The purpose of Government: And wise insights [none are mine]

 “That the whole trust, power, and authority of the magistrate is vested in him for no other purpose, but to be made use for the good, preservation, and peace of men in that society over which he is set, and therefore that this alone is and ought to be the standard and measure according to which he ought to square and proportion his laws, model and frame his government.”  – John Locke, An Essay Concerning Toleration [1667]

"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.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”   Thomas Paine, Common Sense.  Published Feb. 14, 1776. 

"It is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects — military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden —  that is what the State is there for.   And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time." -- C. S. Lewis   (1898-1963), British novelist

"In existing criminology there are concepts: a criminal man, a criminal profession, a criminal society, a criminal sect, and a criminal tribe, but there is no concept of a criminal state, or a criminal government, or criminal legislation.  Consequently, the biggest crimes actually escape being called crimes."  -- P. D. Ouspensky  [Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii] (1878-1947) Russian esotericist  Source: A New Model of the Universe, 1931

“In a government of laws, existence of government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.  – Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Whitney v. California [1927]

“The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to,—for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well,— is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.”  – Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” [1849] 

“It is a mistake for the government to consider the problems of the sick apart from those of society as a whole.... The broader problem is, in a moral sense, one of promoting respect for the individual and the furtherance of initiative and self-providence; in an economic sense, one of increasing production for the benefit of all citizens; and in a political sense, one of removing government as a battlefield for special favor and substituting cohesion and solidarity for division and disintegration.” – Darryl W. Johnson, Jr.

"That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant."  -- John Stuart Mill  (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist    Source: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

***

“Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.” - Robert LeFevre 

"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.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”   Thomas Paine, Common Sense.  Published Feb. 14, 1776. 

"The function of the true state is to impose the minimum restrictions and safeguard the maximum liberties of the people, and it never regards the person as a thing." -- Immanuel Kant  (1724-1804) German philosopher

"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve."  -- Henry George  (1839-1897) American political economist    Source: The Functions of Government, Social problems, vol 12,  (1884)

 "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant." -- John Stuart Mill  (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist

“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good and difficult for them to do evil.”   William Ewart Gladstone  

“The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion—it is an evil government.”  – Eric Hoffer’

"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."  -- Andrew Jackson  (1767-1845) 7th US President    Source: July 10, 1832, Veto of the Bank Bill

“Reason is the life of the law.”  Edward Coke 

"The price system has two outstanding features. First, it is by all odds the most efficient system of social organization ever conceived. It makes it possible for huge multitudes to cooperate effectively, multitudes who may hardly know each other's existence, or whose personal attitudes toward one another may be indifference or hostility. Second, it affords a maximum of individual freedom and a minimum of coercion. And since people can cooperate effectively in production even when their attitudes on other issues are hostile, there is no need for unity and conformity in religion, politics, recreation, and language--or even in patriotism and good will except in the very broadest sense." – W. Allen Wallis, The Freeman [July 1957]

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." Confucius

“The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people." Frank Kent

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."   -- Benjamin Franklin   

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."   -- James Madison  (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President   Source: to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”  – Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."  -- Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778) French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil"   -- Thomas Mann  (1875-1955) German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature (1929)

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness."  -- Thomas Paine  (1737-1809) US Founding father, pamphleteer, author     Source:  "Common Sense"

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

'If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." Paul Wellstone

"People only see what they are prepared to see.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson - (1803-1882) American essayist, poe

“Rights precede government.”  – Sheldon Richman, "TGIF: Free Speech Upsets Powers that Be" [2023]

"America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the the inextiguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government."   — John Quincy Adams, Address [July 4, 1821]

"We are corrupted by prosperity.  And when the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied."  -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus  (c.55-c.120 A.D.) Senator and a historian of the Roman Empire

"Government requires make-believe. Make believe that the king is divine, make believe that he can do no wrong or make believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Make believe that the people have a voice or make believe that the representatives of the people are the people. Make believe that governors are the servants of the people. Make believe that all men are created equal or make believe that they are not."  -- Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013)

"Life, faculties, production -- in other words, individuality, liberty, property -- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation and are superior to it."  -- Frederic Bastiat  (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848    Source: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1848)

"But what is needed for a satisfactory solution of the burning problem of international relations is neither a new office with more committees, secretaries, commissioners, reports, and regulations, nor a new body of armed executioners, but the radical overthrow of mentalities and domestic policies which must result in conflict."  – Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944]

"The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.” Ludwig von Mises, Chapter III: Etatism

"Through the rapid proliferation of laws reaching every corner of human existence, the government is manufacturing more criminals now than ever before.” -- Jonathan H. Adler   Tyranny Now, LIBERTY, p. 55, November, 1994.

“If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Congress?”  Men's restroom. House of Representatives, Washington, DC

"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher."  — Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

“It is not by the intermeddling of ... the omniscient and omnipotent State, but by the prudence and energy of the people, that England has hitherto been carried forward in civilization; and it is to the same prudence and the same energy that we now look with comfort and good hope. Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest."  – Thomas Babington Macaulay, Southey's Colloquies on Society [1830]

"If the ruling power in America possessed both . . . the right to issue orders of all kinds but also the capability and habit of carrying out those orders; if it not only laid down general principles of government but also concerned itself with the details of applying those principles; and if it dealt not only with the country's major interests but also descended to the limit of individual interests, then liberty would soon be banished from the New World."  — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835]  [apply quote to our global level!!!] 

"It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. ... We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving them, not reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? ... We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer."   -- Ronald Reagan  (1911-2004) 40th US President   Source: First Inaugural Address, 1981

"The mission of the law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its purpose is to protect persons and property.... If you exceed this proper limit -- if you attempt to make the law religious, fraternal, equalizing, philanthropic, industrial, or artistic -- you will then be lost in uncharted territory, in vagueness and uncertainty, in a forced utopia or, even worse, in a multitude of utopias, each striving to seize the law and impose it on you."  -- Frederic Bastiat  (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848  Source: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1850)

"That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression."  -- Alabama, Declaration of Rights Article I Section 35 

"The government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity. The financing of all public enterprise, and the conduct of the treasury will become matters of practical administration. Money will cease to be master and will then become servant of humanity." -- Abraham Lincoln   (1809-1865) 16th US President

"The difference between [socialism and fascism] is superficial and purely formal, but it is significant psychologically: it brings the authoritarian nature of a planned economy crudely into the open. The main characteristic of socialism (and of communism) is public ownership of the means of production, and, therefore, the abolition of private property. The right to property is the right of use and disposal. Under fascism, men retain the semblance or pretense of private property, but the government holds total power over its use and disposal."  -- Ayn Rand  [Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum] (1905-1982) Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter    Source: “The Fascist New Frontier,” The Ayn Rand Column, p.98

Independence: The deadliest word on Earth.

Independence is an illusion.  A delusional concept modern minds are addicted to. 

In tonight's State of the Union we will hear the most ignorant, lying, greedy, egotistical, self-serving US President our nation has ever fairly elected to office. And he will likely justify his abuse of power of our so called independent nation for killing more innocent people who happened to be in another 'independent' nation because he can.  

The US does has three legitimate politically polarized parties.  The Democratic Party. The Republican Party. And the Independent party.  With each entirely dependent on the insanity of people believing they are separate from the global forces that affect everything else in the known universe.  Without grasping the reality that even if we united and elected the perfect President intending to form a more perfect union, that every US citizen would still be unable to depend on the most powerful military in the world to protect our freedom and security and the growing chaos globally because of our irreversible interdependence on every thing we need to survive and thrive, and be healthy and wealthy.  

This insanity is accelerating chaos and the possibility of another world war. It is entirely predictable given both the US Constitution and the UN Charter are founded on the quicksand of a word/concept that exists only in our minds, communications.  And we cemented into architecture of every political system.  According to Einstein, the Golden Rule, and indigenous cultures independence exists nowhere in the known universes. 

The last Director of the newest US federal agency, CISA understood this before she was replaced by Trump, Jen Easterly stated in order for the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency to effectively protect the US electrical infrastructure that we all depend on to survive and thrive she said, “So, as we know, in our globally connected world, our infrastructure and our American way of life really faces a very wide array of risks, with very serious consequences. And today, you know, everything is a system of systems. We really can’t just think about it as siloed critical infrastructure sectors. You have complex designs, with numerous interdependencies, systemic risks that, as the congressman said, can have cascading effects... 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....”.   CISA was hacked in early 2025 after Trump replaced her.

What most American’s don’t know is introduction paragraphs STATEMENT OF PETER VINCENT PRY, CONGRESSIONAL EMP COMMISSION,  CONGRESSIONAL STRATEGIC POSTURE COMMISSION, AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE TASK FORCE ON NATIONAL AND HOMELAND SECURITY.  Reporting to the ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP): THREAT TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE -  HEARING before the  SUBCOMMITTEE ON CYBERSECURITY, INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION, AND SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES of the COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY in the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:  ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS       SECOND SESSION:  MAY 8, 2014    Serial No. 113-68.

 

“Natural EMP from a geomagnetic super-storm like the 1859 Carrington Event or the 1921 Railroad Storm, a nuclear EMP attack from terrorists or rogue states as practiced by North Korea during the nuclear crisis of 2013 are both existential

threats that could kill 9 of 10 Americans through starvation, disease, and societal collapse.

    A natural EMP catastrophe or nuclear EMP attack could black out the National electric grid for months or years and collapse all the other critical infrastructures, communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water, necessary

to sustain modern society and the lives of 310 million Americans.”

We humans adore the idea of independence. We celebrate around this word every 4^th of July.  Then we repeatedly defend it with our youngest soldiers in war after war while commemorating it with fireworks large enough to alarm neighboring galaxies.

And we love to say, “I’m my own person.” Which is adorable if it weren’t so out tough with reality. What exists instead is radical, irreversible, inescapable interdependence—from your gut bacteria all the way to neutron stars a billion light-years away.

 

Let’s start with physics, since it does not rely on ambiguous words like peace, democracy, or terrorism.  Every atom in your body was forged in a star. The iron in your blood? From supernova debris billions of light years ago. The carbon in your cells? The same ancient stellar exhaust. The calcium in your bones? Cosmic recycling of basic elements.  Humans are not self-made. We are star-made. We are, in effect, a temporary arrangement of astrophysical leftovers with laughable but lethal opinions.

 

Even the neutrons inside our atoms are governed by fundamental forces that permeate the universe. Gravity doesn’t ask whether you feel independent today. Electromagnetism doesn’t take a holiday because it’s your birthday. The same physical laws that shape galaxies govern the synapses in our brains. The idea that you are separate from stars 1,000,000,000 light-years away is like a claiming a wave is independence from the ocean. Charming, incorrect, and tragically lethal.

 

Consider your body. You are not a solo act. You are a consortium. Roughly as many microbial cells live in and on you as human cells. Your digestion, immune system, and every aspect of your mood depends on trillions of bacteria who did not sign your Declaration of Personal Independence. If they go on strike, you don’t “power through.” You get sick or die.

 

You inhale oxygen produced by plants and phytoplankton. You exhale carbon dioxide that feeds them. You eat food grown in soil supported by fungal networks, insect pollinators, and microbial alchemists. Even your thoughts depend on glucose that depends on sunlight that depends on nuclear fusion in a star we call the Sun.  So when we say, “I’m independent,” what we really mean is, “I am currently benefiting from a vast, invisible web of cooperation so stable I’ve forgotten it exists.”  And being delusional is where the trouble begins.

 

Health: The Myth of the Isolated Body:  When we imagine ourselves as separate, we treat health as a purely individual achievement. Eat right. Exercise. Try not to scream into the void. But public health teaches a different lesson. Infectious diseases do not respect our personal separation. Neither does air pollution or water contamination.  A virus does not pause at your property line and whisper, “Ah yes, sovereign territory.” It travels through networks—social, economic, biological. Our bodies are nodes in a living web of interdependence. Yet we believe we are separate.  And this results in under investing in vital collective systems: sanitation, vaccination, environmental protection, preventive care. Then then we act surprised when interconnected systems behave… interconnectedly.

 

Even chronic disease reflects interdependence. Stress spreads through families. Trauma echoes across generations. Diets reflect flawed agricultural systems. Agricultural systems reflect our flawed economic incentives. Economic incentives reflect lethal political decisions. Political decisions reflect cultural narratives—including the narrative that “everyone is on their own.”  Then a pandemic comes and we dive into our silos of ignorance and die by the millions and suffer by the billions.  Health is not independent. It is globally relational.

 

National Security: Our collective delusion of the Fortified Island.  Powerful national leaders and their political parties love independence even more than people.  The rhetoric of “national sovereignty” sounds like the mentally ill in an insane asylum.  No country is a secure island—not even literal islands.

 

Supply chains span continents. Financial systems pulse across borders in milliseconds. Cybersecurity ignores geography entirely. Climate systems circulate atmospheric carbon regardless of visa status. A drought in one region destabilizes food prices in another. A conflict in one country triggers migration flows, economic ripple effects, or terrorist acts worldwide.

 

The illusion of independence fuels national leaders and many of their citizens to think: “If we just secure our borders tightly enough, build the right weapons systems, we will be safe.” But pandemics, bioweapons, climate change, cyber threats, and economic shocks do not queue politely at customs.

 

National security in the 21st century is ecological security, public health security, economic interdependence management, and climate stability. It is cooperative by design. And uniting to achieve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development goals is the wisest action we can take.  The more we cling to our bubbles of comfort with the idea of standing alone, the more we undermine the very stability, health, security, prosperity, and sustainability we seek.

 

Ironically, genuine resilience comes from acknowledging our interdependence at the community level and extending out from there —diversified trade, international cooperation, shared scientific research, climate agreements, and cross-border disease surveillance. Imagin the value of having community health centers globally connected as an early detection, rapid response, and prevention foundation for all humankind.  The cost savings in lives and dollars and the financial return on such a wise investment would be unbelievable compared to any bankers current profit expectations.  Our military fortress mentality feels strong.  But the sanity of globally preventing problems is the greatest form of security and maximum health for every generation.  

Reality does not respect physical power. It rewards adaptation when the need to change is painfully obvious.

 

Personal and organizational action: The personal “It Doesn’t Matter” or organizsational “We’re OK as we are” is delusional:  Such beliefs regarding separateness breeds two equally unhelpful attitudes: exaggerated control and perceived helplessness.

 

Exaggerated control says, “My success is entirely my own doing.” That conveniently ignores teachers, infrastructure, public institutions, stable currency, legal systems, good nutrition, and the planetary habitability maintained by billions of years of geochemical cycles.

 

Perceived helplessness says, “Nothing I or we do really matters.” That ignores network effects of unity with individual actions, multiplied across populations, organizations, reshaped markets, norms, and ecosystems. Cultural shifts rarely begin with everyone at once; they begin by letting go of egos and organizational identities, then connecting nodes and influencing one another for maximum results.

 

In reality, we are neither omnipotent nor irrelevant. We are participants that need to unite to achieve sustainable systems at every level.

 

 

The Psychological and Spiritual Cost of Separateness: Perhaps the most damaging effect of the independence illusion is loneliness. When we believe we are fundamentally separate, we experience isolation not as a temporary state but as a structural condition. Anxiety increases. Tribalism intensifies. “Us versus them” becomes the default setting.

 

But if we internalize our interdependence, compassion becomes logical. Cooperation becomes strategic. Unity becomes rational. It is difficult to demonize people when you understand that your food, medicine, technology, freedom, security, and atmosphere are all intertwined with theirs.

 

Even at the cosmic level, separateness dissolves. The light from distant galaxies reaches us across a billion years, interacting with our telescopes and retinas. The expansion of space itself shapes the cosmic microwave background that whispers through our instruments. The universe is not a collection of sealed compartments; it is a continuous unfolding process in urgent need of the sanity of humanity so someday we may flourish on earth and perhaps among the stars.  We are in that process, and briefly aware of it.

 

A More Accurate Story:  The illusion of independence is understandable. It feels empowering. It simplifies complexity. It fits neatly into slogans and speeches. But it cannot sustain us.  

We are stardust arranged into organizations, addicted to non-biological identities, vital ecosystems, embedded in nations, nested in a biofilm covering earth, orbiting a star, within a galaxy, inside a universe governed by unified physical laws. We are biologically, economically, ecologically, gravitationally, and even spiritually entangled.  We are not separate from neutron stars a billion light-years away. We were made of their aftermath.

 

Recognizing interdependence does not weaken freedom; it clarifies responsibility. It reflects that health, security, prosperity, and survival is shared. The real maturity of civilization does not lie in declaring independence, but in embracing the wisdom of interdependence.  This may be less catchy than fireworks—but it will be far better for the species.

  

Discombobulation weapon systems. And the perpetual stage of human insanity.

 Everything is changing- especially technology.  But not the fundamental principles of physics, biology, chemistry - and the need for harmony in human relations with nature and each other.  And what is still  possible for sustaining health and happiness of our species giving the existing resources (financial and physical) on our gifted planet. 

In Saturday’s Washington Post opinion section, David Ignatius piece titled "The ‘Discombobulator’ arms race has begun" deserves praise - plus vital insights regarding the arms race for new weapons.

This has existed since we picked up a rock or stick the first time to defend our tribe or territory.  There was a profound change in our minds once a weapon was created that could kill others from a distance. And not witness up close, the suffering of its impact. 

Accepting that new capacity put us on the path to extinction.  Soon after we began defending our minds concepts, instead of recognizing our humanity...which would take a major war.  We should have woken up to this insanity in 1945 with the creation and use of nuclear weapons.  Realizing then that this evolution of weapons will never stop until our mind choses to protect our species instead of outdated tribal concepts like politics, religion, and economics.   

Every nation's investment in intelligence agencies and weapons research, will not lead to the Wisdom within our human spirit.  Our need to coordinate, cooperate, and communicate as the human race -- to take care of each other and nature. 

Our species has known this before the invention of religions.  Each was founded on the golden rule. A concept discovered earlier by indigenous people’s.  But even they failed to apply it across tribes.

As Americans approached the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - the most progressive movements (peace, environment, justice...and the thousands of well intentioned organizations within each) persist in resisting the urgent and inevitable need to unite to achieve one mission.  To comprehensively, holistically, and synergistically achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals instead their traditional siloed approach what wastes time and other vital resources.  They must start working together at the local level - to achieve each of the 169 subgoals within the 17 -starting with the subgoals the local community has chosen. Efforts that would end the worse suffering of humans at the community level and then work their way up, with the energy from its successes working in unity, and correcting flaws on the way up.  

All this comes with a stark warning offered 250 years ago in the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, just before its list of grievances, ”...all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, then to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” 

We have 130 days before the Fourth of July.  In that time we can unite organizations locally to achieve at least some of the 169 subgoals that matter most within each community.  Or remain trapped in our competitive bubbles of egocentric organizations that put their own survival ahead of uniting for the good of humankind.   Project 250 is not an organization. It's intention is being an umbrella movement inviting progressives to do what's needed to have this world work for everyone, leaving no one behind, and having our species flourish... far beyond just surviving and thriving - if we chose.  

Economic power vs Health prosperity - and environment sustainability.

From Money and Power to Health and Prosperity: Rethinking What We Prioritize

February 20, 2026 Creative Director INSIGHTS, PUBLIC AND PLANETARY HEALTH

Every durable transformation in human history did not start with policy, but with perspective. If humankind is to build a secure, prosperous, and sustainable society for generations to come, the transformation must begin in our thinking.  Wisdom would move our mind away from money and power as ultimate measures of success, and toward the health and well-being of people and planet.  Progress on the SDGs (the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals) vs growth of a nation's GDP is the true indicator of prosperity. This is the wisdom offered by the late great Hazel Henderson. 

By Chuck Woolery, Rockville, Maryland

Last year a policy proposal advocated by the conservative The Heritage Foundation emphasized expanding organic agricultural production, energy conservation, and reduced use of fertilizer.  These are progressive ideals aligned with human and environmental health - strengthening the US economy and our food security.  That can be applied globally.  The deeper question is not how much we produce, but how we produce it — and at what long-term cost.   

The key question every person and nation must answer - "Are we healthy or are we sick?" In the US too many people and the our nation's agriculture budget is sick. 

And the cure is in the genius of Allan Savory  He laid out the framework in his book Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making (first published in 1988, later revised with Jody Butterfield).  He's documented the objective truth that desertification, climate instability, and declining human health are not inevitable, but largely the result of managing land in ways that violate nature’s patterns. Savory argues that properly managed livestock, mimicking the dense, migratory herds that once co-evolved with grasslands, can regenerate soil, increase biodiversity, restore water cycles, and draw down atmospheric carbon. 

His urgency comes from a stark claim: unless agriculture shifts from industrial extraction to holistic management aligned with ecological laws, we will continue degrading the very soil that feeds us. In his framework, healthy soil produces healthy plants, which nourish healthy animals and people — making land restoration not just an environmental issue, but a human survival strategy for a sustainable planet. 

What's notable is that other institutions like the The Heritage Foundation have hosted discussions highlighting a long-running movement to transition agriculture from high-input industrial systems toward nature-based principles. What makes this significant is not ideology, but convergence: across the political spectrum there is growing recognition that soil degradation, rising input costs, and farmer debt are systemic risks. Regenerative approaches — including no-till or reduced-till practices, cover cropping, diversified rotations, and biologically integrated pest management — aim to rebuild soil organic matter, restore microbial life, and improve water retention. When soils function as living ecosystems, the reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides can be significantly reduced, along with the need for repeated mechanical tillage. This translates into lower fuel costs, fewer chemical inputs, and less wear on machinery. 

Economically, the appeal is straightforward: healthier soils often mean greater drought resilience, more stable yields, and improved long-term productivity. By mimicking natural systems rather than overriding them, farmers can reduce variable costs while protecting the asset that ultimately determines their viability — the soil itself. In that sense, nature-based agriculture is not simply an environmental strategy; it’s a risk-management and profitability strategy. It strengthens farm balance sheets while contributing to broader goals like water quality, biodiversity, and climate resilience — aligning ecological stewardship with economic durability.

Savory has also written Holistic Management Handbook – a more practical, field-oriented guide.  And The Grazing Revolution – a later work emphasizing regenerative grazing and soil restoration.

Meanwhile, American agriculture today is still dominated by large-scale monocropping, particularly corn and soybeans, heavily subsidized through federal farm programs shaped by powerful agribusiness interests. Corn, in particular, has become the backbone of industrial agriculture. It feeds livestock in concentrated animal feeding operations, supplies processed food ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup, and is converted into ethanol fuel.

The ethanol program was promoted as a renewable energy solution. Yet critics across the political spectrum have long questioned its efficiency and environmental trade-offs. Estimates frequently cited in policy debates suggest that producing ethanol from corn can require substantial fossil fuel inputs for fertilizer production, farm machinery, irrigation, processing, and transportation. Some analyses have claimed that it can take roughly 2.5 gallons of fossil fuel energy to produce the equivalent of one gallon of corn-based ethanol fuel — though life-cycle assessments vary depending on methodology and technological improvements. Even where net energy gains exist, the system still depends heavily on fossil inputs and nitrogen fertilizers that degrade soil and waterways.

The larger issue is not simply energy ratios. It is the structure of influence.

Industrial monoculture farming favors scale. Scale favors capital. Capital favors consolidation. Consolidation favors political influence. When wealth concentrates, so does policy leverage. Large agricultural corporations and commodity groups maintain extensive lobbying operations that shape subsidy structures, crop insurance programs, and biofuel mandates. Meanwhile, small farmers seeking to transition to regenerative, diversified, or non-traditional farming systems often struggle to compete for land access, credit, and distribution networks.

Land prices in many regions reflect subsidy expectations. When federal programs guarantee revenue streams for commodity crops, land values rise accordingly. This makes it increasingly difficult for smaller producers — especially those wishing to practice soil-restorative methods such as regenerative grazing, agroforestry, crop diversification, or organic production — to enter or remain in farming. The result is not simply an economic shift, but a structural narrowing of agricultural imagination.

Yet soil itself tells a different story.

Healthy soil is not an inert medium for chemical inputs. It is a living ecosystem of fungi, bacteria, insects, and plant roots that together create resilience. Practices that rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and repeated monocropping can reduce soil organic matter over time, increase erosion, and degrade water systems through runoff. In contrast, regenerative approaches aim to rebuild soil carbon, enhance biodiversity, and increase water retention — strengthening resilience against droughts and floods.

When we prioritize short-term yield and quarterly profit, we often externalize long-term costs: depleted soil, polluted waterways, rising healthcare burdens linked to ultra-processed foods, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. These costs are not borne equally. Rural communities face economic instability. Downstream communities face water contamination. Consumers face diets shaped by subsidy incentives rather than nutritional wisdom.

This is where the influence of wealth intersects with public health.

Commodity subsidies make calorie-dense processed foods cheaper than fresh produce in many areas. Industrial livestock systems rely on grain inputs that could otherwise feed people directly or support diversified cropping systems. Healthcare systems then absorb the downstream impacts of diet-related chronic diseases. The cycle reinforces itself: profits are privatized, while environmental and health costs are socialized.

A society that measures success primarily through GDP growth or shareholder returns risks missing a deeper measure of prosperity. True prosperity is measured by healthy children, fertile soil, clean water, resilient local economies, and civic trust.

This is not an argument against markets. It is an argument against allowing concentrated wealth to define public priorities without regard for intergenerational consequences.

History teaches that wealth will naturally seek influence. The question is whether democratic institutions are strong enough to balance influence with wisdom. When lobbying power outweighs ecological science, and campaign contributions outweigh long-term public health data, policy tilts toward profit maximization rather than system optimization.

Imagine an alternative framework.

Instead of subsidizing monoculture commodity crops primarily for industrial processing and fuel blending, policy could incentivize soil-building practices, diversified cropping, local food systems, and measurable improvements in land stewardship. Instead of evaluating success solely in terms of export volume, we could measure success by soil organic matter, water quality indices, rural income stability, and reductions in chronic disease prevalence.

In such a system, small and mid-sized farmers would not be forced to compete solely on scale. They could compete on stewardship, nutrition density, and ecosystem services. Markets would still function, but incentives would align with long-term sustainability rather than extraction.

This transformation begins with mindset. If we define prosperity as the accumulation of financial capital alone, we will continue to prioritize policies that maximize short-term returns. If we redefine prosperity as the flourishing of human and ecological systems, policy architecture changes accordingly.

The debate is not capitalism versus environmentalism. It is short-term concentration versus long-term resilience.

The health of a nation is inseparable from the health of its soil. The security of a society is inseparable from the stability of its food systems. And the durability of democracy is inseparable from its ability to ensure that wealth does not drown out wisdom.

When thinking shifts from money and power to health and intergenerational sustainability, profits need not disappear — but they become a byproduct of stewardship rather than its substitute.

In the end, the most enduring wealth is not measured in quarterly earnings. It is measured in the condition of the land we pass on, the vitality of the people we nourish, and the systems strong enough to serve generations yet unborn. 

Mind vs Human spirit: Mental intelligence vs Human wisdom

Much of our modern confusion begins with a quiet separation between the heart and the mind, and with language that drifts out of alignment with reality. Words are powerful tools, but they are also filters; they can clarify, or they can distance us from what is. When language becomes more about defending beliefs than describing Truths, it reshapes our reality into something thinner and more abstract than the world we truly inhabit. In that state, understanding becomes something we argue for, rather than something that arrives.

When we encounter nature not as scenery or resource, but as kin—as presence, elder, and wise teacher—the conversation changes. We are no longer at the center of the story, but participants in a much older one, living beyond the human gaze - in coexistence with all life. If we pause long enough to stop explaining, justifying, or winning, something deeper within us rises. Conversation becomes a bridge between two worlds: the one in our heads and the one that is real. And in crossing that bridge, we discover that wisdom is not always learned—it is often something our spirit and soul are quietly remembering and ‘re-minding’ us of.

Rotary’s Four-Way Test and commitment to ‘service above self’ quietly acknowledges this Truth that modern culture often forgets: not all intelligence is located in the brain. Beyond our analytical minds (the part of us that argues, optimizes, and persuades), there is a deeper intelligence carried in our very biology, encoded through millennia of human experience.  It is this wisdom that allows us to know what is true before it is fashionable, what is fair before it is popular, and what builds goodwill long before it is efficient.  And that deeper human intelligence recognizes, without debate, that a child should not die before a parent, that dignity is not bestowed by majority vote, and that unchecked majority rule can become tyranny rather than justice. 

The Sustainable Development Goals, at their best, are a modern attempt to give policy language to this ancient wisdom—protecting life, reducing injustices, strengthening institutions, and safeguarding future generations.   History shows us that constitutions and institutions endure only when they reflect “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” —those enduring principles like inalienable rights, that protect life, liberty, and human dignity  -- regardless of opinion polls or political cycles.

Rotary’s role is not merely to ask what works, or even what wins, but what aligns with that deeper human intelligence. The Four-Way Test reminds us that service above self begins not in the cleverness of our arguments, but in the wisdom of our shared humanity.

“If man chooses oblivion, he can go right on leaving his fate to his political leaders. If he chooses Utopia, he must initiate an enormous education program… immediately.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“Every human being’s deepest, most natural expression is the desire to make a difference in life, of wanting to matter. We can choose to make the success of all humanity our personal business. We can choose to be audacious enough to take responsibility for the entire human family, to make our love for each other and for the world what our lives are really about.”  Werner Erhard 

 

The insanity of humanity is accelerating. With US support.

Yesterday’s WPost, page A13 news article titled, "Study: Aid cuts may lead to 9.4 million deaths by 2030: Pullbacks by US and other nations could undo decades of health gains."  The same “study also assesses a more sever scenario of aid budget cuts, in which the world would see 22.6 million additional deaths.”  You read that right. Additional!!!

Rotary, by urgently uniting other large globally minded service organizations into a Movement of Movements - to quickly achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 -- could reverse this modern holocaust that may take ten times the number of lives Hitler’s reign of insane ideology did.  

Unfortunately, Rotary's Legislative Council must move faster than the US Congress to make this Rotary's – and the world’s - highest priority.  Meanwhile, Rotary clubs and other progressive organizations continue to minimize their power by competing with thousands of progressive organizations, each with various priorities (like Rotary’s seven pillars) - for active members, money, media attention, timely access to policy makers.  And with Rotary a fear of non-partisan political advocacy. 

FYI: The US is over a billion dollars in arrears of our UN dues.  Plus, days ago, the US withdrew from dozens of UN agencies including WHO.  These US policies are a crime against humanity, and few Americans are speaking out.  More troubling is even fewer aware of the SDGs - humankind’s global need for a comprehensive, holistic, and synergistic global plan - needed to reverse this current insanity of humanity.  

And reported in today’s WPost - last month’s HHS announced overhaul of its vaccine schedule on one or more of the “leading causes of vaccine-preventable hospitalizations and death.” Even our nation’s own Vaccine campaigns are now making childhood Polio and Measles vaccinations optional.  All of this will lead to thousands of deaths and tens of thousands suffering needlessly in the US.  

The Truth?  I’m ashamed of my country...and particularly Americans believing that putting America First will not have catastrophic consequences both here...abroad.  They obviously don’t understand Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’.  Such leaders and followers aren’t fit to run a sand box.  

American First makes US weaker

Trump‘s MAGA mantra of putting America First is only making US fall further behind.  Tariffs, lies, and military threats make him predictably unpredictable.  This reduces what little trust nations once had in America’s global leadership.  And Trump's New World Order with his Board of Peace is marshaling into existence a new block of nations that refused to live by his rules.

At India’s recent major Energy Summit our Northern neighbor Canada, attended that summit.   And a quote out of Ottawa by Tim Hodgson, Canada‘s energy minister, asserted “we’re not going to live in a world where might makes right... where the strongest puts tariffs on everyone else. We’re going to live in a world where we believe in free trade, where we believe in trusted relationships.”  This is the sound of our nation tumbling further down and dust bin of history.

Meanwhile, most of the civilized world is recoiling at Trump‘s para-military force as its anti-immigration drive brutally swings across liberal states.  This is the weaponization of partisan politics that authoritarian leaders smile at.

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Romer’s 'modern growth theory’ asserts that ideas are non-rival: “My use of an idea does not prevent your use" of it.  "Knowledge" is like compound interest.  And a "new process, a better algorithm, a more efficient design can lift productivity across the entire economy. A barrel of oil can be burned once. A good idea can be reused forever.”  One major problem with this ‘theory’ is what will that idea being used for? To make more profits - or protect the health of people and our planetary life support systems?

America’s greatness and a little exceptionalism is in its global system that rewards discovery, experimentation, freedom, and entrepreneurial ship - all at scale.  But again, the main ideal must be using our freedom for taking virtuous national and global actions. Without doing this Americans will lose both our freedom and security.  And then our prosperity.  Simply because everything is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable.  And ideals need both virtue and global application.

Wise investments have never been more necessary.  And spending less money on servicing yesterday’s mistakes, lack of prevention, and interest on debt.  While investing more in preventing problems for creating a lasting legacy.  This means wisely prioritizing sufficient resources in achieving the 17th Sustainable Development Goals - ASAP.   We can either bring others up to our level of civilization, or they will bring us down to theirs.  

The US no longer has the market cornered on generating and applying new ideas. This is the freedom nearly every nation that makes it a priority.  And for the US to fail in affordably competing in this - is simply insane.  Because the cost of failure is simply unsustainable and un-American.