Ukraine is a consequence of all government failures

 Daniel Franco, a life-long pacifist, has rightfully admitted that sometimes we need to fight to protect our loved ones.  And the world now needs to assist Ukraine in defending its people.  It’s time to use our thorns. 

 

Mr. Franco makes multiple valid points in this blog Roses. – MOBILIZED: What's Next is Now!.   “War is not the answer” is number one. Unfortunately, he missed the opportunity to offer an alternative to preventing and ending all wars.   It’s called the “Rule of Law”.  Demanding peace, democracy, or even freedom will not suffice without the foundation of justice.  Oddly, every media source I’ve read or listened to since Russia started its mobilization of troops and blitz into Ukraine has not mentioned this obvious solution. Why?

 

When people or nations have differences, those differences will either be solved by words or violence.  When words don’t work...violence is inevitable.  Thus if the words don’t result in liberty and justice for all, violence will follow.  It should be obvious that we have a global governance system today that rarely resolves differences because it lacks the essential elements to do so.  And the option of war remains.

 

Since the end of World War II the US has repeatedly experienced Franco’s point that ‘war is not the answer’.  He rightfully mentioned four times we’ve used it...and didn’t win.  

 

But Mr. Franco misunderstands the purpose behind the creation of the UN.  It was intended to avoid another war.   But he states “we founded the United Nations and wrote the UN Charter, which specifically demands action in defense of basic democracy and human rights.”

 

That is tragically false.  He, like most of humanity, persistently fails to understand that the UN Charter is a rose without thorns.  It was never empowered to take “action in defense” of human rights or any form of democracy.   It is an undemocratic institution that only offered a talkfest. A forum where nations using flowery words might be able to talk things out.   But clearly hidden in the words of the UN Charter is the fact that its only enforceable mission is the protection of each nation’s sovereignty. 

 

Most of humanity has lived blindly over the past 8 decades without this flawed assumption that protecting national sovereignty would protect human rights.  Given the varied interests of over 200 governments - each prioritized to maintain power – none ever will.

 

To engineer a global governance system that works sustainably for all, its systems and structures must be based on fundamental principles (self-evident truths).  And the use of words that mean the same thing to everyone it will govern.    Like math and science, its governance words must mean the same and achieve the same results in every nation, religion, culture, and tribe.  Let’s start with two words. Freedom and security.   

 

Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet “Common Sense” wrote, "Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.”  Feb. 14, 1776.

One fact most freedom lovers don’t know is that collectively our nation’s founding fathers used the word ‘virtue’ more than freedom.  It was clear to them that without virtuous people, their freedoms would be lost.  This is lethally unclear to too many freedom lovers today.

Next, we must understand that there are words and phrases that are useless or damaging.  Like “peace through strength”.  Russia may be stronger than Ukraine but there will be no peace.  More important is the inherently dangerous phrase “National Sovereignty.”   

The word ‘national’ is clear.  But the word ‘sovereignty’ has been coopted.  Together these words have cemented into place a system of government that was invented over 400 years ago at the Treaty of Westphalia.   A time when the consequences of globalization were not so obvious.

Originally, sovereignty came from God.  And regardless of any nation’s definition of it, it remains the possession of each individual to determine how their life will be lived.   Back then groups could agree to live under a certain flag and within a certain boundary -or be killed or enslaved. 

This worked for periods of time but never lasted. And the evolution of weaponry always altered the borders and allegiances that were intended to keep a group safe.

 

Since then, globalization has been on steroids. And the global movement of people, ethnic groups, religions, money, material resources, technology, pollution, non-human species, and pathogens have made political lines on any map a dysfunctional illusion.

An illusion based on a word that exists only in the human mind as a concept. And on paper as an ideal.  But this concept we know as ‘independence’ exists nowhere on earth - or in the known universe.   

 

It’s ironic that the most functional blueprint for engineering a sustainable form of global governance is titled “the Declaration of Independence”.  Within its first paragraph, it offers two fundamental principles (or self-evident law sets) that should have been applied in the writing of the US Constitution.  It offered “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”. 

Abiding by these two law sets our nation’s founding fathers could have avoided a civil war.  A war between states that killed more Americans in four years than all the wars that our nation fought in since then, combined!  But their Constitution insisted on putting states’ rights superior to human rights. That’s what the UN system does today -- repeating this fundamental flaw.  And making matters globally worse, our Constitution enforces this flaw by insisting that the rights of nation-states (national sovereignty) and corporations are more important than protecting human rights or our environment.  

Until ‘we the people” of Ukraine, the US, Russia, and the world, reverse this simple engineering flaw our species will continue to face two existential earthly threats.

I used to think the greatest threat would be the collapse of our planet’s life support system – that thin biofilm covering our goldilocks planet.  We simply can no longer persist in violating the Laws of Nature. 

Now I believe our greatest threat is related to war.  It is the evolution of weaponry.  Our sciences: nuclear, biology, chemistry, cyber, nano, robotics...has yielded unprecedented killing capacity at affordable prices globally.  Even conventional civilian technologies like cars, trucks, passenger planes, or cruise ships loaded with fuel oil, and fertilizer can yield WMD capacity anywhere in the world relatively quickly - undreamed of 400 years ago.

And unless every religious or spiritual soul adheres to the laws of Nature’s God - and practices the Gold Rule - the hearts and minds of people anywhere will continue to use and abuse any and every technology available to them.  This will only persist until AI evolves.  Then it will decide we are worth keeping and hold every individual accountable, or remove us from the planet.

 

We must decide quickly between the ‘rule of law’ and the ‘law of force’.  

 

The “Rule of Law” can be most effective if clearly defined to include three fundamental elements. First, the laws must be made and enforced by a democratic process.  But that’s not enough. Second. The laws must be applied equally to all.  Regardless of nationality, religion, sex, or ethnicity.  Last. The laws must be protective of a certain set of inalienable rights.  Rights everyone has. Wise souls after the creation of the UN did give us the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guild.   The best we can do if we are not going to engineer a global Rule of Law is to invest money in achieving it.   

 

Since 2015 the UN has offered humanity 17 Sustainable Development Goals targeted for the year 2030.  It is a comprehensive list intended to address the root causes of most of our government’s failings.

Sanctions on Russia may cripple its economic capacity to continue its domination of Ukrainians.  But there are also other trillions now locked in offshore accounts by other kleptocrats, oligarchs, crime cartels, violent extremists groups, and filthy rich capitalists – that could be used to achieve these 17 goals holistically.

I’m guessing Daniel Franco would approve of either of these pacifist approaches to maximizing human freedom and security sustainably.  And I’m hoping he will fight for either or both. 

FYI: An old friend and employer called me this evening.  He’s a conservative Christian who walks his talk in supporting Israel and protecting the Jewish people for 40 years.  We have always been at odds regarding my insistence on strengthening the UN to protect everyone and our environment.   Tonight he called to admit he was wrong.  He said “national sovereignty cannot protect anyone”.   We agreed that Putin maybe God’s way of sending us this message yet again...to the world.  Until we all walk the talk of the Good Samaritan, Armageddon may be in our future.  

Updating Joe Rogen’s experience. And ours!

Joe’s experience provides the self-evident truth regarding the consequences of freedom.  He is (and should be) allowed the freedom to have anyone on is a program to facilitate civil dialogue on controversial, even preposterously false issues.  He and anyone who does this even with the best of intentions need to know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that doing so is an inalienable human right we all have.  And we should also know that we will never be free of the consequences.   And some will be lethal.

Social media companies will attempt to repress the expression of ideas when it results in principled users stopping their use, thus hurting company owners' bottom line.  Yet, this is the most powerful form of democracy ‘we the people’ actually have.  Voting with our dollars daily.  This is infinitely more powerful than using a single ballot once every 2, 4, or 6 years.

The downside?  These dollar votes will be just as ineffective at yielding our collective intended outcome of ‘liberty and justice for all”.  Something most of us have pledged before our flag hundreds of times.  Maximizing our “freedom and security” which Thomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense pamphlet then claimed was the only legitimate reason for government, will require more.  Far more in terms of ensuring that our laws and our Constitution are based on the real world and not just popular support.

Fact is, each of us is irreversibly connected and interdependent on and in the real world.   Our minds are deluded in believing otherwise.

First, no one can fully grasp the irreversibility of one’s global interdependence we all share regarding our freedoms, security, and prosperity.  Everything we believe and then act on now leads to countless consequences on our own body and everybody in the world.  Everything we do has consequences.  And our ignorance of reality most often results in harmful consequences to ourselves and ultimately others.

Even before Covid19, our nation’s sick-care system (18% of our GDP) was breaking our nation’s economic back.  The trillions we continue to demand for funding our so-called ‘health care' system are simply unsustainable and thus a threat to our economic security, connected to our national security.    

Few citizens take the preventive measures that nearly everyone is capable of to prevent this endless budget-busting spending.   Before this pandemic, the largest cause of death in our interdependent nation was heart attacks.  Cancer was close behind.  Now Covid19 related deaths may surpass both.  Yes. It was a China virus.  But it really doesn’t matter if it came from a lab or nature.  It’s a self-evident fact that more variants and other pandemics will come from multiple sources regardless of what we believe.  

Yet governments are only now considering serious efforts to prepare for what we know is coming.  Unfortunately, few governments are acting on the wiser choice of investments in preventing them.   

Fact:  Prevention of most infectious disease and chronic health problems (and other threats to our health like suicide, gun deaths, stabbings, multidrug-resistant pathogens, car accidents...) can be affordably preventable.   The one-word definition of health is prevention.  But we continue to bankrupt our nation with a sick care system responding to preventable problems.  But we call it “Health Care.”

Second, given the human mind's capacity to believe ANYTHING, and then not even do the things we know we should, coming to any democratic agreement on what will be done using our tax dollars, military, or intelligence agencies will simply not happen. 

Three Einstein quotes are appropriate here.  “There are two things that are infinite.  The universe and human stupidity.  But I have some doubts about the universe.’  

"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."  

“There is only one road to true human greatness: the road through suffering..”

So plan on seeing a lot more preventable suffering.  It will only accelerate until we engineer a government system that codifies the wisdom of prevention - that profoundly functional unamerican word.   

Because our minds believe so convincingly that we are independent, our voices swear an oath to protect a system of government based on that very delusion.  A delusion that leads to reactionary government policies, research and development in drugs, cybers security, and weapon systems - that will break us economically.  Yet they still can’t protect our freedom, security, prosperity, or privacy as we will continue to refuse to accept the universal truth.   We all live on and depend on, a planet of irreversible interdependence.

We are highly unlikely to transform our current system because we are so easily distracted from what’s vitally important.   We can’t keep in our minds the growing list of national security threats we all face (the vipers at our heals) like climate change, more pandemics, bioterrorism, EMP events, supervolcanoes, asteroids, loss of our antibiotic arsenal, species extinction, AI, war, genocide... while swatting at bees (Rogan’s experience, critical race theory, voting rights, electoral college, border walls, riots, the insurrection, crime rates, confederate statues, Supreme Court picks, inflation, abortion, rebranding of the Redskins...).

The acceleration of chaos nipping at our heels is largely due to a lack of global justice.  Combine this with the global proliferation of multi-use technologies capable of unprecedented mass murder with virtually no means of effective global control without invasive and pervasive force –it is easy to predict things are not going to end well.

It is possible to sustainably protect our freedoms and security if ‘we the people’ with power globally exhibited sufficient virtue to others lacking power, and to everything around us that we need - instead of depending on our government's inability to protect it all with its dysfunctional system and structures.  All based on the illusion of independence.

If we are serious about maximizing the freedoms and security for generations to come, then at the very least we need to mobilize the funding to comprehensively achieve the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable before the year 2030 goal.  Humanity knows what to do.  It’s called the Golden Rule.  There is enough money without increasing taxes or even cutting existing budgets if we can convince those in power to tap the tens of trillions of dollars stashed in offshore accounts.  A piggy bank recently valued to be about 10% of the global GDP.   With sufficient political will it is possible to freeze and then seize a significant portion of this ‘anonymous’ massive wealth and devote it to global health.   Most of it was acquired and stashed away by kleptocrats, oligarchs, crime cartels, violent extremists groups, and other filthy rich folk avoiding taxes in ways that governments previously allowed.   Most of it is linked to the corruption that we should all want to be eliminated from our political systems.   But it won’t happen without ‘we the people’ coming together instead of swatting at bees. 

Josh Rogan vs Spotify dilemma resolved?

 The latest ‘dilemma’ regarding Joe Rogan, Spotify, and Neil Young may be over.  But other social media platforms will likely be hounded to change their ways.  I was asked by a close friend and associate about ‘which side’ was I on?  Rogan or Spotify?   

We had a warm (not quite heated from my perspective) discussion regarding this dilemma around ‘mandates’.   A word that appears to be at the heart of the resistance to vaccines and masks.  I dominated that last few minutes of the discussion with the math of viral mutations and the inevitably (and rarely understood consequences) of pathogen evolution.   And the highlights of humanity's greatest of all achievements.  The global eradication of Smallpox.   That basically ended the discussion but I’m quite confident Rogan understandably remains the hero in my friends’ mind. 

My attempt to use science and math to engage the deeper analysis of the life, death, and economic consequences of popular individuals who assist in spreading misinformation (or incomplete information) to their followers, usually doesn’t work.   Smart and reputable individuals who are committed to providing any information that they believe may have validity that may assist others to make the right decision are admirable.  Not always useful given the confirmation bias our minds are cursed with.

After dwelling on the Rogan/Spotify dilemma at home while increasingly concerned about all the other urgent and consequence problems and threats we face as individuals, a nation, and the world - I recalled one of the first quotes that I took the effort to memorize.  It was from a book that the woman I was wooing was reading.  I was willing to do whatever I could to entice this young lady into bearing my future children.  Today, some might call that stalking...in 1975 as a biology major at CSU I considered it selective breeding.  But she said yes...and we are still together today...but I digress.

The name of the book, Magic Animal, by Philip Wylie (1969) woke in me an observation about human behavior.  After learning of the holocaust in grade school, the insanity of the Vietnam War in HS, and other harmful human addictions in college, I noticed our species didn’t quite have its act together.

I leaned toward the hippy movement but understood from my wrestling experiences the profound life-enriching values of discipline, fitness, and excelling at something of importance.  Initially, I chose education.  The teachers and coaches who inspired me in school and in sports remain priceless.  Information and context are power.  Tested and true information should be self-evident.  But today’s information comes at us, not in a firehose, but a tsunami, making it virtually impossible for anyone without a grounding in what’s important -to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 And that is assuming people are even looking for wheat and not the feel-good ‘happiness’ which appears to be one of our culture’s greatest values along with greed, confirming what we already believe, and living in increasingly troubled times without questioning unexamined assumptions.

A lot has changed technologically since 1969 when Mr. Wylie (the equivalent of today’s Jorden Peterson?) wrote “we are standing in a pit of vipers, swatting at bees”.   This brings me back to the Rogan/Spotify dilemma.  Since 1980 I’ve been studying national security issues seeking the root causes of threats and instability.  In the late 1990s, my job was convincing people in key US Congressional Districts that we needed global enforceable mandates (laws) to protect our national security from almost every threat. 

In 1999 Hazel Henderson, a genius female economist spoke about the recent Nobel Prize winner in economics Robert Mundell.  It was his genius that led me to a fundamental principle that many wise souls already understood (Gandhi, MLK, Einstein...).  The powerful concept is that everything in our world/known universe is interdependent.  By extending Mundell’s official ‘Mundell–Fleming economic model’ frequently called the "impossible trinity," "unholy trinity," "irreconcilable trinity," "inconsistent trinity" or the "Mundell–Fleming trilemma”, I pieced together a global trilemma. 

The reality is that the masses of humanity want three basic things.  Freedom to do as we wish.  Security to survive, reproduce, prosper, and thrive.  And independence.  The punch line is that we can only have two!   The gut-punch is that freedom is all we really have.  We are free to do anything we like, anytime we want, to anyone we want.  But we will never be free of the consequences.   

Security is iffy. The human body has over 100 trillion vulnerabilities.  Every cell and virus in our body can turn on us and terminate all of our freedoms in hours or days.  And any cell can be targeted by nature or an engineered biological weapon using genetic information using wind, water, or our global transportation/food supply systems for delivery.  And our cells are irreversibly connected to a vast number of natural and human-engineered systems and structures outside of our body or national government's control.  Systems and structures that we depend on for everything we and our cells need to survive and thrive. 

Unfortunately, government systems are based on the concept of independence. And those in power persist in ignoring this fundamental principle. Except once!  They globally eradicated humanity's greatest killer, smallpox.  The smallpox inoculation concept had been available for centuries. But it wasn’t until the Soviets suggested a global eradication campaign that the world and US leadership took on the task.  Some of the last individuals and families had to be forced to take the vaccination.

I can’t imagine anyone today opposing that mandate given that Smallpox had killed more humans in the first 70 years of the 20^th century, than all the wars, revolutions, genocides, and homicides combined...during 100 years of that same century.  Polio, another vaccine-preventable death/disability, is close to being eradicated.  Rotary International’s leadership with volunteers and funding dispersed to every nation in the world has ensured that every nation now, except two (Afghanistan and Pakistan) hasn’t had a case of polio in years.   It was dysfunctional governments all along that were unwilling or incapable of mandating universal Polio vaccinations that meant the rest of the world needed to continue their polio vaccination programs since the year 2000.  The year polio was originally targeted for global eradication.
If Polio (an RNA-based virus that has much higher mutation rates) had mutated over the last 20 years every nation would have needed to restart a new campaign.  Especially if the new mutation was worse than the original. 

What most people don’t calculate regarding Covid19 is that it (as bad as it was) was not as bad as it could have been.  And every day in every person infected  (be they hospitalized, exhibiting minimal symptoms, or no symptoms) continue to spread the virus thus enabling its natural mutation tendency.  There is only a 50/50 chance it will become a milder infection or a more lethal one.  Omicron had over 50 mutations on its spike protein. These enabled it to increase its attachment rate to our airways 70 times that of its predecessor.  That made it milder because it didn’t make it into our lungs.  But there is no guarantee that won’t happen.  Or something worse. 

Another factor that increases the mutation rate of any genetic material is exposure to other caustic elements.   And like the antibiotic resistance of bacteria that continues to accelerate due to mutations gained by our abuse (inconstant or overuse) of antibiotics a simple hospital or dental appointment could turn into a death sentence.  And people who are unvaccinated or using untested cures for Covid19 or may end up needing a hospital bed.  Along with others who are Covid free.   Then getting a bed, if one is available, only increases the chance of them getting an incurable hospital-acquired infection.  Perhaps just waiting in line for a bed.

So, we are all free to do as we please.  Even refuse a traffic mandate to stop at red lights, limit vehicle speed, or use a seatbelt.   But we are playing the odds.  Odds that police officer or camera won’t catch us.  We might know where they are and avoid them.  Be we never know where pathogens will catch us.   The best we can do is keep our immune systems healthy and do what we can to reduce the mutations of variants in every other person on the planet. 

And while we are at it.  Work like hell to change the governing systems that are now cemented into place with archaic laws that fail to keep pace with the exponential technological change over the last 40 years.  Functional change that is based on reliable, accurate, and tested information.  Cellphones, electrical power grids, new bridges... In a nutshell “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (the Golden Rule)”.   

Basing any government foundational on the delusional context of ‘political independence’ is simple and lethal insanity.  We keep using the same legal system (lacking liberty and justice for all) over and over again expecting a better result.  If you follow the accelerating chaos in the news, you must know by now that a better result isn’t coming. Not without transforming the laws that govern our personal, national, and global relations.  Justice and accountability must be global if we lack the wisdom and virtue to do the obvious.

We can endlessly debate the freedom/security dilemma of Rogan/Spotify, Russa/Ukraine, Peace through strength or disarmament, oil/solar, science/religion, capitalism/socialism...any dilemma.

But until we accept our global interdependence - and act on it with urgency, civilization as we all know it will not persist.   Connect the dots.  See the web of life.  Work for global justice (funding the 17 SDGs) or prepare for the consequences.