Pre and Post Covid19 world: By Jeremy Lent.

https://mahb.stanford.edu/whats-happening/coronavirus-spells-the-end-of-the-neoliberal-era-whats-next/

Jeremy Lent discusses whether the impact of the Covid-19 crisis will change anything: whether the same forces that led to the failure of our socio-ecological systems will radicalize and worsen - or if humanity will grasp this opportunity to transform the post-Covid-19 era into a meaningful one

this coronavirus is revealing the structural faults of a system that have been papered over for decades as they’ve been steadily worsening. Gaping economic inequalities, rampant ecological destruction, and pervasive political corruption are all results of unbalanced systems relying on each other to remain precariously poised. Now, as one system destabilizes, expect others to tumble down in tandem in a cascade known by researchers as “synchronous failure.”

Jeremy Lent’s analysis of the possibility of the post Covid19 world is highly probable. Given human resistance to change I’m not betting on it.  His descriptions of the conditions pre-Covid19 are on target.  What we are now seeing are the inevitable consequences of humanities deficient post WWII choices. 

The so called ‘greatest generation’ failed to put the protection of human security (human rights) above the protection of national sovereignty in creating the United Nations.  Now, us living and generations to come will pay the price for the consequences experts clearly warned us about.  Endless war, more genocides, pandemics, and the unstoppable proliferation of WMD in unimaginable, cheap, easier to use, virtually invisible and anonymous forms.  Some as devastating as nuclear weapons.

Lent referred to the greed but failed to mention the corruption willfully overlooked in our post WW II world.  It quickly became a wheel in the cog of the global economic system and not just a glitch in it.   By 2012 there was an estimate $32 trillion in illicit and anonymous funds stashed in offshore accounts.  Many of those trillions were originally targeted for basic human needs and a sustainable world, or could have been spend on this instead of propping up global criminal cartels and violent extremist groups.   

And this wealth was separate from the unimaginable wealth in the world were anyone making over $30,000 a year belonged in the wealthiest 1% of humanity. You read that correctly. And, the ultrarich make more than 100 times that per day.” [someone please check my math...]

Meanwhile there are nearly 100 unsustainable trends national and globally.  And I’m guessing that fewer than 1 in 50 Americans have even heard of the Sustainable Development Goals.  And even fewer could tell you how many goals there are, or the target date for achieving them.

Instead of ‘life affirming’ values replacing wealth affirmations as the author suggests, we need ‘health affirming values.  In 1981, the United Nation’s General Assembly unanimously adopted a ‘Global Strategy for Health for All’ by the Year 2000. It was WHO that gave birth to this "Health for All" movement but it or the UN was never given the essential financial investments to achieve it. Imagine a world with health for all minds, bodies, spirits, communities, cultures, environments, economies, nations, corporations, banks, values, and global populations.  

It is unfortunate Mr. Lent didn’t mention the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Or our need for comprehensively achieving them before the 2030 deadline the world set pre-Covid-19.  

This inspires little confidence for me - that our species will make the right choices that Mr. Lent is hoping for.

Earth Day's six "T"s. Test and Trace #1&2.

On Earth Day 2020 our world appears to be coming apart.  Even without global warming or Covid19 our earthly predicament is worse than one might think.  With only concern for the environment elements of our species health on this special day we will never be able to achieve the worthy goals of sustainable health for all.  A

Some other environmental, economic, political and biosecurity cracks in our security are masked by the deluge of Covid19 news coverage.  Environmental groups will rightfully point them theirs.  Others we've been repeatedly warned about.  

But all this important coverage largely ignores the growing fractures now being worsened by the eight key factors that generated this specific pandemic should make self evident.  

Environmental abuses are only one of these factors.  Understand that they are ALL interconnected.   Ignoring any of them will only contribute to increasing the number, frequency, and the potential severity of future pandemics...which ultimately effects everything.  

The eight factors are briefly:

1. Travel and Trade.

2. Global poverty (lack of clean water, sanitation, basic education, primary health care service, and adequate nutrition)

3. Microbial mutations:

4. Damages to nature:

5. Reliance on mass production technology that amplifies the spread of pathogens when minor errors of human judgment or machine processes occur:

6. Hospital acquired infections, invasive medical procedures, over use/abuse of antibiotics:

7. War, genocide, ethic cleaning, inadequate global response to localized natural disasters.

8. Dysfunctional Government(s).  Lack of political will to invest in prevention or adequate detection, response and R&D systems.

It is vital that we address all of these elements holistically and comprehensively if we are serious about coming out of this pandemic in relative civility -- and avoiding inevitable future pandemics that may not be as civil as Covid19.   

Typical piecemeal reactionary government actions will only result in more deaths and prolonged economic unsustainable spending – and the related difficulties of those already in poverty – while adding millions (potentially billions) of poverty newcomers that are now in the Covid19 pipe line.

A comprehensive global effort is essential for mitigating the economic, environmental, and national security impacts that this one is producing (and every other pandemic will bring in the future).  And more will come. 

Covid19 is the greatest crisis we have seen in generations.  And, it is certain, that that without a miracle, things will get worse before getting better. Prayers won’t hurt -- unless they draw attention away from the science and appropriate government actions now urgently needed.  And, the Golden Rule is needed now more than ever.  Note that it has never really been codified by government laws or appropriations.  Maybe it can’t be - given individual selfish interests.  But it could be with sufficient political will if our species has the wisdom. 

“Flatten the curve” has been the rational go to catch phrase so far.  “Test and Trace” (T2) is next.  Both obvious and urgently needed elements essential to effective actions for saving lives and resuscitating the economy -- and maybe avoiding a global depression.

Unfortunately, each of these two “T”s will encounter daunting barriers that must be overcome to work effectively.  Four of these barriers also start with the letter “T”.

“Trust” is the first.  Can we trust the tests being given?  The test numbers they yield must be reliable for the best use of limited money, materials, and personnel resources.  With multiple companies and countries developing different tests, without reliable testing procedures prior to releasing them into the market, it will be nearly impossible for scientists, the public, or our appointed/elected policy makers to make effective decisions.   If ‘united we stand’ is the rallying cry, our collective strength will only be as strong as our weakest link.  We need the best application of science to gain that trust. 

So we need the “Truth”.  And Covid19 hasn’t stopped conspiracy theories or partisan rhetoric.  Half-truths and even the assertion of fake news undermines our trust in government, science, and academia.  Our only viable defense against mistruths or untruths is trusting in our nation’s fundamental “Self-evident” truths expressed in our Declaration of Independence.  The profound truth that - ‘all people’ are “endowed” with unalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  “Self-evident”, should not mean self-invented principles like ‘market forces’, ‘national sovereignty’, or political ideology,  WE need fundamental principles that can actually protect us.  

For both trust and truth to work, we need “Transparency”.   Before this pandemic is over the US government will have appropriated and spent upwards of $6 trillion.  And that is just in reactionary measures.  Who will get these dollars?  Who will pay them back?  The truth is, our children and grandchildren will, if they ever get the chance.  The inherent corruption of our existing political and economic system is a function of the lack of transparency in both.  According to a 2012 statistic there was approximately $32 trillion stashed in anonymous offshore accounts (and some on shore banks!).  These ill gotten gains were stashed there by kleptocrats, oligarchs, drug cartels, violent extremist groups, and wealth capitalists with good lawyers helping them avoid taxes.  

If this money had gone to doing what was proposed by health experts’ multiple times over the past few decades, and at least four times over the last 14 months (according to today’s Washington Post lead editorial). -- we would have had a chance of avoiding much of the harmful health and economic consequences now before us. 

What would be ideal is building a four-pronged global health infrastructure with the first two prongs being the effective capacity for early detection and rapid response to any unusual outbreak.  The third?  Adequate investments in research and development as well the human capital that would be essential to doing what is inevitably needed.  Last, and most important if you believe that prevention pays, would be investing in global infectious disease preventive measures.  According to the Trump maligned World Health Organization (that was never given power to demand from any government - any adequate and accurate information on any disease) just universal access to clean water alone could eliminate half of all the world’s infectious diseases.  

Add sanitation, basic education, adequate nutrition, primary health care services and living wages -- and preventing most of the other disease spreaders like war and genocide – and miracles could be accomplished, or addressed that much better if unpreventable. 

This global humanitarian achievement would also yield self-evident beneficial consequence of increasing global prosperity and human security from other threats -- with one big caveat. These long planned and repeatedly promised goals for humanities development would need to be environmentally sustainable.  Humanity has known this since 1987 when the World Commission on Environment and Development (known as “the Brundtland Commission”) launched “Our Common Future Report”.   It was ignored.  But now, the world has an actual plan.  A set of goals to comprehensively and holistically achieve the best self-evident preventive measures.  Unfortunately Few are aware of the plan. And some disapprove of it.   The plan is achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively by the year 2030.  FYI: They are NOT on track. 

World leaders broke their promises made at the 1990 World summit for Children when they unanimously pledged to ‘provide the resources needed’ to achieve a set of 7 basic measurable, affordable and achievable goals by the year 2000.  Then came the Millennial  Development Goals for the year 2015.  Some progress was made but not nearly enough. If we fail in achieving these SDGs we may not get another chance.  The trends of increasing global chaos in health, environment, economics, political tensions, populism, WMD proliferation, wars, refugees and political unrest will not wait for another plan.   

If we learn the right lessons from this current pandemic crisis we will learn two things we should have already known.

One is the findings of the 1980 bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  “In the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger, its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar.  Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is late.  Age-old forces of poverty, disease, inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world.  Our humanity demands that we act upon these challenges now...”    Presidential Commission on World Hunger, 1980.

The next is the fundamental reality that Albert Einstein noted nearly 30 years before that.  "A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."   -Albert Einstein.  As quoted in Quantum Reality, Beyond the New Physics, p. 250.

This brings us to the last T word.  Trilemma.  We strongly desire three things.  Freedom, security, and independence.  We cannot have all three.  We need to pick wisely which two we want.

It’s no coincidence that Thomas Paine recognized the two fundamental reasons for government in his treatise “Common Sense”.  He explained that must depend on others to survive in the world.  And that the singular propose for government is to maximize human freedom and security.  Other wise souls of his day understood that preserving freedom requires being responsible with it. 
  
We need to face the reality that our trilemma is due to our unreasoned faith in the flawed human concept of independence.  It exists nowhere in the known universe.  Yet our current engineered government system (and structures), the U.S. Constitution --  is based on this flawed concept.

Covid19 should wake us up from this travesty of this flawed system that allows and too often perpetrates global injustices.  We are, as a nation, free to do whatever we want. But each of us will never be free of the consequences that will follow.  We should have learned this lesson with HIV/AIDS, 9-11, Ebola…and now Covid19 will try to teach us again.  We can blame China, or take responsibility for ignoring the clear, consistent and noncontroversial warnings that have been given for decades if not millennium.

Abram Lincoln once said our Declaration of Independence is our "Apple of Gold".   Our Constitution is the "Silver frame" around it.

Perhaps it’s time we codify the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” into our Constitution. If 'we the people' united, we could create the political will to tap the ill-gotten $32 trillion in offshore riches to fund the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, without changing the Constitution. Just a change of mind and heart.  

Failing that, our Constitution is ultimately a suicide document.  And those who swear to protect it…instead of our freedom and security, are traitors to God, country, and self.   Things change.  Can we?

Paulson's 7 post pandemic remedies vs 8 factors

Essentials for a sustainable healthy economy, nation and world

Yesterday’s Washington Post printed the opinion piece of former U.S. treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. “How we should shape our Post-pandemic economy”.  He is now chairman of the Paulson Institute and co-chairman of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. 

Below the eight factors ensuring that we will see future pandemics.  Below these are his seven prime recommendations on for our recovery.

His recommendations are both wisely warranted and sadly lacking.  Hopefully his Institute and Aspen group will adopt a more comprehensive perspective than their leadership has offered below.

Eight factors ensuring future pandemics:  all factors or interdependent.  Humanity can control each of them with sufficient political will.

1. Travel and Trade.

2. Global Poverty (lack of clean water, sanitation, basic education, primary health care service, and adequate nutrition)

3. Microbial Mutations:

4. Damages to nature:

5. Reliance on mass production technology amplifies spread of pathogens when minor errors of human judgment or machine malfunctions occur:

6. Hospital acquired infections, Invasive medical procedures, overuse/abuse of antibiotics:

7. War, genocide, ethic cleaning, inadequate global response to localized natural disasters.

8. Dysfunctional Government(s).  Lack of political will to invest in prevention or adequate detection, response and R&D systems.

Paulson’s seven Recommendations:  But first, his introduction needs some tweaks. 

He stated, “our economy was fundamentally strong before the crisis”.  Given that this crisis (or one far worse) was inevitable and predictable by any economist worth is weight in ventilators, Mr. Paulson needs to widen his perspective on economics to include the real world in which the other 99.9% of us are trying to live.  

His suggestion to “look ahead and make today’s investments count…when the recovery begins” needs tweaking.  He goes on to state that “the policies we put in place will be more important than the coronavirus crisis itself in determining the economic prosperity of generations of Americans and the effectiveness of the United State’s political system and global leadership, both of which are rooted in economic strength.”  

Wise investments in the recovery will also protect our fundamental freedoms as well as the security of every government, corporation, individual and environment that we all depend on for our very existence.

Paulson admits “we must modernize and adapt capitalism to fit the post-coronavirus” world.  But, achieving this level of sane global management will only work sustainably if we go beyond just fitting “the post coronavirus circumstances so that more Americans can participate in our future economic success” sustainability.  It should now be self-evident that everything is now fundamentally dependent on the weakest global link.  And thus, all Americans as well as all of humanity must be able to fairly and adequately participate in any future economic success.   This will require global codification of fundamental principles that come first before any “market-based principles” of “Capitalism” can be sustainably successful.  

Fundamental principles can best be defined by using the simple and profound words provided in our nation’s Declaration of Independence.  The “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” that “entitle” all humanity with “unalienable Rights”.  The “Laws of Nature” should be obvious to most scientists and educated citizens. The “Laws” of “Nature’s God” should not invite controversy if this phase is understood to mean the universal genius underlining the foundation of every major world religion -- but practiced by few -- the Golden Rule.  Together these two fundamental law sets effectively unify the natural callousness of the ‘survival of the fittest’ with the human civility of ‘protection of the weakest’.  Joined these two law sets give legitimacy to any and every government in the world.  Sadly, few governments (or economic systems) today include both.  

Thankfully, Mr. Paulson offers some of these in his 7 “fundamental principles”.

1.      Our economic model should protect those most in need.  We must significantly upgrade our social safety net while maintaining incentives to work. [Praise the Lord!]

2.      State of the-art infrastructure is essential to economic competitiveness. It’s time for a modern-day domestic Marshall Plan that includes massive government and private investment to…create the infrastructure of the future. [He doesn’t seem to understand that viruses don’t respect borders. The Marshall Plan need to be global. The initial success of the Marshall Plan focused only on Europe didn’t protect us as well as funding the achievement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would have. Today that would look like funding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals]

3.      Human capital is what differentiate us.  To bolster the productivity and resilience of our economy we need beg, smart, forward-looking investments in education… We also need an immigration policy that tracts, educates and trains the best minds from around the world.  [We need every education system to prioritize the fundamental concept of health – the prevention of problems instead of just reacting to them as the arise.  Putting the health of our minds, immune systems, the environment, our economy, government, and international relations between nations - should all be the highest educational priority globally.  We need a ‘human rights first’ foreign policy not an immigration policy that continues to put national sovereignty superior to human rights.]

4.      Protectionism will destroy our competitiveness.  Trade fosters American competitiveness and innovation. We need to strengthen our investments in trade linkages rather than retreat into self-destructive isolationism. [Without enforced global standards for protection of human rights and the environment we will continue to fuel conditions that spawn new and reemerging infectious disease, as well as the spread of dual use technologies that enable the spread of WMD capacity. Either of which will result in less trade and more destructive isolationism populist movements.]

5.      Our environment is vital to long term prosperity. [Yes!  A self-evident truth too often ignored by those who put wealth creation above a health foundation.]

6.      Capital is the lifeblood of the economy.  We must nurture best in-class capital markets with a regulatory and oversight regime that ensures financial stability and consumer protection while encouraging the innovation that has mad them the envy of the world…  [“Nurture” isn’t the right word.  Codify is.  Nurturing has only led to the innovation of corruption which remains a cog in the wheel of capitalism, instead of an irregular glitch.  Offshore (and some onshore) ‘global banks’ hold approximately $32 trillion stashed there by oligarchs, kleptocrats, criminal cartels, violent extremist groups and wealthy capitalist avoiding/evading taxes.  This must end and those ill-gotten funds returned to serve the basic needs of humanity instead of an extreme wealthy few.  Trust is the lifeblood of the economy, capitalism, government, freedom and sustainable security.  Capitalism is just a tool that needs to be limited in its use. Just like nuclear power.]

7.      Massive debt will cripple our ability to achieve long-term prosperity. The aim of the recovery must be to get more Americans working, spending, and paying taxes.  When the recovery is behind us, we will have to begin the long but essential process of reducing our national debt.  But in the end, more revenue will be necessary and wealthier Americans will have to pay higher taxes.  A major overhaul of our tax system can raise substantial revenue without hurting competitiveness. And we can reduce federal expenditures if we make reforms, such as fixing our inefficient and expensive health-care system.  [Great!  Three self-evident truths! 1) Debt inevitably cripples prosperity. 2) The rich must pay more taxes.  3) We need a major tax system overhaul.  But the only effective way to reduce federal expenditures is by investing in preventive measures on every aspect of our lives.  Our government’s long accepted habit of reacting to crisis instead of investing in preventive systems that address root causes is the primary driver of our astronomical debt.  We must understand that investing in human security globally is far less expensive than perpetually reacting to the national security threats of terrorism, pandemics, war, or economic depressions.  And there will never be enough money in the known universe to provide all Americans with the medical fixes we need because we failed to take care of ourselves with self -evident behaviors.  As much as 80% of our so called ‘health-care’ expenditures are devoted to easily preventable illnesses and injuries that we bring upon ourselves.  Too many Americans believe they can eat, smoke, inject, or do anything that want while full well knowing the consequences and expect others to pay for the astronomically costly results.  We need to make the distinction between a ‘health care system’ and a ‘illness care system’.  

Conclusion:  It is the failure of human government, economic, religious, and cultural systems and structures to adhere to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (think ‘Golden Rule’ or ‘justice for all’)”.  Pandemics and infectious diseases are the best instructor of the irreversible fact that we are all interdependent on one another’s health and cooperation.  That prevention is key.  And, that our concept of independence is lethally flawed.   Covid19 is the best evidence that we need a global, holistic, ‘one earth’, health for all and everything approach.  In reality human, animal, and environmental health as interconnected with the health of our economy, infrastructure, democracy, civility, religious practices and every other aspects of our earthly dependence.   The evolution of pathogens, weapons, injustice and increasing global chaos is changing things faster than our minds can grasp and our government systems respond.  Time is not on our side.  Things change, many exponentially.  Can we?

Warnings missed by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank

Dear Editor, 

Dana Milbank (Washington Post columnist) was nearly a decade off in implying that it was only “after the 2001 terrorist attacks” that “the nation’s top scientists and public health experts were shouting these warnings from the rooftops deafeningly, unanimously and constantly.” (‘When you drown the government people die’, Wpost 4-12-20)   

October 15, 1992 the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report “Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States”.  It’s 19-member multidisciplinary committee represented 16 fields of study from virology to economics. “A significant number… had ties to the biotechnology industry, which involved specific products such as diagnostic test kits and vaccines.”  

Unanimously the members acknowledged from the start that health threats to the U.S. “could not be adequately addressed without considering emerging threats globally”.  And that the “IOM published two earlier reports that bear on microbial threats outside” the U.S. in 1987 and 1991.

They mentioned an earlier 1988 IOM “report, The Future of Public Health” which “described the U.S. public health system as being in a state of disarray that has produced ‘a hodgepodge of fractionated interests and programs, organizational turmoil among new agencies, and well-intended but unbalanced appropriations – without coherent direction by well-qualified professionals.”  The 1992 committee view was “that there has been little positive change in the U.S. public health system since the release of that report… steps have been taken… but these responses have been reactive, not proactive.

In 1997 another IOM report “America’s Vital Interest in Global Health” argued “that America has a vital and direct stake  in the health of people around the globe…from both America’s long and enduring tradition of humanitarian concerns and compelling reasons for self-interest…to protect our citizens, enhance our economy, and advance U.S. interests abroad.*”  The asterisk referenced a “historic precedence for such U.S. engagement in 1881 when Washington, DC hosted the Fifth International Sanitary Conference after a major outbreak of yellow fever spread through maritime contacts in the Mississippi Rive Valley in 1878 causing an estimated 100,000 cases and 20,000 death in the US.”  And, PAHO (the Pan American Health Association) was created out of a “regional sanitary conference in the Western Hemisphere…which began in 1902”.  The “Summary” of the Index content was “Protecting Our People”, “Enhancing Our Economy”, “Advancing Our International Interests”, and “Leading from Strength”.

Mr. Milbank was 21 years off without knowing or remembering President Carter’ 1980 bi-partisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  That unanimous commission of federally elected officials warned “In the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger, its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar.  Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is late.  Age-old forces of poverty, disease, inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world.  Our humanity demands that we act upon these challenges now...”

For those with deep religious convictions Mr. Milbank needs to look back to the founding idealism of every major religion…the Golden Rule”.  

Anyone interested in looking forward for our best approach to a post Covid19 world should seriously consider meeting the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals created in 2015, well before the 2030 deadline.

This comprehensive approach to sustainable human security is the best means our species has of preventing the inevitable ‘new and reemerging infectious diseases’ that are inevitable with time. Time that is NOT our side.  Just as important as our collective security is our desire for maximizing our freedoms and our prosperity.  All three are inevitably endangered by ignoring any one of the 17 SDGs.

For anyone assuming we cannot afford them, insist that they understand the inevitable costs in blood, treasure and freedom that will be significantly higher.  Then enlighten them on the $32 trillion dollars that has been stashed in off-shore anonymous ‘business accounts’ and on-shore bank accounts (2012 statistics) by kleptocrats, oligarchs, drug cartels, violent extremists’ cells, and wealthy capitalists avoiding taxes.   All a function of the global corruption and lack of global controls that those in power have created and maintained until now.

One major biological factor fueling the spread of pathogens is their natural mutation rate, often accelerated by our unnatural environmental interventions (antibiotics, chemicals, mass food production, invasive medical procedures, population expansion into natural environments…).  Pathogens change.  Can we?

250 filmmakers tell 1 global pandemic story. This is #choosehopestory

We are in this together.  We must remember this after this pandemic is over, and start faithfully practicing the Gold Rule.  Or, nature will again teach us this profound irreversible reality that we are all globally connected and dependent on one another's health and kindness.

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."   -Albert Einstein.  As quoted in Quantum Reality, Beyond the New Physics, p. 250.

Connect the dots!  See the web of life!  Achieve ‘justice for all’.  Or, prepare for the catastrophic conseqeunces.  cw

1000 words regarding tomorrow...and the future.

World Health Day, April 7^th is an annual day for global health awareness. Originally to honor the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO).  But, the global Covid19 crisis humanity is now experiencing clearly demonstrates the important of health in every aspect of our lives (mind, body, spirit, community, environment, economy, democracy, global population…).  And now we all see each day that every human as a vital role to play in keeping each other healthy, free and prosperous.

Those who study pandemics joke that there’s always two phases of every pandemics.  First phase “We don’t believe you”.  Second. “Why didn’t you warn us?”  Serious questions exist. Here’s quick answers to some.

Where did it come from?  China. (dah!)   Likely from a ‘wet market’ where exotic animals and unsanitary conditions are common.

Why now?  It was overdue. Since 1980 multiple uncontested commissions, studies, reports, and credible experts have repeatedly and consistently warned policy makers (and every President) that another pandemic was inevitable – as a result of 8 interdependent basic factors.  Travel, poverty, mutations, environmental factors, intrusive medical procedures, mass production flaws, dysfunctional governments, wars.

How will it end? Worse than it had to – with catastrophic losses in lives and dollars…because of ignored warnings, poor preparation and flawed personal and government reactions.

What’s next?  More pandemics.  Including new and re-emerging infectious disease if we continue to undervalue prevention and evidence instead of opinions and emotions.

Can we prevent and better prepare for them?  Yes. By advocating effectively for funding and achieving the SDGs.

MAHB’s promotion of activism has never been more important.  The question is ‘advocate for what?”   And how?   The briefest answer:  Advocate for our elected officials to codify into all human laws “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” -- for the purpose of sustainably maximizing humanities freedoms and security.  How?  By sparking the mother of all movements:  A Movement of three movements (peace, environment, social/economic justice) to tap the $32 trillion stashed in offshore accounts.

Others will urge for reducing population, stopping economic growth, ‘world peace’ through disarmament, or elimination of fossil fuels.  And, other intelligent people will demand winning elections, campaign finance reform, reducing WMD proliferation, ending genocide, women’s rights, or preventing future pandemics.  But none of these will be accomplished without understanding the need for a comprehensive holistic approach to addressing each of these factors (and others not mentioned) together. Siloed solutions don’t work.  If they have before, like the global eradication of Smallpox, by now it’s clear that they were ultimately unsustainable.

Now, progress on any issue inevitably hurts progress on others.  This is due to the zero-sum game each movement (and all the organizations within it) plays for a limited amount of funding, media attention, memberships, and congressional attention.  Worse yet, some issues like ‘peace through disarmament’, reducing WMD proliferation, or reforming campaign finance laws, are either impossible or unworthy of resources devoted to them do to the very nature of multiuse technologies.

The first problem. The political systems we humans have thus far engineered are fundamentally incompatible with the supreme law of nature.  Our current national and global governance systems are based on the illusionary principle of independence (a human concept existing nowhere in the known universe).  This mental concept leads powerful individuals, corporations, or governments to use their freedom to take irresponsible actions.  Actions that often hurt someone, some nation, or some aspect of the environment - anywhere in the world. Humans like most animals do not take kindly to being mistreated.  And the environment always gets the last vote.  When human governance systems violate the fundamental principle of every major religion, the golden rule, things will never end well.  And in most human legal systems, an individual is better off being wealthy or well connected to power - and guilty – than being poor or discriminated against by those in power – and innocent.

It’s not state or national sovereignty that protects human freedom and security.  But laws that are just, protect inalienable human rights, and the environment.  When democracies or dictatorships fail to enforce such laws or hold those responsible who abuse their freedom of action, then those governance systems lose their primal legitimacy of protecting every individual’s sovereignty.  Only flawed governments reject the heavenly concept of individual sovereignty – the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

Elections rarely achieve this ideal for one of two reasons.  The majority gets their way and ignores the minorities.  Or, the majority gets comfortable and complacent and neglects their responsibility to codify the global golden rule.

On World Health Day (and every day!) ‘we the people’ must keep the pledge we’ve given hundreds of times before our flag, of “Liberty and justice for all”.   Every day between elections we can use our fundamental right to petition our government and insist that our elected officials codify our city, state and national laws to enforce the laws of nature and nature’s God - in the context of our pledge.

We are now in a war against the most lethal enemy our species has ever had.  Some pundits and policy makers are finally calling for a ‘Marshall Plan” to help prevent future pandemics and empower the world to respond faster and more effectively to those we cannot prevent.  Fine. But, warring between nations, religions, economic systems, political or economic beliefs are not inevitable.  Pathogens are.  But we must understand the real, persistent, and inevitable enemy we really face.  Well over 99.9% of bacteria and viruses are either beneficial or harmless to our freedom, security and prosperity.  

Our real enemy is our own ignorance, apathy and indifference to the conditions of others globally who share this miracle planet with us.  And these flaws, empower the .01 % of the killer pathogens that thrive on our ignorance, apathy and indifference to each other, and our life supporting environment that we have been gifted by the laws of nature and nature’s God.

Connect the dots.  See the web of life. Advocate for Justice.  Or prepare for the catastrophic consequences.