In
1980 a bipartisan Presidential Commission concluded (and its commissioners specifically warned) “The most potentially
explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to
attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair, and often hatred that
result represent real and persistent threats to international order… Neither
the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain
to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or
measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on
avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the
world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other
critical global threats… Calculable or not, however, this
combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries
just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”
I needed to know why
this was predicted and how it could be stopped. That was easy.
The most horrific and
terrifying of all human experiences is the death (or fear of death or disability)
of a child. At that time approximal 42,000 children under the age of
5 died every day from easily preventable malnutrition and related infectious
diseases. That was nearly 12 times the death rate of the Jewish Holocaust, yet
few Americans knew it.
Between 1978 and 1980
there were three uncontested reports (the international Brandt Commission, the
National Academy of Sciences study, and the US Presidential
commission). Each concluded humanity had everything needed to stop
this hidden holocaust. The only missing ingredient was the
“political will”. Failing to marshal it changed
everything. And the world we have today is largely the result of my generation’s
failure to do the doable.
Below are 12 simple
truths we faced then and now. I’m hopeful someone will find a flaw
in these, so if the world’s people and our governments commit to ending the
growing chaos- we will have a workable solution.
The first fundamental
truth (FT#1) comes from the Director of the newest US federal agency. “Everything is connected, everything is
interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than
whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....”
Jen Easterly. CISA director. Oct. 29, 2021. [the Cyber and
Infrastructure Security Agency established by the Trump Administration in
2018].
FT#2. Everything in
the known universe consists of systems and structures that operate on basic and
universal principles. Nature has its own fundamental principles such
as gravity within physics with other principles within biology, chemistry, and
evolution. Human minds have invented additional principles that
attempt to govern systems important to our lives. Principles within
the fields of economics, energy, psychology, religion, politics, governance,
health, medicine, agriculture, transportation, engineering.... We are now struggling to
establish principles governing the evolution of AI believing that it may be a
threat to our species. Human biological, cyber, and physically
engineered systems are the most vulnerable.
FT#3: The three most complex and complicated systems
now governing our species’ survival is nature, the immune system of every
living multicellular organism, and the human mind (a unique evolutionary
product within the human brain of our neurological system). And to
the degree that our mind’s concepts fail to protect nature’s systems that are
vital to our species and the health of our own immune system - is the degree to
which we face increasing risk or existential consequences as individuals and as
a species.
FT#4: The human concept of independence is
delusional. Everything can be separated from other things and studied in detail
or ignored. But FT#1 ensures that any attempt to create or alter anything --
will have consequences on everything. And there will always be
unintended consequences.
FT#5: Every tool, technology, or system that the
human mind invents and then builds will have multiple uses. And how
these are used will largely be determined by the heart and the mind of the
user. And there will always be unintended
consequences. In this context the human mind is also a tool and a
system. It can be used for good or harm depending on the heart and
mind of the user(s).
FT#6: The two most fundamental desires of most people
are having the security to survive and the freedom to thrive. And to the degree
any individual ignores or interferes with another individual’s freedom and
security - is the degree to which both individuals (and thus others)
will be at risk if a non-violent means of resolving any dispute is not used.
FT#7: Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” pamphlet asserts
that “the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by
the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; ...is the design and end of
government, viz. freedom and security.”
FT#8: Independent governments and independent
agencies are by their very nature unable to resolve globally interdependent
problems without universal agreements and cooperation.
FT#9: Without significant and transformative changes
to the US Constitution it will remain dysfunctional in achieving any of its
preamble’s seven intentions. And the Constitution’s failure is
inevitable. Thomas Jefferson asserted that ‘every Constitution
should be rewritten every 19 years... because the future belongs to the living
and not the dead.’
FT#10: The solution to our nation’s dilemma is
American inspired. It is clearly written within the first sentence
of our Declaration of Independence. Our nation’s laws must first
abide by “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (the Golden
rule)”. Abraham Lincoln wrote that our Declaration is our “Apple of
Gold”. And our Constitution is its “Frame of
Silver”. Swearing an oath to protect the Constitution will not
enable us to protect our freedoms or our security.
FT#11: Given the near impossibility of the world’s governments
coming together to legally ensure the protection of human rights and the
environment above the legal rights of governments and corporations there are
only three paths to sustainably maximizing humanities freedoms and
security. 1) Purchase the protection of human rights and the
environment by prioritizing sufficient funding to comprehensively achieve all
the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals
simultaneously. 2) Pray for the second to come. 3) Wait
for space aliens to save us from our insanity of doing the same things
repeatedly expecting a different result.
FT#12: Three lines suggest we are rapidly running out
of time if we are not already too late. The first line is the exponential
growth of technology, which is now growing at another exponential
pace. Line two is the limited linear thinking of the human mind...
with its ease of being distracted, misinformed, or delusional. Line
three is our government’s flat line of change over the last four decades, with
the only significant change coming a year after Sept. 11, 2001, when 17
independent US agencies were combined into the Department of Homeland Security,
but still independent of the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice,
and all other vital departments. Today that line is heading down as
conspiracy theories, social media, and fake news have been weaponized and
continue to drive our hyperpolarized public and political parties into
delusional extremes.
Concussion: That 1980 bipartisan US Presidential commission mentioned
above went on to state “that promoting economic development in general, and
overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S.
national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the
advent of nuclear weapons, most Americans have been conditioned to equate
national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The
Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed
might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military
force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only
coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”
Our world today is
experiencing the consequences of ignoring that commission’s specific warnings
of increases in “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental
problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide, human
trafficking…).
These global pressures
have fueled anti-democratic populist movements that continue to thrive
today. Other prestigious, bipartisan studies and academic reports
have followed since that 1980 report. Most offer similar warnings and
recommendations to reduce global instability and the growing array of threats
to our freedoms, security, prosperity, and political stability.
Will any political
leader or organization rise to the occasion? At this moment that is
woefully unlikely. What’s missing is the political will of “we the
people”. How many times have each of us stood before our nation’s
flag and pledged “liberty and justice for all”. It’s time to deliver
on that pledge.
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