“WE hold these Truths to be self-evident”: and the DARKEST day of my life. So far.

You might notice that I’ve not blogged for nearly two months.  The is the first significant gap in nearly a decade. Why? Because I had a very dark day.  This may be my last blog.  But the 4th of July and December 10th will remain the most important days we should all honor.  The shorter post before this long rant will explain why. 

It may only be a coincidence that a day before the 4^th of July (the celebration of our “Declaration of Independence”) that I had trouble sleeping.  But I awoke at 3 am with thoughts about all my ‘darkest’ days.  This was put in my head after listening to a podcast the day before.  Certain days I had pondered for decades but never really put in writing or expressed in a collective context.  Here they are.

My mother, my sister, and I were physically abused by our father.  He was actually a good man.  Ignorant as hell and tortured most of his childhood by harsh conditions and all of his adult life by the worst experience any human can have…the loss of his first son at 2yrs old.  Worse yet, he was largely responsible for the infant drowning.  But due to growing up with my far less traumatic experiences I had committed myself to seeking love, justice, and doing what I could to address the preventable suffering and death of others (including other life forms). 

Believing that knowledge and truth was power - I committed myself to learning as much as I could about people (including myself), the environment (as a child I hoped for a pandemic that could save nature), life (I became a biologist), wrestling (to someday overpower my father or protect some other women or child threatened by an abusive individual), and the universe (God, the meaning of life, and it’s inevitable end on earth when our Sun dies).

Two days ago a young Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who had grown up in my neighborhood suggested I listen to that podcast.  And, like other things I’ve learned over the decades, it moved me.  It was a story about the dark moments in a human life (war, cancer) that we can benefit from, if we survive. And I started thinking about mine.    

The worst came about a month ago when I realized all that I had done to ‘end world hunger’ was being undone by the pandemic, and everything that I had tried to do - end hunger, promote health and human rights, prevent pandemics and terrorism, and sustain the miracle of life on this troubled planet, was all -- also being undone.  Not by the pandemic.  Not because of Trump.  But simply for the lack of political will and the unwillingness of most humans to seek the truth -- and then to take the initiative and act on it.  Simple truths that are self-event…put persistently ignored.  Truths like;

1.       A child should not die before their parent.

2.       War is not the answer.

3.       Prevention is the best medicine

4.       The value of the Golden Rule

5.       Responsibility is key to preserving everyone’s freedom and our security.

6.       Combining love and power is essential to our survival (thank you MLK!).

7.       The ultimate laws are the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” (thank you Thomas Jefferson!)

8.       Democracy is worthless without truth and justice.

9.       Our current government system and structures are dysfunctional and unsustainable.

10.   The Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of Gold” and our Constitution “the Sliver Frame” around it (thank you Abraham Lincoln!)

11.   Together we stand, divided we fall…

 So after 67 laps around the sun what was my darkest moment?

It wasn’t the untimely death of my saintly mother (who taught me so much by her actions and words)

It wasn’t placing only 3^rd in the state wrestling championship after 5 years of total devotion to that goal (because two months later I took first in the state freestyle championship).

It wasn’t losing my national championship in the NCJAA wrestling tournament (I knew I was just lucky to qualify for the national tournament  - and it was the first time I remember my father hugging me.)

It wasn’t my failure to quality for the NCAA national tournament (I was dispirited due to the broken word of a coach – but eventually it has paid for all of my college education).

It wasn’t my first fiancé dumping me after 3 months of engagement (because I’m still married to the woman I found on rebound).

It wasn’t being fired from my last teaching job because I was too involved in ending hunger (because the Hunger Project soon hired me to verify all the information in it’s first book “Ending Hunger: An Idea whose time has come”.  It gave me a wholistic perspective on issues)

It wasn’t being fired as Media Director for RESULTS after just 10 months in Washington DC (Because I was soon elected as one of the first RESULTS Grassroots Board members - and later hired by the RESULTS Board Chair to run the Alliance for Child Survival where I successfully demonstrated my capacity to create political will tweaking the traditional RESULTS format I had always wanted to do)

It wasn’t our failure to end hunger by the year 2000 - or meet all of the promised, affordable and achievable World Summit for Children goals by the turn of the century (because there was the creation of the Millennium Development Goals shortly after which were more comprehensive -- and another chance to significantly address preventable human suffering from poverty, environmental degradation, and human violence).

It was not being fired as Issues and Advocacy Director of the Global Health Council because I prioritized preventing global poverty, malnutrition and infectious diseases above international family planning and reducing global tobacco sales (soon after the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association -120,000 US member 100+ year old organization’s “Action Board” -elected me as their representative among the 13 other APHA sections).

It wasn’t breaking my back (a burst fracture to my L-2 vertebra after falling 32 ft because of a dumb mistake) and losing 100% of my mobility and nerve sensations below my waste (because after a month I started moving my toes--  and after years of rehab regained most of my mobility and control over my bodily functions – and could dance again… and even coach wrestling with only minor difficulty).

It wasn’t being fired after 3 years as Issues Director for the World Federalist Association (originally an Albert Einstein concocted organization) on the very first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks and Anthrax release…having persistently warned it’s leadership about these and other national security threats beyond war or nuclear weapons for years (because my beltway colleagues representing over 100 US based NGOs representing all three major progressive movements – peace, environment, social/economic justice with US memberships totaling over 25 million  - elected me-  without my asking - to Chair the United Nations Association Council of Organizations -where I served two terms).

It wasn’t our collective failure to meet all of the Millennium Development Goals (some progress was made).

It wasn’t learning that my wife of 32 years (we had lived together 7 years before that) really didn’t love me…but basically had settled for me… she was insecure and had more feared the discomfort of being alone (we had two wonderful healthy children who both live relatively happy and productive lives -- and with the arrival of Covid19 I’m finally feeling loved and appreciated by her).

It wasn’t after the election of Trump (because I believed we got the leader we deserved, and I was hopeful it would finally wake most of our nation up regarding our failed and dysfunctional principles, systems and structures).

It wasn’t after learning that both my children had decided NOT to have children and grasped that I would never get to be a grandfather (there are more than enough children in the world and many of them still lack food, medicine, an education, love and attention).

It wasn’t that my daughter (our first child with her birth being the brightest day of my life) decided to ignore me for the last 4 years.  No call or card on Father’s Day or my birthdays, and no conversations at family gatherings (I’ve tried everything to remedy my failings with her to no avail.  I can only hope she will find it in her heart to forgive me for whatever it is I did to earn her persistent rejection.  I accept I will have to live - and probably die with it.)

It wasn’t after the persistent decades of uncontested expert warnings (and my two Congressional testimonies more than a decade earlier that stressed many of those warnings) that were ignored  -- or Covid19 predictably threatening every aspect of our freedom, security and prosperity and undoing everything - and more - that our ‘ending hunger’ and longtime promotion of global health had achieved since 1980 (Because now I’m finally hearing some think tanks and policy makers talking about better preparing for - and maybe even preventing the next pandemic).   

It wasn’t learning that the astronomical cost of meeting the totally comprehensive set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030 (trillions of dollars a year– and not the millions of achieving the Children Summit goals or the billions needed for the MDGs.  I did hit a new low and quit advocating for the SDGs believing there was not enough money for governments to appropriate for meeting them (but then in early 2017 I learned that there was over $32 trillion locked in offshore accounts put there by kleptocrats, oligarchs, criminal cartels, violent extremist groups, and filthy rich capitalists avoiding taxes.  And all that was needed was a Movement of Movements that Naomi Klein called for at the 2014 Climate March in NYC…to sufficiently mobilize action that could lead to funding each of these movement’s priorities at once).

My darkest moment came after trying for three years to convince every leader that I knew and respected from The Hunger Project (some now leading the Pachamama Alliance and the Drawdown events), the RESULTS organization (who never returned my calls), the Citizens Climate Lobby (that wanted to remain narrowly focused), the United Nations Association, the World Federalist/Citizens for Global Solutions, and dozens of other globally minded human rights organizations -- that believed nothing else was needed.   Even after Covid19 clearly exposed our broken systems and structures …yet too failed to bring these movements and organizations together to recognize and accept the fundamental truth that without a Movement of Movements -- finding a new source of funding to meet all the SDGs all together – (in the context of national security and protecting our freedoms and prosperity)…won’t work….and they continued to wage the ‘zero sum’ game that got us where we are today.   Knowing that they will ultimately fail trying to fix the root cause of interdependent problems using Independent organizations - each working on their cherished priority and competing with every other essential movement, issue, and organization - instead of working together to change the systems and structures that are persistently failing to codify and enforce the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God [think Golden Rule].  Instead they rely on making up their own independent laws that rig the economic system between elections….

Sam Harris, the founder of RESULTS, did the most to take this reality and truth seriously…but his persistence in suggesting that I lead such an effort was a no go.  I had tried and failed.  Those in power had repeatedly ignored my pleas.  They persist to this day in seek ways of doing what they have always done  -- better, more, or faster – but not in concert or common cause.

My energy and spirit for the bigger picture is now gone.  And it all now may just be too late.  With the continued growth in all the unsustainable and worsening trends – with only protests and occasional violence in response… I accept that I no longer make any difference on any obviously urgent national or global level.

I’ve resigned myself to accept our species will need far more pain and suffering – both here and abroad before we really grasp the fact that everything is interdependent -- and requires a comprehensive effort to address fundamental principles of ‘liberty and justice for all’ and ‘life, liberty and the sustainable pursuit of happiness’ globally, just as our Declaration of Independence offered.  That budgets are moral documents.  And that we lack the political will to put our values into enforceable and just laws.

I’m now resigned to the reality that we as a species will continue to ignore the wisdom of Jesus, Mohammad, Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, MLK…and appear to be content with defending our existing beliefs till death do we part. 

My priority is now my garden, the health and sustainability of my city and county park lands, and my own health, fitness and loving relationships – things I’ve often neglected over the past 40 years.

I feel blessed to have had the life I’ve had.  Now every meal I eat, and each day I can continue to work physically to improve things around me I will thrive.

I would offer ‘good luck’ but I know luck won’t be not enough.  Harder times are ahead.

Not enough people really care for self-evident truths?  Or even believe they exist.

This 4^th of July, I urge you to read at least the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence.  And then remember the pledge you made before our flag…of “liberty and Justice for all”.  Then go and try to enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Just know, even with the best election year ever for progressive…things are going to get a lot worse…before they get better…if they ever do.   And please read these words of wisdom…

“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.

Covid19 on the 4th of July: If I were a millennial...let it thin the herd?

When I first heard someone calling Covid19 the ‘Boomer Doomer disease’ I laughed and thought how appropriate. Probably a creative selfish millennial cutely naming and shrugging off what will likely be the worst US national security and global security disaster in modern history (more to justify that statement later). 

But now, as both the virus and the fake news go viral, if I were a millennial, I’d ignore the potential risk to myself and my peers - and let the virus run its course thinning the elderly herd.  After all, boomers are largely responsible for the world and the laws we have today.   They knew what needed to be done.  They chose to collectively ignore the warnings.  Comfort and fantasy are a dangerous duo.   Nearly every crisis we have faced in the past 40 years was the result of these combined with boomer ignorance and apathy.

It is unfortunate that one in five new Covid19 infections will be people under 30.  But we are all getting a basic biology lesson that too many people ignored in HS or avoided by getting their liberal arts or law degree.  It is the fundamental principle that genetic variation is essential to our species survival -- and that sexual reproduction’s primary purpose was to increase genetic diversity as the best means to ensure survival of every higher level species -- against the greatest threat we all perpetually face -- infectious diseases.  

While being young is a chronological variation there may still be genetic reasons that young people are less likely to actually die from this virus.  But being young and dumb is enough to take the risk.  And Boomers, having ignored every warning over the last 40 years that another global pandemic was inevitable, with profoundly serious consequences, deserve whatever comes.

Unfortunately, pandemics consequences go beyond immediate life and death health risks.  Risks that appear to to be beyond both our Pleistocene brain and our Neanderthal government’s capacity to grasp and effectively respond to – let alone prevent. Even at this time in history with unprecedented access to useful information, scientific knowledge, and wisdom.   

Fact 1: The economic, freedom and security consequences of any pandemic are inevitable due to our irreversibly global interconnectedness and interdependence.

Fact 2:  Any local or national responses are at best, bandages.  

Fact 3: Every aspect of human interactions while living under any national or global governance system that was engineered on the unnatural political principle of independence -- is going to be lethally flawed.

And on this 4^th of July Independence Day I urge every literate voter to re-read the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence.  Yes!  I know the second is long…but it is vital if we want to sustainably maximize our individual and national freedom, security, and prosperity.  That profound document is not about you or your nation’s independence from the rest of the world.  It is a global truth statement.  One that contains “self-evident” “truths”.   Like the fact that every human has fundamental and inalienable rights that no government can take away without risking lethal global consequences. 

And, pandemics are essentially the ultimate consequence.  The 1918 pandemic demonstrated this. There was no human way of anyone escaping the profoundly life changing consequences, individually or globally, of it’s wrath.

Pandemics are like an Xray that exposes every broken system and structure in a government, cultural and/or social body.   These breaks represent our collective failure to abide by the fundamental principles clearly stated in the Declaration’s second paragraph.  Our failure to adhere to them in all of the laws that “we the people” allowed to pass -- and then ignored -- should now be self-evident.  Yet, we continue to live in denial.

And it was the comfortable Baby boomers that largely ignored the rigging of the nation’s economic system, the enforcement of unjust laws that govern everything from health care to crime, foreign policy to taxes, education to housing, and elections to the fundamental flaws in the U.S. Constitution itself; and a global governance architecture that put the protection of national sovereignty above the protection of inalienable  human rights.  

So why shouldn’t young people ignore the expert public health recommendations of wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing when exercising their right to party -- and get physically close to those they are attracted to and are hopeful of hooking up with?   Sure, they probably love their parents and grandparents, but they only stand to gain some immediate benefits when Covid19 thins the elderly herd.  Fewer traffic jams, more available housing, the possibility of some inheritance, more job openings, less stress on the Social Security fund, and smaller crowds at the beach or movie theater. 

I just hope millennials are wiser than we were. And consider the longer term personal economic, environmental, freedom, and security consequences of believing and acting on the concept that we are each independent from one another-- and the rest of the world.  We are not.  In this context, All lives matter!  Including those faces in Africa and Haiti. And every face in every other place in the world.

Until we codify the “Laws of Nature and Natures God” into all laws on earth we will continue to impose profound risks onto our freedoms, security and prosperity. The ‘Laws of Nature’ should be clear.  Here’s two examples of the “Laws” of “Nature’s God” if you find this unclear.   The ‘Golden Rule’ and ‘thou shall not kill’.   While we may like to think that life on this incredibly vast and complex planet is more complicated that this…it is not.    And, this meme must go viral.  It is the only real defense we have against pathogen gene’s going viral.  Their genes change asexually.  Can we?

Anosognosia: A US mental medical illness that led to poor Covid19 responses.

‘Ano-sog-nosia’ is a medical term that may explain the human condition. It is 'when a person suffering a disability is unaware of that disability'.  Or simply, suffering from a lack of insight or awareness.  One mental concept contributes more to this damaging and often lethal medical condition than any other factor. The human invented concept of ‘independence’. It exists nowhere in the known universe. It is an essentially an illusion.  An illusion driving our increasing disconnect from reality and exacerbating our failures in dealing with reality.

An irrevocable fact of all life is that our health, thoughts, prosperity and out survival itself is irreversibly dependent on so many factors its difficult to list them all.  But it is our voluntary or learned mental disconnect from a small list of the most important factors that are increasingly self evident as the source of Covid19 and our troubles.  And likely our inevitable extinction if we cannot heal ourselves from this fundamental delusion.

Our greatest disconnects include (but are not limited to):

#1. The Environment: Few things have been more damaging to the long term survival of our species as our belief that we must conquer nature.  Nature can make life short, brutish and uncomfortable.  But so does war and poverty, and we haven’t taken the necessary steps to conquer either of those. The environment is our life support system.  It consists of a very thin and fragile biofilm covering our planet that is protected by a number of non-biofilm factors.  Gravity, polarization, the ionosphere and atmosphere… and don’t forget the life giving energy from the sun and the gravitational influence of the Moon.  Within this biofilm every drop of seawater, speck of soil and liter of air contains thousands if not millions of life forms. Some may cause human illness or death but 99.9% play a vital role in our survival or contribute in some way to the chain of life that sustains our planetary life support system. We see our human made dwellings as our refuge from nature and turn the outside of our house, the ‘yard, into an unnatural environment to ‘improve’ the looks of our home.  We turn to chemicals, other unnatural elements, and non-native invasive species to create the appearance someone respectable ‘lives’ there.

2. Our bodies: While we may be ‘spiritual beings’ our existence for now depends upon a relatively complicated but well organized chunk of organic matter that requires certain constant inputs and expulsions to survive. Some evidence suggests our souls may someday move beyond the body’s needs but for now we need to keep our bodies healthy.  We seldom do. Overconsumption and malconsumption sickens us, debilitates us, and too often kills us before we have contributed much of value to the survival of our species. And increasingly we demonstrate little interest in boosting the physical capacity of our adaptable, auto-repairing organic form -- and this tends to slowly accelerate its disintegration and usefulness. This can happen so slowly fail to perceive it until it’s too late.

3. Our loved ones: Time commitments to work and the time we commit to the gadgets we use for transportation, communication and entertainment(cell phones, TVs and computers…) is time we don’t spend face to face or hand in hand with those we love.

4. Our community: Our homes are seen as not only an escape from nature, but from an increasingly unfriendly, sometimes hostile, social environment we perceive largely from listening to the news and interacting with others close to us — who may have points of view that make us annoyed, angry, indifferent or uncomfortable.

5. Our Government: At best we believe that government is inefficient. At its worse, dysfunctional or conspiratorial.  We have forgotten that ours is a government of “We the People”.  It is not some ‘thing’ or cabal in Washington DC, the state capitol, or city hall.  It is an institution that we have chosen by place of residence, voting (or not voting) to be responsible for things around us.  Rarely are we active ‘citizens’ between elections…except maybe to complain or protest.

6. Our Politicians: Because their mouths are moving, we assume they are lying. And, if they have the courage to tell us the truth, we choose not to vote for them.  We rarely feel connected enough to them, even though they were elected to represent us (or our state or nation).  We rarely tell them in a letter or meeting what we want, need, or value most. Usually our closest connection to them leading up to an election  when they ask us for donations - or during troubled times when we need their help.

7. Science and facts: Our minds have developed concepts that have disconnected or distanced our minds and our bodies from reality. Those vital things that we each need. We pray and hope that a higher force will save us from our selves. We make up other beliefs to explain random events or prejudiced views of trends. 

8. The heavens: Both physical and spiritual. For as long as humans have existed we have been able to look up in the night and see the majesty of billions of stars, many concentrated in paths across the sky and, occasionally, a few that streak across the heaven.  And then we wonder, ‘how did we get here?’ and ‘why are we here?’  Now we look up and consider ourselves fortunate to see electric lights or a calm sky not muted by smog or light pollution.  And, act nonchalant that some of our species actually flew to, then walked on the moon, and returned safely.

9. Other peoples:  We separate our selves from nearly seven billion other people by divisions of sex, skin color, religion, ethnic group, political party or nationality. When in fact, we are all essentially the same children of nature or nature’s God.  All with the same needs and human vulnerabilities. Then we devise different customs, uniforms, preferences, rules, and ideas that divide us even further.

Then, we wonder why we feel like ‘something’ is missing in our lives.  And somehow we marshal the audacity to wonder why some people grab a gun and mass murder other sentient beings claiming they felt “disconnected”.   Chances are they were visibly and physically unloved by anyone within their reach or sight. 

It’s not a tragedy that we have seen a spike in mass killings in the last twenty years.  It’s a miracle that far more people haven’t done it. This is reason enough for some hope/optimism. The bad news is that research shows that optimists are less likely to achieve their goals because they are less likely to analyze the barriers they will need to overcome. Where there is pessimism there is less action.  And where there is hope, there is often too little action.  What is needed is commitment. A commitment to analyze the barriers, the devise and implement plans of action, to overcome them. That is not only unAmerican.  It maybe an illness in our mental state.

It is noteworthy that with some very important things in the real world we are increasingly connected.  Primely via technology in economics, environment, Infectious diseases (nature’s or man-made) and now Covid19 is trying to remind us, computers (information, communication, cyber crime…) Transportation (people, goods and services) --  each carry the potential for great global good or catastrophic global harm.

How healthy can you be if you are well adjusted to a profoundly sick society?

The 3 most complex systems in the known universe requires we "be the landlord of" our "mind."

Covid19 (and most other catastrophic threats humanity faces) is the consequence our persistent failure to grasp the irreversible connections between the three most complicated systems in the known universe. 

1)      Our natural environment.

2)      Our neurological system (brain/mind: both an asset and a burden)

3)      Our immune system.

Recognize that the second two are primarily defense systems of every advanced life form -- engineered by evolution (or God if that’s your understanding of the universe) to keep the individual healthy and thriving while living in the first system we call nature. 

Most human suffering, injury, disease, and death are the result of damage, malfunctions, or ignorance of the second two.  Nature’s disasters are usually catastrophic on a relatively local level. And humans are relatively effective and efficient at responding and recovering from those.   Understanding and paying adequate attention to the dysfunction of the other two systems will usually prove catastrophic eventually.  And when it comes to pandemics, globally.

Thus, the vast majority of human suffering, injury, disease and death on our personal, local, national and global level are self-inflicted by the largely unexamined purpose and best function of the second two.     Covid19 hits both of these systems with a baseball bat. 

And the greatest systemic flaw is not in our immune system.  It is in our mental capacity. 

Specifically, in our persistent resistance to doing the deep thinking needed to properly engineer our human made systems to navigate the problems that we have created with them.  Especially with their inevitable interactions with the first system in this rant, the environment.    

Our mind did well in protecting us from the harmful aspects of nature. But it went too far in believing our health, freedom, security and sustained prosperity could exist while abusing nature or ignoring it.

While our immune system is too often weakened by personal choices we make as individuals, a vast majority of damaged immune systems are caused by flawed economic, political or religious systems we humans have created.  The poverty, war, genocide and other forms of injustices these three human created systems have unleased did benefit some.  But on the whole they have been beneficial to the spread and evolution of pathogens which inevitably prove disastrous or catastrophic to our personal and global health, freedom, security and prosperity.   

If Covid19 hasn’t educated you on this fundamental reality we may have to wait until the next pandemic, one more harmfully consequential may be needed. And this is inevitable. 

If our mental systems refuse to re-engineer our economic, government, religious, media, and cultural systems, our immune systems will most likely be unable to protect us.  And that level of civilization that  half of us in the world has enjoyed in comfort for the last few decades…will cease to exist.  

The great tragedy is that these fundamental mental problems and flawed human systems have always been known by some.   Each of the religious prophets have known them.  But their followers rarely walk their talk.  Many modern seers, experts, and even bi-partisan Presidential Commissions have identified flaws in our human systems in many forms.   But the majority of the public, policy makers and even liberal and conservative organizational leaders have intentionally ignored them.  These publications are jokingly referred to as “Dust Collectors”. 

   

"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.

“Almost all our suffering is the product of our thoughts. We spend nearly every moment of our lives lost in thought and hostage to the character of those thoughts.” Sam Harris

In one sense, our minds have become too smart.  Once it has created an idea it believes to be true it becomes an infection of the mind that then acts like a mental immune response system that rejects any other idea that might dislodge it.

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."  - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pan American Day address, April 15, 1939.

Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr once argued with Carl Sagan “that intelligence is a kind of lethal mutation”.  That “some humans will survive, but…will be scattered [without] a decent existence, and we’ll take a lot of the rest of the living world along with us.”

As hunters and gatherers, we were fine. But once we started separating ourselves from nature, we softened ourselves and started believing we were in control of our destiny.  And our successes are now making it too difficult to reverse course.  Covid19 might change that, but given the rapid evolution of weaponry and war, we do not have much time.

The human capacity for abusing any technology (bio, chemical, nuclear, cyber, nano, money…) is as exponential as the advancement of these technologies.  And, our linear thinking capacity combined with our flatline or failing government capacity to adapt to this rapid change…will NOT end well.

Transformational personal and government change is now needed to accept out global interdependence and to codify global systems that ensure we are responsible with our personal and national freedoms.  National sovereignty exercised irresponsibility anywhere in the world we live in cannot protect us. Political borders (mental constructs) and walls won’t stop dangers such as viruses (natural or human made), environmental, or economic problems.

Essentially, if we continue to fail to observe and respond appropriately to the real world that we inhabit and depended on for necessities of life, health, security, and sustainable prosperity, we will lose it all.  

George Lakoff describes our evolutionary problem by writing that our mind is hardwired for “direct causation thinking”.  Note that most government ‘solutions’ are responses to problems, instead investing in prevention.  That requires much deeper “systemic causation thinking” that elections every two, four or six years does not reward.   Policy maker must react most effectively with the world around us if it intends to protect American lives and freedoms, instead of just protecting our flawed Constitution, which they have sworn an oath to protect. 

Our human engineered systems must abide by the laws our Founding fathers referred to in our Declaration of Independence as “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.

Most other problems come from the tendency of most Americans and our policy makers ignoring the credible warnings we/they are often given.  We too seldom exercise our Constitutional right to “peacefully…assemble” and “petition the government for redress of grievances.”  Forget preventing grievances.  That seems to be un-American.   We only rise when we have them and believe elections are our only solution.  

Elections are fundamentally flawed if we have collectively failed to educate ourselves on the key issues.  Voting is now more of an emotional decision that one of deep thought and deliberations.   

Unless ‘we the people’ change, our ‘direct’ and ‘short-term thinking’ our elected officials will remain addicted to their existing political, religious, and economic ideologies.  And they will continue to hold us all hostage to Covid19 and most other major threats. 

Paid lobbyists or enraged activists pushing unexamined assumptions, fake news, or conspiracy theories, will not prevent the obvious or the inevitable.

Step one may be taking a step back to examine how our mind actually works.   The cognitive sciences has many useful concepts.

First is recognizing that our mind is NOT who we really are.  It’s only a voice in our head.  A voice that attempts to understand who we really are.  And does a damn poor job of it.  Most of what our mind believes is what our mind wants to believe.

   

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." - Henri Bergson, French Philosopher and Educator

We are really a social animal.  We have basic needs including love and an evolutionary mission to protect ourselves (our body), as well as the bodies of those we love.    

Our mind was originally a problem-solving tool doing these things.  But with human consciousness came the recognition that there is a ‘me’…and there is a ‘you.’  And an ‘us’…and a ‘them’.  

The ‘me’ started to discover or invent certain differences or distinctions.  And this became our ‘identity’.  And these had to be protected at any cost.  As groups grew into tribes that occasionally bumped into other groups and tribes it became important to distinguish between them.  Then integrate peacefully or destroy them.

Obviously, our history of integration (including mating between Neanderthals) had more survival value than the destruction of others.  Tragically, our mental identities we cling to have inevitably led to technological systems capable of killing nearly all higher life forms on earth. 

We became so successful as a species and the mind essentially lost its original job of solving problems. And started defending identities.

Since then, our creative mind has been creating problems instead of solving them.   And this includes our separation from nature. 

Nature was not comfortable - or safe.   So, we started engineering a safer and more comfortable world using tools, concepts and eventually our ideologies that disconnect us from nature.  And life was easier and good.  So good we largely forgot about our dependence on nature.  The cost for that error will be high if we persist on maintaining flawed perceptions like independence or learned concepts like national sovereignty, free trade, or unregulated capitalism.   

Our minds chose these other priorities because that is what they believe work.  And humans will continue to kill and die for them.  War, genocide, wealth, selfishness, comfort…  Or, our mind will unintentionally ignore poverty and these other injustices as we go about our comfortable or distracted lives.   Until the chickens come home to roost.  Covid19…and eventually unprecedented global warming or the use of WMD may wake us up.  But not all of us.  The greatest flaw of the human mind might be its capacity to believe ANYTHING! 

Our minds created an illusion that things are separate.  Einstein noted this illness long ago stating “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.

I know most minds have a hard time even hearing this quote’s wisdom.  And an even a harder time accepting it as a reality that would actually inspire an adjustment of habitual harmful behaviors.   I’m guessing some who are reading this now are already searching for exceptions - or a clever comeback - to defend an idea that their mind has already adopted. 

For the most part our minds will continue defending ideas, arguments, concepts that we have accumulated via culture, education, religion, self-interests, political party, nationalism, and/or economic ideology.  And, ignoring fundamental principles like the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (the golden rule).  But nature always gets the last vote.

Our core problem is that our mind has decided that defending its own ideas are more important.  The mind’s arrogance is even maintained by very smart people.  It may be that the smarter a mind is, the harder it is for that voice in their head to yield to reality.  They think it is who they are…instead of just a voice.   And any challenge to that voice essentially challenges the concept who they think they are.  And it must be defeated at any cost. 

Welcome to today’s world where those who worship freedom at any cost.  Like the cost other people’s freedom and security.

The mind’s defensive reactions conveniently blocks its capacity to deeply analyze alternative narratives, conflicting facts, or functional possibilities.  Or, simply allows the mind to ignore these other ideas all together - with the thought “That just crazy”.  The new idea may be.  But chances their mind, and most minds in our world are at the effect of a disease the medical community has termed 'anosognosia' (pronounced uh-no-sog-noh-zee-uh).  It is a mental disease that may best explain the human condition 'when a person suffering a disability is unaware of that disability'.  [Watch 2004 movie “Downfall”?]

In layman’s terms “How healthy can you be if you are well adjusted to a profoundly sick society (US), culture (Wallstreet), ideology (white supremacy), religion (David Koresh, Branch Davidians), government (Third Reich), philosophy (Unabomber)… 

We all have some element in our lives that appear crazy to another person’s perceptions of what’s normal, important, or valuable. 

Covid19 is now teaching us science and our interdependence better than any lecture, rant, quote, or textbook.  It is revealing the structural faults of a system that was rigged, ignored and papered over for decades.  If you were monitoring the news you would have noticed things most people ignore have been getting worse…while the things they like have been getting better. But now gaping economic inequalities, rampant ecological destruction, and pervasive political corruption are all obvious to most.  And as one system destabilizes, expect others to tumble down in tandem – or in a cascade known by researchers as “synchronous failure.”

Independence is an illusion.  It is NOT a fundamental principle that can be found in “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” or one of the “Self-evident” “Truths” mentioned in our Declaration of Independence.  In the Declaration, the word ‘independence’ was intended to mean a reasonable political separation.  And politics is fundamentally what humans use in an attempt to get along together.  Humanity is still seeking a political system that works while operating under human laws.  Laws that usually ignore the “Laws of Nature and Natures God.”

Conclusion:  It is the failure of human systems and structures to adhere to the “Laws of Nature (these should be self-evident to most) and Nature’s God (think ‘Golden Rule’ or ‘justice for all’)” that result in most threats.  Pandemics and other infectious disease threats are the best teacher of the fact that we are all interdependent on one another’s health, security, and cooperation.  Our concept and codification of “independence” is lethally flawed.   We need a holistic ‘one world, one health’ approach.  The health of all living things is irreversibly interconnected with the health of our economy, infrastructure, democracy, security, freedoms, civility, religious practices, and every other aspects of our earthly dependence.  The three most complicated/complex systems in the Universe must work in sync for us to survive.

"If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it."
-- Stanley Garn  (1922-2007) American human biologist, professor of anthropology

"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately."   -- Thomas Jefferson

No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us. – Ludwig von Mises  (1881-1973)

"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false." - Bertrand Russell 

It is difficult for our mind to grasp the profound concept that it is NOT who we really are.  It is a wrestling match we must win, and win every day. 

A teenage wrestler from Rockville was the world’s first ever 19 year old Gold Metal Olympic heavy weight champion.  He beat the best Russians and Iranian heavyweight to do it.  His Dad gave him the best coaching advice I’d ever heard.  “Be the landlord of your mind”.  He did, and took leave of a culture that wants comfort, fun, feeling good and looking good, and raised his sights to the almost impossible.  Now he is as impacted by this pandemic as most of us are.  

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

Must read! This is the most informative and functional coverage of this crisis.

Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing

A guide to making sense of a problem that is now too big for any one person to fully comprehend  

From <https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-confusing-uncertainty/610819/?fbclid=IwAR1XifOeXNuv0dgmgcQWW6PAfE_uUxfo-vDb6RZN3Kmb5rnOwv2ZmqwWeZk>    Story by Ed Yong

Hunting Quail

In my teenage years I used to hunt quail.  True- they were cute, I was young and dumb…, and there wasn’t enough meat on them to make a sandwich.  But it was fun!  The problem.  When a covey of wild quail flush in a 2 second flash -- in every direction -- it is startling.  There are just too many easy targets to pick AND then focus a shot on.  One can completely fail in that brief opportunity to put an hors D’oeuvre on the table.

Today, most of that feeling of exhilaration is still with me when I read my two daily newspapers while listening to C-span and taking bathroom breaks with short, balanced and credible readings of my ‘The Week’ magazine.   So many easy targets, so little time, and so little chance of anyone really appreciating the accuracy of the game I to be bagged. And with today’s covey of Covid19 news stories…there is LOT to bag - and for me to wind bag about.

No longer being young, or so dumb, there are so many targets on each page and in every minute of C-span, that I want to drop my keyboard, go outside and hunt quail (or a great horned owlet) with a camera.  My biggest dilemma is how do I want to spend my remaining days of health, fitness and life on this amazing planet.   Do I spend this beautiful spring day tending my home’s garden of Eden (and eating) and the nearby natural parks that are now endangered by invaders of mask covered littering humans, non-native invasive plants, and increasingly non-native animals?  Or sitting at my computer shooting down false claims?  At least with my outside efforts I feel like I’m making a little difference while getting healthy and fit in the process.  Inside I don’t feel like I’m doing any of these.

Today’s paper yielded a new warning of yet another invasive organic threat other than Covid19 or conspiracy theories.  The new threat?  “Murder Hornets” in Washington state in the Washington Times.  As I read about this threat two consecutive C-Span callers warned our nation about “the head of WHO” being “terrorist murder” and Governor Como being a “mass murder”.  Do words really matter?

As I write this now the Supreme Court is dealing with the dilemma of free speech and human security.  This was paralleled by an article in both papers regarding human freedom of movement and protest in face of human security cautions against Covid19.  Do I now rant about the trilemma? The folly of protecting both freedom and security when laws are based on the concept of independence…and then using our freedom irresponsibly?  Or, do I rant on the new catchword “patchwork” describing the covey of different city, county, state or nation policies regarding testing and tracing.  Which then brings up three other related “T” target temptations.  Truth, Trust and Technology.   Trump and some of his conservative minions want to put China on Trial for US deaths because of China’s “lies” on Covid19 – while Trump’s Thousands of lies over 3 years and last 4 months has killed Thousands of Americans (a hypocrisy shocking enough to make me want to tear up my “I give a SHIT card” (origin of word “Store High In Transit”).

Earlier this morning on C-span the Chief officer of the Medical Health Care Association, Dr. David Gifford, an ‘expert’ on the links between public health and medical needs of people living in Assisted Living (where my wife has worked for over 20 years) and nursing homes (now a primary Covid19 target), made one false and dangerously misleading statement among all the other insightful statement he offered.  A caller asked about the distinction between the virus being spread in droplets or being air borne.  The respected Dr. didn’t explain that the droplets that we normally associated with a sneeze or cough (that usually won’t go more than 6 feet from the perpetrator) is not the microscopic droplets carried significantly further in a breeze.  This distinction is vital for the best preemptive measures on spreading the virus publicly.   How much should we Trust our experts?  Trump?  Are policy makers being Truthful?  Can we trust the tests?   One Post op-ed suggested we all take a character Test…after this is all over.  Good idea! 

With over 50,000 Americans dying each year in hospitals with disease they didn’t walk in with in the early 1990s, the first time in history the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association met was in the middle of that decade.  How many people today make the distinction between the functional concept of ‘public health’ and the “Health Care System” most advocate for?  A ‘system’ (and I use that word very loosely in this context) is really a sick care system.  Which does little to actually prevent most of the sicknesses it cares for.  

Testing and Tracing… the new “flatten the curve” campaign relies on Truth, Trust, and Transparency…[see previous blog with more details on this].  Trump is expecting each state to develop its own strategy and trusting corporations and research facilities in the US to come  up with the best technologies for both.  Mean while his administration failed to attend a global “virtual vaccine summit” to “quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight” Covid19.  Trump just said “we did everything right”  He said “we” want China to be “transparent”. OMG…you can’t make this up!  You don’t have to. 
We do have to grasp the concept of comprehensive local, national and global solutions.    If you doubt that please study the global eradication of Smallpox.  This globally coordinated WHO campaign took the same amount of time as our nation’s focus in putting a man on the moon.  An astounding mission (of vision, planning, management and execution) that costs one thousand times more than the global eradication campaign.  A mission that globally eradicated a virus that took more human lives last century than all the wars, revolutions, genocides and homicides…combined!!!

Trying to keep my rants under 1000 words I’ll stop after this next predictable and inevitable sentence.

If we fail to fund and achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals before the year 2030. The pandemics and other biosecurity threats we will face will have ZERO respect for national borders or patchwork efforts.  Please read the summary of the 1980 Bipartisan Commission on World Hunger… and burn it into your memory before making any personal decision or political vote.  

“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.

This C-Span program you MUST listen too. General (Mad Dog) Mattis on Covid-19 and our future.

'Mad Dog' Mattis and his UK buddy make THE CLEAREST assessment of the world now.  Why.   What is needed.  And, the direction we must go if we want real security while protecting human freedom and prosperity.    A profound dialogue worth every minute of your time -- if you are concerned about our future, and our children's future.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?471693-1/defense-secretary-jim-mattis-discuss-coronavirus-global-response

MAY 1, 2020:  Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis & Others Discuss Coronavirus Global Response

Intro: Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis joined the former director of the U.K. Special Forces, Sir Graeme Lamb, in a discussion on the global response to the coronavirus pandemic sponsored by the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. They discussed the global significance of the pandemic, the importance of competent and decisive leadership in times of crisis, the response from the U.S. and U.K., how militaries can play an effective role, and the importance of global coordination amongst allies in combatting global pandemics. 

Their consensus seems to be the need for governments to redefine national security. 

The only flaw I heard in their profound and frequent insights/comments was the fact that this ‘need’ is nothing new.  It was the same conclusion reached in a 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.

Today we are experiencing these consequences.  The Commission warned about “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide, human trafficking…).  Each threatening our lives, our freedoms and our prosperity.   Our failure to deal with them has fueled fear and generated populist movements.  Movements that are only making things worse.  It appears that only a Movement of Movements of ‘we the people’ to fund and achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ASAP can prevent or preempt further catastrophic chaos.  Talk of a new global Marshall plan (proposed multiple times since 1980) is now a ‘self evident truth’.  This or more inevitable threats will reach our shores, our cities and our love ones.

The 1980 commission specifically warned that “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.”

It also stated “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 failure to take a universal human rights approach after 9-11 has cost the US twice as many lives lost that day and as much as 6 trillion US tax dollars so far.  The Covid-19 crisis has been estimate to cost us that much in just 4 months, not to mention that in those same 4 months we lost approximately 6 times the number American lives lost during the last 19 years fighting terrorism predominately with military force. 

It should be a self-evident truth that Covid-19 and most many threats we face today are largely the result of ignoring this reports recommendations.   Dozens of other prodigious, bipartisan studies and reports have followed since then that clearly document the direct and indirect links between world hunger, human rights violations, global instability, and the growing array of other threats to our national security.    Affordable and achievable targets with a comprehensive action plan can be found in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals today.  They offer an action agenda to tackle the root causes of the growing chaos.  What’s missing is the political will.  The will to do what’s right  -- and make an adequate  local, national and global investment in everyone’s freedom, security and prosperity.