our brains have tripled
in size from that of our ancestors a few million years ago. We have evolved big brains, and it is a good
time for us to start using them to plan ahead more intelligently. Since the need is so substantial for us to
find better ways of protecting the well-being of our societies and life on
Earth, we should work overtime to overcome the enormous momentum and ponderous
inertia of forces that dominate our decision-making.
A series of crises may be required before we really
begin to seriously seek good solutions to the big challenges we face, but it
seems foolish to procrastinate, because the gathering crises will result in
severe resource scarcities and disruptions in economic activities and even a
possible collapse in natural ecosystems.
These outcomes would likely be accompanied by intense strife, chaotic
social change, faltering institutions, environmental dislocations and harsh
conflicts. As Henry Kissinger once said, “The absence of alternatives
clears the mind marvelously.”
Why do we continue to figuratively back
ourselves into a corner by waiting until few good alternatives remain? Let’s act now! Unfortunately, “disaster capitalism” is
hyper-ready to take advantage of collective insecurities and vulnerabilities
during times of crisis. Since
extraordinary opportunities arise to exploit emergencies and catastrophes for
big profits, such adversities become more probable. This is not paranoiac speculation or conspiracy
theory; it is lucid historical
perspective and human nature and the predictable outcome of cause and effect!
Wars,
economic recessions, military coups, natural disasters and terrorist attacks
produce big opportunities that facilitate things like the imposition of
austerity policies, privatization initiatives, costly bailouts, radical
reconstruction, the oppression of workers, hard-times swindles, more extreme
economic inequities, and repressive rule.
During such crises, corporations
and governments often capitalize on such moments to advance “shock treatment”
therapies.
Milton Friedman’s economic doctrines were among the
first to advocate such shocks in order to achieve radical change. Friedman went to Chile to advance his
theories after the government of democratically-elected Salvador Allende was
overthrown in a right-wing coup by General Pinochet on September 11, 1973. The CIA infamously played a role in this
coup.
Naomi Klein, in The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster
Capitalism, cautions us that we need to recognize what is
happening, and why it is happening. She
regards this understanding as necessary to protect ourselves against tyrannical
abuses of power by right-wing governments and amoral profit-prepossessed
corporations. This book is valuable for
sparking dialogue about the curious underlying instigations of periods of
financial instability, military coups, wars and other dastardly acts that
provoke disequilibrium. An expanded
awareness of the causes of such turmoil could help prevent it.
Economic fundamentals severely deteriorated
between 2007 and 2010 because of the bursting of the housing bubble and related
mortgage and subprime loan problems and financial shenanigans. This economic instability harmed billions of
people. Abuses and risks in financial
markets became similar to those that characterized the late 1920s, just before
the Great Depression, according to testimony by journalist Robert Kuttner to the
House Financial Services Committee in October 2007.
Financial safeguards enacted during the
long Depression of the 1930s have been dismantled in the guise of promoting
benefits of free markets. Predatory
lending practices and speculative investments have been enabled by this
reduction in regulations and oversight.
Serious vulnerabilities and volatility in our system have been made
worse by enormous public debt and huge trade deficits. Risks were increased by
excessive leveraging, inadequately-collateralized speculative securities,
insider conflicts of interest, a lack of transparency, misrepresentations,
engineered asset bubbles, and deep fears on the part of investors. Government bailouts of banks have been
extremely costly, and they arguably have only delayed a fair reckoning and set
up more intractable economic disruptions in the future.
Chapter #9 – Crisis as
Dangerous Opportunity.
The Dalai Lama is a perceptive, broadminded, wise,
and eminently decent Buddhist spiritual thinker. He once said: “In order to accomplish
important goals, we need an appreciation of the sense of urgency.” Cool
-- think about this! The Dalai Lama is
one of the most philosophically calm people on Earth, and yet in the spiritual
tranquility of his equanimity, he communicates the fact that it would behoove
us to give clearer consideration to cautionary ideas -- and to boldly heed
them!
Great challenges present ‘dangerous
opportunities’. This is the literal
meaning of the two Chinese symbols that represent the word for ‘crisis’.
Danger and opportunities arise in the wake of a crisis, creating a state of
flux that can precipitate a re-ordering of our world. Such a restructuring can turn out to be
favorable to the common good, or it can prove to be detrimental. It would be distinctly advantageous for us to
develop more accurate understandings so that we make smarter and fairer choices
that would create healthier communities and better prospects for a safer future.
It is my conviction that radically
compelling ideas, intelligently conceived and forcefully conveyed, could make
on-going transformations positive ones, both locally and globally. There is a prodigious need for such positive
change because the consequences of sticking with the social and economic status
quo are too risky. We need to herald the
advent of new ideas that will help us courageously solve the challenges facing
us and ensure that our societies will become more sustainable. People should join together to demand
non-partisan vision, broader coalitions, fairer initiatives, and management
that is much more competent and honest.
Our leaders should be held accountable for a dedication to the general
welfare, not just to serving the narrow goals of special interest groups.
Since forces of opportunism are always ready to take
advantage of adversities to alter the world to their own narrow benefit,
vigilance is required to head off these impulses. Sweeping positive change could reduce the
dysfunction that is being created by our current misguided tax, subsidy and
energy policies. Heck, we could even
choose to reduce suburban sprawl and bad air quality, and act to mitigate
injustices and social conflicts. New policies and better management would
contribute to solving these problems.
Hope, optimism and confidence can help us
create wiser plans of action. It is
beneficial for the psychological well-being of individuals to be proactive, and
to believe that positive outcomes can be achieved through our right-minded
actions. It benefits the common good
when people get involved in grassroots efforts to achieve better ends for our
communities and countries.
An upbeat movement driven by “blessed
unrest” evocatively conjures up an image of a healthy and dynamic
transformation inspired by passionate resolve and caring consideration and
popular involvement. Paul Hawken’s
intelligence and vision, as expressed in his book Blessed Unrest, gives us hope that changes are underway that will
galvanize humanity into sensible actions to improve the prospects of people
today and in the future.
I recommend that readers watch the video of
Amory Lovins’ rousing and hope-inspiring speech, “Imagine the World …”, which he gave at the 25-year anniversary
celebration of his Rocky Mountain Institute (Google it!). Or check out the ideas contained in the
website of the independent nonprofit entrepreneurial Rocky Mountain Institute,
at www.rmi.org.
Global problems can be solved, but they should
be addressed with determination and boldness.
And we should take steps to cope effectively with them sometime
SOON. It is distinctly unwise to
complacently continue to emulate Emperor Nero by figuratively fiddling while
Rome burns. A cogent clarity of
understanding and a committed concern for the larger contexts of human flourishing
would help ensure that our undertakings are sustainable, and that a better
quality of life is maintainable.
The challenges facing us can seem so
daunting that they paralyze us and inhibit us from taking remedial
actions. Feelings of despair,
inconsequentiality and eco-anxiety can be counterproductive and act against
effective responses. Our leaders already
often overly exploit public fears for profit and power and selfish advantage,
and they have practically created a growth industry in alarmism. The relative dangers of terrorist threats,
for instance, have been so exaggerated that Americans have been effectively
terrorized, giving us all a "false sense of insecurity". Our brains get all riled up when subjected to
fear, and this engenders a behavioral psychiatrist’s smorgasbord of glandular
secretions like adrenalin and cortisol, which can have startling affects on our
behaviors. Dorothy Parker would have
expressed her wonder with her catch phrase, “What fresh hell is this?”
British
child development psychologist John Bowlby developed a well-regarded scientific
theory that concerned “childhood attachment” behaviors. He wrote:
“All of us, from the cradle to the grave, are
happiest when life offers us a series of excursions, long or short, from a
secure base.” I believe! We all seek personal, financial and emotional security, and
by extension national security; but what
we really desire most deeply is a personal sense of safety that allows us to
relate more confidently, to relax, to accept ourselves, to make adventurous
excursions, to take thrilling risks, to experience ooh-la-la titillating
allure, or to open ourselves up to our own unique forms of creative
self-expression.
It
would be a noble plan to create an orderly and safer civil society with an open
structure. This would assure choices to
all individuals on how to live their lives more in accordance with their own
individual propensities, predilections and profound positive inner
motivations. When leaders exploit fears
and intimidate citizens through Big Brother-like authoritarian control ploys,
and when they enact policies that contribute to a more pronounced economic
insecurity for the vast majority of people, they cause perverse injustices and
deplorably detrimental social dysfunction.
Forcing people into sheep-like submission to inegalitarian social
policies is anathema to freedom-loving human beings.
Many established religions also use the
strategy of playing on people’s fears.
They do this to gain faithful adherents and to exert control over people
for specific ends, both noble and ignoble.
They encourage people to fear death and fire-and-brimstone ‘Hell’ and
calamitous ‘End Times’. Fear can anesthetize
us into feeling hopeless or futile, and it can render us less capable of
undertaking needed courses of action. It
can also divert our attention from more important values and make us retreat
into more constricted pursuits that characterize basic survival, escapism, or
faith in the wrong things.
Universal voices
speak eloquently and insistently of ecological sanity and social
intelligence. They communicate to us of
the urgent need for transformation. Carl
Sagan was a scientist, educator and humanist who spoke with such a voice. He dedicated his life to building a positive
and integrated worldview capable of providing guidance to human beings in the
coming decades and centuries. He
believed that this was necessary because our ancient inherited mythologies are
becoming less useful, and more detrimental, as they become outmoded in the face
of changing times. As more accurate
understandings evolve, we should
recognize new truths, even if they are economically or politically
inconvenient, and even if they are heretical to orthodox worldviews. We are, after all, in a
very profound sense all in this existence together -- interconnected and
interdependent!
Chapter #10 – The Embrace
of New Ideas.
The American poet Walt Whitman once wrote these
evocative words:
“Sail forth --- Steer for the deep water only,
Reckless O
Soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
For we are
bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship,
ourselves, and all.”
Adopting the brave spirit of this poem, let’s
explore some illuminating ideas. “There is nothing more powerful than an
idea whose time has come,” wrote the great French poet, novelist and polymath
Victor Hugo.
In the past century, ideologies like communism,
fascism, neoconservatism, and laissez-faire capitalism have had far-reaching
impacts on humanity. But these ideologies have failed us in many ways,
and for many reasons. We should now be open to the ascendance of new ideas
that could be able to deliver a more salubrious destiny for the human race.
The fundamental economic doctrine in the past 100
years has been that GROWTH is desirable, no matter what the cost. This
worldwide obsession with growth was reasonable and practicable as long as there
were plenty of available lands, vast forests, seemingly limitless stocks of
fish and unlimited amounts of fresh water and unpolluted air, and an
undiminished cornucopia of natural resources. Today, however, ecological
buffer zones like frontiers, wild lands, rainforests and wetlands are rapidly
disappearing, and places to dump wastes are limited by ‘not-in-my-backyard’
impulses, and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is
increasing ominously, along with inauspicious extremes of weather events. Even the acidity of the oceans is increasing
due to the absorption by ocean water of the large amounts of carbon dioxide we
are spewing into the atmosphere. These daunting developments are making it
increasingly important that we redesign our economies so that they honor values
that are more wholesome and less destructive than the values expressed in
unbridled competition, greedy selfishness and materialistic consumerism.
Beneficial new approaches should be adopted to deal
squarely with the rapid and accelerating changes that are taking place in the
world. This transformation of our behaviors, institutions and systems
should be focused on two factors:
(1) Doing the right things, which is to say, doing things that
benefit the greatest number of people over the longest period of time, while
causing the least amount of harm; and,
(2) Doing things right, which is to say doing things reasonably,
efficiently, effectively and sensibly, and with greater respect for the biotic
health of the natural world.
Governments should not allow businesses to pursue
the single-minded purpose of making short-term profits without taking into
account social and environmental costs of their activities. The longer we delay in boldly tackling the
dilemmas this presents, the more difficult it will be for us to successfully
cope with these challenges.
There is indeed a
meritocracy of ideas, and it is time for us to truly seek the best ones. We have an increasing need for common sense,
saner ideas, clearer analyses, honest-to-goodness truth, and an improved
understanding of consequentialist ethics.
Broadmindedness, greater fairness, and more intelligently-designed
public policies would help us create healthier societies. National policies are exceedingly ill-advised
when they cause increasing numbers of people to be poorer and more desperate.
For a democracy
to work well, citizens need to be educated and well-informed so that they are
able to responsibly take part in the democratic process. This is why we need improved and broadened
public education, independent media, and transparency in government. We need
popular enlightenment!
To achieve better outcomes, plans that are
more proactive are required. Shrewd
rationalizations for “staying the course” are not acceptable. Politicians should be forced to give social
well-being a much higher priority than they give to corporate prerogatives,
greedy opportunism, doctrinal partisanship, or aggressive militarism. Instead of championing fairer ideas, however,
our leaders often serve up specious arguments, deceptive propaganda, misleading
justifications, and reassuring words that are formulated to perpetuate the
privileges of those in power. In this
regard, our
society is sadly lacking in fairness, honesty and “the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth, so help me God”.
The best interests of the people, and the
greatest benefits for the common good, are completely different from the
dominant characteristics of the entrenched status quo. In summary, our societies today are
distinctly and undesirably oriented toward:
(1) Allowing corporations to make the
biggest possible profits by socializing many costs;
(2) Giving rich people the most extensive
benefits that they can possibly get;
(3) Stimulating the economy through the
hyper-consumption of goods and resources;
(4) Relentlessly pursuing activities that
are unsustainable;
(4) Promulgating public policies that are
unfair and shortsighted;
(6) Eagerly using military and CIA
interventionism abroad; and,
(7) Accepting an obsequious attitude of
government officials toward the authoritarian right-wing segments of
society. (This was particularly true
under the George W. Bush Administration.)
Our industrial
mode of consciousness causes us to feel a disconnection from Mother
Nature. Our success in
exploiting, modifying and controlling nature has been quite extraordinary, but
our hubris in thinking that we can continue to dominate nature without
respecting our best knowledge of its natural workings is becoming increasingly
foolish, absurd, and dangerous. The
value of giving better protections to natural habitats, ecosystems and biological
diversity should no longer be so foolishly ignored. D’oh!
We
are effectively daring nature to assault us by continuing to indulge in such
unwise activities as building in floodplains, forcing rivers into artificial
channels, destroying wetlands, contributing to the devastation of coral reefs,
clear-cutting forests, and pouring billions of tons of greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere every year. It’s as if we think we can impose our
dominion over nature by working against it, rather than recognizing the
necessity of working with it. A rapid “greening” of our perspective
regarding these activities is urgent.
Let us boldly act to make a difference, and not merely continue to emulate
Don Quixote tilting at windmills in hapless misapprehension.
Hermes, the Messenger God in Greek
mythology, was the god of travelers and seafarers, a seeker of meaning, and the
guide of souls. O Soul! He was regarded as a god of persuasive
communication who had a great love of freedom, an agile mind, and good skills
in creative expression and innovation.
He was thought to bring intuitive insight and luck, so it is appropriate
here to invoke Hermes in our quest for understanding. Let us see clearly, and act responsibly! (Hermes was also the proverbial trickster ---
but, Oh well, a good boy and a bad boy no doubt inhabits every man.)
Chapter #11 – The
Sustainability Revolution.
Deep in our consciences we know that we need to find
better ways of protecting the environment and natural ecosystems. Such understandings are at the core of an
incipient sustainability movement, and of the insights of deep ecologists. Let’s respect them! Sustainability
should become a national security priority.
This Sustainability Revolution should be endorsed
and encouraged. We should strive to
collectively become much more responsible in the stewardship of natural
resources. We can no longer pretend that environmental concerns are a
luxury, because in truth a healthy
environment is a fundamental basis for the economic health and well-being of
our societies.
How can we help facilitate
this sustainability movement? How can we
inspire people to give far-sighted protections to our supporting
environment? Well, it just so happens
that many great ideas and strategic initiatives exist that would help contribute
to the greater good. Such ideas are
explored throughout these writings in such salvos as One Dozen Big Initiatives
to Positively Transform Our Societies.
Eating all the seeds of future crops is a course of
action that only the most desperate person would consider. There are many “win-win” situations for
people and the planet, but policies that foster wins for rich people and big
corporations, while the majority of people become losers, are not
acceptable. Neither are short-term
“wins” for human beings that are achieved at a calamitous cost to the
environment and biological diversity.
To be able to sustain human existence is, of course,
an inadequate goal in itself. Beyond the
goal of mere survival, we should choose to create societies that do not degrade
the ecosystems upon which we depend. It
would be far more sensible to actually help RESTORE natural areas to a healthy
vitality. Heal, not harm!
The concept of our ecological footprint is
important. Imagine a continuum that runs
from the neediest of the poor to the greediest and most extravagant of the
rich. Every one of us falls somewhere on
this continuum, and each and every person eats, drinks, and creates wastes
every day. We make decisions every day
on what to consume, where to go, and what to do. These activities all contribute to the
aggregate impacts that our activities are having on planet Earth. Some individuals have exceedingly heavy
footprints, and some have much smaller ones -- but all contribute to the total. Thus, all of us are a part of the unsustainable
international economy.
Each of us should feel a sense of obligation to help
ensure that we collectively forge a path to the future that can be followed
indefinitely. Using this as the
principal criterion for guidance in all of our national decision-making, new
national policies should be created and implemented that are forward-thinking
and flexible. Compromise is needed to
satisfy legitimate concerns of opposing viewpoints -- without compromising the
essential and more encompassing wisdom of the most auspicious actions.
Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party
have serious shortcomings in our political duopoly system, as do the three
primary social institutions that dominate our decision-making: corporations, government entities, and religious
establishments. Our economic and
political systems should be reformed in order to achieve a sustainable
future. The needed Sustainability
Revolution requires that we begin to place a much higher priority on ecological
values. As Wallace Stegner once
wrote:
“I believe that eventually, perhaps within a generation or two, they will
work out some sort of compromise between what must be done to earn a living,
and what must be done to restore health to the earth, air and water.”
The time is NOW to embrace new commitments to
accomplish this goal! Perhaps
it is time that we consider a new concept:
a Lifetime Ecological Footprint Total (LEFT). Imagine an omniscient super-computer that could
keep track of all the resources that each person consumes during his or her
entire lifetime, together with every iota of waste that is produced. That’s what LEFT is.
I can think of no greater moral imperative
than that we should take what’s LEFT into account in all our society’s planning
decisions. In other words, we should
always take sensible precautionary measures to ensure that we leave a fair
legacy to our descendents. “Our
prosperity as a nation will mean little if we leave a world of polluted air,
toxic waste, and vanished forests to future generations.” This fine rhetoric is contained in a letter
dated June 11, 2001 that was sent to me by the White House. The letter was signed by George W. Bush, and
was sent in response to concerns that I had voiced about damages to the
environment. These words were deeply ironic
in light of the President’s antagonistic actions toward environmental concerns
during his eight years in office!
Soon enough, yea, all too soon for most
people, each and every one of us will be dead and gone, every molecule of us
dispersed to its next indeterminate destiny in eternity. Any ascent through St. Peter’s pearly gates
of judgment will face a more sophisticated Lord, not one obsessed with other
gods, idols or graven images, or jealousy, or glory, or keeping the holy
Sabbath day or other commandments; nay,
it is my belief that we shall be judged by more relevant and important
criteria, ones like the Golden Rule, responsible citizenship, reasonably
nurturing parenthood, and ‘brotherly love’, and our personal contributions to
social justice and planetary protections.
And by our role in contributing to peace among nations. To me, these propositions sound much more
appropriate for a modern day Holy Book!
A
memorial dedication plaque placed in a grove of towering Sequoia sempervirens
redwood trees, the tallest living things, observes:
Remove Nothing from the Forest
Except Nourishment for the Soul
Consolation
for the Heart
And
Inspiration for the Mind
Wouldn’t it be something if we began to
treat all of the remaining rapidly dwindling old-growth forests with greater
respect?!
Within every country on Earth, people “game” the
system, both legally and illegally, to gain more advantages. Powerful developed countries abuse their
power to obtain natural resources, cheap labor, and access to markets
abroad. They are able to do this in
economically imperialistic ways because of a lack of fair and enforceable
international laws, multinational institutions, and effective constraints.
Future well-being is being negatively
affected by our current wrong-headed priorities, so the need is growing for us
to find ways to achieve beneficial outcomes by changing the rules and
regulations that govern our actions. One
of my core ideas is that the best way to accomplish this would be by creating smart
incentives and disincentives that are clearly focused on the greater good.
People’s behaviors are powerfully motivated
by rewards and recognition.
Knowing this, it would be advantageous to restructure our economy in
such a way that individual motivations are made consistent with
ecologically-sound outcomes. Such a
restructuring should involve full-cost pricing, so that all costs incurred in
the production of products are included in their prices. These real costs include pollution and toxic
waste prevention and cleanup, provisions for worker healthcare, and a
contribution to a Climate Change Impact Fund to offset the harmful effects of
greenhouse gas emissions. This plan
would automatically contribute to helping solve many problems related to working
people and environmental conditions.
Unfortunately,
the majority of our representatives have been opposed to any deviations from
the status quo of special corporate prerogatives and the subservience of
workers’ needs to the greed of shareholders and investors. Our political leaders engage in
dominance-oriented politics, extreme partisanship, aggressive militarism, and
pork barrel spending instead of fairer undertakings, and they have resisted
progressive reforms for too long.
Politicians seem to prefer to stay the course or give ever-bigger perks
to their supporters, who are primarily rich and powerful people. Counterproductive agendas have been advanced
that are contrary to the common good because such policies benefit the narrow
constituencies that provide most campaign contributions to elected officials to
help them get elected and stay in office.
This political duopoly system is seriously
flawed. “Clean Money” campaigns are a
positive and potentially effective way to reduce the dangerously unfair and
damaging influence of Big Money on American domestic and foreign policies. Chapter #49 provides compelling perspective
on how Clean Money electoral reform could dramatically help improve
decision-making and focus politicians on efforts to make our societies truly
fairer, safer and saner. Also, campaign
finance reform should be instituted now that Supreme Court conservatives are
making rulings that corrupt our democracy by letting special interest groups
contribute unlimited funds, in secrecy, to politicians.
Some say that our industrial culture will NOT
voluntarily stop damaging the natural world.
They say that poor people will continue to be exploited, and indigenous
cultures decimated, and the natural world damaged. They even speculate that those who resist or
dissent will continue to be mocked, disenfranchised, put in prison, or even
killed. But I am hopeful. There is still time and potential for us to
save ourselves by making positive changes to our economic, political and
judicial systems.
Chapter #12 – Redefining
Progress.
Optimum public planning requires that smarter
choices be made that are based on the best possible understandings. The
QUALITY of economic growth, for instance, should be given a higher priority
than the rate of growth. Economic indicators help express our social
values and drive public policy agendas, so they not only measure our
performance, but they also influentially help shape it. The insights of the discipline of ecological
economics need to be better cultivated, as articulated in Existence, Economics and Ecological
Intelligence.
Our established measure of economic activity is
represented by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This measure is misleading because it reflects economic activity as if
increased spending is positive even when it occurs for undesirable things like
medical cost inflation, bigger government bureaucracy, and larger expenditures
for things like wars, military waste, fraudulent Homeland Security projects,
pollution clean-up, costly efforts to fight a “war on drugs”, locking more
people up in prisons, and disaster recovery and reconstruction.
In the early stages of the latest economic recession,
former French President Nicolas Sarkozy moved to begin a ‘statistical
revolution’ to end the political dominance of GDP as a measure of economic
health. Sarkozy, a right-of-center
politician, asked two left-of-center Nobel-laureate economists, Joseph Stiglitz
and Amartya Sen, to lead a commission witha goal of more accurately measuring
economic performance and social progress.
According to the report: “The
time is ripe for our measurement system to shift emphasis from measuring
economic production to measuring people’s well-being.”
Progress should be redefined by utilizing more
auspicious measures. For instance, a
Genuine Progress Indicator would be a much better gauge for the actual health
of economic activities and truer elements of the quality of life. These measures would take into account
factors like the health of communities, general well-being, greater fairness,
fulfilling work, authentic relationships, and respect for the natural
world. This change in focus would allow
us to see a truer picture of our economies, and to accordingly improve our
priorities and modify the negative aspects of our activities. This redefining of progress would give
recognition to deeper insights like those elaborated at the website
RedefiningProgress.org.
What would it look like if we courageously
and proactively CHOSE to reduce our growth to a more sustainable level? Think how salubrious it would be if we were
able to embrace understandings of growth that acknowledge the importance of
Genuine Progress measures rather than merely adding up all the
business-as-usual activities that are measured by GDP. I also believe that it is incumbent upon us
to consider the issue of overpopulation as an overarching concern, because of
its far-reaching environmental impacts.
It seems to me to be a good idea to encourage responsible parenthood and
make safe contraception widely available and strongly encouraged.
Good arguments can be made that government
methods of measuring things like inflation are seriously distorted. Judging from people’s common experience with
increasing prices for necessities like food, medical insurance, and rent or
home ownership, and in the face of low official inflation statistics, such
contentions have credence and merit much better analysis.
The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has the
extraordinary idea of measuring well-being by using comprehensive indicators of
“Gross National Happiness”. Bhutan’s Prime
Minister Lyonpo Jigmi Y Thinley once elaborated with this observation: “The
four pillars of Gross National Happiness are the promotion of equitable and
sustainable socioeconomic development, the preservation and promotion of
cultural values, the conservation of the natural environmental commons, and the
establishment of good governance. Kudos
to these ideas!
Imagine
if the American people were able to commit themselves to more enlightened ideas
like these! Instead of hyping up
consumption, stoking economic growth no matter how counterproductive it may be,
stimulating the depletion of natural resources, and driving up the national
debt, we could once again become the beacon of sanity and hope to the rest of the
world. We could strive to attain a more
broad-minded approach to domestic and foreign policies, and we could pass sensible
laws that would better protect the environment.
Good governance would be a refreshing and positive change from today’s
partisan and corrupt political landscape with its serious shortfall of
ecological sanity, fiscal soundness, cooperation in problem-solving, civility
in national discourse, truth-telling, social responsibility, discipline,
fairness, accountability and oversight.
Entrepreneurship has been put on a pedestal
as the pinnacle of success in our society, and surely small businesses drive a
significant amount of job creation in the U.S.
But sometimes, large corporations quash entrepreneurial spirit, and too
often there is an excess of underhanded opportunism, dishonest profiteering,
the deceiving of consumers, and efforts to milk the public treasury or
relentlessly exploit workers or cheat people or damage the commons in a manner
that is tragic for the general welfare.
Can’t we find good ways to do something affirmative about these
undesirable things?
Margaret Mead’s thought-provoking observation should
guide us: “Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
The compelling cultural phenomenon of storytelling
is being conveyed effectively today by means of the compelling imagery and
content of documentary films. This
medium is helping provide people with an intimate portrait of various issues in
our societies as they are coming into being.
Such films can positively impact the depth of our understanding. Check out more of them! (A partial list is contained in Recommended
Reading for a Broader Understanding and Appreciation of the World). And join
me in actively supporting positive change NOW, because the need for gentler,
fairer and more responsible undertakings is urgent!
Chapter #13 – Intelligent
Redesign.
When
in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to assume individual
and collective responsibility for the future of their societies, it becomes
self-evident that a powerful conversation must take place around the world that
will result in our collectively choosing to alter the institutions that
perpetuate shortsightedness in human affairs.
I love the idea articulated by the brilliantly
sensible businessman and author Paul Hawken, who wrote in The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, “We must
design a system … where doing good is like falling off a log, where the
natural, everyday acts of work and life accumulate into a better world as a
matter of course, not a matter of conscious altruism.” Think about this
great yet revolutionarily simple idea!
Our economies and political systems should be redesigned
with the goal of having the aggregate daily choices of all people on Earth
result in RESTORATIVE impacts on nature’s ecosystems rather than destructive
ones. Bold incentives and disincentives that are consistent with freedoms
to choose personal courses of action are the fairest way to achieve these
goals. Fair-minded assessments of the
greater good should be the barometer of what policies should be enacted.
Earth from Above is a book of beautiful photographic images. Every library should obtain this great volume
because it also contains a profoundly insightful narrative of heartfelt and
philosophic ideas. Written by Yann
Arthus-Bertrand, the book makes this vital observation about our home planet:
“Ecologists understand the processes that support life on earth: the
fundamental role of photosynthesis, the concept of sustainable yield, the role
of nutrient cycles, the hydrological cycle, the sensitive role of climate, and
the intricate relationship between the plant and animal kingdoms. They know that
the earth’s ecosystems supply services as well as goods, and that the former
are often more valuable than the latter.”
Several years after publishing Earth from Above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand produced an extraordinary
film titled Home. This 90-minute film is a “must-see” for its
beautiful aerial images alone! Check it
out online on YouTube. A compellingly
haunting narrative voiced by Glenn Close accompanies these images. Once we viscerally understand the overarching
importance of the ecological ideas expressed in the film, we will see that it
is our duty to give greater protections to natural ecosystems. These ideas are simply common sense. Of
course we must protect our children, and the world in which they will
live! Will we?
“We cannot
live for ourselves alone. Our lives are
connected by a thousand individual threads,
and along
these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as
results.”
--- Herman Melville
Chapter #14 – The Importance of the
Precautionary Principle.
It is impossible to foresee exactly what changes
will occur in the future, or how they will affect us. Big Picture perspectives and the
extrapolation of trends, however, can help us frame probable scenarios. Despite substantial uncertainties about the
nature, scope, severity and implications of problems facing us, bold actions
targeted toward transforming our societies into more versatile ones will help
us adapt to accelerating changes that are taking place.
Our best strategy would be to follow an honest and
reasonable “no regrets” approach that is focused on actions and behaviors
consistent with shared prosperity and the common good. This “no regrets” idea is the basis for the precautionary
principle, as enunciated in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development in 1992.
This principle states that “Where there are threats of serious or
irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a
reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation.”
This principle of precautionary action involves
controversy because there is a wide scope of complex uncertainties AND because
there is powerful resistance by Big Business to any initiatives that would
reduce their power, prerogatives and profits.
Multinational energy companies, as an example, are some of the biggest
and most profitable industries in the history of the world, so it is not
surprising how large their influence is in dominating our national
decision-making. The Bush/Cheney White House, in particular, was ridiculously
beholden to the selfishly myopic energy industry and vested interests that
profit from war. And so were the sketchy proposed policies of Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan’s presidential campaign.
Businesses naturally strive to minimize costs, so
they act to avoid paying for costs of pollution and environmental damages they
cause, and they seek to minimize the amount of money they must pay their
workers, or expend on socially beneficial initiatives. Consumers, in their enthusiasm and congenital
disposition to get cheap prices and good deals, as evidenced by the success of
such retailers as Costco, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, do not demand that good
citizen initiatives be given higher priority.
And investors seem to feel that the more profit, the better, damn the
consequences!
Conflicts and paradoxes abound in our policy
considerations. But the time has come
today to seek strategic alliances to overcome the unfairness and
shortsightedness of dominant forces. We
can begin to truly solve the dilemmas facing us by cooperating together and
using common sense and far-sighted intention.
We should strive to ascend above the fray and make reasonable and
intelligent judgments in every situation.
We need to establish a fairer balance between competing interests, and
give honesty, fairness, foresight and longer-term considerations greater force
in all policy decisions.
Bicycle race enthusiasts who watch the Tour de
France race can see that the winner in this intense competition is generally a
part of a committed team that cooperates together and takes advantage of
rigorous training and ‘drafting’ techniques.
The temptation may be strong to gain advantages by cheating through the
use of illegal steroids and underhanded tactics, but such tactics are risky,
unfair, and wrong. Similarly, ultimate
success in larger competitive enterprises is best achieved through savvy cooperation,
wise planning, fair adherence to the rules of the game, and far-sighted
preparation. Cheating, deceiving the
public, evading regulations, intentionally harming others, and acting illegally
are prescriptions for eventual failure and ignominy, and they are unprincipled,
to boot.
Voltaire once wrote that history consists
only of fictions that contain varying degrees of plausibility. The same can be said of interpretations of
current events. Analysis is subjective. History adds a dimension of longer-term
perspective, but historical perspective unfortunately offers generous
opportunities for spin and historical revisionism. The truth can thus be substantially
distorted.
Policy-making is generally dominated by large
private banking and corporate interests that generally oppose fair competition
and objectively honest evaluations.
These interest groups often work against sensible regulations, balanced
budgets, community and environmental protections, international justice, and
peaceable coexistence with other countries.
They tend to strive to subvert renewable resource initiatives and
undermine energy efficiency measures, and to prevent resource conservation and
suppress innovative competition. They
also often oppose affordable housing measures, safe and convenient public
transportation, and programs designed to alleviate poverty.
These dominating established interests sabotage
smart public planning, and they contribute to social and environmental
problems. Stratagems of hyped-up
consumerism and fiscal stimulus combine with human population growth to help
cause serious damages to Earth’s ecosystems.
So how can we best distinguish between what is right and
what is wrong? Sometimes our reason, and
sometimes our faith, is best equipped to determine. Click on the Refresh-Icon function of
your brain, and continue reading!
Chapter #15 – Morality
and Right Action.
Ambrose Bierce was one of the most influential
journalists of the late 19th century. He
created a satirical dictionary in which he defined politics as “a strife of
interests masquerading as a contest of principles.” Politics is rarely about noble
principles; it is often about gaining
power and privileges and making money.
There are definitely better ways to more fairly balance competing interests,
and these generally involve following fairer democratic and moral principles.
Morality
is the vital glue of society. It is
concerned with the judgment of what is “good” and “bad” in human action and
character. In its origins, morality consists of those things that are
essential to the health and preservation of a social group.
Moral right action should not merely be a function
of theological dogma, of fear, or of political ideology. Instead, moral right action should be a
function of sociology: what is right for society depends on the well-being
of the majority AND of people in future generations. What is right and
proper is what is best in the long run. It is not right to neglect the
interests of future generations by pandering principally to greedy interests
today.
Greater social justice is a moral imperative in the world
today. Thomas Piketty’s blockbuster economic treatise, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, provides a clear understanding
of the driving forces behind increasing inequality. Piketty expresses the opinion that this trend
is “terrifying”, because it portends increased insecurity of the masses, which
could lead to disastrous developments as the world gets more crowded, and as
strife and the competition for resources intensifies.
Consider again
the astonishingly shortsighted legacy we are leaving to our children,
grandchildren and great grandchildren. We are degrading the environment
by engaging in unsustainable development and allowing polluting activities and
the production of huge amounts of wastes, toxins and greenhouse gas
emissions. We are recklessly and
immoderately depleting non-renewable resources, and doing so at an accelerating
rate. We are carelessly contributing to
the extinction of many species of life and the diminishing of biological
diversity by damaging ecosystems and wildlife habitats in many places around
the world. We are making this state of affairs worse by irresponsibly
indulging in stimulative deficit spending and saddling people in the future with
enormous amounts of debt. We are allowing vested interest groups to make
our societies ever-more unfair and inegalitarian. Many politicians and religious organizations
are opposing sex education, contraception and the empowerment of women, even
though progressive initiatives such as these serve to increase responsibility
in parenthood and reduce high birth rates and rapid population growth.
We are, in
summary, ignominiously “fleecing the future” with our actions. This could
scarcely be less right! Somehow
we have created a world, 250 years after Voltaire wrote Candide, that is becoming less and less the “best of all possible
worlds”, as proclaimed by the haplessly optimistic character Dr. Pangloss. “The
tutor Pangloss taught metaphysico-theolog-cosmolonigology. He proved admirably that there is no effect
without a cause, and that this is the best of all possible worlds.” Golly!
In a delightful metaphor of healthy
perspective, Voltaire concludes Candide
with the advice that we must tend our own gardens. We would be far better off treating the
planet as a sustainable garden, or a revered open space, or even a well-managed
and productive farm, rather than a mine to exploit and abandon, or a land of
forests to be chopped down -- or a battlefield on which to viciously vanquish
various “enemies”.
Deep
down in our hearts, we all at least suspect that many of the patterns of
thought and behavior in our modern societies are shortsighted. Contemplate the perceptive understanding of
the Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “Justice is conscience -- not a
personal conscience, but the conscience of the whole of humanity.”
I feel strongly that we should establish a
socially-just “Precautionary Social Principle”.
This new principle would enshrine a fair and bipartisan concern for the
common good as one of the highest values.
Perhaps an ethical earthquake is needed to shake up our entrenched,
wasteful and inequitable priorities, and to emasculate unfair partisanship,
dogmatic doctrine, deceptive propaganda and short-term oriented
activities.
Historians Will and Ariel Durant observed in their
enlightening book The Lessons of History
that the concentration of wealth in societies occasionally reaches a critical
point where either sensible legislative redistributions of wealth are enacted
(like progressive tax reforms), or increased violence or even destructive
revolutions take place that generally destroy wealth rather than redistributing
it.
A progressive morality would be more auspicious than
either an ambitiously repressive one or a meek and yielding one. This new
overarching sense of moral rectitude would focus on larger concerns rather than
narrow self-righteousness, avarice or self-centeredness.
In Matthew
25, the Bible talks about God’s judgment of nations. It indicates that God will judge us by how we
treat the poor, the sick, the hungry, and strangers, and prisoners. While I personally doubt that there is a
Supreme Being that judges human beings, and that ‘He’ has some special and
unchanging ‘infinite justice’ criteria that ‘He’ applies in ‘His’ judgments,
any true moral judgment of leaders and societies and civilizations should take
into account considerations about how the most vulnerable members of our
society are treated.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
--- The Bible: Mark
8:36
Ambrose Bierce offers a second satirical definition of politics: “The conduct of
public affairs for private advantage.” There are many ways we could reform our
economic and political systems so that they would prevent the most egregious
private advantages that tend to harm the greater good. It would behoove us to alter public policies
so that clear duties and incentives are established for citizens to act more
reasonably and responsibly. The
protections included in the Bill of Rights should simultaneously be defended to
fairly balance these policies with laws that respect personal freedoms and
privacy rights. It may be hard for us to
change our habitual ways of doing things, but the consequences will be severe
if we fail to recognize the risks of wrong-headed, shortsighted behaviors.
“Knowledge, above all, is a responsibility for the
integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are
as
ethical creatures.”
--- The Ascent of Man, J.
Bronowski
Chapter #16 –
Three Basic Considerations.
We see that serious social, economic, political and
environmental challenges face us. This makes it important for us to
choose long-term strategies that are wise and sensible as guides for our
decision-making. Three principal objectives should be treated as
indispensable in all of our society’s public policy considerations: (1) fairness;
(2) sustainability; and (3)
peaceful coexistence.
FAIRNESS is the cornerstone of decency and
democracy. Because powerful forces of greed and special privilege are
dealing significant setbacks today to fairness doctrines in the United
States. our economic and political systems need to be redesigned to
ensure they are FAIRER. This should include fairness to people alive
today, as well as to those to be born in the future.
It seems to me that each and every person
should assent to -- yea, even demand -- a social establishment that offers
fairer opportunities to everyone, and that guarantees a basic minimum of
healthcare security to all citizens.
Everyone is, after all, ultimately in the same boat together; and we are all potentially only a moment away
from some tragic accident or catastrophic health adversity.
"Of all the forms of inequality,"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "injustice in health care is the
most shocking and inhumane." Good
fortune is a fortuitous thing for which everyone who enjoys it should give thanks,
and as a consequence, fortunate people should be willing to give a bit more to
society to ensure that others will live in fairer conditions, and on a
habitable planet.
All of our laws and institutions should incorporate
elements that emphasize goals that are, in the long run, SUSTAINABLE. We
must take longer-term considerations into account. Common sense tells us
that the ultimate moral good consists of actions that do not hurt human
well-being, prosperity and the potentials for healthy survival. It is a
moral imperative for us to leave a fairer legacy to our children, and theirs,
and theirs, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs, not just to the
fabled Seventh Generation, but indefinitely.
We should also strive to make certain that PEACEFUL
solutions are found to the growing conflicts in the world over diminishing
resources and differing ideas. We simply must find better ways to insure
that conflicts are resolved without resorting to military aggression and
war. Instead of trying to “fix the
intelligence and facts around the policy”, as the Bush Administration did in
selling the invasion of Iraq to the American people (according to the head of
British intelligence, as reported in the notorious Downing Street Memo), we
should seek consensus and be pragmatic and realistic, and adhere to principles
of just war and proportional responses.
Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the
Vietnam War, stated in the film The Fog
of War when he was 85 years old that, if we cannot persuade other nations
that share similar interests and values of the merits of proposed uses of
military power, we should not proceed unilaterally, for we are certainly far
from infallible or omniscient.
In light of these ideas about fairness,
sustainability and peaceful coexistence, the following three principles are
proposed to serve as overriding considerations in all public
policy-making. These principles should
always be taken into account in our decision-making, instead of pandering to
special privileges for the few, or short-term advantages for elite segments of
society, or the maximization of profits by big corporations and investors. These principles are:
(1) The Golden Rule Fairness Principle. This principle holds that there should be a
maximum of fairness to all people in our society. A cornerstone of decency in our democracy is
a reasonable modicum of egalitarian initiatives and fair dealings.
(2) The
Precautionary Principle of Ecological Propriety. This principle should be designed to pay
forward actions that are propitious to our heirs. To the extent that our actions cause damage
to the environment and are unsustainable, new methods should be developed to
guarantee the vitality of natural ecosystems and to protect the future
prospects of life on Earth. We cannot continue to plunder the planet
without regard for the harmful consequences of our actions.
(3) The
Nuremberg Principles of International Law.
These principles were designed in the wake of the atrocities of World
War II. They identify crimes against
peace and crimes against humanity.
Peaceful coexistence measures should include stronger international
prohibitions against military aggression by any nation. It is crucially important that the superpower
U.S. alter its foreign policies to be more responsible, more affordable, more humble,
more peaceable, and more just than they have been in recent decades.
Chapter #17 – A Big
Perspective.
Jared Diamond is a professor who wrote Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or
Succeed. In this thought-provoking book, Diamond reveals findings
made from his study of many civilizations throughout the long course of
history. He confirms that the human race must, to survive and prosper,
pay particular attention to long-term thinking, and that we should try to successfully
embrace anticipatory long-term planning. Diamond further indicates that we
must be willing to reconsider core values that once served society well when
those values are becoming outmoded and detrimental due to changing
circumstances or deteriorating environmental conditions.
Each
moment is a juncture in which we can choose to progress or to regress. We
should not cling to outmoded worldviews, or continue to persist in errors of
perspective related to essential issues.
When people promote anti-environmental dogmas or refuse to examine
larger perspectives, or deny the gathering dangers of population overshoot, they
are choosing to ignore the vital and viable course of our species’ prosperity
and survival.
Whether or not one believes that life on Earth has
evolved over many millions of years, our social evolution favors the ability of
individuals and societies to be flexible in adapting to change. The
long-term survival of our species depends on our adaptability -- NOT on our
being obstinately inflexible or clinging to rigid conservatism, customary
traditions, narrow doctrines or failing policies. Knowledge and a progressive ability to cope
successfully are the mainstream of human evolution; ignorance and denial and intractability are
not.
Orthodox
ideas tend to entrench themselves in social and political systems long past the
point that they are useful, and well into a new era where they become unacceptably costly and
harmful. As Mark Twain succinctly noted: "Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet
broke a chain or freed a human soul."
It
is a poor plan to hunker down and stick with the old, the fearful, the
short-term-oriented, the unfair, the regressive, the vested-interest-dominated,
the unsustainable, the deceptive, the bullying, the manipulative, the doctrinaire,
and the authoritarian. A better plan would
be to wisely choose the honest, the intelligent, the fair, the sustainable, the
free-thinking, the hopeful, the compassionate, and the visionary.
Fresh
ideas should be given greater sway, ones that are more consistent with greater
good goals. The late progressive Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota believed that
politics should be about much more than power, money and winning at any
cost. He stated, “Politics is about the
improvement of people’s lives. It’s about advancing the cause of peace
and justice in our country and in the world.”
Government
and religion, our main traditional institutions, are struggling to keep up with
the rapid rate of change in technology, communications, economic developments,
cultural mores, medical advances, environmental affairs, and geopolitical
realities. What we need now is a public
figure who can rise to this historic occasion and communicate the need more
honestly and effectively for fair, bold and constructive actions. People need to be inspired and unified in
this goal. By using our reason, intelligence and the guidance of
compassionate caring, we could act more wisely and plan ahead better.
When we give greater respect to nobler intuitions, truer spirituality, and a
clearer sense of our interconnectedness and interdependencies, we can gain greater
confidence in comprehensive and
progressive ideas. This would help us
overcome the obstacles we face, and perhaps diminish the influence of politicians who adhere to shortsighted doctrines,
spendthrift actions, and the staunch tenets of political domination.
“In
the twenty-first century our global society will flourish or perish according
to our ability to find common ground across the world on a set of shared
objectives, and on the practical means to achieve them. The pressures of scarce energy resources,
growing environmental stresses, a rising global population, legal and illegal
mass migration, shifting economic power, and vast inequalities of income are
too great to be left to naked market forces and untrammeled geopolitical
competition among nations.”
--- Jeffrey Sachs, Common Wealth: Economics for a Small Planet
Instead
of visionary leaders, dedicated civil servants and honorable statesmen, our
ships of state are too often influenced by people who are power hungry and
greedy, and by those who seem to be con artists and deceitful swindlers who
masquerade as upright citizens. Scheming
‘robber baron’ kingpins of industry and shills for manipulative reactionaries
and faithful sycophantic political operatives and “us-good-them-evil” religious
ideologues complicate this scenario. How
can we change this?
Chapter #18 – The Decline
and Fall of Civilizations.
Profound forces are at play in the world, forces of
cause and effect, action and reaction, progress and regress, development and
decay. Civilizations have
historically survived by dealing successfully with big challenges that
arise. Civilizations grow when they
respond appropriately to such challenges
and they enter a period of decline when they fail to cope.
Many instances in history have shown that the energies of
a small minority of passionately creative people can contribute to finding
revolutionary solutions to existential problems. These solutions re-orient entire societies in
the direction of positive adaptation to change, and enhance their abilities to
survive.
Throughout history, civilizations have been seen to
grow, climax, and decay. Studies of many civilizations reveal that
DECLINE generally occurs because of a similar combination of causes:
1. Resources
have been excessively exploited and squandered and depleted;
2. Political
corruption, bureaucracy and mismanagement have become widespread;
3. An
unfair plutocracy becomes established that is characterized by an ever-growing
disparity between the influence and fortunes of rich people and everyone else;
4. The populace grows complacent and is diverted by
materialistic indulgences, lavish forms of entertainment, sports spectacles,
and wars;
5. The military, because of a dangerous arrogance of
power, becomes bloated, overextended and involved in costly and debilitating
foreign wars;
6. The public is divided by inegalitarian domestic policies
and becomes effectively disempowered and disenfranchised, so the populace
becomes increasingly cynical and apathetic;
and,
7. There is a massive influx of people and their customs
from abroad that creates divisive tension and disruption.
Think about this. Seven characteristics of the
decay of civilization, and people in nations worldwide are channeling them all
as if they were some virtuous Holy Grail!
Especially in the United States! The
historian Arnold J. Toynbee argued
that "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."
Some
say that the rise and fall of cultures is cyclical. Even Arnold Toynbee, who did not believe in
fatalistic determinism, observed: "The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from
spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to
dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more." Nineteen civilizations are said to have
followed this pattern, each one rising and falling over a span of about 200
years.
America’s
time need not be up; but we should not
let selfishness and complacency drive us toward inaction, apathy, or
despair. History shows that as empires climax and decay, the ruling
elites become increasingly corrupt, anti-democratic and authoritarian in their
drives to maintain power. This dynamic
certainly seems to be playing out in the U.S. today as many of our wealthiest
citizens become ever more staunchly opposed to paying taxes. We should resist trends
that drive us in regressive directions, and remain vigilant against all moves
that could lead to increased domination by authoritarian leaders.
It
is not inevitable that our country will be devastated by class warfare,
corruption, religious strife, cultural clashes, the radicalization of religious
fundamentalists, despotism, or disastrous population overshoot and ecological
collapse. But the proverbial bull must
be seized by the horns, and open-minded people are needed to step forward to
valiantly help solve daunting dilemmas.
We cannot allow business leaders and politicians and right wing
conservatives and religious extremists to advance their selfish interests and
goals of empire and domination while the planet slowly orbits toward a
combustive calamity of resource depletion and heightened conflict.
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has dominated
international politics with its superpower influence. Imperial empires are generally built by using
domineering tactics of economic exploitation and coercive power and
control. In the last 100 years, the
types of government that have pursued imperialistic foreign policies have
included right-wing fascist ones, authoritarian communist ones, harsh
dictatorships and reactionary theocracies, as well as inadequately-controlled
capitalistic democracies. None of these
are desirable forms of government from the standpoint of the best interests of citizens
and humanity.
All these types of government tend to treat their
citizens with a disregard for the best interests of the people. They utilize ruthless tactics to achieve
narrow goals and to centralize power in authoritarian
structures. They encourage blind
patriotism and belligerent nationalism.
They favor state corporatism and expanded privileges for elites. They use deceptive propaganda and cultivated ‘Big
Lies’, and often promote pseudoscience, practice secrecy and use mass media to
manipulate the populace. They disdain
human rights, espouse unjust doctrines, and restrict personal freedoms. They suppress dissent and divide people
instead of trying to unite them for the common good. They neglect important domestic priorities
and stint on valued social goals. They
harshly punish crime and they intimidate and scapegoat people who oppose
them. They enact laws that oppress
workers. They manipulate the judicial
system. They often cultivate fear, prejudice and hate. They encourage role rigidity, male
domination, sexism, racism, homophobia and the pillorying of gay people. They oppose abortion and intertwine
government and religion, and repress artists and intellectuals.
D’oh!
My eyes roll; my thoughts wander. So much suffering and harm has been wreaked
on people around the globe in the pursuit of power, control, glory and
greed. Ideals of freedom, equality and
democracy are rent asunder in the process.
Authoritarian centralization of control, under either communism or
capitalism, has often been gravely detrimental to the majority of the people.
In bygone centuries, European imperialism
involved a system of economic mercantilism and colonial occupations. Naval power and strong-arm tactics were used to
establish exploitive regimes over peoples in Third World countries. England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France,
the Netherlands and Italy all built far-flung colonial empires. The injustice of colonialism eventually led
to revolutionary movements for independence in dozens of countries around the
world.
A new form of empire building has replaced
the colonial imperialism of the 16th to 20th centuries. This new kind of international abuse of power
involves economic imperialism that is more subtle and insidious. International banks, multinational
corporations and governments use a rigged international banking system and
predatory development schemes to enrich giant corporations and investors and
elite in-groups. Their goal is to
increase profits, and to exploit resources and cheap labor, no matter what the
cost to the people in developing countries.
The old forms of colonialism may seem
downright vulgar compared to these sophisticated new forms of imperialism. Free enterprise is running amok by advancing schemes
of privatization, corporate globalization, increased inequality, excessively speculative
development, various forms of institutional bribery and fraud, radical social
engineering, surges of militarism, and other forms of exploitive ‘economic
shock therapy’.
Economic inequality is one of the most
significant sources of friction in world politics. The industrial revolution has heightened
inequalities of wealth and power between developed nations and developing ones. The earliest countries to industrialize
colonized and exploited non-industrialized countries. Peripheral societies that have been left
behind basically have two strategies to break out of economic and political
dependency: (1) by means of revolutionary independence movements, or (2) by
imitating the methods of industrialization and using technological innovations
and market mechanisms such as currency controls, tariffs and other import
barriers. Opposition to the latter
methods by nations in the developed world makes intense conflicts more
likely. It is clear, however, that
fairer and more peaceable strategies are preferable to violent revolutions, so
we should make greater efforts to create fairer outcomes for people in less
developed nations.
Economic
development abroad these days generally relies on those who preach the gospel
of progress. Such people unfortunately
often ally themselves with forces of austerity, domination and repression in
order to advance the interests of investors and those in ruling classes. Powerful people almost invariably abuse their
prerogatives, and the world’s poor become ever more hapless pawns of the
rich.
One
percent of the people in the world own almost half of all wealth and
assets. Hunger, meanwhile, subversively
festers in the slums of the world, posing a serious threat to the future safety
of all. One of the primary roots of conflict
in human societies is instability that results from the systemic abuse of the
poor by economic and political elites.
Chalmers Johnson in his Nemesis trilogy provided provocative perspective concerning America
and the consequences of efforts to build an imperialistic empire. Gray Brechin writes about similar themes in
his book, Imperial San Francisco,
where he investigates the California Gold Rush and its aftermath, with a focus
on the growth of urban power, empire, ‘robber barons’, ambition and greed, and
their correlation with earthly ruin.
While
civilizations seem to pass through various stages of genesis, growth,
disintegration, breakdown and dissolution, these stages are NOT
predestined. We need not be fatalistic,
and in fact, one of the best things we could do would be to confidently and
courageously join the struggle to transform our societies into fairer and more
sustainable ones. By championing
resource conservation, recognizing limits, striving together to achieve
peaceable coexistence and making reasonable, intelligent, fair and intrepid
changes for a saner future, we would have a better chance of avoiding violent
conflicts, disintegration and chaos.
Chapter #19 –
Machiavellian Machinations and Their Shortcomings.
The father figures in our society should
begin acting in ways that are more reasonable, responsible, responsive and
humanitarian, and less authoritarian and unfair. I challenge everyone to read Al Gore’s
insightful book, The Assault on Reason,
and come to any other conclusion than that we would be much better off, if we
want a safer, fairer and more sane world, with a leadership role model similar
to Barack Obama rather than one like George W. Bush or Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan
or any of the leaders of the Tea Party.
I am personally a strong proponent of
giving greater respect and more political power to intelligent and empathetic
‘mother figures’ in our societies.
Today’s retrogressive patriarchal politicians are creating too many
problems in the world by contributing to increases in economic and environmental
injustices, inequality, ruthless competition, gender discrimination, arrogant
hubris and militarism.
An acquaintance of mine who lives in the
Big Sky Country of Montana is an old man who has been a lifelong
Republican. He aptly expressed the
feeling of many Americans during the 2008 elections when he said, “I have not
left the Republican Party, it has left me!”
What a disgrace to our country it was, and what a fiasco, for George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney to have abandoned important traditional principles of
balanced budgets, limited government, honesty, fairness, integrity, honorable
concern for the common good, multilateralism in international affairs, and the
right of Americans to protected civil liberties and privacy rights.
Another friend
of mine, a woman who had always supported the Republican Party, wrote to me
just after the 2008 elections: “I broke
with my Republican tradition and have voted Democratic. With the rest of
the world looking at us as bullies, the best I figured we could do was to
change the face of the country internationally and see if we can rejoin the cool
kids in the cafeteria rather than eating alone under the bleachers.”
Karl Rove’s obsession with power and
political victory at-any-cost typified a curious creed which holds that
unethical and anti-democratic means are justified to accomplish triumphal
ends. The best interests of the American
people are being trumped by partisan favoritism, and a “culture of corruption”
has been running rampant in Washington D.C. for many years Many initiatives that pander to rich people,
giant corporations, or male prerogatives have been advanced, while outcomes
more favorable to the common good have been undermined. Objectionable outcomes have also come about
from widespread pay discrimination against women, the denigration of gay
people, and the exploitation of religious people for unchristian purposes.
Karl Rove was ostensibly emulating Lee
Atwater, the so-called “boogeyman” of Republican politics, a man who was widely
regarded as the first modern political operative to use scandals, dirty tricks
and fear to gain power. Atwater had a
win-at-any-cost approach and he was a “slime slinger” who tried to fool black
people into thinking the Republican Party really cares about their
interests. Atwater developed a brain
tumor at age 40 and made introspective deathbed confessions of the
wrongheadedness of his actions. For
illumination, watch the documentary film Boogie
Man: The Lee Atwater Story.
In any case, many millions of people
worldwide felt a great sense of relief to see the helicopter lift off on
January 20, 2009 to take George W. Bush out of Washington D.C., and out of
power. Despite bone-chilling weather,
there was reportedly a remarkable sense of excitement and anticipation in the
air, and a growing hope that new leadership in the United States would restore
a healthier balance to our American values and our communities, our domestic
economy, our foreign policies, and planetary ecosystems.
The Bush Administration had demonstrated with
startling clarity the truth in P.J. O’Rourke’s cynical observation that
“Republicans are the party that says that government doesn’t work -- and then
gets elected and proves it.” Our great
experiment in democracy has shown that vigilant commitments to freedom and
democratic fairness principles must be coupled with a free press and strong
judicial oversight and progressive policies in order to ensure a vibrant
society that works best for the majority of people.
In November 2008, I thought, Good riddance to
Republican expectations of permanent political dominance! Curiously, discredited conservative ideas
have made a partial comeback since then, especially among the Tea Party
faithful. They have done so by using a
“hard-times swindle”, according to Thomas Frank, author of Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback
of the Right. Super PAC money and
Republican efforts to disenfranchise millions of poor people and minorities are
giving conservative politicians a level of power that their unfair ideas do not
merit.
Corrupting influences always confront
government. The struggle for fairness is
a continuous process because greed and Machiavellian obsessions with power and
control persist, and seem to forever spring anew. International competition is intensifying
over control of land, energy resources, minerals and fresh water supplies. These developments guarantee that struggles
to maintain democratic forms of government will be difficult. It is -- and will remain -- a big challenge
for our nation to preserve an adequate semblance of fairness for our own
people, and for other people around the planet.
I find it to be an ironic twist that the
political left seems to demonstrate a greater concern for the whole of society,
and for future generations, and for overall biological well-being than the
political right, whose natural traditionalism, conservatism and professed
concerns for family values might seem to be a natural platform for fairer
protections of families and the environment.
But right-wing ideologues and scheming politicians have hijacked the
integrity of social conservatives to advance policies that turn out to be damaging
to communities and the environment. They
defend inegalitarian social inequities, ignorance and the raw authoritarian
pursuit of power. They seem to be
obsessed principally with personal gain and self-aggrandizement. As the American economist John Kenneth
Galbraith once observed:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of
man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy;
that is, the search for a superior moral
justification for selfishness.”
Chapter #20 – Historical
Developments.
Human history has been profoundly affected by two
principal revolutions. The first of these was the Agricultural Revolution
that began about 10,000 years ago. Before human beings began to cultivate
crops and domesticate animals, they lived semi-nomadic lives and hunted wild
animals and gathered plants, herbs and fruits for sustenance. When crop cultivation and animal husbandry
were found to be preferable means, it allowed human beings to generate
surpluses and settle down in villages and towns that eventually grew into
cities and civilizations, and helped human numbers proliferate.
The second great change in human societies was the
Industrial Revolution. This was a
transformation that kicked into high gear just over 200 years ago with advances
in mechanical power that began with steam engines. This revolution was
facilitated by great strides in science, technology, mechanization, innovation,
mining methods, electrification, the more efficient exploitation of resources,
the utilization of fossil fuels, urban infrastructure improvements, advances in
hygiene and medicine, and the stimulus of democratic governance.
Perspective on the nature and impacts that this transformative change had on
human societies are discussed at length in later chapters of this epistle.
We are now in the incipient stages of a new and
equally far-reaching revolution that mandates that we plant the propitious
seeds of sustainable activities. The era
is ending in which we can make advances simply by more efficiently harvesting
the bounty of nature, or by wantonly depleting the cornucopia of resources so
providentially available to us.
Our human
civilization is becoming increasingly vulnerable. We are creating a house of
cards, adding bells and whistles and technological innovations, but simultaneously
letting the foundations rot and the superstructure crumble. We are creating a sea of troubles by
increasing our national debt and liabilities, encouraging speculative excesses,
and extravagantly wasting resources. We are
doing this partially because we embrace false values of materialism,
undisciplined consumerism and lavish conspicuous consumption. Our government has foolishly involved us in
wars to meddle in the affairs of other nations with the main goal of increasing
the domineering influence of our imperialistic empire and facilitating
profiteering and feeding our addiction to fossil fuels.
Economic policies worldwide need to be redesigned to
limit emissions of greenhouse gases and to reduce air pollution like that
associated with China’s rapid growth and its widespread use of coal. The smog in Chinese cities is pervasive, gray
and suffocating on an epic scale.
The
very premises of the dominant paradigms of human thought and action threaten
our future well-being. The findings of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment make it clear that we need to begin to question these premises, and
to wholeheartedly respect the basic tenets of an ecologically-sound
transformation in our economic system and our business and government
institutions.
Chapter #21 – Better
Plans for Global Security.
The
Oxford Research Group published a report in 2006 that had a stark conclusion
that sustainable security can be achieved only by addressing the root causes
of four main threats to global security:
(1) the ruthlessness and unfairness of competition over resources; (2) the trends toward global
militarization; (3) the impacts of
greenhouse gas emissions on climate change; and (4) the marginalization of the
majority of people in the world through disparities of wealth, power, and
economic inequities. The report cited as
unwise our unilateral attempt to control threats through the use of force
without honestly dealing with these root causes. Heavy-handed policies often attack only the
symptoms of problems, rather than effectively and cooperatively attempting to
resolve problems by addressing their true causes.
Dr. John Sloboda
of the Oxford Research Group wrote: “Preserving the planet for our children and
grandchildren speaks to our deepest aspirations, no matter what culture,
religion, or ideology we belong to or espouse.
The entire global political system has been fruitlessly distracted for
nearly half a decade by 9/11 and its consequences. It is not just that the United States-led
‘war on terror’ fails to address the real threats facing humanity; the very conduct of that ‘war’ is
exacerbating these threats, and bringing closer the likelihood of their
devastating impacts on human and environmental security. If these growing threats
are not halted within the next few years, the world could pass a tipping-point
which would catapult it into a period of intense and unprecedented conflict.”
We should develop a bigger-picture
understanding of the “war on terror”.
This extremely costly conflict has damaged international hopes for peace
and justice, and it is distracting us from far more vitally important domestic
and international initiatives. The
foreign policy of the U.S. has been a major contributing factor in inciting instability
and support for terrorist tactics. The
9/11 airplane hijackings and assaults on the World Trade Center and Pentagon
are just the most horrible example of retaliatory blowback. This CIA term
refers to the unintended consequences of our foreign policies and the dangers
of the resentments they engender.
The emphasis in our policies on economic
domination, ruthless covert operations, aggressive militarism and drone
bombings create strong opposition to our hard-line actions. Since terrorism is one of the few weapons
available to those who are desperately alienated, terrorist attacks become more
likely in response to our hubristic actions.
Author Chalmers Johnson actually predicted in the year 2000 that we
would suffer retaliatory payback for our policies and actions. In his book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, he basically
predicted an outcome like the 9/11 attacks.
None of the real security challenges we
face can be solved through military power;
not stateless terror, not nuclear proliferation, not failed states, not mass
desperation, not Peak Oil, not resource depletion, not global pandemics, and
not climate change. We need new approaches
in foreign policy!
Islamic extremists have been terribly
effective in spreading fear among Western nations, spiking the cycle of violence
and repression. For years, our leaders
hyped up this threat to help them exploit the opportunity to advance their
short term-oriented agendas. They eroded
protections for citizens’ rights and reduced the transparency of government
activities. While our attention was
distracted, politicians and corporate profiteers have distorted our society’s
priorities to reap enormous benefits at the expense of people and of peaceful
coexistence.
Plato philosophized that societies should be led by
their wisest members. It is contradictory to this understanding to allow
people to control our government who are ideologically rigid, shortsighted, and
narrowly selfish. Good quality public education and fairer opportunities
should be courageously supported, and grave injustices should be rejected. Repression, authoritarianism, and religious
extremism should be marginalized. Good
statesmanship, greater fairness and more far-sighted sustainable initiatives
should be championed.
We are indeed in need of new paradigms --
of ethics, of ecologically-sound initiatives, of stewardship rather than
dominion, of conservation, of moderation in consumption, and of
peace-building. We would be wise to
develop ways to increase responsible behaviors and Golden Rule fairness. We need to find better methods of cultivating
a respectful tolerance of differences.
We should demand greater honesty from our leaders. We should implement initiatives that would
ensure that we achieve a better quality of life and make voluntary simplicity
more respectable. We should encourage
family planning and responsible parenthood, and give priority to the true
quality of life. We should empower women
instead of depriving them of their personal reproductive rights. And we should not pander so slavishly to
entities focused on resource exploitation, opportunism, global racketeering,
profiteering, narrow-minded doctrines, religious ideologies, deceptive
marketing, and aggressive warfare.
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book
of wisdom.”
--- Thomas Jefferson
Philosophers are literally people who love
wisdom. The most famous early Western
philosophers were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates was enigmatic and impious, teaching
mankind to ask questions in order to elicit truths that he felt were implicit
in all rational beings. He courageously
challenged the powerful, as Jesus of Nazareth did 400 years later, by
criticizing all forms of injustice and corruption. We could benefit from deeply understanding a
belief that Socrates articulated that right insight is necessary for right
action.
Plato was one of Socrates’ pupils. He believed in lively discourse, so he
established the original school of philosophy, the Academy in Athens, to explore understandings of the true nature of
ideas. Plato’s most famous student was
Aristotle, one of history’s most original and perceptive Big Thinkers. Aristotle was a meticulous organizer of
thought and knowledge who wrote extensively on philosophy, logic, natural
science, ethics, politics and poetics.
He believed in the concept of the “Golden Mean”: a good balance between excess and
deficiency. He maintained that
moderation and balance are necessary for a harmonious and virtuous life. He rationally believed that eudemonia (human flourishing, or living
well) is the highest good. That is a
commendable perspective!
This way of seeing is valuable. Aristotle did, however, have some antiquated
and erroneous ideas and serious biases in his points of view. He believed, for example, that slavery was
just, and that women were inferior to men.
Slavery is not just. And women
are not inferior to men, and certainly should not be treated so!
The ideas espoused herein plumb philosophy, science,
economics, politics, psychology, history, morality and the nature of human
motivation, with the purpose of advancing understandings and actions by which
our societies can better flourish. By
invoking our faith, imagination, reason and creativity, we can discover insights
that will lead us to improve our economic and political systems and help us
plan for contingencies more wisely, and thus provide for a saner future.
Chapter #22 – The Gaia Understanding.
A
valuable shift in perspective can be gained by understanding the modern holistic
concept of Gaia.
Gaia
is the physical totality of the Earth and all its life forms together, intricately
interconnected and interdependent. The
entire planet and its biotic communities function together as a dynamic and
thoroughly interdependent, self-regulating organism. Gaia seems to operate with a property similar to “homeostasis”. This term homeostasis describes the process
by which the body of a living organism regulates and maintains a delicate
internal equilibrium of temperature, water content, blood alkalinity, oxygen
supply, nutritional needs and other factors essential to health and
vitality.
Gaia manifests über-mechanisms that regulate,
maintain and tend to restore a delicate equilibrium in the habitats, ranges and
ecosystems of all life forms. A good parallel
can be drawn to the social complexity of a hive of bees. No hive of bees can be fully understood in a
context of individual bees alone, since there is a complex interdependence
between the hive’s queen and its drones and workers. Similarly, the biotic community of life on
Earth cannot be truly understood without at the same time knowing about
interconnections and interrelationships between life forms and with natural
processes like photosynthesis and the hydrologic cycle of evaporation and
precipitation.
Gaia has marvelous capacities for
resilience and spontaneous healing, especially when in a healthy state. All species are essentially actors in a
co-evolutionary dance of survival that rely on mutualism for continued
existence. Gaia is balanced,
provisioning and beautiful, with oceans, rivers, wetlands, rainforests, coral
reefs, the atmosphere and millions of species of life interacting together in
miraculously wondrous ways.
Feedback loops can contribute to a healthy
equilibrium in natural systems. When
human activities disrupt such natural balance, feedback loops can also have
decidedly negative impacts and they can adversely affect the fabric of
biological existence. One example of
this can be found in activities that cause deforestation and make global warming worse,
thereby contributing to a faster melting of snow cover, glaciers and ice
sheets. Since snow and ice reflect the
sun’s heat into space, the global warming process speeds up when they disappear.
Hotter temperatures serve to increase
the number of catastrophic wildfires, and these events spew enormous amounts of
smoke and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. A collateral effect of such fires is the combustion
of living trees whose photosynthesis would otherwise remove carbon dioxide from
the air.
Global warming also tends to release more methane
into the atmosphere from peat bogs and thawing tundra. According to scientists, methane is many
times more potent than carbon dioxide in its effect on atmospheric
warming. Once we understand how feedback
loops can compound the effects of adverse changes, we gain vital perspective
that will theoretically help inform our actions and facilitate our choosing
wiser ways of ensuring our own species’ flourishing, safety and survival.
Let’s forgive ourselves, and forgive others. And let’s acknowledge that the resources of
the Earth are like our natural capital, and that it is radically unwise to
mindlessly squander them. No business
can exist for long if it continuously spends its capital resources; yet we are exploiting the resources of the
Earth with little regard for inexorable depletion. In addition to being the source of a bounty
of natural resources, our home planets ecosystems provide extremely valuable
services that are crucial to all aspects of human well-being.
Some of these ecosystems services are provided by
(1) wetlands, which mitigate flooding, purify water, and provide rich aquatic
nursery habitats; (2) forests, which
regulate stream flows, protect topsoil and river fisheries, and provide wood,
fiber and “sinks” for carbon dioxide;
(3) wild areas that provide vital sustenance to wildlife and support
biological diversity; (4) birds and bees
and various other insects that provide seed dispersal and crop
pollination; (5) natural systems that
keep pests and diseases in check; (6)
the natural symbiosis and resilience found in the diversity of ecosystems, which
helps maintain Gaia’s balance; and (7)
public lands that offer recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual values.
Scientists estimate that ecosystem services
contribute about twice as much value, in total, in the international economy
every year as the sum of the gross national products of all countries. This understanding makes it clear that we
should not mindlessly mess with Mother Nature by harming her ability to
continue providing these services!
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimated that
60% of these ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably. SIXTY PERCENT!
Human activities are both intentionally and
inadvertently altering and damaging habitats all around the world. This impoverishing of the planet is taking
place at our own distinct peril. “It is
an unnerving thought,” writes Bill Bryson in A Short History of Nearly Everything, “that we may be the living
universe’s supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.”
Paul Hawken observed in Blessed Unrest that social justice and
environmental movements might well be “humanity’s immune response to toxins
like political corruption, economic disease, and ecological degradation.” Consider the nature of our immune
systems. When an individual is
inoculated with small doses of pathogens, this exposure gives our bodies
immunity to larger-scale attacks by the same pathogens. This is practically a miracle! It is a form of inoculated ‘memory’ in the
immune system. In a similar way, we can
consider committed ecological concerns by individuals as immunological
protections of Gaia against pathological threats in the form of ecosystem
damages, habitat degradation, and other unwise forms of exploitation. We should collectively heed such concerns,
rather than allowing our representatives to expend so much effort undermining
them!
The concept of Gaia is named after the
Greek Earth goddess Gaea. It is instructive to go back to ancient Greek
mythology and ponder the genesis of its Creation story. Gaea was feminine-gendered Earth. She emerged from Chaos and gave birth to a
son, Uranus, who was the primal Greek god that personified the Sky and the
heavens. Gaea then mated with Uranus to
create, among others, the 12 first-generation Titans who were primeval nature
powers worshipped in historical Greece.
The Titans were an early ruling dynasty of powerful deities during a
Golden Age. They were the parents of
second-generation Titans like Atlas and Prometheus and the sun god Helios and
the moon goddess Selene, and they in turn were the parents and grandparents of
the Olympian gods and goddesses.
Uranus was the first patriarchal father
figure in Greek mythology. In a classic
story, Uranus grew resentful of the children he had parented with Gaea, so he
kept some of them trapped within her womb. This caused Gaea great pain, anguish and
anger. Cronus, the youngest Titan, came
to help his mother, and he did so by lopping off his father’s genitals with a
sickle and throwing them into the sea.
By such means, he became the most powerful god. He and the Titans then ruled over the
universe and gave birth to new deities that represented natural elements like
the sun, the moon, rivers, winds, and the rainbow. Others were monsters that personified evil or
dangerous entities.
Cronus mated with Rhea, one of his sister
Titans, and from their union was born the first-generation Olympians -- Zeus,
Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.
These deities ruled the sky, the sea, the underworld and the affairs of
mankind. Zeus was regarded not only as
the supreme ruler of the gods, but also as the personification of the laws of
nature.
Imagine yourself alive 2,500 years ago in the
island nation of Greece. This Creation
myth was the dominant cosmological, spiritual and religious explanation of
existence at that time in this most advanced civilization in the Western world. A rich and well-developed mythology
surrounded these deities, enveloping the Greeks in a mythical connection to
their world.
The Creation story of Uranus and Cronus has
a patriarchal slant to it, eh? Lots of
testosterone! The father’s genitals were
lopped off by his son!! It makes one
yearn for the good old days when the Great Goddess ruled humankind’s beliefs --
and when much greater appreciation was given to the health and beneficence of
the natural world. In those times, more
respect was accorded to Mother Earth, since people held a more personalized
vision of the impersonal powers of cause and effect.
The Great Goddess Mother Earth had been
revered in ancient Europe and Asia for thousands of years before barbarian
invasions led to the subjugation of these early civilizations by peoples whose
deities were dominated by male warrior gods.
These invasions fractured and suppressed the prior mother-based
religions, and then father-based theologies became dominant. Patriarchal religions not only consigned feminine
goddesses to inferior positions in the pantheon of deities, but they profoundly
affected the cultures of the peoples in which they germinated and found
expression. Women were increasingly
oppressed in those societies, and harsh laws like the eye-for-an-eye
Hammurabi’s Code gained force. The new
myths demoted the value of the female life force, with its deep connections to
fertility and birth and nature. And the
males, like modern-day born–again Texan evangelicals, made sure to relegate
females to an inferior status. In Texas,
they are going one step further and trying to mandate giving birth by strictly
limiting access to abortion and even opposing birth control measures, and the
influence of the powerful oil industry is causing rash oil-well-pumping
assaults and polluting effects on nature.
Our societies are still paying the price
for the sometimes subtle and sometimes ruthless subjugation of the divine
feminine. Our patriarchal cultures oddly
tend to stunt the basic needs of both females and males. It inhibits personal growth and the
fulfillment of our human potentials. It
compels men to repress their inner anima selves and their emotions and
vulnerabilities, and this contributes to a variety of morbid symptoms. And it represses women, and makes sure they
earn less pay for equal work, and restricts their freedoms and
prerogatives.
In larger ecological terms, domineering
masculine god conceptions facilitate the rash exploitation of Mother
Earth. We should instead give greater
appreciation and respect to our home planet by being willing to boldly protect
it with commitments that are far-reaching and loyally pursued. Protections of wildlife and habitats should
be strengthened! We need to recognize
and honor the intrinsic values of Earth’s ecosystems to us in a healthy
condition, and we should stop pretending with mindless myopia that we will be
able to continue exploiting and abusing them indefinitely, or with impunity.
I highly recommend Dr. Leonard Shlain’s
book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: the
Conflict between Word and Image for its provocative perspective on the
transition of early civilizations from Mother Goddess worship to the worship of
male Gods. Dr. Shlain makes a compelling
case for deeper causes for this rude transformation. His brilliant insights involve the
neurological workings of our brains and a physical shift to the dominance of
the left hemisphere of the brain that occurred when analytical literacy became
widespread. He asserts that there is a
strong correlation between this change and a diminishing of the status and
prerogatives of women in ancient societies, and a reduction in levels of
respect for them, and widespread restrictions on their freedoms and
rights.
A study of mythology can provide
enlightening insights. Powerful images
within us are expressed in story-telling, myths, legends, rituals and the tales
in holy books. These stories resemble
Rorschach revelations of our inner selves and the drives that affect us. We are all acted upon from within by these universal
archetypes that reside in our collective unconscious, such as those richly
embodied in the characteristics attributed to the gods and goddesses of ancient
Greece. Zeus!
At the same time that archetypes strongly
influence our behaviors, we are deeply affected by forces from without, in the
form of cultural stereotypes and expectations and acculturated biases. A better understanding of the forces that
influence us gives us the power to re-shape our lives in ways that could be
more meaningful and fulfilling. Read the
intriguing book, Goddesses in Everywoman:
A New Psychology of Women by Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, for a deeper and more
personal framework of this topic, and of important ramifications.
Myths
and belief systems help us define ourselves. They create identity and a sense of meaning
and belonging in our lives. Every
culture throughout history has had its own unique creation myth. This surely confirms the strength of human
needs for trying to explain existence and feel more secure in the belief that
we are important in the world. How could
it be otherwise that we are at the center of the universe? Could it be?
Isn’t it? Surely every child
thinks, in any case, “It’s all about me!”
Since
we seem to have a basic need for a creation myth, there could scarcely be a
more solid, fact-supported, adaptive and unifying one than the narrative
unfolding through science and understandings of deep ecology. These perspectives reveal a grand saga of an
eons-long physical evolution of the universe and our solar system, and of life
on our home planet. Within this
backdrop, science presents a magnificent conception of the genetic evolution of
all life on Earth, including every species of life in a billions-of-years-long
epic of continuous change along a multifaceted branching of the tree of life. Check
out Revelations of a Modern Prophet
for a more elaborate explanation.
It
would be salubrious for us all if a reconciling balance could be established
between masculine and feminine cosmologies, theologies, worldviews and
politics. By yielding some of the drive
to dominate, the masculine divine could allow the vital feminine divine and its
corollary positive attributes to gain healthier influence in our lives. Women could be empowered and given fairer
treatment and greater equality of opportunity.
Our societies could even commit to a universal healthcare system that
includes medical care for women without sexist double standards or purity
pledges, or meddlesome vaginal probes or other such things.
Ayla,
the heroine character in Jean Auel’s novel The
Clan of the Cave Bear provokes our imagination with images of a world long
ago. The story entertains us with a
marvelous Ice Age saga, and it simultaneously gives us provocative insights
into how different the relationships and cultures of prehistoric peoples may
have been. Imagine facing the primordial
world that Ayla lived in, with its pre-literate social ties and communication
hurdles and cave bears and saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths. Try to place yourself in those times and
contexts and the worldviews that might have accompanied those times. As descendents of such people, this flight of
imagination provides us with a compelling way of looking at our selves, our
ancestry, and our relationship with the Earth.
All
populations of animals exist in dynamic natural balances. Each species’ population is controlled by
limiting factors such as the available food supply, predation, disease, and
competitive pressures. Humanity is not
independent or exempt from these influences.
For this reason it is foolhardy for the human race
to continue acting in ways that upset natural balances and the current
equilibrium of ecological systems.
This understanding should encourage us to
refrain from the wholesale destruction of habitats by means of the
clear-cutting of forests, the depletion of fisheries, the wasteful usages of
fossil fuels, and the degradation of the quality of water resources and
agricultural lands and wild areas.
Recall this date: April 15, 1912. On this date, just over a century ago, the RMS
Titanic passenger liner struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in the
North Atlantic Ocean. We should begin to
seriously limit emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere instead of
emulating the Captain of the Titanic, who said “Damn the icebergs, full speed
ahead!” in treacherous waters. The ship
and its passengers and crew suffered the terrible consequences.
Our actions today are creating a dangerous
and unsettled situation that will probably be restored to balance only after
our human equilibrium-disturbing impacts are ancient history, hundreds or
thousands -- or millions, to real optimists -- of years from now.
Life has survived some epic calamities on
Earth, such as the Cretaceous Extinction that took place 65 million years
ago. This biotic catastrophe has been
traced to a meteor impact in the vicinity of the northern part of the Yucatan
Peninsula. The fossil record shows that
more than half of all species of life on Earth became extinct at that time,
including all the numerous species of reptilian dinosaurs.
Other mass extinctions have taken place
over the eons-long unfolding of geologic history, but today’s increase in the
rate of extinctions represents the first time that extinctions have been caused
by one species of life (us!), rather than by a geophysical phenomenon. Biologists and other researchers generally
agree, according to Edward O. Wilson in The
Future of Life, that the extinction rate of species today is somewhere
between 100 and 10,000 times the average rate that has pertained for tens of
millions of years, long before human beings began to impact biological
diversity on Earth.
An alarming die-off of honeybees is taking
place in the U.S. today. This
development can be seen as a proverbial “canary in the coal mine” warning,
cautioning us that the dismissive attitude of our culture toward pollution,
waste, habitat damages and greenhouse gas emissions is creating risks too big
to accept. Similarly, the decline in
both the diversity and abundance of mammals, birds, amphibians and other
species should serve as a warning against obtusely and obstinately staying our
current course.
Change in human societies tends to take
place in a kind of punctuated equilibrium, one of gathering energies and
tipping points. It is clear that, for
our own good, we need to make difficult decisions and define a new epoch in
which we choose to act more intelligently to prevent the widespread extinction
of other species of life. We should seek
better ways to collaborate together to find common ground between economic
activities and conservation in order to protect future generations, and to
prevent a forecast extinction of roughly 50% of all species of life on Earth in
the next 100 years. “Now is the
time!”
An Ode to Gaia
Crystal clear water splashes down a verdant canyon
Laughing a
tune of satisfying elemental simplicity.
Water-loving plants crowd the contours of the riparian watershed,
Reflecting a state of balanced natural
existence and seeming felicity.
High up
above, on mountain ridges and peaks,
Awe-inspiring vistas can be seen that give a person a feeling of
salubrious sanity,
Connected, integral, visionary, and susceptible to revelation and
epiphany
Yet miniscule and ephemeral in the face of
infinity and eternity.
Drifting along on a stream,
Narrows and
rapids, waterfalls;
Meandering
pools in the meadows,
Eddies around every bend.
The water
has its own influences,
Its own
involvements.
To it,
all events contain
Equal
amounts of pleasure,
And of sorrow.
The water
runs swiftly
In this stage of its existence,
Runs
with random energy,
Active and infinitely changing.
And
occasionally the water flows into lakes
Splashing
against the beautiful shore
Or lays
deep in calm repose,
Quite
unconcerned that, eventually,
It again will become rain.
Chapter #23 – Carrying
Capacity and Far-Sighted Ecological Perspective.
The concept of a carrying capacity of natural
habitats is useful and important. Nature provides a limited carrying
capacity for every species of animal, depending on food and water supply and
population density. The versatility of human ingenuity has allowed the
human race to extensively expand the range of places where we can live, so we
have been able to temporarily mask natural limits on our population growth and
our consumption activities. Our
collective abilities to make shelter, clothing and tools, and to cultivate and
utilize a wide variety of sources of food and energy, have made this expansion
possible.
But we are already using up an estimated 40% of the
total annual biological productivity of our beautiful water planet. This
means that between agriculture, timber harvesting, wildlife hunting, animal
husbandry, foraging and fishing, we are taking 40% of the total annual
productive bounty of the planet for ourselves.
Imagine the impact we will have as human numbers
grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion by the year 2040!
In effect, we are simultaneously doing three things:
(1) Depleting the non-renewable resources upon which we depend;
(2) Damaging ecosystems through over-utilization, unsustainable
development, topsoil erosion, suburban sprawl, habitat destruction and resource
depletion; and,
(3) Increasing our demands on nature with increasingly effective
extractive technologies and dramatic increases in our human numbers.
In other words, we are steadily diminishing the
carrying capacity of the Earth to support us. This is practically
insane. We are assaulting the foundations of healthy existence while
simultaneously failing to take meaningful steps to conserve resources, reduce
our consumer demands, or stem the tide of our human population growth.
The ecological underpinnings of everything we depend on cannot be continuously
and unsustainably degraded.
Ecologists note that on an island, where it is
easiest to quantify the approximate carrying capacity of a single species like reindeer,
there have been instances where reindeer have been introduced and have increased
in population beyond the expected level that can be naturally supported. When the number of reindeer exceeds the
carrying capacity by a large enough margin, the animals eat all the available
food, and a population crash results.
Instead of the number of animals declining to a balance in the range
predicted as being the actual carrying capacity, devastating starvation occurs
and very few survive. This is like the
proverbial interplay between populations of rabbits and foxes. Being intelligent creatures, can’t we choose
to control our population and consumption, rather than waiting until impersonal
certainties of cause and effect wreak terrible havoc on our species?
Human
attentions have been dominated, particularly in the past 100 years, by economic
competition, security anxieties, ideological struggles and wars. We
should not let such concerns prevent us from developing healthier ecological
perspectives. All these issues are inextricably interconnected. It
is becoming critical for us to be able to integrate progressive ideas and
wholesome understandings into a set of visionary and beneficial plans that will
help us better cope with the enormous challenges facing us.
There is a “call of the wild” within us
all, but it is subsumed by our increasingly urban upbringing and the economic
needs to which we feel subjected. Our
strong desires to belong, and our compliant conformity to seductive consumer
and cultural indoctrination, are factors that serve to prevent us from a more
primordial connectedness to nature. I
feel that Henry David Thoreau had a good point when he sagely counseled, “In
wildness is the preservation of the world.”
"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people
are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are
useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains
of life."
--- John Muir
“Humanity is
exalted not because we are so far above all living creatures, but because
knowing
them well
elevates the very concept of life.”
--- Edward O.
Wilson
Chapter #24 – Rueful
Reflections.
In 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt declared:
“The nation
behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn
over
to the
next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.”
By this standard, humanity is behaving remarkably poorly,
especially in light of the fact that we are driving many species of life to
extinction. The actions that are
contributing to this outcome are undermining the very foundations of our
long-term prosperity and well-being.
Some say that we are treating Mother Earth like a
prostitute. We are pimping her services at every opportunity. We
are objectifying her, selling her virtues, exploiting her wilds, making her gaudy
with development, and showing a lack of concern for her well-being. We
are desecrating her charms, violating her pristine qualities, and taking
advantage of her passivity and vulnerabilities. We are, in summary,
figuratively screwing our Mother Earth.
Our motto seems to be “EARTH FIRST! --- We can screw
the other planets later!” I hope that readers can at least chuckle
ruefully at this bumper sticker sentiment, because there is value in humor and
light-heartedness, no matter how serious and consequential the topic!
Consider the extent to which our activities today
are similar to a Ponzi scheme. This is a
type of fraudulent investment scam in which speculators receive abnormally high
short-term returns that are paid from funds received from new investors. Such Ponzi scams inevitably collapse because
they are unsustainable: there are no
earnings to pay investors, so the suckers who come late to the scene are duped
by promises of high returns, and they eventually lose their money. The strategies involved in dominant economic
ideologies today are predicated on unsustainable growth, so they have distinct
parallels to Ponzi schemes. They create
big profits in the short run at the expense of activities being sustainable in
the long term. We are essentially
rewarding investors and speculators and profiteers in the short term by
borrowing resources from people in the future, and externalizing costs onto them,
so the ‘suckers’ in this scheme are our children and theirs and theirs, far
into the distant future.
A
‘spectre’ is haunting planet Earth, a spectre of human overconsumption,
overpopulation, and the overproduction of wastes, pollutants, toxins and
climate-altering greenhouse gases. It is
high time that a prophet of sober assessment and hope-inspiring ideals begins
to advance comprehensive perspectives, good ideas, and optimum solutions whose
implementation will create saner societies.
This manuscript is my earnest attempt to provide such propitious
understandings.
“It is wiser to find out than to
suppose.”
--- Mark Twain
Chapter #25 – In Defense
of Reason.
Intensely partisan, power-abusing
politicians play a big role in our human destiny. Recognizing this, it would be a good idea for
us to proactively seek ways to advance far-sighted initiatives that will help
remedy this situation. Many of the
chapters of these writings are regrettably, but of necessity, involved with
POLITICS. The most direct of these are
Chapters #78-79; they call cogently for
dramatic changes in the priorities of our nation’s leaders.
The right-wing political machine portrays
conservatism as representing reasonableness and rectitude. It continuously attacks liberals, portraying
them as being wishy-washy, clueless, bleeding hearts, or lacking in good
ideas. But I challenge readers to review
the compendium of progressive ideas in the Earth Manifesto and to come to any
other conclusion than this: it is
actually status-quo conservatism that is the failing political philosophy,
and the one that is truly shortsighted, unfair, misleading, progress-stymieing,
unsustainable and wrong-headed.
It seemed like our political leaders in the
U.S. during the eight years of the Bush Administration were striving to control
the American people by dividing them.
They preached democracy but at the same time shrewdly sowed seeds of
fear, insecurity, inequality, nationalistic fervor, dogmatic certitude,
patriotic zealotry, divisive religious intolerance, and cultivated doubt about
the consensus findings of scientists.
Instead of championing better plans, they diverted public funds to wars,
cut taxes to primarily benefits top earners, and resorted to the ruse of
distracting people from domestic problems by engaging in aggression abroad. Such tactics are unconscionably
wrong-headed.
Radical right ‘conservatives’ demonstrate
hard-line attitudes that are similar to those of religious fundamentalists and
zealous extremists, both Islamic and Christian.
They are often enemies of honesty, respectful tolerance, and expansive
freedoms because of their rigidly controlling patriarchal stances on women’s
issues, sexuality, family issues, secularism and modernity.
The main legitimate source of power in a
democracy is the consent of the governed.
Yet when consent is manufactured by means of the control and distortion
of information, then the legitimacy of this consent can be undermined. When rational understanding is obscured by
means of tactics that distract people and scare them, the quality of decision-making
is diminished. When the federal
government ignores and suppresses vital information, and sanitizes reports, and
distorts facts, and uses misinformation and secrecy about key issues and
government operations, it is unjust and anti-democratic. Many attempts were made by the Bush
Administration to control information, use misleading statistics, and remove
important information concerning health, safety and environmental matters from
government websites and the public domain.
The manufacture of consent by means of mass persuasion and deceptive
spin has essentially made us puppets to propaganda.
British philosopher and statesman Francis
Bacon long ago declared: “Knowledge is
power.” Attempts by governments and
think tanks to control, misrepresent, and slant information are forms of power
abuse. We need to be aware that our
convictions can be illusions. To know
something, it is best to be open-minded to contrary information and opinions,
and to test convictions against a close scrutiny of the real world, and to
strive to correct misapprehensions. “Don’t believe everything you think!”
The “God, guns and gays” strategy of using
hot button social issues to divide people and sway elections has been used
effectively by conservatives to advance their causes. But our energies should be focused on much
more serious issues. Instead of being
distracted by narrow-mindedness and red herrings, we should find ways to limit
the high cost of wars abroad, and mitigate problems of homelessness, poverty
and social injustice. And we should
strive to staunch the rapid depletion of resources, and restructure our economies
to mitigate the damaging impacts of environmental harms.
Conservative politicians in Congress have
unfortunately led the way in distracting the public’s attention from these
important issues. They have repeatedly proposed
oppressive legislation to limit women’s reproductive rights, deny civil rights
to gay people, oppose gender equity, interfere with family planning programs, overturn
affordable healthcare legislation, stoke anti-immigrant sentiments, prevent the
establishment of reasonable gun controls, and intimidate people from expressing
dissent.
Thomas Jefferson,
the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President
of the United States, believed strongly that the powers of the federal
government should be vigilantly constrained.
He expressed the opinion that we should protect and expand
representative democracy and human liberties.
He would probably have figuratively turned over in his grave to see the
extent to which the Executive Branch usurped power under the Bush
Administration, and how it bullied Congress and manipulated public opinion and
stacked the federal courts.
Thomas Jefferson
speaks to us today, in fact, from beyond the grave, about the essential ideals
and principles of our Government:
“Should we wander from these principles in moments
of error or of alarm, let us hasten to
retrace our steps and to regain the road
which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety.”
The U.S. Senate spent a lot of time
debating a Flag Desecration Amendment in June 2006. This was an electioneering ploy that just
barely failed to pass. Republicans used
this gambit to gain patriotic support in the national elections of November
2006, just as they have done in previous elections. Americans should, parenthetically, thank the
Senate for defeating this Constitutional amendment, and we should congratulate
ourselves for having once again rejected attempts to curtail Free Speech rights
that have been guaranteed for over 225 years by the brilliant Bill of
Rights. Our democratic freedom to speak
out in dissent from government policies is eroded when people are intimidated
by government harassment, retributive actions, and coercion.
In truth, we really should honor our core
values and Constitutional principles. We
should not just be worshipping the flag as a symbol of an America that the
radical right debases with their disdain for rules of domestic and
international law and fair principles of justice. Attempts by the right-wing to erode the
checks and balances in our federal government are distinctly wrong-headed, as
are efforts to minimize national commitments to the general welfare and peaceful
coexistence among nations.
“I want my students to consider in a historical context the idea that
social inequities are neither inevitable nor accidental but reflect the
assumptions, beliefs, and policies of certain people who command enormous
power; that there are limits to our power as a nation, that no country is
exempt from history; that the indispensable strength of America remains the
right of dissent, and that few people have cared more deeply about this nation
than some of its severest critics; and
that we need to be wary of those who in the name of protecting our freedoms
would diminish them. History teaches,
after all, that it is not the rebels, the iconoclasts, the curious, or the
dissidents who endanger a democratic society, but rather the accepting, the
unthinking, the unquestioning, the docile, the obedient, the silent, and the
indifferent.”
--- Eminently Popular Professor Leon Litwack
Strategies devised to polarize Americans
have been used to advance a retrogressive and partisan agenda that benefits a
small segment of society at the expense of the greater good. These strategies reduce citizen liberties and
individual privacy rights, and they subvert the wisdom of our national
planning, damage our democracy, and threaten our fiscal well-being. They also harm the beneficial support systems
of a healthy environment and biological diversity. And they hurt our hopes for peaceful
coexistence and better prospects for people in future generations.
Chapter #26 – Political Madness.
I encourage readers to peruse Reflections on War – and Peace! because
it contains valuable insight into the historical motivations for war and the
demagogic methods that have been used many times in history to achieve the goals
of leaders who involve their countries in war.
The bottom line is that domineering militarism and hawkish U.S.
military-apologist dogmas are being discredited in many ways.
Historian Howard Zinn observed during the
tenure of the Bush Administration that the wrong people were in power, people
who had faith in imperial empire, guns, bombs, indoctrination, war propaganda,
strict authority, profiteering, and special privilege. Professor Zinn delivered a challenge to the American people when he said, “To be
neutral and to be passive is to collaborate with whatever is going on.” He defined democracy as “not just a
counting-up of votes” but a “counting-up of actions.” Having thus proverbially thrown down the
gauntlet, the late Professor Zinn encouraged each of us to get involved in some
form of constructive social activism.
Charles Schultz’ character Snoopy shows us
that exasperated existential exclamations of AARGH! are often followed by an
aftermath of embarrassed contrition. In
light of this funny fact, many people avoid controversy, protest and social
action. We lay low. The ruts of tradition and conformity to
custom run deep. Politicians often take
advantage of the natural fears people feel and their embarrassment at taking a
stand. They encourage complacency and
strive to subdue the outrage of citizens at unfair or excessively punitive
actions of their governments. This might
logically motivate us to submerge ourselves into our own personal worlds, and
to merely intone quiet private mantras of “AH … AH … AH … UH … UH … UH”. Huh?
In any case, I believe that more is demanded of us!
“The wisest men follow their own
direction.”
--- Euripides, fifth century BCE
Chapter #27 – The Tragedy
of the Commons.
How can humanity earn a living and simultaneously
protect the Earth and its waters and atmosphere? Let’s explore this question.
People fail to act in socially and environmentally
responsible ways for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are rational;
and some of these reasons are irrational.
Irrational reasons for disastrous behavior include
clashes of values, cultivated denial, unreasonable fears, emotional hijacking,
ideological inflexibility, closed-mindedness, confusion, ignorance and stubborn
persistence in error. As societal needs change, rigid resistance to
progressive adaptation tends to prevent policies from being implemented that
would be the most consistent with the greater good. Shared delusions,
psychological denial, misunderstanding, “groupthink”, and the madness of crowd
psychology can also contribute to socially irrational public policy-making.
Author Edward
Abbey once astutely and sarcastically observed, “One man alone can be pretty
dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat
teamwork.” Ha! There are countervailing perspectives like
those explored in the book by James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds, which reveal that the aggregation of
information from groups of people can result in better decisions. Herein lies the hope in a democracy that the
crowd can weigh in on the side of better decision-making. To avoid the failures of crowd intelligence
like those in mobs or irrational stock market bubbles, a diversity of opinion
should be encouraged, and people should be empowered to think independently and
draw on localized knowledge.
The primary rational reasons for disastrous
behavior include obtuse self-centeredness, a failure to properly anticipate
logical consequences, ruthlessness in the competition for ascendancy, excessive
avarice, and poorly informed decision-making. Small elites who lust for
wealth and power often collaborate in rational activities to dominate policy
and decision-making. Corporate interests, for example, clash with more
broadminded civic interests in their efforts to gain the privilege of being
allowed to externalize costs onto society. And in the case of speculative
bubbles, it may be eminently rational to participate as long as there are
‘greater fools’ to perpetuate the scheme a while longer.
Rational behaviors contribute to the phenomenon
known as a ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. The rational self-interest of people
who are competing for benefits from a shared resource often results in collectively
irrational damage to that resource. This occurs for a rather simple
reason: individuals who are motivated by greedy self-interest want to get
immediate benefits from an activity, while the unintended consequences and
negative impacts of the exploitation of a common resource are insidious and
less immediately apparent, and they are borne by the less-focused entire
community.
The Tragedy of the Commons describes what is taking
place in many different arenas of resource exploitation. The decimating impact, for instance, on
formerly rich fisheries by fishing fleets from many competing nations occurs
because unregulated competition results in the over-harvesting of fish
stocks. Actions by rational individuals can
thus result in outcomes that are utterly insane for the entire group. Such outcomes are tragic when they
extensively harm the ecological commons.
It turns out that better cooperation, not
less-regulated competition, is necessary to improve the prospects of
sustainable resource usages. The only sane way for the whole of society
to benefit is to create a system of far-sighted rules that are designed to
protect common resources from rapid depletion, damage or destruction.
This requires the agreement and honest compliance to such rules of all
participants. It also requires oversight
and effective enforcement.
The parable of the
Tragedy of the Commons also applies to the issue of pollution. In this
case, rather than the consequences of exploitation being a depleted commons, it
is a polluted commons. Rational companies make bigger profits by dumping
wastes into the commons, because then the costs are foisted onto
everyone.
Widespread resistance to international efforts to limit greenhouse gas
emissions can be clearly understood as an instance of this accumulating
tragedy. Some 191 nations ratified the Kyoto Protocol to help mitigate
the ecological damages that are being caused by global warming and related
climate change. But the United States refused to comply! Our leaders shortsightedly opposed these
accords. China and India have also been unwilling to take effective steps
to control greenhouse gas emissions, because they see that the process of
industrialization without heed to the global commons has allowed developed
countries to benefit economically, and they regard it as an injustice for them
to now be required to follow a different, more expensive path that involves
stricter emissions controls.
The nations of the world are thus failing to boldly act to solve the
ominous problems associated with the pouring of billions of tons of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Making
this bad situation worse, we have failed to take sufficient actions to prevent
deforestation. Our inaction represents a presumptuous disregard for the well-being
of all life on the planet, and it ignores the plight of people living on
low-lying islands in the world’s oceans and along coastal areas worldwide. It also represents a refusal to act to
mitigate the severity of future droughts, heat waves and other weather-extreme
calamities that are being made worse by our inaction.
The United States insists on acting in the myopic self-interest of big
corporations instead of making reasonable commitments to cooperate to achieve
common good goals. This is done because we have the power to ignore
rational and intelligent cooperation, NOT because it is the right thing to do.
Chapter #28 – On Climate
Change.
Recent years have been among the warmest in all of recorded weather
history. Glaciers worldwide are receding,
and the Arctic ice caps and Antarctic ice sheets are melting at an alarming
rate. Hurricanes, tornados, floods, and drought are intensifying. With the concentration of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere having increased by more than 25% in the last 50 years, it is
shocking to find that the rate of its accumulation is accelerating. It is becoming increasingly likely that climate changes caused by global
warming will contribute in coming years to more destructive storms like
Superstorm Sandy that devastated parts of the Northeastern U.S. and the
powerful typhoon that struck the Philippines in November 2013. These shifts in weather patterns will also
cause agricultural disruptions, worsening desertification trends in some areas,
more intense and frequent wildfires, the spread of diseases, mass migrations of
refugees, biological extinctions and other environmental and social
catastrophes.
One principal mechanism of climate pattern
disruptions is the alternate warming and cooling of the world’s oceans, which can
contribute to El Niño and La Niña weather patterns that shift the jet stream
and cause more extreme wet and dry periods in different locales.
Carbon-dioxide emissions were about 40% higher in 2009 than in 1990,
despite efforts made in the Kyoto Protocol to diminish them. Scientists have
actually been surprised by the rate of global warming, but one theory holds
that, as ocean surfaces warm in general, this causes the natural process of
carbon dioxide absorption by oceans to be reduced. The higher rate of increase of carbon dioxide
concentrations in the atmosphere implies an earlier and more severe onset of
the problems mentioned above. Perhaps
the correlated global warming is partially a result of hot air emanations from
climate change deniers --- who knows?
One would have to ask Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma about that. I personally can’t imagine opposing sensible
precautionary principles, to the detriment of billions of people now and in
future generations, just to increase the profitability of the oil, coal and
natural gas industries!
Scientists have been warning for years about the huge quantities of
carbon dioxide that are being spewed into the atmosphere. Almost all scientists agree that the current
excess of 30 billion tons of such emissions every year is unequivocally
contributing to global warming and climate change. They say that this significantly heightens
the risk that trillions of dollars in costs will be incurred during this
century alone for climate-change-related disruptions.
Revealingly, the federal government
declared a record high number of 99 weather-related major disasters in
2011. This total was up from an average
of 56 in the first decade of this century -- and up from only 18 per year in
the 1960s.
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicated in a May 2007 interview
that action against global warming could be successfully undertaken at a modest
cost. “Climate change is not something
in the future. It's already here,” he
said. “The cost of inaction is going to be far higher than the cost of
action."
Once again H.G. Wells’ observation in 1920 strikes
me: "Human history becomes more and
more a race between education and catastrophe." These words are resoundingly
relevant today!
Al Gore made it seem that necessary changes are achievable in his compelling
film, An Inconvenient Truth, and that
there is good hope that people will realize how serious the stakes are for
failing to act soon. We may be reaching
a Tipping Point in awareness and public opinion on climate change. This will hopefully help worldwide efforts to
mitigate the effects of global warming.
Unfortunately, the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun in 2010, and
the one in South Africa in 2011, and the one in Qatar in 2012, and the one in
Poland in 2013, and the one in Lima, Peru in 2014, were all unable to develop
agreements on strong protections, so the years continue to pass by without our
leaders effectively coping with this overarching environmental challenge.
Our Tipping Point in global awareness of threats posed by greenhouse gas
emissions is matched against an even more far-reaching Tipping Point -- an
ecological one. We are reaching a point
where our industry, agriculture, animal husbandry and population growth are
irreversibly damaging ecosystems and driving many species of life to
extinction. This undermines the
biological support systems upon which we depend. No one can predict whether our Tipping Point
of awareness will arrive soon enough, and with enough force, to ensure that we
will win the race between education and catastrophe.
The national midterm elections in 2010 and 2014 gave climate change
deniers increased influence in the House of Representatives and the Senate, so
the near term outlook for meaningfully addressing this issue has been
deteriorating. The surprising power of
climate change deniers in the Tea Party has made the Republican Party even more
obstinate in its opposition to sensible action.
These are strange days indeed.
Here again we seem to be emulating the notorious Captain of the Titanic
who threw caution to the wind and ordered full speed ahead in treacherous
waters. While progressives envision
critically needed changes, they struggle against relentless forces that
advocate freedoms to operate without any cost being assigned to carbon
emissions, and with a minimum of regulations, limitations or social
responsibilities. Too many politicians
oppose sensible measures that would strengthen our democracy by restricting
lobbying, making smart reforms in the financing of political campaigns, and
enacting fair-minded restrictions on Super PAC funding.
Senator Mitch McConnell embodies this obstinate opposition to a fairer
democratic republic. It is sad for the
American people that his pragmatic success in advancing the cause of wealthy
people, giant corporations, and social conservatives has taken precedence over
all other considerations. His role in
brokering a compromise on extending the Bush tax breaks in December 2010 is
chilling. After all, future generations
will be required to pay interest costs on trillions of dollars we are borrowing
to finance some of the lowest tax rates on rich people since the 1920s. In this regard, the 2010 Obama/McConnell
compromise was chiefly one that will adversely affect the prospects of our
children and their descendents to lead secure lives in a sound economy with
adequate resources and unpolluted environs.
Powerful forces stubbornly strive to stay the course even when the course
becomes untenable. Reckless right-leaning leaders have advocated for
years that we merely make more studies of problems related to global warming
and climate change. They vaguely assert
that voluntary limitations on emissions will be adequate, despite extensive
evidence to the contrary. It is becoming
urgent that we boldly and innovatively deal with the irreversible nature of our
predicaments related to climate change
and overpopulation and ecosystem destabilization. The Eleventh Hour is upon us!
A Supreme Court decision in April 2007 confirmed that the Environmental
Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This was an important step toward getting our
laggard federal government and giant corporations to give climate change
disruptions a higher priority. After the
passage of more than a year, the EPA continued to drag its feet rather than
acting to mitigate the impending impacts of climate disrupting emissions. The EPA Chief during the Bush Administration
sided with the White House in opposing the rights of States to set more
stringent emissions policies. This
thwarted forward-thinking efforts in California and a dozen other states. It was an exceedingly odd
federal-trumps-state strategy that bizarrely turned traditional Republican anti-federalism
on its head.
Green taxes and sensible regulations are needed. The first step in dealing with this climate
dilemma would be to establish a system of emissions caps for companies and an
‘emissions trading system’. This plan is
a more complex and less effective way to regulate carbon emissions than direct
carbon taxes, and its effects are delayed because it does not address a key
issue: our risky dependence on fossil
fuels and their inexorable depletion.
But at least a cap-and-trade emissions system would be a start in
dealing with the problem. If that is the
route we finally choose as a first step toward reducing carbon emissions, the
cap-and-trade system should be designed to discourage complacency, bureaucracy,
fraud and mere greenwashing. And some of
the proceeds of the assessed cost should be devoted to making a more robust
transition to renewable energy alternatives.
The disruptive impacts of climate changes caused by
global warming are not unstoppable; we
just haven’t yet made determined efforts to slow them. The federal government is partly at
fault. The Bush Administration
had an extensive record of denying and suppressing scientific understandings in
order to support the doctrines of the status quo, particularly with regard to
energy policy and the auto and oil industries. A New York Times article
in January 2006 reported a revealing instance of this, when a young Republican
political appointee in the NASA public affairs office tried to censor top NASA
scientist Dr. James Hansen to suppress scientific findings on global
warming. Thereafter, hundreds of documented
instances were noted in which Bush Administration officials interfered with
government scientists’ global warming work and findings.
Too often our leaders are far more concerned with good press than good
results. They have created a culture
that discourages people from telling the truth. Shame on our
leaders! They should be held more
accountable. Inaction on greenhouse gas emissions is becoming a serious
liability. Republicans often seem to be of the same mind-set as Donald Rumsfeld, who in a
“snowflake memo” to himself once noted that “bumper sticker statements” should
be used to rally public support for unpopular wars. I assert that we need deeper and wiser
understandings of issues, not merely shallow bumper sticker sentiments!
The Bush Administration heavily edited testimony to the Senate by Dr.
Julie Gerberding, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
when she addressed the Environment and Public Works Committee in October
2007. Her testimony was related to human
impacts on global warming. A former
EPA official, Jason Burnett, revealed in July 2008 that Vice
President Dick Cheney's office and the Council on Environmental Quality pushed
to "remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of
climate change." The Bush
Administration’s efforts to muzzle officials to prevent them from
providing valuable information to the American people were a serious disservice
to the functioning of our democracy, and to our well-being and national
security.
In
2006, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin actually ordered NASA’s Mission
Statement to be changed to delete from its stated mission the purpose of
helping “to understand and protect our home planet”. Really?!
TV satirist Stephen Colbert got into the spirit of this action by
suggesting that, to be consistent with NASA’s semantic political-operative
strategy, the Environmental Protection Agency should remove from its name the words
“environmental” and “protection”!
Ha!! (Woe to us!)
Also
in 2006, NASA eliminated funding for some new satellites that would have
monitored the Earth’s changing climate.
Perhaps NASA officials theorized that what we don’t know can’t hurt us? Michael Griffin created a brouhaha in May
2007 when he suggested in a National Public Radio interview that global warming
might be a good thing! He was parroting
the propaganda of the Greening Earth Society, a coal industry ‘think tank’ that
tries to spin perceptions to facilitate the building of more polluting plants
and to continue to allow coal companies to make bigger profits by externalizing
costs.
The shrewd but essentially malicious cultivation of doubt about
science by Big Oil and its friends in Congress is another example of
unconscionable influence peddling in our political system. This gambit allows business to avoid costs
that would be incurred by taking precautionary measures to limit greenhouse gas
emissions. Big Businesses have been
allowed too much influence in taking advantage of uncertainties to thwart
changes to the sweet system that allows corporations to profit by externalizing
costs of pollution, waste disposal, resource depletion, worker health care, and
climate disruption risks onto society.
Never before had the White House been so closely tied to the oil industry
as it was when George W. Bush was nominally in charge. In 2001, President Bush and Dick Cheney and
Condoleezza Rice and 8 cabinet secretaries and 32 other high-level political
appointees in the federal government had previously been intimately associated
with Big Oil, according to Richard Behan in an AlterNet article. Government officials in charge of many
agencies, as a consequence, often subverted the missions of their agencies and
gave priority to the narrowly focused interests of fossil fuel industries. The people are far too often given lower
priority than obsessions for making bigger profits.
Ignorance, denial, opposition to change, and profiteering by entrenched
interests are potent forces in our economic and political landscape. The Supreme Court decision referred to above
concerning the EPA was made by a vote of 5 to 4, with doctrinal conservatives
dissenting. This demonstrated their
adamant opposition, once again, to sensible regulation and intelligent
adaptation to change, even in the face of some of the most far-reaching threats
to the environment ever known by humankind.
But we must not despair. There are many individual
and collective actions that could be taken to reduce global warming and
mitigate the impacts of climate change.
A sustained common endeavor is necessary. More sophisticated and meaningful public
communications and bold initiatives are needed to encourage such things as
‘green building’, conservation, technological cooperation, the protections of
forests and threatened species, risk mitigation, and other “climate-friendly”
behaviors. We need to avoid paralysis
and find tangible and compelling ways to motivate people to reduce their
ecological footprint impacts.
Economic incentives and disincentives are the most
effective means of encouraging innovation, fossil fuel alternatives,
conservation, energy efficiency, behavioral changes, and structural
modifications to our economy. Subsidies
to fossil fuel industries should be reduced.
A worldwide moratorium on new coal-fired power plants should be
implemented until ‘carbon-dioxide sequestration’ technologies or other
effective mitigation measures are developed.
Sensible alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels should be
fast-tracked.
The global economy must
somehow be effectively ‘decarbonized”.
The rapid destruction of tropical rainforests and temperate forests
worldwide should be significantly slowed because they act as a sort of reverse
‘lungs of the planet’ by using up carbon-dioxide and producing oxygen through
the process of photosynthesis. Rainforests
contain about half of all species of life on Earth, so they are a great
repository of biological diversity. Our
best opportunity for immediate and cost-effective reductions of the buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be through reversing current trends
toward rapid tropical deforestation.
One of the best
ways to accomplish the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be to
increase carbon taxes and use the funds for new initiatives aimed at stopping
deforestation. Tax increases could be
made progressive by partially offsetting them with reductions in payroll taxes. Politically, gas taxes
may not yet be feasible, but they are a better plan than cap-and-trade
laws.
Meanwhile, the
‘population connection’ between deforestation and increasing greenhouse gas
emissions should be emphasized. Global
population stabilization should be achieved by means of education and voluntary family planning programs.
Individuals and couples should be enabled to decide freely and
responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children. All women should have the information and
means to do this without interference, discrimination or coercion. The ability to make these decisions about
family size is essential to realizing larger goals, including those of having
healthy families and a healthier environment.
Family
planning programs in nations worldwide give people the tools needed to save
lives, eradicate illiteracy, reduce poverty, prevent HIV/AIDS, empower women,
conserve resources, protect biodiversity and reduce deforestation and
desertification.
Also, an inclusive green movement could create important
changes through targeted investments and the politics of hope, optimism and
opportunity. The bright promise of a
‘green economy’ could include, inspire and energize people of all races and
classes. A historic coalition could be
formed that would make a ‘green wave’ that would lift all boats and unite the
best of business and civic leaders, labor unions, environmentalists, social and
racial justice activists, students, artists and intellectuals.
The book, HEAT, by Monbiot has a compelling conclusion: "The campaign against climate change is
an odd one. Unlike almost all the public protests which have preceded it, it is
a campaign not for abundance but for austerity.
It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just
against other people, but also against ourselves." Hmmm … It seems apparent that no one wants to
choose any degree of austerity or sacrifice, or to be required to be
disciplined -- even if the resulting impact on our lives were to create greater
simplicity, less stress, more meaning, greater national security, and more
positive prospects for our heirs.
The National Resources Defense Council is one of
many organizations committed to trying to establish greater sanity in human
affairs. They work with businesses and governments to offset negative
impacts of business activities on the environment, and in effect to combat
abuses of corporate power and the dysfunction of our economic system and
political processes. Like the Environmental Defense Fund, another notably
effective nonprofit organization, NRDC promotes initiatives that are designed
to improve prospects for beneficial outcomes rather than environmentally
damaging ones. The NRDC’s Partnership
for the Earth campaign had six vitally important big picture
objectives. They are: to curb global warming, save wildlife and
wild places, revive the world’s oceans, create a cleaner-energy future, stem
the tide of toxic chemicals, and accelerate the greening of China.
A sadly funny article on the Internet
disclosed that China has discovered an ingenious way to deal with the terrible
air pollution it suffers as a result of burning huge amounts of coal and other
activities. Even though 250,000 people
die from air pollution afflictions every year, and the breathing of
particulates in smog causes a horrible amount of asthma and sick days and
hospital visits, Chinese officials decided to merely adjust
air pollution standards to reduce the number of pesky health alerts. The Environmental Protection Bureau in
Shanghai changed its air pollution standards to reduce the number of health
alerts it issues. It decided to issue an
alert when the concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in
diameter, which is known for being able to penetrate deep into human lungs,
falls below 115 micrograms per cubic meter.
Previously, the Bureau lifted alerts after this concentration dropped
below 75 micrograms per cubic meter. In
contrast, the more strict and healthier limit established by the EPA in the
U.S. is 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
So, Chinese officials “are
still planning to build more coal fired power plants, because, after all, you
can't stop progress.” They found this
new approach that could be regarded from a business point-of-view as a common
sense solution -- and one that the billionaire Koch brothers would love to
bring to America, if we let them.
“Smog levels in Shanghai this December (2013) have been
the worst in China's long history. Many
residents avoid going outside and many of those who do are wearing masks to try
to filter out the dangerous small particulates in the air that came from coal
fired power plants.” I personally
advocate solutions that are more consistent with people’s health! Big cities in India, according to the news in
May 2014, have even worse air pollution than China, so these challenges are
far-reaching.
The Environmental Defense Fund and the NRDC should
be applauded for their goals, and for their efforts to get companies to commit
to important environmental goals like limiting greenhouse gas emissions. I urge every person to support the efforts of
these organizations, and to strive to do your own part to conserve fossil fuels
and water and electricity, and to strongly support sensible and far-sighted
initiatives both at home and abroad.
Chapter #29 – Earth Advocacy.
Extensive and awe-inspiring natural beauty abounds on our lovely Planet
Earth;
Mountains
and valleys and meadows and streams existing in dynamic grace
And our
home planet provides us with nourishment and spiritual sustenance,
Earning appreciative blessings
-- but not the adequate respect -- of the human race.
The most
profound understanding of ecology is that everything is interconnected
So every
attempt to comprehend our healthy relationship to our sustaining environment
Naturally
involves economics, sociology, philosophy, and alas, political controversy
But, so be it -- Let us explore
important issues fairly, reasonably, and without lament.
The Earth is a beautiful place, as everyone can
appreciate who spends time outdoors, away from the often-degrading influences
of human activities. Open spaces, public parks and protected lands are
inspirational and revitalizing to our spirit. Public movements to
preserve such areas for ourselves and future generations are eminently laudable
undertakings.
Protected public lands are crucial to the quality of
our lives. A willingness to protect open spaces is an early sign of the
type of wisdom that may prove to be crucial in ensuring our long-term
survival. I feel strongly that we should continue to value and defend
public lands against the powerful forces of development, resource exploitation,
and pollution.
Windswept ridges and peaks that project
above glaciers and ice fields are called ‘nunataks’. During past ice ages, alpine trees like
Lodgepole Pines, Whitebark Pines, and other types of plant life survived in
nunataks, and were therefore able to re-colonize the lands that had been
scraped barren by the ice, once global temperatures warmed and the ice had
melted. Nunataks served as genetic
storehouses that were able to colonize the land once glaciers had
retreated. After the glaciers melted,
lichens built soil bit by bit, using sunlight and water and the process of
photosynthesis to dissolve the raw materials of rock. Lichens also left organic compost when they
died that proves to be beneficial to succeeding generations of plants.
Lodgepole Pines have winged seeds that
allow them to float on the wind to new habitats like those created when
glaciers retreat. In contrast, Whitebark
Pines have wingless seeds, and their cones do not even open on their own. They rely, instead, on a symbiotic
relationship with a species of birds known as Clark’s Nutcrackers. These birds collect and bury large quantities
of seeds that they intend to retrieve in
the winter for food. Studies have shown
that these birds do not find about a third of the seeds they bury, and these
lost seeds often turn out to be propitiously planted for the germination of
trees in new locations. This symbiotic
adaptation is one of the many marvels in the processes of biological evolution.
Today’s wild lands and wilderness areas are
like modern nunataks: they are
biological islands in a sea of altered and developed lands. As in the past, these modern nunataks provide
irreplaceable genetic storehouses that are capable of replenishing disturbed lands. Today’s National Parks and Wilderness Areas
and roadless areas in National Forests, and public lands administered by the
Bureau of Land Management, are thus vital islands of hope for the future. We simply must make much more serious
commitments to their protection!
Many young people today seem to be
increasingly suffering from ‘nature deficit disorder’. They plug in to television, computers, cell
phones and the Internet instead of developing creativity in outdoors
exploration and play. This trend does
not bode well for their own personal well-being, now or in the future, or for
the cultivation of that spirit in us all that is willing to protect the
vitality and beauty of creation. Go for
a walk in nature, and find a lovely place to free your feet; “your mind will follow!”
The global pressure to figuratively pave everything
over is mounting as our human numbers increase. This makes it imperative
for us to strengthen our will to protect parks, open spaces, wilderness areas,
and the integrity and balance of the natural world.
Bigger commitments are specifically needed to
preserving the health of our National Parks because they are beset by serious
problems. They are being damaged by
heavy vehicular traffic, wildlife poaching and air pollution, and they are
suffering stresses associated with decades of inadequate funding. This shortfall of financial support becomes
more visible when facilities are closed, public access is reduced, compromises
to visitor safety are made, law enforcement is diminished, or fewer
interpretive programs are available.
Natural Parks also have extensive maintenance backlogs and are reeling
from pressures of development and poor management practices.
A fascinating world of extraordinary understandings
is available to us if we remain sensitive to the healthy aspects of
relationships. By cultivating expansive
outlooks and maintaining open minds, we can more effectively respect and
appreciate the beauty and wonderful bounty of Mother Nature. These ideas
are written as a form of Earth advocacy and human sanity campaign. Join in!
“There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical
ambition of civilization to conquer every niche
on the whole
Earth. That hope is the organization of
spirited people who will fight for the
freedom of the wilderness.”
--- Robert Marshall, a founder of the
Wilderness Society
Chapter #30 – Reflections on Feminine
Perspective.
Consider what could be called the “Tragedy of the
Common Good”. This not uncommon
phenomenon has been growing like a malignant cancer in our societies. This tragedy is characterized by a natural
self-centeredness that is metastasizing into a high-stakes, winner-takes-all
game. Private plunder and public graft
have no doubt occurred in all nations throughout history, but nonetheless it is
high time for us to find more effective methods to limit such activities.
Private motivations operating in the public domain
have the effect of perverting our priorities and subverting the democratic
principles of fairness and equal representation. They do so by creating policies that are
inegalitarian, manipulative, foolishly irresponsible, and short-term
oriented. They also tend to contribute
to a ‘tragedy of the ecological commons’ in which top executives, wealthy
investors and lobbyists utilize capitalist entities like private banks and
large corporations to gain outsized privileges and benefits.
Too many governments
around the world are controlled by ‘conservative’ men whose deepest convictions
are driven by a strong bias for “strict father” male authority. More than a third of the people in the world
belong to Christian or Islamic religions that are distinctly dogmatic,
patriarchal, and dominion oriented.
These attributes hinder progressive change and contribute to human
rights abuses, culture clashes, discrimination against females, and conflicts
that undermine mutual security and threaten world peace.
Are there good ways that
we could inspire more cooperation, justice, civility, kindness, loving concern,
safety and reasonable commitments to the greater good? Yes! I feel strongly that humanity could better achieve
these goals by cultivating ‘feminine’ virtues of empathetic understanding,
constructive communication, peaceful conflict resolution, moderate
self-restraint, an earnest willingness to work together for the common good,
and a more nurturing caring for other people and for Mother Earth. It would be propitious for humankind to cultivate and empower
these more ethical, honorable and compassionate perspectives in our
societies. Worldviews that reflect these
feminine qualities are needed today more than ever.
“You can't depend on your judgment when your
imagination is out of focus.”
--- Mark Twain
We should all salute a well-developed anima in every man. The anima is the Jungian archetype of the
feminine in a man’s psyche, which is generally repressed. This unconscious feminine aspect of a male
allows him to connect with his inner gentleness, emotionality, sentiment,
sensibilities and broader spiritual awareness.
Hey, macho dudes, get over the strutting, and let’s get on with trying to
co-exist in peaceful ways. Let’s all cooperate better with others, and
strive to be more aware and open-minded.
Let’s try to grow personally, and heal wounds, and live in accordance
with Golden Rule ethics.
Women of the world, unite!
A united front
can accomplish great things. Patriarchal
leaders in modern societies strive staunchly to divide people, intimidate them,
and prevent them from uniting to assert their civil rights and gain greater
control. I’m not trying to
out-Marx Karl Marx when I write this, but someone has got to make more
committed efforts to get the majority of people to unite for the greater good
someday soon. Karl Marx advocated that
workers unite against capitalists to change the world. I figure that, though we have certainly not
transcended the need for greater fairness to workers, it is incumbent upon us
to unite in larger ways by supporting greater equality and fairer treatment of
females. By seeking unity and win-win
solutions, we will improve our chances for peaceful coexistence, expanded human
rights, and the overarching goal of ecological sanity.
Any manifesto
worth its salt has a goal, at least tangentially, of “saving the world”. My earnest intention in these writings is to
help facilitate positive social change and remake the world along more
auspicious lines. ‘God knows’ that there
is much to be done to achieve a more sane existence for you, me, and the most
vulnerable among us, as well as for our children and grandchildren. Making a positive
difference in the world seems like such a noble, practical and meaningful purpose; and it’s one that is much more desirable than
selfish, ignoble, and socially detrimental motives.
Note that I am
just a normal gal, and this manuscript is not about me. These ideas are an honest portrait of our
human societies, and only incidentally a kind of reflective self-portrait. The concepts contained herein resonate well
with enlightened versions of the truth.
They provide understandings that hopefully correspond more accurately
than most to reality, and thus offer a counterbalance to the rigidly
reactionary points-of-view that dominate and repress human societies.
Powerful forces
are channeled here. They demand the
expression of evolutionary wisdom from an awareness beyond our ephemeral
individual lives, a voice that calls out insistently for deeper perspective and
clearer understandings and smarter collective behaviors. My hope is that readers
will consider these ideas carefully and objectively, and maybe even discover
some “Aha! moments”. I hope readers will
care about these ideas and consider them carefully, or at least allow them to
stimulate thinking and questioning, and perhaps promote greater insights.
These points of view differ distinctly from
orthodox and doctrinaire ones. My
purpose in setting them forth is to advance ideas and understandings that are
honorable, visionary, democratically fair, far-sighted, noble and consistent
with America’s founding ideals. Among
these purposes is to make sure our government is responsive to the rights of
citizens, and to greater concerns for the common good. In contrast, the Establishment seems to be
primarily concerned with protecting and expanding lopsided privileges for
elites and narrow commercial interests.
These concerns are ironically similar to those of King George III and
the British Empire in 1776. It took a
Revolutionary War for Americans to overthrow that particular domineering
rule. History shows that bloodshed can
be avoided, and positive change can be achieved, by enacting initiatives that
are eminently fairer. So wise Solon
would have said!
Politicians and others who act as
mouthpieces and cheerleaders for special interest groups are often dishonest
and disingenuous with regard to their true motivations and intentions. They generally
distort the truth and advance policies that are detrimental to their societies
as a whole. In contrast, the ideas
herein are proffered with no other interest than to promote plans that are most
likely to make our societies healthier and more sustainable.
Readers of these words will certainly
notice my strong affiliation with progressive thoughts and ideas, and even with
some radical ones. These understandings
seem much more valid to me than narrowly self-interested points of view because
they are not driven by ulterior motives.
They are based on years of experience, observation, rational judgment, engaging
conversations, extensive reading, fair-minded analysis, extrapolated trends, and wide-ranging philosophical thinking. Their
motivation is not found in self-interest, and is not grounded in unwarranted
pessimism or superstition or ideology or paranoia.
I feel confident that a
greater appreciation of the life-supporting aspects of healthy ecosystems could
enable us to move boldly toward the goal of leaving a legacy that is more
salubrious for future generations. It
could also help assure us and our descendents of a better overall quality of
life. Clearer perspectives and more
caring values could help unite people in support of common goals and more
sensible policies.
If, somehow, a
million people read this manuscript, it is my strong conviction that the course
of history would be beneficially affected.
Please help achieve this goal by reading on, and by recommending it to
your politically and philosophically inclined friends. (THANKS!)
I
paraphrase Walt Whitman, from his poem So
Long:
From behind the screen where I hid I
advance personally solely to you.
Camerado, this is no book, Who touches this, touches a woman …
As Huck Finn remarked,
this ought to “give the bullfrogs something to croak about for days, I bet.”
Chapter #31 – Youthful
Insights.
High schools, colleges and universities are great
laboratories for the ferment of ideas. Young people have a much bigger
stake in fairer societies and sustainable activities and a healthy planet than
older people, who are relative short-timers.
Unfortunately, the interests of young people are being given extremely
short shrift in our societies today. Our
materialistic culture is inimical to the future well-being of young people due
to its emphasis on mindless shopping, profligate consuming, and wasteful uses
of resources. Adding insult to injury,
we harm the young by polluting, running up the national debt, and allowing
narrow special interests to control our politics, priorities and
decision-making.
Alert! Reading can sometimes become a kind of rote
activity. Our eyes often run
inattentively along the page as we dutifully intone the words we see while
our attention is distracted by a cascade of peripheral thoughts. Our minds can become preoccupied instead of
mindfully comprehending the ideas conveyed.
Our thoughts may wander while reading to a review of events, emotions,
fantasies and other distractions that percolate subversively through the interstices of our
minds.
Right now, please pay attention! Read these words alertly and with an open
mind. Evaluate the logic and sensibility of these observations, and feel
free to disagree -- but only after giving them fair consideration. Think
clearly and be skeptical. Critical
thinking can help reveal logical fallacies and misrepresentations in words and
actions. Remember the motto of the
Enlightenment Era:
‘Sapere
aude!’ -- Dare to know! --
Have the courage to use your own understanding!
These ideas are the culmination of many years of
evolving thought. The urgency of their motivation was stoked in the
aftermath of the traumatic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those attacks helped allow neoconservative ideologues
to hijack our country, and additional authoritarian impetuses will likely arise
as the twenty-first century unfolds.
Bold steps consequently need to be taken to strengthen our Constitution
and rules of law and courts against attacks on our rights, freedoms and the
greater good.
All the sociopolitical observations in
these writings have two primary concerns:
(1) that economic and political initiatives too
often adversely affect workers, young people, poor people and the natural
world, and are therefore harmful to the future well-being of the human
race; and,
(2) that it is ethically wrong for our government
to side primarily with the interests of a small group of privileged people at
the expense of the vast majority of Americans.
Reckless and relentless efforts are being
made by those on the radical right and their minions in government to shift tax
obligations from rich people and corporations to everyone below the upper
classes, and to everyone in the future.
These efforts are misguided, unfair and foolishly myopic. These gambits constitute a grave risk,
because they intensify social status conflicts and increase political
instability and environmental calamities.
Give us a break!
During my college years, one of my closest
friends and I enthusiastically saluted and embraced moments of “Instantaneous
Lucidification”. We recognized that enlightenment is elusive, but we also
saw value in cultivating consensus understandings and questioning authority --
and also in doubting “certainties”. We
liked this concept, which we had invented in a moment of clarity, spontaneity
and inspiration. We realized that there
are bigger picture perspectives and more accurate and insightful ways of seeing
the world. This gave us hope that some
sort of grand unified theory was somewhere out there awaiting to be
elucidated. Perhaps it is now coming
together!
I attended one of America’s great
universities in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Intellectual ferment was brewing back in those days, along with
idealistic peace movements and anti-war protests and social activism. Peace advocacy actually became a dangerous
position, and the FBI kept dossiers on peace activists. Perhaps this is why John Lennon was hounded
by authorities who wanted to deport him, as revealed in the excellent
documentary film, The U.S. vs. John
Lennon.
John Lennon
imagined all the people living life in peace.
He recognized the danger in advocating peace, so he wrote these lyrics in The Ballad of John and Yoko:
 The way things are going
They’re gonna
crucify me. 
When I was in my twenties, I spent a year
traveling around Europe, North Africa and Across
Asia on the Cheap, and then several years later I did another year-long
excursion around the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and the North Pacific. I hiked more than a thousand miles and read
hundreds of books during those days, and was exposed to many different
cultures, characters, attitudes, and broadening perspectives and
experiences. Having spent so much time
traveling, I imagined myself to emulate Plato, who had spent twelve years
traveling the world, “imbibing wisdom from every source”.
Plato had embarked on his extensive travels
at a propitious time. He had been
affiliated with the Athenian aristocracy and therefore represented a threat to
the democratic establishment at that time in his native Greece. Athens was ruled in that era alternately by
elite oligarchs or democratic factions, and neither form of rule was
ideal. The oligarchs had their own
selfish interests in mind, so when they were in power they went to great lengths
to defend the advantages of the few against the majority of ordinary
people. Plato regarded democracy as no
better, because the people were easily swayed by the emotional and deceptive
rhetoric of ambitious politicians, and they sometimes killed the wealthy in
violent revolutions. Disastrous wars, numerous atrocities and
terrible injustices often resulted from both types of rule.
Things aren’t all
that different today, despite revolutionary changes in communications, technology,
industrialization and demographics,. Things are not all that different because
human nature basically doesn’t change, so we are still mired in politics that
give us forms of governance that are far from ideal. Plato advocated that ‘philosopher kings’ should
rule, but benevolent philosopher kings happen to be exceedingly hard to
find! And they would probably never get
elected to office, lost in the miasma of election politics, fund-raising and
uncompromising self-interested partisanship.
There is an
interesting angle here in regard to Christian prophecy. Many faithful religious believers just can’t
wait for Jesus to come back, but ‘by God’ Jesus would be ignored or laughed out
of town for his simplistic moral teachings about the poor and the dispossessed. He would probably be homeless, and rather
than being recognized for his honorable humanistic values, he would as likely
as not be thrown in prison or crucified for his challenges to authority.
The need for transformation in our
societies is growing greater every day as our materialistic focus and myopic
willingness to plunder and destroy the natural world is causing increasingly
adverse circumstances. Young people,
unite! Remember the words of Thomas
Jefferson, who opined: “I believe that
the people, when properly armed with the facts, will come to the right
conclusion.”
I propose that college
courses be designed around the Earth Manifesto and dedicated to studying the
ideas it contains.
Chapter #32 – Arguments
Against Maintaining the Status Quo.
The European Renaissance of the 14th to 17th
centuries CE achieved greatness by embracing freedom of thought and by
rejecting the inherently puritan and tyrannical aspects of the Dark Ages and
monotheistic religions. Fluid concepts
of divinity helped spark great triumphs of science and logic. This state of affairs was accompanied by
advances in technological innovation and artistic creativity, and a greater
measure of democratic government was achieved.
Similar influences occurred in ancient Greek civilization, and have
pertained in the last 200 years in Western civilization.
In modern times, the challenges facing humanity are
urgent and more globally consequential than ever before, yet die-hard religious
evangelists and recklessly reactionary ideologies are trying to turn back the
clock by asserting stronger control over people’s thoughts, actions and
options. A new renaissance can be achieved only by rebuking and rejecting this
trend. We instead should promote more
progressive thinking, broad-mindedness, far-sighted perspective, and a
continuity of fair-minded resolve.
Intelligent action is needed. We should reject myopic and regressive
thinking that perversely accepts growing inequalities and injustices, unfair
special privileges, dogmatic denials, discriminatory bigotry, closed-mindedness,
authoritarianism, excessively harsh punishments, and fiscally irresponsible
governance. We should seek
enlightenment, or at least more visionary common sense, and we should reject a
Dark-Ages-like domination of ideas by demagogues and manipulative Strict Father
conservatives.
These are some of the many truths that are quite
inconvenient to authority figures and the powers-that-be in our societies. Adaptive changes are needed, and we really
should refuse to allow our social institutions to become ossified. We should not allow decisions to be made by
entrenched corporate interest groups, or by corrupt politicians and government
bureaucrats. We cannot allow the greater
good to be inexorably harmed by social conservatism, traditionalism,
reactionary leaders, or religious fundamentalists who are obsessed with obedience
and power and control and domination.
“Family values” is a slogan that has been used by
conservatives as a catchphrase to gain support and control. But true family values are being hurt by the
self-serving agenda of right wing conservatives who voice this slogan. Women and children are important parts of
families, yet their interests are being harmed by conservative influence on economic,
social, fiscal and environmental policies.
John Fowles succinctly expressed this idea in his
1970 book, The Aristos:
“In a world in which many societies and racial blocs are on the verge of
growing so large that they will have to exterminate one another in order to
survive, and in which the means rapidly to effect such an extermination are at
hand, conservatism, the philosophy of unrestricted free enterprise, of self, of
preserving the status quo, is obviously the wrong and dangerous one.”
When we see the human race wasting,
damaging, depleting and polluting rivers, oceans, wetlands, wild lands and
forests, we should be motivated to take steps to mitigate the harmful impacts
of these activities. At the same time we
understand that the world’s resources are being wantonly converted to cash, and
enormous sums of money are being borrowed to help stimulate the achievement of
this dubious goal, we must demand policies that discourage this ridiculously unwise
situation.
Business-as-usual practices and ideological
doctrines that support them are the most powerful determinants of our national
policies. Dogmatic adherence to these forces puts us at an ever larger
risk of failing to adapt to rapid changes in our societies and in global human
numbers.
Human affairs are strongly influenced by moral
concepts, cultural norms, social mores and urges to belong and conform. Powerful counter-urges, on the other hand,
motivate many people to conflict with the status quo in individualistic
self-expression. Whether traditionalist
or bohemian, reactionary or radically liberal, no matter what, it is time for
all of us to come together and boldly speak out against all forms of
shortsightedness and oppression.
Chapter #33 – Endangering
the Tree of Life.
On a clear day, you can easily see the Farallon
Islands from Mount Tamalpais in Northern California’s Marin County, and from
the hills of Point Reyes National Seashore. Wildlife enthusiasts on a
whale-watching expedition in 1997 witnessed an attack by a killer whale just
south of the Farallons in which a great white shark was lifted right out of the
water. It was an awesome display of the living world’s mysterious,
beautiful, and daunting natural order. This episode makes me think of the emotionally
moving documentary Blackfish, which
portrays how highly intelligent killer whales are, and the nature of their
psychosis-inducing captivity for use in sea life entertainment shows.
This is one example of the wondrous and dynamic
balance that exists in the living systems of our extraordinary home
planet. All forms of life exist in a fragile dance of survival, and “everything
eats everything else” with a seemingly pitiless enthusiasm. But life is quite resilient. Human beings are upsetting this marvelous
balance of nature with our mindless consumption and correlated propensities to
hunt wildlife, clear-cut forests, over-harvest biotic resources, destroy
habitats, introduce invasive species, pollute and degrade the land and rivers
and seas, and emit huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere. We do these things both
intentionally and inadvertently, almost as a matter of habit and compulsion.
Many kinds of large terrestrial mammals lived in
North America 12,000 years ago. There
were woolly mammoths, elephant-like mastodons, giant camels, dire wolves,
American cheetahs, saber-toothed tigers, a stately deer called the stag-moose, and five species of ground sloths, some as big as modern
elephants. There were beavers the size of today's black bears. Human beings
arrived around that time, from Siberia, and their hunting was a significant
factor in driving these large mammals to extinction. Some scientists argue that early settlers
introduced diseases that may have played a bigger role, as they did in the
decimation of natives when European conquerors arrived in previously isolated
places like Mexico, North America, South America, Australia, and the islands of
the Pacific.
In more modern times, millions of American bison
were slaughtered in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, driving the
species to the verge of extinction. Huge
flocks of passenger pigeons and many other species were completely wiped
out. The provocative book, The World Without Us contains
interesting insights into this topic in Chapter 5, ‘The Lost Menagerie’.
Imagine, along with John Josselyn, a flock of pigeons that “had neither beginning or
ending, length or breadth, and so thick I could see no sun.” Sometimes it would take more than an entire
day for a flock to fly past. And imagine
our having driven them all to extinction!
Humanity did not understand the role we have played
in causing extinctions until the late 1600s, when the large flightless Dodo
bird was wiped out on its native island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, as
lucidly described in David Quammen’s book, The
Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. Are
we ourselves acting like real “dodos”?
Human activities that damage habitats are crowding
out more and more species, ominously diminishing biological diversity. We
are in a figurative sense sawing off the limbs of the tree of life upon which
we are ever-more precariously perched. We should take steps to alter this
trend with the greatest possible sustained concern. To do this we need to
protect public lands and entire ecosystems.
We should work constructively with farmers, ranchers and other private
property owners to enforce the provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Our own well-being, as well as that of our
descendents, may well depend upon this.
Richard Leakey, one of the world’s foremost
paleoanthropologists, said in a speech in February 2006:
“There is an inevitability to extinction -- but there is no inevitability
to the cause of extinction
being our own stupidity and failure to
act.”
In a declaration published in Nature, an international weekly journal
of science, a group of scientists stated that the Earth is on the verge of a
biodiversity catastrophe. The scientists
indicated that only a global political initiative would be able to stem the
losses. They declared: "There is
growing recognition that the diversity of life on earth, including the variety
of genes, species and ecosystems, is an irreplaceable natural heritage crucial
to human well-being and sustainable development. There is also clear scientific evidence that
we are on the verge of a major biodiversity crisis. Virtually all aspects of biodiversity are in
steep decline, and a large number of populations and species are likely to become
extinct this century.”
These scientists further noted:
"Despite this evidence, biodiversity is still consistently undervalued and
given inadequate weight in both private and public decisions. There is an urgent need to bridge the gap
between science and policy by creating an international body of experts on
biodiversity."
More than 50% of the populations of
mammals, birds, fishes, amphibians and reptiles have been wiped out in the past
40 years alone, according to the startling findings of the Living Planet Report
2014. And scientists estimate that 12 per
cent of all bird species, 22 per cent of mammals, a quarter of conifers, a
third of amphibians, and more than half of all palm trees are threatened with
extinction within a century. Climate
change alone could lead to somewhere between 15 and 36 percent of all species
being driven out of existence by the year 2100, the scientists say. “Because biodiversity loss is essentially
irreversible, it poses serious threats to sustainable development and the
quality of life of future generations."
Studies of “island biogeography” have
revealed that a key variable in the number of species on any given island is
the territorial size of the island. It
turns out that the number of species on an island tends to be strongly
correlated to the size of the island. It
is almost as if this fact conforms to a consistent mathematical formula. A rough estimate is that the number of
species doubles for every tenfold increase in area. The formula also works in reverse, so
that if an island’s area containing wild habitats is reduced by 90%, the number
of species it can support drops by half.
The implications of this abstruse
information are daunting. When we
contribute to the fragmentation of ecosystems, it leads directly to a drop in
the number of species that can survive in them.
This is one reason that the average rate of extinction of species today
exceeds the average over the long term by a big factor, and it could increase
in the next century by a much larger factor.
About 540 million years have elapsed since
the end of the Precambrian Era. The
subsequent Eras of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic and Cenozoic are demarcated by
mass extinction events. Some say that
the Cenozoic is now giving way to a new Anthropozoic Era because of the
decimation of species by human activities.
This is not something about which to be proud!
Almost all species of life are nearly perfectly
adapted to the dynamic balance of conditions in the niches and ranges they
occupy. The recognition that the human race is causing extinctions could
be considered to be the beginning of a necessary evolution in awareness that
could contribute to our making revolutionary changes and turning the tide on
the damages we are causing. Let us acknowledge
this understanding, and give higher priority to mitigating the adverse impacts
we are having on biological systems!
New commitments must be made to finding ways to
reduce the destructiveness of our activities. Positive potential
solutions abound, as summarized in detail in the “Environmental Priorities” section
of the Progressive Agenda for a More Sane
Humanity. We would be well-advised
to free ourselves to pursue these better ideas by marginalizing the powerful
forces that are arrayed against such understandings and commitments. Can this be done?
Chapter #34 – A Focus on
What Is Really Important.
Another of the insights that professor Jared Diamond
shares with readers is that social risk is heightened when decision-making
elites are insulated from the consequences of their actions. In other
words, in societies where elites are insulated from suffering the consequences
of their decisions, they are more likely to pursue socially risky and
irresponsibly selfish short-term activities. This is highly negative for
the best long-term interests of society.
In the United States today, rich people are
insulated in many ways from the impacts they have. They live in gated
communities, drink bottled water, have good access to health care, send their
children to private schools, and are better able than the poor to avoid crime
and many types of health risks. Money allows them to be able to afford
more security and opportunity and variety. Their children have better
opportunities in education and employment, and are far less likely to be forced
to risk their lives in dangerous military service. Most of their children
will never be forced to try to make ends meet on minimum wages below the
poverty level for full-time work.
When Dante Alighieri wrote his sensational masterpiece
The Divine Comedy just over 700 years
ago, he expressed the provocative opinion that “the hottest places in Hell are
reserved for those who, in times of great moral crises, maintain their
neutrality.” That’s a provocative conjecture! To tell the truth, I don’t know a thing about
Hell. But there is little question that humanity is facing great moral
crises today. And these are NOT merely the gaudy sideshow of
controversial hot-button social issues like contraception, abortion,
abstinence-only sex education, gay rights, the role of religion in politics,
capital punishment, or the unfortunate nature of harsh and punitive
prohibitions like that against the use of marijuana.
Much more serious problems exist. These challenges encompass global risks that
are more significant than ever before in the history of civilization.
Poverty and malnutrition persist on a massive scale. Conflicts caused by
religious extremists are becoming more dangerous and costly. Military
violence against civilians is widespread. Vulnerabilities to both natural
and man-made disasters are increasing, and the environment is being
unnecessarily damaged. Grave social
injustices are being perpetrated against the powerless. And wealthy
people are acting with hubris at their triumphant status.
These challenges make it crucial for us to re-focus
our priorities and energies. We should be boldly assertive in adopting
strategic objectives so that resources will be used in more sustainable ways.
Renewable sources of energy like wind power, concentrated solar thermal power,
solar photovoltaics, and energy from geothermal generating plants should be
rapidly developed. Resource conservation measures and stronger
environmental protections should be put into place, and they should be fairly enforced.
And initiatives and institutions that stress peaceful conflict resolution
should be empowered to settle all conflicts related to the control of
territory, markets and natural resources.
Comprehensive
understandings are needed that have an expansive framework. For example, “comprehensive national energy
policy” should actually be comprehensive;
it should be sensible, smart and long-term oriented. Today’s energy policies are not
comprehensive; instead, they are
basically -- surprise! -- oriented toward wastefulness, vested interests, entrenched
corporations, and profiteers.
Likewise, when
legislators talk about “comprehensive immigration reform”, they often ignore
broader issues. Immigration policies
should take into account business needs as well as sensible urban planning,
economic globalization problems, international trade challenges, labor and
humanitarian issues, human rights, environmental protections, and fairness in
foreign policies.
Illegal immigrants represent a huge labor
‘black market’ that operates openly in the U.S.
This large pool of low-cost laborers provides big benefits to many
industries, including agriculture, construction, retail, hotels and restaurants. If the U.S. were to deport all of the
estimated 12 million “illegal aliens” within its borders, the agricultural
sector and many other businesses would suffer incalculably. Wages would skyrocket, housing prices would
tumble, our economy would falter, and calamitous social instability would
afflict Mexico and other countries. This
is NOT a good plan! Truly comprehensive
solutions to national and global problems are obviously needed.
Think
also about our health care system. It is
beset by catastrophic unfairness.
Michael Moore’s 2007 film ‘Sicko’ made
it maddeningly clear that the unjust and unwieldy healthcare system at the time
was failing not only the more than 45 million Americans who had no health
insurance, but also many of the 250 million Americans who did have insurance. The companies that sell health insurance make
bigger profits by raising premiums, reducing benefits and denying claims, but
profit surely shouldn’t be the main determinant in health care. The health security of all the people should
be given higher priority. We need to
tackle this sticky predicament and make good medical care more affordable to
all citizens of our nation.
The
U.S. has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy. Despite the fact that we spend more money on
health care than any other country, the World Health Organization ranks the
U.S. 36th in the world in life expectancy.
Many of the contributing factors are controllable, so we should make
greater efforts to improve them. We have
one of the highest obesity rates in the world due to over-eating, fast-food
eating habits, and inadequate exercise.
And child mortality is high in the U.S. compared to other industrialized
nations. The lack of a good system of
universal healthcare is a big contributing factor to these sad statistics.
A
letter to the editor some years ago stated:
“We saw Sicko by Michael Moore
and are completely incensed that our country, the wealthiest, mightiest
superpower in the world, has plenty of money for bombs and the war machine but
can’t provide free superior health care for its citizens, veterans, and Ground
Zero firefighters and volunteers. This
should be the time that we stand together as Democrats, Republicans,
Independents and Green Party members, et al, to solve the healthcare problem by
putting our immense resources to use in taking care of all people regardless of
income, age or ethnicity.”
Conservatives
attacked Michael Moore’s film Sicko
when it was released. They alleged that
the film promotes “socialized medicine”.
Such people do not call police and fire departments socialized, or
public schools and libraries, or the military, or public utilities, or
government agencies, but they are now striving to confuse the debate about
healthcare injustices with the red herring of socialism.
It
personally astonishes me that the current system basically forces tens of
millions of people who have no health insurance to rely on the most expensive
care there is -- emergency room medical services. The cost of this care must be covered by
everyone else through artificially high costs for hospital services. This isn’t socialism; it is stubborn
stupidity in the service of opposition to any changes in the sickly sweet capitalist
status quo.
Preventative
health care is not only auspicious in individual people’s lives, but the best
investment for minimizing healthcare costs, in total.
It
is time for us to do something smart and fair-minded about the serious
inequities in the arena of medical insurance and health care. We should act to better control escalating
costs, and deal more honestly with the problems caused by inadequate coverage,
treatment denials, preexisting conditions exclusions, and outlandish
profiteering. Dignity in dying and the
exorbitant costs of hospitalization in the final months of most people’s lives
should be given more compassionate consideration.
What
we really should have is universal healthcare like every other advanced
country. A single-payer system is
probably the best idea to insure everyone, for it helps finance care for all
who need it, when they need it, at affordable rates.
Michael
Moore may be a bit over-the-top in his advocacy, but Bravo! for his attempts to
alter the pathetic state of affairs that characterizes the status quo. Doesn’t it seem true that the advocacy of
fair, humane and noble causes is much more sensible and necessary than the
advocacy of unfair, unhealthy, unjust, narrowly self-serving, myopic or elitist
causes?
A
clever political cartoon in the Hannibal Courier-Post in 2007 showed Michael
Moore hanging by his wrists in a jail cell, with Fidel Castro beside him
explaining, “This is Cuba, Senor Moore, not America. You can’t criticize the government here. But the good news is that you get free health
care!” Ha! The truth of this sardonic humor counsels us
to use our freedoms to make the world a truly better place, and not just a better
one for rich people, regime insiders, profiteers, war hawks, control-freaks or
others that are unduly privileged, outlandishly greedy or ruthlessly
narrow-minded.
When we cultivate empathy for others, and
admit there are varying extents of economic insecurity in people’s lives, we
realize a greater degree of sympathy is justified. The more fortunate among us should be
generous-hearted enough to support social policies that are designed to
mitigate the most glaring inequities in educational and job opportunities, and
in healthcare. One of our
responsibilities as citizens and human beings should be to support measures
that mitigate the worst facets of economic insecurity. Among these are excessively high costs of
healthcare coupled with inadequate coverage, a lousy system for dealing with
indigent people, and the risks of crippling personal bankruptcy caused by
healthcare adversities.
Many people spin facts in ways that are
antagonistic to the straight truth.
Politicians, for example, often talk about war, or immigration, or
taxes, or jobs, or health care, or the environment, in words couched in a
linguistic framework that is simplistic, partisan and deceptive. Knowledgeable linguists tell us that issues
are generally framed in ways that are prejudicial to the speaker’s point of
view. The use of an established frame of
reference often distorts the way we perceive things in subtle but significant
ways. Studies show that our perceptions
of the world are deeply colored by our belief systems and our “confirmation
biases”.
Linguist George Lakoff wrote a compelling book
titled Don’t Think of an Elephant. Try it!
The book contains insightful ideas and comprehensive perspectives into
the nature of strategic objectives and the word-framed linguistics of political
spin. Study anything written by Ann
Coulter, the rash, unreasonable and rude darling of extreme conservatives, and
see the contrast of how absurd her ranting and raving falls short of Lakoff’s
reasoned analyses.
Intellectual honesty is severely lacking in
politics. Yet honesty and integrity are
required today more than ever.
Desperately serious consequences lie ahead if we fail to comprehend
this. It would be beneficial if someone
like the character Warren Beatty played in the film “Bulworth” would step forward to convey truths that are more
radically honest. Many people have
gotten their news perspective for years from the incisive humor of Jon Stewart
on The Daily Show, where a comedic approach to the truth highlights some of
the absurdities inherent in our politics and public activities.
Every story can be told in a variety of ways. Consider this idea objectively. The 9/11 attacks, for instance, can be looked
at from the point of view of Americans attacked; or from the point of view of the people who
planned the attacks; or from the
standpoint of demagogues who recognized the great opportunity for partisan
advantage that the calamity represented, along with radically improved
prospects in the short term for profiting from the stimulus of Keynesian
military spending. Or the attacks could
be seen from the perspective of objective observers who seek to honestly
understand deeper causes, consequences and implications.
The way a story is framed, and how it is told, affects the way we respond
to it. For these reasons, it is
incumbent upon us to try to see the Big Picture in all considerations, and to
take alternate points of view into consideration. Then we need to respond appropriately in
light of this illumination.
To make our
societies better within an acceptable time frame, courageous efforts to understand the truth are needed. So is a willingness to go along with the
implications of the fairest understandings, and to act in accordance with them.
“Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way.”
Chapter #35 – Conflict
and Its Undesirable Consequences.
Breathing in, I empty my mind; breathing out, I calm my body. Our purpose should be to live our lives more
fully, with appreciation and thanks giving.
Let’s count our blessings, and act to make a positive difference in the
world. No despair should be required.
Conflicts in the world over resources and ideas will
inevitably intensify as human numbers continue to grow. Since human numbers have more than tripled
from 2 billion to over 7 billion people in the last 75 years, and is on track
to increase to 9 billion before the year 2045, it is becoming ever more
apparent that we are on a collision course with natural limits of Earth’s
ecosystems to support us. Fossil fuels and other non-renewable natural resources
are being steadily depleted, and fresh water resources, fertile soils,
fisheries, wetlands, dry lands, temperate forests and rain forests are being
exploited and degraded in ways that can not be long sustained.
And we are pushing the carbon sink capacity of the
atmosphere and oceans beyond any reasonable degree of precautionary
sensibility.
Our top priority, given inevitably increasing
conflicts over limited resources, should be to take actions that transcend old
ways of thinking and acting. Stronger protections against damages to
providential ecosystems must be put in place.
Bold conservation initiatives and measures to reduce the profligate
wastefulness of resource usages need to be put into effect. Greater respect should be given to
international agreements and peace-building efforts. The U.S. should make new commitments to
fairly and peaceably resolving economic and political conflicts. Instead of undertaking expensive,
destabilizing and devastating wars and military occupations, we must find ways
to reduce tensions, mitigate conflicts, minimize antagonisms, and marginalize
extremism. Economic fairness and Golden
Rule religious tolerance for all are two of the top issues in accomplishing
greater mutual security, both at home and in global affairs.
Is it just coincidence that the current state of
affairs in the world today happens to hyper-stimulate gun sales at home? Could it possibly have anything to do with
heightened levels of insecurities and fears?
I see strong correlations, and reckon that reduced economic inequalities
and a more just world would make us all proportionately safer.
The reason that the French economist Thomas Piketty
writes that increasing extremes of inequality are “terrifying” is because
increased injustices in a society make everyone less secure.
One overlooked reason that wars are becoming so
inimical to future well-being is that warfare has horrible environmental
impacts. Lavish armaments spending and
huge standing military forces create a dangerous and destabilizing mutual
insecurity. A more thorough
investigation into comprehensive understandings related to militarism is
contained in Reflections on War – and
Peace!
Suffice it to say here, in words borrowed from John
Lennon, that we gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
gotta, gotta, gotta Give Peace a
Chance. All I am saying is,
empire-building militarism involves giant risks and extremely high costs. It may stimulate the economy, create lots of
jobs in “defense” and war services industries, and facilitate big opportunities
for profiteering and cronyism, but it is a bad plan. It crowds out domestic spending and allows
the U.S. to unethically intervene in the affairs of others for the sake of
controlling and dominating them and gaining unfair access to markets and raw
materials, but it is unwise and unfair policy.
The
old guns versus butter argument once again arises, and John Steinbeck once more
beckons with his incisive perspective:
“There is a war now
which no one wants to fight, in which no one can see a gain: a zombie war of sleep-walkers which
nevertheless goes on out of all control of intelligence. Some time ago a
Congress of honest men refused an appropriation of several hundreds of millions
of dollars to feed our people. They said,
and meant it, that the economic structure of the country would collapse under
the pressure of such expenditure. And
now the same men, just as honestly, are devoting many billions to the
manufacture, transportation, and detonation of explosives to protect the people
they would not feed.”
To improve our human fates, we need to create more
effective forms of cooperation, and always keep greater good goals in mind. The degree of mercilessness and corruption in
militaristic competition should be reduced.
Instead of fanning flames of religious radicalism, aggressive
nationalism and ethnocentric self-righteousness in a world supercharged with
tensions over disparities of income, wealth, power and privilege, we need to
strive to make international trade fairer and our societies more mutually
secure. To best reduce conflicts,
inequities and injustices in the world must be reduced, NOT made more
extreme. Unfairness naturally makes conflicts
worse.
Readers might
think that some of these ideas are naïve and unrealistic, but I believe that
the really insane beliefs are those that are driving us in the wrong
directions. We would be wise to be open
to understandings that are more enlightened.
Just because some activities have become routine, it does not mean they
are right, desirable, maintainable, or wise.
Propitious changes need to be made to deal with serious problems. We can no longer afford to allow people with
goals of obstructing reasonable solutions to be so richly rewarded. The common-sense social good requires such
changes, as does the well-being of all people in future generations.
Let’s be open to
finding enlightenment, and then act in accordance with enlightened understandings. What the heck! -- let’s embark together into
the Era of Enlightenment II.
Intuitions related to adverse trajectories inherent
in Tragedy of the Commons phenomena reveal why our current system is so
difficult to reform. Conflicts of
interest abound. Civilized behaviors
require big picture fair-minded compromise.
We need to begin to make revolutionary changes to improve the general
welfare. Comprehensive understandings
are our best hope for leading to the implementation of affirmative ideas and
initiatives such as those summarized in One Dozen Big Initiatives to Positively Transform
Our Societies, and in the Progressive Agenda for a More Sane Humanity.
We live in exceptionally interesting times. The pendulum of social change has swung from
progressive to regressive in the past four decades, and now it must begin a
powerful swing back toward greater reason and more expansive responsibility and
stewardship. Progress has always been convoluted
and complex, with lots of back eddies, side currents and periods of
stagnation. Despite controversy and
ambiguity and fervently sown doubt, it is growing increasingly apparent that
the Tea Party backsliding of recent years must now give way to truer progress.
Much more than minor tuning and feeble adjustments
are called for. Epochal changes are
required. We can cope with rapid change
best through new ways of seeing and bold action. The future calls for wisdom, courage and
sustained commitment -- perhaps even a generous modicum of evangelical
enthusiasm! -- all of it focused on optimizing our adaptation to accelerating
change.
Chapter #36 – A
Cautionary Tale.
Many species of life have made an evolutionary
bargain with the devil. Examples are flightless birds on islands that had
no predators for eons, or tuna fish that swim faster than any other fish in the
oceans but can never stop swimming because they would die from lack of oxygen
without continuous movement through the water.
We humans are making our own bargain with the devil by building up
civilizations that are wholly dependent on basic foundations that we are
depleting and damaging by the very nature of our busy aggregate daily
activities.
Goethe implies in Faust that we are always in the process of becoming, and that we
should rely on our intuition, our resources of character, and the heroic
aspects of our true inner being to make the right choices in life. Almost every spiritual tradition honors the
proverbial journey of the hero or heroine.
Athena, the patron goddess of heroes, was known for whispering advice to
her heroes and counseling restraint. The
hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savage within us, and to
use reason to overcome our compulsions and dark passions.
The ultimate aim of a true hero’s journey
is not merely to achieve conquest of others, or to achieve self-affirmation,
but to serve greater causes. Many
Faustian bargains with the devil are a kind of giving in to seductively
appealing temptations, but when we cultivate emotional intelligence we find
that it is valuable to control our gluttony, intemperance, hubris, pride and
vanity, and to avoid making choices that are likely to turn out to be ill
fated. One choice likely to be
particularly ill fated is to trade in our souls with a single-minded intention
of gaining power or getting things that are ultimately unimportant, like great
quantities of material possessions.
We
live in a world where millions of people eat themselves into obesity,
thoughtlessly harming their own health, while millions of others starve to
death. This is obscene. I love the concept of living large -- but NOT
through gluttony and conspicuous consumption.
How fabulous it would be if we could develop healthier ways of achieving
self-worth by means other than shopping, owning enormous homes, driving ‘sexy’
cars or fuel wasting SUVs, getting plastic surgery, squandering resources, or
being triumphant through ruthlessly aggressive competition. Miss
Representation!
Living
well is arguably the best revenge. And a persuasive case can be made that many of the best qualities in life are enjoyed most
fully when the crowd is the least. An
absence of crowds can often be most conducive to introspection, equanimity,
creativity, visionary understanding, true spirituality, simplicity, peace,
solitude, and the solace of open spaces,
Dr. Seuss, who wrote and illustrated more than 50
children's books during his life, published a book in 1971 titled The Lorax. It is a cautionary tale
of environmental destruction and greed.
The character named the Lorax tries to save the Truffula Tree forest and
its inhabitants from the Once-ler, who is a cantankerous exploiter. The
tale concludes:
The Lorax said
nothing. Just gave me a glance ...
just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance ...
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I'll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself up, and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks, with the one word ... "UNLESS." …
Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess.
That was long, long ago.
But each day since that
day
I've sat here and worried, and worried away.
Through the years, while my buildings have fallen apart,
I've worried about it, with all of my heart.
"But now," says the Once-ler,
"Now that you're here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It's not."
Someone like us must begin to care “a whole
awful lot”! We should revolutionarily
restructure our economic and political systems to be in greater harmony with
the long-term viability of our species’ survival, and create societies that are
more egalitarian and more truly just. We should strive to protect our
sustaining environment, conserve resources, enact balanced budgets, encourage
social tolerance, give women’s rights greater respect, root out political
corruption, and create greater security for all.
During the George W. Bush years, a guy named Doug
Goodkin composed The Grinch Revisited (with
thanks to Dr. Seuss):
The Whos down in Whoville liked
this country a lot,
But the Grinch in the White House most certainly did not.
He didn't arrive there by the will of the Whos,
But stole the election that he really did lose.
Vowed to "rule from the
middle," then installed his regime.
Did this really happen or is it just a bad dream?
He didn't listen to voters, just his friends he was pleasin'
Now, please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.
It could be his heart wasn't
working just right.
It could be, perhaps, that he wasn't too bright.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
Is that both brain and heart were two sizes too small.
In times of great turmoil, this
was bad news,
To have a government that ignores its Whos.
But the Whos shrugged their shoulders, went on with their
work,
Their duties as citizens so casually did shirk.
They
shopped at the mall and watched their TVs.
Oblivious to what was going on in D.C.
And ignoring the threats to democracy.
They read the same papers that ran the same leads,
Reporting what only served
corporate needs.
(For the policies affecting the
lives of all nations
Were made by the giant U. S. Corporations.)
Big business grew fatter, fed by its own greed,
And by people who shopped for the things they didn't need.
But amidst all the apathy came
signs of unrest,
The Whos came to see we were fouling our nest.
And the people who cared for the ideals of this nation
Began to discuss and exchange information.
The things they couldn't read in
the corporate-owned news
Of FTAA meetings and CIA coups.
They published some books, created Websites
Began to write letters and use their e-mail
(Though Homeland Security might send them to jail!)
What began as a whisper soon
grew to a roar,
These things going on they could no longer ignore.
They started to rise up and fight City Hall
Let their voices be heard, they rose to the call,
To vote, to petition, to gather,
to dissent,
To question the policies of the President.
As greed gained in power and power knew no shame
The Whos came together, sang "Not in our name!"
One by one from their sleep and
their slumber they woke
The old and the young, all kinds of folk,
The black, brown and white, the gay, bi- and straight,
All united to sing, "Feed our hope, not our hate!
Stop stockpiling weapons and
aiming for war!
Stop feeding the rich, start feeding the poor!
Stop storming the deserts to fuel SUVs!
Stop telling us lies on the mainstream TVs!
Stop treating our children as a
market to sack!
Stop feeding them Barney, Barbie and Big Mac!
Stop trying to addict them to lifelong consuming,
In a time when severe global warming is looming!
Stop sanctions that are killing
the kids in Iraq!
Start dealing with ours that are strung out on crack!
A mighty sound started to rise and to grow,
"The old way of thinking simply must go!”
Enough of God versus Allah,
Muslim vs. Jew
With what lies ahead, it simply won't do.
No American dream cares only for wealth
Ignoring the need for community health.
The rivers and forests are
demanding their pay,
If we're to survive, we must walk a new way.
No more excessive and mindless consumption
Let's sharpen our minds and garner our gumption.
For the ideas are simple, but
the practice is hard,
And not to be won by a poem on a card.
It needs the ideas and the acts of each Who,
So let's get together and plan what to do!
And so they all gathered from
all 'round the Earth
And from it all came a miraculous birth.
The hearts and the minds of the Whos they did grow,
Three sizes to fit what they felt and they know.
While the Grinches they shrank
from their hate and their greed,
Bearing the weight of their every foul deed.
From that day onward the standard of wealth,
Was whatever fed the Whos spiritual health.
They gathered together to revel
and feast,
For although our story pits Grinches 'gainst Whos,
The true battle lies in what we daily choose.
For inside each Grinch is a tiny small Who,
And inside each Who is a tiny Grinch too.
One
thrives on love and one thrives on greed.
Who will win out? It depends who you feed!
--- Composed in the year 2002, www.douggoodkin.com
Chapter #37 – Primary
Principles.
Whether liberal or conservative in political
worldviews, most people would agree with certain basic principles. A focus on these principles would help ensure
that our societies find a better way to plan ahead and use clearer foresight
that is more broad-minded, fairer, and more strategically poised for positive
outcomes.
Here is a summary of principles that would help
establish better policies and political initiatives:
(1) We should work together to leave America a better country, and
the world a better place.
(2) NOW is the time to confront the most serious of our national
problems. We cannot continue rear guard
actions of delay that pass a burning baton to runners in generations to
come. We should not wait until a
sufficiently calamitous crisis occurs before acting to cope intelligently with
the challenges we face. The longer we delay in dealing with a problem,
the more intractable it will in all probability become, and the more expensive,
painful and insidiously difficult it will be to solve.
(3) We should embrace a positive, hopeful, and affirmative vision of the
future, and strive to act consistently with noble values of fairness and the
common good to achieve this vision.
(4) Abuses of power by corporations or governments should be restricted.
More privileges and bigger profits for entrenched vested interests should not
be allowed at the expense of people’s health or irreversible damages to the
environment.
(5) Pervasive ‘special interest’ influences should be balanced to make our
government function better and ensure that our democracy is fairer. Lobbying should be made more ethical. Clean Money initiatives and Clean Elections
could help accomplish this, as detailed in Chapter #49.
(6) Our problems should be addressed in ways that do not harm the
prospects of people in the future.
(7) Our business and government institutions should be intelligently
redesigned to be sustainable for the long term in all aspects, including
fiscal, economic, and environmental ones.
(8) Precautionary principles should be heeded that reflect strong
concerns for the effects that human activities are having on the
environment. Each person should strive a bit more to become a better
steward of the Earth.
(9) Our legislative focus and federal spending should be better
prioritized to protect people and biological diversity. The real impacts of public policy decisions
on future well-being should be evaluated in all decision-making.
(10) The most crucial problems should receive the most attention and
funding. We cannot allow our political leaders to eagerly spend many hundreds
of billions of dollars on the military each year while we are being relatively stingy
with domestic priorities and vital infrastructure needs, and humanitarian aid
and sustainable development assistance around the world.
(11) Better spending discipline should be instituted, and greater fiscal
responsibility should be required. Our leaders cannot be allowed to
fleece future generations by borrowing enormous sums of money and creating
heavy burdens of debt and interest expenses, because such strategies are highly
unfair, irresponsible and shortsighted.
(12) Our federal and state governments should be held to strict standards
of accountability, transparency and oversight. Our leaders should be
required to do what is in the best interests of the public and of humanity, and
to reduce the extent to which they pander to the narrow interests of the rich,
of giant corporations, of speculators, of war profiteers and of other
entrenched interest groups. Politicians should be held to higher
standards of honesty.
(13) A cleaner energy regime should be hastened by implementing powerful
incentives for energy conservation, increased efficiency, and the stimulus of
innovative alternatives for fossil fuel usages.
Large subsidies to Big Oil should be eliminated, and new incentives
should be created to help make the transition to greater efficiency, more
conservation and a sustainable alternate energy regime. We can no longer afford to adhere to policies
that encourage wasteful uses of energy and a continued dependence on
non-renewable fossil fuels. The full cost of military interventions in
Middle Eastern nations should be pro-rated as a tax on every barrel of oil
burned, so that we pay as we go and stop foisting these costs onto future
generations.
(14) We should strive to be flexible and open-minded to better ideas, and
willing to support progressive change.
We should encourage respectful debate, and take dissenting views into
account according to an honest assessment of their merits.
(15) We should insist that our democracy be made fairer and more
participatory by supporting good public education and emphasizing people’s
abilities to think critically and farsightedly.
(16) We should make broad collaborative commitments to long-term solutions
to problems. Our leaders should work together to build the public’s
trust, and not stubbornly stick to dogmatic doctrines, simplistic deceptions,
unexamined assumptions, cherry-picked information, or growing disparities in
political representation of the interests of the rich compared to the poor.
(17) We should make our systems of justice fairer for all.
(18) We should take actions to strengthen and expand the middle class and
improve opportunities for social mobility.
(19) We should rein in the power, wastefulness and intrusiveness of the
federal government, which has increased its size in the last 50 years from 25%
of the national income to 45%. The purpose of government should NOT be to
create jobs by expanding bureaucracy and the military.
(20) We should transform our economic and foreign policies into ones that
are more mutually fair and secure, and limit our ambitions on the international
stage to ones that are ethical and legal.
And, (21) We should make sweeping changes in our social investments and
environmental policies to make sure that drinking water is safe, ecosystems
remain healthy, and that there are adequate protections of public lands, the
world’s oceans, the atmosphere, and biological diversity.
These are compelling issues that require bold,
visionary, honorable, courageous and fair national responses. Almost
everyone would agree that the most important purposes of government should
be to help establish safe, fair and sustainable societies while allowing a
maximum of individual freedoms to all. Our prosperity and our fulfillment
of deeper purposes depend on this.
Chapter #38 – The Bet
Situation.
A 17th century French scientist named Blaise Pascal formulated an idea
that came to be famously known as the “Bet Situation”. The Bet Situation
is concerned with philosophical debates that have profound practical
implications regarding probabilities and the future. We are all
confronted with Bet Situations in our lives because (1) there are
uncertainties, (2) we are inextricably involved in the game, and (3) it is important to us in our own lives, and in the
lives of our fellow human beings, that we make decisions that are more
conscious, conscientious, and socially responsible with regard to a variety of
important categories of bets we are collectively making.
Both actions and inactions are choices. We make choices whether or not we are
consciously aware of them. It is crucial for us, as well as for our
descendents, that we begin to make decisions that are more consistent with the
wisest courses of action. We essentially gamble every time we choose one
course of action over another, and we obviously should put our wagers on the
best outcomes. Those who are smart use common sense, and they bet with
the best odds and probabilities.
Here are some of the choices that we are
collectively making -- the ones that have the biggest impacts -- because a fair
evaluation of them can highlight valuable insights.
For one thing, we can gamble that natural resources
on Earth are inexhaustible. Or we can bet that it would be smarter to use
them less wastefully, and spare some for future generations.
We can gamble that resource limitations do not
matter because technology will find replacements for resources as we use them
up. Or we can bet that it is safer to take a “no-regrets” approach by
moderating our demands, and commit to conserving and protecting resources like
arable lands, wetlands, ocean fisheries, free-flowing rivers, fresh water
aquifers, tropical rainforests and what remains of old-growth temperate
forests.
We can gamble that we are not assaulting biological
diversity in ways that are so injudicious that they threaten our own eventual
well-being. Or we can bet that we really are taking great risks by
failing to protect biological diversity in the course of our aggregate
activities, and consequently commit our societies to policies that protect
wildlife habitats and endangered species, and ensure that most other forms of
life on Earth will survive this century.
We can gamble that spewing billions of tons of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually will not contribute to global
warming, climate change, and severe disruptions of natural
ecosystems. Or we can bet that it would be wiser to aggressively
adopt more efficient and conservation-oriented energy policies designed to
prevent irreversible ecological damages, and that we should seek alternatives
to fossil fuels as well as innovative ways to sequester man-made carbon dioxide
emissions.
We can gamble that laissez-faire capitalism, stoked economic
growth, and ever increasing consumption are best for the robustness and health
of the economy. Or we can bet that the best way to achieve a fair and
sustainable future would be by redesigning our economies to use smarter
policies, incentives, and sensible regulations to safeguard our economy while
reducing waste, profligate consumption, and destabilizing speculative
excesses.
We can continue to gamble that the distorted market
mechanisms that currently characterize our sink-or-swim Crony Capitalist system
are the best plan for our country, and staunchly defend and protect this system,
allowing Big Business to prosper at the expense of small businesses and the
environment and society as a whole. Or we can bet that a transformation
to Green Capitalism should be facilitated, and begin to enact bold, intelligent
initiatives that channel our collective activities into more wholesome
directions that help create better societies and a more secure world for
ourselves and our children.
We can gamble that the valiant race to produce more
and more food to feed inexorably increasing human numbers can be won by
continuing to advance industrial agricultural practices that employ crop
monocultures, massive mechanization, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and
the use of antibiotics and hormones in meat and milk production. Or we
can bet that Thomas Malthus will inevitably be proved right, and consequently
begin to support family planning programs, make contraceptives readily
available to women worldwide, better educate and empower women, and
simultaneously support crop diversity, local agriculture, organic farming, the
conservation of farm lands, and the principles of the Slow Food Movement.
We can gamble that opposition to family planning
programs worldwide is a God-prescribed moral imperative and a good idea.
Or we can bet that giving generous support to family planning programs is wise,
compassionate and quite necessary, and take actions to stabilize population,
beginning with sensible sex education programs and a permanent injunction
against the imposition of the U.S. Global Gag Rule, and make a substantial
increase in funding to the UN Population Fund, and encourage the use of contraceptives
to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.
We can gamble that our individual actions are so
insignificant that it makes no difference what we do, or whether we vote, and
thus that we do not need to devote any attention and energy to the social
good. Or we can bet that dramatic change is possible through the
aggregation of caring individual choices, and act to make a difference by
supporting smart and positive progressive change.
We can gamble that unmitigated social injustices and
policies that facilitate the concentration of wealth in the hands of the
wealthiest 1% are not a threat to social stability and well-being. Or we
can bet that the safest and wisest investments of all are in universal public
education, social justice, equality of opportunity, resource conservation and
peaceful coexistence, and act accordingly.
We can gamble that helping the rich to become richer
by cutting taxes to the lowest level in generations, while imposing further
austerity on the poor and the middle class, will not result in more intense
social tensions, heightened insecurity, worse levels of crime, or an increased
impetus toward terrorism or violent revolution. Or we can bet that enacting
policies that encourage inequalities and injustices and disparities of wealth
might have such consequences, and therefore enact fairer and more humanitarian
policies that are most likely to generate a broader overall well-being.
We can continue to gamble that aggressive militarism
is the best way to achieve our economic goals and national security. Or
we can bet that aggression and preemptive war policies are prohibitively
costly, and that it would be wiser to recognize that justice and peace are
vitally important in the world, and thus take bold steps toward dedicating more
resources to improving our own society and to achieving greater mutual security
by means of diplomatic conflict resolution and commitments to wide-ranging
social justice.
We can gamble that the Strict Father constellation
of beliefs are best, and defend the status quo by following the regressive,
power-abusing doctrines of radical conservatism and patriarchal dominion.
Or we can bet that a renewed respect for the constellation of Nurturing Parent
values would create better balanced public policies, and consequently commit to
electing leaders whose philosophies and policies honor more sensible and
progressive principles.
We can gamble that there is a life hereafter --
after our personal death -- and fail to maximize our happiness, our potentials
in this life, our authenticity and our appreciation of existence, of deeper
purposes and of truer causes. Or we can bet that the Here and Now
mandates our acknowledgment that this life alone can be known, that no body
survives death, and that we should wholeheartedly seek to achieve a more noble
connectedness to the wholesome and the worthwhile in the Present.
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, how
so foolish the gambles of our entrenched decision-making are proving to
be? As readers might easily surmise, my
perspective is that the best bets we can make are oriented around supporting
far-sighted ideas that take into account the comprehensive breadth and depth of
human knowledge and spiritual understandings. Scientific insights and
expert understandings should be honored.
And broad-minded initiatives should be undertaken to ensure that the
gambles we make are fairer, more reasonable and more sustainable.
As an ironic aside, the gaudy city of Las Vegas,
Nevada was until the Great Recession one of the fastest growing cities in the
U.S. Yet Las Vegas is pathetically
oriented around gambling, alcohol consumption, sexual titillation, non-stop
entertainment, lavish shopping, indoors cigarette smoking, insensate hedonism,
overeating, and the insidiously harmful idea that people can get unearned
riches.
Gambling is a compulsive and maladaptive behavior
that has many negative impacts on society.
A National Gambling Impact Study Commission has revealed that millions
of Americans are detrimentally affected by serious social and economic
consequences of “problem gambling”.
Gambling addictions can lead to bankruptcy, crime, divorce, domestic
violence, child neglect, child abuse, homelessness and even murder or
suicide. The ‘gaming’ industry and the
politicians who advance its goals are too often afflicted by corruption, fraud
or racketeering. Perversely, lotteries
principally prey on poor people and minorities.
Let’s find ways to discourage gambling!
Gambling
with extremely high stakes, like with the well-being of our children and
theirs, is a vice that strikes me as particularly ill advised!
Chapter #39 – Insight
into Pyrrhic Victories.
Sustainable existence in
the long run calls for actions that reduce injustice and calm tensions in the
world. This would allow cuts to military
spending worldwide. There is a tendency
toward mutually-assured destruction that is implicit in the overkill potential
of nuclear-armed nations, which possess thousands of nuclear warheads in
total. More subtly, there is a degree of
insanity in the waste, resource misallocation, habitat ravaging, and
inadvertent injustice caused by huge levels of debt-financed military
spending. While war may be the ultimate
expression of competition, it is an expression that is increasingly unacceptable
as the world population grows and competition intensifies for control of
territory, fertile soil, mineral resources, fossil fuels, and fresh water.
Might does NOT make
right. Calamitous developments loom, and
NOW is the time to put in place mechanisms that will be more effective in
preventing international conflicts. The
“war on terror” is already one of the world’s most costly conflicts ever, and the
priorities it represents are quite clearly distorted. Much better ways of spending trillions of
dollars exist -- ways of building peace, ensuring mutual security, creating
friends rather than enemies, reducing extreme poverty, implementing sustainable
development, conserving resources, making concerted efforts to create greener
policies, and protecting the health of the environment. In other words, we should choose to invest in
making the destiny of all life on Earth a little more likely to be
fortuitous.
The “war on terror” is a
slogan, not a sensible strategy for making America safer. Sure, the U.S. has had some ‘successes’ in
this war since 9/11/2001. Hundreds of Al
Qaeda operatives, including Osama bin Laden, have been killed or
imprisoned. Intelligence activities have
significantly disrupted terrorist network communications and financing operations. Terrorist attacks on markets, mosques, and
innocent civilians have had the effect of eroding some support for terrorist
tactics.
Yet, by simplistically
treating terrorism as a broad and somewhat indiscriminate war, our strategies
have led to serious harm. We have been
baited, and with a reactive cowboy mentality we have reacted in extremely
costly ways. We have hurt our country
and the world by reacting to the 9/11 attacks with grave injustices of our own.
Our somewhat indiscriminate war on
terror has ratcheted up federal debt burdens and created increased
probabilities of dangerous retaliatory blowback and destabilizing extremism.
We have inflicted damage
on ourselves with our mistakes. We
unwisely attacked and occupied Iraq under false pretexts, convulsing that
country with terrible social turmoil. We
have squandered huge sums of money on warfare, and on pork barrel spending for
a variety of “homeland security” programs.
We have wasted worldwide sympathy in the wake of 9/11, and significantly
damaged the moral authority America once had.
This perspective makes any successes we have had resemble “Pyrrhic
victories”. The Greeks who won the
original Pyrrhic victory, with staggering losses, over Romans in 279 BCE would
attest to the veracity of this contention.
In another regard,
mankind can ironically be seen to be ‘winning’ a string of Pyrrhic victories
over the natural world. We deny to
ourselves the fact that these are NOT real victories. They are actually insidious losses that are
acceptable outcomes only in the delusion of an absurdly hubris-swollen point of
view, and of a myopic failure to clearly comprehend ecological truths.
The very premise of our
civilization is that human beings have the right to do as we like, and to
assert dominion over all living things no matter how harmful this may prove to
be. We have foolishly ignored the
extents to which our actions are unsustainable and jeopardous to future
well-being.
Our modern industrial
mode of consciousness fails to recognize and respect the primary basis for well-being
that is found in undepleted topsoil and uncontaminated fresh water and a stable
climate. It is downright stupid to give
inadequate value to the health and integral community of planetary biological
systems, and to congratulate ourselves with pride on our dominion, as if we are
the only beings in the world that matter, as if anointed by the gods. Christ!
We are beginning to find
out that this way of seeing the world is fatefully inaccurate, and that it is
insane for us to allow the impoverishment of natural ecosystems. For our own larger self-interest, we should avoid making
societal choices that either fail to address the biggest problems we face, or
actually make them worse. It is as
though we are engraving our names on the tender bark of a young oak tree, not
understanding that these wounds will enlarge with time and reveal to posterity
the full-grown folly of our detrimental activities.
Chapter #40 – Greatness,
or Ignominy?
The
United States is a great country. It has
been made great by its Constitutional principles, its promise of equal justice
and opportunity, its democratic institutions, and the fairness doctrines
included in the Bill of Rights. Our
greatness is reinforced by open-mindedness in embracing creativity and
innovation, and by our theoretical commitment to the general welfare and
individual liberties. Our rough
adherence to fair rules of law, together with the progressive advances made
since the Civil War in the realm of human rights, have also contributed to the
positive character of our country. Due
process, equal treatment under the law, respect for individual dignity, freedom
from unreasonable search and seizure, and theoretical guarantees against
unwarranted government surveillance of citizens have been included among these
characteristics that have made our country great in an era that is one of the
most remarkable in all of world history.
“Capitalist assets not all that bad, comrade.”
--
Appreciative appraisal of a slender mini-skirted female by a clever dude in the
1980s
Candidates
that want to become President of the U.S. compete for the nomination of their
party by striving to strike a balance between the political center and the
extremes, so Democrats are center-left and Republicans are center-right. Once a candidate wins the nomination, he or
she must compete in national elections, so they both scramble a bit toward the
center.
That’s
the theory of it, anyway. Fueled by
Super PAC money, which is a rather blatant form of institutionalized bribery,
the Republican Party is managing to brainwash a sizable proportion of the
American people into provisionally supporting candidates who compete to be the
farthest right they can get. This is due
to the influence of Tea Party candidates who demand an extremely “conservative”
agenda.
Presidential
candidate Mitt Romney “flip-flopped” toward extreme conservative orthodoxy in
2012 on such issues as contraception, abortion, discrimination against gays,
stem cell research, immigration and gun rights.
Back in April 2007, a series of Doonesbury comic strips had mocked
Romney for such socially retrogressive and hypocritical shifts from principle
to doctrine. “Sir, No Sir!”
The
worst outcome in Presidential elections, for reasons cited extensively herein,
is that citizens elect a center-right politician who gets into power and then
advances causes of the extreme right.
George W. Bush had made election promises to be honest, trustworthy and
compassionate in the year 2000. He
boasted of an intention not to involve our country in nation-building by the
military. He claimed he would be “a
uniter, not a divider”. But then he
chose to rule in obedience to the harsh, extreme right views of Dick Cheney and
the discredited ideas of neoconservatives and economic fundamentalists.
The
true principles of both democracy and republicanism support liberty and rule by
the people, as well as civic virtue practiced by citizens in
accordance with a constitution and rules of law. The American people
should demand that their representatives respect the Constitution as well as
the progressive evolution of established law since 1789. This means that our representatives should
better represent the interests of all Americans, not just insiders and the
wealthy few. Ethics reform is needed to
stop the federal government from acting principally in the best interests of
big corporations, rich people, war enthusiasts and religious fundamentalists.
The age-old games will always persist; people and companies will eagerly try to grab
a bigger share of the loose public treasury.
Not only do we have a political system that facilitates this, we have
lots of corruption on top of it. Here is
an excellent reason why we need to restructure our economic and political
institutions, and regulate them better, and manage them more fairly.
“The
worst thing about corruption as a system of governance is that it works so
well.” That thought-provoking thought
was expressed by a character in the epic novel Shantaram. Various forms of
corruption do seem to work well in many countries of the world -- in the short
run. The worst thing about our system of
growth-addicted Disaster Capitalist system is that it works well for the
wealthy, at the expense of everyone else, but exploitive technologies and
political corruption and short-term-oriented national policies are too often
negative and contrary to the common good.
I
call on both the Democratic and Republican Parties to revise their national
platforms to be more consistent with wise understandings of social justice, and
of environmental sanity.
Our
national image and well-being were terribly tarnished by the politicians in the
Bush administration and its appointees in the Justice Department. They facilitated injustice and
shortsightedness by pandering to partisanship and the wealthy. They opposed family planning programs. They tried to dominate and control working
people, and other nations, and nature itself.
They imposed a pathetic tyranny on our communities -- a tyranny of
social regression, fiscal irresponsibility, invasions of privacy, occasional
bureaucratic nonsensicality, costly and reprehensible militarism, and
ecological myopia. Conservative leaders
seem to be staunchly committed to narrow interests, so they aggressively abuse
power and promote oligarchic plutocracy (rule by the few, for the wealthy),
instead of fairer democratic governance.
Congress has continuously acted with disregard for
the common good by increasing the size of the federal government bureaucracy,
which is already bloated and too intrusive.
It indulges in cronyism, dishonesty, corrupt practices, pork barrel spending, and
the encouraging of public land
exploitation. It borrows and spends huge
amounts of taxpayer money in fiscally foolish ways. Conservatives are especially eager to
eviscerate environmental protection laws.
Congress has failed to enforce the polluters-pay principle that
obligates companies to reduce the pollution they cause, and to pay for damages
that such pollution causes to people’s health and the environment.
Though George W. Bush claimed during his first
presidential campaign to be “a uniter, not a divider”, once he was elected his
administration cynically pursued highly divisive actions. It mercilessly exploited hot-button social
issues and stoked fears of terrorism to increase its power. It abused this power by striving to
manufacture consent and manipulate Americans into supporting wrong-headed
military policies and poorly-prioritized domestic policies. It created more inequality in education and
job opportunities, and a bigger disparity in fortunes between rich people and everyone
in the working and middle classes.
The Bush Administration worked to subvert our
democracy in many ways. It evaded
oversight by Congress. It demanded
loyalty to doctrines that were shrewd, exploitive and shortsighted. It used Karl Rovian dirty politics, political
machine politics, and character assassination instead of honest debate. It used smear campaigns, voter suppression
and intimidation, and election fraud to deprive minorities and poor people of
fair representation. It
overstepped its executive authority with Patriot Act prosecutions, and violated
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and secretly spied on citizens. And, as it turns out, the NSA surveillance
schemes were only just beginning, and have been amplified during the tenure of
Barack Obama.
George W. Bush
aggressively used “signing statements” to avoid complying with more than 1,100
provisions of laws enacted by Congress.
An American Bar Association Task Force declared some uses of signing
statements to be “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of
separation of powers.”
By using signing
statements, President Bush asserted a poorly founded right to ignore the will
of Congress and the American people. One
of the most egregious examples of the use of this ploy took place in January
2008, when Congress passed the annual National Defense Authorization
Act. This law included a statute that
instructed the Bush administration not to spend taxpayer money “to establish
any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the
permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.” But the President attached a signing statement
to the law that asserted a right of the President to disregard the ban on
permanent bases. Another provision of
this Act was an accountability measure that would have established an
independent and bipartisan ‘Commission on Wartime Contracting’ to eliminate
waste and fraud and law violations by private security companies. President Bush used a signing statement to
oppose this, in essence supporting waste, fraud and law violations. This constituted a sad and dishonorable
usurpation of power.
The
Bush Administration sought to amend the
Constitution to make society more discriminatory against gay people. It sought to limit the reproductive rights of
women and their privacy and the freedom to choose the course of their own
lives. It attempted to dominate
society and engineer America into molds of prudish, puritanical, misogynistic,
intolerant and self-righteous evangelism.
These ends were not by any stretch of the imagination consistent with
the general welfare.
Years
after that paragraph was written, Todd Akins made a big splash in the
news. A member of the House Committee on
Science no less, he uttered some truly bizarre statements about how women can
magically shut down getting pregnant, as if they have some sort of effective
emotional prophylactic morning-after power.
Apparently Todd Akins believes that a woman can be so traumatized by
being “legitimately raped”, and so alarmed by the sudden influx of a rapist’s
sperm, that her ovum would resist impregnation.
Introduce yourself to the statistics, Todd: 5% of women who are forcibly raped become
pregnant. And, reprehensibly,
conservative Republicans want to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision by the
Supreme Court and force raped women to bear the children of rapists.
One of the most egregious initiatives of
the U.S. when George W. Bush was in power was the risky and dangerous precedent
of preemptive warfare. The U.S. invaded
Iraq using a variety of changing rationalizations; threats were hyped, costs were ridiculously
underestimated and reasonable warnings were ignored. Unrealistic scenarios were advanced and dissenters
were intimidated. Many terrible collateral
injustices were intensified, and the occupation of Iraq was characterized by
corruption, missing weapons, poor governance, squandered money, and very ineffective
reconstruction efforts. According to the
Iraqi Cabinet member Ali Allawi, the U.S. manifested “rank amateurism and
swaggering arrogance” and “monumental ignorance” during the military
occupation.
These actions created much resentment,
anger, suspicion and instability. They
strengthened the resolve of those opposing the U.S. and augmented the numbers
of recruits to terrorist causes, insurgencies and religious extremism, as
evidenced by increasing influence of terrorist organizations in the world in
the past decade. We have exacerbated
stresses and hostilities, unleashed heightened religious and ethnic conflicts,
and contributed to an impetus for civil strife in Islamic countries.
The top ‘legal
beagle’ job in the U.S. is the Attorney General, a position that presides over
the Department of Justice. The Mission
of this agency is to “ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for
all Americans”. It is revealing that the
first two men to hold this position in the Bush Administration were both
loyalists to ideology and partisan politics and the President, but NOT to
independent and fair enforcement of the law on behalf of the American
people. John Ashcroft tried to impose
his Christian religious beliefs on the nation, even taking the bizarre step of
ordering an $8,000 drape to cover the exposed breasts of a Lady Justice
statue. Oh, yes, I suppose bare breasts
are shocking to some (Janet Jackson found this out on national TV when her
“wardrobe malfunctioned” during a Super Bowl halftime performance in
2004); but a classic statue?! Prudes, please decamp!
Irony is an entertainingly incongruous trickster. Consider
the circumstance that John Ashcroft actually echoed the actions of a character
named Biago da Cessena, an apologist for Pope Paul III in the year 1540. Biago expressed deep offense at naked
Biblical figures that Michelangelo portrayed in his magnificent frescoes. So when Michelangelo was commissioned to
paint his vision of the biblical Last
Judgment on a wall of the Sistine Chapel, some 20 years after he had
finished his famous work on the ceiling, he responded to Biago’s prudish
criticisms of his art by depicting Biago in a corner of The Last Judgment sporting the ears of an ass.
John Ashcroft’s
replacement was Alberto Gonzales, who suffered the ignominy of debate on a
no-confidence vote in the U.S. Senate in June 2007 and was subsequently forced
to resign. The main issue that led to
that outcome was the determined effort by Gonzales and members of his staff to
politicize the Department of Justice by firing federal prosecutors and
replacing them with less qualified but more ideologically loyal Republican
lawyers. Partisan considerations were
also used to fill lower level non-partisan career legal jobs at the Justice
Department. Gonzales had been
instrumental in efforts to facilitate methods of harsh prisoner interrogations
and torture tactics in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and to diminish the
civil liberties of American citizens by the implementation of a warrantless
wiretapping program. He and other White
House officials stonewalled Congress, claimed memory lapses, gave contradictory
testimony, failed to deliver subpoenaed documents, and apparently lied under
oath. These shrewd evasions were deeply
dishonorable. They are reminiscent of some
of the devious activities of Richard Nixon;
maybe history does repeat itself!
The third Bush Attorney General, Michael
Mukasey, was chosen in November 2007. He
received close attention from the Senate for indications of whether he would
truly represent the people, or if he would be likely to follow his predecessors
in marching lockstep with the Administration’s abuses of power. One principal issue was whether Mukasey
considered the cruel practice of “waterboarding” to be torture.
The Bush White House’s serious and
aggressive efforts to grab greater power for the Executive Branch was
informatively analyzed in a video segment “Power of the Presidency” on Bill Moyers Journal (google it!). Bill Moyers, thank you for your intelligence,
vision, objectivity and honorable commitment to important causes!
Visionary intelligence is needed to guide
us toward fairer and more progressive understandings and actions. We should reject ruthless, unjust,
controlling, money-obsessed, special-privilege-defending forces of corporatism,
neoconservatism and aggressive militarism.
A vigorous and independent civil society is needed, not increased
government power or authoritarian abuses of power or expanding corporate
prerogatives or war profiteering. An
echo of Shakespeare’s version of Julius Caesar’s words reverberates around us:
Friends,
readers, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I
come to bury Empire, not to praise it.
The
evil that men do lives after them;
The
good is oft interred with their bones.
We
citizens are being crudely and shrewdly manipulated,
In
deference to plutocratic rule by the few and the wealthy.
And
true democratic and republican principles are being abandoned,
Giving
the fortunate few more power and coin.
O
woeful day! O traitors, villains!
This
is the most unkindest cut of all.
Ambition
and tyranny allied together is a grievous fault,
And
ingratitude and treasonous acts afflict us all.
O
judgment! Thou art fled to brutish
beasts,
And
men have lost their heart and reason.
What
private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That
have made them do this: they are wise
and honorable,
And
will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I
have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
To
stir men’s blood: I only speak right on;
And
if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage
Should
I do wrong to these presumed honorable men?
Mischief, thou art afoot; take thou what course thou wilt!
Chapter #41 – Ideas and
Beliefs.
Realism is a doctrine asserting that the external
world really exists
Independent
of perception, and that it exists substantially as we perceive
Yet life
and knowledge today are seen to be so complex and bewildering
That it is often quite
difficult for us to know exactly what to actually believe.
Truth generally lies in the coordination of
differing and conflicting opinions
So free,
sensible and open-minded discussion is needed to allow us all
To pick our
way through biases, spin, propaganda, and shortsightedness
To achieve a good understanding
of Nature’s increasingly cogent call.
The philosophical ideas of the late British author
John Fowles are illuminating. In his 1970 book, The Aristos, he expressed the belief that, in the face of powerful
social pressures to conform, we are “one of the most sheep-like ages that has
ever existed”. Our abilities to think
clearly, to consider objectively, and to express opinions freely are important
for healthy self-understanding, and they are vital requisites for the proper
functioning of democracy. In the
Introduction to The Aristos, John
Fowles stated meaningfully:
“Yet another purpose of this book is to
suggest that the main reason dissatisfaction haunts our century (the
twentieth), as optimism haunted the eighteenth and complacency the nineteenth,
is precisely because we are losing sight of our most fundamental human
birthright: to have a self-made opinion on all that concerns us.”
Forty-five years have passed since the first edition
of The Aristos. Influences that
confuse and mislead people have significantly multiplied during this
interregnum. One pervasive means of this manipulation is found in
consumer marketing, which strongly affects our consumer behaviors and makes
people feel that they have ever-expanding “needs”. Similar kinds of advertising can make us powerless
pawns of slickly manufactured demand.
When people’s desires are exploited, this can
adversely affect thoughts and emotions.
Likewise, when people’s fears or drives for status are taken advantage
of, adverse effects can result.
Right-wing worldviews and economic doctrines are increasingly being used
to manipulate our ways of seeing things.
So are religious dogmas. Deceptive
political spin, along with other influences of mass media and prevailing social
prejudices, tend to make us more biased.
Only by fostering better education, clearer thinking, and more
independent understandings can we overcome these influences.
J.
Krishnamurti, a philosopher from India who died in 1986, once gave public talks
in such places as an oak grove in Ojai, California. There, he urged people to pay careful and
scrupulous attention to their thoughts and feelings. He regarded this as a precondition for self-transformation,
and thus needed for positive social change.
He denounced authority, dogma, creeds and indeed all organized belief
systems, and he urged people to think
independently and clearly, and to empty their minds of conditioned
thoughts. He advocated heightened
awareness and holistic outlooks free from prejudice.
Our perceptions, thoughts and emotions are also
strongly influenced by hereditary and conditioned predispositions to adhere to
certain beliefs. When we examine our
beliefs and compare them for validity with alternate ideas, we sometimes see
broader contexts, deeper perspectives and truer relationships. Better understandings can be gained by
embracing an existential clarity of honest assessment of our behaviors and
motives and biases.
Like all bold new ideas, the basic ideas of
sustainable living will pass through three stages: First, the ideas are
ridiculed and violently opposed; Second,
they are grudgingly acknowledged, but disparaged as being obvious and insignificant;
and third, they are accepted as important and self-evident. As Mark Twain once wrote: “A person with a new idea is a crank, until
the idea succeeds.”
Similarly, according to the famous Swiss naturalist,
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873):
“Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the
Bible. Next they say it had been
discovered before. Lastly, they say they always believed it.”
It isn’t really a bold new idea that we should
seriously tackle the daunting problems that face us. Obviously it would be smart to find ways to
change the systems and behaviors that are undermining the potential for
movement in fairer and more likely sustainable directions. Entrenched forces can be forced to compromise
more fairly in our democracy, and we can achieve a transcendent commitment to
positive change. Vigilance, clarity of
convictions, and insightful understandings can help us in this endeavor.
We are being taken for a ride, folks, and it is not
just a vast conspiracy or a small subset of rogue business leaders, crooked
politicians, greedy people or conniving liars that are responsible. It is the SYSTEM itself that is to blame for
allowing dog-eat-dog opportunism to have such overwhelmingly dominant
influence. The federal government
sometimes operates like a gullible and helpless giant, incapable of frugality
or discipline. It is too susceptible to
shrewd manipulation, lobbyist influence, profiteering, the propagation of Big
Lies, manipulative deception, and a wide variety of chicanery. It has trouble advancing good citizenship
goals because it is so busy stumbling all over itself to pander to demands of
corporations and investors for bigger profits.
Think of the power of a few million people working
together to widen our frames of reference and foster progressive causes and
ideas. Please join these people, and lend your voice to positive
economic, social, fiscal, political and environmental changes such as those
detailed in the ‘Overarching Considerations’
compendiums found in Common Sense
Revival, and in Part Four of the online Earth Manifesto.
Chapter #42 – A
Thoughtful Digression on Opinion.
Important ideas are contained in the
following chapters, and I don’t want to distract readers from getting to them, but
I digress here to explore some of the profound yet subtle influences that
affect our thinking. Innovative research
on the structures and functioning of our brains has revealed fascinating insights
into human propensities. A procedure
known as ‘functional magnetic resonance imaging’ (FMRI) is used to map neural
activity in the brain.
A study done at Emory University used FMRI
to show that our political predilections are a product of an unconscious
phenomenon called ‘confirmation bias’.
Even when faced with contradictory evidence, people find ways to
rationalize agreement with predisposed opinions. In other words, there is a kind of emotive
conformity that has its foundations in the actual basic operations of the
brain.
Brain imaging has revealed that, rather
than using parts of the brain most associated with reasoning to arrive at
our convictions, the parts of the brain most associated with the processing of emotions
are the ones that light up when confronted with such things as political
spin and religious opinions. No matter
what conclusion an independent reading of evidence might support, our brains
find ways to interpret perceived evidence in ways that reinforce pre-existing
biases. Then, after rationalizing our
views, other parts of the brain light up in FMRI imaging that reveal an
activation of the reward-and-pleasure centers of the brain. So we basically adopt beliefs and emotionally
comfortable conclusions, and then cling to them because the conformity makes us
feel good. This is wired into the nature
of our brains!
Skepticism
is perhaps the best antidote to these undesirable ‘confirmation biases’. The scientific method is essentially based on
skepticism, for it requires the verification of observations and premises, and repeatable
confirmation of experiments, to ensure their validity. Science thereby provides more trustworthy
understandings than blind beliefs. To be
able to correct and integrate previous knowledge is invaluable for giving us
clearer understandings.
Scientists using brain imaging have
identified the “medial ventral pre-frontal cortex” as the part of the brain
where the “laughter zone” is centered.
This region of the brain lights up when humor is detected, and leads to
the quite delightful outburst we call laughter.
For readers’ amusement, here is a column from the satirically funny publication, The Onion:
CHICAGO — In a surprising refutation of conventional wisdom on ‘opinion
entitlement’, a study conducted by the University of Chicago's School for
Behavioral Science concluded that 38 percent of the U.S. population is neither
entitled to, nor qualified, to have opinions.
"On topics from evolution to the environment to gay marriage to
immigration reform, we found that many of the opinions expressed were so
off-base and ill-informed that they actually hurt society by being
voiced," said chief researcher Professor Mark Fultz, who based the
findings on hundreds of telephone, office, and dinner-party conversations
compiled over a three-year period.
"While people have long asserted that it takes all kinds, our
research shows that American society currently has a drastic oversupply of the
kinds who don't have any good or worthwhile thoughts whatsoever. We could actually do just fine without
them." (Ha!)
A funny aspect of this story is that almost everyone would probably agree
with the story’s cynical conclusions;
but of course, almost everyone regards the 38% who should not be
entitled to have opinions as those OTHERS who disagree with them!
Think of the following quote in this
context of modern understandings of the brain, for it gives surprising and
enlightening insights into the nature of thought, opinion, and beliefs.
“The human understanding when it has
once adopted an opinion ... draws all things else to support and agree with
it. And though there be a greater number
and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either
neglects or despises -- in order that, by this great and pernicious
predetermination, the authority of its former conclusions may remain
inviolate.”
--- Francis
Bacon, Novum Organum, 1620
I love Mark Twain’s similar sagacious
sentiments that he expressed in his famous Corn-pone
Opinions:
“Morals, religions, and
politics get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres,
almost entirely; not from study, not
from thinking. A man must and will have
his own approval first of all, in each and every moment and circumstance of his
life … but, speaking in general terms, a man's self-approval in the large
concerns of life has its source in the approval of the people about him, and
not in a searching personal examination of the matter.
Mohammedans are Mohammedans
because they are born and reared among that sect, not because they have thought
it out and can furnish sound reasons for being Mohammedans; we know why Catholics are Catholics; why Baptists are Baptists, why Mormons are
Mormons; why Presbyterians are
Presbyterians; why thieves are
thieves; why monarchists are monarchists; why Republicans are Republicans and
Democrats, Democrats. We know it is a
matter of association and sympathy, not reasoning and examination; that hardly a man in the world has an opinion
upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his
associations and sympathies. Broadly
speaking, there are none but ‘corn-pone opinions’. And broadly speaking, corn-pone stands for
self-approval.
Self-approval is acquired
mainly from the approval of other people.
The result is conformity.
Sometimes conformity has a sordid business interest -- the
bread-and-butter interest -- but not in most cases, I think. In the majority of cases it is unconscious
and not calculated; it is born of the
human being's natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their
inspiring approval and praise -- a yearning which is commonly so strong and so
insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way.”
“A political emergency brings
out the corn-pone opinion in fine force in its two chief varieties -- the
pocketbook variety, which has its origin in self-interest, and the bigger
variety, the sentimental variety -- the one that can't bear to be outside the
pale; can't bear to be in disfavor; can't endure the averted face and the cold
shoulder; wants to stand well with his
friends, wants to be smiled upon, wants to be welcome, wants to hear the
precious words, "He's on the right track!" Uttered, perhaps by an ass, but still an ass
of high degree, an ass whose approval is gold and diamonds to a smaller ass,
and confers glory and honor and happiness, and membership in the herd. For these gauds, many a man will dump his
life-long principles into the street, and his conscience along with them. We have seen it happen. In some millions of instances.”
“Men think they think upon
great political questions, and they do;
but they think with their party, not independently; they read its
literature, but not that of the other side; they arrive at convictions, but
they are drawn from a partial view of the matter in hand and are of no
particular value. They swarm with their
party, they feel with their party, they are happy in their party's
approval; and where the party leads they
will follow, whether for right and honor, or through blood and dirt and a mush
of mutilated morals.”
“In our late canvass, half of the nation passionately believed
that in silver lay salvation, the other half as passionately believed that that
way lay destruction. Do you believe that
a tenth part of the people, on either side, had any rational excuse for having
an opinion about the matter at all? I
studied that mighty question to the bottom -- came out empty. Half of our people passionately believe in
high tariff, the other half believe otherwise.
Does this mean study and examination, or only feeling? The latter, I think. I have deeply studied that question, too --
and didn't arrive. We all do no end of
feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.
And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it the Voice of God.”
--- Mark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions
“We
are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the
drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express;
and another one -- the one we use -- which we force ourselves to wear ... until
habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently
makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we came by it. Look at it in politics.”
--- Mark
Twain's Autobiography
Chapter #43 – Searching
for Wisdom in America.
A thought-provoking book asks, What Really Matters? The
book represents a search for wisdom in America through the consideration of
many modes of thought and exploration that have been pursued in the past
century. Does happiness matter most? Personal connectedness in friendships and
love? Physical and psychological
health? Authenticity? Integrity?
Spiritual enlightenment?
There
are many different approaches and modalities of potential understanding in the
world. Each and every one has its strengths and weaknesses, its
validities and its shortcomings. To hold that any one belief system is
absolutely right is, essentially, to be demonstrably quite wrong! Reality is much more nuanced than
black-and-white interpretations that most disciplines and fundamentalisms try
to impose upon it. We seek simplicity, and certainty, in our lives; yet, as Voltaire observed in the 18th
century, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd
one.” The seductive allure of certainties,
and of beliefs in some form of immortality of the soul, are such strong
compulsions that our emoting brains embrace religious doctrines that the
reasoning brain can only chuckle at with astonishment and bemusement -- and a healthy
dose of skepticism.
Parody
can be healthy for our perspective. By
poking fun at a topic, parodies draw attention to both pathetic weaknesses and
appreciative strengths of the things they lampoon. Parody and satire, as used in TV shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, have given us humorous looks at serious issues
of the day. They provide not only
entertainment but also a basis for evaluating ideas, and maybe even eventually
in helping to actualize positive change.
Albert
Einstein made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human thought
when he developed his Theory of Relativity. Energy, matter and time are
relative, he found, and they depend on the viewer’s frame of reference.
In a curious similarity, right and wrong can be seen to be relative, depending
on context and circumstances. “Thou
shalt not kill” does not fully apply to actions taken in self defense, for
instance. Clint Eastwood’s provocative film, Letters
from Iwo Jima, contains a scene in which an American soldier’s letter from
his mother urges him to “always do what is right because it is right”. A Japanese soldier, just as much a pawn in
the conflict as the American soldier, observes ruefully that his mother told him exactly the same thing.
The truth sometimes transcends what appears to be
palpably obvious. Things often are
different than they seem. Perceptions
that the Sun makes a daily revolution around the Earth seemed obvious in
ancient times, yet they were mistaken.
The movement of the Sun across the sky from sunrise in the east to
sunset in the west is merely an illusion.
In fact, the Earth is a spherical planet that majestically rotates
around its axis once every 24 hours, making it only appear as if the Sun revolves around us.
I once stood regarding the reflection of
some stately villas in an artificial lake.
As a gentle breeze ruffled the lake surface, the reflection shimmered
and appeared to be like a beautiful Impressionist painting. The reflection was just as real as the direct
visual appearance of the villas, yet a curious epistemological realization
struck me: sometimes things appear to be
real, and sometimes they appear to be illusion, and sometimes the way we
interpret our perceptions does not particularly accord with the true situation
or the actual nature of reality.
Certainty is illusive.
Neuroscientist Richard Burton wrote a book
titled On Being Certain: Believing You
Are Right Even When You’re Not. This
book contains valuable understandings of brain phenomena like the ‘delusional
misidentification syndrome’. The
biochemical reward centers in our brains make us feel good about ‘knowing’, but
that doesn’t particularly make our knowledge correct. I wonder if perhaps our reward centers could
shed some light on the certitude, revisionist spin and evangelical tragedy of
the Bush Years! LOL.
The world is vastly more complex and diverse than
anyone can fully comprehend. There are a
wide variety of points of view, and a deep subjectivity in all experience,
perception and interpretation. Many
different belief systems and worldviews result.
All great issues are inextricably intertwined, and subjective
uncertainty and misunderstanding and confusion are widespread.
Personalities and ideological points of view battle for ascendancy. The nature of free will is debated by
philosophers, and so is the character of virtue, civic duty, and ultimate moral
responsibility.
I am personally attracted to the humanistic
philosophy of ‘Positivism’, which regards scientific knowledge and observed
facts as more accurate and important than mysticism and blind faith. Read the Wikipedia entry for Positivism, and see if it doesn’t make
your head spin a bit! Unfortunately,
under the cover of so many uncertainties, self-interested entities find
marvelous opportunities to take advantage of people, and they often deceive
them and trump Big Picture understandings.
Partially as a consequence, policy-making is generally held hostage by
those who want to profit from the public treasury at the expense of the
taxpayer and the common good.
Evangelical
Christians are one particular subset of self-interested entities that tend to
be opposed to progressive understandings.
Their leaders exhort people to be faithful and BELIEVE! -- but they seem
suspiciously more interested in promoting comforting certainties and
manipulating faithful folks than they are interested in having accurate
knowledge or clear, logical, fair-minded understandings. An
honest frame of reference is hard to achieve without open-minded observation,
critical thinking, and insightful perception.
Imagine a leader who advocates fairness, inclusiveness,
the common good and peaceful coexistence rather than self-interested ideologies
or tax breaks for the rich or increased benefits for corporations, or
conservatism on social issues. Sounds
good to me!
Attention! I want to emphasize something important. Words can be pregnant with meaning and
implication, yet they often fail to clearly communicate the comprehensive depth
of the ideas they are intended to convey.
Consider the word, “policy.” This is a dry kind of word that represents a
wonk-ish and somewhat innocuous-sounding concept. But POLICY can radically affect people’s
lives. Our foreign policy, for instance,
has unnecessarily killed thousands of people.
Policies can be extremely unjust when they destroy infrastructure,
undermine democratic rule, cause “collateral damage”, or engender frustration,
anger and retaliatory blowback. Policies
can make everyone less safe.
Martin
Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Our foreign policy is generally about selfish
advantage, economic imperialism, access to resources, unjust profiteering, and
military intimidation. It is NOT
generally about bold efforts to make the world economy greener, or to enhance
more socially desirable attitudes like good-neighborliness, diplomatic
cooperation, fair compromise, or peaceable coexistence.
Another
POLICY that harshly and repressively harms millions of people is the drug war
and the prohibition of medical marijuana.
These punitive approaches contribute to unnecessary hardships and the
incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people every year, negatively
impacting many lives.
Or
consider the word “regressive”. It is
fraught with sociopolitical flavor, like frothy foam spreading out from
effluent pipes that discharge toxic wastes into a previously clean river. REGRESSIVE can be a horrid thing. It can have deeply detrimental impacts that
are beyond our comprehension to envision.
Regressive policies are a lurch away from liberty and
justice-for-all. They are a throwback to
antediluvian sensibilities and mean-spirited repression of a nation’s
citizens. Regressive changes in policy
usually represent an abandonment of principles of fairness, and they often
perpetrate and perpetuate unjustifiable, unwarranted, unconscionable and
unnecessary miscarriages of justice upon millions of people.
“All generalizations are false, including this
one.”
--- Mark Twain
It would be wise to open the doors of our perception
and enlarge our visions. We should
cultivate a conscious awareness that is balanced between greater rationality
and more empathetic feeling. We should
seek to be more coherent in our reasoning, and more holistic and honest in our
spiritual understandings. How can we create more respect for ethical,
aesthetic and ecological considerations in our societies?
Chapter #44 – The Nature
of the Wealth of Nations.
Adam Smith, a Scottish economist, wrote a veritable
manifesto of capitalism, An Inquiry into
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, in the year 1776. This was the same year that the American
Declaration of Independence was proclaimed.
Both documents emphasized freedom.
Adam Smith strongly advocated free enterprise and unrestrained free
trade. He noted that the wealth of a
nation is measured by the productivity and living standards of ALL of its
people, not just by its accumulated wealth.
His essential argument was that private interests and self-interested
behaviors contribute to the good of the whole of society, as if all economic
activities are guided by a beneficent “invisible hand”.
One of the most significant ironies in the history
of ideas is that Adam Smith’s book, which became known simply as The Wealth of Nations, was basically dedicated
to improving the welfare of the common man, not just that of the merchants or
the nobility. This book has
unfortunately been used by laissez-faire capitalists and the industrialist
class as a justification for NOT seeking to remedy the scandalous social ills
that have been caused by industrialization and globalization. A
figurative ‘raspberry’ for such perverse attitudes and efforts!
The Industrial Revolution contributed to a rise of
Big Business and the expansion of power of large corporations in the nineteenth
century. Then in the twentieth century,
the growth of marketing and advertising and a consumer economy became
paramount. And in the twenty-first
century, an export of Western business civilization and privatization to the
rest of the world is taking place.
Neoliberalism and globalization are tremendously
complex economic forces, with organizational players like the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. These powerful institutions have been
striving to stimulate free capital flows and international development for
decades. Their actions unfortunately
have been irresponsible with regard to environmental protections and the
genuine needs of the majority of people in developing countries.
Rich developed countries use the international
banking system to make money and gain advantages and control resources. Usurious returns are earned from poor
countries by the clever expediency of making loans whose proceeds often end up
in the pockets of giant multinational companies involved in engineering and
construction, and in the accounts of rich people in poor countries. Then when debtor countries fail to make
principal and interest payments on loans, austerity measures are imposed by the
banks. Loan obligations of poor
countries require them to aggressively exploit resources to export them to
developed countries. This system allows
developed countries to take harsh advantage of poor countries. In the process, social justice and
environmental sanity are often sacrificed to perpetuate unfair advantages at
the expense of the common good.
“A
banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but
wants it back the
minute
it begins to rain.”
--- Mark Twain
More
than 20 percent of the World Bank's total lending went to "post-conflict
countries” in 2003, up from 16 percent in 1998.
This amount is up 800 percent since 1980, according to a study by the
Congressional Research Service. Rapid response to wars and natural disasters
has traditionally been the domain of United Nations agencies, which work with
Non-Governmental Organizations to provide emergency aid and build temporary
housing and satisfy other basic needs.
But now reconstruction work has become a very lucrative industry, so it
is way too important and profitable to be left to ‘do-gooders’ at the United
Nations. As a result, the World Bank
today, already devoted to the principle of poverty-alleviation through
profit-making, leads the charge.
Economic fundamentalism may be more dangerous than
religious fundamentalism in its potential to harm the best interests of
humanity’s future. Economic
fundamentalist doctrines advocate the imposition of an economic system on the
rest of the world that promotes private property ownership rights,
privatization, increasing concentrations of wealth, and the shock doctrines of
‘disaster capitalism’. In the process,
they facilitate the unjust exploitation of workers and the unsustainable use of
resources, and generally neglect the best interests of the majority of
people. Economic fundamentalists strive
to do this with shrewd intent -- and when legitimate strategies fail, military
actions to protect powerful entrenched interests often follow.
One of the tenets of economic fundamentalism is that
robust consumerism should be exported to developing countries. In doing this, natural human needs and
desires are stoked, and this increases the demand for goods. This strategy contains a strong bias against
moderation, discipline, greater good goals for communities, sensible planning,
sustainability, and conservation efforts.
It is an ideology that works together with religious fundamentalists to
oppose any limitations on human population growth, even often opposing safe and
sensible contraception. Seen from the
frame of reference of a wise path to sustainable existence, economic
fundamentalism is shortsighted, retrogressive and wrong-headed.
Facts and truth are inconvenient to those who strive
to ruthlessly exploit natural resources or centralize power or gain outlandish
wealth by scurrilous means. This is why
there is so much spin by vested interest groups, and so much misinformation,
misrepresentation, and specious logic in economic and environmental debates. It would be smart to consult Thomas Piketty’s
blockbuster CAPITAL in the Twenty-First
Century for better understandings of powerful economic and social dynamics
in the world today.
Since poverty afflicts billions of people in the
world and the disparity in wealth between rich people and poor people is
growing, social ills are threatening to overwhelm nations as capitalism ignores
or denies the urgent need for fairer and more enlightened policies. Salubrious change must come!
Chapter #45 – Capitalism
and Democracy.
Incisive insight into the nature of our economic
system is valuable. Capitalism is an effective system for utilizing
natural human motivations. It satisfies people’s needs by utilizing the
free-market forces of supply and demand. Yet because it facilitates narrowly
channeled selfish greed, it is susceptible to abuses of power such as
unscrupulous monopoly business practices and the perpetuation of unsafe
conditions for workers.
Capitalism can be irresponsibly wasteful in the
profligate phenomenon known as ‘planned obsolescence’. This is one way the capitalist system fails
to make reasonable allowances to help achieve common good goals. Other prominent ways include the shirking by
businesses of healthcare for their employees and the externalizing of costs
onto society.
I highly recommend Annie Leonard’s online film, The Story of Stuff. In it, Ms. Leonard neatly summarizes the
crisis in our economic system that is being caused by the destructive
extraction of resources, the wasteful production and consumption of goods, the
unjust system of the distribution of goods, and the disposal of huge quantities
of toxic wastes, pollutants and garbage.
The Story of Stuff calls for
economic justice and ecological sustainability.
Tapping the public treasury for private
gain has long been a hallmark of the strategies of many business entities. Encouraging the government to borrow huge
sums of money from people in the future to benefit wealthy people today is a
sophisticated approach that facilitates this same goal of exploiting government
largess. Because unusual opportunities arise to make big profits
during times of war and reconstruction and natural disasters, powerful forces
militate for war and the exploitation of adversities. This works against peaceful coexistence and
fair-minded and prudent programs.
Corporations are organized for two primary
legal purposes: (1) to allow business owners and the shareholders of corporate
entities to evade as much liability as possible, and (2) to allow these stakeholders
and top management to maximize profits and minimize expenditures for workers
and product safety and environmental protections. Make no mistake about this. Workers are paid well only to the extent that
it is necessary to retain their services.
In the hierarchy of the workplace, only CEOs and executives and key
employees are highly valued. The
inequalities in the workplace have increased dramatically in the past three
decades since the Reagan Revolution began to place an outlandish emphasis on
special privileges for the wealthy.
Confirming this assertion, the average CEO in 1980 made about 40 times
as much as the average worker, and today they make, on average, more than 300
times as much as the average worker!
These characteristics make our capitalist economic
system essentially AMORAL. The purpose of business is almost
single-mindedly synonymous with earning bigger profits. This motivates
business people to evade taxes and costs related to environmental protections.
Companies are, after all, competing against others who are also trying to evade
the same costs. The ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ operates in this innate
capitalist drive to minimize costs. The result is that workers,
consumers, communities, and the environment generally suffer significant
harm.
A legal case in 1919 reinforced the legal
obligation of corporate entities to put profit making for shareholders over
other motives that benefit employees or communities. In the famous legal case, Dodge vs. Ford Motor Company, the
Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a business corporation is organized primarily
for the benefit of its shareholders, and therefore it must give overriding
consideration to shareholders’ interests and dividends. Any
other motive, like supporting corporate social responsibility, is constrained
by this obligation. In the early
years of the automobile industry, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor
Company, believed in paying relatively high wages to his workers so that they
would be able to afford to buy the cars they were producing. His attempt to pay generous wages to
employees was thwarted by this lawsuit.
One result of this mandate to maximize
profits for shareholders is that corporations are not only driven to improve
their products and operations, but to cut corners, indulge in unfair
competitive practices, circumvent socially responsible regulations, invest
heavily in lobbying efforts to gain more tax breaks and subsidies, indulge in
schemes to avoid taxes, work to externalize environmental costs onto society,
and even to cheat customers and support pork barrel spending and argue for expanded
opportunities to profit from wars These
are not good things!
We too often trust that our elected
officials will do the right thing. But
instead of doing the right thing, they generally do the bidding of inadequately
regulated and profit-obsessed corporations that dominate the law-making and
decision-making functions of government.
This is the basic nature of our political and economic systems, as
currently constituted. But it is often
wrong for the people! Public service
has, to too large a degree, become an entrenched bureaucratic obedience to
political operatives who pander to corporate agendas.
Capitalism often encourages political corruption,
price gouging, wasteful spending, speculation in real estate, disaster
opportunism, and damages to public lands. Almost invariably, these things
are detrimental to the common good.
Corporations are generally staunchly opposed to
efforts to regulate them. They resist efforts to make their operations
fairer, more socially responsible, and more ecologically sound. They in
effect disdain social justice, environmental sanity and democracy itself, due
to their obsessive focus on profits over all other values. Simply put, sensible rules and regulations
are required to protect people from the growing power of big businesses.
The world is definitely becoming more “flat”, in the
sense Thomas Friedman discusses in his book, The World Is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. In short, Friedman contends that the world
has been figuratively shrinking and ‘flattening’ due to the rapid convergence
of a range of global developments that include technological innovations, the
revolutionizing of communications, extensive competitive collaboration, the
connectivity of the Internet, the outsourcing of jobs to lower-wage countries,
and the productive redesign of evolving businesses.
There are
positive aspects of these developments.
They are enhancing the prosperity of millions of people in China and
India, and enriching the rich in America.
But this trend involves the export of capitalist consumerism to billions
of people, and where will this lead? Since
it feeds into the natural aspirations and stimulated desires of so many people,
it accelerates the trend toward planetary resource depletion, mounting
ecological damages, and exacerbated climate disruptions and changes in weather
patterns worldwide.
Since China and India are experiencing such
rapid economic growth, global environmental challenges are becoming
significantly more daunting. China is building new coal-fired power
plants at an average of one per week, and air pollution in China
is already horrible. Chinese cities are crowded, dirty and
noisy, and both rural and urban areas have an extreme dichotomy of wealth and
poverty. The human race
must come to grips with the full implications of these developments.
Thomas Friedman has written about such
issues in Hot, Flat, and Crowded. This book emphasizes insights into the need
for a ‘Code Green’ greening of our capitalist system and greater respect for
biological diversity. The chances for achieving
theses commendable goals suffered a significant setback when the Supreme Court
ruled in early 2010 to overturn
established precedents and give corporations and unions the green light
to spend unlimited amounts of money to drown out citizen voices in favor of
narrowly-focused priorities.
Chapter #46 –
Pathological Aspects of Capitalism.
Capitalism and democracy are, in actual fact,
fundamentally opposed to each other, just as the impulses for FREEDOM and
EQUALITY are essentially opposites. The greater the freedom a society
allows, and the fewer the regulations, the more that inequalities naturally
multiply. And the rich get richer.
In theory, democracy essentially stands for
fairness, equal representation, and government of the people, by the people,
and for the people. Inadequately regulated capitalism, in contrast,
strives to undermine fairness principles. It seeks profits at the expense
of workers and the environment, and it is obsessed with special
privileges and maximized profits and power.
Human beings are completely dependent upon the
natural world, and yet big corporations exploit nature as though it is
unlimited and expendable. They show
little concern for the consequences of resource depletion or environmental
damages, and they generally do not demonstrate an adequate concern for
employees, communities, or a sustainable future. They work almost
single-mindedly for profits, short-term advantages and bigger opportunities to
get special treatment and subsidies, and they spend large sums of money to
influence our representatives to allow them to externalize costs onto
society.
Corporations are ironically acting almost
exclusively in ways that, in an individual, would be regarded as pathologically
insane. This point is powerfully portrayed in the insightful book, The Corporation - The Pathological Pursuit
of Profit and Power, and also in the fascinating Canadian film, The Corporation, which is based on the
book. Check them out for valuable perspective!
This is an excellent reason why legislation should
be enacted that strictly limits the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment
to give rights of “personhood” to corporations.
Instead of moving in this sensible direction, Supreme Court
conservatives made the landmark ruling in the Citizens United case to give corporations the unlimited right to
“free speech”. This narrow decision,
made by a 5-to-4 vote, is adversely affecting our democracy!
The Fourteenth Amendment includes important Due
Process and Equal Protection clauses. It
was enacted after the Civil War to secure rights for former slaves. This Amendment was subsequently interpreted
by the Supreme Court to hold that the law provides a guarantee to
corporations of the same rights as individuals. This has expanded the power and immunity of
large corporations, and incidentally enabled them to increase their ability to
abuse the power they hold over people and the environment.
How ironic this is!
Here was a Constitutional Amendment designed to help black people after
slavery was outlawed, yet it has primarily been used to rationalize initiatives
that have the effect of disenfranchising minorities and encroaching on their
hopes for fairer treatment.
A new cynical and insidious method of making bigger
profits has arisen in recent years. Monsanto
and other biotechnology companies are securing patents on genetically-modified
seeds in an effort to create a monopoly on plant and animal life-forms
themselves. They have invented and
propagated sterile ‘Terminator seeds’ in a strategy that is right up there with
corporate efforts to privatize water as among the most insidious and
potentially nefarious of corporate ambitions.
Aggressive efforts to create seeds that produce no fertile seed, so that
farmers are forced to buy new seeds every year, is morally wrong.
Another vital issue concerns genetically modified
crops. The American public is suspicious of genetically modified (GM) foods for
several good reasons. There is “Uncertain Peril” in this arena. Corporations like Monsanto and others in the
biotechnology industry are on the forefront of creating genetically modified
products for which no safety testing or labeling is required by the Food and
Drug Administration. The FDA seems to be
ideologically committed to a “Don’t Look, Don’t Find” strategy. Our government does not adequately test for
potential environmental or consumer risks of such products. This contrasts distinctly
with laws and attitudes in Europe, where consumers in many countries are
provided with much more information about GM foods. GM corn, soybeans and wheat pose serious
potential threats of crop contamination, and might even cause consequences that
alter evolutionary biology, so they could threaten the entire community of life
on Earth. We would be wise to remember
precautionary principles in our dealings with GM crops!
Monsanto harasses family farmers with law suits to
defend their corporate patents on GM crops.
By doing so, they enforce absurd provisions of patent law and exploit
their rights as “persons”. They use the
legal system to abuse power, and in the process unethically harm farmers. The documentary film The Future of Food reveals this dastardly aspect of Monsanto’s
operations. You can watch it on
Netflix. The “FOOD” tab at
ConsumersUnion.org, the publishers of Consumer
Reports, contains many articles and extensive information that confirm
these insights about GM foods.
A curious legal case worked its way through the
American justice system beginning in May 2004.
Steve Kurtz, a professor of art at a state university in Buffalo, New
York, was a member of an ‘avant-garde’ group called the Critical Art
Ensemble. Members of this group were
exploring the role played by art, technology, corporations and government in
modern life. When Steve’s wife suddenly
died, he was arrested and charged with an evolving variety of trumped-up
charges. He was doggedly prosecuted by
the federal government for four years.
At the time of his arrest he was doing work that explored the nature of
genetically modified seeds.
The prosecution of Steve Kurtz represented a threat
to artistic and scientific freedom for two reasons: (1) the government sought
to expand questionable civil charges into much more serious criminal ones, and
(2) it tried to intimidate artists, scientists and researchers to prevent them
from fulfilling important roles in seeking truth and counterpoints to industry
claims, as technologies evolve. All
charges against Steve Kurtz were finally dismissed in April 2008 after he had
suffered a lot of grief. This outcome
was facilitated by a creative documentary, Strange
Culture, which focused public attention on the case. No apology was made by the government for
having caused such detrimental impacts to Steve Kurtz. Such a determined prosecution highlights one
of many threats to artists, intellectuals and writers in societies worldwide.
Our legal justice system guarantees people
accused of a crime that they will be judged by a jury of their peers. This jury system works by empowering a group
of painstakingly-selected citizens to hear a case and reach a verdict. The purpose of a jury is to render the common
sense judgment of the community. Jurors
hear and evaluate all evidence, and then they deliberate using the parameters
of relevant laws to come to an agreement on whether a defendant is guilty or
innocent. Defendants generally claim
they are “not guilty, your honor”, and true justice turns out to be rather
uneven.
Our leaders, faced with even more complex
issues and more extensively-conflicting evidence and special interest
pressures, have in recent years tended to decide on a verdict first, based on
ideology and entrenched interests and partisan jockeying for power, and then
they use clever tricks and mass deception to persuade people to give their
consent and taxpayer support to resulting plans. That, in any case, seems to have
characterized the Bush Administration’s approach to the invasion of Iraq, as
well as the prosecution of Steve Kurtz.
There is often substantial wrong-headedness and even
malfeasance in corporate and government policies relating to industrial crop
monoculture practices and animal feedlots, crop subsidies, and copious uses of
synthesized nitrogen fertilizers. The
nefarious underbelly of corporate self-interest is revealed in its sometimes
mindlessly malicious motives, as typified by the Monsanto legal department’s
efforts to crush family farmers. Big
Businesses sometimes act like giant Goliaths pursuing hapless Davids in the
pathological pursuit of power and profit.
Corporate public relations departments, like politicians, are far more concerned with good press than the honest truth, and they
sometimes work overtime to create misinformation and deceptive spin.
The 2008 Farm Bill was typical of poorly
prioritized and misguided government policies.
Remember that the first Farm Bill was enacted during the Depression in
the 1930s to protect farmers against low crop prices and the environmental
disaster of the drought-devastating ‘Dust Bowl’. The Farm Bill has evolved into a massive
subsidy program that extensively benefits big agribusiness companies, even at a
time of inflating food prices and high profits.
It is curious how life preservers thrown to the most vulnerable people in
our society often end up as entitlements for the most affluent and the best
connected. There is ostensibly no
‘women-and-children-first’ chivalry here!
The Farm Bill should be seriously reformed so that
it represents sensible investments in improved childhood nutrition, better
public health, and mitigation measures that reduce pollution and harms to the
environment. It should emphasize
conservation programs and more stable incomes for small farmers. Local sustainable farming and the production
of organic fruits and vegetables should be encouraged. The overproduction of corn, cotton and soy
beans should be reduced. The absurdly
generous subsidies given to giant agribusiness companies should be eliminated. Watch the good documentary film Food Fight for illuminating perspective!
As with all legislation, Congress generally
will not approve a new law unless it offers enough sundry provisions for
special interest groups to give their support.
Unsurprisingly, the 2008 renewal of the federal Farm Bill was seriously
flawed, so it was criticized by people on both sides of the political
spectrum. It was estimated to eventually
cost a whopping $290 billion over a 5-year period. “Just because you’ve rolled horse manure in
powdered sugar doesn’t mean you have a doughnut”, said one observer, because of
some of the law’s perverse provisions.
In the election year of 2008, our representatives were even less capable
than usual of creating fiscally prudent legislation. “Can’t we find a way to change this?”, I
wondered at the time. “Clean Money
legislation? Better media coverage of
the shortcomings of our debt-addled decision-making?”
Little did I suspect at that time how the
financial crisis would roil the world, or how the Supreme Court would chime in
with its wrong-headed rulings on Big Money in politics, or how the Republican
Party would be taken over by fervently “conservative” Tea Party intransigence.
Farm Policy ironically fuels America’s
obesity problem by promoting the overproduction of crops that are the building
blocks of calorie-dense but nutrient-poor processed fast foods and junk
food. Mindless fast-food consumption results in poor health because fast foods
often contain excessive amounts of saturated fat, salt, refined sugars,
carbohydrates and preservatives. Fast
food also represents an attitude towards eating that ignores the positive
values associated with taking the time to enjoy preparing and sharing meals,
and the relaxation and socializing associated with such endeavors in our manic
world. The laudable Slow Food Movement
has vital virtues that include goals of preserving family farms, encouraging
organic farming, and educating people about the risks of factory farming and
low-diversity monocultures.
Giant factory
farms for cattle, pigs and chickens generate three times as much waste as our
human population produces -- over 500 million tons per year. This waste contaminates fresh water in
streams and lakes, and it causes other serious environmental problems. But agribusiness lobbyists, nonetheless,
often succeed in sticking taxpayers with costs related to the pollution they
create.
Another important
issue is the preservation of crop diversity.
It seems as if we should have learned a cautionary lesson concerning the
risks associated with reductions in crop diversity and the over-reliance on
crop monocultures from incidents like the potato blight that took place in
Ireland in the late 1840s. A million
people starved to death during this agricultural and social calamity, and
countless others were forced to emigrate to the United States and other
countries.
All is certainly NOT well with brutish capitalism
and sycophantic governance and the incestuous relationship between them. I call for reforms of our systems of
institutionalized bribery, lobbying, and unwise spending on pork barrel
projects and earmarks. I also call for
the end of the egregious Free Lunch
that is given to hedge fund managers when they are allowed to make hundreds of
millions of dollars a year without paying a fair share of taxes on them. Mitt Romney was curiously incapable of
setting aside his self-interest and endorsing this ultimately fair-minded idea!
Chapter #47 – Particular
Problems Associated with Corporatism.
The best policies require a principled balance
between freedom and equality, and between public protections and unregulated
capitalism. Freedom is the “magnetic true north” of humankind --- Yay for
political freedom! But freedom is
necessarily accompanied by responsibilities. This is the social compact
upon which civilization depends.
The social contract that empowers democratic
governance requires that government be subject to reasonable limits, just as
individuals must be. Good government
should provide a maximum of human rights that are consistent with adequate
order, legal justice and true national security. Personal liberties should be balanced with
common sense responsibilities of citizens to ensure golden-rule fairness toward
others.
Freedom should not be merely hollow rhetoric that
leaders use with ulterior motives and a penchant for abuses of power,
authoritarian repression or self-serving priorities. We should not allow our leaders to deprive us
of the “unalienable rights” asserted in our Declaration of Independence. We should not allow politicians to make us
less secure with unjust policies, or socially detrimental profiteering, or
fiscally irresponsible initiatives, or military aggression. Freedoms should not be sacrificed to exaggerated
fears, police state tactics, illegal intrusions on privacy, hard-line religious
fundamentalism or other forms of tyranny, either overt or concealed.
The principal purposes of governments should be to
establish order, protect individuals from external dangers, provide needed
infrastructure, minimize abuses of power and privilege, and strive to provide
fairness of education, opportunity, and legal justice. Vision, courage, and civic fair-mindedness
are needed to create policies that are consistent with these principles.
The common good should be the most important thing, not just what is good for
those with money and power.
To be acceptable to human society, capitalism has
required sensible rules, regulations and oversight ever since its
beginnings. The power of capital is so far-reaching that monumental
struggles have been required to mitigate the extent to which it harms workers,
children, communities, poor people at home and in other countries, and the
fundamental ecological underpinnings of all life.
Natural inequities in capitalist systems sparked
labor movements that sprang up after the start of the Industrial Age to secure
rights and protections for workers. These movements were historically
necessary due to anti-competitive monopoly business practices, unsafe working
conditions, harsh child labor, long work hours, gender and racial
discrimination, sexual harassment, corrupt management, and the growth of
overwhelming power exerted by corporate conglomerates. Other reform
movements sprang up at various points in history, such as the muckraking and
populist rebellions of the early 20th century and the great initiatives of the
New Deal and the expanded civil rights, women’s rights and environmental
protection movements of the 1960s.
Rich and powerful people, however, love their power
and privileges, so they invest heavily to fight such progress. Their bid
to gain ascendancy achieved powerful impetus in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was
elected President. Since then, laissez-faire crony capitalism has steadily
increased its control. Sensible regulations and fairness doctrines have
faced intense opposition. Workers have fallen behind as the power of
capital has become increasingly domineering.
Fraud, political corruption, and practices that allow the externalizing
of costs onto society have inflicted harm on workers, families and communities.
The federal government has increased in size, and grown in bureaucratic and
privacy-invading intrusiveness. Budget
deficits have grown outlandishly, causing the U.S. to go from being the world’s
biggest creditor country to the biggest debtor.
Principled convictions that are concerned
with the public good are needed, and should gain greater force. Ideological initiatives that are merely
self-serving are not acceptable. Ronald
Reagan and the Bush family both found “supply side” economics to be
conveniently convincing. Professor
Arthur Laffer posited this ideology, maintaining that tax breaks given to rich
people will “trickle down” to the middle class and poor people. Since 1980, the fortunes of the rich have
spiked dramatically upwards as a result of regressive tax breaks implemented in
accordance with this Laffer dogma. But
the vast majority of people have had stagnant, if any, real growth in their
incomes and net worth. To have pushed
through such tax policies, and to have coupled them with fiscally irresponsible
deficit financing, is social madness.
Should we not try “trickle up” policies for a change?
When Barack Obama was elected President,
John R. Talbott wrote a book titled
Obamanomics: How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down
Economics. He expressed the conviction that a healthier economic paradigm should
be instituted. Someone must stand up for
the little guy, as the astute but disgraced Presidential candidate John Edwards
liked to say, citing his own Horatio Alger success story and the opportunities
that allowed him to earn a substantial fortune.
We should stop voting for politicians who are eager to take risks to
enable themselves and their friends to get money and power, when they do so by
cheating, lying, abusing the system, harming our societies, and getting us into
wars.
Trends toward
greater inequality are reaching inauspicious extremes. One contributing factor is that corporations
have abused their power over the past several decades by getting the government
to reduce their share of America’s tax burden. The Congressional Budget
Office reported some years ago that corporations are paying 60% less than the
share of federal revenues they paid in 1960. Big businesses have managed
to achieve this goal by using the influence of a phalanx of well-paid lobbyists
who help enable them to grab a variety of special privileges for themselves and
their shareholders. These include tax
loopholes, direct subsidies, accelerated depreciation perks, the ability to
exploit offshore tax shelters, and the relaxation of common good
regulations.
Since the Citizen’s
United ruling by the Supreme Court that allowed corporations to spend
unlimited amounts of money on elections, these entities have been exerting
greater power to choose our elected representatives, so the pressure for
unaffordable corporate goals like lower taxes will be difficult to resist in
future national decision-making. How will
we run our society when the only segments of society that can afford to pay
more taxes -- rich people and big corporations -- have so much power to decide
who gets elected, and so much influence on determining national policies?
It is clear to me that we should reduce deficit
spending driven by such wrong-headed goals.
One of the best ways to achieve this would be to make our tax system
more steeply graduated for both individuals and businesses. This would shift the burden of taxation from
people who can ill-afford taxes, and people in future generations, to those who
can easily afford it. This plan would
ensure that those who prosper most under the current system would help maintain
it and assure the greater good of our nation.
It seems to me that this would be a smarter and fairer way to finance
our civilization than relying so much on property taxes, or on income and
payroll taxes paid by working people, or on borrowing heavily.
In a very real sense, Reaganomics has
benefited investors but distorted supply/demand equations by reducing the
amount of corporate taxes. I call for bold tax reform to help remedy the current
deficit-financing expediencies. We need
good leaders who have the political will to undertake such reforms. They must become statesmen who effectively communicate
the need for policy initiatives designed to be fairer, more honest and more
likely to be propitious to the greater good, now and in future generations.
Chapter #48 – The Best
Political Philosophy.
The best political philosophy would be moderate fiscal
conservatism coupled with socially progressive stances. In
contrast, it seems almost irrefutable that one of the worst political outcomes
would be to have leaders who are fiscally irresponsible and socially
regressive. Yet Republicans bizarrely channel the latter propensities, as
if these ways of acting represent some sort of God-approved rectitude.
Backward-looking policies are being discredited, and
must be rejected. We are engaged in an evolutionary dance of survival in
which our rights and capabilities are increasing, and so are our
responsibilities and culpabilities. We can -- and we should --
restructure our economic and political systems to deal more effectively with
the challenges facing us.
Free markets are widely assumed to be the best means
of fairly and efficiently satisfying the needs of producers and consumers. Some say that free markets are the best way
to further prosperity and the common good.
But this would be true only if markets are fair and tempered in the
public interest. Free market advocates
treat laissez-faire capitalism as if it is perfect and infallible, almost like
a religion, yet they tend to look the other way when special interests distort
or corrupt free markets.
I say, let’s try markets that are truly free!
Let’s make markets free from monopoly abuses, free from deceptive practices,
free from powerful manipulators who oppose reform and progress, free from
unfair domination by vested interest groups, free from grotesquely misleading
advertising, free from fraud and bribery, and free from excessive abuses of
power. Let’s free markets from greed-driven profiteering on wars, and
from extravagant earmarks and other overly wasteful appropriations.
Let’s free markets from harms caused by giant corporations
that cheat the public to make bigger profits instead of improving their
products or production methods. Let’s free them from corporate welfare
and subsidies that perpetuate inefficient, exploitive and polluting
industries. Let’s free them from tax avoidance schemes like offshore
incorporation and tax evasion scams.
The global economic marketplace, as constituted
today, allows freedom to the wealthiest people to make as much money as they
can, regardless of the impact they have on the underlying health of our
communities and supporting ecosystems. Capital is triumphing with obscene
one-sidedness in its long-fought struggle with labor, but neither capital nor
labor has intrinsic nobility, and a better balance and greater respect for
working people should be assured, so that we can achieve greater fairness,
justice, broadened prosperity, stability, sanity and wholesomeness in our
communities.
Longer work hours allow workers to produce more, but
long hours have not proved to be wonderful for workers, who have been squeezed
instead of rewarded in the last 30 years while CEOs and investors have made
significant gains. A paper published by the Center for Economic and Policy
Research indicated that shorter work hours could significantly reduce energy consumption
and enrich people’s life experiences with greater potential fulfillment. The average American already works about 30%
more hours than the average German -- an estimated 500 hours more each year. Overwork can contribute not only to increased
stress and frustration, but also to over-consumption and increases in
pollution. We could devise ways “to kill
several birds with one stone” here, methinks!
The profit motive is a powerful motive in capitalist
economies, yet it is simultaneously one of its greatest weaknesses. Profit-making is swell as a driving
motivation, but without proper guidance and regulation it can also be
unacceptably irresponsible in social and environmental terms. Profiteering
can be ruthlessly undisciplined and amoral, and it often encourages selfish
shortsightedness in exploiting resources and workers.
Capitalism can also be a powerful creative force
that can prove to be outstanding at sparking innovations. But it can also
be a dangerous and destructive force. Since the real bottom line of
global economic activity is that it must become fairer and more sustainable,
fair trade is a better idea than currently constituted “free trade” in
international marketplaces.
Capitalism contains the seeds of its own
transformation -- and the time has come for us to nurture these seeds. Instead of investing in the ‘manure’ of
oligarchic partisanship and domination, we should be ‘composting’ our ideas in
a powerful ferment of sensible and far-sighted initiatives. Just as a rocket must jettison its booster
stages as they run out of fuel, capitalism must jettison the worst of its
shortcomings, and begin to move forward to a future cognizant of overarching
priorities.
Chapter #49 – Clean Money
Campaigns and a Healthier Democracy.
Myriad are the difficulties of effecting positive
change and social transformation
And inadequate is our awareness of the urgency with which they are
needed.
Obstacles are daunting, with powerful forces arrayed against intelligent
reform
But the risks to fairness, justice and civilization will mount until
they are heeded.
Special Interests and
self-centered motivations drive our society’s demands
And our perspective is rather myopic, with short-term thinking dominatingly in
vogue
Yet
the need for more far-sighted vision grows greater and greater, day by day
And
business-as-usual for vested interests becomes ever more irresponsibly rogue.
Our political system encourages extreme partisanship
in policy-making by giving lobbyists easy access to the inner sanctums of power
and allowing them to exert overweening influence once inside these supposed
bastions of democracy. As a result, our federal government is not
adequately accountable to the people. Government regulation of banks and
big businesses has grown pathetically lax in recent years. Our American democracy is being damaged by
the proliferation of ethical conflicts, influence peddling, institutional
bribery, favoritism for the rich, and outright fraud and corruption. The
interests of workers, small businesses, women, children, minorities, and people
in future generations are particularly poorly represented.
We should demand that our representatives and
leaders act in the best interests of the general well-being, and not so
exclusively in the interests of rich people, giant corporations, right-wing
extremists and religious fundamentalists.
As Bill Moyers once succinctly stated:
“The soul of democracy -- the essence of the word itself -- is government
of, by, and for the people. At the core of politics, the soul of
democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by
a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens in
self-government.”
There is no doubt that wealthy campaign donors have
much more influence in determining public policy than regular citizens.
The influence of Big Money harms the integrity and any honorable intentions of
our representatives and leaders, and it sidetracks optimal planning and
fairness. It forces politicians to spend too much time and energy raising
money instead of really listening to all the people they are supposed to be
representing.
NOTE THIS: A
positive political remedy is available. Politicians can be made to be
more responsible to their constituents, and our representatives can be made to
better represent government for the people. This can be achieved by
providing public financing of election campaigns and implementing FAIR
ELECTION legislation and ‘clean money initiatives’.
Publicly-financed campaigns increase competitiveness
and minority participation, and they create greater fairness in contests for
state legislatures and governorships.
The experience of Clean Money initiatives in Arizona and Maine reveal
these positive outcomes. As activist Peter Coyote once pointed out,
“There is nothing more important … to a fully functioning democracy than having
the people fund the electoral process.”
Public campaign financing would be ultimately far
less expensive than our current system of corrupt influence peddling. It is clear why this is so: lobbyists currently gain hundreds of
billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies, tax breaks, relaxed regulations
and no-bid contracts in return for mere millions of dollars “invested”
in campaign contributions. This is a
huge bonanza for billionaires and corporations and their shareholders, but an
extremely poor deal for the general public.
The organization Americans for Campaign Reform once
estimated it would cost about $2 billion in public financing for federal
campaigns, compared to the estimated $100 billion in costs annually that
taxpayers incur for subsidies and perks given to contributing corporations and
other large donors. These are some of
the compellingly good reasons that Clean Money initiatives should be
implemented in all election contests.
We have spent trillions of dollars to allegedly help
create democracies in far-off countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. It would make much more sense to invest this
money in nation-building at home. As
David Sirota says in Hostile
Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government – and How We
Take It Back: “we should at least be willing to invest a fraction
of that at home to make sure our own democracy starts working properly.”
Chapter #50 – Waste Not,
Want Not!
We currently live in a culture of waste. Even
more dramatically than we are consumers of goods, we are producers of
waste. The average American produces more than 1,600 pounds of garbage
each year, and increasing amounts of electronic devices trash, and we produce
emissions of carbon dioxide exceeding 20 tons annually per person. We use
natural resources, fresh water, electricity and fossil fuels in unnecessarily
profligate ways. Cities worldwide shine
brightly all night long, steadily using up non-renewable energy resources
stored for eons in the form of fossil fuels.
It is a false prosperity that relies on wasteful
consumption and the production of large quantities of wastes and toxins.
This is why a rapid greening of business is necessary worldwide. Our
actions should become earnest and honest, not just gimmicky pretenses of being
a bit greener. A study of “green” products in big box stores has found that almost every single one
was marketed with false or misleading claims.
Researchers from an organization named TerraChoice Environmental
Marketing called out products for committing the "Six Sins of
Greenwashing": (1) a hidden tradeoff
(i.e., toxin-loaded electronics touting their energy efficiency); (2) no certifiable verification of green
claims; (3) flat-out lying about
certification; (4) vagueness (i.e.,
products that are claimed to be "all natural", but contain hazardous
substances that occur naturally); (5)
irrelevance (i.e., products claiming to be CFC-free even though CFCs have been
banned for years; or (6) a
lesser-of-two-evils situation (i.e., organic cigarettes). Let’s start the rapid greening soon, and make
sure its true!
Better ways to operate organizations are numerous --
ways that are more salubrious for society as a whole in the long run. NOW is the time to begin to advance ideas and
means of making businesses and government more environmentally sound, and --
duh! – more sustainable!
Real prosperity is not just some narrow,
materialistic, profit-producing activity.
It is, instead, a wholesome condition that includes physical well-being,
healthy connectedness, the common good, positive human relations, personal
fulfillment, and deeper spiritual connectedness. Practical and far-sighted initiatives are
needed to create a better quality in our lives.
To make our societies fairer, safer and saner, creative
individuals are needed who are capable of broadminded and effective responses
to new situations -- which is the most authentic kind of adaptive intelligence. And people are needed who have a clarity of
mind and energy of will -- which are good characteristics that often typify
people who are regarded as geniuses.
The generations of people alive today are likely to
be the last ones to able to ignore the constraints of resource
scarcities. Food, fresh water, fossil fuels and other vital minerals will
become scarcer as the twenty-first century progresses, making it ever more
urgently clear that the paradigm of endless growth in consumption and population
is not maintainable. Why, even “light
pollution” is proliferating, diminishing our experienced well-being by making
the night skies invisible to hundreds of millions of people, and “sound
pollution” bedevils many increasingly jittery folks.
Gifford Pinchot, who Theodore Roosevelt appointed to
be the first Director of the newly-created U.S. Forest Service in 1905,
referred to CONSERVATION as “the greatest good to the greatest number of people
for the longest period of time”. Supposedly conservative leaders in the
U.S. seem to have become power-obsessed fanatics who oppose conservation
because they are pandering to special interest groups that want short-term
benefits at the expense of the public good, so they are, in effect, opposed to a
fairer legacy for future generations.
This is surely a perversion of truly conservative ways of being.
“Koyaanisqatsi” is a word that means “life out of
balance” in the language of the Hopi tribes of Native Americans in the Southwest. This concept naturally implies that we are
called to new ways of living on Earth.
Let’s find these new ways of living!
Chapter #51 – Clarifying
Rational Ends.
Art should beneficially serve society. Artists
can sometimes be effective in helping change society, and they are consequently
sometimes repressed by those who oppose change.
Sad, but true. Poetry sometimes
evokes chords of deeper truth, so I will recite two more stanzas of a
reflective Ode:
Let us clarify the rational ends that
humanity should be pursuing
And
the ethical and moral principles that should govern our choices
Let
us strive to make our societies sustainable, and better places for us all
Recognizing what is truly important, and boldly lending these priorities
our voices.
Please join me in this exploration of
provocative thoughts and Big Picture ideas
And
grapple with me in seeking truth and larger perspective in all our concerns.
Let
us understand our societies, our motivations, and our responsibilities in a
broad context
Acknowledging the actions that are best for our well-being and future,
as the world turns.
The human race would be much better off if we more
passionately promoted good ideas and smart planning, and resource conservation,
and fairer social priorities. To succeed
at this, it will be necessary to promote progressive social programs and
moderate consumerism, and to resist the hawks who militate for aggression in
warfare.
“I think, therefore I am”, said Descartes
--- or at least so he thought. Who
cares?! Let us apply philosophical understandings
to important concerns rather than to absurd epistemological conundrums. Thanks for giving consideration to these
ideas. I find provocative merit in Mark
Twain’s curious and wryly amusing observation:
“Nothing
so needs reforming as other people's habits." Ha!
Chapter #52 – So Many
Choices, and So Hard to Make the Right Ones!
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung once observed: “The
more one sees of human fate and the more one examines its secret springs of
action, the more one is impressed by the strength of unconscious motives, and
by the limitations of free choice.”
Wow! Our
ability to freely make choices that are independent of our genetic drives, our
hormones, and the influences of our social conditioning is distinctly limited. Hmmm …
The
18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume called the question of whether we
have free will “the most contentious question of metaphysics.” A complex web of influences affects the
choices each of us makes every day.
These influences include our basic human drives and our upbringing, role
models, circumstances, social attitudes, personal experiences, peer pressures,
advertising-stimulated needs, moods, the enticement of incentives, and the
influences of television, talk radio, the Internet, and social media. For all practical purposes, however, it is
important for us to act as if each individual has free will. Of course we all crave the right to do as we
like --- Yay for freedom! We like to do
what we want, and to do so with a minimum of inconveniences, restrictions or
discipline. But there is one overarching
issue: our actions should take place in
a context of wider social responsibility.
The values of 1960s and 1970s bohemian
counterculture have been co-opted and merged with values of the bourgeois
mainstream. Cultural freedoms have
melded with economic and political freedoms in a fascinating hodgepodge,
so counterculture idealism seems to have been largely incorporated into
mainstream materialism. This has
happened without adequate respect for the true ideals of free-thinking
existentialism, non-conformity, loving kindness, alternate lifestyles, honest
communication, mutual respect, positive connectedness, live-and-let-live
tolerance, and spiritual understandings.
San Francisco celebrated the 45th anniversary of its
famed Summer of Love in 2012. The
utopian idealism of those days seems to belong to a bygone era, a time when
people honestly and fervently believed in love and accepting others and
live-and-let-live attitudes and the freedom to “do-your-own-thing”. Yet an unpopular war and deep disaffection
afflicted the American people profoundly in 1967, just as similar influences do
again today. A ‘Human Be-In’ took place
in January 1967 that was a coming together of thousands of folks looking for a
more meaningful way of life than materialism and anxious conformity. The music of 1967 was highlighted by the
Beatles’ Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band, and by albums by dozens of other rock-and-roll groups who sang
about innocence, idealism, urban unrest and the disenfranchisement of youth.
Today, within a context of remarkable philosophical
questioning, we are faced with global trends that are converging on potential
catastrophe. There is a strong
probability of a “long emergency” as we encounter the limits of resource
consumption and the restricting parameters of the carrying capacity of the
Earth for our proliferating kind. To
cope successfully with these challenges, it will be necessary for us to start
looking at issues from much more holistic and longer-term perspectives. Once again my prescription holds: we need to act boldly to change our national
policies so that they will ensure humanity a better chance of achieving a more
fortuitous fate.
Do not suppose that these words about converging
catastrophe are some apocalyptic, Doomsday-oriented, Rapture-mad End Times
prophecy of tribulation and disaster.
They are not some revelation of anticipated Armageddon or pending
nuclear war, or terrorist holocaust, or exaggerated vision of impending
pestilence, dangerous zealotry, or the triumph of darkness and evil. And they are not the pessimistic view of a
cynic projected onto an optimism-justified world, like a surreal bad dream or
perverse revelation of some sort of Cubist art based on bizarre existential
Rorschach Inkblot tests.
No, these are cautionary words. We
are not ostriches, so we should not be figuratively burying our heads in the
sand. We must question our
assumptions. We should elect leaders
with integrity whose interests are not inimically aligned with the domination
of society, and with profit-making at the public expense, with ignoring the
best interests of citizens, or with abusing power in unjust and undemocratic ways. To the maximum extent we are able, we need to
create new conditions in our societies in which our collective choices result
in an aggregate of significantly more responsible and sustainable activities.
Chapter #53 – The Causes
of Problems, and Some Solutions.
The principal causes of the intractable problems we
face are these:
(1) businesses and governments work together to
compulsively stimulate growth in the consumption of goods without regard for
the need to conserve finite reserves of resources;
(2) vested interests and lobbyists detrimentally
dominate law-making and decision-making, advancing policies that are short-term
oriented and contrary to better plans;
(3) capitalism is engaged in extreme ruthlessness of
competition and its ultimate expression -- aggressive warfare -- to the exclusion
of an adequate amount of fair, intelligent and peaceable cooperation;
and,
(4) our dominant institutions exacerbate these
problems by opposing family planning and birth control programs, and thus
ensure continued population growth that will increase demands on resources and
natural ecosystems, and inevitably intensify conflicts over them.
How can we significantly reduce waste and profligate
spending and deficit financing? How can
we eliminate political mismanagement, corruption, cronyism, short-term-oriented
policies, and abuses of power? New
legislation should be enacted to make our use of resources more efficient and
conservation oriented. Investments
should be made in American infrastructure, urban improvements, public
transportation, and SMART GROWTH. And one salubrious means of achieving
these goals would be by reducing the detrimental and unfair influence of vested
interests in our government by instituting Clean Money initiatives, as
discussed in Chapter #49.
Heavy ecological footprints should be made lighter. Suburban sprawl should be contained, and
limited. Progressively steeper “green
taxes” should be levied on large new homes -- for instance, ones that exceed
3,000 square feet in size. Conservation and efficiency of water and energy
use should be emphasized for all new and remodeled buildings. Huge
“McMansions” and “starter castles” should be subject to luxury taxes that would
be used to offset pollution and depletion costs associated with their
extravagant use of natural resources.
The proceeds of these taxes should be used to create more affordable
housing and robust urban renewal, and to help deal with problems of
homelessness.
We should also change water-use habits to address
the fresh water crisis that is growing in many nations. Bold water conservation measures should be
introduced. Supplies of clean water
should be protected by reducing contamination and waste. Aging water infrastructure systems should be
better maintained. Conservation of fresh
water in household and industrial processes should be strongly
incentivized. Water pricing plans should
be changed to make them more sensible and conservation oriented. Public water policies should be modified to
better manage water resources for urban, rural and agricultural uses. Fresh water for river habitats and other natural
ecosystems should be included in this equation.
And the unsustainable rate of depletion of aquifers should be reduced.
We should also strive to achieve energy independence
from our addiction to the use of fossil fuels.
To kick the oil habit we should adopt the Apollo Alliance’s “Ten-Point
Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence”.
This plan would be a vast improvement over the status quo of
shortsighted policies in our current energy regime. We would achieve collateral benefits by
gaining a greater degree of independence from fossil fuels as business
opportunities related to global energy modernization and greening would
increase. This would enhance our
national security.
Another way to champion greater prudence in
our collective activities would be to invest more wisely in the future by
creating better schools and more universally affordable public education. The curricula in our schools should be designed
to be more interesting and engaging, emphasizing critical thinking skills,
creative problem solving and flexible thinking.
Civics, ethical decision-making, and ecological values should be more
thoroughly studied. Children should not
be left behind by having results be oriented around short-term memorization
skills and testing.
Young people should be encouraged to get
involved in music, theatre, reading and athletic activities because these
pursuits have positive impacts on the confidence and development of
participating youth. Athletic competition can teach healthy
values that are propitious in the workplace and in personal life -- values like
teamwork, leadership, the ability to make decisions under pressure, and shared
commitment. Such competition also helps teach
discipline, balance, time management, mental toughness and focus.
A
bold effort should be made to improve public education by reforming the “No
Child Left Behind” law. Some say this
law was nothing more than a
cynical plan to damage public education, and to make it necessary for people to
choose private schools paid for by taxpayer vouchers rather than improved
public schools. In any case, investing
in better public education and facilities in all school districts is a good
idea!
Implementing affirmative actions to improve our
lives and our societies is a smart plan. A more extensive outline of such
ideas is included in the Progressive
Agenda for a More Sane Humanity. Let
these be the principal principles of the powerful new Sustainability
Revolution!
Chapter #54 – The Failings
of Congress.
“We have the best government that money
can buy.”
--- Mark Twain
Under our present system, over 90% of incumbent
politicians in the House of Representatives generally win re-election, and
almost as high a rate in the Senate, despite extremely low public approval
rates for Congress. This fact is assuredly NOT because Congress is doing
a good job. It is actually doing a lousy job for the majority of
Americans. In many ways, we really do have a “culture of corruption” in
our nation’s capitol. Our
representatives are perpetuating a deep-seated systemic failure to protect
people from those who seek unfair privileges, unsustainable benefits, and
expanded opportunities to profit from corporate shenanigans, militarism, disaster
reconstruction and the like.
Congress has basically been misleading and
defrauding citizens. New laws frequently benefit big corporations and
small elites at the expense of workers, women, children, students, blacks,
Latinos, gays, immigrants, poor people, and the vast majority of people abroad,
as well as everyone who breathes air, and all people in future
generations. A loud raspberry for this
-- frankly, I’m disgusted, Representatives and Senators!
Congress all too often advances misguided priorities
and retrogressive policies. It has performed badly, and spent money like
a drunken sailor, and failed to balance revenues with spending. It has been unable to move us in the
direction of independence from our addiction to fossil fuels. It has allowed dramatic increases in social
inequities. It has shown little concern
for future generations.
Congress gave its members 8 raises between 1997 and
2006, but it refused to increase the minimum wage during that period. In 2012, the average member of Congress
earned an average of $174,000. The
minimum wage until July 2007 was the equivalent of about $12,000 a year for
full time work. As Congress struggled
toward the first increase in the minimum wage in 10 years, the Senate defeated
a plan in August 2006 that would have raised it, because Republicans had outrageously
agreed to the action ONLY if it were coupled with a major reduction in estate
taxes. A raise in the minimum wage that
would have benefited more than 7 million low-income people, at no cost to
taxpayers, was thereby rejected on its own merits, and would have been enacted
only if the heirs of the richest 7,500 Americans were given a tax break that
would have cost an estimated $750 billion over the following decade.
This stance seems as cynical as hell, goodness knows! It is a sad reflection on Republican
political opportunism. The egregiousness
of this inegalitarianism was blatant, especially in light of the many tax
breaks given to rich people from the time George W. Bush took office. When enough Republicans facing reelection
realized the anti-populist import of this pandering to rich people, a modest
increase in the minimum wage was finally approved in 2007. Since inflation steadily erodes the
purchasing power of the minimum wage as the years pass, it should be increased
again, and should be indexed automatically to keep pace with inflation. Full-time work should be rewarded with
livable pay!
The litany of Congressional shortcomings in our
political duopoly is long. Congress has
failed to make broad reforms in the basic causes of inflation and unfairness in
our healthcare system. It has failed to
reform the Social Security system and Medicare to make them more fiscally
sound. It has failed to protect people
from natural disasters like the levee breaches caused by Hurricane
Katrina. And it has failed to invest adequate amounts in schools, roads,
bridges, public transportation, water systems, levees, sewage systems, and most
facets of the physical infrastructure in the United States. This is why the American Society of Engineers
2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure gave a “D+” grade. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!
Congress has also evaded its responsibility of
safeguarding public assets and spending taxpayer’s money wisely. It is making almost no efforts to reduce the
speed at which we are depleting non-renewable resources, and it is failing to
adequately protect natural wetlands, National Parks, National Forests, Bureau
of Land Management lands, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges.
It might be recalled that our national
representatives also pathetically presided over one of the worst diplomatic
failures in history by parlaying worldwide sympathy in the wake of the 9/11
attacks into increased injustice, suspicion, fear, hate, anger, religious
conflict, warfare and foreign military occupations.
The reason Congress has failed us is largely because
-- surprise! -- it is so busy pandering to narrow constituencies. Little lobbying reform has been done and it
has generally been “sound and fury” rather than any real change in ethics or
pragmatic concern for the common good.
Not only is serious lobbying reform needed, but also real reform of
Congressional procedures and ethics. The
revolving door that launches politicians into extremely lucrative lobbying jobs
should be restricted. It is time to find
better ways to prevent our system from emphasizing wrong-headed priorities and
encouraging Big Money influence, unfair privileges, and an astonishing lack of
accountability, transparency, integrity, and commitment to the common
good.
An Office of Public Integrity should be created to
help alter this aspect of the status quo.
Another good idea would be to establish federal Civil Grand Juries that
would be independent from Congress and the White House, and give them responsibility
for identifying good ideas to improve government. And, in addition to changing our political
system through initiatives like Clean Money public campaign financing, let’s
choose to elect more responsible leaders every time we vote!
Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver’s Travels, provides provocative cause for concern with his
witticism:
"They (the Lilliputians) look upon
fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it
with death (!); for they allege that care and vigilance, with a very common
understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves; but honesty has no fence against superior
cunning: and since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse
of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted or
connived at, or hath no Law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone
and the knave gets the advantage."
Chapter #55 – Advocating
a Better World.
Good ideas are needed. Perhaps all
breakthroughs in human thinking evolve because a necessity for them becomes so
forcefully apparent in society. Dynamic ideas tend to automatically
manifest themselves at the necessary time (or soon thereafter). This naturally emboldens action. Eventually, sensible leadership follows.
A positive larger vision is needed that is broad-minded
and widely appealing in order to create a sustainable movement. My hope
is that this Manifesto will help enlarge understanding and instigate action to
advance sustainable movements focused on fostering the greater good.
As entertaining author Tom Robbins once wrote, “A better world has gotta start
somewhere. Why not with you and me?”
Complacency and apathy play into the hands of those who assertively seek
power and control, so it’s up to us to act.
This document is partially a portrait in ideas. Serious issues are discussed in the remainder
of this epistle, so I should not dally here.
But let me quote the cover page of the original Earth Manifesto (my October 2004 on-line publication) as a kind of
gentle and expansive disclaimer:
“Life
can be a rich and miraculously wonderful adventure, and the natural world
outdoors can be experienced as a marvelously beautiful place. Note that Odes to this beauty and to the
potentially lovely mysteriousness and spiritual wonder of existence are in
short supply herein. So are verses
celebrating the extensive and extraordinary triumph of human understandings, of
exalted accomplishments, of the astonishingly diverse nature of creativity, and
of the ineffable heights of noble feelings.
And little is included of the great appreciation the author has for the
great good fortune that is enjoyed living in the United States, a country that
is still blessed with wide freedom of expression, with great opportunities,
with rich public lands, and with great amounts of natural resources. These things have largely been left out,
principally to provide a sharper focus to the critically important ideas
explored in these pages --- but please be well assured that they are hereby
emphatically acknowledged as being included in underlying intention.”
Chapter #56 – My Simple
Dream.
Hope is a powerful force. It is
psychologically valuable to look at life from a perspective that the proverbial
glass is half-full, rather than being half-empty. Yet it is becoming
apparent that there are leaks in the glass, and many people are chipping away
at the vessel.
It is better
for us to err audaciously on the side of hope than in favor of despair
Though,
admittedly, optimism is presumptuous in our current challenging day
And the
stakes of sticking with the Status Quo can be seen to be prohibitively high
So we should resolutely set our
sights on a sustainable future, and boldly enter the fray.
Psychologists tell us that hope and optimism are
good for our mental and physical health. A positive attitude is its own
reward, yet it is also a good idea to be realistic and pragmatic about
important issues at the same time. There is great value in having
positive enthusiasm in life, and a generosity of spirit, and a passionate
caring about crucial causes.
I have a Grand Vision. Martin Luther King
would have called it a dream. It is an achievable one, but it requires a
shift in dominant modes of thinking, an openness to alternate perceptions of
reality, and a dedication to positive action and courageous, even revolutionary
reform. In short, my vision is this: we should strive confidently
to make the world a better place for people in our communities, our societies,
and our species as a whole. We should act to mitigate the extent to which
we harm the hopes of people in future generations to lead healthy and
prosperous lives. In these purposes, we
could find a sense of positive meaning and more authentic self-gratification.
Let’s choose a bright world where we build strategic
alliances to cope effectively with the challenges that face us, and make
sweeping changes in policies that affect social justice, healthier economies,
the mitigation of poverty, and international peace. There is good cause for hope, and there are
achievable strategies that could be undertaken to dramatically improve the
world. Read on for further insight into these ideas.
We are at the pinnacle of
civilization, and we are protagonists on the stage, where:
“It's still the same old story, A fight for
love and glory” … as time goes by.
Chapter #57 – Ideals and
Reality.
The United States represents marvelous ideals to the
rest of the world: ideals of freedom,
fairness, Constitutional democracy, expansive opportunities, self-determination
and the advocacy of protected human rights. But there are stunning
contradictions between these ideals and our actual deeds. As renowned
Berkeley history professor Leon Litwack once said, history is messy; many of our Founding Fathers, after all, were
slave-owning champions of liberty and equality!
The rhetoric of our political representatives is
often betrayed by their actions. Our
domestic and foreign policies are beset by distinct foibles in real world
practice: injustices are perpetrated, inequalities are stoked, private
enterprise is not regulated effectively enough, foreign countries are attacked
to achieve questionable goals, and the environment is not adequately protected. We act as a rogue nation when the “authority
juggernaut” of our federal government intervenes aggressively in the affairs of
other nations and drops bombs on people.
Too many of our national actions are oriented toward building an
American empire, even though this is the antithesis of our Founders’
ideals. We support harsh dictatorships
like the one in Saudi Arabia. We invest
heavily in covert spying activities, and sometimes punish prisoners harshly, as
when the CIA was allowed to use extrajudicial “extraordinary renditions” of
suspected criminals to other countries where they were tortured during the Bush
presidency. Upon occasion, we act as an ‘outlaw state’, little
constrained by international law.
Perhaps it is not so surprising that our national
policies are characterized by hypocrisy, deception, chicanery, and superpower
aggression. After all, greed, heartlessness
and selfishness are among the ideological foundations of unfettered
capitalism. We should, nonetheless, rightly
oppose such blatant contradictions, and begin to seriously reform our system.
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian
political theorist who advised that rulers should subordinate moral principles
to political goals. He famously gave
this advice in The Prince, a book he
wrote in the year 1513. He advised
rulers to gain and retain power by using cunning, deceit and ruthlessness. This is good advice for despots and brutal
control freaks, but it has resulted in detrimental outcomes for the common
people. The heart of the matter, the
bottom line as it were, is that today we need leaders who are committed to
far-sighted constructive goals and noble principles and the advancement of the
general good. Success through conniving
cleverness and manipulative power-mongering in the service of narrow interests
or self-aggrandizement is anti-democratic.
A “juggernaut” has the figurative sense of blind
devotion or merciless sacrifice to some force or power. The original meaning of a Juggernaut was to
describe the Hindu deity Krishna whose idol is carried on huge wagons during
annual processions in India. According
to legend, the wagon crushed worshippers who threw themselves under it. Knowing that religious fanatics sometimes flagellate
themselves with whips makes a legend like this seem quite plausible!
Be that as it may, it is human nature for a crisis
to be necessary before an individual opens up to alternative ways of looking at
things, a crisis like an injurious accident, a disease, a job loss, or a
calamitous ‘relationship conflict’. Such
a crisis can cause us to broaden and deepen our perspective, and force us to
reexamine our lives, beliefs, or actions.
A crisis can thus become a springboard to making significant behavioral
changes.
We are now collectively facing a “Catch-22” of our
own natures with regard to the way we confront change. Disasters like
9/11 or the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, or of Superstorm Sandy
on the East Coast, are often needed to provide a catalyst to provoke us into
rethinking our ways of acting and behaving, and thus goad us into making
changes, for better or worse. The Catch-22 is that the best way to avoid
or mitigate such calamitous crises in the first place is to plan ahead with
better foresight, and to proactively make smart changes in our business and
government institutions and our societies to avoid calamities or mitigate the
severity of their potential impacts.
The best way to avoid negative outcomes is to plan
ahead, think critically and heed precautionary ideas. We would be wise to look with fresh eyes at
the causes of conflicts and dysfunctional behaviors and wrong-headed
priorities. We should try to gain bigger
picture perspectives in understanding what drives problems like poverty and
injustices that are at the root of terrorism and suicide bombings.
Above all, we should cultivate better understandings
of economic, social, psychological and religious elements that drive aggressive
militarism. We need better leadership
and more honorable foreign policy, not politicians obsessed with power,
authority, domineering control, religious fundamentalism, or Machiavellian
mercilessness in the pursuit of self-serving goals. The following chapters deal with these
issues, as does the essay Reflections on
War – and Peace.
Chapter #58 – Sensible
Strategies.
It is essential for us to find better ways to defuse
conflicts and reduce antagonisms between peoples. The so-called “war on
terror” has been a battle that pits a coalition of political leaders against a relatively
small number of extremists. This battle should not be allowed to escalate
into an unaffordably costly worldwide conflict between cultures and
religions. It also should not be allowed
to radically distort proper national priorities.
In the name of national security, the world’s
powerful nations are undermining human rights and draining resources and attention
from more crucial issues that afflict hundreds of millions of people around the
globe. A report released by Amnesty
International in 2006 indicated that “Governments collectively and individually
paralyzed international institutions and squandered public resources in pursuit
of narrow security interests, and sacrificed principles in the name of the ‘war
on terror’, and turned a blind eye to massive human rights abuses.”
The Amnesty International report added, “When the
powerful are too arrogant to review and reassess their strategies, the heaviest
price is paid by the poor and powerless.”
Fears, insecurities, and nationalistic impulses tend
to distract our attention from bigger picture perspectives. Peaceful
coexistence and religious tolerance are critically important goals and values,
so we should not allow our energies, money, and resources to be diverted
away from initiatives designed to prevent war, strife, poverty and humanitarian
crises. Strife between competing
Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, in particular, should not be allowed to
undermine the security, stability, and well-being of civilizations in either
the West or the Middle East. Geopolitics must not be allowed to devolve
into a win/lose or lose/lose battle between opposing sides who cry out,
“Our-God-Is-Better-Than-Your-God!“ Or,
“Our God is absolute truth, and yours is false and evil.”
“Wrong not, and you will not be wronged.”
--- The Quran
The tendency to claim God as an ally for partisan causes
is the source of much religious conflict.
Islamic extremism is a threat to international peace and security, and
so is far right-wing religious orthodoxy here at home. Both pose significant threats to freedom,
democracy, fairness and peace. A rigidly
intolerant ‘Taliban-wing’ exists in both Islam and Christianity, and people
everywhere should work together to marginalize these extremists.
Chapter #59 – The
Conjunction of Idealism and Pragmatism.
Some say it is abundantly clear that the dominant
economic and political powers in the world today are working overtime to
circumvent initiatives that would help solve world problems. The powers-that-be
do this primarily to gain and maintain power and control and supremacy, and to
give benefits to rich people and their cronies by doling out special favors and
unwarranted privileges..
We should reform our national and international
institutions. We CAN change the world. There is no doubt about
it. We DO change the world. We have impacts that cause change,
either for the better or for the worse. From my point of view, there is
no question that those in power in the United States too frequently act to
change things for the worse for the majority of people in the world.
We should curtail the power and greed of business
leaders and politicians. Aggressive
abuses of power are wrong because they violate fairness principles. Policies should be established that are more
independent from doctrinaire interests. Stubbornness is not good
judgment, and excessive rigidity is not reasonable. Old paradigms, closed-minded dogmas, abuses of
power, and bitter loyalty to failing doctrines should be abandoned in favor of
more reasonable and far-sighted choices.
Positive economic, social and political change must
be effected to make the world a safer, saner and more livable place. Let
us treat these ideas as a new gospel -- one that establishes a proper balance
between honorable statesmanship, idealism, pragmatism, humanism, rationality,
incisive understanding, and genuine spirituality.
Chapter #60 – Seductive
Sirens.
Siren, n. - Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise,
dissembled purpose and disappointing
performance. (Ha! -- This is Ambrose Bierce’s
satirical definition in The Devil’s
Dictionary.)
The Sirens of Homer’s Odyssey were enchantresses whose honeyed and haunting voices
bewitched mariners and lured them to destruction on their Mediterranean
island. My fellow Americans, and all inhabitants on Earth, I submit that
we must find ways to resist the alluring temptation of modern-day sirens whose
beguiling voices lure us with deceptive guile and encourage us to accept
wasteful, unfair, fiscally irresponsible, environmentally destructive, myopic,
and militaristic ways.
These voices are urging us to oppose progressive
change at a time when the most rational long-term understandings clearly
support bold actions to transform our societies into ones that are fairer, more
likely sustainable, and more conducive to peaceful coexistence. So-called
conservatives in our society foolishly support doctrines that promote,
rationalize, and defend the narrow status quo, and they oppose change, or even
worse, doggedly strive to roll back the progressive accomplishments achieved
since the Depression of the 1930s.
Far-sighted planning should be used to address
problems while good solutions are still manageable. It is dangerously
unwise to allow problems to become extremely bad by procrastinating, and to
fail to understand that delaying remedial actions can cause problems to become
critically intractable and exorbitantly costly to remedy. It is prudent
to cope with worsening conditions sooner rather than later.
I have a friend who calls himself “The Mole”. He
has a hysterical sense of humor, and sees the world through eyes with a
radically fresh and sometimes heretical perspective. He is a colorful
character who is so original that his underground ideas are inherently subversive
of established dogmas. He wrote in August 2006, referring to the reign of
Alfredo Strossner, the former dictator of Paraguay who had just died, “As in Paraguay, we always choose the
rascals that step on people in 4-year election cycle increments. It must be the $$$ that have us rise to every
fly that lands on the pond, regularly sending our bombers flying off on brazen
sorties, and our troops marching faithfully and valiantly off to foreign
lands.”
All of us have a bit of the Mole in us. My
Mole says “keep on digging”! Coherent ideas and clearer understandings,
along with a good sense of humor, could help save us from shortsighted dogmas
that work contrary to the best interests of the majority, and of future
generations.
A politically aroused citizenry should arise and
demand policies that are best for our communities and the national good -- and
for the human race and the ecosystems that support us, as well. We must
decide, commit, and act. As Goethe said, “Boldness has genius, power, and
magic in it.” Let’s roll!
Chapter #61 – Inequality
and Its Implications.
Many observers decry the insidious increase in
UNFAIRNESS that has been taking place in the U.S. in the past 33 years. This state of affairs is contrary to the
defining principles of a democratic republic. In The
Aristos, John Fowles provided the insight that inequality in our personal
lives can be measured by the competing conceptual states of HAPPINESS and
ENVY. Happiness is essentially a desire to keep things just the way they
are. Envy is basically a desire to change them.
Almost all social and political conflicts take place
between the ‘party of happiness’ and the ‘party of envy’. Considered from
the perspective of evolutionary forces, envy is a powerful impetus toward
change, and happiness is a chief obstacle to progress.
The party of happiness rightly maintains that
society should allow individuals a maximum of freedom to pursue
happiness. The party of envy rightly maintains that society should allow
everyone equal access to opportunity and to the chief sources of
happiness. The continually shifting balance between these competing
interests helps define the course and character of human societies.
Unfortunately,
Big Money unfairly affects the political struggle between these two
forces. It rashly skews public policy in favor of special privileges, and
reinforces the power of the party of happiness to jealously protect their often
undeserved privileges. This is one
reason why John Kenneth Galbraith observed that conservatives are “engaged in
one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral
justification for selfishness.”
In
the Gilded Age era of the late nineteenth century, Mark Twain decried rapid
increases in economic inequality, which had been called the "great barbeque". The outrageous concentration of income and
wealth in those days eventually sparked a strong reaction and a vast reform
movement. But it was not until the onset
of the Great Depression, decades later, that economic collapse and massive
social unrest forced the country's political elite to take actions to reduce
the extreme disparities in income and wealth between the rich and the poor.
In
the past 33 years, economic inequality has again been rapidly increasing,
thanks in large part to the politics of Republican conservatives. Some experts have even blamed increases in
inequality and economic insecurity for the greater frequency of mass public
shootings like those at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook. Other factors are involved, of course, including
heightened stresses, the erosion of community in America, and the easy
availability of handguns and assault weapons.
Today we are embarked on a
neo-Gilded Age that does not appear, as yet, to have any forces powerful enough
to put the brakes on the current runaway process of rising inequality. It appears that the power elite is not ready
to accept any fairer social compact, despite negative impacts on society and the
hardships being borne by blue-collar workers and poor people and the middle
class.
People who defend the status quo inevitably
become further separated from the average person as inequalities increase, so
rich people steer government to meet their own interests by whatever means
necessary. They buy elections and make
efforts to disenfranchise voters, especially poor people and minorities. They gain influence in mass media to try to expand
their control in ideological debates. They
also try to erect barriers to oversight and accountability, and to demand
tactics of suppression and intimidation.
To achieve far-reaching social progress, the state as we know it, with
its practically inextricable connections to the upper class, should be
resurrected to be more democratically fair.
Economic inequality is one of the most
significant sources of friction in world politics. The industrial revolution intensified this
inequality of wealth and power, and one result was the colonization and
exploitation of non-industrialized nations by those who were first to
industrialize. Experts now recognize two
basic strategies for marginalized nations to break out of economic and
political dependency: (1) through war or
revolution, or (2) by imitating the means that advanced countries have used,
including the adoption of market mechanisms, industrialization technologies,
innovations, tariffs, currency controls or import barriers. I believe we should help reduce economic
inequalities worldwide by treating people in other countries more fairly. This treatment would have the considerable
advantage of mitigating impulses toward trade conflicts or wars or violent revolutions.
Chapter #62 – The Wisdom
of the Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule represents the ethical essence of
morality and fairness. This wisdom holds
that we should treat others the way that we, ourselves, would like to be
treated. Golden Rule fairness should be taken into account in formulating
all laws. All people in our communities should be accorded more respect,
as well as those in future generations. Every piece of legislation that
Congress passes should incorporate greater fairness.
Human societies are always unjust, to greater or
lesser extents. But steps should be taken to reduce the growing extreme
degree of income inequality. History shows that peace and social
stability have been much better served when the disparity between rich people
and the majority is not too stark.
It can be the death knell of democracy to allow an
ever-increasing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the
few. And yet the economic disparities between the rich and the poor keep
getting larger. This trend was kicked into high gear by the trickle-down
“voodoo economics” of Ronald Reagan, which has caused policy changes that contribute
to the gushing up of wealth to the richest Americans. Remember that Ronald
Reagan vastly enriched the wealthy by reducing the marginal tax rate on the
highest incomes from 70% in 1980 to 28% by 1988.
Tax reform under George W. Bush gave paltry benefits
to 98% of Americans while providing huge benefits to the top 2%. These
changes in taxation were most generous to the richest 1% of the American people
and to the top .1%,, who do not need the money by any stretch of the
imagination.
Disparities of net worth between the rich and
the poor are even more pronounced than disparities of annual income. One percent of people in the United States
own about 40% of all wealth. Republican
policies are aimed at continuously increasing this concentration of wealth.
The primary Republican agenda of the Bush years was
to achieve the goal of increasing the assets of people who were already
exceedingly well-off. Conservatives have effectively sold their souls to
champion a doctrinal agenda that justifies this anti-social selfish
greed.
Wealthy people strive successfully to reduce their share
of taxes paid. The top 5% of Americans, for instance, received 75% of the
enormous 2003 tax breaks that exempted corporate dividends from individual
income taxes. The May 2006 passage of
another $70 billion tax cut gave only $20 to the average middle-income
household, but a whopping average of $42,000 to those making more than $1
million per year.
The
gradual elimination of Inheritance Taxes between 2003 and 2010 was a strategy
targeted to make wealth and special privilege a permanent status for the
privileged. Our government is supposed to be a “democracy”, so we should
be fighting to diminish such unfair disparities, not increase them.
Billionaire
Warren Buffett testified before the Senate Finance Committee in November 2007
in defense of the federal estate tax, the nation's only tax on inherited
wealth. Buffett invoked the historical
roots of the estate tax, which was established in 1916 to put a brake on
anti-democratic concentrations of wealth and power.
"Dynastic
wealth, the enemy of meritocracy, is on the rise," Buffett told the
panel. "Equality of opportunity has
been on the decline. A progressive and
meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward
plutocracy." "Tax-law
changes,” he said “have benefited this super-rich group, including me, in a
huge way. During that time the average
American went exactly nowhere on the economic scale: he's been on a treadmill while the super-rich
have been on a spaceship.”
In
response, Republican Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa, complained that the
"death tax" was "fundamentally wrong." Buffett responded that use of the term
"death tax" itself was "intellectually dishonest" and
"clever, Orwellian and dead wrong."
It is, after all, not a tax on dead people, but a tax on the inheritance
of rich kids.
What
do you think? Let’s venture beyond any
convenient convictions we may have, and explore what is truly right and
wrong. Is it fundamentally wrong to tax
a class of people whose incomes and net worth have skyrocketed since Ronald
Reagan took office? Or is it more
fundamentally wrong to take a bigger chunk out of the meager earnings of people
who work hard to get by? Is it the best
plan for our society to have the government shift the burden of taxation from
financially well-off people to struggling workers and those yet to be
born?
Make
no mistake about it -- forget anything you think you know about economics; it is virtual madness to allow politicians to
spend far beyond our national means and to be so fiscally imprudent as to
borrow enormous sums of money year after year, during good economic times and
bad, to let the highest income earners pay historically low rates of tax. It is especially crazy to use shortsighted
fiscal expediencies to facilitate the entry of our nation into preemptive wars,
and to use stimulated fears and odd rationalizations to achieve this goal. Understandings that are progressive in nature
must gain ascendance, and taxation that is more progressive is a particularly
good idea. Regressive policies that give
special privileges for small elites must yield to the greater good.
Taxpayers who earned less than $25,000 in income in 2005 were
6 times more likely to undergo IRS audits than those who reported earnings of
$200,000 or more, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a
public-interest group affiliated with Syracuse University. In further defiance of fairness doctrines, the government planned
to eliminate almost half of the 345 lawyers who audited tax returns of those
subject to sharing a cut of their estates with the American public upon their
deaths, according to an article in the New York Times. Additionally, IRS audits of large
corporations have plummeted in recent years, and offshore tax scams that
benefit rich people cost the U.S. Treasury an estimated $70 billion per
year. This is absurd -- and outrageous!
Our economic system is not fair, and it is becoming increasingly
unfair. Prevailing policies that result in the borrowing of enormous sums
of money in order to give additional benefits to rich people are a form of
fiscal and social lunacy. Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms enabled the rise of a substantial middle class in
the U.S. after World War II. Yet
favoritism for the rich has made a comeback in recent decades, and it has
diminished the prosperity of the middle class.
This trend has been made much worse by regressively-structured tax
cuts. The resultant increase in
inequality has increased economic insecurities and directly harmed the
well-being of many Americans.
Intense conflicts in economic equality and social
status are resulting from these policies.
One of the best aspects of our American democracy has been the fluidity
of opportunity and social mobility within our society’s social
stratification. This virtue is
diminished by having entrenched inequities.
Horatio Alger success stories of upward movements in socioeconomic
status are becoming increasingly difficult for most people to achieve.
It is contrary to democratic ideals for our leaders
to champion policies that ensure such dramatic increases in economic
inequalities and inherited privilege.
Specious arguments and regressive swindles constitute grounds, in and of
themselves, to reject right-wing conservatism.
Karl Marx saw all of history as a story of class struggles, and unless
we want to bring on a violent revolution, we are best advised NOT to continue
exacerbating class inequities. Change
must come!
Consider the implications of this observation from
Mark Twain:
“If you
beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a
curse upon a
neighbor at the same
time.”
The wealthy are grabbing financial blessings for
themselves, effectively putting a curse not only upon everybody else, but upon
all of our descendents, to boot! The
time to fairly reform our economic system is now!!
Chapter #63 – The
Selfishness of the Wealthy.
Here is an example of how disparities between the
fortunes of the rich and the poor in America are becoming increasingly
extreme. Each of the 28,000 American households that comprise the top
1/100 of one percent of all Americans earns an average of more than $8 million
per year. These 28,000 American families together earn more than the 100
million people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder.
The share of taxes that these super-rich people pay
has declined dramatically since 1981. This change effectively shifts the
tax burden to all other taxpayers -- and to people in the future by means of
the irresponsible expediency of deficit financing. It’s outrageous not to
require the super-rich to pay a percentage of their income in taxes that is at
least as high as everyone else. Instead, they generally pay lower
percentages. Mitt Romney, for instance,
paid less than 14% of his $21 million in income in taxes in 2010, so his
overall tax rate was lower than someone who made $40,000 in taxable income.
Economic inequality is leading to a more highly
stress-inducing economic insecurity for the vast majority of
Americans. It is also causing devastating healthcare inequities.
Thousands of people die every year because they lack health insurance and
access to care. Profiteering by private
insurance companies and HMOs contribute to this unconscionable situation. The
legal system and poorly regulated drug company policies have exacerbated these challenges. For better perspective on this and related
issues, check out David Sirota’s book Hostile
Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government --- and How We
Can Take It Back.
More than 45 million Americans live in poverty --
one in seven Americans! While the
productivity of workers has more than doubled in the last 40 years, the average
hourly worker’s wage has decreased by 5% when adjusted for inflation, and the
minimum wage has effectively decreased by more than 40%. The number of
people do not have health insurance has more than doubled since 1972.
Thirteen million children live in poverty.
Four million people experience homelessness in any given year. Housing
was made harder to afford for many under post-9/11 Federal Reserve actions to
stimulate real estate speculation and rapid increases in home prices. These policies created an economic bubble
whose collapse has been extremely hard on millions of Americans. In addition, higher education is becoming increasingly
difficult to afford. These facts prove that opportunity and freedom are not
equally available to all.
The fortunes of rich people have increased so much
in the past several decades because of the constant stream of new policies put
into place to primarily benefit the wealthy. Changes to our system of
taxation are unfair and regressive when they disproportionately benefit the
richest people and place heavy new burdens of debt on future generations.
The ever-widening gap between the fortunes and privileges of the “Haves” and
the “Have-Nots” is not acceptable in a democracy.
Our national debt increased from $845 billion in
January 1981 when Ronald Reagan took office to more than $18 trillion in early
2015, an increase of over 2,000%. We are
effectively mortgaging the future to transfer wealth from future
generations to rich people today through unwise tax breaks and deficit
spending. This hyper-partisan result has
arisen because we give big benefits to a small, privilege-abusing segment of
society, and we do so at a high cost to the common good. Shortsighted policies like this contribute
unnecessarily to bigger risks of national financial instability in the
future.
Since rich people have been getting away with this practically
treasonous favoritism from politicians, they should now begin to accept and
support more egalitarian initiatives. Progressive tax changes, after all,
have negligible impacts on the quality of the lives of multi-millionaires,
while such changes can make dramatically positive differences in the lives of
millions of Americans who live hand-to-mouth. This perspective makes it
seem downright cruel and cold-hearted for rich people to press their advantages
so greedily, so intently, so arrogantly, so self-righteously, and so
continuously.
Studies of philanthropic giving consistently show
that wealthy people are relatively stingier than others. This fact alone makes it ironic that our
economic and political systems are skewed so strongly to give ever-bigger benefits
to this class who exhibit such a relative deficiency in generosity. The rich are damned lucky, financially ---
and they should be thankful that the lagging middle class and the struggling
working class and the destitute poor are not fomenting a revolution to take
away their assets! Let’s not get mad;
let’s get even. Let’s take back our government from vested
interests and the wealthy, and begin enacting fairer, more progressive tax
laws.
Mark
Twain once remarked: “The offspring of
riches: Pride, vanity, ostentation,
arrogance and tyranny.” This is human
nature -- but we need not encourage and reward it so lavishly!
Chapter #64 – To Be or
Not To Be.
The sagacious lawmaker Solon has been called “the
father of democracy” because he reformed Greek laws in 594 BCE by implementing
reforms that made Athenian society fairer. The rich were not happy about
it, but eventually they recognized that his reforms were a fair price to pay
for them to be allowed to maintain most of their privileges. Solon’s initiatives
wisely included progressively higher tax rates on higher incomes, with a rate
on the highest incomes 12 times as much as the rate paid by the poor.
Here’s a good plan for making our nation
significantly fairer: Enact a “Social Justice Taxation Act” to make
taxation more steeply graduated. This
would involve the implementation of fair and Solon-wise Tax Code
revisions. Such an Act would assess
federal taxes on the highest individual income tax brackets at a rate 12 times
the rate of the lowest income tax brackets.
The most practical way to do this would be to revise the Tax Tables so
that all taxpayers pay 4% (vs. 10% currently) on the first $15,000 of Taxable
Income. Simultaneously, a new tax
bracket should be created that assesses a rate of 48% (vs. 39% currently) on
all Taxable Income in excess of $1,000,000.
A progressive sliding scale would determine tax rates for all earning
brackets in between $15,000 and $1,000,000.
Here is another good plan: Give every taxpayer an increase of $2,500 in
the standard deduction on his or her individual tax return. Such a fair
policy could be financed by the higher marginal tax rates assessed on higher
incomes, as well as by higher inheritance taxes on the wealthiest 1% of
Americans, upon their deaths.
The struggle between envious, underprivileged poor
people and jealous rich people who have the most assets and power is a
long-standing one. This conflict should
be reduced, not expanded continually in our democracy. The fact of the matter is that the conflict
between wealth and morality is practically as old as the hills. The
Bible, the Quran, and most of mankind’s holy books assail abuses of wealth and
power. Our governments should therefore refrain from rashly promoting the
growth of inequalities!
Fairer tax plans would help reduce social status
conflicts between people, and mitigate feelings of despair, disenfranchisement,
and antagonisms between rich and poor people, and between privileged and
underprivileged people. Fairness is the
ultimate requisite of decency. It is one of the most important aspects of
moral right action. Yet fairness has been increasingly under assault in
recent years, along with values like truth, honesty, and reason.
Progressive initiatives like the 1944 G.I. Bill
helped build a large middle class in the U.S. after the Depression of the
1930s. But regressive initiatives
implemented since 1980 have undermined the well-being of the middle class. Since current policies have eroded the
financial health of middle class people, new programs should be put into effect
that are similar to those that contributed to the strengthening of the middle
class after the Depression. These programs include expanded educational
opportunities, less expensive higher education, reasonable labor laws, increased
investments in the physical infrastructure of the U.S., fairer incentives for
home ownership, a more steeply-graduated tax system, and an affordable safety
net of national health care and basic retirement benefits.
A citizenry that is well informed makes a democracy
more robust. If we galvanize Americans
into supporting greater fairness and more intelligent planning, a radical
transformation in our activities and economies will take place, and a more sustainable
future will be created.
Let us heed Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in his famous
Soliloquy:
“To be, or not to be: that is the
question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to
suffer
The slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea
of troubles,
And by opposing end them.”
The best way for us to take arms against the surging
sea of troubles facing humankind today is to boldly demand reforms of our
economic and political systems. Foresight and fair-mindedness -- not
shortsightedness and stubborn inflexibility -- need to be cultivated to help
deal with the challenges of the future. We
require, in short, a new form of intelligent design!
Chapter #65 – Bubble
Economics.
One might suppose that some of our society’s
policies are truly equitable. Let’s pick one of the biggest benefits, and
examine it. Let’s take the $70 billion-per-year deduction for mortgage
interest. Who gets that benefit? ... Oh -- I’ll be darned; the people with the top 5% of incomes get more
than 50% of that subsidy.
The U.S. would be better served by creating benefits
for a broader spectrum of Americans, and not mainly those who are already
rich. We should, as a pertinent example, establish programs that create
more affordable housing, rather than creating conditions favorable to real
estate speculators. We should provide incentives to first-time homeowners
rather than rewards for people to own multiple homes. Incentives for people to benefit from owning
multiple homes should be reduced.
A nonpartisan tax-reform panel concluded in 2005
that provisions like the tax-free exclusion of $250,000 in real estate capital
gains ($500,000 for married couples) are heavily skewed to benefit high-income
taxpayers.
Tax incentives helped make real estate a hot
commodity, so they contributed to rapid appreciation in housing for years. As more and more speculative influences were
introduced into the market, like these big tax breaks for home ownership and
ever-more risky financing, real estate was finally ramped up until it became
distinctly overpriced in most areas of the country. Mortgage fraud and the collaboration of
ratings agencies also played a factor.
The boom in real estate was a powerful engine of growth in consumption,
because hundreds of billions of dollars were borrowed every year against
increasing home equity until 2007. Remember
the obnoxiously repetitive barrage of TV commercials that urged homeowners to
borrow money against their home equity?
Scurrilous!
When the bubble that burst, it caused global
financial turmoil and catastrophic hardships for millions of people. These incentives were great for homeowners
who benefited from the appreciation in their home equity, and they stimulated
consumer spending by allowing homeowners to mortgage their homes to the hilt,
but this increased risks of foreclosures and losses of down payments when the
inevitable bust took place. Thanks a lot
for the shrewd but ultimately irresponsible fiduciary failure, decision-makers!
This whole episode is proving to have been
shortsighted in many ways. Surely we could find a safer and fairer means
of creating healthier economic growth!
Not only did these policies cause significant
instability to domestic and international economies, but also unnecessary
damages to the natural environment. And
such influences in real estate have been bad news for first-time homebuyers who
want to own a reasonably-priced place to live.
They have also been negative for poor people who cannot afford homes,
and for people who have become homeless because of the high costs of housing. And they have contributed to inflating rents,
suburban sprawl, obscenely big houses for wealthy people, profligate usages of
lumber and other building materials, wasteful usages of water and energy, the
lavish ownership of multiple homes by rich people, undesirable speculation and
unwise development.
Policies are needed that are more far-sighted,
enlightened and sustainable!
Chapter #66 – The
Failings of Business and Government.
One ruinous error of the current approach of
businesses and government in the U.S. is that economic principles are given a
dominating influence while important social principles are ignored and even
denigrated. Even worse, vital ecological principles are neither widely
appreciated nor adequately respected.
Conservatives support policies that emphasize the
primary importance of protections for capital and private property, while
liberals tend to support contrasting policies that emphasize the importance of
equitable treatment for all people. Deep
ecologists inform us that more enlightened understandings are evolving in
recognition of the fact that the ecological well-being of our home planet is
essential to both property and people.
A pathetic deficiency of government has always been
found in its slavish willingness to sacrifice the public good to private
greed. "Strange as it may
seem," said Josiah Quincy in 1774, "what the many, through successive
ages, have desired and sought, the few have found means to baffle and
defeat."
Consider this: a study by the federal Office of
Management and Budget in 2003 sought to evaluate the cost and impact of
environmental laws over the 10-year period from 1992 to 2002. The
extensive analysis found that the cost to business and government of health and
environmental regulations was 5 to 7 times less than the costs to
society of dealing with the clean-up of pollution and toxic wastes, and of
related healthcare expenses for workers and people in communities
nationwide. These findings prove that it is downright dumb for the
government to let corporate lobbyists rewrite laws to weaken environmental
protections like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
Our econopolitical system is basically broken
because it allows rich people and corporations to gain and abuse power at the
expense of the health of the people and the environment. Big Oil, as a prime example, generally
opposes resource conservation. It does
this despite the fact that investments in energy conservation often have a
short payback period, and such investments would have collateral benefits such
as reduced waste, improved production processes, higher productivity, positive
public relations value, and healthy ecosystem benefits. Big Oil and Big Coal are industries that
promote obscenely profligate usages of non-renewable fossil fuels, and they
compound this sin by using the heavy weight of the influence of their profits
to corrupt national policies in their favor.
Experts predicted that the U.S. would soon be awash
in oil, thanks to rules that allow Big Oil to frack the hell out of America the
Beautiful. Not long thereafter, sure
enough, supply and demand caused a 50% decline in the price of oil
worldwide. But we cannot afford to
exploit this resource with such reckless abandon, and this is true for an
interesting and surprising reason.
Scientists say that the atmosphere effectively has a carbon budget that
can not be exceeded without causing catastrophic climate change. And at the current pace, the nations of the
world will exceed this carbon budget for the next 100 years in less than 25
years. It would be suicidally insane for
us not to change course and invest in conservation and cleaner alternatives
ASAP.
At the current rate of growth of carbon dioxide
emissions, this threshold will be alarmingly exceeded 75 years early, and by
the year 2100, we will be double glazing our home planet. The price of fossil fuels everywhere is already
artificially low, due to three factors: no cost is allocated for the depletion
of these resources; large costs are
being externalized onto society related to unfolding natural disasters related
to changing weather patterns worldwide;
and there are many health and ecological damages being caused by spewing
tens of billions of tons of greenhouse gases and noxious particulates into the
atmosphere year after year after year.
Oddly enough, fossil fuel industries receive more
subsidies annually than any other industries in the world, other than
agriculture. At least agricultural
subsidies make more sense, as they help people afford to buy food at what are
basically subsidized prices.
Americans should demand that fossil fuel industries
support more fuel-efficient vehicles, better gas mileage standards, and a more
rapid adoption of fossil fuel alternatives.
Protections of consumers and the environment should be given increased
weight in our policy considerations, and higher royalties should be assessed
for all resources extracted from public lands.
One smart idea is being promoted by environmental activist Tom Steyer,
who is calling for an increase in taxes for oil extracted in California. He asserts that Texas assesses charges to oil
producers that are “three times what California charges for the privilege of
removing its oil from the ground.” Texas
uses the taxes on the extraction of oil from huge pools that lie underground in
Texas to benefit public education and other services. Hey, Texas might actually have a few good
ideas, after all.
Anyway, business and government are failing us. Again, one big component of problems is a
lack of accountability that is being achieved on account of the excessive power
of Big Money and lobbyists.
I say, “Citizens, Unite!” As with
many things, a 3-part solution presents itself, and it is an excellent
one. First, the American people should
demand legislation to reverse the narrow Supreme Court Citizens United and McCutcheon
rulings by enacting real Campaign Finance Reform and Lobbyist Ethics
Reform. Second, we should pass and
ratify a Constitutional Amendment as soon as practicable to overturn the privilege
of wealthy interests to dictate our national policies in our corrupt political
duopoly. And third, we should demand
that the Supreme Court look at these issues from a bigger picture perspective
and make fairer rulings on issues related to political influence in all future
cases.
Chapter #67 – Our
American Achilles Heel.
Amory Lovins, the founder of the independent
non-profit and nonpartisan Rocky Mountain Institute, once asserted that we have
the technological ability to reduce overall energy use by 80%, and at the same
time create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. In doing
so, we could also significantly reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions.
The Rocky Mountain Institute has also estimated that
electricity use in the United States could be cut in half at a savings of $50
billion per year without any reduction in the average standard of living.
Such actions would slow the depletion of fossil fuels and the alteration of the
gaseous composition of the atmosphere. This should be a no-brainer!
Electricity generation is one of the largest factors
contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal-fired power plants produce more than half the electricity used in
the U.S., so they are responsible for a significant portion of all carbon-dioxide
emissions. They also produce large
quantities of poisonous mercury, sulfur dioxide and smog-producing nitrogen
oxide. Older coal-fired plants are
exceptionally polluting because they have been granted loopholes in the Clean
Air Act that allow them to avoid updating their plants with modern pollution
controls. Stricter regulations and the
conservation of electricity could beneficially reduce these pollutants.
Yet we continue to stick with policies that perpetuate
our dependence on oil and coal and natural gas. Some say that our
addiction to oil is our “Achilles heel” because it is a reckless dependency
that represents a dangerous vulnerability to depletion, supply disruptions and
wars. Instead of addressing this risk, the ‘Oil guys’ in the White House
under the Bush Administration gave only lip service to smarter courses of
action. They used misinformation and secrecy to help Big Oil make record
profits, and they refused to support bold actions to wean our country from our
addiction to oil.
National energy policy should include three
strategies: (1) to use fossil fuels much more efficiently and
conservatively; (2) to modernize
coal-fired plants to make them cleaner;
and (3) to create powerful incentives that encourage the use of fossil
fuel alternatives. We should prevent those in power from allowing
domestic oil drilling in areas that are extremely environmentally
sensitive. And “blood-for-oil”
aggression and deceitful pretexts for warfare should be rejected as national
energy strategies.
We are being ridiculously complacent and injudicious
in our usages of energy. The world’s oil tank stands at half full, and it
is headed for empty. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we are not
critically compromising the future by allowing the continued profligate use of
fossil fuels.
Chapter #68 – The
Ramifications of Peak Oil.
Life from birth to death can be a drama, a
tragedy, a farce and a comedy. On
average, a human being has roughly 2,500 million heartbeats during his or her
lifetime, and each day another 100,000 beats of the heart tick away our time
alive. There is certainly uncertainty
about how many more heartbeats each of us might have, but in one thing there is
no doubt: there is no uncertainty that
the number is finite.
Similarly, there is no doubt that our daily
burning of fossil fuels inexorably moves us toward the day that oil reserves on
Earth will be exhausted. A total of
about 2.5 trillion barrels of oil have been discovered in the world since the
beginning of time, and the human race has already burned up almost half of
these oil reserves in the 150 years since we began to use it to replace whale
oil for many fuel needs. An estimated
total of about 1.5 trillion barrels of known oil recoverable reserves are left,
and we are currently burning more than 30 billion barrels per year. When one does the math, even with new
supplies recovered by using fracking, we see that only about 50 years supply
remains at current levels of use.
Between now and the time oil is gone, its price will begin to become
prohibitively costly, so it will inevitably be used more sparingly.
Our lives and businesses are structured
around artificially cheap oil and natural gas.
We are acting as if there is no cost of depletion, as if supplies are
infinite. But we are inexorably
approaching the point at which oil production will begin a long-term
decline. This condition, known as Peak Oil, is a dangerous tipping
point. Beyond it, we will face unprecedented energy crises, economic
shocks and social disruptions -- unless we can find a new energy regime to
replace petroleum.
But oil will not be easy to replace. This
fossilized energy from the Sun is a convenient and unique high-energy
resource. It has helped generate amazing revolutions in industry and agriculture,
and it has supported an increase in human numbers just since the year 1930 from
two billion to more than SEVEN billion today. It may well prove
impossible to sustain our human population once fossil fuels are effectively
gone later this century. The implications of this fact are likely to be
unimaginably severe.
One thing is certain: it is foolhardy not to
be taking advantage of the last half of the world’s oil reserves to help
develop and implement a transition to cleaner and safer renewable energy
alternatives. E. F. Schumacher observed in his seminal book Small Is Beautiful in 1973 that we
should treat fossil fuels as capital resources, not as income, so that we would
logically conserve them. He recommended
that some of the money obtained by exploiting these irreplaceable assets be put
“into a special fund to be devoted exclusively to the evolution of production
methods and patterns of living which do not depend on fossil fuels …”.
Some of the smartest guys in the room have
ironically joined a conspiracy of fools in opposing such insights. These folks are representing narrowly focused
interests, not the greater good. Some of
the profits made from using up the remaining reserves of oil should be invested
in far-sighted energy initiatives that will help break our dangerous addiction.
The nearly 320 million people in the U.S. represent
less than 5% of the total world population, and we have less than 5% of the
world’s oil reserves, and yet we burn about 25% of the total amount of oil used
worldwide each year. WE AMERICANS ARE THE ONES who should seize the
initiative and make smarter changes in our national policies and consumer
habits. The percent of oil we imported
more than doubled between 1980 and 2010.
Fracking in the U.S. has reversed this trend temporarily, but we should
not become complacent. Let’s not make
the mistake of thinking we’ve solved the problems posed by our dangerous
addiction to oil through the unfolding fracking frenzy!
As we move past Peak Oil, and as the cost
of fossil fuels eventually begins a shocking increase as demand goes up and
supplies are depleted, this will force a far-reaching restructuring in
agricultural practices, transportation, efficiency and conservation. Our economies will shift toward SMART and
sustainable activities, and away from shortsighted and unsustainable ones. The “endgame” of cheap oil will be expensive
oil, and possibly a return to more local and smaller scale activities.
We face a new age of terrible austerity if we do not
find ways to conserve energy resources, to find a cleaner, greener and
renewable substitute for fossil fuels, and to live more harmonious lives. Our current energy policies put us in
increasing jeopardy of extreme economic instability and social upheaval,
intensified resource wars, and environmental calamity. To avoid this,
let’s support bold remedial actions!
Chapter #69 – Other
Addictive Behaviors.
Our addiction to oil is a corollary to a far more
consequential and dangerous addiction.
Our economy is addicted to war and militarism, as discussed in depth in Reflections on War – and Peace! This habit represents an overarching
wrong-headedness. The enormous amounts
of money and resources that are devoted to the military may stimulate our
economy and give our societies a sense of duty, purpose, righteousness and
necessity, but these are risky gambits.
They are filled with unethical inhumanity, and they are made extremely
dangerous by hubris and cultural ignorance in their pursuit.
Militarism acts like a powerful gyroscope that fixes
our course in a direction that is aggressive, wasteful, inflexible,
uncompromising, exploitative, unfair and unjust. Besides, it is daunting to remember that a
bloated and overextended military has always been a major contributing factor
to the decline of civilizations.
War is never overly popular with the majority of
people, so our leaders in business and government tend to exploit people’s
fears and insecurities and nationalistic pride to push for war. Americans are in denial to suppose that our
addiction to militarism does not have dangerously unjust aspects.
The shrewd use of the expediency of deficit spending
facilitates this mainlining of wasteful military spending and war
profiteering. We delude ourselves to
pretend that we can obtain things by using borrowed money without significantly
increasing the eventual costs. The truth
is that deficit spending is merely a way of deferring costs, while also
increasing them substantially. Even if
the borrowed principal is never repaid -- such a deal! -- every dollar borrowed
costs 100% of the amount borrowed every 15 years or so (assuming a 5% long-term
average rate of interest). This burden
obligates people in the future to pay for amounts borrowed over and over and
over again. This is Fiscal Sin, a
severely irresponsible and unsustainably unwise strategy.
Republicans have shrewdly made “tax” a dirty word,
necessitating record levels of borrowing.
But mortgaging the future for short-term benefits is stupidly
shortsighted. It is a risky gambit that
leaves us less flexible in the face of factors that will significantly worsen
budget deficits, including costs related to Baby Boomer retirement programs
like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Borrowing is particularly foolish when it is used as
an expediency to stimulate demand for goods and services. People in the future, perhaps soon, will bear
the burden and be forced to pay the consequences. Ballooning debt and interest payment
obligations represent an undisciplined failure to operate with our means. This expedient indulgence is a form of trying
“to have our cake and eat it too” -- something that the mad monk Rasputin found
to be terminally ill advised; and so may
we, too!
John Maynard Keynes was a British economist during
the Depression and the Second World War who studied macroeconomic ideas and
advocated deficit spending by the government during recessions to stimulate
economic activity and employment. But he
also advocated running budget surpluses during economic booms in order to
tame inflation and pay off some of the debt incurred during hard times. We have been overly indulging in huge amounts
of deficit spending to continuously stimulate the economy and enrich the rich
ever since Ronald Reagan took office.
This is a foolishly risky course of action.
Our leaders have been recklessly indulging in
“Military Keynesianism”, which is deficit spending all the time on the
military. This strategy is almost
certain to prove to be a fatefully poor plan.
Allowing deficit spending merely delays the necessity for us to face
difficult decisions. I call for a
powerful commitment to a balanced federal budget. This could be achieved by giving a strong
motivation to the primary deciders in our system: rich people and big corporations. Here is one possible way to achieve it; let’s call it the Fiscal Responsibility Act
of 2014.
Here’s how it would work: After the end of the U.S. fiscal year that
runs from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016, the I.R.S. should assess 25%
of any budget deficit for the year to rich people and Big Businesses. Half of this obligation should be assessed to
individuals with taxable incomes above $250,000. The other half should be assessed to
businesses that earn more than $2 million in net income. Both assessments should be made on a sliding
scale that is progressively graduated, with higher percentages for higher
incomes. In the following fiscal year,
50% of any deficits should be assessed, using the same methodology. In the year after that, 100% of deficits
should be assessed.
The result?
This mechanism would create a firestorm of political pressure to balance
the budget. Soon, we would see budget
deficits dramatically decrease. And this
wouldn’t be achieved by slashing spending, because that would really cripple
the economy. Nope. It would be achieved by ending the criminally
corrupt practice of giving rich people the lowest tax rates on the highest
levels of their earnings in generations.
Tax reforms will need to be instituted like those set forth in One Dozen Big
Initiatives to Positively Transform Our Societies.
Historically low tax rates on high incomes would be
increased, and make-work projects, government waste, pork barrel spending, and
bureaucracy would be swiftly reformed.
The many advantages of zero-base budgeting would soon come into
play. This mechanism would seriously
focus the attention of our representatives on making more sensible choices in
all spending decisions. It could reasonably
re-balance government and private enterprise. Market-driven entrepreneurial activities
result in better outcomes than government-created jobs in many areas, but a
better balance would evolve.
It is easy to rail against taxes; who wants to pay even a penny? But taxes are a measure of the difficult decisions
made to finance government, social programs, infrastructure investments and
other greater good goals. National
budgets define not just our fiscal priorities but our moral ones, too. They reflect trade-offs that we make for
keeping order, promoting prosperity, ensuring the proper functioning of our
society, and facilitating other national goals.
My hope is that these understandings will serve as a
kind of addiction intervention, and set us on a new path of more wholesome,
equitable, and farsighted human activities.
Chapter #70 – Global
Warming.
Our economic addiction to oil is partially due to
our glorification of growth no matter what the cost. Resource
conservation is almost outright stigmatized, instead of being encouraged and
rewarded.
American automakers have for decades aggressively
marketed large SUVs. These big
fuel-inefficient vehicles came into popularity partially because they were
classified as light trucks that were exempt from fuel efficiency standards and
emissions regulations. Poor policy once again can be seen to create adverse
outcomes. Advertising has turned automobiles
and light trucks into status symbols, and created a formidable challenge to the
prospects of achieving sustainable uses of energy. Our lawmakers are so obedient to the
expectations of big industry that they refused to increase Corporate Average
Fuel Economy standards for decades.
An energy bill that mandated an increase in fuel
economy standards from 27 to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020 was finally signed
into law in December 2007. Sensible
provisions included in the House version of the energy bill were jettisoned by
the Senate. This included renewable
electricity standards and a tax package that would have moved large subsidies
out of the pockets of Big Oil and into the hands of the renewable energy
industry. Once again, coal and oil and
utility lobbyists had their way, even as the automobile industry gave in to
overdue reforms.
One reason smart energy bills have become so
important is that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been
steadily increasing, due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, and
deforestation around the planet has made this situation worse. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the
atmosphere have increased significantly in the last 50 years. And the RATE at which they are being produced
is increasing. This fact is confirmed by
measurements that have been taken continuously since 1958 at the Mauna Loa
Observatory atop the Big Island of Hawaii.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that has the
effect of trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
This contributes to global warming that is destabilizing the world’s
weather patterns and causing more severe flooding in some areas and drought in
others. Freshwater shortages are being
made worse by these trends, and natural fresh water storage systems are being
disrupted. Mountain snow packs and
glaciers are melting faster than they are being replenished by snowfall. Hundreds of millions of people will be
adversely affected by these climate change impacts in coming decades.
Scientists predict that the intensity and power of
hurricanes and tornados is likely to increase as a consequence of the worsening
greenhouse effect. Hotter summers and
more widespread wildfires are probable. Deserts
will likely expand. These developments
are taking place right now, and they will get worse if we continue our heedless
ways. Related warming trends of ocean
waters could disrupt ocean currents like the Gulf Stream and ironically cause
extreme cold during European winters. The probability is increasing that such
changes will cause havoc in global food production, and consequently there will
be more severe famines. Outbreaks of
infectious-diseases will likely worsen as the resistance of natural systems is
weakened, while at the same time microbes continue to adapt quickly to our
injudicious use of antibiotics and pesticides.
Wow, how prescient the Bible may have been in some
of its apocalyptic prophesies! How
little, however, the LORD apparently suspected at the time “He” was inspiring a
bunch of old men to write the Holy Bible, that the agent of this cataclysm
would be mankind’s shortsighted folly itself!
The sins of mankind turn out NOT to be tasting the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil, or “taking the name of the LORD thy God in vain”,
or working on Sundays, or impertinence to parents and authorities, or
committing adultery, or lying and bearing false witness, or coveting the
neighbor’s house, wife, maidservant or ass.
Lo! No!! The sin, as it may be turning out, will be in
our myopic and socially irresponsible propensity to steal from future
generations and worship materialistic idols, and to fail to show adequate
consideration for the ecological foundations upon which our collective
well-being ultimately rests!
The U.S. Department of Defense has studied the
potential consequences of “abrupt climate change” and concluded that it poses
grave threats to our national security. There is unequivocal scientific
evidence that Earth’s climate has changed abruptly in the past. To
recognize this, and yet nonetheless to continue contributing to the potential
for a new onslaught of severe changes due to human activities is
unconscionable.
Scientists have found that Greenland glaciers and both
Arctic ice caps and Antarctic ice sheets are melting much faster than they
expected only a few years ago. Despite
the dangers of sea level rise that this represents, world leaders continue to
resist taking actions to mitigate such risks and the feedback loops they
engender. The time to begin dealing more
assertively with these problems is NOW! The longer we wait, the more
difficult it will be to avoid harmful impacts.
We must begin to honestly honor precautionary principles!
The Military Advisory Board, which consists of
eleven retired Generals and Admirals, reported in April 2007 that climate
change will likely act as a “threat multiplier in some of the most volatile
regions of the world.” They further warned
that climate change will cause “widespread political instability and the
likelihood of failed states” due to the spread of deserts in places like
sub-Saharan Africa, and to predicted sea-level rises that will cause widespread
damages in places like low-lying island nations and Bangladesh and Florida and
other coastal areas and river deltas.
This will result in chaos that could be “an incubator of civil strife,
genocide and the growth of terrorism.”
We should address such looming problems instead of focusing our priorities
on wrongheaded goals and political subterfuge and short-term urgencies.
The increasing concentration of carbon-dioxide in
the atmosphere is also leading to an increase in the absorption of
carbon-dioxide by the world’s oceans.
This physical development makes sea water more acidic and contributes to
the bleaching and killing of coral reef communities. This devastating harm to the wonderful
variety of colorful life forms found in coral reefs is very sad and ominously
ill-advised. Runoff of oil pollution and
industrial farm-animal wastes and nitrogen-based fertilizers are causing
harmful impacts in rivers and oceans, creating dead zones and red tides. Warmer waters and increased acidity are
exacerbating these impacts.
The “Environmental Priorities” section of the Progressive Agenda for a More Sane Humanity
lists many ways to cope with problems such as these. One of the best ideas, I reiterate, is to
fully include all costs of production in every product, including allocations
for the costs of pollution, proper waste disposal, related adverse healthcare
impacts, environmental damages, resource depletion, and greenhouse gas emission
offsets. We should ‘Pay as we go!’
Free markets and consumer choices are distorted when we fail to include
all true costs in the prices of products and services. Allowing costs of
production to be externalized onto society increases risks like those caused by
climate change. Let’s begin to think
outside the box to find good ways to solve these challenges!
Chapter #71 – Intelligent
Energy Policy.
An ability and willingness to “think outside the
box” could help us solve many of the challenges we face. Incentives are
better methods of modifying people’s behavior than the use of prohibitions,
because carrots simply turn out to be fairer and thus ultimately more effective
motivators than sticks. Incentives are preferable because they involve
self-actuating solutions rather than opprobrious regulations or inadequately
effective moral mandates.
Consider the role of taxes. They affect people’s behavior by encouraging
or discouraging activities. We currently levy taxes on income and
payroll, because it’s convenient for the government. But these are things
we want to encourage, not to discourage. It would be smarter to reduce
taxes on income and payroll, and increase taxes on undesirable things like
polluting activities, non-renewable resource usages, fast foods, giant homes,
luxury items, fuel-inefficient vehicles, guns, ammunition and military
weaponry.
Immediate increases in taxes on gasoline would
accelerate the process of weaning our economy from polluting oil. Our
national security would be well-served by such a bold action. If we
imposed an additional $1 per gallon tax on gasoline, there would be an
immediate market-driven motivation to conserve fuel and use energy more
efficiently. Businesses and consumers would use energy more conservatively
in response to its higher cost. The longer-term impacts would be more
substantial as innovations are spurred and greater investments are made in efficiency
of energy usages and basic research and development for cleaner and safer
alternatives.
To the extent that such green taxes would have a
regressive impact that disproportionately affects poor people, an offset should
be instituted by reducing payroll taxes or income taxes. In conjunction
with this new initiative, subsidies to the oil industry should be
eliminated. After all, oil companies for years have been making some of
the bigger profits of any organizations in world history.
Chapter #72 – The
Problems with Misguided Subsidies.
Trillions of dollars of subsidies are given
worldwide for various purposes each year. These are often shortsighted
mechanisms that have deleterious effects, including misallocations of
resources, the degradation of the environment, increased pollution, and the
hindering of innovative alternatives. Vested interests naturally defend
their prerogatives aggressively and cause a variety of socially undesirable
impacts.
Imagine how different the situation would be in the
world today if the U.S. government had had the foresight decades ago to give
subsidies to the development of decentralized sources of power like solar
energy instead of lavishing subsidies on oil drilling, coal use and nuclear
power.
Subsidies and tax loopholes most often benefit
established industries at the expense of innovative companies that are
struggling to compete. This acts to effectively discourage new
technologies and more efficient production methods and better products.
We are suffering a collective delusion to deny the
growing evidence of these facts. Our leaders continue to mislead us,
failing to address the risks we are taking. They deceive us into
supporting business-as-usual activities.
They make inequalities worse.
They contribute to an ever-more fragile and risky bubble of human
consumerism and population growth. And they are directing our attention
away from bigger issues. This bodes ill
for the well-being of our descendents, so once again we see an excellent reason
to demand that our leaders champion more farsighted understandings!
Chapter #73 –
Introspection into Government.
One of the most significant aspects of our
government is its tendency to grow in size and to increase its power.
Government entities do a poor job of controlling spending, balancing budgets,
or planning well and fairly. Government
programs are often characterized by poor prioritization and excessive waste and
shortsighted initiatives and irresponsibly incurred debt. Our representatives in the federal government
are much too easily influenced by entrenched interests that “game the system”
by exploiting public lands, plundering public assets, and obtaining no-bid
contracts.
Budgets are moral documents that should reflect the
aggregate priorities of our society. It is wrong to let spending
decisions be dictated by narrow special interests striving to gain ever-bigger
shares of the bounty of government largesse.
Our federal government is like a voluptuous,
alluring and gullible country girl. She is easily influenced and
susceptible to men taking advantage of her. An endless array of suitors
competes for her favors with lustful intent. Most seek to seduce her with
money, glib talk, and assertive ploys. Some pressure her and try to trick
her to take advantage of her weaknesses. Others are so smitten by her
assets that they grab her and try to rape her.
An enormous amount of taxpayer money is spent on
government payrolls. The executive branch currently employs more 2.5
million civilians at a median annual salary of over $72,000. In
Washington D.C., the average pay is even higher. Too many government
employees work on bureaucratic, redundant, or expendable tasks. They
often work seven-hour days and get 13 paid holidays and 20 paid vacation days
per year. They enjoy remarkable job security and get generous retirement
pay at up to 80 percent of their annual salaries. These are wonderful opportunities for them --
but costly for taxpayers!
This would be a good place to start balancing the
budget; let’s reduce the size of
government, freeze wages and retirement benefits for a year, cut boondoggle
jobs, and eliminate unnecessary red tape.
Any reasonable accountant could give a
straight-forward idea of one of the best ways to judge the performance of the
government. Like in a business, an
unqualified audit of financial statements is needed to provide shareholders
with vital information on bottom-line results.
All publicly-held companies are required to provide audited financial
statements to prove their creditworthiness and financial standing and the
status of their operations.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office is
responsible for auditing the financial statements of the federal
government. I think it’s still true that
in ALL the years since 1997 during which this auditing requirement has been in
force, the GAO has noted that “certain material weaknesses in internal control
and in selected accounting and reporting practices resulted in conditions that
continued to prevent us from being able
to provide Congress and American citizens an opinion as to whether the
consolidated financial statements of the federal government are fairly stated.”
Yikes!
Government financial statements are not even reliable! Ineffective internal controls over financial
reporting extend to the safeguarding of assets, so we are no doubt being ripped
off, to boot. The GAO states that
“material deficiencies in the federal government’s systems, record-keeping,
documentation, and financial reporting” is due in large part to serious financial
management problems at the Department of Defense. This may be really good for facilitating war
profiteering, but it is a pathetic way to organize our country.
Harry Truman denounced war profiteering as
“treason”, and there is some legitimacy in this way of seeing it. Better accounting might help curb war
profiteering, and maybe higher taxes on excessive profits made on weapons and
war services industries would help. Such
initiatives could reduce the strong support for war by greedy profiteers who
help get us into wars. Even if such
taxes were not particularly successful at this, the proceeds from taxes on
profits from war services would help finance our expensive military machine,
instead of allowing huge costs to be foisted onto taxpayers and people in the
future.
One of the best ways to combat corruption would be
by creating effective mechanisms that assure us that the federal government will
be subjected to greater financial transparency and clearer accountability. Better management and oversight is needed,
for otherwise the endless number of suitors seeking to take advantage of
government profligacy will continue to expand.
Chapter #74 – Power and
Corruption.
Breathe deep and let go. Feel free to take the
time to review these ideas in your mind, and to explore your own thoughts,
perceptions, and beliefs. A good Transcendental Meditation practitioner
would recommend: Breathe in, alert to
your breath, mindful of expansive intention;
and breathe out, slowly, calming your body.
The compulsive drive for profit, privilege and
power, and the institutionalized peddling of influence, are the biggest
contributors to corruption in our political system. Just look how it has
corrupted the Republican Party. The
“Grand Old Party” of yesteryear once stood for good citizenship, pragmatism,
fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, limited government, spending
discipline, decency, civic virtue, and commitments to fairness and
integrity. I picture Republicans in the “good old days” as honoring
family values that included trust, honesty, simple faith, tolerance, empathy,
respect for diversity, social responsibility, and a generosity of spirit.
Power corrupts, as the old adage goes, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. Having one
political party control both Congress and the White House from 2001 to 2006,
for the first time since the days of President Eisenhower, turned out to be
almost obscenely detrimental. The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw
had a different perspective: he noted
“Power does not corrupt men. Fools,
however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.” Fools and knaves, perhaps!
The highest goal of the Republican Party from 2001
to 2008 was to entrench itself in power, no matter what impacts this had on
people and the world. This end was used to rationalize a wide range of
actions that can be seen to have been terribly unfair, divisive, dishonest,
fiscally unsound, anti-democratic, and harmful to the environment.
Pathetic, guys! And, as it turned out,
quite a fiasco! Having gained control of
the Senate in 2015, their effectiveness and responsibility still appears to be
no better.
Once again, there seems to be a lot of ironic truth
in P.J. O’Rourke’s observation: “The
Republicans are the party that says that government doesn’t work -- and then
gets elected and proves it.”
Republicans were given a smackdown by voters in the
2008 and 2012 national elections. They
had managed to stage a bit of a surprising comeback in the 2010 midterm
elections by using a “hard-times swindle”, according to Thomas Frank’s astute
analysis, along with economic sabotage tactics and the stoked fervor of Tea
Party ideologies, and they have taken considerable advantage of the Supreme
Court’s decision to allow unlimited spending by rich people and corporations to
influence elections. Their latest
strategy, as if they hate democracy itself, is to work assiduously to
disenfranchise millions of voters in states nationwide through such strategies
as restricting voting rights and gerrymandering Congressional districts and
other such ploys.
These are, in a sense, the good old days of
tomorrow. No one knows what the future
will bring. All of us have our personal
struggles; let’s help each other through
these hard times, such as they may be.
Chapter #75 – More
Thinking Outside the Box.
Here is another good idea: we should either limit
advertising for products that harm society, or impose significantly higher fees
on them. It is clear, for instance, that advertising for cigarette
smoking and tobacco products contributes to health adversities for millions of
people who suffer from addictions to nicotine and harms related to inhaling
carcinogenic smoke. Increased taxes on tobacco products, along with
restrictions on cigarette advertising, have contributed to significant declines
in the percent of Americans that smoke, and to correlated reductions in lung
cancer rates.
In light of these facts, we should “think outside
the box” regarding advertising by such entities as the drug industry, the oil
industry, the coal industry, and the automobile industry. Advertising by
the drug industry essentially ‘pushes’ drugs by marketing prescription drugs
and over-the-counter drugs directly to consumers. Highly negative side
effects of this effort result, and should be disclosed or at least more widely
understood. Restricting such advertising
could help reduce growing addictions to prescription drugs. I feel strongly
that doctors should provide nutrition and fitness advice more than helping push
drugs.
Likewise, aggressive advertising by the automobile
industry has created high demand for large trucks and SUVs, and for those
God-awful Hummers for a while. Auto advertising uses suggestive images of
macho power, social status, sexual allure, fun, envy, and ‘belonging’ to
promote these gas guzzlers. This, in turn, indirectly contributes to
planned obsolescence, air pollution, global warming, our dependency on fossil
fuels, and impulses for wars-for-oil and a desperate fracking frenzy. If
advertising restrictions reduced these negative impacts, this would serve our
society well.
In an article evocatively titled The Caveman Dilemma: Why We Take Such Lousy
Care of Ourselves and the Planet, Greg Hanscom makes
the cogent point that we often need help making choices that are in our own
true self-interest. “We did it with
cigarettes, right? It used to be that
half of America -- 50 percent of adults in America -- smoked. And, through public service announcements and
relatively modest changes in the law, we’ve got that down to about 20 percent.”
The
clear implication is that we should use targeted collective action to achieve
greater good goals. We need to have the
government on the side of people’s best interests, not on the side of the
corporations that are “out there doping us, and poisoning us, and making money
off of our instincts.” We as a society
need to help induce people to do what’s right.
“That means changing the default setting. That means building public transportation so
that it’s cheaper and easier for people to take public transportation to work
than it is for them to drive to work.
That means reengineering our cities.
And that requires collective action, and that requires, well,
politicians. The obesity epidemic was
caused by political decisions to a large extent, or by political inaction. And I would argue that the climate crisis
that we are facing is of the same ilk.”
Listen. Understand this. There are many
ways in which unbridled opportunism and dog-eat-dog competition and aggressive
marketing are ultimately unhealthy for society.
Businesses manipulate our desires and stimulate demand through the use
of seductive advertising and sly sales tactics that utilize slick
demonstrations, persuasive testimonials, sexy user imagery or amusing
parody. They often appeal to base
instincts for dominance over others, or sensual titillation, or obsequious conformity. And they rarely appeal to people’s higher and
more virtuous instincts.
It is foolishly shortsighted for us to let such
persuasion stoke wasteful consumerism because this threatens the future
well-being of life on Earth. This is especially true in light of mindless
resource depletion and stimulated population growth. Our societies would be better off, in the
long run, if we invested more money in well-rounded critical-thinking
education, fairer opportunities, social justice, family planning programs,
conservation efforts, and a safer national infrastructure. Instead of
doing this, we squander taxpayer funds and borrow money from the future to give
enormous tax breaks to rich people, and to increase “entitlements”, and ramp up
spending on military weapons, warfare, foreign occupations, and war and
disaster reconstruction. This system
stinks, methinks.
Our federal government under George W. Bush crashed
against the limits of military power as a primary instrument of foreign
policy. We were purportedly trying to
craft a culture of freedom for other peoples, but our motives were corrupted by
a rapacious thirst for petroleum and economic ascendancy. Our vision is blurred by a pronounced
ignorance of complexity of local cultures. And our national presumption
was bizarrely exaggerated by the effrontery of George W. Bush’s claims to the
wisdom of God.
The longer we delay in boldly and fairly dealing with
global problems, the more we lose the ability to deal effectively with
them. Let’s get serious, and start now!
Chapter #76 – The
Consequences of Corruption.
The U.S. has a “pay-to-play” political system. Lobbyists have succeeded in giving Big Money
the primary voice in almost all legislation enacted by Congress. Rather
than being primarily concerned with the health, safety and best interests of
the public, new laws invariably have an overriding concern for the
profitability of some narrow vested interest like the banking industry, the oil
industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the tobacco industry, the chemical
industry, the gun industry, the auto industry, the timber industry, mining
industries, insurance industries, or defense and war services industries.
What are the primary concerns of the food, drug and
healthcare industries? They are concerned with profits, NOT the
health and well-being of the public. The missions of government agencies
responsible for protecting the interests of the public are too often undermined
by vested interest groups, lobbyists and political appointees. This happened in particular during “W’’s
tenure in the White House in the Food and Drug Administration, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Health and Human
Services. These agencies often violated their own charters and the best
interests of the public in order to give the goals of industry larger emphasis. Real nice, guys!
Think about how ridiculous this state of affairs is.
The government is in charge of deciding how to spend the public’s hard-earned
taxpayer dollars, and instead of having our interests in the forefront of their
consideration, political leaders are mainly focused on pandering to the
interests of giant corporations and rich people. Lobbyists for these
interests succeed wildly in skewing all policies and law-making in favor of Big
Business. Regulations are minimized that would otherwise protect the
health and safety of workers and the public. Loopholes and subsidies are
perpetuated that are principally concerned with the profitability of narrow
constituencies at the expense of the people.
Another subversion of the public interest has taken
place within the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In the past 12 years, there have been a
string of ‘conservative’ political appointees in charge. The staff and the budget of the Commission
have been roughly cut in half since 1974, as if consumer safety is of
diminishing concern, despite a big increase in imports from China, where
unregulated capitalism has created a long list of product export problems
including toxic toys, tainted pet food, counterfeit toothpaste, defective tires
and contaminated seafood and the like.
The ‘culture of corruption’ in our federal
government has been strongly correlated to the number of lobbyists registered
to do business in Washington, D.C.. This
number has grown immensely in the past decade.
These lobbyists spend many billions of dollars every year on seducing
politicians to their partisan causes. It is no wonder that there is so
much dysfunction in our government. It
is pathetic that our political system involves legislators who pass new laws
only when they have enough bells and whistles to gain the support of “conservative”
representatives, and enough crumbs to bribe more progressive-minded ones into
joining in to give the laws a slim majority voting “Yea”.
I call on Congress to create simple,
straight-forward, smart, honest, effective and equitable laws that are
concerned with the common good. We need
less complicated, less wasteful and less deceptive laws, and less
institutionalized graft. Let’s shrink
government bureaucracy, corporate welfare, military expenditures, and deficit
spending. Serious campaign finance
reform in the form of Clean Money public financing, as discussed in Chapter
#49, may be the crucial key to effect these changes.
Mark Twain once satirically made this statement,
which contains a disturbing kernel of truth: “It could probably be shown by
facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class,
except Congress.”
Chapter #77 – On
Improving People’s Lives.
Paul Hawken, in his insightful book The Ecology of Commerce, provocatively
states:
“We have the capacity and ability to create a remarkably different economy,
one that can restore ecosystems and protect the environment, while bringing
forth innovation, meaningful work, and true security.”
It is clear that it would be a much better plan to
create a fairer economic system rather than to let economic fundamentalism, unbridled
capitalism, ruthless conservatism, greedy selfishness, corrupt practices, aggressive
militarism, and stupid shortsightedness rule from sea to shining sea. Let
us stand up and demand fairness, reason, and intelligent redesign of our economic
and political systems.
The trust of American citizens is being undermined
by vested interests’ assaults on scientific findings and critical
thinking. The Executive Branch under George W. Bush violated the
Constitution, the Bill of Rights, rules of law, and international treaties, and
betrayed the public by using secrecy and record numbers of “signing statements”
that allowed the President to ignore parts of more than 1,100 laws passed by
Congress. Almost every honorable virtue
or principle was subverted by the Republican Party from 2001 to 2009 -- even
loyalty.
Loyalty became orthodoxy, obedience, patriotic blind
faith, and attachment to doctrine. It became a Karl Rovian dirty-trick
kind of loyalty instead of a noble loyalty to ethical behavior or liberty and
justice for all. As George Orwell wrote many decades ago, “Orthodoxy
means not thinking, not needing to think.”
The U.S. Constitution was designed to prevent the
abuse of power by the federal government. Our Founding Fathers were very
concerned about tyranny, having suffered the slings and arrows of imperial
colonialism by the British. We sure should not now allow the President or
Congress to similarly abuse power and act contrary to the common good.
I conclude this chapter with a compelling understanding:
the restructuring of the world economy so that economic progress can be
sustained indefinitely represents one of the best investment opportunities
ever. Let’s invest in farsighted initiatives, not just in padding rich
people’s bank accounts!
Chapter #78 – The Need
for Progressive Reform --- and Revolutionary Change!
The purpose of government is to manage the populace
and resources of a state or a country in ways that are beneficial. The challenge of this purpose is to
accomplish this goal with legitimacy and fairness, and to balance freedom and
order without being overly repressive.
This challenge should ensure that the ruling class does not receive excessive
advantages at the expense of the majority.
The proper roles of government should be (1) to act
as an equitable referee between private and unequal interests, guaranteeing
fairness of opportunity, (2) to protect those who cannot protect themselves
(including future generations) with a comprehensive understanding of, and
concern for, the true components of security and well-being, and (3) to defend
individual freedoms, civil rights and national security while avoiding overly
intrusive interference in people’s lives.
Governments, in other words, should strive to provide conditions under
which their citizens are reasonably free, secure, happy, prosperous and
socially responsible.
Governments
throughout history have been led by a ruling class that is selected through
heredity (as in aristocracies), or by religious authorities (as in theocracies),
or by military repression (as in dictatorships), or by money (as in oligarchies
and capitalist democracies). Ruling
regimes generally operate in ways that are narrowly favorable to wealth and
special privilege, and that often exploit people, act myopically, or are
carelessly hedonistic. And too often,
they act irresponsibly with respect to the best interests of the majority.
The
U.S. government is afflicted by insider influence -- cronyism! -- and influence
peddling, misguided priorities, wasteful spending, bureaucratic inefficiency,
and incompetence. Many accounting frauds have occurred in the past 15
years, including ones by corporations like WorldCom and Enron. Widespread lobbying scandals,
institutionalized bribery and corporate malfeasance have taken place. Legislation like the Medicare Prescription
Drug Act of 2003 has proved to be not only complicated and costly, but
improperly designed because of the untoward influence of the pharmaceutical
industry, whose compulsion to make bigger profits resulted in denying the
federal government the power to negotiate Medicare drug prices. Corroboration of this assertion is found in
the fact that conservatives in the U.S. Senate in 2003 repeatedly blocked a
provision to seek more competitive procurement of drugs for Medicare
patients. The majority of Americans was
thus betrayed to satisfy Big Pharma.
The
Medicare Prescription Drug Act gave this industry, which has been described as
“the most profitable industry in the world”, the ability to continue charging excessively
high prices for its products. By
decreeing that the federal government cannot negotiate with drug companies for
lower prices, this Act allowed Big Pharma to shift the high costs of drugs to
American taxpayers via Medicare. By
2006, $41 billion in taxpayer dollars went to underwriting this drug ‘benefit’,
and the share of the total prescription drug costs paid by Medicare in the U.S.
had leaped from 2 percent to 18 percent.
What contempt for the public interest!
The
Medicare Prescription Drug Act can accurately be understood as a new
entitlement program that was written by Republicans and corporate lobbyists,
and that was designed to transfer the high cost of drugs from the elderly to a
younger generation of Americans through increased government debt to finance
this program.
Another piece of legislation that was a gift to
corporations was the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of
2005. In this instance, the rash
generosity was given to credit card companies and student loan companies. This law was a hardship for people who cannot
afford usurious interest rates for credit card debt or high over-limit and late
fees. The majority of people who have
been affected, and who face bankruptcy, are those who have fallen on hard times
because of expenses related to catastrophic illness, divorce or the loss of a
job. It is unconscionable to allow our
government to side with such changes in our national laws in favor of
corporations instead of people who are in personally devastating life-altering
circumstances.
Many of our leaders pathologically deceive us as to
their true intentions and ulterior motives. They want us to believe they
are trying to do the right thing. They speak of ideals and principles,
and morality, and God. But the facts show that our national values are
being perverted into a grotesque caricature of propriety -- one that only
pretends to be concerned with fairness, or rules of law, or fiscal discipline,
or honest leadership, or wise planning, or the health of our communities, or
concern for the downtrodden, or peaceful coexistence, or religious tolerance,
or true civic responsibility.
A particularly shortsighted and disturbing trend is
the eagerness to aggressively exploit public lands for private profit. The Katrina hurricane disaster revealed an
extensive mismanagement of public resources. ‘Premeditated ignorance’
seems to have characterized many government policies in instances like the
toxic trailers provided by FEMA in Katrina’s aftermath. The foolish ignoring of environmental harm
caused by Army Corps of Engineers policies, and oil industry canals, and
dredging in the Mississippi River delta, are significantly to blame for this
costliest disaster in U.S. history.
Many other abuses of power took place during the
Bush Administration. Outlandishly costly
wars of aggression were launched using deceptive manipulations.
Revelations concerning harsh treatment of suspects and prisoners by the CIA
were no doubt just the tip of the iceberg related to clandestine activities,
‘extraordinary rendition’ abductions, and secret prisons and prisoner torture
in countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. An investigation into the connections between
the secret covert operations of the CIA and the global drug trade and money
laundering is also disturbing. I
encourage readers to check out the facts adduced in the radical but compelling
book by Michael C. Ruppert, Crossing the
Rubicon – The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.
The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
--- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --- That whenever
any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
In other words, when the
government becomes the problem, it is the right of the people to alter that
government. The reason for this
Constitutional concern was that the government of King George III had acted as
a tyrannical power toward the people in the American Colonies. It has become clear to many people that our
government has infringed on the unalienable rights of many of its citizens
today, so we should collectively demand changes wherever they are needed in our
federal and state governments!
Almost without exception, legislation passed during
the Bush Administration was focused on giving greater privileges to big
corporations and a small minority of wealthy people. This fact alone
makes it urgent that we reform our economic and political systems to reduce the
influence of Big Money. We should demand
fairer priorities from the federal government, and begin to pass laws that
benefit the majority of Americans, not just narrowly focused special interest
groups.
Chapter #79 – A Call for
Political Change.
Lee
Iacocca, at the age of 82, spoke out courageously and passionately to demand
better leadership in America in his book titled Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
In this book, he analyzed the qualities of good leadership that he had
learned during his long and distinguished career. He pointed out the serious shortcomings of
the Bush Administration in his “Nine C’s of Leadership”: those leaders just did not show good
character, honest communication, open-minded creativity, adequate courage,
competence, fair convictions, properly used charisma, or common sense.
The Bush Administration refused to accept
responsibility for the incompetence and
mistakes involved in wrong-headed priorities, excessive spending,
enormous trade deficits, increased inequalities, lack of preparedness for emergencies
in natural disasters, unjust military aggression, corporate fraud, scams on
FEMA, an emergency-room healthcare crisis, and a wide variety of shortsighted
initiatives designed to facilitate resource exploitation at a high cost to the
health of ecological systems.
The qualities that made America great have been
significantly damaged by this arrogantly ambitious abuse of federal government
power, in both domestic and international arenas. On the international front, during the Bush
years we rejected or weakened provisions of a ban on the use of landmines and
the trade in small arms and guns like AK-47’s.
We undermined the nuclear test ban treaty, the anti-ballistic missile
treaty, the chemical warfare treaty, the nonproliferation treaty, the biological
warfare treaty, the International Criminal Court, the Nuremburg Principles and
the great Geneva Conventions. How could
we have acted so obliviously, so unfairly, and with such unilateral hubris?
Let’s demand that our elected representatives
recognize the need for fairer and more progressive reforms. If we ever again have an Administration that
abuses its powers like the Bush Administration did, remember that impeachment
is the mechanism established by our Constitution to allow the American people
to hold their government accountable.
When our nation is hijacked by power-obsessed men who are not being held
accountable for their actions, and who have usurped executive power to use
harsh Gestapo-like “enhanced interrogation” techniques on prisoners, to use
secrecy and shrewdly deceptive rationalizations in misleading the American
people into supporting invasions of foreign countries, and to violate
international laws and treaties, these actions should be seen as “high crimes
and misdemeanors”. Yes, these are the
Constitutional grounds for impeachment.
Democrats are generally more fair-minded than
Republicans on issues that affect the majority of Americans, but they do not
yet truly represent the ecologically sound, fiscally responsible, truly
peace-embracing, long-term-oriented, intelligent planning policies that are so
desperately required. To improve the outcomes being imposed on us by our
political duopoly, America needs a progressive transformation that will
extensively alter BOTH political parties!
Governing well would be the ‘best revenge’ for the
success of the next administration, I opined in 2009: “Let us all join together in hoping that
Barack Obama will succeed in digging America out of the deep hole in which we
find ourselves!”
As I was making some updates to this epistle, Ted Cruz
was clamoring for President Obama to be impeached. Ted Cruz is the junior Republican
Senator from Texas who likes to grandstand for attention, as he did to force
the federal government to shut down in October 2013. In early May 2014, Ted Cruz made outraged
(and outrageous) claims that President Obama is abusing his powers in ways
comparable to the abuses of power that King George III had committed in
provoking the American colonists to declare independence in 1776. Those who wrote the Declaration of Independence
had adduced 27 specific categories of “repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States.” So Ted Cruz
concocted a list of 76 abuses of power that he says Barack Obama has committed
against the American people. A reading
of these alleged abuses of power by Barack Obama compared to King George III’s
makes Ted Cruz sound like a complete idiot.
And a real hypocrite, considering the many much more expansive
precedents of Executive Privilege claimed by George W. Bush during his 8 years
as president. It’s time to vote Tea
Party extreme conservatives out of office!
Chapter #80 – Negative
Nabobs of Neoconservatism.
The thoughts in this chapter obsessed me when the
Bush Administration was in power. I was
thinking about Neoconservatism, the political philosophy that was promoted by
an organization called the “Project for a New American Century”. The
organization’s website asserted that it is “dedicated to a few fundamental propositions:
that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military
strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.”
Sounds good, right?! This moral declaration
presupposes, however, that American leaders can be trusted to be honest
statesmen who have clear vision and a commitment to ethical actions and a
primary concern with the best interests of America and the world. The
evidence seems to be overwhelming that this is NOT the case. It will
never be the case as long as our economic and political system is dominated by wealthy
people, powerful corporations, religious fundamentalists, and partisan
politicians committed to winning at any cost.
It is even questionable whether our country can
truly represent moral principles. Money and the drive for power and
control almost always have stronger sway than the often gaudy pretenses of
moral principles. The depth, breadth,
and variety of motivations and points of view in the world are all but beyond
our clear comprehension, but let’s try to cultivate honest big picture
perspectives.
We have a hard time really understanding other
cultures and how they see the world. We
barely seem to care what the best interests of others may actually be. We
have a frame of reference that is one-sided, an overriding self-centeredness, a
subjective obtuseness, a cultural arrogance, an often hyped-up and myopic sense
of nationalistic patriotism, and an “empathy deficiency” that makes it
challenging for us to achieve fair understandings of other people. Stunted senses of empathy are often
correlated with exploitive attitudes toward others and to self-justifying
preconceptions and indifference or hostility toward the hardships and suffering
of others.
The doctrines of
Neoconservatism pretend certainty, and deny these perspectives. History, insight and
experience reveal that we should be wary of those who claim certainty, and who
categorically and self-righteously denounce opinions that differ from
theirs. We should be suspicious of those
who portray others in terms of absolute good and evil. Likewise we should be wary of leaders who
strive for ever-bigger privileges for the few at the expense of the many. We should oppose those who advocate
militarism, war, and personal agendas that are severely at odds with the common
good.
In any given creed, acceptance of dogma is a chief
proof of faith. Heresies against such
creeds, and clarion voices in opposition, are often dealt with harshly. Unfortunately, stubborn adherence to any
dogma, in the context of rapid change, can lead to a stultifying, myopic
petrifaction and obstruction of adaptive initiatives.
The doctrines of extreme conservatism are contrary
to the principles of democracy, in actual practice. Conservatism as a
natural temperament is somewhat honorable;
but it has been hijacked, betrayed, and hoodwinked by movement
conservatism as a radical ideology. These are predatory doctrines,
and dangerous ideologies, not truly “conservative” philosophies. The use
of such ideologies in ways that harm others or create undue hardship is
anathema to liberty, fairness, democracy and humanity.
Extreme conservatism is concerned with gaining and
wielding power, not with truth, morality, or right action. It is obsessed
with getting, maintaining and extending control, no matter how harmful this may
be to Americans, or to other peoples, or to all other species of life on Earth.
A compelling observation was made by
conservative Patrick J. Buchanan in a national newspaper in 2008: “The GOP needs to confront the truth: The failure of the Bush presidency lies not
in a failed execution of policy but in the policies themselves and the
neoconservative ideology that informed them.
Yet the party remains in denial, refusing to come to terms with the
causes of its misfortune. One expects
they will be given the time and opportunity for reflection soon. <The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our
stars but in ourselves.>”
The GOP managed to adjust quickly to its then-new
minority role in 2009. It embraced
stubborn obstructionism with a vengeance.
Opposition parties should play a constructive balancing role in our
two-party system, but it should be an honestly constructive role with fair
compromises, rather than one that involves nay saying, partisan intransigence,
distorting arguments, and ideological bullheadedness at every turn. Listen up, Rush Limbaugh!
The greatest success of neoconservative
ideology was to fool a significant proportion of Americans into thinking that
the policies of the radical right are proper, fair and good -- while they
simultaneously advanced an agenda that is destructive to democratic ideals,
harmful to peaceful coexistence, subversive of sustainable resource uses,
contradictory to true justice, inimical to our national security, and
inconsistent with fair-minded rational action.
Hell of a job on the spin and propaganda, guys!
Right-wing
spin has been surprisingly effective in co-opting the power of humanitarian
caring for others by claiming that there is an honest shred of compassion in
conservatism. But the province of empathy and compassion naturally lies
with more liberal attitudes, not with rigid judgments, staunch doctrines and
narrow-minded certitudes. The ugly underbelly of radical conservatism is its severe lack of
compassion and its willingness to harm millions of people to achieve its ends.
Being kind, thoughtful
and respectful is a winning way in personal interactions with others. This implies that there should be some way to
translate positive-feedback-loop behaviors into the larger scope of human
affairs. It is exceedingly curious that
so many people deny the broad recognition that life has evolved over the eons,
and that these people are generally absurdly unimaginative in their adherence to
antiquated mythological conceptions of creation, and that they are often the
ones who, in the very act of clinging to faith in parochial ideas, give support
to elements of society that oppose fairness, religious tolerance, ecological
wisdom and other vitally important social impulses for overall well-being.
The importance of
sustainable, fair and positive endeavors will increase as we crowd more and
more people onto a planet already visibly being damaged by people exhibiting
anthropocentric hubris, socially moronic rationalizations, and propensities to
pollute and engage in wars.
Jesus stood for love, compassion and helping the
downtrodden. He courageously criticized all forms of injustice and abuse
of power by authorities. He surely would
not have favored giving more and more benefits to the rich and powerful while
letting poor people and working people and middle class people be deprived of
fair opportunities to share in the benefits of their economic contributions.
Women and children are disproportionately overrepresented
in poor segments of society. It seems
unchristian to condemn so many of these vulnerable members of society to
poverty in order to defend the status quo.
“So dark the con of Man” -- and, in contrast, so potentially
illuminating and liberating the clarity of reason and fair-mindedness. Let’s seek salvation in this!
Chapter #81 – The Wide
Continuum of Political Perceptions.
Man is a political being. As the size of the electorate grows, each
person becomes a smaller cog in the body politic. This fact is contributing to an atrophying
civic sense in many citizens. Voter
turnout in American elections is significantly lower than it is in many other
democracies around the world, despite the serious ramifications that political
policies have on people’s lives.
The asphyxiating smog of opinions voiced in our
societies can tend to reduce our independence of judgment. We are conditioned to have distinct
predispositions for certain worldviews. Picture the political continuum
that runs from the radical extreme left to the reactionary extreme right.
About one-third of Americans seem to be naturally inclined toward liberal views
and what linguist George Lakoff describes as values embodied by the empathetic
and progressive Nurturant Parent outlook. Another one-third of people
seem to be inclined toward conservative points of view and what Lakoff
describes as values embodied by the male authoritarian, sternly disciplined and
unempathetic Strict Father
outlook. The other third of people fall between these two camps and tends
to be more open-minded and independent-thinking, so they give more intelligent
consideration to issues relative to their actual merits. Or perhaps they are just befuddled by the
confusing complexity of problems, or are cynical of the deceptions and
corruption of politicians on both sides.
Overly permissive attitudes can lead to unruly
behavior and delinquency in children and adults. On the other hand, overly repressive
treatment can lead to even more seriously dysfunctional behaviors. A consistent, healthy balance is the best
plan in child rearing, as well as in politics and national planning. Yet the political right wing viciously
attacks and denigrates people who hold liberal beliefs. They cast Democrat politicians as being
“bleeding hearts” who are irresponsible in their “tax and spend”
propensities.
Once conservatives achieved a position of political
dominance in 2001, however, they cynically proved to be much more irresponsible
in their policies and priorities. They
used the insidiously short-term-oriented expediency of borrowing to spend profligately
on misguided goals. They cut taxes and increased spending, and borrowed
heavily to make up the difference. This
provided economic stimulus in the short-run, but it did so at a colossal future
cost. Such misuses of public funds to enrich cronies, investors, elite
segments of society, and profiteers are a way of fleecing the future. Radically ramping up military expenditures,
and exploiting people’s fears and misleading them to achieve this goal, is a
gambit that does not respect conscience, statesmanship, fairness, honesty or
responsible leadership.
George W. Bush, in his January 2002 State of the
Union address, stated that “our budget will run a deficit that will be small
and short term.” Really? Either he was lying to the American people
about his intentions, or he presided over the most colossally-inept fiscal
management in modern history. The
national debt has grown to record high levels since then, and it now represents
a growing risk to our nation’s financial health. The stimulative effect of deficit spending
has created a bubble of debt, materialistic consumerism, irresponsible
development, rash speculation, resource depletion, and false values.
No matter how predisposed some people are to social
conservatism, and no matter how fervently they are committed to trusting
leaders who claim to represent righteousness and God, the moral truth becomes
ever-more starkly clear. Extreme conservatism is corrupt and immoral;
and its doctrines are more akin to fascism than to Constitutional
democracy. In fact, conservative
doctrines closely channel the “14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism”, as
reported in a study by Dr. Lawrence Britt (Google this, for perspective.).
The twentieth
century was terribly affected by an any-means-justify-the-ends fascist attitude
of Adolf Hitler. His dictatorial, anti-Semitic, militaristic ends are now
widely regarded as the ultimate in reprehensible ideology and ambition. Americans should look closely at the ways that
Dick Cheney and George (“I am the Decider”) Bush invoked enemies to create
secret prisons and help implement police-state-like Big Brother policies. Egregious provisions of the Patriot Act and
of government violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
appeared to be wrong for the American people.
So did the collecting of privacy-violating domestic telephone call
database records by the National Security Agency, and the NSA has only gotten
more intrusive as the years have gone along.
Years later, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA, single-handedly
reigniting a global debate about government surveillance and our most fundamental
rights as individuals. In December 2013,
a federal judge vindicated Snowden’s actions by declaring unconstitutional the
NSA’s spying program, labeling it “Orwellian” -- adding that James Madison
would be “aghast.” The documentary film Citizenfour reveals a nuanced
perspective of Edward Snowden that makes him appear much more virtuous than the
“traitor” that conservatives cast him to be.
Our government’s abrogation of the Geneva
Conventions and the Nuremberg Principles under George W. Bush was a dangerous
precedent. It was suspiciously
indefensible for the FBI to use “national security letters” in an improper
manner, as it has done. The provision of
the Patriot Act that allows these letters was, in fact, deemed unconstitutional
by a U.S. District Court in 2007.
Recognizing these developments, we should take bold
steps to prevent tyranny and injustices that are disturbingly similar to the
beginnings of the fascist world-domination gambits that led to World War
II. Historian Sean Wilentz wrote a
convincing article about why some people say George W. Bush might go down as “the
worst president in history”. An April
2008 survey of professional historians found that 98% believed that Bush’s
presidency was a failure, and 61% said that George W. Bush is the worst
president in American history. Wow!
By January 2009, with a disastrous turn of economic events, Bush’s approval rating fell to the lowest level
ever recorded for a President of the United States. The negative impacts of his launch of
unnecessary wars, together with the substantial inequities he encouraged, were
made much worse by the economic meltdown that occurred in 2008, so it became
obvious to billions of people globally that unhinged government and rash and
inadequately regulated speculation, and ideological inflexibility are all bad
for people and the planet.
The bottom line is that the pursuit of disastrously
shortsighted policies should yield to better and fairer ideas. By failing to adjust to changing realities,
inflexible ideologies become anathema to sensible policies and progress in our
democracy.
Today we need less doctrinal orthodoxy, and more
honest assessment. We need less
mismanagement, corruption, inegalitarianism, violence and military
aggression. Instead, we need greater
commitments to liberty and true justice for all. I am not a believer in reincarnation and bad
karma, but sometimes there is poetic justice;
and leaders that abuse privileges and discriminate unfairly against
people, and harm the environment, and deceive voters for highly partisan
purposes may eventually be forced to pay the piper. This is not much of a consolation, for the
payments to the piper are much bigger in aggregate for hundreds of millions of
people who were adversely affected by the narrow unfairness of ‘Bushwhacked’
policies than they have proved to be personally for George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney.
Hope sprang anew for our nation with the election of Barack Obama. On Election Day in 2008, Obama spoke with a strong echo of Franklin
Roosevelt's first inaugural speech when he said, "I will always be honest
with you about the challenges we face. I
will listen to you, especially when we disagree." After eight years of a Republican
administration whose hallmarks had been secrecy and a disinclination to listen
to any voice outside its own inner circle, this promise of candor and fair
communication was probably the most important policy statement that Barack
Obama could have made as president-elect.
Yay for democracy!!
Some years after these words were written, the bloom is off the rose,
and Barack Obama’s performance has been seriously hobbled by Republican
obstructionism, so I judge President Obama much more favorably than George W.
Bush.
Chapter #82 – Is Fascism
Encroaching on America?
The following several chapters focus on our national
need to strike a reasonable balance between individual liberties and national
security. This emphasis is forceful
because most of it was written in the throes of the days when the Bush
Administration was making serious inroads against liberty and rules of law and
our Constitution. We should cultivate a
better memory of the lessons of history, because they reveal that “eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty.”
The epoch-defining political and economic struggle
that is taking place between the forces of conservatism and progressivism was
hijacked by Neoconservatives in 2001, and it has always seemed clear to me that
these ideologues have effectively used people’s feelings of fear, insecurity
and nationalistic patriotism to advance highly partisan goals that are contrary
to the common good.
A
number of historical circumstances have generally prevailed when periods of
extreme conservatism have come to dominate a nation. They include economic volatility, social
unrest, hyped-up fears of anarchy, and widespread feelings of insecurity. These things make people yearn for stability
and order. Demagogues were happy to
oblige and exploit these feelings in the years from 2000 to 2008. Developments in U.S. politics during this era
were reminiscent of the trends that led to fascist dictatorships: there was deceptive propaganda, belligerent
nationalism, pandering to corporate goals, a centralization of authoritarian
power, control of the media, disdain for human rights, neglect of domestic
priorities, the oppression of workers, a blaming of liberalism, the cultivation
of fear and prejudice and hate, harsh punishments, judicial manipulation, the
rigidity of gender roles, sexism, male domination, racism, opposition to
abortion, homophobia, anti-gay legislation, and the suppression of artists,
intellectuals, writers, academia, and opposition forces. The need to reject all such trends is
substantial.
Fascist
leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, and Suharto demanded free
enterprise, but they were actually either spokesmen or facilitators for vested
interest privileges and more power for corporations and prerogatives for the
wealthy. These ruthless leaders gained and
maintained power and control by using tactics that were frighteningly echoed by
Republican tactics under George W. Bush:
the cultivation of divisiveness, crusading against unions, attempts to
undermine good public education, reductions in worker security and retirement
benefits, the outsourcing of jobs, the oppression of the average person by
means of exploiting insecurities and inequities, the ratcheting up of debt, the
criminalizing of protest, an aggressive expansion of prisons, and so on.
Republican TV commercials in the weeks before the
November 2004 elections were particularly compelling. One emotionally affective political ad evoked
the visceral imagery of nightmarish fears of wolves threatening us in the
forest. Similar forces and fears led to
Adolf Hitler gaining power in the 1930s. Germans of that
era were like frogs sitting in a pot of water that was slowly being brought to a
boil. They watched and even saluted as
right-wing fascism was insidiously imposed on their country. Slowly, but surely, fanned fears of dangers
from abroad and the clamor for order joined with a distorted sense of
patriotism and feelings of national humiliation at the heavy reparations owed
from the First World War. Manipulative
scapegoating of Communists and others contributed to this rise of fascist
control, and helped advance the ambitions of the Nazi regime for supremacy.
The
concluding paragraph of “Fishy Tale” in the original Earth Manifesto is pertinent:
“In times of great
uncertainty, we seek the solace of certitude, of faith in leaders who promise
to assuage our anxieties with strength, order and discipline; who give our lives meaning by striving for
dominance, who project certainty of conviction, of moral goodness, of
self-righteousness; who divert our
attention from economic and social problems with bold militarism; who inspire nationalism and patriotism and
ascendancy over others. Is this not what
Adolf Hitler did? Shall we choose to
learn, and not follow in the footsteps of that dangerous and genocidal
demagogue?”
Evaluate
the following insight that was contained in a sermon by Reverend Davidson
Loehr: “It is both accurate and helpful for
us to understand fundamentalism as religious fascism, and fascism as political
fundamentalism. Both come
from very primitive parts of us that have always been the default setting of
our species: amity toward our in-group,
enmity toward out-groups, hierarchical deference to alpha-male figures, a
powerful identification with our territory, and so forth. It is this brutal default setting
that all civilizations have tried to raise us above; but it is always a fragile thing,
civilization, and has to be achieved over and over and over again.”
Aha! Strict
Father types, help us see! Maybe this partially
explains the astonishing hostility of the Radical Right to liberal-minded
people and progressives. Bill Clinton
was a very intelligent and charismatic president, but the effectiveness of his
Administration in dealing with critically serious issues like health care,
class fairness, environmental sanity, and sustainable economic transformation
was crippled by the ferocious right-wing assault on him; oh, horror, he
LIED about sexual dalliances with Monica Lewinski! Likewise, Barack Obama is one of the most
intelligent presidents we’ve ever had, yet his progressive instincts have been
rudely stymied by a morphing “vast right wing conspiracy.”
These same
people on the Radical Right were curiously and hypocritically complacent in
regard to the devastating deceptions of relative dummy George W. Bush and
Company relating to much, much more serious and dangerous issues, like
dishonesty about the motives for preemptive wars and military occupations. It is nearly impossible to create peace and a
sustainable future in a culture dominated by right-wing self-righteousness,
intolerance and hostility toward people who are trying to improve the world.
Sinclair
Lewis wrote a novel in 1935, It Can’t
Happen Here, about “Buzz” Windrip, a southern politician who campaigned on
family values, patriotism and defending the flag. Buzz Windrip portrayed anyone concerned with
individual rights and freedoms as being anti-American. He essentially advocated a form of
totalitarianism. And, yes, it could
happen here. It actually got much closer
to happening here under G.W. Bush. As
Sinclair Lewis warned:
“When
fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying the cross.”
Yikes
-- Jesus would have been astounded! The
intertwining of government with religion has been a hallmark of oppressive
regimes throughout history, and “catapulting of the propaganda” has been used
mercilessly to manipulate people and affect public opinion. It is bizarre to see religious authorities
support government actions that completely contradict the major tenets of moral
goodness and right action that are contained in many religious scriptures.
A plot to blow up airplanes with liquid explosives
was discovered in London in August 2006.
President Bush declared that the plot was “a stark reminder that this
nation is at war with Islamic fascists.”
This is an inflammatory characterization, slandering an entire
religion. It begs the question: are Muslim fanatics who are prosecuting jihad
warfare truly “fascists”? Or was this
merely election-year sloganeering, a red herring, a name-calling subterfuge
that springs from subconscious motives that are unaware of their own
extreme-right propensities?
Marc Ash wrote to
President Bush in a blog at truthout.com, “One might wonder if you
are troubled by the specter of fascism in your inner thoughts when you cast the
accusation wildly into the public discourse.”
He noted that “One of Karl Rove's favorite tactics is to charge opponents with whatever it is you're guilty of yourself.” This is both subconscious psychological
projection and dishonorable deception.
Blowing up an airplane full of passengers is
certainly an act of barbaric terrorism, no matter what the objective of the
act. But it barely resembles the real definition
of fascism in the American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language:
“A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a
dictatorship by the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and
business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.”
From
this definition, it seems that President Bush actually tried, with some
success, to move America in the direction of a fascist state. He fortunately failed to implement policies
to move America as far right as his neoconservative backers would have liked,
but this is thanks only to robust resistance of more liberal-minded and
Libertarian Americans and the safeguards in our Constitution.
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot
easier, there's no question about it."
--- George W. Bush,
July 27, 2001
It
is a significant modern-day challenge to prevent right-wing political doctrines
from dominating decision-making in the U.S.
It is difficult to resist the beginnings of such trends. Much apathy, complacency and uncertainty
exists about the ends to which these insidious beginnings are leading. But once right-wing leaders become firmly
entrenched, it becomes exceedingly difficult to dislodge them, no matter what
damage they do to democracy, fairness, citizen rights, individual freedoms,
statesmanship, diplomacy, true prosperity, financial accountability, or the
hopes for peace and justice in the world.
To save the United States from repressive
government by rich people and corporations and the right wing, we need to elect
moderates and liberals, not Tea Party reactionaries and centrist conservatives
who have been forced to move far to the right to get the energized support of
this fervor-driven political base. To
prevent unwarranted influence by obstructionist Republicans and radically
conservative authoritarians, we need to be vigilant, courageous, and clear in
our understandings. We should make
revolutionary commitments to fair-minded social action and political
progressivism.
Those who portray themselves as caring
conservatives seem generally to be the ones who are the most susceptible to
stubborn ideological arguments put forth by right-wing politicians and
patriarchal authority figures.
Manipulative demagogues strive to suppress knowledge and right
understanding by calling on father-like male gods and exploiting absurd
mythological concepts of a obedience-demanding Creator in order to engender
support for initiatives that hypocritically obstruct true justice, oppose
common good reforms, and just happen to stimulate the concentration of wealth
in the hands of the few.
Outrage at our misbegotten national
priorities finally reached the stage where the populace demanded change, as it
had done in Australia in November 2007 when conservative Prime Minister John
Howard was thrown out of office. A
similar scenario played out in the national elections of November 2008,
resulting in the election of Barack Obama.
Our close call with greater
authoritarianism was thus thwarted, but subsequent developments led to much
more involvement by the federal government and the Federal Reserve in the
economy to keep international banks from collapsing. By late 2012, public frustration had shifted
to nagging and valid concerns about high unemployment, retirement insecurity, Congressional
gridlock, extreme political partisanship, record levels of national debt,
economic instability, and “too big to fail” banks and their bailouts. These things contributed to voter anger. With the Supreme Court’s January 2010 ruling
that overturned limits on corporate spending on elections, the crystal ball has
become clouded, and it is hard to predict how increased corporate influence
will affect people’s privacy and their individual security and ability to
resist the tyranny of those eager to abuse power.
Chapter #83 – Speaking
Truth to Amoral Power.
Neoconservatism dominated our politics from 2001 to
2008. Neoconservatives shrewdly took
advantage of the calamity of 9/11, and used it as a Pearl-Harbor-like
justification for a global ‘war on terror’, and for an egregious expansion of
Executive powers. A wide range of unfair
domestic and foreign policies were implemented, and the fears and insecurities
of Americans were exploited to divide and alienate people, and to advance a
self-serving elitist agenda, and to gain support for war against ‘enemies’ we
have helped create.
Neoconservatism is a radical political philosophy
that used bullying tactics and worked to destroy opposition and eliminate
dissent. It used deceptive pretenses,
misleading propaganda, simplistic slogans and shallow sound bites to manipulate
the populace. It put American troops in harm’s way under false
pretenses. In action, it condoned
prisoner torture and renditions. It
sowed distrust and hatred toward other nations who object to our supremacist
ambitions. It eagerly used deceptive rhetoric to fool the public into
believing that its actions were consistent with its words. It gave
government funds to “faith-based initiatives”, exploited religion in
hypocritical ways, and used taxpayer funds to advance religious
discrimination. And it distorted
scientific knowledge and denied convincing evidence of things like the
anthropogenic causes of climate disruptions in order to promote narrow
political ends.
"The good thing about science is that
it's true whether or not you believe in it."
---
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Manichean dogma of black-and-white “moral
absolutism” has been used to strengthen right-leaning political
positions. This dogma holds that there are moral absolutes of good
and evil, and this idea is used to paint a false dichotomy between us, the
“good guys”, and others, the evil ones. I have traveled extensively, and
found that there are good people everywhere. Every person has both
positive and negative impulses, and the blurred and indistinct line between
good and evil does not run between us and “them”, or between our country and
other countries; in truth, this line
runs right through each and every one of us.
There are no absolute rights or wrongs. Subjectivity envelops all circumstances. There is, however, relativity, and there are
greater or lesser likelihoods that certain perspectives correspond more
accurately to the facts and deeper truths.
It is my strong conviction that the ideas you are reading here are
perceptive interpretations that are more accurate than those peddled by
partisan politicians, corporate apologists or religious fundamentalists. Voice your editorial opinion -- I am open to
it, and will make Wikipedia-like modifications of anything in the Earth
Manifesto according to more perceptive understandings.
True patriotism is found in speaking truth to amoral
power. We should question authority and oppose the abuses of power that
characterize extreme ideologies.
Chapter #84 –
Neoconservatism and Right-Wing Think Tanks.
Neoconservatism
is a movement that advocates “benevolent global hegemony”, along with big
increases in military spending. It thus
effectively supports aggressive militarism, facilitates graft at the public
trough, and corrupts benevolence into selfish greed. Neoconservatives have allied themselves with
the interests of giant corporations by advancing doctrines of laissez-faire
capitalism, voodoo ‘trickle-down’ economics, and regressive changes in
taxation. They oppose most regulations
on businesses. Neoconservatism thrives
on cronyism, and thereby encourages poor leadership. It champions privatization and limits on
corporate liabilities, no matter how detrimental the outcome this has for the
majority of people. It welcomes the subcontracting of government
functions to the private sector, and the outsourcing of jobs, and the weakening
of civil service rights. It harms society by opposing social programs
like adequate funding for good public education, universal health care, livable
minimum wages, and employment opportunities for the underprivileged.
The Republican Party was successful in dominating
politics from 2001 until 2009 despite the fact that its doctrines were
retrogressive and anti-populist. As we have seen, they succeeded in part
by taking advantage of anger and fear generated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
They capitalized on Big Money given to conservative causes and politicians by
rich people and vested interest groups.
They used the skills and corrupt tactics of people like Jack Abramoff
and Tom DeLay, the dishonorable Texas “Hammer”.
They stoked hot-button social issues to gain the support of social
conservatives, and then betrayed many of the cherished convictions that are
important to honorable conservatism. And
they organized effectively and commanded strict loyalty to their party and
doctrines.
Neoconservatives rose to ascendance in part by
investing heavily in dozens of right-wing think tanks that had the purpose of
influencing public opinion and the media. Organizations like the
Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute frame
issues in favor of fundamentalist economic theories, less-regulated capitalism,
right-leaning ideologies, dogmatic propaganda, and self-serving worldviews.
They provide their partisan points of view to legislators, lobbyists, judges,
journalists and the press. In the
process, analysts and operatives in these think tanks seriously skew our
democracy toward unfair and anti-democratic doctrines.
The American news media has collaborated to a large
extent with this effort to influence and distort public opinion. They willingly swallowed and regurgitated the
Bush Administration’s talking points and propaganda in the run-up to wars
abroad. By doing so, the media abdicated
impartiality and the integrity of ethical journalism, and failed to deliver in
their important roles of investigative reporting, counterpoint analysis and
watchdog scrutiny. Why has this come to
pass?
One reason is that there has been a dramatic
consolidation in media companies. They
are all now owned by some of the largest corporations in the country. General Electric owns NBC. Viacom owns CBS. Disney owns ABC. AOL Time Warner owns CNN. And Fox News is owned by arch-conservative
Rupert Murdoch. Republican policies are
favorable to the profitability of these big companies, and to their ability to
abuse corporate privileges and power.
Rupert
Murdoch has been called “the global king of media”. Murdoch, according to one observer, has had
an extraordinarily degrading impact upon our media and political culture. His tabloid approach to news, his fixation on
celebrity news, and his overt right-wing political bias on Fox News has
combined with deceptive journalism and a lack of integrity to help turn
American and British politics into a realm of unthinking polarization,
sensationalism and manufactured controversy.
Rupert
Murdoch is a conservative ideologue who controls the very biased Fox
Network. In Robert Greenwald’s film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism,
it was revealed that 67% of Fox News viewers believed that the U.S. had “found
clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al
Qaeda terrorist organization”. In
contrast, only 16% of Public Broadcasting System viewers believed this. It has been proved, of course, that this
“evidence” did not exist at all, and that al Qaeda had not operated in Iraq
before the U.S. invaded the country.
Our
military intervention in Iraq not only brought that nation severe economic
dislocation but also millions of people displaced from their homes, widespread
sectarian violence and suicide bombings, and a radical increase in the barbaric
influence of al Qaeda and then an Islamic State in Iraq. Fox News has done a poor job of honestly
explaining the real story behind this big picture understanding.
Fox News is not fair and balanced, and
surely not accurate and truthful. It
often presents partisan viewpoints that are heavily skewed toward conservative
Republican propaganda and what sometimes turns out to be “big lies”. A 2014 report by the Union of
Concerned Scientists found that when Fox News discusses climate science, only
28 percent of its coverage is accurate.
This kind of news is downright dangerous to our collective well-being!
Another
conglomerate, Clear Channel Communications (which slyly changed its name in
September 2014 to iHeartMedia), owns more than 850 full-power AM and FM radio
stations in the U.S. It was founded by
staunch supporters of the conservative establishment. It actively censored anything that was critical
of the Bush Presidency or the war in Iraq.
It even banned more than 200 songs related to peace in the wake of the
9/11 attacks, including John Lennon’s great song “Imagine”. Imagine that!
Then, in November 2007, Clear Channel discouraged all of its affiliates
from playing songs from “Magic”, the
then-latest album by Bruce Springsteen, because of war-related lyrics it
contained, even though the album was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It is not
healthy for our democracy to have progressive views stifled, or to have our
culture dumbed down and trivialized!
An early twentieth century editor and publisher of a
small town newspaper gave his staff a directive to “always do what is right for
the community.” This is appropriate and
laudable! In contrast, media tycoon
Rupert Murdoch’s apparent motives are to make the biggest possible profit while
maintaining his personal commitment to fundamentalist economic doctrines and
social conservatism. He is committed to
controlling, dominating and advancing his personal propaganda and protecting
the privileges of the powerful. How
pathetic a contrast this is, in comparison to more honorable people who
champion the common good!
The “Big Lie” is
a term first coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf. This term was made famous by Josef Goebbels,
the minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. The idea was simple: if you tell a ‘big lie’
often enough, most people will come to accept it as the truth. As Goebbels himself said, “"If you tell a lie big enough and keep
repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time
as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military
consequences of the lie. The truth is
the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest
enemy of the state." Yikes!
To protect ourselves
from overweening domination by the state, we need to find the most accurate
understandings of the truth, and then disseminate them more widely. The U.S. Office of Strategic Services (the
predecessor of the CIA) described the methodologies used by the Germans to
propagate their Big Lies: “Their primary
rules were: never allow the public to
cool off; never admit a fault or
wrong; never concede that there may be
some good in your enemy; never leave
room for alternatives; never accept
blame; concentrate on one enemy at a
time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a
little one; and if you repeat it
frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."
One of the most pernicious examples of a
Big Lie sold to the American public was that the ‘War on Terror’ is an
undertaking designed to make us safer.
The ‘War on Terror’ was a ‘mega-lie’, a deception about the true
intentions of the Bush Administration in its preemptive wars of aggression.
Another glaring instance of official
deception relates to global warming and climate change. In the Oscar-winning film by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, it was revealed
that there is overwhelming scientific consensus that mankind is contributing to
a rapid increase in carbon-dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists
admit the impact of human activities on climate change, yet with media
complicity, about half of all Americans indicate that they either doubt that
global warming is occurring or that human activities are contributing to climate
change.
Another reason that a free press and truly
fair, balanced and truthful media are important is that decision-making in a
democracy relies on having its citizens be well-informed. Our democratic system doesn’t work well when
voters are misinformed, deceived and deluded.
Most
of U.S. history shows that social change has tended over the long run to evolve
in the direction of more progressive initiatives. By contrast, the entire
worldview and ideology of conservatism has generally opposed progress.
Conservative prejudices and frames of reference have yielded, but only
in fits and starts, to ideas that are more fair and true to our nation’s
founding ideals. Consider these
instances: Conservatives supported
slavery. They opposed giving women the
right to vote. They supported the
segregation, discrimination and oppression encompassed in ‘Jim Crow’ laws. They opposed anti-trust laws and the
limitation of the work week to 40 hours and initiatives to mitigate the harms
inherent in child labor. They supported
Prohibition and demagogic McCarthyism.
They opposed the New Deal and Social Security. They oppose increases in the minimum wage and
food stamp programs and universal healthcare.
They oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. They gave only tepid support to
environmental laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. They support right-wing dictatorships in many
countries, and they supported the Vietnam War.
They support regressive tax breaks that shift the tax burden to workers
and away from the rich. In short, almost
all major advancements of freedom and justice in our history have been opposed
by conservatives.
This
trend has been made much worse by radical conservatives, who have even betrayed
many of the fundamental underpinnings of conservative ideals, such as sensibly
limiting the size of government and implementing fiscally responsible balanced
budgets, and protecting citizens from intrusiveness by the government and
invasions of privacy, and defending a sensible and fair “wall of separation”
between the Church and State.
The American people are being brainwashed. Our
economic and political duopoly system has allowed our great nation to be driven
toward financial bankruptcy, as well as social and ecological calamity. Let’s demand a peaceful revolution to change
this state of affairs!
Chapter #85 – The Foolish
Toad.
We need public policies that are SMART, not merely
shrewd. Gaming the system to gain
benefits at the public expense is shrewd.
Giving lobbyists the power to write laws is shrewd. Deceiving
people to accomplish narrow goals is shrewd. Using fear and the name of
God to advance military goals is shrewd. Smearing opponents is
shrewd. Giving debt-financed tax breaks to rich people is shrewd.
Redesigning our economy to be sustainable would be
smart. Enacting incentives and disincentives that are designed to achieve
environmentally and socially beneficial goals would be smart. Acting to limit the destructive exploitation
of people and natural resources and public lands is smart. Adopting farsighted
and broadminded points of view is smart. Sound policies that are
consistent with the health of natural ecosystems are smart. Investing in positive outcomes for the
general good is smart.
Truly
constructive decision-making involves critical thinking, honest assessment, and
giving respectful consideration to opposing viewpoints. Local
government decision-making can provide us with valuable insights due to the
fact that many natural conflicts of interest take place in various domains of
local and regional government. Different users of parks and open spaces, for
example, want the freedom to use these areas without restriction, and hikers,
mountain bike riders, horseback riders, dog owners and wildlife all have somewhat
different interests. These desires often
conflict, especially when public areas become heavily used. Decisions regarding such issues are best made
after objectively listening to all competing interests, and fairly evaluating
perspectives and grievances, and then choosing a resolution that is fairest to
the largest number of users.
It is a bad long-term strategy to steamroll dissent,
deceive the public, and unfairly pander to vested interests. These
detrimental activities increase the probabilities that our government and
society will not fairly solve our problems.
This in turn contributes to making these problems become more and more
expensive to remedy, and increasingly difficult to fix.
Mario Cuomo noted in his book Reason to Believe that the conservative agenda “is a new Harshness
that will make our problems worse, while stirring our meanest instincts and
trampling upon our best impulses.”
Right-wing conservatives imitate the foolish Toad in
Kenneth Grahame’s wonderful book, The
Wind in the Willows. Toad is so conceited about his cleverness that
he commits the most astonishing and compulsive of follies. This
delightful story-telling is excellent to read aloud to children, and it is also
an enjoyable “read” for adults. It provides a highly entertaining allegory
of sensibility, wisdom, folly, recklessness, and the positivity of faithful
caring friendships. The Mole, the Water Rat, and the Badger are fabulous
characters; I recommend the pleasure of
reading about them!
Chapter #86 – The Hero
Archetype vs. Wisdom.
The
‘Hero archetype’ could be said to have been activated by the traumatic events
of 9/11. But a hero’s strength is not
necessarily balanced with wisdom of action.
The biggest risks of leaders pretending to act as heroes are their loss
of contact with people’s actual hardships and vulnerabilities and their failure
to clearly see the consequences of actions.
Soon after 9/11, George W. Bush began acting out a quasi-religious
enthusiasm that is characteristic of the unconscious ‘Savior archetype’. He claimed he would save us from evil. Using people’s fears and heightened senses of
vulnerability, he initiated a constant barrage of emotionally-charged judgments
and black-and-white assessments of ‘terrorists’ and Islamic peoples. By polarizing and manipulating Americans into
supporting ill-advised and extremely costly military interventions into Afghanistan
and Iraq, he seriously undermined our financial and social well-being and the
integrity of our principles.
It
is an axiom that the more we make others look evil, the more evil we appear to
them. When we look at something from
only one point of view, or from only one part of ourselves, as psychologists
say, we have difficulty seeing any other.
When George W. Bush embraced an absolutist Manichean worldview that says
‘we are good’ and ‘they are evil’, he turned a blind eye to vitally important
alternate ways of seeing things. He
surrounded himself with loyalists and sycophants, and purged his inner circle
of people who had differing perspectives. These actions effectively drowned out the
aspects of wrong-doing in aggressive militarism. As time goes by, we are beginning to realize
that opposing points of view have been overlooked, and that this has put us in
greater danger.
A
secret to a good relationship is to maintain respect for the other person. As Clyde Prestowitz says in his book Rogue Nation, “Nations are very much
like individuals. More than desire for
material gain or fear or love, they are driven by a craving for dignity and
respect.” He adds, “The rest of the
world has its own traditions, ways, and values for which it wants
respect.” When we bully others, and
don’t listen to them, or place our nation above the law, or use coercion to
advance the interests of the influential, or act with an attitude of
superiority and oblivious insensitivity to other cultures, we cause resentment
that has dangerous ramifications for our true national security. Policies that disregard the dignity of
others, in living as well as in dying, are particularly despicable.
Psychologists Hal
Stone and Sidra Stone wrote the following, in articles about the “Dance of
Selves in Relationship” and
a February 2003 “Open Letter to President George W. Bush”:
“One of the strongest indications of a
mature personality is the ability to stand between the opposite viewpoints in
conflict situations and to be able to hold both, when making decisions. This
doesn’t mean that we become passive in the way we conduct our life. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have an
ethical or moral sense! It means that we
are able to feel the two sides of a situation.
We must still ultimately make a decision about the situation. But the decisions we make are not made on
‘automatic pilot’, the decisions we make come from a deeper and wiser place within. … This
is the reason -- at least theoretically the reason -- why executives have a
board of directors and an advisory board.
The idea is to get a broad range of differing (often intensely opposing)
input from people. Then, after
assimilating this information, the executive is better prepared to act and make
the best decision possible.”
I
say, let’s begin to act with greater social intelligence in our attitudes
towards others! And let’s demand that
our leaders begin to make better decisions that facilitate the common good!
Chapter #87 – The Truth.
Sir Winston Churchill once said: “Men stumble over
the truth from time to time, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off
as if nothing had happened.” Ha!
Consider this truth:
Cyclical swings in politics occur throughout history. America swung too far to the right during the
Bush Administration. The tenets of
Neoconservativism and the politicians who supported these doctrines were
rebuked in the November 2006 elections, and again even more dramatically in the
November 2008 elections. I expressed the opinion in 2010 that we should
never again elect politicians who march in ideological lockstep with the far
right. The wisdom of this assertion has been cogently confirmed by the
misguided initiatives of the Tea Party and resurgent conservatives since 2010.
There are basically only three ways that the
trajectory of our lives can be changed for better or for worse: (1) through
random chance and circumstantial change, (2) as the result of a crisis, or (3)
by making conscious choices. Let us
courageously choose to make the world a better place.
As the Jewish grandmother Buddhist, Sylvia
Boorstein once said, “We don’t get a choice about what hand we are dealt in
life. The only choice we have is our
attitude about the cards we hold and the finesse with which we play our
hand.” Yay for positive attitudes -- and
for the wisdom in finesse!
Philosophic folks sometimes debate whether
the glass is half full or half empty.
Life can be beautiful, ecstatic, wonderful, fulfilling and lovely; it can also be miserable, painful, unhappy, frustrating
and degraded. The Dalai Lama would say
that we can, to an extent, choose how we live our lives, and the attitudes we
maintain. He would acknowledge that the practices
we undertake can effectively accentuate the positive and mitigate the
negative. Even though we have a limited
control over the circumstances that befall us, we do have a range of choices on
how to live more meaningful and responsible lives.
The Serenity
Prayer offers a cliché perhaps, but a valuable one:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the
things I can;
and the wisdom to know the
difference.
The distinct human capacity for reflection
and intentional choice carries a corresponding moral responsibility to care
about others. Indeed, our deepest desire
is arguably to live in loving or at least respectful relationships with one another. The hunger for friendships and loving
families and caring communities is a powerful but latent unifying force in our
civilizations.
To accomplish positive goals, it is best to
have focus and confidence in our abilities to attract what we seek. This is “The
Secret”, according to the pop book and film by the same name. Consider the Earth Manifesto as a Vision
Board for humanity, and visualize these ideas as being a new form of
collaborative positive thinking that could provide better understanding and
potentials in our lives.
If our societies strived to make people
feel safer, and truly left no child behind, and gave effective encouragement to
everyone to achieve their goals, and helped every person to see themselves in a
light that was in harmony with the most authentic part of their souls, we could
create conditions in which everyone would be more likely to achieve a
purposeful life and actualize his or her highest potential. This would be a fortuitous plan, and perhaps
even a potential foundation for a winning political coalition!
Discontent and frustration are discouraging, but
they also can have curiously positive social aspects, for they contain great motivating and driving
energies. “Blessed unrest” is a force
that helps foster grassroots efforts to make creative choices to change our
societies and institutions. This is the
heart of authenticity, and doggone if we don’t need to get real!
Let’s work to prevent the hemorrhaging of our souls
that comes from harsh selfishness, ruthless opportunism, and a pathetic
disconnectedness from nature. Perhaps meditative equanimity and empathy
and the kind of balanced philosophical outlook found in Buddhism are just what
we need.
One
of the most basic insights of Buddhist philosophy is that life is
ephemeral. Pain and death are inevitable,
but suffering is optional. These aspects
of the human condition enrich our existences by training our attention to the
Here and Now, and make us aware that we should appreciate life and try to live
mindfully and appreciatively. Life
certainly has its indignities, more for some than for others, but it is best
not to worry or despair. Hallelujah for
positive perspectives!
It
should be our responsibility, however, all of us together, to help create
societies that really do mitigate the needs for people to be concerned about
their general welfare. Social concern is
potently valuable as a motivator;
impotent worry is not. “Don’t
worry, be happy.” Namaste, as they say: “I
salute, honor and respect the divine within you”!
“What a drag it is gettin’ old,” Mick
Jagger of the Rolling Stones sings. But
hey, stuff happens. Our own individual
deaths are one of the few certainties in life.
Because of the ephemeral nature of our individual existences, and
because we are an integral part of a larger social whole, the legacy we choose
to leave, intentionally or inadvertently, is something we should take into
account with much greater care and seriousness.
Let’s not be so hell-bent on achieving a ‘nineteenth nervous breakdown’,
or ‘turning your back on treating people kind’.
Thanks, Mick!
“Hey, hey!
You, you! Get off of my
cloud!” Can’t we all just get
along? Remember, guys, it may NOT
actually be a good idea to try to have women “under your thumb” all the
time; things would work out better for
men AND women if males were to make more concerted efforts to give females a
greater modicum of respect. “You can’t
always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find you get
what you need!” There is definite
lyrical wisdom in these Rolling Stones lyrics!
Chapter #88 – Misguided
Priorities.
Human
motivations are driven by needs and desires that largely determine our
behaviors and actions. We have
physiological needs for food, water and sleep, and basic needs for safety and
security. Beyond these needs, we have social impulses for bonding and
belonging, and self-esteem, and needs for the approval and respect of
others. At the highest level, the noblest of human strivings relate to
self-actualization desires, ethical actions, and helping others. The American
psychologist Abraham Maslow identified this hierarchy of human needs.
Our
societies would benefit by efforts to lift all people up above the level of
their basic needs. The political right wing is arguably on the wrong side
of this intention with their zealous enthusiasm for special perks for privileged
segments of society. Their stingy
antagonism toward domestic programs that would benefit poor people, the middle
class, women, children, and the less fortunate members of our society compound
the problems that result from such an agenda.
Bill Moyers criticized the sad state of our
democracy in a speech just five weeks after the terrorist attacks on September
11, 2001, saying this: “Our business and political class owes us better than
this. After all, it was they who declared class war twenty years ago, and
it was they who have won. They’re on top. If ever they were going
to practice the magnanimity of winners, this was the moment. To hide now
behind the flag while ripping off a country in crisis fatally -- fatally! --
separates them from the common course of American life.”
Consider this closely. Not only is it not
magnanimous, but it is essentially immoral for our leaders to create
ever-increasing inequalities of privilege, opportunity, income, wealth,
security, and access to healthcare. It is unfair and mean-spirited to
push economic policies that increase already glaring social inequities.
The staunch defense of this unfair state of affairs
is an outrage against our democratic founding principles. Corrupt
cronyism, regressive laws, divisive strategies, harsh punishments, repressive
tactics, Big Brother domination, uncompromising partisanship and hyper-unfair
initiatives are affronts to the ideals upon which our country was founded.
The misguided priorities of conservative politicians
are a staggering tragedy for millions. Shame on them for using
diversionary tactics to wage extremely costly wars on drugs and terrorism.
These priorities ignore much more serious threats to the public’s safety and
sanity. They ignore our pressing need to deal courageously with such
issues as properly maintaining our nation’s infrastructure and preventing
environmental damages, and doing something to mitigate greenhouse-gas-exacerbated
global warming and climate change.
Revelations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
highlight our vulnerabilities and the risks of our current course of
activities. The radical right and entrenched interests hijacked national
concerns for Katrina victims to further advance their doctrines and pet
projects by reducing environmental regulations, suspending the Davis/Bacon Act
that required fair wages to be paid to relief workers, cutting programs that
benefited the poor, creating private school vouchers, and giving generous
‘no-bid contracts’ to corporations like Halliburton. Not long after the
Katrina calamity, Congress again reduced taxes on the wealthy. Some of
the most conservative Representatives in Congress at the time, like Richard
Pombo, intensified their efforts to emasculate the Endangered Species Act. They tried to accelerate the logging of
national forests and the mining of natural resources on public lands. In the meantime, the Congressional majority
opposed bold conservation measures and green taxes and viable alternatives to
the use of fossil fuels. This was all
but unbelievable!
Republicans even called for selling off hundreds of
thousands of acres of public lands in their federal budget for 2007. Such
plans are myopic, irresponsible, undisciplined, and cynically
wrong-headed. Our elected
representatives owe us better; let’s
demand greater responsibility and more strict accountability, and let’s throw
the rascals out!
Chapter #89 – The Federal
Budget Is a Moral Document.
Politics is at the center of the storm where all
competing interests clash and struggle for ascendancy. Politics involves personalities, posturing,
rhetoric, deception, and slick marketing. But underneath all these
distractions, a battle rages for wealth, power and privilege. It is a
struggle between forces that advocate unrestricted freedom to “game” the system
and opposing forces that are concerned with greater propriety and
fairness.
The conflict between honorable principles and vested
interests was especially apparent in the rosy rhetoric of the 2007 State of the
Union message, which was followed within days by a federal budget that
reflected blatant contradictions and different priorities than the disingenuous
words. For instance, here was a real
irony: President Bush finally admitted a fact in one of his annual State
of the Union messages that experts have been warning us about for decades:
“America is addicted to oil.” Then he followed this admission up with a
policy prescription: “The best way to break this addiction is through
technology.” Anyone who thought about it for a few seconds might conclude
that, to the contrary, the best way to break our addiction to oil would be to
find more immediate and effective ways to REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF OIL WE USE!
Nonetheless, President Bush and his Cabinet set out
after the speech to barnstorm the country to deflect attention from fact that
the proposed budget actually reduced funding for conservation programs
of the Department of Energy by more than $100 million, and further cut the
energy-saving Weatherization Assistance Program by one third. The
President’s first stop was the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in
Colorado. One observer puts it this way: “But then -- and don’t you hate
it when this happens? -- the day after the State of the Union, the Department
of Energy announced that $28 million in budget cuts will mean the layoff of 32
alternative energy researchers, many of them specializing in wind and biomass,
exactly the technologies that Bush had touted in his speech.” A few quick
phone calls were made to improve the optics of the photo opportunity, and $5
million was taken out of someone else’s budget and given back to the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory to hire back, at least temporarily, the laid-off
researchers, just in time for Bush’s speech.” Hell of a job, guys!
The Energy Department’s proposed budget in 2007
reduced energy efficiency programs by about 16%. This equates to spending 30% less on energy
efficiency than in 2002, when adjusted for inflation, according to the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
That was STUPID!
My ridicule and cynicism are not idle
criticism. The federal budget is a moral document. It identifies
the actual priorities of our leaders, not the merely rhetorical ones.
When politicians say one thing, but authorize another, it is an offense against
the truth -- and it is also an outrage against important principles of
integrity, democratic fairness and proper priorities. It is, foremost, a serious error of intention
that distorts wise planning.
Chapter #90 – Considering
Deeper Causes and Consequences.
Tough Love conservatism is characterized by a
distinct deficit of compassion. It panders to attitudes that lack empathy
and encourage injustices. It represents an attitude of “I’ve got
mine; too bad that you don’t have yours;
you obviously must not deserve it.”
Conservatism is generally compassionate only as a narrative of
fiction. Some say that ‘compassionate
conservatives’ are more like ruthless reactionaries because they often act with
a blatant lack of conscience. Their
supremacist worldviews resemble a type of knee-jerk masquerade of heartless
opportunism whose main goal is to support special privileges for the few.
Tough Love conservatism is associated with an entire
constellation of Strict Father beliefs, as defined by the famous linguist
George Lakoff. The highest goal of these worldviews is to gain and
maintain power and control. Strict Father conservatism is almost
evangelical in its drives to make society conform to its harsh views. It acts as if any means is justified to
achieve selfish ends.
Right-wing politicians have gained power in part by
pandering to individuals who identify with socially conservative stances.
But they generally abuse the power they gain by such gambits. They ostensibly want to engineer society into
molds that satisfy doctrinaire and often puritanical beliefs. They
exploit people’s instincts for individualism, personal freedom and
self-sufficiency, and twist them into uncompassionate unfairness, domineering
male prerogative, and self-righteous intolerance.
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are
conservative.”
--- John Stuart Mill
I apologize for this insult to people
in relatively poor ‘red states’. In any
case, the crowd that professes
Tough Love often conveniently overlooks and fails to respect the fact that the
worst consequences of environmental degradation are visited upon the bodies,
families and neighborhoods of poor people, both within the U.S. and
abroad. This is a sad fact of widespread environmental injustice.
Poor people are disproportionately vulnerable to toxic substance exposure at
work and in their homes and neighborhoods. They are statistically more
frequent victims of diseases caused by environmental factors. They are
more likely to be victims of violence, and to suffer from natural disasters and
other catastrophes. And since tens of millions of people do not have
health insurance, those who are least able to afford it must often deal with
medical setbacks without any assurance of medical care security.
These
are serious social problems, not just individual tough luck
stories. The number of people who are uninsured increased by about 9
million under George Bush’s watch. It is
one thing to be stingy and hard-hearted about wealth and possessions, or even
about education and opportunities. It is quite another to be complacent
and uncaring about the glaring healthcare inequities in America today.
An
efficient and fair system of universal healthcare should be our national
goal. About 25% of the more than $2 trillion dollars that Americans spend
annually on healthcare is spent on unnecessary procedures, red tape,
administration, and profits for insurance companies. Absurd! If we
had a sensible national health insurance program, it could be completely paid
for by reducing these costs.
It is unconscionable that healthcare insurance
premiums increased an average almost 100% in the 8 year period from 2001 to
2009 while wage increases were much smaller.
Meanwhile, profits of insurance companies increased by well over
1,000%. This is obscene! Individuals and businesses are being
adversely affected by these trends.
Making profits at the expense of people’s health and well-being, whether
in the field of insurance, prescription drugs or military affairs is practically
criminally wrong, so it should be better regulated.
George W. Bush twice vetoed proposed increases in
the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This program helps the most vulnerable of children. No Children Left Behind? Early proposals by the Bush Administration to
help contain rapid increases in healthcare costs involved the expansion of
so-called “health-savings accounts”. But healthy people and the wealthy
-- surprise! -- are the main beneficiaries of such plans. Health-savings accounts have, in fact, been
described as the “mother of all tax shelters”. A loud raspberry for these
initiatives, guys!
There are better solutions to the challenges of our
health care system, as there are with most of the problems facing us. But
as usual, tenacious entrenched interests strive to perpetuate their privileges
and defend the status quo, while increasing their profits. They thereby impede progress and contribute
to unnecessary hurdles to achieving good solutions.
Once again the realization steals into my awareness:
we need to fairly address the causes and
consequences of problems rather than just declaring war on their symptoms and
throwing money at the special interest groups that want to profit from the
dilemma. This observation applies in particular to the misguided “war on drugs”
and the mishandled “war on terror”. The
medicine can be much worse and more costly than the affliction!
The
use of certain drugs like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are somewhat conducive
to the drudgery of the puritan work ethic, so these substances are condoned and
accepted by society, despite the fact that they have harmful effects on
users. Tobacco smoking contributes to
more than 400,000 deaths a year, and alcohol kills tens of thousands of people,
yet they are legal to buy and use, and they are promoted promiscuously.
Other
types of drugs like marijuana, however, are severely suppressed, despite the
fact that they are much less harmful.
Perhaps this is because they are judged to be subversive of the
established order, and of dutiful social conformity. Marijuana has never been known to kill a single
person through overdose, and it does not cause lung cancer. Yet the government represses it harshly and
ruthlessly, and at a very high cost to millions of people whose lives have been
devastated by arrests under laws that prohibit the growing, sale and smoking of
marijuana. Prisons are overcrowded with
people who have used marijuana or tried to supplement their income or make a
living by selling it. These laws are
ridiculously unfair and probably even more counterproductive than the Prohibition
laws in the 1920s. Draconian drug laws
are the politics of failure; they are
heartless and hapless, and whether mean-spirited or well-intentioned, they are
extraordinarily damaging and costly.
Congress
should reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I drug under the Federal Controlled
Substances Act of 1970 to a Schedule II drug, in recognition of the fact that
marijuana has accepted medical uses like other Schedule II drugs such as
morphine and opium. The improper
classification of cannabis preposterously implies that marijuana has a higher
potential for abuse than stronger and more addictive drugs. This erroneous classification has led to
absurd conflicts between federal and state drug laws. It also prevents the proper regulation of
prescriptions, and it creates a bizarre system of distribution channels of
marijuana through “pot club” dispensaries rather than pharmacies.
Marijuana’s
Schedule I status breeds widespread injustice and disrespect for laws, and it
forces the Drug Enforcement Administration to waste resources on things like
raiding the homes of people with medical afflictions. The wrong-headed status also prevents
reasonable research and testing to see which maladies benefit from marijuana
use. The stigma of federal illegality
deters some sick people from seeking help from a drug that could help make them
feel better and suffer less pain.
There
is indeed a kind of “reefer madness” like the alarmist 1936 movie alleged, but
this phenomenon is one that is in the brains of those who believe that
punitive, costly and misguided public policies are sensible, not in the brains
of those who smoke marijuana. More than
10 million Americans have been busted for marijuana since 1990, mostly for
simple possession. Worst of all, this
madness even denies the use of cannabis to those who benefit from pain relief
and other valid medical uses. Mercy!
Of course there
are drawbacks and behavioral risks associated with getting high, but overly
severe laws are the wrong way to deal with them. Our societies would likely be better off if
we treated the use of marijuana as a sacrament rather than a crime!
Our criminal
justice system is, in general, in desperate need of reform. Instead of retributive laws, we should as a society
seek more appropriate priorities. Rather
than harsh punishments, we should find better ways to help prevent
crimes that have actual victims, and to cope with the causes of true addictions
and the often stress-induced heightened need for escapist behaviors. We should also seek ways to better integrate
people back into society once they are released from prison, and to reduce
recidivism. We could enhance public
safety and save taxpayer dollars by using “restorative justice” programs. Under such initiatives, those who violate the
law would be required to take responsibility for their actions and try to
repair the harm they’ve done by righting their wrongs. They would also be helped to avoid prison and
a downward spiral in their lives. We
should make it a higher priority to improve opportunities, strengthen
communities, and reduce poverty and homelessness, instead of financing more and
more prisons.
The tough-on-crime crowd apparently believes
that the criminal justice system should be about punishment and retribution
rather than rehabilitation. But the
reality is that it is foolish to put people with problems in a place that makes
them worse off and more prone to violence, and to then turn them loose on
society without any resources. After
all, this tends to dramatically increase the chances that those persons will
become repeat offenders. Only 10% of
people who have participated in ‘restorative justice’ programs end up
committing another crime, compared to about 70% of those who go through the traditional
criminal justice system. When we deal
with crime in retrogressive ways, it guarantees many more future victims, and
thus makes our societies less safe.
Efforts to privatize prisons basically put
incentives in the wrong place, because they make prisons into growth industries
rather than contributing to effectively reducing prison populations.
People who are wrongly convicted of crimes
and are later exonerated through DNA evidence should be provided with cleared
records and public assistance to integrate them back into society. People who have been wrongfully imprisoned
are currently given even less help when they are released than criminals who
have served their time. We need
progressive ideas and sensible solutions to address such unjust, dysfunctional
policies.
The world would be a far better place if reasonable
businessmen, objectively fair-minded people, or spiritual leaders like the
Dalai Lama had greater influence -- and if Big Business, corrupt politicians,
right-wing conservatives, and religious fundamentalists had less
influence. That’s my opinion!
Americans generally seem opposed to sacrifice and
discipline of any sort. Yet a new modicum of self-discipline would be
very valuable in our societies, a balanced discipline that would involve
constructive qualities such as accepting responsibility; having the foresight and willingness to
delay gratification to achieve more noble and desirable goals; dedicating ourselves to the truth; being willing to moderate our consumption; and finding effective ways to limit the
wastefulness of our uses of resources. We should encourage such
commitments, and use smart incentives to make them more attractive.
Attitudes are important, so let’s cultivate more
sensible and fair-minded attitudes. And
let’s not be like John Steinbeck’s Irish grandmother, who he describes in his great
novel East of Eden as “a tight hard
little woman, humor-less as a chicken” who had “a dour Presbyterian mind and a
code of morals that pinned down and beat the brains out of nearly everything
that was pleasant to do.” Tough love?
Shalom! Let’s
strive for a healthier balance of yin and yang forces. As an old Chinese proverb says, “It is better
to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” Let this document
represent a match that has been lighted to help lead the way!
Chapter #91 –
Constitutional Principles.
Eleven score and eighteen years ago, in the year
1776, our fathers brought forth upon the American continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal. Let’s again contemplate the Founding Principles of the United
States. They were: fairness for all; equal rights for all citizens under the
law; the promoting of the General
Welfare; limitations on the power of the
federal government; checks and balances within government to limit abuses of
power; and the establishment of rules of
law that create reasonable justice and protect the freedom of individuals to
live their lives in fair hopes of pursuing happiness.
We hold these rights to be self-evident and
inalienable: that citizens are guaranteed certain liberties and privacies,
including the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion, and that there
should be strict limitations on the ability of the government to interfere with
our individual liberties and our reasonable pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution of the United States and the Bill
of Rights together form a brilliant and visionary system of principles and laws
that is strong, fair, flexible, and forward thinking. These documents
were far ahead of their time in terms of American society being able to fully
embrace the promises they made. In fact, it took almost 80 years, and a
Civil War, before black slaves were given equal rights under the law, with the
ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. And then it took
another 52 years after that, before women won the same right to vote as men,
with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. It took longer still before a
social security safety net was written into law, and greater civil rights were
given to women, and racial segregation was outlawed, and protections of the
environment were established.
The amendments to the U.S. Constitution embodied in
the Bill of Rights were intelligently designed to guarantee everyone equal
rights for two principal reasons:
First, to protect the majority of people from the unreasonable tyranny of
the minority in power. This gives recognition to the fact that most forms
of government do a poor job of protecting the rights of individual citizens,
particularly those without money and thus without a fair voice in
politics. This is especially true of
dictatorships and monarchies and aristocracies and plutocratic oligarchies. And,
Second, to protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the
majority. Fascist governments and theocracies have been especially
pathetic in respecting the rights of minorities.
The remarkable success of the United States has been
a product of its rich heritage of natural resources, its innovative spirit, its
open-mindedness, its system of checks and balances in democratic government,
and its progressive evolution of citizen rights and protections. We
should not now let “conservatism” turn back the clock on these commendable characteristics.
And we should not let increasing inequalities undermine the greater good -- or
create “terrifying” prospects of increasingly desperate need and Tough Love
jealous greed.
Chapter #92 – Liberty and
Justice for All.
Our national Pledge of Allegiance concludes with the
words, “one Nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and
Justice for all.” Republicans, led by Karl Rove, effectively gained
advantage in the 2000 election by using the divisive expediency of hot button
social issues and giving special advantages to the well-connected. When
Republicans gained the power of the presidency, they gave giant helpings of
liberty, justice and opportunity to wealthy people -- but meager rations to all
others. They used the name of God and
self-serving worldviews with incredible presumption and sadistic certitude and
villainous hypocrisy, and they didn’t really seem to give a damn about fairness
or true justice. At the same time, they tried to take away some of
people’s civil liberties in order to consolidate their power and control.
A significant measure of social justice in a society
can be found in the quality and equality of educational and job opportunities
that are given to its citizens. American society became less egalitarian
under George W. Bush as a result of political pandering to the already
privileged. This is the reason we need to establish more effective
institutions to advance the causes of fairness. Our goal should be to
encourage a maximum of personal freedoms for all people to pursue fulfillment,
without losing sight of the need to create a secure and wholesome structure of
reasonably just laws and institutions that maximize fairness for everyone.
The privilege-defending power elite have tried to
redefine “justice” to mean the meting out of harsh retribution -- not of
supporting equality or fairness. Most people would agree that the
Founding Fathers were a more progressive and visionary lot!
In recent decades, there has been a growing furor
against immigrants by many people. A
“send-the-Negroes-back-to-Africa” mentality has gained sway in conservative
circles, instead of ideas that are concerned with fairness, empathy, and such
plans as sharing the profits of productivity gains with the workers that help
produce them, or investing in the future with realistic goals of “lifting all
boats”, or helping Mexico and Central American nations achieve sustainable
development.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had
the immediate effect of flooding Mexico with subsidized U.S. agricultural products. This trade agreement displaced millions of farmers
in Mexico, and contributed to high unemployment there, and to the impetus for
farm workers to head north to seek work and help feed their families. Now North Americans, led by conservatives and
Tea Party true believers, are clamoring for something to be done about problems
associated with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants that live in the
States, and once again, conservatives want to address the symptoms of problems,
but not the causes.
Political leaders have the responsibility of
contributing to a healthier and fairer society. But those in power almost
always seek to create circumstances favorable to themselves and their
supporters, no matter how adverse the impacts of their actions may be to the
majority. Social conservatives and the Tea Party movement in America
generally strive to reverse social progress, and to erode the great forward
strides that have been achieved for groups like minorities, women and gay
people. We should rightly strive to
protect progressive gains, and to reject retrogressive reactions.
Chapter #93 – Progressive
Principles.
Since the ‘Reagan Revolution’ began in 1981, our
American economic and political systems have been fostering an increasingly
unfair and overly-generous favoritism of rich people and Big Business, and a
heartlessness toward the downtrodden. Americans have basically been
accepting the idea that short-term profits and special privileges are more
important than people or progressive advances or our heirs in future
generations.
Mark my words. We need to boldly fight
back. We should insist on progressive values and positive change.
The very future of hope lies in broad-mindedness, intelligent foresight and
wise planning. We need honesty and clear
understanding. We should strive for
mutual security, truer justice, peaceful conflict resolution, and more
empathetic social policies. We should
make our federal spending more fiscally responsible. Our activities must become more likely to be
sustainable. We should embrace
ecological sanity, empower local communities and commit ourselves to caring
about future generations.
New ways need to be found to restructure our
societies by investing in such things as better education, fairness of
opportunity, and public well-being. And above
all, we should take more responsibility for the stewardship of natural systems,
the conservation of resources, and the moderation of consumption.
Social programs should be made more progressive, not
more regressive. Discrimination should not be allowed in rules of law
related to women’s rights or the rights of gay people. It is a tragedy that conservative politicians
continue to aggressively exploit religious intolerance of gay people, even as
civil rights for gays have become more accepted in the mainstream of life in
America.
The Human Rights Commission reported in 2006 that
over 50% of the largest public companies in the U.S. offer health coverage to
domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees.
Only 15 years earlier, not a single Fortune 500 company offered such
benefits. More than 90% of Fortune 500
companies have anti-discrimination policies that protect gay people, and yet it
is still shamefully legal under state law in about half the states to fire
someone solely on the basis of their sexual orientation. Public attitudes are shifting, and laws must
be revised to keep up, as they have been for slavery, race discrimination,
interracial marriage, cohabitation of unmarried couples, and reproductive
choice.
Gay men and women are human beings, and
most of the ones I know personally are fine human beings. Religious dogmas that condemn them, or anyone
else, for their creed or the color of their skin or their sexual orientation
should be rejected. I know, I know, I
know: thinking about what gay men do
with each other during sex makes many people very uncomfortable. What do lesbians do with each other sexually? Ooh, la la!
That question is more provocative and titillating for most people,
evoking a more accepting curiosity.
That’s a fascinating and amusing aspect of human nature.
But no matter; none of these things is our business! Our great Constitution and the progressive
evolution of Amendments and laws since it was ratified have served to more
truly guarantee greater fairness to citizens, and we certainly should not
reverse course now and allow discrimination against people because of their
sexual orientation.
Our culture at large is adjusting to the
idea that families don't all look the same, and that private sexual morality is
not the business of the government. But
reactionary people who control the right-wing of our political parties and
churches decry promiscuity and adults living together out of wedlock, and divorce,
interracial relationships, homosexuality and gay marriage. They claim God tells them these things, but
honestly, they’re making this stuff up!
In reality, these social attitudes are merely a weak-willed inability to
control their backward beliefs and domineering impulses.
Astonishingly enough, it was illegal several decades ago in every
state for heterosexual lovers to live together without being
married. While such laws have been
revoked in most states, it is still illegal in 3 states: Florida, Michigan and Mississippi. Shame on these states for such laws! North Carolina had a 201 year-old ban on
cohabitation until 2006, but then the North Carolina State Superior Court
finally ruled it unconstitutional. Let’s
clamor for the last three states to change these atavistic laws!
Conservatives claim that they defend
people’s civil liberties, but when segments of society actually choose to live
freely, it scares them. This insight was
made clear in an hour-long documentary that is included in the DVD of the film Easy Rider. Peter Fonda, a producer and star of Easy Rider, expressed amazement in the
documentary that Easy Rider was
chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of
Congress as one of the best portrayals of American history in the 1960s. In the film, motorcycle riding freedom,
renegade spirit, long hair, improvisation, and marijuana smoking sparked
violent reactions by redneck Texans and bigoted Southerners who seem to love to
hate.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a
great civic organization, not a heretical association. Its mission is to preserve individual
protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, and to extend these rights to
segments of the population that have been traditionally denied fair rights. How people can oppose such ideas is beyond me!
Significant policy changes come about as
our worldviews shift with changing times. When reigning paradigms in our
societies provide rationalizations for actions and behaviors that are too
detrimental to honorable fairness to be allowed to continue, we need to
intelligently and sensibly change these policies. In summary, our mission
to be accomplished must be to create healthier and more secure societies
through broader education, balanced discipline, dedication to greater fairness
for all, sustainable development, reasonable environmental protections, and
committed peace-building.
Chapter #94 – The
Politicization of Science.
”Regardless
of different personal views about science, no credible understanding of the
natural world or our human existence … can ignore the basic insights of
theories as key as evolution, relativity, and quantum mechanics."
--- The Dalai Lama
Republicans abolished the Congressional Office of
Technology Assessment in 1994. This was a truly bizarre development. Think about this. Members of Congress make many decisions
about science and technology, even though few members of Congress have any
background in science. This elimination
of the independent organization that had been giving Congress competent advice
on science and technology meant that our representatives just didn’t want to
know the facts and inconvenient truths.
“Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a
way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of
human fallibility. If we are not able to
ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is
true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we are up for grabs for the
next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.”
--- Carl Sagan
In the last interview that Charlie Rose did with Carl Sagan, the noted
scientist said: “it’s not that
pseudoscience and superstition and fundamentalist zealotry are something
new. They've been with us for as long as
we've been human. But we live in an age
based upon science and technology with formidable technological powers.”
This is why it should have been disturbing when the
Republican-controlled Congress abolished its own Office of Technology
Assessment. This action reflected an absurd politicizing of
science that tends to disrupt communication channels between credible experts
and policy-makers. Evasions,
distortions, specious arguments and extremely biased ‘expert testimony’
represent a corruption of knowledge that is being used to manipulate
policy-making. Our system of democratic
governance is damaged as a result. Members of Congress and Congressional committees
should receive testimony from technical government employees without
censorship.
Our leaders have in many ways contributed to
ecological predicaments. It is undoubtedly becoming increasingly crucial
for us to mitigate risks associated with Peak Oil and global warming and
damages to the environment, yet right-leaning leaders have acted as
cheerleaders for special privileges of vested interests and the short-term
profitability of irresponsible corporations at the expense of the environment.
The Bush Administration consistently tried to hide
many truths. For instance, they spent
more than $1.5 billion to promote abstinence-only “sex education” programs,
even though such programs are ineffective because of the inaccurate and
distorted information they provide. The
Administration censored voices like those of the Surgeon General and people in
organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA. It even
forced people out of office who were trying to enforce environmental laws, like
Mary Gade, a top EPA administrator in the Midwest who was forced to resign in 2008
due to her efforts to get Dow Chemical to clean up dioxin pollution of the
Saginaw River and Lake Huron.
Accurate scientific understandings are crucial to
our future. Integrity is the foundation of a search for objective truth,
as embodied by the scientific method.
Yet many Republicans have effectively declared war on science. The
Bush Administration ignored scientific understandings and created misleading
spin about them, and ‘cherry-picked’ parts of such understandings. Mr.
Bush and his ideological heirs apparently prefer ideologically-driven
pseudoscience to legitimate scientific knowledge. The suppression and
misrepresentation of scientific findings is done to pander to special interests
like Big Oil, or in the case of Creationism, to pander to the religious right.
In 2006, George W. Bush stated that “… we need to set aside whether or
not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects
...” Wow! Let’s consider the facts. More than 30 billion barrels of oil are
burned annually around the planet, and billions of tons of coal. Every ton of fossil fuels that is burned
creates more than two tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Landfills and animal husbandry also generate
enormous quantities of methane and other greenhouse gases. There is NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER whether human
beings create greenhouse gases; even our
respiration is a process that uses oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide! D’oh!
Plants, on the other hand, absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen in
the photosynthetic process. Forests are
beautiful concentrations of trees that the Bush Administration stalwartly
strived to allow loggers to chop down; but forests are primary among the life forms
that act as beneficial ‘sinks’ for carbon dioxide, and thus help to offset part
of the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Clarity of public understanding is sometimes
obscured by minutia and too much information, and. sometimes understandings are
distorted by misrepresentations of facts, and by cultivated doubt about
scientific understandings. Giant corporations like ExxonMobil try to
deceive the public by spinning facts.
Politicians try to convince us that their economic and social doctrines
are absolutely right, even when there is extensive evidence to the
contrary. Advertisers promote their
products endlessly to increase consumption, market share and profits.
Economic drives are powerful, and they frequently are opposed to sensible conservation
of resources, and to public health, peaceful coexistence, moderation, wisdom,
ecological integrity, and fairer public policies.
The Bush years witnessed a disturbing increase in
the politicization of federal agencies.
Political operatives often advanced ideological initiatives rather than
supporting the charter purposes of the agencies for which they worked. Government agencies saw extensive partisan
campaign and electoral activities on federal government property during the
Bush reign, in violation of prohibitions of the 1939 Hatch Act. Let’s insist that all future presidents break
with all these wrong-headed trends!
Chapter #95 - The Dalai
Lama and Wholesome Values.
I personally feel fortunate to be young at heart,
and healthy in body and spirit. I am a sensitive soul, aware of the
potentially wonderful richness of experience and the beauties of Nature.
I hope all people share in this appreciation, because deep in our psyches there
is a profound connection of the human spirit with the natural world.
I am intrigued by the practice of yoga, though I am
not good at carving out the time for it.
Varieties of the ‘real’ traditional yoga have been practiced for
thousands of years on the Indian subcontinent, reputedly pointing the way
toward self-realization. Yoga
practitioners are supposedly better able to see past ego identification to a
consciousness more integrated with that of humanity and nature.
It is valuable to understand that people who have
fought to protect parks, open spaces, and public lands have often been close to
nature in their youth. As the world
becomes more urbanized and people tend to lose contact with nature, it might
prove difficult to continue to gain support for such important protections. One purpose of these writings is to evoke
transcendent ideas that inspire others to want to protect wild areas from
unthinking and unfeeling assaults.
The famous author Henry Miller once wrote: “I
believe! I believe! I believe because not to believe is to become
as lead, to lie prone and rigid, forever inert, to waste away …”. Well, thank god, I myself strongly
believe! My own belief is that better understandings are essential, and
that we can help make the world a better place by speaking out against
shortsighted actions and speaking up in support of social justice and
environmental protections.
The Dalai Lama is a great man, and a truly spiritual
person. He is cool, and wise, and down-to-earth. He does not adhere
to closed-minded dogmas. He helped write a book entitled The Art of Happiness, which had a
central contention that we can identify factors that lead to happiness, and
other factors that lead to suffering. Having become aware of these
things, he says: “with a certain inner
discipline, we can undergo a transformation of our attitude, our entire outlook
and approach to living”, and we can “gradually eliminate those factors which
lead to suffering, and cultivate those which lead to happiness.” … “That
is the way”, says the Dalia Lama, to achieve true happiness. And so it may be!
The
main psychological determinants of happiness are arguably non-material.
They include good family relationships, friendships, community
connectedness, meaningful work, the positivity of
affirmation and recognition, life-long education, leisure time
undertakings, creative and artistic pursuits, sharing meals together,
cultivating physical and mental health, enjoying good reading, participating in
sports, living simply, sharing intimacy, coexisting peacefully, following
spiritual practices, and appreciating nature.
Psychologists say that humans have a built-in
ethical sense, and that we all inherit a strong bias for kindness, compassion,
cooperation, love and nurture, especially toward those in need. Contrary impulses toward selfishness, anger,
jealousy, envy, rudeness, hostility, aggression and violence are made worse by
dysfunctional upbringings and increasing stress in our societies. To the extent that there are social means
whereby positive impulses can be encouraged and negative ones discouraged, we
would be well served to pursue these means and invest in healthier outcomes.
What the Dalai Lama has said about individual
happiness may provide us with good perspective on how we should be improving
the well-being of our societies. Most people fail to recognize that their
psychological and physical health are more important than money. If we look closely at what truly provides
satisfaction in our lives, we find out that what we need most is a more
wholesome approach to relationships and our possessions. Balanced
perspective can lead us to discover that material things can come to possess
us. And possessions can distract us from
healthier, happier, more just, more expansive, and more reasonably disciplined
ways of being.
The
average person struggles to achieve fulfillment and happiness and positive
purpose. Think about this struggle. Serious social problems abound,
and a growing segment in societies worldwide seems to be afflicted by mental
health problems, crime, poverty, violence, unemployment, homelessness, urban
slum conditions or gangs. Conflicts abound, and collective behaviors seem
to be increasingly pathological. People are becoming more defensive and
prone to anger. Could this be because materialism is hollow, and a lousy guide
in driving people’s behaviors?
Psychoanalyst
Erich Fromm's work culminated in his 1976 book, To Have or To Be. In it,
Fromm provides a provocative contrast between the impact of a modern consumer
culture built on a ‘having mode’ and a healthier society that is more oriented
toward a ‘being mode.’ In the ‘having
mode’, people are most strongly affected by acquisitiveness, greed,
possessiveness, aggression, deception, control impulses and alienation from
their authentic selves, and from others, and from the natural world. In the more joyful ‘being mode’, people are
more connected to others through the act of loving, sharing, discovering and
being authentic, and they are more aware of their inner selves and the
importance of their relationships with the natural world.
Erich
Fromm's penetrating social criticism highlighted the alienating effects of the
dominance of the ‘having mode’ in our societies, and the correlated increase in
mental depression. Today, feelings of
powerlessness and meaninglessness seem to be multiplying. A subtle type of social taboo against being
unhappy ironically makes it more challenging for people to cope. As a consequence, antidepressant medications
have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in our society.
In addition to economic causes, these conditions have
social causes. Political moderates in
the United States seem to be disappearing.
The well-being of people in the middle class and lower classes is being
eroded. Liberals have been taunted and
somewhat disenfranchised by social conservatives and religious anti-progressives. These attitudes ironically foster impulses
that are antithetical to the integrity and ethical responsibility of religious
traditions.
Here is a pertinent and important observation from
the Introduction to Common Sense Revival:
Extensive surveys
of public opinion have found that people are happier, as gauged by a wide range
of measures, when they earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year than when they make
less money. They are happier in
every category that affects the quality of life, including job satisfaction,
emotional sense of security, personal health, relationships, community
involvements, and spiritual life. In contrast, the same studies have found
that people who make more than $75,000 per year are NOT particularly happier
than those who earn this much. Research
on the “economics of happiness” reveals that, once people can easily afford the
basic necessities of life, money takes on a less central role in their
well-being. (And too much money, indeed,
can seriously mess one up!)
The key
understanding here is that, when prosperity is more widely shared, it results
in improved outcomes and security for all.
This is a powerful argument for resisting the corrupting influence of
high-income earners to abuse the power of their moneyed influence to get low
tax rates on the highest levels of their incomes. It turns out that public policies designed to
ensure a broader distribution of wealth dovetail nicely with another great
promise of democratic governance, which our Founders strived to create -- to
wit, that governments should be designed to achieve goals of preventing
despotic abuses of power and political influence by any one person or faction
of society.
Sing
Glory Be to God that we know how to make
our country much fairer, and thus happier and more secure! We just need to prevent giant corporations
and wealthy people from abusing the influence of their overweening power to rig
the system ever more distinctly to their narrow advantages.
Honesty, egalitarian policies, limited government, fiscal
discipline, and respect for others seem to have diminished in recent
years. Television and radio talk shows have become dominated by
argumentative right-wing personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,
Michael Savage and Glenn Beck. Decency and honest debate and civility in
public discourse seem to be disappearing.
Moderate factions in established religions have allowed their voices to
be drowned out by fundamentalist radicals like Pat Robertson and Osama bin
Laden. Well, bin Laden is dead now, but you get the point.
Well-being is arguably a function of living life in
healthy ways and cultivating good relationships, and eating nutritious foods
instead of junk food, and getting balanced exercise, and going for walks
outdoors. We should simultaneously find
ways to relax, to slow down and to wise up -- and to be conscious of our
impacts on the planet and its community of life. Let’s read more, watch documentary films,
educate ourselves, reuse, recycle, avoid littering, and simplify our plans occasionally
to reduce the amount of carbon-dioxide we produce and the size of our
ecological footprint. And if possible,
let’s make efforts to ensure greater humaneness and fairness in our
societies. Let’s be audacious, and
maintain attitudes that are hopeful and helpful, and begin to act in ways that
are more likely to achieve outcomes that match our highest aspirations.
Chapter #96 – True
Values.
Advertising on television and the radio, and in
newspapers and magazines, tends to indoctrinate us with false values. It
effectively enshrines the gods of materialism on the highest pedestal of our
imaginations. The message of advertising seems to be that happiness is
found above all in possessing things. Marketing subtly preaches that you
should not be happy with what you have, and that you should get all you can for
yourself, and that you should get it all as quickly as possible. It
champions shopping, variety, pleasure seeking, indulgence, luxury, and avoiding
boredom. Shopping and owning things have become central ways for us to
make ourselves feel “cool”, special, and more worthy.
Advertising has been described as “the manufacture
of discontent”. Its role in our
shopping-seduced consumer culture is causing us to fail to appreciate truer
values. We have supersized our meals, our houses and our automobiles, but
these “gains” have come at a high social and environmental cost, and they are
diminishing the true quality of our lives.
I have faith in the potentiality of people to develop richer lives without
at the same time impoverishing the planet and harming others.
Product promotion, changing fashions, planned obsolescence,
perceived obsolescence and the easy disposability of goods have negative effects
in causing resources to be wasted and conservation efforts to be
undermined. They do this by creating
increased demand for unnecessary products.
Advertising and the media generally do not
contribute to wholesome values. They help condition people to envy and to
be envied. They glamorize youth, and use
sex and celebrity to sell products. They
divert people’s attention from vitally important things by using sensationalism
in the news along with shallow distractions and preoccupations with scandal,
intrigue and violence. They obsess over
sports spectacles and the vaunted glory of victory and agony of defeat. A sinister side-effect of these influences is
to encourage winning at any cost.
Slick marketing contributes to making shopping a
ritual that is oriented toward ego satisfaction. But it also contributes to a loss of
awareness of positive values like healthy moderation, responsible thrift, genuine
connectedness, generosity of spirit, integrity of character, thoughtfulness,
and civic responsibility.
Another aspect of the gross
commercialization of our societies is the manipulation of children for
marketing purposes. Advertisers shrewdly
use the so-called Nag Factor to exploit the credulity and vulnerability of
children, and to manipulate them into nagging their parents to buy things. Especially harmful is the marketing of
unhealthy junk foods to children, including sugary cereals, candy, soda pop and
fast food. Fast-food chains spend
millions of dollars every week to promote toys that children will nag their
parents to get. This contributes to a national
epidemic of childhood obesity, diabetes and other health problems. Saturation marketing by the toy industry
additionally affects young minds by diminishing the imagination of children
through corporate tie-in toys that narrow play activities. These trends may effectively brainwash
children into being good consumers rather than being good citizens or virtuous
human beings.
Americans are becoming more susceptible to
depression, possibly associated with the “Have a Happy Day” syndrome. More than 20 million adults are prescribed
anti-depressive drugs today -- a full 10% of everyone from age 6 and up. Depression is a leading cause of disability
in the U.S., and an accompanying inability to sleep well further harms people’s
health, and may be a factor in outbursts of rudeness and rage.
Mild austerity can actually be a tonic for
the character, whereas wild riches often prove corrosive. (“There but for the grace of God go I.” ---
Ha!) The economic hard times of the
Depression in the 1930s and World War II forced people to ride bikes, plant
gardens, mend clothes, recycle, reuse, and spend more time in cooperative
endeavors with neighbors. It also helped
create many bonds of friendship. This is
a good reason to adopt attitudes of “Moderation in everything”!
The
conservative Pope Benedict XVI railed against “rampant materialism”. Worldly goods, money and power are
transitory, and ultimately not deeply fulfilling. The philosophic and influential Roman consul Boethius
made a similar argument in his book Consolation
of Philosophy, which was the most widely copied work of secular literature
in Europe for many centuries. Some sort
of treachery had reduced Boethius from a position of power and wealth to that
of a condemned prisoner in 524 CE. A
vision of Lady Philosophy came to him, embodying true wisdom and
compassion. Lady Philosophy provided consolation to Boethius, and he realized that
happiness comes from within. He
observed:
“Understanding of the self only arises in
relationship, in watching yourself in relationship to people, ideas, and
things; to trees, the earth, and the
world around you and within you.
Relationship is the mirror in which the self is revealed. Without self-knowledge there is no basis for
right thought and action.”
Let’s think and act ‘right’, and NOT in strict
accordance with materialistic urgings or conformity or laissez-faire right-wing
doctrines! Let’s boldly support positive
change!
Chapter #97 – Healthy
Societies.
“Be
careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.”
--- Mark Twain
People may disagree as to how to best achieve the
goal of creating healthy societies. On the one hand, some feel we should
pursue success through trust in laissez-faire capitalism, unregulated free
markets, the cutting of taxes, materialistic consumerism, economic stimulus
through deficit spending, generous subsidies for big corporations, an extremely
strong and aggressive military, sink-or-swim economic and political policies,
mercilessly harsh punishments for wrong-doing, repressive policies, unilateral
and uncompromising foreign policy, obedience to doctrine, the supremacy of father
figure authority, patriarchal strength, unyielding convictions and strict
discipline.
Others feel that safe and healthy societies can best
be achieved by emphasizing true fairness of opportunity, respect for others, understanding,
empathy and peace-building initiatives. These people tend to think we should
protect consumers, support reasonable workers’ rights, strive to make our
activities sustainable, prevent excessive pollution of the natural environment,
work together to build consensus, act with honesty and fiscal responsibility,
cooperate internationally, seek mutual trust, build healthier communities,
communicate better, moderate consumption, encourage responsible parenthood, allow
women fairer representation in business and government, and give a maximum of
civil liberties to people in a context of a minimum of obstacles for pursuing
happiness.
The healthiest communities are those that respect
traditional values yet are open-minded enough, and flexible enough, to adapt to
changing circumstances. Social health is the best where individuals are
respected and a strong sense of family and community is fostered.
Self-interest is one of the most powerful of human
motivations. But self-interest is NOT
identical to our own individual selfish interests. In the end, self-interest is inextricably
linked to the common good.
It would be salubrious for us to collectively
support the development of institutions and programs that help people cope when
they suffer terrible misfortunes or highly adverse circumstances in their
lives. Luck, in both inheritance and circumstance, plays a big role in every
person’s life. Since calamity and adversity can befall anyone at any time, it
behooves us to create a truly compassionate society in which a safety net is
provided for those who fall through the cracks. We cannot honorably allow
the poor, the disenfranchised, and the underprivileged to be neglected or taken
advantage of when they are down. After
all, no one knows who the next person will be to fall through the cracks!
This is another reason why it makes good sense for
us to seek our best and fairest understandings for a saner and healthier
society.
The late George Carlin once wrote:
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we
buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger
houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more
knowledge but less judgment, more experts yet more problems, more medicine
but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too
little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read
too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and
hate too often. We've learned how to
make a living, but not a life. We've
added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble
crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better
things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our
prejudice. We write more, but learn
less. We plan more, but accomplish
less. We've learned to rush, but not to
wait. We build more computers to
hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but
we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men
and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but
more divorce, fancier houses but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable
diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and
pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.”
Carlin recommended love, kindness, hugs,
forgiveness, listening, sharing, and cherishing the moment. Yes!
But is this enough? Shall we not
somehow contribute to a movement that revolutionarily alters our economic,
social and political institutions in order to re-orient our values in more
salubrious and meaningful directions?
Give me a hug!
Chapter #98 – Beliefs,
Convictions, and Philosophies.
Beliefs provide human beings with powerful
motivations. They have been the impulse behind some of the greatest of
humanity’s ideas, architecture, literature, poems, paintings, sculptures, music
and other creative accomplishments. Beliefs ground us, sustain us,
inspire us, and give us purpose and meaning in our lives.
But beliefs can
also be severe limitations. They can render us intolerant and
closed-minded to the richness of possibility and true understanding.
Stubborn convictions and supremacist faith have been a contributing cause of
some of the worst persecutions and villainies of all time by facilitating harsh
discrimination, repression, violence, genocide, pogroms, torture, wars, the
burning of women at the stake, and countless other terrible atrocities
throughout history.
Faith
is susceptible to unyielding denial of realistic understandings. It is not amenable at times to course
corrections that would be in the best interests of society. Faith in erroneous beliefs and wrong ideas
can be quite dangerous. As an example, faith in the notorious cult leader Jim
Jones resulted in the suicide/murder of more than 900 people in Jonestown,
Guyana in 1978. Beliefs detached from reason have today become
foolishly partisan, divisive, confused and conflicted, so they threaten the
well-being of millions of people.
Most people, curiously, do not live by any
particular philosophy. As John Fowles wrote,
“At most there are occasions when we act more or less in accordance with
some philosophy with which we approve. Much more than we let philosophies
guide our lives, we allow obsessions to drive them; and there is no doubt which
has been the great driving obsession of the last one hundred and fifty
years. It is money.” …
“Having, not being, governs our time.”
John Steinbeck was thinking similarly when he wrote
the following words about a character in his novel Sweet Thursday: “It was Fauna's conviction, born out of long
experience, that most people, one, did not know what they wanted; two,
did not know how to go about getting it; and three, didn't know when they
had it."
There are profound complexities in the world, and a
wide diversity of opinions. But diversity should be a source of strength,
and we should not allow our societies to be devastated by intolerance,
divisive discrimination, deceptive propaganda, distorted perspectives, half
truths, greedy compulsions, stimulated materialism, maliciousness, or
self-righteous drives for dominance. We should reject fundamentalism and
war-mongering, and seek radically clearer understandings.
Mysteries abound in the universe. Uncertainties persist, and they always
will. The truth is elusive. One might wonder why so many people believe
in supernatural miracles, preposterous superstitions, absurd literal
interpretations of religious myths, paranoid delusions, anthropocentric
projections, astrology, UFOs, numerology, urban legends, old wives tales, and
all manner of dogmas. My guess is that
many beliefs arise from fear, indoctrination, insecurity, errors in perception,
and ignorance. As an instance, despite
common sense appearances, primitive beliefs are now known to be erroneous that
contended the Earth is flat, and that the Sun revolves around the Earth, and
that the Universe was created by a divine being who made us humans in His own
image.
Investigate another question in your
mind: Why are people so susceptible to
believing in conspiracy theories? My
guess is that we have a deep-seated emotional need to try to make sense of
terrible national traumas like the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, or
the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, or the 9/11 attacks. We often seek the solace of simple
explanations in the wake of traumatic events.
The “official story” is rarely the whole
truth, and the truth is often stranger than fiction. Many people have suspected the possibility
that Franklin D. Roosevelt knew in advance about the impending Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor, and that he choose to ignore the danger in order to involve
our nation in World War II. Many wonder
about various motives that may have existed to assassinate President John F.
Kennedy, and whether a conspiracy was behind it. And the whole story that surrounds the Bush
Administration’s ignoring of gathering threats of terrorist attacks on the U.S.
in the months before 9/11 is strangely suspicious.
There are many 9/11 mysteries. Why did the Bush Administration studiously ignore the
threats of al Qaeda terrorists from the time it assumed power in January 2001
until September 11th? Why did officials
refuse to meet with counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who was becoming
increasingly concerned about intelligence information that warned of a
potential for attacks by Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization? Why
did the Bush Administration incuriously ignore the CIA Presidential Daily Brief
of August 6, 2001 that was, after all, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”? This CIA briefing mentioned the possibility
of airplanes being hijacked; it stated
that “FBI information … indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent
with preparations for hijackings.” Could we have ignored
these threats in order to justify the invasion of countries in the oil-rich
Middle East?
Was intentional demolition involved in the
collapse of Building 7 of the World Trade Center site? This 47-story building fell into its own
footprint, exactly like it would have done in a controlled demolition, even
though no airplane had hit it. Building 7 collapsed a full seven hours after
the two 110-story towers had fallen.
Uncanny! It is bizarre to
contemplate even a possibility that any of our leaders would be capable of
acting in ways that are so horribly villainous and harmful to the safety of
American citizens. Such suspicions are
partially a reflection of a lack of trust in our public officials due to our
feelings -- and knowledge -- that they have so often deceived us in the
past.
The 9/11 attacks provide cause for suspicion
because of a strong motive: the Neoconservative manifesto, the 1997 “Project for the New American Century”, advocated large
increases in military spending despite the end of the Cold War. This document noted wistfully that it would
unfortunately be politically infeasible to achieve the goals of the doctrine
(“may not be fashionable today”) unless and until a new calamity took place similar to the “catastrophic and catalyzing
event -- like a new Pearl Harbor.” The
9/11 attacks were as powerful a pretext for war as the Pearl Harbor attack by
Japan that took place on December 7, 1941.
The modern enemy, however, is much more nebulous. Even an amateur detective knows that considerations
of motives and means and opportunities are important in determining the prime
suspects in a crime! “Follow the money!”
Chapter #99 – Good
Fortune and Generosity of Being.
Let’s
wise up! Apropos of nothing, here’s the
perspective of W.C. Fields:
“A man’s gotta believe in something, and I
believe I’ll have another drink!”
As a congenial Midwesterner, I love life and
nurturing relationships. I love
enthusiastic socializing, engaging conversations, respectful interactions, and
fulfilling rapport. I love compelling
music and satisfying food, and pleasing beverages, and good books, and
philosophical understandings, and imaginative creativity, and spiritual
expansiveness.
I have had marvelously good fortune in my
life. Good fortune, it seems to me, should naturally be a cause for being
generous in spirit and demonstrating friendship and empathy towards
others. It should inspire us to act with greater humanitarian caring, and
make us more open to supporting social fairness. It should make us strongly
supportive of people and institutions that help provide for those who are less
fortunate, or in desperate need.
Good fortune and wealth should lead us toward
expansive attitudes and a greater sense of civic responsibility. It should not be a self-congratulatory
springboard into greater selfishness, stinginess, jealous ill will,
intolerance, rigidity, hate, or more aggressive efforts to take advantage of
others. Fair opportunities to lead decent lives should be encouraged in
our society. ‘Jawboning’ does not work
well in politics, and it might be naïve to suppose that words can influence and
modify human nature. But Baron Edward
George Bulwer-Lytton once said that “the pen is mightier than the sword”, and
on the off chance that he was correct, I will continue with hopefulness to set
forth my understandings!
Wealth can be earned from hard work or ingenuity or talent or creative
pursuits. It can also be accumulated as
a consequence of some other admirable behavior like smart investing or good
timing in risk-taking or thrifty resolve.
Wealth can come from inheritances or other fortuitous
circumstances. Riches can also be gained
through dishonesty, predatory conduct toward others, political cronyism, or the
unfair exploitation of people, systems or resources. Whatever the source of wealth, it should be
used in ways that are at least minimally responsible to society. Rich people should be required to contribute
more to the greater good. Incentives and
regulations should be maintained that at least ensure that adverse
environmental impacts of activities are offset.
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth
living.” Philosophers debate about this,
but it’s my strong feeling that good understanding is enriched by knowledge and
awareness, and that the worth of our lives is enhanced by being better
informed. Lifelong learning is a good
thing for personal growth. Wise words
were contained in the ancient Temple of Apollo at Delphi -- Remember that its
two perceptive engraved maxims indicated that it is a good idea to “Know
Thyself” and to practice the desirable condition of doing or consuming “Nothing
in Excess.” Let us imagine a better
world together -- “It’s easy if you try”, as John Lennon sang. And let’s
strive to help create this better world!
Chapter #100 – Personal
Universal Point of View.
Here is a clear frame of reference of my personal
cosmological beliefs. All of our sense
perceptions are received deep in the mysterious interstices of our brains, and
our interpretations of experiences percolate up in our thoughts and emotions
from the subconscious into our conscious awareness. Our synapses fire to record observations and
sensations, but what can we really know?
Bumper sticker wisdom cautions us not to believe everything we
think.
The Universe is a marvelous place. It is characterized by matter and light
energetically hurtling through space.
Physics professor James Trefil once expressed the opinion that matter in
solar systems and galaxies might be nothing more than a lower energy state of a
previously more energetic universe. In
this theory, nothingness is the
highest state of energy, and once the energy wound down through the dissipating
tendency for ‘entropy’ to increase, a point was reached in which all matter
burst forth into the cosmos, with a Big Bang.
Energy, after all, is equivalent to matter, according to the most famous
equation of all time, E = MC squared (Energy = Mass times the Speed of Light
squared). Why, pray tell (one might wonder), would Albert Einstein have been right
to declare that matter and energy in the physical universe are equivalent to
each other -- and related by a factor equal to 186,000 miles per second
SQUARED? Whatever!
The Universe has an unfathomably long history and an
incomprehensibly infinite scope. It consists of many billions of
galaxies, each containing many billions of stars. We call the closest
star the Sun. It has four rocky terrestrial inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. It has four ‘gas giants’ further out: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. The planets of our solar system, in turn,
have 158 identified moons that orbit around them. Beyond the planets lies
an enormous zone known as the Kuiper Belt that has dwarf planets like Pluto and
many other icy objects. Far beyond that
is a collection of matter that is wonderfully named the Oort Cloud. Orbiting around just our Sun alone, in other
words, is a vast array of planets, asteroids, comets and other matter.
Cool!
When we look at the night sky we essentially see in
every moment a snapshot of an entire tapestry of the history of the
Universe. Light arriving at every
instant comes from trillions of different sources. Each and every extraterrestrial source of
light has a point of origin that is a different distance from the Earth. Given that it takes time for light to travel
across space, we are basically seeing each and every star at a different time
in the history of the Universe.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so the
distances across the Universe are incomprehensibly vast. When we see the Moon in its orbit around the
Earth, we see light reflected from the moon’s surface that left the Sun, 93
million miles distant, just over 8 minutes ago.
Light arriving from the closest star to our solar system left its source
about 4 years ago. The most distant
light the human race has yet detected, using the most sensitive optical
instruments ever invented, emanated from its source almost 14 billion years
ago. Peering into the night sky, we see
mute testament to the all but eternal continuity of the Universe’s physical
reality. It’s like we are seeing
an elaborate timeline written across the heavens. Supernovas may long ago have
destroyed millions of the stars we see, but the light travels for years or
millennia or eons before it reaches us, so such events will not become visible
until the light emitted during that event arrives.
One can find a
corroborating echo of this illuminating insight related to the continuity of
passing time and the arrival in the here and now of speeding light from
trillions of sources. This is seen every
place in the natural world: overlapping
generations of all terrestrial life forms provide a confirmation of an
uninterrupted continuity of living things on our home planet. Majestic specimens
of tall redwoods, and ancient gnarled bristlecone pines, and fecund varieties
of animal life all provide mute testimony to this simple certainty in the
continuity of the passage of time.
Continuous change occurs in every instant, and it takes place at every
level from the microscopic to the macrocosmic.
The fact that
continuous change takes place in the context of apparently unchanging physical
laws throughout the Universe provokes awe and thoughtful introspection. Here is a reason that humankind has always
marveled at the seemingly miraculous nature of existence; here is why our most ancient religious and
spiritual traditions ascribe a biocentric, indeed an anthropocentric,
intentionality to the Universe. An
intelligent and all-powerful being simply must have created everything,
right? Right? Right?
Could there be any other explanation?
Scientists, of
course, have found sophisticated explanations for the physical evolution of the
universe, ones that are far more compelling than all the simplistic and naïve
creation myths put together that mankind has ever conjured up in his vivid
imagination.
The biologist J.B.S. Haldane once wrote: “The
universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can
suppose.” One of the queerest things about
the universe is that almost every galaxy seems to be moving away from the Milky
Way. The further a galaxy is from the
Milky Way, the faster it is moving away.
One might wonder if there is something special about our place in the
universe that makes us a center of cosmic repulsion! Ha!
“LOL.”
But,
no. Astrophysicists tell us this fact is
merely evidence of an expanding Universe.
The distance between all galaxies in the universe is getting bigger as
time passes, similar to how the distance increases between any two points on a
balloon being inflated as the balloon gets larger. An observer in ANY galaxy, not
just our own, would see all other galaxies traveling away. What a concept!
Stretch
your mind around this. If you imagine a
creation that began with a Big Bang in one central place, with all matter
flinging away from it ever since, for almost 14 billion years, you might expect
galaxies in our vicinity to be going in roughly the same direction and at
similar speeds. It was the famous
astronomer Edwin Hubble, a Missouri native, who changed our view of the
Universe. In 1929 Hubble showed that
galaxies are moving away from us with a speed proportional to their
distance. He discovered this by
measuring the ‘Doppler shift of their light.’
Just as the sound of an approaching vehicle with a siren blaring is
higher pitched as it approaches us and then becomes lower as it passes, so the
light from a galaxy receding away from us appears to have a lower frequency,
and thus appears redder. Our ears can
hear the change of pitch of the siren in this example, but our eyes cannot
detect this tiny red-shift of the light.
A sensitive spectrograph, however, enabled the clever Edwin Hubble to
determine the red-shift of light from distant galaxies, and it was this that
proved the Universe is expanding.
“Simple!”
The
‘Big Bang’, incidentally was a pejorative term used to describe this scientific
creation theory when it first began to be articulated. Many people are prone to apply pejoratives to
new ideas. In this case, the evocative
term stuck as scientists developed the theory with more elaborate studies and
speculations and discoveries. However,
this beginning cannot really be thought of accurately as a loud ‘bang’, because
it began in a ‘singularity’ before space existed, and sound cannot travel
through an airless vacuum. What
‘banged’? Why did it ‘bang’? These are things we will never know.
Science, in any case, proves that the Universe had
been in energetic existence for more than nine billion years before our solar
system formed. Every molecule on Earth
was forged in stars far away in space, and in time. Every atom in our bodies is literally
stardust.
Billions of years have passed since our planet
formed. Billions more will come before
our Sun finally burns out. These
realizations, together with modern understandings of geology and physics and
astronomy, and extensive evidence of biological evolution, provide us with
factual proof that the Universe is unfathomably ancient. It is not young as the Bible and other
holy books are said to reveal.
Understandings like this should give religious
leaders cause to reform their founding Creation myths. Mystery is a powerful and potent motivating
force, but it should be cultivated for positive and meaningful purposes, rather
than for suppressive and ignorance-embracing purposes, or even worse, for
divisive, destructive or conflict-fomenting purposes.
The
laws of nature apparently do not change.
One of the unchanging laws of nature is that change is continuous. Subatomic particles and atoms and molecules
are all in constant motion; this is why
gases, when heated, create greater pressure in a sealed container. At the cosmic end of the spectrum, all
planets and solar systems and galaxies are in continuous motion. For instance, the Earth makes a 575 million
mile orbit around the Sun every year.
Thus we are traveling at more than 65,000 miles per hour relative to the
Sun. Our spiral galaxy meanwhile whirls
around a galactic center-of-gravity at an estimated speed ten times as fast as
our orbital speed around the Sun. And
the Milky Way galaxy, relative to other galaxies in our ‘Local Group’, is
traveling at an even higher rate of speed.
It is amazing, really. It’s no
wonder that we cling to simplistic explanations and beliefs; it is just so nearly impossible to fathom the
ineffably extensive compass of the whole shebang!
A
telescopic study of stars reveals that beyond the Local Group of galaxies,
there is a vast extent of empty space before we find the next clump of
galaxies, the Virgo Cluster. So much can
be known, or studied, or pondered! It’s
marvelous. For example, consider the
photograph that was voted the best picture ever taken by the Hubble Space
telescope. It is a photo of the
so-called Sombrero Galaxy. This galaxy
is estimated to be 50,000 light years across and to contain 800 billion
stars. It looks like an ethereally
illuminated cosmic Frisbee. Google the
photo of this Sombrero Galaxy, and contemplate it. As you look at this beautiful photo, think
about whether it is plausible to believe that evolutionary change has NOT taken
place in the physical universe over countless eons of time.
To
understand the natural world, it helps to understand the nature of change. Make no mistake about it: time slips slowly, but surely, past. Change and motion are continuous, and they
are effectively eternal and infinite. Change generally takes place in
imperceptible and gentle increments, like a breeze ruffling tall grasses on a
languid Spring afternoon. But sometimes
change takes place with sudden and dramatic exclamation, like a bolt of
lightening sundering a sultry sky full of fleeting cumulus clouds. To doubt that change is a cumulative
evolutionary lapse of the old into the new is to deny the most basic of
observable understandings. And to
suppose that evolutionary change is guided is to make a mistake
of misunderstanding the nature of randomness and cause-and-effect in galactic,
geological, and biological change.
The
fact that continuous geophysical change has been occurring throughout eons of
geologic time is revealed by the science of geology. This is the study of the physical reality of
the Earth. The most profound insight of
geology is this: we exist at a moment in time that is only an
infinitesimal portion of an incomprehensibly long saga of the planet’s
existence. During the formation of our
solar system, the Earth and other planets and their moons were formed by a
process of material conglobulation caused by gravitational attraction. Check out the Moon’s pock-marked surface
through a telescope, and you can imagine how huge masses of materials came
together in no doubt pretty fascinating impacts. Since Earth’s formative years, the planet has
been continuously bombarded by an on-going barrage of ‘shooting star’
accumulations of cosmic materials, with occasional ‘punctuated equilibrium’
occurrences in which larger meteorites streak through the atmosphere and strike
Earth’s surface.
Marvelous geological processes have been occurring
throughout Earth’s long history.
Tectonic plate movements of the planet’s crust have caused continents to
move around imperceptibly. New ocean
crust has continuously formed at ‘spreading centers’. Sedimentary and metamorphic rocks have
formed; volcanic activity has taken place; mountain building, erosion,
weathering and glaciations have occurred.
Our understandings of plate tectonics and the causes of volcanoes and
earthquakes are relatively new -- but the processes they comprehend have been
taking place for millions of millennia.
Constant forces and processes act in
accordance with natural laws of cause and effect. Forces that cause the uplift of mountains are
opposed by countervailing forces of erosion that wear them down. While mountains appear to be permanent from a
perspective of the span of a single human lifetime, it is clear that landscapes
change with the passage of time. Rivers
and glaciers move in response to the pull of gravity, and they combine with
wind, chemical actions, and freezing and thawing to erode entire mountain
ranges to mere remnants once they are no longer being uplifted. Places like Yosemite Valley and Zion Canyon
and the ancient ‘Cedar Mesa’ sandstone formations of Natural Bridges National
Monument provide mute but beautiful and awe-inspiring testament to such forces.
Geophysical changes in the Earth’s crust
that occur in dramatic spurts are much more obvious to us than
continuous gradual ones, and we witness these forces with awe. Floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic
eruptions, landslides, rock falls, hurricanes and tornadoes shock us with their
enormous impersonal power. Scientists
characterize this natural aspect of the physical evolution of our home planet as
a “punctuated equilibrium”. This simply means that in addition to barely perceptible
continuous change, extraordinary geophysical events occasionally take
place. Superstitious folks say these
startling events are the result of angry gods who are forsaking or punishing
people for various sins; but these are
just such ridiculously absurd explanations!
The science of geology tells us that
earthquakes are sudden ruptures that take place when tension is released in the
Earth’s crust. Stresses build up as
tectonic plates collide in exceedingly slow motion with other plates, or move
past them. Rather than having a
well-lubricated motion, friction causes the plates to get stuck until they
finally snap in energy-releasing earthquake shocks. People in California wonder when there will
be another “Big One” along the San Andreas Fault like there was in 1906, when
the Pacific Plate jolted more than 15 feet northward. This fault zone roughly defines the border
between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and the Pacific Plate
is moving an average of about two inches a year to the north, relative to the
North American Plate.
Californians wonder if, and when, there
will be another Big One. They can rest
assured, however, not only that one will inevitably occur somewhat soon, but in
fact there will be more than 100,000 ‘Big Ones’ in the next 15 million
years. The beautiful Point Reyes
peninsula that lies north of San Francisco will become an island in less than a
million years, and the area where Los Angeles is now, on the Pacific Plate, will
move to be eventually north of San Francisco, which is on the western edge of
the North American Plate, within 15 million years. Unimaginable?
Check out the science!
Chapter #101 – The
Evolution of Life.
“The
sun’s energy, stored by plants, keeps us alive moment by moment, heartbeat by
heartbeat,
thought by thought. Our bodies are stardust; our lives are
sunlight.”
--- Oliver Morton, Eating the Sun, How Plants Power the Planet
Just
as the geological evolution of Earth has taken place in a kind of punctuated
equilibrium, so has biological evolution.
There is extensive and
awe-engendering evidence that life has been evolving for billions of years on
Earth. In addition to the compelling fossil evidence of millions of
extinct species and the DNA evidence of relatedness in molecular biology within
each living organism, it is apparent that right now all existing forms of life
are nearly perfectly adapted to current climatic, soil and atmospheric
conditions. The processes of adaptation
to changing conditions through mutation and natural selection are occurring
right now. This is most distinctly apparent
in prolific organisms such as microbes, viruses and insects.
As organisms reproduce, mutations can occur
during the replication of genes. These are genetic alterations that are
generally disadvantageous, but they can sometimes be favorable for the organism
by allowing it to adapt to changes in physical conditions, competition,
predation or climate. Much more rapid
spurts of change also take place, as during selective survival during mass
extinction events.
Scientists have discovered that, before
more complex organisms evolved, life existed on Earth for about 3 billion years
in the form of single-celled organisms.
Fossil evidence shows us that a relatively sudden proliferation of life
forms took place about 540 million years ago.
During a relatively short span of time during this ‘Cambrian explosion’,
almost all of the taxonomic phyla of zoological life forms that exist today
came into existence. This was the
beginning of the so-called Paleozoic (ancient life) Era. One author cites extensive and convincing
evidence that the genesis of this rapid change was selective pressure exerted
on all marine animal species by the evolution of primitive forms of vision
in various marine organisms. Oh, those
dastardly trilobites!
“History is my religion, and it starts in
Africa.” Long before the cradles of
civilization flourished in the river valleys of the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris
and Euphrates in present-day Iraq, and the Yellow River in China, humanity
evolved from ancestors who radiated out from Africa. It is ironic today that humanity’s problems
seem to be about the worst anywhere on the great continent of Africa.
Consider
the fact that mankind has been domesticating animals for around twelve thousand
years. We have bred dogs from wild
wolves, and the dogs are generally docile and loyal and enthusiastic. We have bred cows, pigs, goats and sheep that
grow bigger and fatter faster. We have been
actively selecting plants for millennia by means of seed selection, cross
pollination, and transplantation. We
have cultivated vegetables, grains and fruits that are more productive or
nutritious or sweet. We have created big showy flowers that are more beautiful
to us -- irises, tulips, roses and others that are like bodybuilders on
steroids. In recent years, scientists
have even deciphered the genetic code of life in DNA, and learned to alter
plants and animals directly by splicing genes from one life form into the cells
of another, thereby modifying their genetic character.
Humankind
has been artificially changing the inherited characteristics of plants and
animals through selective breeding for many millennia. We rely on fossil fuels for energy that were
formed from plants that lived many millions of years ago and exist today as
fossil relics of ancient eras.
Nonetheless, practically inexplicably, some people manage to accept
dogmatic belief systems that deny this awe-inspiring awareness of biological
evolution over long spans of geologic time.
In fact, an estimated 40% of Americans indicate that they DO NOT believe
in evolution. Really?
Evolution
is a scientific fact. The scientific
theory of evolution explains overwhelmingly extensive evidence. The story of life’s evolution is one of both continuity and
change, a history that runs coherently through many hundreds of millions of
years. Fossil evidence reveals this, as
exposed in the billion-years-old strata ‘layer cake’ of time that can be seen
in the rock layers of ‘the world’s greatest geological gash’, the Grand
Canyon. Erosion of the Colorado Plateau
has revealed an extraordinarily beautiful sequence of layers of mudstone,
siltstone, sandstone, limestone and petrified sand dunes that have been formed
over the eons, particularly in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. This rock has been uplifted and carved into
colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, hoodoos, breaks, sills, dykes, slot canyons,
natural arches and stone bridges. I
highly recommend checking out these extraordinary areas by visiting and
appreciating the beautiful National Parks and public lands of southern Utah,
western Colorado and northern Arizona.
(Find a way to make your travels in a carbon-neutral way, offsetting
your emissions!)
The exact nature of biological evolution is
hard to fully fathom because we have difficulty in grasping the incredible span
of time involved in the process. “At least three million known species
of living things run, hop, creep, slither, skitter, flitter, flap, flop, swim,
or entwine their roots in seemingly infinitely varied habitats from mountain
top to ocean deep -- and they are only one percent of all the species that have
ever lived.” (This quote comes from the
1982 book, Thread of Life: The Smithsonian
Looks at Evolution, by Roger Lewin.)
Imagining the evolution of life is not much
more difficult than conceiving of the geophysical evolution of sedimentary rock
and mountain ranges. Think about Mt.
Everest. Some of the visible stripes
that are exposed on its awe-inspiring face are made up of marine
limestone. Yes, it is solid rock that
was formed by the biological precipitation of marine creatures with
calcium-carbonate shells onto the bottom of the Indian Ocean over the eons. These
materials were subsequently compressed and lithified into rock. Then, as the
subcontinent of India began to crumple into Tibet as the Indo-Australian
tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate, beginning about 50 million
years ago, the sub-seafloor rock was driven skyward, earthquake by earthquake,
eventually creating the highest mountains on Earth in the immense Himalaya
Range. An earthquake in the mountains of
Pakistan in October 2005 killed 70,000 people;
it was just one in a very, very, very long string of such events that
has occurred as these mountains were uplifted.
The idea of descent from common ancestors follows
naturally from our knowledge that all animals come from parents, who came from
previous parents, who came from their predecessors in an uninterrupted line of
descent that can be traced far back along the tree of life into the murky
recesses of evolutionary history. All
multi-celled organisms ever in existence (the earliest ones date to about 540
million years ago) are descended from single-celled organisms that had existed
for 3 billion years before natural selection figured out a way to proliferate
in complexity and specialization.
Check out the insights into evolution contained in
Richard Dawkins’ book, The Ancestor’s
Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. Many quite provocative insights into
evolutionary process are contained in this book, and Dawkins has immeasurably
improved on the archaic Genesis story and the genealogies of the “there were
giants in the earth in those days” fables of the Bible. Dawkins’ approach traces our ancestors back
to the beginning of time, using modern evidence provided by fossils and DNA evidence,
as they are interpreted through the scientific disciplines of genetics and
molecular biology. The Earth Manifesto
story Tall Tales, Provocative Parables,
Luminous Clarity, and Evocative Truths: A Modern Log from the Sea of Cortez provides
further perspective on Dawkins’ compelling ideas.
The disciplines of molecular biology and molecular
genetics have established correlations of the relatedness between species that
chart how long ago in evolutionary history any two species shared common
genetic ancestry, as measured by the degree of similarities of their DNA. Organisms are classified on the tree of life
accordingly. Homo sapiens (genus, species),
for instance, are classified in the family of Hominidae in the order of
Primates in the class Mammalia in the phylum of Chordata in the subphylum of
Vertebrata in the kingdom Anamalia.
We’re animals, folks!
Evolution has culminated, from our anthropocentric
point of view, in our species at the apex of the Animal Kingdom at this
particular point in time. To more
accurately understanding evolution is to see that there are many millions of
‘interim ends’ in existence today in the form of all currently surviving
species of life. We humans are unique
among all species of life ever in existence on Earth because of our ability to
contemplate insights like these about the Universe, and to imagine the past,
and to create probable scenarios about the future. As to whether we are the veritable crown of
Creation, that is questionable, and the chance of us being its very purpose are
vanishingly slight!
Science is strengthened by being flexible and
self-correcting because it utilizes observation and reliably repeated
experimentation, so it evolves by degrees toward explanations of the mysteries
of nature that are increasingly accurate.
All other doctrines and dogmas, in contrast to science, suffer from
being much more inflexible and rigid.
They provide explanations that can become outmoded in the bright light
of better understandings of evidence, and thus foolhardy to cling to.
We should be careful to note that science can be
manipulated by political, economic and social ideologies, and that scientific
discoveries can be used for harmful purposes as well as helpful ones. Just as dogmatic understandings should become
more flexible, science should be tempered with ethical considerations and
broadmindedness in perspective.
Ideological conceptions need to be open to modification when, and if, a
better interpretation of evidence arises.
“This is not rocket science!”
The process of evolution should not be
confused with Creationist dogmas.
Creationism is neither a logical scientific theory nor a plausible
explanation of reality. It is
torturously codified superstition and moral code. To imagine that hurricanes, earthquakes and
tsunamis are punishments by God, for instance, is laughably absurd. These are natural events that we regard as disasters
when they cause us harm.
Diseases
too are the result of natural processes, not a vindictive God. Diseases are caused by microorganisms
like bacteria, fungi, viruses, or protozoan parasites. We combat many diseases with antibiotic
drugs that kill or inhibit the growth of such microorganisms. Since these microorganisms replicate at a
much faster rate than larger and more complex life forms, they adapt more
quickly and can develop resistance to antibiotics. This biological capability will present humanity
and our medical experts with big challenges in the future, whether we sensibly
believe in evolution or insensibly choose to deny it.
More of us, incidentally, seem to be in
harm’s way these days. As our population
increases from 7 billion to 9 billion in the next 30 years, this problem will
get worse, and simultaneously our failure to take effective steps to mitigate
climate change is certain to make conditions worse like floods, droughts,
hurricanes, tornados, wildfires and losses of agricultural topsoil.
We
would be well advised to be extremely skeptical about ideological arguments
promoted by climate change deniers.
Don’t believe anything that political advertising claims if it is funded
by pollution apologists and low wage advocates like the billionaire Koch
brothers and their ilk who want to socialize many costs onto society.
On
the other hand, the Skeptical
Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg provides convincing perspective in the film Cool It that we should intelligently and
practically prioritize our efforts to moderate emissions, invest in greener
energy technologies, and adapt to changing climate conditions.
Our human perceptions and beliefs struggle to
imagine the full context of our existence.
We try to fathom the uninterrupted span of evolution through which our
species, and all others currently alive, have miraculously survived through an
eons-long succession of challenges and closing doors. Our minds are
scarcely capable of such expansive understandings, so we tend to cling to primitive
explanations and simplistic myths and parochial beliefs and emotionally
provocative or satisfying stories. We vaguely adhere to dogmas that
embody our hopes and our deepest fears. Most people today seem to really
believe that there is an all-powerful God who curiously has anthropomorphic and
father-like characteristics, and who is capable of intervening in our
unknowable destinies.
The tidy genealogy set forth in the Bible implies a
creation by God that was followed by fewer than 300 generations of descendents
from Adam and Eve to the present day.
Scientists now know that there have been more than 10,000 generations of
human beings stretching back to ancient prehistory, and millions of generations
before that of previous ancestor species in a never-interrupted line of descent
from progenitor species and earlier ancestral species back along the
evolutionary tree of life. It seems to
me to be a funny kind of failure of the imagination to cling to Biblical
literalism as being the whole and true story of life. The genealogies of Genesis make a wondrous
tale, but they pale in comparison to the much more elaborate, profound and
awe-inspiring facts of the matter.
Again, check out Richard Dawkins’ compelling book about this subject, The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the
Dawn of Evolution.
Anyway, what is, is.
There is some truth in all religions, but there is no absolute
truth; this is why we should foster acceptance for the beliefs of others,
rather than goading others with intolerance.
The best hope for humanity is that our intelligence and our reasoning
abilities give us potential advantages over the millions of other forms of life
that have become extinct over the long sweep of geological history. We
are able to think, and to learn. We are theoretically capable of great
flexibility. We can choose to adapt. Our
adaptive abilities have allowed us to construct shelters, make clothing, grow
food, raise animals, and use “technology” to improve our ability to survive and
prosper. And we can transmit our
knowledge to people in the future. This
gives us the capability, to a certain extent, to shape our own destinies.
Since we are animals at the top of the food chain,
we are vulnerable to damages to the biological support systems upon which we
rely. Our marvelous reproductive success is threatening to overwhelm the
natural world and undermine the foundations of our survival. If we insist on multiplying like rabbits, we
risk dying like rabbits in accordance with the impersonal certainties of cause
and effect.
Science ironically gives us an enhanced ability to
save ourselves at the same time that it provides an ever-growing panoply of
techniques and capabilities for destroying ourselves. The race is
on! Our aggregate impacts on basic life
support systems are rapidly approaching dangerous overload. The carrying
capacity of the Earth seems unlikely to prove adequate to support the 10
billion people that will otherwise inhabit the planet in the next 50 years or
so. We really do need to more clearly
and widely understand the Population
Connection to future well-being.
In our myopic human hubris, we continue to fight our
daily skirmishes and our wars, yet we are failing to see the forest for the
trees. We make shopping, entertainment,
diversion and pleasure our raisons d’etre,
and overlook the fact that to prosper as a species we must choose to radically
transform the ways we collectively act.
We are in a kind of denial of the fact that we are essentially altering
the ability of the planet to support us. It is foolish not to take action
to preserve wildlife habitats, seek smart energy solutions, conserve fossil
fuels, use resources in sustainable ways, protect wetlands, reduce greenhouse
gas emissions into the atmosphere, invest in a greener future, and safeguard
the planet’s biodiversity. It is madness
for “conservatives” to oppose contraception and other safe birth control
methods that would help us control population growth. (I know: yada, yada, yada!)
Our fate is in our own hands to a large extent; no other species has ever had such potential
control. If we want our species to
survive another century, another millennium, another 10 thousand years, another
100 thousand years, or a million years -- mere blips in geological time -- we
need to begin working together, rather than ruthlessly competing and
aggressively conflicting. Intelligent long-term-oriented policy-making and
progressive ideas simply must gain ascendancy over shortsighted reactionary
conservatism, money-obsessed triumphalism, and short-term oriented ideologies.
Chapter #102 – Ecological
Revolution.
Ecological understandings herald a new age of great
truths. Ecology tells us that everything is interconnected and interdependent,
and ecological wisdom recognizes that continuing to give economic and social
policies more importance than ecological principles is an irrationality beyond
mistakenness, a kind of psychopathological madness.
Ecological insights reveal the folly of sawing off
limbs of the tree of life upon which we depend. The destruction of the
healthy balance of nature simply must be prevented -- for our own sakes.
This is why our leaders should be prevented from pandering so exclusively to rich
people, giant corporations and religious fundamentalists. Avarice,
gluttony, lust, jealousy, pride, vanity, orthodoxy, stubbornness and arrogance
can no longer be allowed to damage the vital basics of life.
There are many circumstances in life over which we
have little control. So we try to make
the best of whatever comes our way. Our attitudes are important because
our collective destiny is one best chosen with a positive attitude and keen
awareness. Let us honor the idea that we
should “Make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes.”
Vigilance and awareness can help us clearly
recognize that all of us have individual responsibilities. Better choices need to be made by thinking
individuals, citizens, employees, business owners, leaders, followers,
communities, and all of humanity.
Together, using clarity of faith and reason as
guides, we can achieve a far-reaching Ecological Revolution. Let’s roll!
Chapter #103 – Only Reason
Can Save Us.
"The
further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems
to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of
life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after
rational knowledge."
--- Albert Einstein
Every individual seeks sources of purpose,
inspiration, identification and validation in their lives. By seeing
deeper into our souls, we can find healthier outlets for our energies.
Let us listen more closely to our reason, our intuition, and our
consciences.
The Bible says that in the beginning God
created “the heaven” and the earth, and night and day. It says that ‘He’ judged the whole shebang to
be good. He put Adam and Eve in a garden
of paradise and innocence, saying “thou shalt not eat” from “the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil”. Surely God
knew that he had made human beings naturally curious and easily tempted, and
often with little will power and poor discipline, and ‘He’ must have known that
forbidden fruit is the most tantalizing and enticing kind! Nonetheless, ‘He’ prohibited Adam and Eve
from tasting the fruit of this one tree.
Attention: the religious moral
code is about to materialize, in all its sublapsarian splendor.
A talking serpent then cajoled the first woman
into eating the fruit of this tree, and the serpent was condemned and the woman
was blamed, and God was so angered that He cursed all future generations of
mankind to pay for this ‘original sin’ with hardship, suffering, maternal pain
in childbirth, and death. Females were
thereafter relegated to roles that were subservient to male authority. God offered only a slight hope of redemption,
and this glimmer of hope for salvation was only for those who believed,
hook-line-and-sinker, in this whole story.
This is how humankind happened to gain the
“Moral Sense”, and the knowledge of good and evil, and how to do bad things,
and to have sex, according to Mark Twain in Letters
from the Earth. “The Church still
prizes the Moral Sense as man’s noblest asset today, although the Church knows
God had a distinctly poor opinion of it and did what he could in his clumsy way
to keep his happy Children of the Garden from acquiring it.” LOL!
This early example of infinite injustice in
the Garden of Eden was augmented by images of a prophet of mercy nailed to a
cross for our sins. This primitive myth
has certainly endured, and profoundly affected civilization, as we strut and
fret our hour upon the stage. Jesus was
actually nailed to the cross for his revolutionary challenges to Roman
authority and the Temple priesthood in the Holy Land, not for anyone else’s
sins, so it is interesting to see how a story can get contorted into all manner
of manipulative interpretations as time goes by.
“It ain't those parts of the Bible that I
can't understand that bother me, it is the parts
that I do understand.”
--- Mark Twain
One has to chuckle ruefully to realize how
good that old Garden of Eden story is, to have set up a sublapsarian narrative
of good, evil and sin so that religious authorities can condemn bad behaviors,
and believers can avoid damnation and get forgiveness and seek salvation and
redemption. This is how established
religions gain the power to suppress sexual expression, and succeed at
dominating the faithful and commanding obedience. This is their moralizing master plan. This is how they get people to embrace blind
beliefs in biblical certitudes! (And to
give money to their churches or mosques or synagogues.)
Entertaining comedian Bill Maher says, I
would like people who think more like me to understand that it is okay to stand
up and say, “We're not the crazy ones. The crazy ones are the people with
the talking snake." Downright Religulous!
Vivid imagery has evocative and persuasive
power. This is one reason that
independent films like those shown in numerous film festivals around the world
can provide such profoundly valuable insights into important issues, and into
other cultures and alternative points of view and the human condition.
Images of death, it should be noted, have
particularly deep psychological impacts on us.
Almost everyone fears his or her own demise and the pain and indignities
likely to be involved between now and then.
Images of death such as a bloodied Christ on a cross serve to terrify
us, and yet oddly to reassure us at the same time in a sort of shared-fate
belonging kind of way. Such
representations of death help us identify with those whose beliefs are in
accord with our own. They can also serve
to encourage people to support churches, and give money, and make other
sacrifices in their lives in order to be saved.
Hmmm …
I
say, let us have faith in more wholesome things! Let us honor civilized virtues like moderation,
generosity, integrity, peace, mindfulness of others, kindness, friendship,
humility, prudence, patience, love, and sympathy without prejudice. Let us resist the temptations of vices like
hostile jealousy, bitter envy, over-indulgent gluttony, greedy avarice,
self-glorifying vanity, uncontrolled anger, immoderate indulgence, and arrogant
selfishness. And let us restructure our
economies and societies in ways that encourage such virtues -- and discourage
such vices.
Without behavioral constraints, mankind is lost in a
world without a good compass. Without
financial limitations, people consume extravagantly and profligately. When we
fail to understand that it is beneficial to conserve, we are motivated to
consume wastefully. Without knowledge,
people ignorantly accept indoctrination and are easily manipulated. Without healthy role models and authentic
values, people are adrift in a sea without moorings.
There is an old parable that became a religious joke
about reason and faith. It goes like this:
It had been raining for days and days, and a terrible flood came over the
land. The waters rose so high that one
man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house. As the waters rose higher and higher, a man
in a rowboat appeared, and told him to get in.
“No,” replied the man on the roof. “I have faith in the Lord; the
Lord will save me.” So the man in the rowboat went away. The man on
the roof prayed for God to save him.
The waters rose higher and higher, and suddenly a speedboat appeared.
“Climb in!” shouted a man in the boat. “No,” replied the man on the
roof. “I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me.” So the man
in the speedboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save
him.
The waters continued to rise. A helicopter appeared and over the
loudspeaker, the pilot announced he would lower a rope to the man on the
roof. “No,” replied the man on the roof.
“I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me.” So the
helicopter went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.
The waters rose higher and higher, and eventually they rose so high that
the man on the roof was swept away, and alas, he drowned. Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched
straight over to God. “Heavenly Father,” he said, “I had faith in you, I
prayed to you to save me, and yet you did nothing. Why?” God gave
him a puzzled look, and replied “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what
more did you expect?”
The moral of the story? No matter how fervent
our wishful thinking, and no matter how hopeful our prayers, it is our ability
to reason that will save us; NOT blind
faith. As the astronomer and philosopher Galileo Galilei stated:
“I do not feel obligated to believe that the same god who has endowed us
with sense, reason,
and intellect has intended us
to forego their use.”
In actual modern day experience, God does not
miraculously intervene in the physical world.
No, in reality, it is human activities that directly affect each and
every one of us. Here is where we must make committed strides to creating
a fairer, safer and saner world. No deity will save us; we need to act to save ourselves by putting
our trust and energies into more intelligent and likely auspicious
undertakings.
Chapter #104 – The
Importance of a Positive Attitude.
Imagine a better world. It's easy if you
try. Hope, confidence, optimism, positive dreams, faith and nobility of
intention provide a healthy starting point. Positive attitudes can help
us achieve important objectives. If we apply our awareness, ingenuity,
imagination, creativity, enthusiasm, and spiritual caring, we are more likely
to solve the challenges facing the human race in more salubrious ways.
Wishful thinking alone, however, is
inadequate. Critical thinking, freethinking, clear and smart reasoning,
and fair-mindedness are crucial to a propitious future.
Natural impulses profoundly affect aggregate human
behaviors. Drives for security,
belonging and sexual prowess help define our senses of meaning and
self-importance. John Fowles notes in The Aristos:
“We are all psychological dwarfs, and we have the complexes and
psychological traits characteristic of dwarfs:
feelings of inferiority, with compensatory cunning and malice.” Yikes!
Psychologists say that people seek personal senses
of security either by conforming or by conflicting. We all want to be regarded as “somebody”, or
to create some sort of lasting legacy.
People conform by striving to obtain the status symbols that society
defines as successful. For instance,
many people consume conspicuously (Bling!), or obsess over money, or seek
identity in uniforms of belonging.
Alternatively, to gain attention or a sense of
self-importance, many people choose to conflict. They find meaning in striving to be unique,
to embrace countercultural ideals, to oppose the conventional, to be cool or
‘bad’, to seek liberation, to escape or expand their horizons by altering their
consciousness, or to indulge in the allures of the forbidden.
When we understand the psychological motivations
that underlie our actions, we can be clearer in our dedication to more noble
causes and things that really matter.
The restructuring of our societies to give people more wholesome
purposes and potentialities would be advantageous. It could help create better communities, and
motivate us to give greater respect to the biotic well-being of life on Earth.
The fundamental
underpinnings of our collective attitudes imply that it will take a
revolutionary sea change in our understandings and behaviors to make the world
more mutually secure. The U.S. should
find ways to transcend its righteous superpower mentality. We should inoculate ourselves against the
misguided influences of corporate domination, and of manipulative
demagoguery. We need to find socially
beneficial ways of overcoming our collective psychological insecurities. John Fowles says that we are all in a sense
like “cunning ‘dwarfs”, manifesting feelings of insecurity, inadequacy and
anger. These emotions sometimes drive us
to act with compensatory attitudes of superiority or malice.
Chapter #105 – Women of
the World, Unite!
Writer Anais Nin once observed:
“There were always, in me, two women at least, one woman desperate and
bewildered, who felt
she was drowning, and another who only wanted
to bring beauty, grace and aliveness to people.”
I advocate figuratively tossing a life vest to women
in need, and to helping the most vulnerable people in our societies, especially
including children. Psychologist John
Bowlby heartily agreed with this sentiment.
Americans are lucky to live in a culture that allows
a relative freedom of expression. Good for us! I aim to continue to
take advantage of this freedom, and focus here on issues crucial to
females. One of the loveliest female
characters in all of literature is Jorge Amado’s Gabriela. Readers get to
know her in the great novel Gabriela,
Clove and Cinnamon. Gabriela is simple, affectionate, free-spirited,
tenderhearted and happy, and she has a beautiful soul and loves to go
barefoot. I implore beautiful Gabriela
to be my Muse for this chapter, because I need all the help possible to
untangle the mysteries of feminine virtues.
Women have progressed far beyond the stage that men
can expect them to remain barefoot and pregnant and subservient. Sure,
men like to see us in high heels and diaphanous blouses and slit skirts.
Hey, they are even fun to wear, if you are fortunate enough to look good in
them! But there is more to life than fleeting sexiness. We women
are people who have rights, too. We are not, after all, living in a
modern day Animal Farm of George
Orwell’s imagination where “All animals are equal, but some animals are more
equal than others.”
Wait! Actually, the sad truth is that some
animals ARE treated much, much “more equal” than others in America. But this current extreme degree of inequality
cannot be allowed to persist, and we sure shouldn’t let wealth continue to be
inexorably concentrated in the hands of the few while tighter austerity
measures are imposed on the masses.
Thomas Piketty tells us that this course of action risks “terrible
consequences”. It will eventually be
proven to have been best to mitigate such risk with social insurance policies
that make our societies fairer.
Our Constitution and the Golden Rule, and a true
realization of the fairness principles at the heart of our democracy, deny
official sanction to extreme forms of unfairness to females in our country.
Mark Twain in his Notebook in 1895 wrote these
words:
“We easily perceive that the peoples furthest from civilization are the
ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart -- and we consider
this one of the signs of savagery. But we are so stupid that we can’t see
that we thus plainly admit that no civilization can be perfect until exact
equality between man and woman is included.”
Chapter #106 – A Call for
the Education and Empowerment of Women.
Men and women do
a fascinating ‘dance of selves in relationship’. Someone once observed that men play at love
for sex, and women play at sex for love.
Some curious behavioral truisms are revealed in this generalization!
An age-old
struggle takes place between males, who are jealously protective of their
prerogatives and power, and females, who seek respect and fair rights and their
own kind of emotional power over men. This struggle is sometimes characterized
by inequities, sex discrimination, repression, resentment, hypocrisy,
psychological abuse, hostility and even physical abuse and violence. Part
of the male predicament of our time is that gender roles have undergone
significant changes since the 1950s, and this has created a great amount of
anxiety and insecurity among men. I am
certainly not entering virgin territory in suggesting that male supremacy and
cowboy-mentality rhetoric and quests for male heroes and saviors are all
symbolic of male traditionalism. So are
stories of fantastic rescues of females in peril or captivity.
Intense struggles are taking place in the
world today over the growing need for fairer and more enlightened roles of men
and women in relationship. From a feminist perspective, American society
is far too discriminatory, empathy-deficient, violence-prone,
testosterone-filled, and obsessed with the “sins” of others. Our culture
is unfairly influenced by evangelical religious fundamentalism, which is about
power and control rather than true spiritual feelings.
Good God! Such things as the Global Gag Rule
are contrary to the best interests of hundreds of millions of women. So are an ever-so-long litany of patriarchal
dominion gambits, sexual harassment, social program cuts, and political
appointments of uncompromising conservatives and ideologically-driven
operatives. Thank goodness that we currently have a somewhat progressive
Democrat as President, for he still inspires hope for positive change and
fair-mindedness! His speech in December 2013
about inequality and declining social mobility was a sensational one that may
be highly regarded in history.
I feel strongly that the single most important
initiative that should be undertaken worldwide to improve human societies would
be to support programs that educate and empower girls and women. Much
poverty, inequity and suffering is caused by the stratification of gender roles
and many forms of discrimination against females.
Microcredit and microinsurance programs for microenterprises
have been shown to be one of the fastest ways to improve the welfare of women
and children among the 3 billion people around the world who subsist on less
than $2 a day. The American people
should support such programs, like the Village Banking Campaign of the
Foundation for International Community Assistance organization.
It is this simple: women should have equal rights to
men. Sex discrimination should be minimized. Women should earn the same amount of pay as
men for comparable jobs. This is the face of fairness.
Chapter #107 – Proactive
Initiatives for Women.
One good way to create more equality in our
societies would be by establishing an international school lunch program.
George McGovern and Bob Dole advocated such a program for years. Free
school lunches would encourage school attendance, enhance lives and improve
opportunities through education, and simultaneously reduce hunger and
poverty. Such a program would also help
create goodwill for those who generously finance it, which should be the
relatively rich Western countries.
Since girls represent two-thirds of the 100 million
children who do not attend school worldwide, this program would be an effective
and beneficial way of helping educate and empower girls and women. This,
in turn, would provide many families with better opportunities, and this
initiative would be eminently fair, since it would make a big contribution to
gender equality, social empathy, healthier societies, and even reproductive
responsibility.
As an aside, it is downright dumb policy to condemn
sex workers and refuse to help them. The
world’s oldest profession could use some forward-thinking attitudes that would
help protect women from violence and disease, and provide assistance in finding
females in these desperate circumstances better opportunities in life.
Chapter #108 –
Preventative Medicine.
Dr.
Andrew Weil wrote in Spontaneous Healing
about the role our minds play in health and illness. He says, “At every level of biological
organization, from DNA up, mechanisms of self-diagnosis, self-repair, and
regeneration exist in us, always ready to become active when the need
arises.” Optimum health is achieved by
providing the best conditions for these innate mechanisms to operate. These conditions include good nutrition,
moderate consumption, physical exercise, reduced stress, positivity of
attitude, and a healthy connectedness to friends, family, community and nature.
The
medical establishment is too preoccupied with drugs, antibiotics and
surgery. It largely ignores the role
that good nutrition, positive attitudes, and reduced stress play in wellness
and good health. Yet some illnesses are
psychosomatic (literally, “mind/body”).
Many afflictions are caused or made worse by stress, partially due to the
negative effects that stress has on our immune systems. Hope, fortitude and positive thinking can
have measurably positive impacts on our health.
Negative thoughts and mental depression have unhealthy effects, and are
statistically correlated to less favorable outcomes after surgery or trauma.
Antidepressant
drugs work by acting on neurotransmitters in our bodies. This is how they regulate people’s moods and
treat conditions like bipolar disorder.
Singer and songwriter Stevie Nicks relates a sad story about the terrible
side effects of Valium-like drugs that a psychiatrist prescribed for her to
fight her addiction to cocaine in the mid-1980s. “You can detox off heroin in 12 days,” she
points out. “Cocaine is just a mental
addiction detox. But tranquilizers --
they are really dangerous!” She was
given the tranquilizer Klonopin, which she says led to six very hard years in
her life. She finally ended up in the
hospital for 47 days to detox from this drug.
It is bizarre that anti-anxiety drugs can create such dreadful effects
and severe, long-lasting cognitive impairments.
The over reliance on such prescription drugs is truly something to cause
anxiety!! (On the other hand,
hyper-promoted drug taking is very positive for Big Pharma profits.)
Dr. Burton Goldberg, “the Voice of Alternative
Medicine”, once said we need more holistic guidance to provide us with powerful
alternative approaches to wellness.
Boosting the immune system, for instance, helps fight infections and
afflictions and maybe even diseases like cancer. Dr. Goldberg has written 18 books about
effective alternative ways to combat addiction, depression, anxiety, stress and
afflictions like heart disease and alcoholism.
He wrote: “Dopamine D2 is a
chemical messenger that stimulates the brain’s reward circuits. Increasing the level of dopamine D2 may
protect people from developing alcoholism.”
It turns out that children of alcoholics have a heightened vulnerability
to becoming alcoholic, due to emotional and environmental factors as well as
chemical ones. Higher levels of
inherited dopamine receptors in the brain may make it harder for alcoholics to
cope. From my personal point of view,
it’s sad that people become alcoholics because this prevents them from enjoying
the social pleasure that a moderate use of wine, beer or an occasional cocktail
can provide.
In healthcare matters, disease prevention is
preferable to a later need for medical treatment. It is also less expensive than waiting for health
problems to develop and then treating the symptoms. For instance,
hundreds of thousands of people die every year from lung cancer, but many of
them would avoid getting lung cancer altogether if they understood and heeded
the risks and causative impacts of inhaling cigarette smoke. Proactive
initiatives are smarter than reactive ones.
This is instructive. We see that desires,
compulsions, stresses and addictions can lead to negative health outcomes. Prevention is a far better strategy than
waiting until drugs or surgery are needed.
In a similar way, prevention of pregnancy is a much better strategy than
forcing women to deal with the emotional turmoil of choosing to have an
abortion, or with the negative consequences of having unwanted children, or of
having children when they are unable to take care of them.
One of the goals of society should be to reduce
unintended pregnancies through sex education and expanded services for women’s
health and family planning. Thanks to such programs, the average woman in
Mexico today is having an average of fewer than 3 children, compared to a
generation or two ago when the average was 7 children. Abstinence-only ‘education’ in the U.S. has
been proven to be a dishonest, ineffective and inadequate way to prevent
unintended pregnancies.
All women should have access to basic healthcare and
affordable birth control measures. The
use of contraceptives is an important means of preventing unwanted pregnancies
and sexually transmitted diseases. As Melinda Gates stated at the 16th
International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006, “Some people believe that condoms encourage sexual
activity, so they want to make them less available. But withholding condoms does not mean fewer
people have sex; it means fewer people
have safe sex, and more people die.”
Healthcare plans should provide coverage for
contraceptives, because of the fact that they help prevent both unwanted
pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.
It is unconscionable for health care plans to cover drugs like Viagra,
which effectively encourage unwanted pregnancies, but not provide coverage for
contraceptives and emergency contraception.
The suppression of birth-control practices is, in
one regard, a puritanical attempt to repress private sexuality, no matter how
it affects people’s lives. Are social conservatives just inalterably
opposed to sex on the off chance that it will be pleasurable, tantalizing or
promiscuous? Exactly WHY are they so
interested in controlling the sex lives of others? Don’t tell me God is a prude!
Sexually-transmitted
diseases (STDs) have become an unprecedented problem in epidemic proportions
among American teenagers. A study by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 26% of adolescent girls
have some type of STD. Twenty-six
percent! This is alarming and
pathetic! We need effective prevention
strategies and smarter public health priorities. We cannot go back to the Bush-era days of
head-in-the-sand abstinence-only sex education and opposition to
contraception. It is sad to abandon our
teenage daughters to the ideological convictions of social conservatives!
Appeals
to logic, ethical fairness, science and reason do not influence the masses as
much as blood-and-guts emotionality.
Anti-choice activists rabidly oppose abortions, but many of them also
oppose measures that would help prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs. Many of them oppose the use of condoms and
birth-control pills for teens and others.
This bias is insane as a basis for social policy!
A
late-term abortion of a fetus has been given a lurid terminology of
“partial-birth abortion”. This procedure
involves a fetus that is on the margin of viability, usually weighing less than
one pound. The decision to have an
abortion at this late stage is uncommon and extremely complex and difficult,
often involving a threat to the mother’s life or a recognition that the fetus
has serious medical deficiencies. To
frame this procedure as ‘partial-birth abortion’ is to judge and stigmatize
it. The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly opposes a legislative ban on such
procedures, noting that “the intervention of legislative bodies into medical
decision-making is inappropriate, ill-advised and dangerous.” The government should get out of our bedrooms
and doctor’s offices, and leave reproductive and medical decisions to the
women, men, families and physicians involved!
Chapter #109 – Sex is
Natural.
“Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual
intercourse, yet he has left it out
of his heaven.”
--- Mark
Twain
Sex. Sex!! Let’s be frank and honest:
sexual drives are natural. They are among the most powerful of all
biological urges. Sexual intercourse can be a beautiful act of passion,
intimacy, communication, rapport, mutual pleasure, love and respect. A
healthy sexuality is one that is not repressed, one that is not perverse or
severely inhibited. It can even be
characterized by a wide variety of enjoyable sexual fantasies. Ooh la la!
“Putting
more women into orbit in a week than NASA has in a lifetime.”
-- Advertisement for the “Pocket Rocket”, a Toys in Babeland ‘mini massager’
The sex act should not be morally regarded as having
only a reproductive function. Sex, according to enlightened Tantric
texts, has 3 distinct and separate purposes:
procreation, pleasure and liberation.
Western Tantra practices involve sex as a means of highly respectful
communication and affirmation, and even ecstasy and cosmic consciousness. There is a profound value to honoring our
bodies in spiritually uplifting ways.
Tantra offers people in Western societies an avenue to approach
attitudes about sex in less conflicted or repressive ways.
A national policy of “Just Say No” to sex, as
reflected in the controlling hubris of the abstinence-only agenda, is
counterproductive and ineffective. It is
ridiculous as a broad-brush strategy of dealing with this powerful drive. Contraceptive methods have moved beyond the
rhythm method, folks -- and it is ethically wrong to try to prevent women from
using contraceptives to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases
and unwanted pregnancies.
All kinds of contraceptives should be made freely
available to women worldwide, as well as “morning-after” Plan B emergency
contraception. Emergency contraception in the form of Plan B is a good
way to choose to prevent pregnancy. There are many reasons that a woman
might want to choose Plan B. For instance, when a woman is raped by a man
(outrageous!), or when a woman is seduced under the influence of intoxicants or
other forms of heavy persuasion; or when a woman chooses to have sex with
a man that she definitely doesn’t want to have a child with. Prudes
decamp: Plan B should be available to
any woman who wants it!
And as a final resort, women should be guaranteed
the right to have access to a safe, legal abortion. The decision to have
an abortion is traumatic and generally involves considerably consternation, so
our social institutions should be supportive of women who make this hard choice.
The Supreme Court, newly packed with conservatives --
John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- chose to criminalize late-term abortions in a
decision in April 2007. Little
consideration was given for the health of the mother, or for any prerogative
that she might deserve to have to make personal choices in her life. This was an appalling development. It was no doubt greeted with triumphant approval
by those who strongly believe that God cares more about fetuses than women
already alive, and by those who are complacent with the patriarchal domination
of women by men in our societies. But it
is wrong-headed policy. Perhaps Dee Dee
Myers’ book, Why Women Should Rule the
World, could help provide the impetus for our society to move beyond the domineering
control impulses of social conservatives!
The world does not need unwanted children, and women
should not be forced to reproduce if they do not want to. If men were the ones who got pregnant,
abortion would be regarded as a sacred right, rather than a sin, one can be
sure!
Chapter #110 –
Perspective on Abortion.
There are more than 40 million abortions worldwide
every year. This number could be significantly reduced with a broadminded
three-fold approach: (1) by supporting healthy sex education programs and
making contraceptives more widely available and creating more effective
programs to prevent teen pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies of all
kinds. (2) by investing in good women’s health clinics around the world,
and (3) by expanding opportunities and education for women and improving
childhood mortality survival statistics. Such initiatives should be generously
supported.
The war over abortion rights and the consequences of
anti-choice activities cost billions of dollars a year. Millions of
unwanted pregnancies occur annually, with costly consequences for women and for
our societies, and ultimately for the environment. Social conservatives
should not be allowed to undermine the health and safety of women. Private, personal decisions about women’s
health care and reproductive choices should be made by the women involved and
their families and doctors -- NOT BY POLITICIANS.
We are basically involved in a costly and highly
divisive religious war over the question of whether we should force unwilling
pregnant women into motherhood. Shall we honor every pregnant woman’s
rights, needs, desires and choices? Shall we prohibit them from having the
option to choose NOT to become a mother? Simply put, a ceasefire should
be agreed to in the war against abortion. We have a multitude of more
pressing problems. We cannot afford to divert so much attention, energy,
time and resources into efforts to force women to bear unwanted children.
Religious fundamentalism and evangelical moralizing
are the primary forces opposing a woman’s freedom to choose whether or not to
keep a fertilized embryo, however conceived, until it becomes a viable
fetus. Women should not be treated as subordinate beings; their sole purpose is not to be subservient
to men’s desires and authority.
The rate of teen pregnancy in the United States was
higher than the rate in 80 other countries of the world during the Bush years.
Nice going, abstinence-only folks! We would be wise to take fair and
smart measures to further reduce unwanted teen pregnancies -- measures that are
courageous and enlightened rather than ineffective and puritanical.
A
global study in October 2007 concluded that “abortion rates are similar in
countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that
outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it." While rates of abortion are about the same in
countries worldwide, the safety of the procedure varies widely. The study found that “abortion was a very
safe procedure for women in countries where it is legal, but extremely
dangerous for women in countries where it is outlawed and performed
underground." Yikes!! Those who oppose abortions essentially
support risky, unforgiving, harsh, controlling and punitive treatment of women
who become pregnant, no matter what the circumstances. Damnation!
The government should not interfere with a woman’s
right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. Judges should not be approved
for life-long terms on the Supreme Court if they are ideological extremists who
oppose the fair-minded precedent of the Roe vs. Wade decision. Likewise,
the influence of tax-exempt churches and religious fundamentalist brethren who
oppose the freedom of women to control their own bodies and their destinies
should not be given powerful influence in national decision-making.
Chapter #111 –
Absurdities of Inflexible Religious Dogma.
Almost all the holy books and sacred scriptures of
the world’s major religions were written by men between 1,400 BCE and 700 CE.
In other words, they were written long ago, when our cultures and challenges
were much different. Such doctrinal writings are being interpreted today
by religious establishments that are distinctly biased toward conservative male
supremacist worldviews. Organized religions seem to be almost invariably
patriarchal, male-dominated, anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic.
Pope Benedict XVI was chosen in April 2005 by fewer
than 120 people -- all of them old men (Catholic cardinals). Prior to
becoming Pope his name was Joseph Ratzinger and his position in the Church was to
defend doctrine “by putting the smackdown on heresy”. Heresy is an
opinion that differs from established religious dogma, which could alternately
be seen as a healthy perspective from the standpoint of honest debate and the needs
for better understandings.
Cardinal Ratzinger had been the head of the Church’s
conservative ‘Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’. This office began centuries ago as the
so-called Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition. Yes, the same
Inquisition whose authorities were responsible for the terrible crime of
burning thousands of women at the stake!
The horrible Inquisition represents a terribly tragic, extremely cruel,
and drastically inglorious episode in world history.
Some official Vatican doctrines are simply too
antiquated for the modern world. The Catholic Church basically forbids
many women to have children who WANT to bear them but are not able to, by
officially opposing artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization and
surrogate motherhood. And it makes
having children mandatory for many who are able to conceive, but DON’T WANT to,
by telling women that the use of contraceptives and the practice of abortion
are against God’s will.
WHAT?!!! Read that paragraph again, and think about
it. This is ridiculous -- surely God is
not so illogical and cold-hearted!! He loves us, doesn’t ‘He’?
This is a political control issue. Women should be given greater power in this
stodgy old church. As
Mark Twain pointed out, “The church is
always trying to get other people to reform;
it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of
example.” Good call, Samuel Clemens!
What’s
next? Will the Church declare sperm and eggs
sacrosanct and proclaim that ejaculation and ovulation are immoral means of
destroying potential human lives? Will
the Religious Right contend that God will smite men who sinfully indulge in
masturbation because it leads to the futile discharge of valiant sperm? Will they advocate abstinence education to
prevent that activity? Will Texas
reinstitute its laws against the sale of vibrators? The ‘shadow’ wants to know!
The Catholic Church must evolve to show more concern
for fairness, goodwill and human rights.
Pope Francis is surprising people worldwide with some of his fairer
perspectives, and I call on him to lead the Church to a saner set of evolving
doctrines. Christian churches should
honestly help people in nations around the globe to cope more sensibly with
economic, social and environmental ills.
They must shift their energies more boldly into making the world a
better place, and devote less energies to controlling society and defending
authoritarian hierarchy. Churches should
not be so inflexible, and they should not perpetuate prejudices that sometimes
result in violence. They must refrain
from adhering to women-oppressing doctrines and biases that say God regards gay
people as abominations.
During a trip that Pope Benedict XVI made to Latin
America in May 2007, he ignited a firestorm of criticism by declaring that the
“evangelization” of the New World during the colonial era did not represent
“the imposition of a foreign culture” upon indigenous peoples. What revisionism! What insensitivity! This evangelization was accompanied by a ruthless
conquest that systematically and heartlessly exploited indigenous peoples and
destroyed many native cultures. Great
treasures were stolen, and millions of people were massacred or enslaved, or
died from introduced diseases.
Many of the expeditions of the Age of
Exploration in the new world were accompanied by priests who were eager to
“explain hell to the savages”, according to one of the “quaint chroniclers of
the time”. Thanks for the memories,
guys!
Each human culture is uniquely rooted in
the particular place where it has evolved. Such cultural diversity was vitally
important because it fostered sustainable living in different environs. Today,
cultural diversity and the languages of indigenous peoples are as endangered as
tropical forests -- and for the same reasons:
cultures and resources are being exploited for short-term profit, and
homogenizing processes are taking place.
Economic globalization is challenged by
ethical considerations involving fairness.
The dignity and ecological wisdom embedded in diverse cultures should
not be ignored. The Bible explains the diversity of cultures and languages with
the story of the Tower of Babel, in which God decided to confound humanity for
some inscrutable reason; but that story
seems as implausible as literal fact as the six-day Creation, the worldwide
Flood, or the virgin birth of a divine Jesus.
It is curious that Western religions seem to be
focused on controlling people, while Eastern spiritual disciplines are more
focused on liberation. Hmmm … I’m ready
to pass judgment!
The biblical notion that mankind must “be fruitful
and multiply” is a religious anachronism. It is an idea that reflects
outmoded, anthropocentric, Church-centered moral preaching. This notion
demands conformity to religious establishments that seek to generate more
impressionable children in order to indoctrinate them with churchly
catechisms. It’s just so difficult to
actually convert any adult into being a believer, because it is assuredly
damned hard to convince new converts that outlandish myths and archaic holy
books represent absolute truths.
Pronatalism is the encouragement of fruitful
multiplying. It is a practice that
conflicts with modern realities that resources are limited and that human
overpopulation is one of the biggest threats to the future well-being of our
species. To protect the integrity of
ecosystem health and biological diversity on planet Earth, we need to accept
modern understandings of the desirability of encouraging people to have smaller
families. We are reaching a tipping point in which it is becoming a big
liability, not an asset, to have the human population grow rapidly.
Increasing human numbers vastly complicate and seriously intensify social and
environmental problems.
We fancy ourselves the pinnacle of Creation, and yet
we are becoming the scourge of most other living things on the planet.
The well-being of many life forms is being threatened by habitat destruction,
suburban sprawl, and our addiction to consumerism. Religious fundamentalists interpret their
holy books, like the Quran and the Bible, as if they are manifestos for
righteous prejudice and religious discrimination. More enlightened perspectives need to be
adopted. Primitive superstitious
concepts must give way to more salubrious and open-minded and adaptive
understandings.
“Man
is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for
belief, he will be satisfied with bad
ones.”
--- Bertrand
Russell (Ha!)
Chapter #112 - The Need
for a New Feminism.
Ecopsychology is a relatively new discipline that
operates on the assumption that at the deepest level our psyches are tied to
Mother Earth. Ecopsychology seeks to heal and develop the psychological
dimensions of the relationship between humans and nature. This discipline
contrasts to a more materialistic anthropocentrism in which the world is
regarded as being merely a thing for human use, as if other species have no
intrinsic value.
Ecopsychology emphasizes a mature and responsible
approach to living that is not detrimental to the Earth and its habitats, or to
the fellow human and non-human beings that we share the planet with. I repeat my belief that humanity should
cultivate “feminine” virtues of earnest cooperation, peaceful conflict
resolution, constructive communication, compassionate understanding, moderate
self-restraint, and a nurturing caring for other people and the health of
natural ecosystems. We should resurrect the vital sacred qualities of the
Mother goddess that have been severely suppressed by our patriarchal societies
for so many centuries!
An invigorated ecological feminist movement would
help unite people in affirming true values and goals. These are words of passionate hope, channeled
from a dispassionate observer beyond individual minds, beyond the psychic
numbing of reinforced fears, beyond our graves … far beyond … from somewhere
deep in the well of our collective awareness that the world could be a much
better place, one with empathy, love and peace, one with social justice and
greater fairness, and one that is much more secure in its framework,
constitution and sustainable trajectory.
Language is a complex biological
adaptation that evolved from earlier periods of prehistory when human
communication was done by more rudimentary means like gestures, sign language,
grunts or other vocalizations. The
ability to speak had advantages over other kinds of communication because it
freed people’s hands, and it could be done in the dark. The ability to communicate verbally helped
early humans in their crucial roles of hunting and gathering. Language also helped
establish lasting social relationships and pair-bonds that were necessary as
increasing brain size led to the need for giving birth to vulnerable and
dependent babies that were reliant on their parents for much longer periods of
time than the young of other mammals.
The evolution of language
accompanied, and likely stimulated, the rapid expansion in brain size that took
place as the success of our ancestors’ survival came to increasingly depend on
thinking and understanding the world, and on foresight, clever planning and
accurate remembering. As language
developed, the human voice box and flexible tongue and mind capacity evolved to
make this ability easier. Our future
survival may be dependent on the use of our big brains to plan ahead even better,
and to cooperate to use farsightedness for more propitious purposes.
Chapter #113 – More Noble
Motivations.
The Beatles’ lyrics sing out the praises of
generous-heartedness:
“All you need is love, love,
Love is all you need!”
Love and compassion are great guides for our
understanding. They are better guiding forces than fear, jealousy,
resentment, hostility or hatred. We should follow our hearts more
frequently. The spirit of love and
generosity should pervade our societies and infuse and guide each of us.
Dwell with me for a moment on our deep-seated desire
to love and to be loved. Love is often a needy thing, but it requires
nurture, not domination. Love can be a
noble feeling that could help ensure that we pursue greater aspirations. Believers of all religious faiths should accept
the love-infused Golden Rule spirit of the credo, ‘live and let
live’. Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha would surely have concurred!
Insecurity and frustration at not being valued can lead
to compensatory anger, motivating pride and retaliatory fervor. These feelings can harm relationships and
lead to emotional hijackings and actions that hurt others. Can we identify and develop some means of
strengthening self-esteem and respect for others? Can we find some new social mechanisms that
lead to more wholesome ways of being?
Can we work together internationally to mitigate desperate poverty that
contributes to instability and violence and breeds extremism and terrorism?
For 40 days and 40 nights and more, I have wandered
in the wilderness contemplating reality and the clarity of high places and
expansive spaces. Revelations
have come to me. A “Google Earth” kind
of perspective formed, zooming in from far above the maelstrom of busy daily
activities to an intense focus on existence.
My attention oscillated from high above the bubble of conventional
wisdom in one moment to an immersion in a fog of clashing assertions the
next. My frame of reference expanded to
the Universal and contracted to the immediate. I evaluated the macroscopic and
examined the microscopic, and climbed the heights of the sublime, and descended
to the surface of the mundane.
The realization dawned on me that making a positive
difference in the world is among the best that one can do. Everyone could benefit from finding
motivation in a caring concern for a healthier planet, in nobler visions of the
future, and in a spirit of dedication to greater good priorities.
Here’s
what I experienced in the wilderness:
fascinating visions came to me like vivid dreams. The grand sweep of human history mystically
appeared like an elaborate timeline written across the heavens. Evolving religious and philosophic ideas from
the beginning of recorded time resolutely marched across the sky, like a ticker
tape gone wild. Snippets of Heraclitus
tumbled in, mixed with the arcane philosophy of Lao Tzu. For a while, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
debated together on the stage of an ancient Greek theatre. Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed sat side-by-side
in meditation. Voltaire, Freud, Darwin
and Michael Pollan sat discussing the inexplicable intricacies of existence and
gardening. Some theories of quantum
physics and spacetime fused with Buddhist meditations. The objective merged with the subjective, and
the eternal past morphed into the present moment. A time-lapse vision formed, each frame
containing its own infinite concatenation of simultaneous events. Each frame succeeded the previous in a
wondrous procession of lapsing time.
Visions
precipitated and dissolved. Awesome
desert clouds at sunrise gave way to crystal clear blue skies, and then to the
surreal colors of suffused clarity at sunset.
I found myself imagining an ascent to the top of Angel’s Landing in Zion
National Park after having descended along the Virgin River through the
incredible Narrows of Sinawava. The
climb itself was an indelibly rich experience, hiking up past a multitude of
ancient layers of eroding red sandstone, from the oldest layers below to the relatively
more recent ones nearer the broad summit.
Each layer represented a bygone era that had a much longer duration than
the scope of time comprising our species’ entire existence.
The day shone brilliantly. I felt like Zorba the Greek. The higher I went, the more my spirit soared
and became purged and exalted. Once
again I felt the influence on the soul of pure air, wholesome breathing and a
vast horizon. As I climbed, I felt as if
I were clambering over ranges of the mind within me, passing from base and
petty cares to nobler ones, from the comfortable truths of the valley below to
precipitous conceptions above. “Here,” said Zorba, “a gentle, sober spirit
could cultivate a religious exaltation that would match the stature of men. Neither
a precipitous, superhuman peak, nor a lazy, voluptuous plain, but what is
needed, and no more, for the soul to be elevated without losing its human
tenderness.”
Chapter #114 – Striving
Not to Be Nobody.
John
Fowles elaborated on a concept that he called “the nemo”. Consider this closely. Sigmund Freud had formulated profound
insights into the human psyche by positing three aspects of the mind: (1) the ego, which represents the province of
conscious desires; (2) the id, which represents the more obscure province of
the myriad motivations that reside in the subconscious; and (3) the superego,
which governs the emotional intelligence that strives to balance, control, or
repress the other two powerful mental forces.
John
Fowles insightfully realized that there is also a more subtle aspect of the mind
that is growing deep in the modern soul.
This is the ‘nemo’, which represents the psychic forces that motivate us
to try to be somebody, to be remembered, and to thwart our profound fear
of being an insignificant nobody. The
nemo is strengthened by knowledge that there are many inequalities in life, and
by such haunting anxieties as feelings of psychological emptiness,
ephemerality, futility, and insignificance.
Why did Mark
David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon, kill the man he so admired? The nemo!
Chapman was a pathetic nobody, tormented by his inner demons, and yet
his name will be remembered forever in conjunction with the great Beatles’
singer, songwriter, lyricist, and champion of peace. (Imagine the irony --- “All we need is love”!).
The
nemo of extreme conservatives, who are referenced in Chapters #80-84, is
driving humankind headlong in the direction of calamity. Conservative convictions of God-appointed
self-righteousness are driving us down an ignominious path that supports unfair
special privilege and authoritarian dominion and conflicts of civilizations.
Western religious fanaticism is pushing us to support social repression, white
supremacy, misogynistic male authoritarianism, puritanical domestic policies,
and theocratic Christian hegemony. By
allying itself with right-wing politicians, the Religious Right is also
strengthening impulses toward military aggression and irresponsible
profiteering, and unfettered laissez-faire capitalistic oligarchy. Surrender, you rascals, and let America
return to sanity -- and the world to better hopes of fairness and peace!
The
reason John Fowles recognized that people are powerfully motivated to see themselves
as ‘somebody’ is affiliated with his terrible accompanying realization:
“Man
is an everlack -- an infinite withoutness -- afloat on an apparently endless
ocean of
apparently endless indifference to
individual things.” Ouch!
Chapter #115 – Insights
on Religion and Culture.
I was brought up
in a small town with solid values where I learned the importance of respect
toward others. Yes, Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin’. My father liked to
relate a story about a man who told him, “Cheer up, things could be
worse.” “So I cheered up”, he’d say,
“and sure enough, things got worse.” Ha!
Remember to SMILE. Try this:
grin as broadly as you are able for a few moments as you read this. Feel the crinkling of your cheeks and the pull
at the corners of your mouth. Think
nothing at all. Breathe in deeply, and
slowly exhale. Hold this smile. Psychologists report that our facial
expressions, even if artificially mimicked, trigger within our brains the
feelings we display. This exercise may
be a personally positive means of attitudinal healing. Smile more often!
“Don’t
sweat the small stuff -- and it’s all small stuff!”
A self-styled
‘Commissioner of Pep’ believes that somewhat effective techniques exist for
liberating our chatterbox minds from their headlong clattering confusion. Breathing
exercises, meditation, singing, praying, focusing our attention ‘in the flow’,
being mindful, making effortless effort, walking in nature, and engaging in
physical activities that exhaust the body and relax the mind -- these are the
states in which our conscious minds can receive revelations like dreams from
our subconscious selves.
I was very shy as a youngster, and susceptible to
conforming to parental, teacher and peer group expectations. Conformity
is the ‘contemporary Procrustean bed’ that either cuts people off from parts of
themselves that don’t fit when they feel compelled to conform, or stretches
them out in ways that are inconsistent with their true selves. But frankly, some things must be
transcended.
Conventional wisdom says that we should not talk
about politics and religion. But today we need to have frank discussions
about these things more than ever before. The reason for this is that
politics, government and the doctrines of established religions are interfering
more and more in people’s lives. Much
rides on our ability to be flexible, to be open to embracing positive change,
and to be willing to support smarter plans for the future.
Religious establishments and fundamentalist
believers all too often side with social conservatives in opposing progressive
understandings. The U.S. has a long tradition of separating church and
state, but there is an equally powerful propensity for people to mix religion
with politics. Throughout our nation’s
history, great political and social movements have drawn upon the progressive
aspects of religious institutions for moral authority, liberal leadership and
organizational muscle. This has laudably
helped get slavery abolished and give women the right to vote, and to establish
fairer civil rights and environmental protections.
Today religious conservatism is having the opposite
impact. It often opposes progressive
ideas, and has become active in trying to impose its traditionalism upon
society by supporting conservatives in partisan politics. Religious
moderates and progressives have been yielding to these more adamantly
controlling retrogressive factions of their creeds. Stop it!
To the extent that religious establishments support
right-wing ideologies and undermine ecumenical and far-sighted understandings,
they pose a danger to our democracy, and to peaceful coexistence. This bodes ill for our success in coping with
converging threats of economic, geopolitical and ecological disasters.
The religious right must reintegrate itself into the main stream of life. It should abandon dogmas that impede progress,
and lend unwavering support to adaptive intelligence that will help us advance
the interests of the greater good.
Psychologists say that people cope by using either
“approach” strategies or “avoidance” strategies; I believe that in ecological matters, it is
becoming increasingly clear that avoidance and denial are transcendentally
foolish! Since Virgil was wise in
observing that “We make our destinies by the gods we choose”, it would be smart
for us to somehow begin to choose more intelligently!
Chapter #116 – The
Dangers of Fundamentalism.
Scriptures, n. -- The sacred books of
our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and
profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
--- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
God is not dead. Everyone should feel free to
believe whatever they like. Remember that the First Amendment in our Bill
of Rights specifically guarantees the free exercise of religion. But our
government should not side with any one particular religion, or even religious
people over agnostics or atheists.
Ethnocentricity is a natural tendency to regard
one’s own cultures as superior, desirable, moral and worthy, and to regard the
culture of other peoples as inferior, ridiculous, immoral and unworthy.
This is especially true of religious attitudes. Believers tend to regard
their own religion as the only true, revealed and moral faith, and to regard
all others as deluded and false. Since the world is becoming figuratively
smaller in many ways, and the competition for resources is heating up, one
thing is becoming perfectly clear: the costs of remaining parochial and
ethnocentric are unacceptably high.
Every culture in the course of history seems to have
had its story telling, superstitions, legends, myths and religious beliefs. Evidence
of this is found in early Mother figurines, clay and stone representations of
deities, cave paintings and oral traditions, rituals and ceremonies. More recently, cultures have expressed
themselves in the written word and visual and electronic media.
Anthropologists have found extensive evidence in
primitive cultures of Nature worship, animism, polytheism, idolatry, and
fetishism. The gods and goddesses of the Greek spiritual pantheon were
very real to people back in the ancient days of yore. We now call them mythological, and recognize
that these deities were projections of powerful subconscious mental constructs
upon the Universe. Jung called them
archetypes in our shared collective unconscious. These projections are reflections of hero
figures and villains, and human hopes and fears. Today we fancy that Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo,
Aphrodite, Dionysus and all the rest were not real, and we regard them as mere
figments of the imagination.
These polytheistic ‘many-god’ conceptions eventually
evolved into a more sophisticated “one-god” understanding. Aha!
Eureka!! One God!!!
All deities that have ever been revered, however, have
had a genesis in the imagination that is similar to that of the Greek gods and
goddesses. The pantheon of Greek deities
together, male and female, continue to exist as archetypes in us all. Jean Shinoda Bolen makes this clear in her
fascinating books on this subject -- Goddesses
in Everywoman, and Gods in
Everyman. These books are edifying
with regard to both inner archetypes and outer stereotypical forces that
influence each of us personally.
Some lines of thought evolved into more
philosophical ideas like those in Buddhism.
Scientific inquiry, using observable hypothesis, open-minded inquiry and
skeptical scrutiny developed realistic, world-wise, self-correcting, factually
astonishing and awe-inspiring worldviews.
Religion has been
used throughout history as a kind of numbing opiate for the masses, a
reassuring propaganda that begins its indoctrination with innocents and
catechizes susceptible children at the height of their vulnerable credulousness
with stories of mythical beings, fables, parables and genealogies. The persistence of these prehistoric
ideas is impressively disconcerting. It
astonishes me that about 40% of all Americans say they don’t believe in the
fundamental feature of our existence:
biological evolution. This
stubborn denial of reality is incredible, and can be largely traced to the
propagation of ignorance and dogma by religious fundamentalists.
The popular book Into
Thin Air was written by perceptive Jon Krakauer, who also wrote an
insightful book about the Mormon religion titled Under the Banner of Heaven. In this book, he observes: “There
are some 10,000 extant religious sects -- each with it own cosmology, each with
its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most of them assert
that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong, but are instruments of
evil, besides.”
The dangers here are obvious. When religious
establishments exert influence over government and societies that is too
powerful, they are prone to becoming contributors to antagonisms, conflicts and
repressive despotism. The dark side of fundamentalism is that many times
in history it has motivated and justified terrible acts of inhumanity, cruelty,
intolerance, violence and genocide. Hate often ironically masquerades as
love. A quite negative facet of
monotheistic belief systems is that they are intolerant of all other deities
and religions and beliefs. This is very
harmful in the world today.
“With
or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil
people doing evil
things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
--- Physicist Steven
Weinberg, quoted in
the New York Times, April 20, 1999
Chapter #117 – The
Importance of the Separation of Church and State.
Any traveler to Muslim countries marvels at the
cultural differences found there.
Women’s roles and acceptable codes of dress are very different than they
are in the West. Loudspeakers on
minarets on the periphery of Islamic mosques blare out eerie, wailing
entreaties five times a day that call the faithful to prayer. It is presumptuous to suppose that we in the
West should engage in a clash of cultures to repress such imposing and somewhat
incomprehensibly different traditions.
Religious orthodoxy channels the human spirit into
reason-denying faith and unyielding doctrines. Religious establishments
tend to foster ignorance and harbor convictions that are discriminatory and
ethnocentric. This unfortunately plays into the hands of control-obsessed,
authoritarian, reactionary and often mean-spirited elements on the radical
right. This is one reason we need to strongly support the separation of
Church and State and ensure more secure, fair, rational and hopeful societies.
Chapter #118 – Spiritual
Understandings.
Religions provide billions of people with purpose,
meaning and consolation. Religion offers believers a powerful and
comforting sense of certitude and self-centered righteousness. Living in a dangerous, insecure and uncertain
world, humankind has likely always felt hope and fear and the need to
understand and explain existence and the Universe. We are often
superstitious, hoping somehow to placate incomprehensible forces and give thanksgiving
for nourishment and life and good fortune.
And we desperately desire some sense of immortality, because most people
fear the finality of death.
An undesirable aspect of religions institutions lies
in their tendency to take advantage of the natural hopes and fears that people
feel in order to control and dominate them. Efforts to impose conservative
mores and strict prohibitions on the reigning culture can create negative
outcomes as well as positive ones. Religious establishments contribute to
social directives that militate for prohibitions like the ones that create the
terribly costly ‘war on drugs’, as discussed in Chapter #90. This is one example of how religious
establishments collaborate with political leaders to manipulate faithful followers
into obediently supporting the sometimes ignoble doctrines of those in
power. Outdated creation myths, superstitions
and church dogmas thus ironically can contribute to keeping people in thrall to
uncompassionate, discriminatory, harmful, anti-democratic and sometimes racist
and sexist doctrines.
Religious fundamentalists try to put religious
stories and dogmas into science classrooms by teaching “intelligent
design”. Such undertakings are blatant
attempts to brainwash children, and even to deprive them of freely-chosen
religious liberty by injecting religious indoctrination into public schools. The
documentary film Jesus Camp gives
viewers a disturbing feeling that there is a significant danger to humanity in
allowing our children to be indoctrinated with exaggerated fears of sin and the
devil.
The political right wing has pandered to established
religions and anti-progressive evangelicals in the past 30 years to gain their
support. The surprising means by which
conservatives have succeeded in this quest are exposed in the book, What’s the Matter with Kansas? Once social conservatives gain power, they
have often abused it and betrayed the people by harming their better
interests. They act with hypocrisy by
rationalizing unchristian initiatives, aggression in war, or privileges for the
rich at the expense of the poor. This manipulation increases inequalities
and inequities by helping get taxes reduced for the rich, and stinting on (or
eliminating) social programs for the working class and the poor, and by eroding
the well-being of the middle class. This
is a bizarre inversion of biblical ideals, serving the powerful and foisting
more disadvantages on the underprivileged. Bah, humbug!
Chapter #119 – Religion
and Drugs.
Most
of the world’s religions curiously have a formative affiliation with the use of
psychoactive plants or fungi, including fermented grapes, the ergot fungus,
peyote cactus, psilocybin mushrooms, opiates or cannabis. The ecstasy of religious exaltation seems to
share an ironic affinity with the effects of the use of psychoactive drugs. Similar
functions of the brain and its ‘reward centers’ may be stimulated by both religious
exaltation and drugs, and may be activated by other things like sexual arousal,
prayer, and even deep breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, fasting -- or the
consumption of chocolate. Why is this?
Our
brains are astounding networks of synaptic neural circuitry that utilize
complex chemical neurotransmitters to interpret sensations and perceptions. Brain research reveals that brain cells
communicate between themselves, and with other cells, through the use of
“neurotransmitters”. These are organic
compounds synthesized in the central nervous system. Neurotransmitters include amino acids,
peptides and monoamines that act to relay, amplify and modulate electrical
signals between neurons and other cells.
Networks of neurons utilize ‘receptors’, which receive and respond to
electrochemical messages. These messages are conveyed by neurotransmitters like
serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and cannabinoids.
Various
parts of our brains are involved in remembering and in controlling moods. Our inscrutable subconscious awareness
generates a web of thoughts that bubbles up like a miraculous “impression
creator”. Our minds, hearts and souls
spring into consciousness in mysterious ways. Many of our behaviors are significantly
determined by neurochemical keys. Hormones such as
testosterone, estrogen, oxytocin and adrenalin affect behaviors like sexual
aggression, arousal, lust, bonding, love, caregiving and the fight-or-flight
response.
Raw aggression has a ripple effect through
the endocrine systems of entire social groups of mammals. Under stress, adrenal glands release
cortisol, a hormone that contributes to states of hyper vigilance. Repeated exposure to fears can cause cortisol
overload and create a state of over-reactivity, as evidenced in people who have
been severely traumatized by abuse, rape or violence. Post-traumatic stress disorder, which
afflicts many soldiers returning from war, is one example of this serious
psychosomatic problem.
Dopamine is a neurohormone chemical that is
biosynthesized by the body. It is involved
in intense pleasures that are experienced in activities like sexual arousal,
addictive gambling or recreational drug use.
Oxytocin is a hormone associated with impulses toward tenderness and
attachment, like that of the warm affection that suffuses women and men after
sexual intercourse. (Have a
cigarette? Just say NO!)
One
of the neural networks of particular interest is the cannabinoid network. It
consists of “endogenous cannabinoids” called anandamides, a name that means
“inner bliss” in Sanskrit. These natural
organic substances appear to be involved in balancing the body’s biochemical systems,
and in influencing sleep and appetite cycles, and in regulating important
processes that help with the relief of pain. They somehow help us to both
remember and to FORGET. The latter process blissfully facilitates purges of the
overload of sensory stimuli that bombards us every day. The cannabinoid network may even be involved
in the process by which our brains translate objective reality into subjective
emotions during the day, and during our dreams.
The
introduction of plant cannabinoids that occurs when cannabis is smoked (or in a
healthier manner, vaporized or consumed in foods) sends a surge dose of
cannabinoids to the receptors in the brain.
This has fascinating effects. It is
conducive to introspection into our normal modes of consciousness, and can
provide a feeling of transcendence, a freshness of perception, or a
reenchantment with relationships and the natural world. Such affects can make the use of cannabis
worthwhile. Marijuana will not improve
your memory, and may have some distinctly detrimental affects with excessive
use, but it can also enrich life experiences in a number of ways. When someone smokes too frequently, the
receptor connections seem to become satiated or corroded, causing detectable,
sometimes detrimental long-term behavioral changes. Moderation in everything!
The
harsh suppression of marijuana use, however, is harmful and extremely costly to
people and society. Punitive drug laws
have ruinous impacts on the lives of millions.
We should re-evaluate the stigma of marijuana use, particularly for
those who seek pain relief. Michael
Pollan’s book, The Botany of Desire -- A
Plant’s Eye View of the World provides valuable perspective on this topic.
As this epistle approaches conclusion, I
want to mention one other important issue that religious dogmas have taken
on: the right to dignity in dying. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was considered an angel of compassion to
some, and an angel of death to others.
He was committed to championing the right for terminal patients to choose
when to die. He spent almost eight years in prison for helping people to
terminate their lives when they were afflicted by severe pain and terminal
diseases. He was finally released from
jail in June 2007. Thank you, Jack, in
memoriam, for having strived to raise public awareness on the importance of our
inherent right to die when we become terminally ill or brain dead. When will society recognize the right for
people to die once they are afflicted with terminal indignities and terrible
pain with no hope of any recourse but deadening drugs and pathetic waiting for
death?
I was personally cynical about
“grandstanding” by conservatives that took place in 2005 to keep a brain-dead woman
named Terri Schiavo alive in a 15-year-long ‘persistent vegetative state’. This case made it clear that we need to keep
the government out of decisions between individuals, their families and doctors
with regard to when we die. The role of government is to
orchestrate some order from chaos. The government’s role should never be
to interfere unnecessarily in our personal lives.
Dr.
Kevorkian, we get it! We need to demand that our government stop opposing
sensible laws concerning the end of our lives.
All states in the Union should pass laws like Oregon’s in this regard.
Statistics
tell us that a disproportionate share of medical resources is devoted to the
elderly, and that a large portion of a person’s lifetime medical expenses are
incurred in the last year of life. At a
time when we are failing to invest in the health of young people, it seems like
a socially crazy thing to spend so much money keeping old people alive,
especially in circumstances where pain and indignity make them NOT want to
prolong their lives. I feel strongly
that we need to accept a new ethical perspective on dying, and allow people to
die in dignity when they are ready to go.
This may be a de facto
situation in many cases, but religious authorities and conservatives tend to
oppose such freedoms to choose. Relent
and repent!
Chapter #120 – We Need a
New Religion!
It becomes increasingly clear, year after year, that
societies should create conditions in which the positive elements of religions
flourish and the negative elements are curtailed. We need more
progressive spiritual doctrines -- or a new religion that is more
inclusive.
Such a modified belief system would utilize the
great fonts of faith, mystery and spirituality in new ways -- ways that
emphasize inspiration, positive connections, rationality, fairness and a
respectful tolerance of differences. One
of the main meaningful purposes of this new religion would be to improve peace,
fairness and security in the world.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, “Any religion
that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and not concerned about
the city government that damns the soul, the economic conditions that corrupt
the soul, the slum conditions, the social evils that cripple the soul, is a
dry, dead, do-nothing religion in need of new blood.” “Too often the church talked about a future
good ‘over yonder’, totally forgetting the present evil over here,” he wrote.
Enormous energies are poured into religious beliefs,
ethnic supremacy, racial bigotry and efforts to keep women and minorities in
roles as second-class citizens. Imagine the positive outcomes that could
be achieved if these formidable energies were redirected into more wholesome
channels. A fresh and unifying reverence
for life is needed that would help foster far-sighted worldviews that are more
responsible toward other people, future generations, and other forms of
life.
We would be wise to seek a new spiritual awareness
that respects all of Creation, not just true believers, and not just humankind.
This new awareness should be immune to being hijacked into jihad terrorism against
innocent civilians, and it should be less susceptible to being used as a
justification for oppression or “preemptive” warfare. It should diminish
violence, hate, brutality, mercilessness, arrogance, cruelty, reactionary
politics, sexism, discrimination, homophobia, and intolerant convictions of
ethnocentric superiority.
Religious freedom should be guaranteed in all
countries, and people should be free from persecution for their religious
beliefs. We should support both the Golden Rule and a strong separation
between Church and State. This new credo
should coincide with an enlightened ethos that is similar to the philosophy of
secular scientific humanism.
Fantastic tales
from the Bible come to me in the night, perplexing me, and making me wonder
what gambits the LORD is up to now, in modern times. Consider the chapters of the Bible in Exodus, for instance. The LORD is said to have hardened the heart
of the Egyptian ruler, Pharaoh, in some grand strategy to satisfy the LORD’s
apparent craving for recognition, worship, flattery and glory.
Here’s how Exodus
chapters go: the Israelites worshipped
the LORD because they heard that ‘He’ was concerned about their bondage in
Egypt. The Pharaoh was opposed to
letting the slaves get away from their work for a few days to worship the LORD
in the desert wilderness, as God supposedly wanted, so Pharaoh oppressed them
even more, made them work harder, had them beaten, and accused them of being
lazy. The LORD’s gambit was to use
“miraculous signs” and “mighty acts of judgment” to convince the Egyptians that
he, and not the ruler Pharaoh, was God.
The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh repeatedly through many
successive plagues, which caused locally horrible hardships, tribulations and
ruin to the Egyptians.
Nine plagues were
visited upon Egypt. The Nile River was changed into blood, killing the fish and making the
water undrinkable; a plague of frogs was
visited upon the land, then successive plagues of gnats, clouds of flies, a horrible sickness of the
livestock, then bothersome boils on men and animals, followed by a devastating
hailstorm that rained down and ruined the fields, and a plague of locusts, and
darkness fell over all of Egypt -- except the districts of the children of
Israel. Amazing. (Just think, parenthetically, how calamitous
the collateral environmental damages must have been!)
Pharaoh
deceitfully agreed a time or two to let the people go, but then reneged on his
word. The LORD hardened the heart of the
unyielding fool Pharaoh, until finally the LORD decreed that a tenth plague would
be visited upon the Egyptians. Witness:
“Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, to
the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the
firstborn of the cattle as well. There
will be loud wailing throughout Egypt …”.
Now, being a
progressive-minded gal, you can imagine how horrified I am at this harsh
treatment of the poor Egyptian people -- and of the cows, to boot! To conflate innocents with despotic rulers is
inimitably unjust. People living in
poverty always seem to suffer the worst hardships, in both good times and in
bad, so perhaps this injustice should come as no great surprise.
The LORD
providentially made a provision to “Pass Over” the houses of the Israelites
during the massacre of the firstborn. By
this means, God was able to spare the firstborn of Israelites. ‘He’ did this by letting Israelites know in
advance that they should mark their homes with the blood of year-old male
lambs, so that ‘He’ would know whom to smite and whom to spare. (Poor slaughtered lambs!)
Completely
astonishingly, though quite fortunately for the Israelites, the LORD made the
Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Israelites after all the plagues, so
when Pharaoh finally did let the people go, the Egyptian neighbors gave them
articles of silver and gold, and the Israelites were able to plunder the
Egyptians. Rejoice!?!
My perspective on
all of this: the world has become too
small for us to escape to some other “land of milk and honey”. Other lands are already occupied; they belong to someone else. We need to work within the system to effect
beneficial change. People should rightly
demand that all rulers be more fair-minded and far-sighted. The Golden Rule allowing the people to “Live
and Let Live” must become an overriding ethical commandment that is
encapsulated in all of our laws. The right
to worship freely without interference by governments, as is guaranteed in the
First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, should be accepted as a condition in
human societies worldwide.
End Time Rapture
fanatics today are using stories from the Bible to inspire latter-day believers
to accept looming calamities that include poverty, starvation, injustice,
intolerance, discrimination, discord, environmental degradation, and horrible
diseases like AIDS. Religious dogmas are
infinitely unjust when they condemn billions of people to suffering and eternal
Hell just because they don’t believe in a particular Holy Book or are not living
their lives in accordance with its dictates.
Billions of people around the world don’t have a clue what the Bible says
or represents, for instance, so to condemn them is infinitely unjust.
Christ-cloaked
bigotry has become a booming industry.
Check out the huge mega-churches and the diatribes of the late Jerry
Falwell, Pat Robertson or James
Dobson. It is for excellent reasons that
there is a bumper sticker saying, “I Support a Separation of Church and Hate.”
Religious
fanatics are essentially acting like reckless 21st century Captains of the
Titanic, stubbornly staying the course despite dangerous seas. Instead of embracing precautionary
principles, it’s full speed ahead in treacherous waters. Religious extremism is
making conflicts worse between people around the planet. Vulnerabilities are
growing, with figurative icebergs looming, portending increased cultural
conflicts, violence, wastefulness and ecological devastation. These conditions endanger all life on our
beautiful Water Planet. We must begin to
better protect ‘Creation’!
There has not
been a single verifiable instance of God’s intervention in human affairs in my
lifetime. But some powerful force seems
to have hardened the heart of the ruling regime between 2001 and 2009, causing
Republicans to oppress the people and to act deceitfully toward them. Perhaps we are not worshiping properly, and
that is why the people cannot be freed, or treated fairly, or allowed to
reasonably pursue happiness. Let us
pray.
A 2009 notation
here read: “Progressive ideas must gain
ascendancy over the hard-hearted, harsh-minded, obstinate, aggressive,
control-obsessed, unsustainably shortsighted, male authoritarianism of leaders like
Dick Cheney and their carefully-crafted, self-effacing but arrogant cheerleader
poster-boy, George W. Bush.”
I was thankful
that we finally elected a more progressive leader in Barack Obama, and had been
quite hopeful that that his intelligence, progressive instincts, and
considerable energies would be able to improve our nation. Though disappointed in the substantial
roadblocks to reform in our politics, and to the fundamental systemic
corruption in our political duopoly and the obstructionism of the opposition, I
still strongly believe that Barack Obama represents a far better choice to lead
our nation than either John McCain or Mitt Romney would have been!
Too many people
are overly obsessed with special privileges, dominating control, intolerance,
repression and oppression. People
holding these attitudes are often excessively narrow-minded, and those who
support them are gullible in their willingness to support policies that are
detrimental to their own best interests and the common good. Having so many people adhere to narrow conceptions
of the world even threatens our survival.
We need to draw the line and support progressive politicians and
far-sighted understandings. Dominant
worldviews must change by incorporating more wholesome, hopeful, sustainable,
and auspicious goals than the myopic ones driving us to ruin.
It is a
disturbing mythical story that the God of Genesis despised the “wickedness” of
mankind, whom ‘He’ had created, and was sorry that ‘He’ had made man on the
earth, and was angry that man had committed the sin of disobeying ‘His’
authority, and that ‘He’ therefore decided to bring a great Flood onto the
earth to destroy all living things.
(Except, naturally, the fish and amphibians!). It is not much of a consolation that the LORD
gave a magnanimous reprieve to two of every kind of creature on an ark that
‘He’ supposedly instructed a 600-year-old man named Noah to build.
The Twelve Apostles were disciples of Jesus
who were sent to towns in Galilee to preach the gospel and heal the sick, drive
out demons, raise the dead, and convert the heathens. Their supposedly love-inspired purpose was to
heal the sick in spirit, and drive away wicked behavior, which was in good
supply in those days, I reckon -- just as it seems to be today.
The Apostles journeyed with nothing more
than a staff, the clothes on their backs, and sandals. They apparently took with them no bread, no
bag, and no money. (A staff is like a
walking stick, which on rare occasions was put to such useful purposes as parting
the Red Sea.) The Apostles appear to
have had a lot in common with earlier “false prophets”, and with later
grandiose hucksters, charming charlatans, pseudo-scientific phrenologists,
inveterate liars, snake oil salesmen, shyster lawyers, and unregulated
druggists like J.B. Brown and Company in Hannibal, Missouri that sold elixirs,
miracle cures, quack medicines, purgatives and addictive drugs in the 1860s and
1870s. Yo!
One of the earliest of the Greek
philosophers, Protogoras, was asked whether he believed in the Greek gods. He answered “The question is complex, and
life is short.” Ah, agnosticism! A recent study reveals that 91% of Americans
believe in God. Think about it. “God.”
What ideas arise when you think about God? What “idols” do we maintain in our
minds? Are not all the concepts that we
have about God completely anthropocentric?
The attributes attributed to God are surely all distinctly human
characteristics that we have projected into the ‘heavens’ -- grace, love,
mercy, intelligence, omniscience, justice, jealousy, judgmentality, anger, and
motives that reflect cravings for adulation and praise. God
only knows. Strange days, indeed!
Who, or What, then is God? God obeys the physical laws of Nature with a
scrupulously strict adherence. He/She/It
does not take sides in sporting contests or wars. He/She/It does not directly intervene in
human affairs any more than the Greek goddesses and gods intervened in events
in ancient times. God is a relentlessly
impersonal force, and one that is indistinguishable from Nature as far as the
eye can see. Mankind arguably invented
all the many gods that have been worshipped throughout history in the rich and
fertile imagination of our species.
Our beliefs in God can have positive effects
as well as negative ones, and the metaphors in all mythological and religious
texts can be valuable. But to the extent
that beliefs contribute to persecutions, genocide, wars and hate instead of
love, neighborly good will, cooperation and fairness, they are dangerous and
socially unacceptable.
The Ten Commandments are supposed to have been
written by God and given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
The first four commandments are suspiciously self-promoting. They threaten believers as follows:
I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth
generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth
generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Wow, that’s heavy duty! Why?
Fairness doctrines ostensibly do not spring from the divine!
Then there is the fifth Commandment --
honor your father and your mother. Yay
for that!! And of course we should
discourage people from killing other people in our societies, and from
stealing, and from bearing false witness against neighbors. As to how bad adultery actually may be, that
depends on an infinite variety of personal situations and individual circumstances
and cultural contexts. And what’s with
the commandment prohibiting the coveting of the neighbor’s house, his wife, his
male and female slaves, his ox or his donkey?!
Perhaps we need Bible Police to be sent after those who promote covetous
envy in our society -- Advertisers beware!
I myself prefer the Bill of Rights to these
antiquated Commandments. I strongly
believe that the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights are crucially
important, and that they should be protected from all infringements being
sought by extreme social conservatives, Churches, corporations and both extreme
right-wing and extreme left-wing organizations.
A pop-culture guru once curiously
noted: “Life is eternal. But even if it isn’t and I made it up, I like
it! I mean as long as you’re going to
make it up (the way that REALITY IS), you might as well make it up the way you
like it.” Let’s choose beliefs that we
like, but only if they are not inimically dangerous to our well-being, and that
of others. Let’s interpret reality in
ways that are modern and accurate. Let’s
choose to see reality in ways that are most strongly in accord with spiritually
nobility AND vital human values.
Judgment Day is metaphorically upon
us. But this is not a judgment of the
living and the dead by God incarnate as was prophesied in the Bible. It is a judgment in the reflection of future
generations looking back on the economic, political, social and ecological
ethos of today, and judging that we have been acting with obtuse selfishness,
astonishing shortsightedness, and dangerous ignorance.
Jesus is said to have suffered and died for
the sins of mankind. Today, we see that future
generations will be the ones to do the suffering, and in this case we will be
the ones perpetuating sins of selfishness and obtusely inadequate concern. Unless we repent soon, will we suffer
punishment in a speculative afterlife of eternal Hell for our wrong-doing? Or will it actually be our descendents who will
be the ones to pay, and to pay an exceedingly heavy price? Let us seek redemption and salvation by
choosing to act in ways that are more balanced, fair, and responsible, while we
are still able. Let’s pay forward some
goodwill, and let’s honestly exhibit greater precautionary environmental concerns!
Chapter #121 – Literate
Ideas.
I love the thought-provoking book, Zorba the Greek:
“Once more there sounded within me, together with the crane’s cry, the
terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is no
other, and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In
eternity, no other chance will be given to us.”
This
quote gives pause for consideration of the importance of each moment in our
lives. Blaise Pascal’s Bet Situation encouraged people to bet on eternal
bliss in a life after this one, but Zorba effectively cautions us about the desperate
risks of such gambles. Let us make a commitment to living our lives
positively, appreciatively, alertly -- and responsibly!
We are all in the springtime of our
existences, and will eventually join the unknown void after our own individual
deaths. Ashes to ashes, dust to
dust.
Our
attitude in life is important. I’ve
always admired a Robert Louis Stevenson quote etched in a polished granite
tablet in the form of an open book that has been placed by a local historical
society at a site on the flanks of Mt. St. Helena at the north end of Napa
Valley in California. This tribute to Robert
Louis Stevenson has been placed on a site where the writer lived while he was composing
The Silverado Squatters in 1880:
“Doomed to know not Winter, only Spring,
A being trod the flowery April
blithely for a while,
Took his fill of music, joy of thought and
seeing,
Came
and stayed and went, nor ever ceased to smile.”
I find myself thinking in poetic parallel:
Destined to know not eternal life, only ephemeral existence
Billions of human beings tread
the bounteous Earth blithely for a while
Taking their fill of pleasure and enjoyment, eating and drinking and
being merry
Incautiously and unthinkingly
consuming the planet’s finite resources
Being born, and striving to live as
well as possible, and eventually dying,
And appreciating
the rich experience, and yet kvetching about it too.
Apropos of Something: An Ode to
Nature and Existence
Fated to
know the lovely spring and balmy summers too,
And the
gentle autumn and blustery winters, as well
A being trod the richly greening hills
of April, blithely for a while,
Appreciating the natural rhythm of the cyclical seasons.
She took her measure of pleasure immersed in natural surroundings,
Enjoyed the satisfactions of life’s sublime moments,
Loving music, good films, delicious food and pleasing beverages
And the joy and vital importance of incisive thought and far-seeing.
She sought the satisfaction of fulfilling rapport in relationships
Like a Greek goddess who found
meaning through her involvements
And also enjoyed the intrinsically
rewarding fulfillment found in autonomy and solitude.
She came,
and stayed, and went, and tried always to remember to smile.
Ancestors in every human culture have been
telling stories from time immemorial.
They do this to make sense of the world, to pass on knowledge, to teach
morals and history, to entertain, and to honor the mysterious. The written word, and more recently radio, TV
and film, have taken storytelling to entirely new dimensions. A good story unfolds slowly and has evocative
elements that bond the storyteller and the audience, and create
a sense of identity, community, and enveloping interest.
The compelling Australian film Ten Canoes tells an elemental story of Aboriginal culture in a time
long ago. The film opens with a grand
aerial swoop over the remote Arafura swamp region of Arnhem Land in the
northeastern part of Australia. The
voice of a Storyteller solemnly intones: "Once upon a time in a land far,
far away ..." But then the voice
breaks into laughter at the fairytale stereotype of these opening words, and
the spell is broken with a capricious tone as the narrator declares in his drawling
Australian accent, "I'm only joking."
The Storyteller goes on to develop a provocative story about the
indigenous people of the ancient Australian continent. It’s powerfully insightful to imagine!
Another fabulous story is told in the highly
entertaining book published in 1983 titled The
Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Greg Matthews. Here are some intriguing excerpts from it:
“There was another book I writ before this one which gives the story
about how me and Jim went down the river on a raft, him looking for freedom on
account of he’s a nigger slave and me looking to get away from the Widow
Douglas who’s trying to sivilize me, and you could say we both wanted the same
thing. I reckon most people don’t read
but one book in their life so it that warn’t the one you read I best tell what
happened at the end of the story …”
“Pretty soon I get to the edge of town and I take myself off into the
woods and flop under a tree like a rag doll. There’s a cool shade on my
face and it feels good, but at the selfsame time it makes me want to cry.
How can you figure behavior like that?”
“So I’m sitting there flopped under the tree and the shade moves across
the ground nice and slow, and I’m staring at it while it moves, and thinking
nothing at all -- which is possible I can tell you. Then I see a snake, a
puff adder gliding along as smooth as silk. This is the queer part I’m
trying to tell. I don’t shoot off like a rocket and lam out of there, I
just lay quiet watching it come along the ground till it reaches my foot where
it stops, surprised I’m still there, not scared or nothing. It slithers
over my foot, curious-like, and comes up to take a closer look at me. I
never budged. I never sweated a drop, just looked him square in his
slitty eyes, and when his tongue flickers in and out rapid, I done the same,
returning the compliment. We stayed like that flickering our tongues at
each other for some considerable time, then up comes my arm real slow, and my
hand come to a stop a couple inches away from the puff adder’s head. I
offer him the back of my hand to bite. He ducks his head sideways and
back again, back and forth like a dance, and I keep my eyes on his. Then
he stops bobbing side to side and turns and slithers away. It was a
perfeckly good hand he could of bit but never did. He slithers off into
the leaves and then he’s gone. … I knowed right off it’s a sign, but the
meaning of it was a mystery.”
I invoke this passage as a sign, a good omen, a
fortuitous indication that perhaps the time is right for Earth Manifesto understandings to be received as comprehensively
convincing observations that embody valuable perspectives and desirable
goals. Let these insights help galvanize
humanity into integrating smart and progressive ideas into propitious private
behaviors and public policies.
Many are the mysteries of life, and I hope that
readers will have gained from this exploration of ideas that could become
important to the future of life on Earth.
This epistle has certainly become a distinct pleonasm, as Ambrose Bierce satirically defines this word:
Pleonasm, n. An army of words escorting a corporal of
thought. (Ha!)
It’s
fascinating to contemplate the influences that have inspired humanity over the
ages. In early Greek mythology, the
original Muses were Aoide (“song” or “voice”), Mneme (“memory”), and Melete
(“contemplation”). Hmmm …
In
ancient Delphi, there were also three muses: Nete, Mesi and Hypate. These muses
were represented by the three chords of the lyre, an ancient stringed musical
instrument. This haunting and
expressively beautiful musical instrument was used to accompany storytellers,
singers and poets, and the first known song ever written was played on a
lyre-like stringed instrument.
Ah,
the fertility of the human imagination!
As artistic creativity evolved to greater complexity, the muses took on
more specialized areas of inspiration.
In later Greek mythology, nine fine Muses were born, and they were
considered the source of all knowledge.
The Muses were the mysterious daughters of Zeus, the ruler of the
heavens, and of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. They were:
Calliope, the chief of the Muses and the muse of epic poetry
Clio, the muse of history and the stories of heroes
Polyhymnia, the muse of sacred song and rhetoric
Melpomene, the muse of tragedy
Thalia, the muse of comedy
Erato, the muse of lyric poetry and love stories
Euterpe, the muse of lyric song
Terpsichore, the muse of dance and choral singing
Urania, the muse of astronomy
One
could muse over the nature of inspiration to one’s heart’s content, or even for
mere amusement. See Inspiration, Imagination, and the Deep Well of Human Impulses for
an elaboration on this thought. Such
musings would be a little like using Roget’s
Thesaurus in the manner that many people have used it over the past 150
years: “Thousands have used Roget’s as a
browsing book, a book that stimulates thought and exploration because it
uniquely collects great semantic ‘domains’ under large conceptual headings, and
shows by the manner of organization the tracks the mind may take as it ranges
about in a given territory.”
“The difference between the almost
right word and the right word is really a large matter -- it’s
the difference between the lightening bug and the lightening.”
--- Mark Twain
Crazy
to contemplate! A thesaurus maps the
totality of concepts available to the human mind, and the relations among these
concepts. Curiously, such concepts are
more-or-less universal, regardless of what language is used to express
them. Consider the fact that there are
more than 6,800 languages in the world, a veritable Tower of Babel of tongues.
“Whatever
the world’s linguistic diversity, it is steadily declining as local forms of
speech increasingly become moribund before the advance of the major languages
of world civilization.”
Our
concepts are arguably becoming more expansive as time passes, and as the number
of words in a thesaurus expands; on the
other hand, the diversity of ways of seeing things may contrastingly be
becoming lesser with the homogenizing influences of media and the Internet and
advertising, and with the advance of communication technologies.
I conclude these writings with some elegant
quotes that have personal resonance for me.
Jack London, one of California’s greatest writers, wrote in Martin Eden:
“… the more he knew, the more passionately he admired the Universe, and
life, and his own life in the midst of it all.”
“And then, in splendor and glory, came the great idea. He would
write. He would be one of the eyes through which the world saw, one of
the ears through which it heard, one of the hearts through which it felt.”
“He wanted to glorify the leaders of forlorn hopes, the mad lovers, the
giants that fought under stress and strain, amid terror and tragedy, making
life crackle with the strength of their endeavor.”
“What he sought was an impassioned realism, shot through with human
aspiration and faith.”
The original Earth Manifesto was first published
online in October 2004 (it is now Part Seven on the Home Page). It consists of 121 Soliloquies, all of them
originally created as noble expressions of the human condition using colorful calligraphy
pens. It was later augmented by 32
‘Evolutionary Understandings’ (now Part Six on the Home Page), and then by this
evolving Comprehensive Global
Perspective.
Subsequently,
things have really taken off, and all the essays found in other parts of the
Home Page have been written. My hope is
that these ideas will turn out to be regarded as some of the most broadly
elaborated and valuable ideas ever set forth, even if they do meander
considerably and encompass too much redundancy.
I’d like to think that these writings are a distillation of many of the
most farsighted ideas and all-embracing understandings in existence today. And with the evolution of the Common Sense Revival, I
am hoping that the Earth Manifesto will contribute powerful impetus to making wide-ranging
reforms in economic and political systems that will assure us that our
societies will be made fairer and our environmental protection policies will be
strengthened.
“Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of
thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the
experience of the mass is behind the single voice.”
--- Virginia Woolf
On
the cover page of the original Earth
Manifesto, in what is essentially Soliloquy One, I expressed thanks to
every person whose ideas are quoted, paraphrased or plagiarized in it. As a wise-ass wit once said, if you steal
from one person it’s plagiarizing, but if you borrow from a bunch of people,
it’s research! Thanks all!
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
--- T.S. Eliot
The following brazen and valiantly hopeful sentiment
appears on the cover page of the original Earth Manifesto:
Ideally, the Earth Manifesto is destined to
become the most influential
manuscript of the 21st Century.
What if it did?!
Truly,
Dr. Tiffany B. Twain
March 5, 2015
Thanks
for reading!
Feedback?
SaveTruffulaTrees@hotmail.com
Postscript – The Author Offers an Aside
Readers will no doubt note the redundancy
of many observations in these Earth Manifesto writings. I have long admired poet David Whyte’s
remarkable voice and his use of repetition in his powerful and evocative readings
of poetry. Earth Manifesto essays,
however, tend to be repetitive for a different reason. The most cogent ideas keep recurring due to
the passionate conviction with which I perceive them, as the manifesto evolves,
and as the swirling course of events repeatedly reveals their relevance and
evokes their truth anew.
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