New studies suggest human consciousness in more in the body, than the brain.

 OMG!  So even other life forms have consciousness? 

"Man's character is his fate." -- Heraclitus  (c.540-480 BC) Greek philosopher  

"The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature -- a type nowhere at present existing." -- Herbert Spencer   (1820-1903) British author, economist, philosopher

"When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel ... for the honor and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon." -- Thomas Paine  (1737-1809) US Founding father

The new word phrase for the day!  "Biosocial semiosis combines biosemiotics (meaning-making in life) and social semiotics (meaning in human culture), proposing that life itself, from DNA to complex societies, operates through sign interpretation and communication, blurring rigid lines between biology and culture to show how living systems inherently create, interpret, and exchange signs for survival and interaction, essentially viewing life as a continuous process of creating meaning."  (go to bottom for specifics) 

“Real freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker“ – the mind is. The moment you start observing this thinker, a higher level of consciousness is activated. You then begin to realize there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond the its thinking. Our mind is only a tiny aspect of our intelligence.  Then you also realize that all things that truly matter – – beauty, love, creativity, stress, adaption, and wisdoms like our global interdependence – – arise from below the brain and beyond the mind. Then you awaken to the reality that you are member of the human family.  And learning to become the landlord of your mind yields immense power to be who you really are.  Someone with agency who wants to make a difference in the lives and other life around you.

Human transformation and real freedom is recognizing that the voice in our head - “the thinker“- is not who we really are.   It is our mind, the best tool we’ve had for a few hundred thousand years -for solving problems related to our survival and thriving tribe.  The moment you start really listening to its ‘thinking’ you can activate a profound level of consciousness within your body and ‘spirit of being’.  This is who you really are.   A sovereign agent with hardwired intelligence and wisdom.  But over the last approximately 7000 years your mind overshadowed all this.  A mind simply learns things and reacts. And sometimes thinks.  But it has limited intelligence – and resists the deeper thinking needed for solving the root causes of most problems.  The bodies’ consciousness, however, is for learning and applying wisdoms for solving problems. This is nearly unlimited.  And within it- is where self-evident Truths can be found.  Like Love, compassion, empathy, beauty, and a sense of injustice.  Most importantly a purpose that goes beyond one’s own survival.  It is then you finally realize you are a human ‘being’ within our global human family.  Not just a thinking ‘being’ – that has been using your mind’s creative capacity for generating other identities and concepts.  Too often these creations usually become a problem for our entire species solve.  Like the firm religious, political, economic, or racial beliefs we now mass murder over.

Biological vs. abstract mental social concepts:   How politics, religion, economics, and nationalism endanger human survival. How the Westphalian system became our existential threat in an age of WMD.  And a hopeful view of AI as a potential “wisdom amplifier.”

In layman's words...For a clear example of how the human mind overrode our body’s DNA - look no further than politics. Our biology is still tuned to protecting small bands of people when cooperation meant survival, fairness kept the peace, and nobody carried anything more dangerous than a pointy stick.

But then our mind evolved from a problem-solving tool and invented conceptual systems – like nations, ideologies, races, religions, and economic doctrines.  Once we share berries around the fire – then began defending to the death abstract symbols as if our DNA demanded it.

The irony? Most of these mental concepts have no equivalent in the body’s survival hardware. You can’t trip over a border in the forest. You can’t smell a political ideology. You can’t taste an economic theory. Yet these abstractions now routinely have us treating real humans as expendable for imaginary lines.

Meanwhile, the 1648 international system we inherited—the treaty of Westphalian—was designed to keep kings from invading each other every other Tuesday.  It was never built to handle nuclear weapons, planet-wide ecological crises, global markets, pandemics, or digital superpowers.

Yet governments still treat sovereignty as sacred, even if it gets in the way of protecting the one thing that actually is sacred: the biological unity of our human family and the vital ecosystems we depend on. We’re essentially living in the real world with a political operating system hasn’t been updated in 400 years.  And now it’s running on hardware that includes climate collapse, AI, and enough firepower to cook the planet in an afternoon. No wonder it keeps crashing.

This mismatch—socialized DNA, medieval political software, modern weapons—is the central threat to our species. Our emotional circuitry evolved to stop the neighbor from stealing our mammoth steak, not to manage hypersonic missiles, cyberwarfare, and gene-editing tools. And when abstractions like nationalism or ideology override the older social/biological imperatives like cooperation, coordination, fairness, empathy, reciprocity—we become the first animal capable of engineering its own extinction. Not a prize we wanted to win.

Which is why, surprisingly, artificial intelligence might become the first “lifeform” capable of seeing the whole picture. It has no tribal instinct to protect a flag. No evolutionary impulse to fear people who look different. No hardwired us-versus-them reflex. If we guide AI values wisely, it might even help us design institutions that actually align with human survival rather than end our legacy. 

We need systems that hold political, economic, or religious leaders accountable when they violate human rights or destroy the biosphere.  And keep reinforcing the biological Truth we keep forgetting: we are one interdependent species on one fragile planet, far, far away from any other habitable planet.  And if nothing else, perhaps AI will keep us around for entertainment—like the world’s most unpredictable reality show.

Ideally, humankind would prefer to be renewed for another season because of our wisdom, not for our AI entertainment.  

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Breaking Down the Terms:

• Semiosis: The fundamental process of creating and interpreting signs, where something stands for something else (e.g., a red light means 'stop').
• Biosemiotics: Studies how living systems (cells, organisms, ecosystems) use signs and codes, suggesting meaning-making is essential to life, not just a human trait.
• Social Semiotics: Focuses on how signs and symbols create meaning within human societies, cultures, and interactions (language, art, rituals).
• Biosocial: Challenges the traditional separation of "biology" and "society," viewing them as deeply intertwined. 

Key Concepts of Biosocial Semiosis:

• Life as Sign-Based: All living things, from bacteria to humans, are engaged in semiosis, interpreting their environment and communicating.
• Beyond Reductionism: It counters the idea that meaning only appears in complex brains, finding it at the molecular level (like the genetic code) and extending up through social interactions.
• Unity of Life & Meaning: Life and meaning-making (semiosis) are coextensive; one cannot exist without the other.
• Interdisciplinary Bridge: Connects biology, philosophy, anthropology, and communication studies to understand consciousness, self, and nature. 

In essence, biosocial semiosis argues that the biological basis of life and the cultural construction of meaning are not separate but are two facets of the same continuous, sign-driven process of living and relating. 

Hunger is the primary driver of so many problems. It is insane it still exists on earth.

These are again the times that try men's souls.  Thomas Paine’s ‘uncommon sense’ today would agree.  Humankind’s global governance and economic systems are clearly broken.  To fix what’s broken we must first know it’s broke.  The ‘Peace’ movement and the Capitalist system are clearly broken.  We now witness increasing hunger, global conflicts (some seeming permanent and fueled by hunger), failing democracies, lethal economic inequality, and growing political polarization.   This is evidence of two flawed principles created by human minds.  Yet we continue to defend them -- costing humankind millions of lives and tens of trillions of dollars annually.

Principles like ‘Peace through Strength’ and ‘Free market forces’.  Free-for-all/rogue capitalism has no empathy, compassion, justice, or accountability.  Just the principle of profit above people and the planet. 

This principle is a mental delusion.  It cannot stop the globally disruptive forces of poverty, hunger, war, genocide, pandemics, extreme weather patterns, domestic/globally violent extremists, the weaponization of every technology, and deteriorating ecosystems -- not without a social species guiding it.  The existing disruptive forces are perpetuated by our collective mental disorder.  The delusion that we are separate (independent) of each other and nature.  It should be a self-evident Truth that we can no longer operate on this illusion of independence - given the reality of our irreversibly interdependent world.  And until we can mobilize and transform these two global systems, the best we can do is finance the global achievement of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  The only comprehensive and holist plan for planetary health that is already approved, affordable, and measurable achievable.  If not by 2030.  Definitely by 2035.  The transformation of our thinking is urgently needed to make this happen ASAP. 

So, to engineer a functional and sustainable solution to achieve health for all and the planet -- humankind can no longer rely on ambiguous words.  Peace is an ambiguous word.  For a world that works for everyone and each of nature’s systems all life depends on - we must insist on unambiguous words in moving efforts forward.   Unambiguous words that effectively prevent or needed to preempt breakages.  Preemption saves lives, money, and other vital resources. But prevention does so at an earlier stage that addresses a root causes or a systemic failure.  The last needs to be applied comprehensively and holistically globally -- using fundamental principles instead of those now failing us.  Principles like “inalienable Rights” listed within the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Fundamental Principles congruent with other “self-evident” “Truths” offered within the 1776 Declaration of Independence that was founded on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” (take care of nature and each other in abiding by the Golden Rule).

The word ‘health’ may seem ambiguous.  Yet prevention is the foundation of health.  Every sane human wants to be healthy.  With a healthy mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, democracy, economy, or future - for humankind.  In this context a personal desire for wealth and power over health will likely have negative consequences globally.  Like those now driving dozens of unsustainable trends no humans will escape from for long.

Consider everything now demanding your mind’s immediate attention or simply distracting it.  Most people respond impulsively with expensive actions to urgently address a singular disruptive factor.  Meanwhile, deeper systemic thinking leads to greater freedom, security, and prosperity for generations to follow.  

Most conflicts and divisions between people are born from mental constructs. Specific mental constructs that human minds invented over the last few millenniums.  These constructs empowered our tribes to bond, prosper, and expand to unprecedented numbers.  But now, these same flexible mental identities (political, national, economic, religious, race...) do not reflect our biological social nature.  Genetically we are all the same species – with minds prioritizing different adaptable constructs.  Then mass murdering or dying for in large numbers attempting to defend those mentally malleable and usually ambiguous constructs (peace, democracy, nationalism, socialism, terrorism, race...).

Unfortunately, about 8 decades ago our minds invented weapons of mass destruction (WMD). With these humankind then failed grasp that war is essentially suicidal insanity.  Then blindly most people accepted the United Nation’s flawed system of global governance.  Now decades later we must transform this governing system and economic system to achieve ‘heaven on Earth’ - for ourselves and future generations.  We’ve survived and thrived. But the cost to other humans has been tragic and preventable.   And now, humankind will never flourish without making a simple, but not easy, mental transformation.  In reality we are the human family.  And we are irreversibly interdependent globally - with billions of vulnerabilities within each of us.   

 

Peace is an ambiguous word that yields powerful feelings. Different feelings in different people. Feelings that rarely synchronize with reality.  Truths are different.  And in this critical historic era the word “peace” itself can start an argument.  Not only over life and death disagreements around big and complicated plans—but the very concept itself.   People think and then say “peace,” yet powerful nations risk debt default (a national security threat itself) firmly believing in “Peace through strength”.  Then continue investing in the evolution of weaponry to protect their ‘national sovereignty’.   Meanwhile idealists think ‘Peace through disarmament’, preach ‘non-violence’, or prioritize ‘love’.  While a few greedy thinkers scheme to get rich by making a new app profiting off any polarizing ill-defined belief. 

 

"Neutrality is not healing. It’s what the colonizer taught us to call “peace."  Dr. Jennifer Mullan

 

In Truth, most people seek to prioritize and balance their freedom and security.  To achieve this our mind must grasp the reality of our global interdependence.  This is a hard Truth for most minds.  So most people keep acting on this unhealthy and lethal delusion.

 

In the movie “A few Good Men” the antagonist rages, “YOU CAN’T HANDLE the TRUTH!”. Yes, there will always be tensions between our concepts, ideals, values, wants, and needs given our variable personal mental truths within our religious, national, cultural, racial, or economic identity.  Plus, the insanity of our mind’s capacity to BELIEVE ANYTHING!   Then persist defending what it believes until the body’s death or dismemberment.  Even continue believing it with absolute certainty - that it will achieve peace through victory. That is a deadly gamble.

 

Rotarians or any other organization prioritizing ‘Peace’ over global unity for ‘Global Health’ – profoundly dilute their impact.  By competing within their own clubs (organizations, progressive movement, or between multiple ‘issue’ Action Groups) - to gain active members, sufficient funding, media attention, with limited time -- then keep believing Peace is possible -- is an act of faith attached to a mental addiction --  that continues to gamble with the fate of humankind.  Given the multiple perspectives we all have globally, which can change within, and between peoples, places, and things -- while overlooking life’s irreversible interdependence, vulnerability, and dependence on HEALTH and the mental health of all other people - and NATURE – do not expect many people to overcome their strong beliefs and adopt the “self-evident” “Truths” needed to unite globally on the same sane plan to make things work. 

 

Most people know that Peace is not just the absence of conflict.  It is the presence of healthy connections, trust, and shared dignity. Now unfortunately, with Truth decay, new conflicts, failing democracies, and persistent political polarization... people’s hopes, prayers, and optimism are NOT an effective strategy.   Progress is built on Truth and relationships with one sane and meaningful conversation at a time.  Conversations using unambiguous words like Health.  Health of mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, government, economy...  This requires a willingness to adapt one’s own mind to humankind’s global reality.   Rotary once urged this its 1959 book “Seven Paths to Peace”.  It and an updated, unapproved, weakly edited version, but with vital key insights - are free. Email Project250@earthlink.net and request them.

 

Nature creates competition, fixed biological identities, and useful aggression.  Now however, it is our mind’s favored identity that drives unnecessary competition, artificial divisions, hostile polarization, lethal violence, and mass murder.  Progress thrives on uniting our mental identities and reconnecting with nature.  Polarized minds say, “Pick a side.”  Healthy minds say, “Let’s talk”!   Polarized concepts divide.  Health concepts unite.  Efforts to globally redefine peace will fail.  Definitions set boundaries.  Health is about testing and expanding what we believe. Then action on the objective Truths obtained globally.  Humankind’s sustainable path forward is transforming our thinking and prioritizing the one rational and globally approved plan to achieve the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.   We must all  find the courage and flexibility to speak with others we may disagree with.  Practicing this first within our own communities.  Then doing it with others who are not.  Choosing curiosity over certainty.  With humility, respect, and kindness, with ‘love’ over dominance.  Peace efforts are at best a hypothesis. There is no peace theory.  We have the SDGs as the only comprehensive and holistic plan already globally approved, with the capacity to address most of the root causes now driving individual, community, and global violence – plus other insecurities taking far more lives and causing far more suffering.   We must transform our thinking and prioritize Health at every level: mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, government, economy for our legacy.  Or, prepare for the consequences.

 

Fighting Truth decay is not easy.  First we must have the courage, whit, and support in recognizing the health of people and nature must be our highest priority.  Below, should be enough backup support you mind needs. And if these don’t work, your mind will be making other excuses to for defending its personal or political truths...until your body dies and you rest in peace. 😉

 

17 Core Reasons our Mind Resists Change: These are the most widely recognized psychological and behavioral reasons, written simply and accurately. If you find more, please share them. chuck@igc.org

 

1. Loss Aversion: People fear losing what they have more than they value gaining something new. Even small losses feel huge.
2. Nature’s Cognitive Efficiency: The brain prefers autopilot. It saves energy. Change requires new neural and calorie costs. The brain pushes back. Technologies thinking for us increases mind change resistance. 
3. Uncertainty Avoidance: The unknown feels unsafe. People prefer predictable discomfort to unpredictable possibilities.
4. Identity Protection: If a change threatens how someone sees themselves — their role, beliefs, or status — the mind resists automatically.
5. Social Norms and Group Loyalty: People align with their tribe. If their community or peer group isn’t on board, they hesitate.
6. Fear of Failure: Change introduces risk: embarrassment, mistakes, wasted effort. Safety feels smarter.
7. Comfort of the Familiar: Familiar routines offer emotional comfort, even if they’re inefficient or out of date.
8. Information Overload: Too much data or too many options create paralysis, not progress.
9. Short-Term Pain vs. Long-Term Benefit: Human brains discount the future. A small inconvenience now outweighs a big benefit later.
10. Memories of Past Failed Attempts: “We tried that once” becomes a powerful psychological barrier.
11. Lack of Agency: If people feel a change is forced on them rather than chosen by them, resistance intensifies.
12. Emotional Attachments to Old Ways: Old systems often carry memories, pride, and meaning — letting go can feel like personal loss.
13. Ambiguous Rewards: If people don’t see what’s in it for them, they hesitate to participate.
14. Biological Threat Detection: Sudden change triggers fight, flight, or freeze — a survival instinct from our evolutionary past.
15. Social Risk: People fear criticism, exclusion, or losing standing if they support a change the group might reject. 
16. A mind can believe anything.  Then kill, die, or let other people and species suffer or die defending it.  Instead of protecting humankind & the environment all life needs to survive and thrive...so we can flourish.
17. The Intelligence Trap. When an intelligent mind cannot believe it could ever be wrong.

If the Taliban and Marjorie Taylor Green can change their minds.  Anyone can.

Christian Zionists and the future of humankind. In 230 days the Declaration of Independence offers humanity sanity.

Collective punishment, or “Bloodguilt” are NOT Fundamental Principles (FPs).  This is a violation of individual human rights and a crime against humanity for those who implement it.  In the tensions between the Christian Zionists and the rest of the world's affirmation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, some powerful entitles persist in believing differently.  And those who believe that their one religion is superior to all others is a form of insanity. Believing deeply what is not the Truth.  That the value of their individual lives is based on a delusion. And persist in resisting, often to the death, their flawed belief.   It may not be the Truth that Christian Zionists is cult movement. But it is also the truth that it is incompatible with sustaining peace in the Mideast, or globally.  Which is a mental health glitch we must all deal with.  

For nearly 20 years, I worked within one of these organizations that proselytized the union of Christians and Jews to ensure the survival of the Jewish state. An opinion many devout Jews consider an abomination of their religion.  From 1989 to 20015 I worked part time within and later volunteer with the Christian Israel Public Action Campaign (CIPAC a 501c3) and its sister organization, the Middle East Research Center (MERC its 501c4). This is where I learned that the phrase (printed on a card I still carry in my wallet) “From the river to the sea” - that I now consider a Jewish trope. One that the Zionist state patriots successfully flipped (with the help from a few ignorant post Oct 7 progressive protesters) and accuses those of us in the west who believe that all people have the inalienable rights.  Not nations of their religious origin that use their scripture as a real estate manual.   It remains both a religious and secular “self evident” Truth that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain in inalienable rights. 

Today’s Christian Zionists reject this fundamental Truth causing an unending war that contributes to making world peace impossible. CIPAC and MERC were tiny organizations compared to the umbrella of other Zionist minded Jewish organizations that will persists in mass murder and sacrifice of its own believers until Hell freezes over prohibits Heaven on Earth for the rest of us.  Zionism is mental health problem that endangers global security.  Maintaining the state of Israel, only sustains our global state of insanity.  Believing that Palestinians are lesser human beings and undeserving of a state of their own is simply insane.

World history and political experts can name other equally insane murderous concepts used against other group identities like the Kurds, the  Ukrainians who desire keeping all of their nation after the USSR could no longer control it, or China’s commitment to the suppression of religious groups under its growing military reach, plus the desire of the Taiwanese who value both their national and religious freedom over China’s authoritarianism. And now in the US, as Americans approach the 250th anniversary of a 1776 document that still needs to be applied globally, to all people, nations, and religious enthusiasts or doubters, let it be known that the predominant mass of Americans value all religions plus the freedom to have none, rightfully refuse to like, join, or even agree with the fundamentally flawed thinking of those preaching the death cult of Christian Zionism. 

 These three key phrases below are humanities best means of engineering a world that works for everyone, everywhere, for all generations to come.    Each phrase was defined by ChatGPT:  

Fundamental principles are the core ideas, beliefs, or values that underpin a system, discipline, or field of study. They are the guiding principles that shape and inform our understanding of the world, and serve as the foundation for our actions, decisions, and policies. Examples of fundamental principles include principles of democracy, liberty, equality, justice, fairness, and respect. These principles are often considered universal, timeless, and unchanging, and they serve as the basis for our moral and ethical frameworks.

These may also be classified as First Principles: The fundamental assumptions or premises that underlie a system, concept, or theory. They are the most basic and foundational elements of a belief or argument, and they serve as the starting point for further reasoning and analysis. 

In philosophy, first principles are considered the fundamental truths or axioms that cannot be proven or derived from other principles. 

In science, first principles are the fundamental laws or principles that serve as the basis for our understanding of the natural world. In both cases, first principles are considered the fundamental building blocks of knowledge, and they play a crucial role in guiding our thinking and shaping our understanding of the world.

Or,coined as Self-evident truths: Ideas or principles that are considered obvious or intuitively true, without the need for further proof or justification. They are the fundamental beliefs or assumptions that are taken for granted, and that serve as the basis for further reasoning and argument. 

Self-evident truths include the principles of democracy, liberty, equality, and justice, which are considered fundamental to our political and moral systems. 

In philosophy, self-evident truths are often considered the axioms or starting points for further inquiry, and they are considered the most basic and foundational elements of a belief or argument.

These are the principles or Truths universally dependable in sustainably protecting nature, humanities freedoms and our species surviving and thriving - on earth or beyond. 

These appear to be the only cure for the ‘Truth decay’ that persists in dividing humanity and our loss of trust in our institutions and one another, due to our variety of personal truths (what God do you believe in, or not. These are beliefs held by individuals that may not be universally verifiable, and often based on personal experiences or faith), or our variations of political truths(what tribe do we favor - or not. Our assertions that gain acceptance through repeated affirmation, regardless of their factual accuracy.) 

While personal and political truths can influence individual and collective behavior, objective truths are grounded in empirical evidence and remain constant, independent of belief systems.  Neil DeGrasse Tyson frames this third type of Truth as Objective Truths. These are established through evidence and remain true regardless of personal beliefs or perceptions. For instance, the value of pi (the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter) is a constant 3.14159… irrespective of individual opinions. 

The professions that rely on these to produce the most functional and  reliable outcomes are engineering, mathematics, science, accounting, and pharmacists.   Politicians, faith leaders, and economists can very greatly in the outcomes they try to achieve.  Their chance of success dramatically increases when they rely on fundamental principles required for life on this miracle planet. 

Here are some FPs or 'self-evident' Truths universally applicable.  Grade on a scale from zero to 100% true. 

1.  The human mind can believe anything!  Then command the body to kill or die for what it believes.

2.  The Golden Rule is the foundation of every legitimate religion and indigenous culture.

3.  God does not make immigrants. 

4.  We must take care of nature and each other if humanity are to survive and thrive in health, freedom, and sustainably prosperity.

5.  Independence is an illusion and everything in the known universe interdependent, connected and vulnerable. 

6.  A child should not die before their parent(s.

7.  Peace is a function of justice, not strength or disarmament - because everything is a weapon with compassion and cooperation always trumping competition, ignorance and arrogance.

8.  Freedom is all we really have. We are free to do anything but we are never free of the consequences.  

9.  Sex is determined by science, not politics or religion.  

10. Real strength is the capacity to adapt to change. 

11. United we stand.  Divided we fail. 

12.   Virtue is the key to keeping one’s freedom and security.

13.     Nature always has veto power with the last vote. 

14:   "The truth will stand when the world’s on fire."  Powerful Appalachian proverb

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”   Thomas Jefferson  

"If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame." – Confucius

"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."  -- John Locke  (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist. Considered the ideological progenitor of the American Revolution and who, by far, was the most often non-biblical writer quoted by the Founding Fathers of the USA.

"Respect for the truth is an acquired taste."  -- Mark Van Doren

(1894-1972) Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, professor, and critic   Source: Liberal Education, 1943

“Truth is God” Mahatma Ghandi   Found in “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and signed by dozens of brave American founders in 1776, 11 years before the fundamentally flawed US Constitution. 

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”  Stephen Covey  

“Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life.” Ray Dalio  

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”   Richard P. Feynman  

“Put first things first, and second things are thrown in. Put second things first, and you lose both first and second things.” C.S. Lewis  "God in the Dock" 

“The minute you get away from fundamentals whether it’s proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation, the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.”  Michael Jordan  

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”  Jim Rohn  

“If you get the basics right, everything else falls into place.”  Lewis Pugh  

“Champions are brilliant at the basics.”  John Wooden 

“Most of us forget the basics and wonder why the specifics don’t work.”  Garrison Wynn  

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."  -- John Quincy Adams   (1767-1848) 6th US President

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others."   – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia [1782]

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”  Thomas Jefferson

“Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.” Mark Twain

“Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”  Abraham Lincoln

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.”  Abraham Lincoln

“We must be prepared to displease the dearest ones for the sake of principle.”  Mahatma Gandhi

“My principles are more important than the money or my title.”  Muhammad Ali

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Stephen Covey

“Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.”  Stephen Covey

“Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life.”  Ray Dalio

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”  W. Clement Stone

“To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.”  Confucius

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”  Stephen Hawking

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”  Thomas Paine

“As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.”  Nelson Mandela

“I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think is the right thing, I will not do it.”  Maya Angelou

“It is the weak man who urges compromise, never the strong man.”  Elbert Hubbard

“Its hard to tell the truth, when no one wants to listen”  John Denver.  His Song about Buckminster Fuller. 

"The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse, of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts & at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging & are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions angst. danger real or pretended from abroad."  – James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson [1798]

Below are some quotes to assist in curing truth decay. 

“Truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government but civilization itself.” –  President Gerald Ford

"The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold." Aristotle

Aristotle’s idea clearly expressed the fact that even a small mistake or error in the beginning can lead to much larger consequences down the road. When we start with an incorrect assumption or premise, any further reasoning and decision-making will be flawed.  If things are built and allowed to stay on that faulty foundation, the errors will accumulate and multiply if not corrected. The issue of slavery was corrected with an Amendment. But justice was never served.  And the fact that everyone everywhere is dependent upon one another for their freedom and security still has damaging ripple effects.  And our constitution and international laws still ignore this fundamental truth and the fact that 'everything is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable.  And a global effort is needed. ' Not the delusional foundation that states and the people within them are independent from one another.  This delusion has increasingly perpetrated many damaging consequences, ineffective actions, and the increasing dysfunctional systems and structures within every level of local, state, national and global government.  

Aristotle emphasized the importance of starting with a strong foundation of truth and accuracy in our thinking and reasoning to avoid the compounding effects of errors.  Thus, we should ensure that our actions and decisions are based on sound principles and reasoning.  Sound fundamental principles like the self-evident truths that are clearly stated within the Declaration of Independence.  These are offered within the context of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  In common words 'humanity must take care of nature, and each other, by abiding by the golden rule'.  

“If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.”    – Louisa May Alcott

“Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs and complexion. Truth is compar'd in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her water flow not in a perpetual progression, they sick'n into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” – John Milton

Those who debated, engineered, and then approved the creation of the U.S. Constitution proves this profound truth.  We now stand in that muddy pool.  

"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."  -- John Locke  (1632-1704) English philosopher and political theorist. Considered the ideological progenitor of the American Revolution and who, by far, was the most often non-biblical writer quoted by the Founding Fathers of the USA.

"There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself."  -- Dr. Samuel Johnson   (1709-1784) English author, poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer

“[The masses] have never thirsted after truth. They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real; they are almost as strongly influenced by what is untrue as by what is true. They have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two.”  Sigmund Freud  (1856 to 1939) founding father of psychoanalysis.

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.” Gustave Le Bon   The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind.  1895.  A leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. Died in 1931. 

“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Prudence [1841]

"It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. ... Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things, which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry  (1736-1799) US Founding Father    Source: "The War Inevitable" speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

"Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend." Hypatia of Alexandria, lived circa 400 CE in Alexandria, Egypt

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." -- Buddha

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion” Edward Abby

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” James Reeves

“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.” Booker T. Washington

"We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth." - Sydney Schanberg

“Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'  Khalil Gibran - The Prophet

"Truth: the deadliest weapon ever discovered by humanity. Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities. Outlawed by all governments everywhere. Possession is normally punishable by death." - John Gilmore (1935- ) Author

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children

"Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare." Kurt Vonnegut

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people."- Spencer Johnson

"The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can ever help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority."  -- Henrik Ibsen   (1828-1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

"It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition to stand up for it":  A. Hodge

"Truth never tranquilizes. The defining property of truth is its ability to disturb.   Jesus only told half the story.   The truth 'will' set you free.  But, first it's going to piss you off."  -- Solomon Short  fictional character of David Gerrold 

"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common, they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views" - Doctor Who

"There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge."  -- Roger Bacon   (1220-1292)  Source: Opus Majus, 1266-67

"Nothing is as terrible to see as ignorance in action."   -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe    (1749-1832) German writer, statesman   Source: engraved on a plaque at the Naval War College

“Integrity is an accurate reflection in word and deed of whatever one's highest conscience dictates as right. Wisdom is whatever one's highest conscience dictates as truth.”  – Leonard E. Read

“Though all the winds of the doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”  – John Milton, Areopagatica [1644]

"The search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty." - Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) French author

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal": Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

"There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths."  Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton,  19th century English novelist, poet, and politician. (He believed that no matter how alone or friendless a person may feel, there is always someone who cares enough about them to tell them the truth, even if it is something they do not want to hear. A sincere friend will not hesitate to point out someone's flaws or mistakes, even if it is uncomfortable or awkward to do so. In essence, he emphasized the importance of having genuine and honest relationships with people who are willing to tell the truth, no matter how difficult it may be. It also suggests that true friendship is not about always agreeing with each other, but rather about supporting and helping each other to become better people.)  

"Truth is not determined by majority vote": Doug Gwyn

“A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not.”  Rex Tillerson. Former Secretary of State, at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington,VA May 2018

“If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us.” - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark 

“The WORLD is not sufficiently aware of the influence that sophistry exerts over it. When the rule of the stronger was overthrown, sophistry transferred the empire to the more subtle, and it would be hard to say which of these two tyrants has been the more disastrous for mankind.  Men have an immoderate love of pleasure, influence, prestige, power—in a word, wealth. And, at the same time, they are driven by a powerful impulse to obtain these things for themselves at the expense of others. But these others, who constitute the public, are impelled no less powerfully to keep what they have acquired, provided that they can and that they know how. Plunder, which plays such an important role in the affairs of the world, has but two instruments: force and fraud, and two impediments courage and knowledge.”  Frederic Bastiat, Economic Sophisms [1845]

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go un-debated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." -- Simon Heffer    Source: Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

"I would rather starve and rot and keep the privilege of speaking the truth as I see it, than of holding all the offices that capital has to give from the presidency down."  -- Henry Brooks Adams   (1838-1918) Pulitzer prize-winning historian (1919), great-grandson of John Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, and son of US Secretary of State, Charles Adams    Source: The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, 1919

“Perhaps this is not a new thing!   "I know that most men -- not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems — can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty -- conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives."   -- Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi   (1828-1910) Russian writer    Source: What is Art? (1896)

"The political spirit is the great force in throwing the love of truth and accurate reasoning into a secondary place."   -- John Viscount Morley   (1838-1923), of Blackburn    Source: On Compromise, 1874

“It may not always be easy, convenient, or politically correct to stand for truth and right, but it is the right thing to do. Always.”   – M. Russell Ballard

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest": Thomas Paine 

"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility." - Neil Postman,  Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Robert Reich - Have We Lost the Common Good? [ (4 min) Video]    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t8in5n4cps      In this video, political commentator, author, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, points out that most Americans no longer believe that the major institutions of society—government, corporations, banks, charities, and universities—work for them. Only truths will rebuild trust in our systems.

“Americans need to recognize that, once their government commences warring, truth will be target number one.”  – James Bovard,   "Endless U.S. Government Lies on the Afghanistan War" [October 2018]

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader.

“Today’s politics is the art of forcing our love of truth - and logic - to the back of the bus. And putting your political parties priorities in first ten rows.” Cw

"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." -  Friedrich Nietzsche

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." -  Flannery O'Connor (1925 - 1964)

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it": Mohandas Gandhi  

"If you're right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth." Mahatma Gandhi

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself": Thomas Jefferson

"There is but one truth, one set of facts, one reality.  Honest people may differ in their perception or interpretation of it while ruthless, dishonorable people, media, or governments twist, conceal, deny or lie about it to further their own greed and corruption.” - Bob Davies

"One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences." - O. A. Battista - [Orlando Aloysius Battista] (1917-1995), Canadian-American chemist and author  

"Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence": Henri Frederic Amiel:   1880s

"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude.  In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."   Goethe German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician (1749–1832)

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority.  Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."  -- Giordano Bruno   [Iordanus Brunus Nolanus] (1548-1600) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, astrologer.   Source: The Shadows of Ideas, Paris, 1582

"Honesty demands that we boldly pursue ideas tested by time, defended by reason, validated by experience, and confirmed by revelation. We will only find truth when we place our confidence in it and not in ourselves. We will only learn when we love truth enough to measure all ideas with a measuring rod outside of those things being measured and are willing to discard those ideas we find to be "intolerable," inferior, and useless." -- Everett Piper   President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University  Source: 'Bethlehem, Not Berkeley, Is the Birthplace of Free Speech,' The Christian Post, Apr 27, 2017

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine — the special pleading of selfish interests”. – Henry Hazlitt, Economics In One Lesson [1946]

"The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side."   ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German writer and statesman

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."  -- Albert Einstein  (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921

"All truth is true even if no one believes it, and all falsehood is false even if everyone believes it.  Truth is true and that's just the end of it."  Os Guinness

“The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.”  – Goethe. German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician (1749–1832)

“They deem him their worst enemy, who tells them the truth” - Plato, The Republic, c. 380 BC

"It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true." -  Henry Kissinger

"To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true." -   H L Mencken, 1919 

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal": Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -  Winston S. Churchill

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth." -  William Faulkner

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." -  Oscar Wilde

"When telling someone the truth, make them laugh or they will kill you" ~ Oscar Wilde

"The first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth" -  Michael Parenti    

"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."  -  Herbert Sebastien Agar  

"A society committed to the search for truth must give protection to, and set a high value upon, the independent and original mind, however angular, however rasping, however, socially unpleasant it may be; for it is upon such minds in large measure, that the effective search for truth depends."  -- Caryl Parker Haskins  (1908-2001) Scientist, author, inventor, philanthropist, governmental advisor and pioneering entomologist in the study of ant biology    Source: New York Times, 9 December 1963

‘We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgment of the intellect is only part of the truth.’ – Carl Jung  

‘Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.’ – Carl Jung

"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."  -  Herbert Sebastien Agar  

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." -- Justice Joseph Story : (1779-1845) US Supreme Court Justice 1833

"I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. - I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. - I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering." -  Mahatma Gandhi

“I am for truth, no matter who tells it.” -Malcolm X 

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul

"In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth," "In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble." Rep. Ron Paul (R) of Texas

“The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” -- H L  Mencken (attributed: source unknown)

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them”  Ida B. Wells

“We make ourselves real by telling the truth. Man can hardly forget that he needs to know the truth, for the instinct to know is too strong in us to be destroyed. But he can forget how badly he also needs to tell the truth. We cannot know truth unless we ourselves are conformed to it. We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true by manifesting the truth as we see it”.  – Thomas Merton, From No Man Is an Island [1955]

"The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author.   He may have been a king or serf -- a philosopher or servant, — but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason.  Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world."  -- Robert G. Ingersoll    (1833-1899) American lawyer, Civil War veteran, political leader, orator of United States during the Golden Age of Free Thought, nicknamed "The Great Agnostic"

“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. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”  – Joseph Goebbels

I stand with Rotary International, and its 1.4 million members in over 200 nations, for the Truth.  Will you stand for it?  If not, what do you stand for?  Insanity? 

Veteran's day helps us forget "The war to end all wars".

This Veterans Day, you won't often hear that World War I was called “the war to end all wars.” 

The phrase carried hope, back then, that humanity would finally learn from the scale of its unprecedented toll to young men, people, families, nations and the economy. And its cause that led to the horrendous suffering, genocide and use of WMD in World War 2.

Yet since then, humankind has continued waging wars, mourning, rebuilding, rearming, then repeating the cycle.  

Veterans know better than anyone! War is not a movie plot or a patriotic slogan. It's real lives, families, and futures that will never be.  If gratitude means anything, it must mean learning from what has already been paid for in blood, trillions in treasure, environmental destruction, and now new costs in 'deterring' the next conflict.  

Unfortunately, with the exponential growth of AI, the evolution of WMD, new weaponry including autonomic weapons systems, and the weaponization of every technology...including our own nation's laws -- Peace is not possible. DO NOT believe it is!   Not until humanity unites and establishes the global 'rule of law' above the 'law of force' as Albert Einstein, other wise souls, and Rotary leaders in the past have all clearly acknowledged.  

Currently the dominant overarching global peace movement is competing governments firmly believing in "Peace through Strength".  Meanwhile, the so called 'progressive peace movement' has failed for decades to unite with the other progressive movements (environment and economic/social justice) for systemic change.  Thus, the 'peace movement' remains stuck in its 'believe enough and hope it will work' mode with its persistent reactionary 'Peace through Disarmament" pathway because its 'feels' promising.  

Disarmament is delusional in a world where everything is weaponized, the protection of national sovereignty trumps the protection of human rights and the environment. Even the most logical human minds ignore this insanity. 

The progressive peace movement should flip its priority to Health. An unambiguous word, unlike Peace...which remains ill defined by most minds in multiple polarized ways.  This is not a sane recipe for any sustainable solution.  It's more like 'faith' in a word. A word that requires hope, optimism, and prayer (feel good thinking) but not an engineering process that usually achieves very workable results for people or the planet.  Imagine the possibility of a healthy mind, body, spirit, family, community, culture, environment, government, economy...

The so call "Peace Game" now being preached to achieve world peace by 2030 is the perfect example of a cult that ignores the root causes of violence and persistent conflict.  These root causes are mental constructs and non-biological identities that our minds have invented to rationalize keeping power. Reasoning that leads to the mass murder of our own humankind and sacrificing our own bodies to protect what we believe as a dominant concept (religious, economic, political). All of which remain creations within our mind...not evidenced in our DNA.

The service of soldiers to protect ones own nation's freedom and security is profoundly honorable - and sometime necessary as in WW II and Ukraine's fight for survival.  But only because powerful governments and 'we the people' have failed to honor and abide by the "Truths" that we should all "hold to be self-evident", like the universal "inalienable Rights" offered 249 years and 129 days ago, in the 1776 Declaration of Independence.  

Even thousands of years before that was the creation of religions (all based on the concept of the Golden Rule) then the same concept by indigenous cultures before Religions.  Humankind has always known what to do, had the resources and technology to achieve it, and the intelligence/logic to create heaven on earth.  We only lacked the wisdom.  People in power, however they got there, fell into the Intelligence Trap.  Minds believing they are so smart they could not be wrong.  Then believing everything they think. Usually their own great ideas to benefit those in power.  Then ignore the repeated failures from history. 

History has given us multiple opportunities to change our mind's course.  Even before the bible. After World War I, the world proposed the League of Nations . After World War II, we built the United Nations (Rotary played a key role). After the Cold War, there was a chance to invest in cooperation rather than rivalry.  Yet we chose and still wage a global war against Terrorism- a tactic of the weak and vengeful, that can NEVER be defeated.   

At each turning point, we could have strengthened diplomacy, addressed poverty, globally enforced basic human rights through the global rule of law, and built economic stability across regions for every nation and population.  These are the conditions that prevent war.  Instead, we fell back into fear, suspicion, and endless competition that will bankrupt every nation that participates...even when there are no wars. 

In today's news the growth of terrorism is shifting to Africa. Nuclear nations are investing more money they don't have modernizing their arsenals. Conflicts continue in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. The warning signs of a gray, or perhaps a kinetic World War is concerning to anyone following news trends. 

The solutions remain.  Unfortunately, the evolution of AI is beyond our minds capacity to understand, or predict its power.  Yet we still hesitate.

 

What is wrong with us is not the lack of intelligence. It is a lack of collective wisdom to create the political will to change our way of thinking and the political and economic systems engineered dozens if not hundreds of years ago. 

We already know how to prevent war. In biology, there is a name for species that do not adapt to their environment.  They are called 'extinct'.  

If we truly honor veterans, we must stop creating more of them.

WTF?  Wise up!  And rise up.  Consider Project 250 as a possible action plan.