Post 9/11: Truth or Continued
Consequences: What hasn't been stressed yet?
What did 9-11, Covid19, the Covid variants,
the end of our 20-year war in Afghanistan, recent extreme weather events globally,
and a decline in democracy in many nations all have in common? First, they were all predictable, predicted,
and preventable. Second, more costly blood and treasure consequences are yet to
come - unless we understand the root cause and urgently act on it.
Everyone who was conscious on
September 11, 2001, recalls the events of that day. But understanding both the
origins and the results of 9/11 is far more important than any acts of
remembrance that we might perform. If we truly care to honor those who died and
suffered on that unforgettable day, we must use our powers of understanding to
develop sustainable strategies for preventing the next terrorizing event that
might occur. Understanding must matter more than body counts.
The Post’s lead editorial of
9/11 cites Abraham Lincoln's statement that, when combating danger "the
best defense (against the dangers of his time) …lay in cultivating robust
'reverence for the Constitution and laws,' " as well as his hopes that
doing so "would inspire and sustain the people's commitment to liberty and
equality."
In his writings, Lincoln also
described the Declaration of Independence as “our apple of gold” and the
Constitution as its “frame of silver.” To my mind, these analogies reflect our
foundational goal of equality for all people, as invoked in the Declaration. But
our “rule of law, as detailed in the Constitution ignores both the concept of justice
and humanities inalienable rights. The
Constitution’s reliance on the proposition of independence — a deeply flawed concept
rooted deeply in our minds has not delivered justice or consistently protected human
rights since its creation. From the start
it was engineered into every level of our nation’s government.
Many Americans today proclaim their allegiance
to individual liberty at the freedom to infect others in their
communities. For a significant portion US
citizens “independence” has come to denote the license to act irresponsibly without
regard for the medical, environmental, or economic consequences their actions on
others (rejecting masks, refusing vaccinations, or denying climate change).
This prevalent fusion of “freedom” with
“self-gratification” has long consequences for rest of the world too. For many
decades our foreign and military policies have disparaged other cultures as
unworthy of the respect and privilege that we ourselves take for granted; we’ve
dismissed foreign casualties as “collateral damage”, communist or terrorist sympathizers,
or humans irrelevant to our nation’s interests.
My studies as a biologist and student of the
natural world have made the fundamental flaws in our Constitution to be “self-evident”. They consistently ignore the “Laws of Nature
and Nature’s God” expressed in the first paragraph of our “Apple of Gold” the
Declaration of Independence. Interdependence
is at the heart of nature’s laws. Chief Seattle (1780-1866), the head of the
Duwamish and Suquamish nations, saw this clearly: “Humankind has not woven the
web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do
to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Yet most of us ignore our irreversible global interdependence environmentally,
economically, militarily, and health wise.
Without being responsible with
our freedoms abroad we cannot expect to sustainably preserve our freedom, security,
or prosperity here.
Until we grasp the wisdom and survival value of
putting the global protection of human rights and the environment above the
protection of national sovereignty and corporate power, our vulnerability to
the kind of dangers inflicted on 9/11 will grow. Sustaining what quality of life that remains
and improving it for ourselves and our children we must abandon the illusion of
independence.
Our interdependence within this nation and on
this planet is accelerating and irreversible. Nearly every troubling trend we
are experiencing today is a symptom of our delusion of separation. There is a
medical term for this mental condition – anosognosia. It is when someone is unaware of their own mental health condition. In a world with the accelerating
evolution of weapons, pathogens, failing democracies, and civil strife It’s
time for a wake-up call.
Our human-created construct of independence is
responsible for our persistent failure to understand and respond effectively to
nearly every danger we face (pandemics, pollution, terrorism, cyber security,
economic stability, drug trade, refugee flows, food insecurity, extreme weather
events…), each with lethal and unfavorable consequences for all — both here and
abroad.
We can no longer simply react when disaster
strikes. We can no longer build back to what we had before. It’s imperative now
that we build forward in ways that prevent dangers and conserve limited
resources. It is our only means of
maximizing any sustainable prospects of freedom, security, and prosperity for ourselves
and our posterity. Most nations have
agreed to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. It is the only comprehensive set of solutions
we have, and humanity is not on track to meet them. Time is not on our side…and e may not get
another chance.
The truth of our interdependence can set us free. Ignoring it will only have more unfavorable consequences.
“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
"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.
"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good." -- Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791]
Yet reading his pamphlet “Common Sense” he concludes that the concept of complete independence is impossible. And, unless one does good in all things, one’s freedom and security can never be completely free of the negative consequences.
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