Iran Weaponized Interdependence. Mental health actions are urgently needed.

But this still won't wake up most Americans regarding the reality of our existence.   This is our insanity. Believing a delusional concept like Independence can protect our freedom and security. 

Every technology can be weaponized. When the mind overrides our human spirit we can weaponize almost anything.  And with AI the weaponization things will accelerate.  Few people consider the reality that there are two types of weapons.  

1. Conventional kinetic weapons that are used up when used, and need to be replaced. 

2. Replicable non-kinetic weapons that can multiply when they are used.  At no cost or further effort.  And if cleverly created, leave no return address.  Biological and cyber weapons fit this asymmetrical means of mass murder.  This makes deterrence nearly impossible. And AI makes this unique weapon system infinitely easer, faster, and cheaper as time goes on. 

Buckle up buttercup.  Hard times are coming.  Perhaps some day after the a major die off and human infrastructure destruction - humankind will learn to manage our mind's outdated concepts like nationalism, religious differences, and unregulated capitalism -  and accept that fact that we are one race.  The human race.  A global family will all the same vulnerabilities, and need to worships the Golden Rule while defending nature's systems that sustain all life.  

All technologies are neutral.  We can use them for good or harm, depending on what our hearts and minds has settled on.  That will only come from the sanity of humanity.  And it needs to happen soon. 

If you are committed to doing something in your own community to address this insanity,  Rotary International offers non-Rotarians an easy way to be involved.  Rotary Action Groups or RAGs -26 if them - are open to non-Rotarians at no cost.  Recently its Rotary Action Group for Mental Health Initiatives began a joint operation with its Rotary Action Group for Peace. These two RAGs recognize that Peace begins in the mind.  And recognizes that certain concepts that used to bond humans in tribes (religion, politics, economics) are now the root cause of endless conflicts.  Specifically, identity concepts that have nothing to do with our body's DNA - or our human spirit of coordination, cooperation, and compassion.  And now, with the evolution of weaponry combined with our mind's resistance to recognize humankind's urgent need for change (of context) has never been more important. The context being -we are one race.  And uniting to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may be our species last chance of avoiding the accelerating endless global chaos that we are now witnessing - and too many people experiencing. 

Rotary International’s primary goal annually is Polio Eradication.  But it also has Rotary Action Groups (RAGs).  These specialized, member-led community groups are advancing services worldwide.  When a Rotary Club (or District) has a member in one, special events can be created (and sometimes funded) to involve a local community.  RAGs are intentionally open to non-Rotarians at not cost.  This intends to enlarge global networks of expertise.  This openness is what helps make RAGs so powerful in providing global expertise and partnerships to any local community - to advance dedicated 'service above self' projects.   

RAG 'Categories/examples include:  

DISEASE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT

MENTAL HEALTH related: 

1. Mental health initiatives (Without mental health there is no health or peace)

2. Health education and wellness

3. Basic education and literacy.

4. Girls empowerment

5. Family health and AIDS prevention

6. Addiction prevention

7. Alzheimer's and dementia

HEALTH:

1. Water, sanitation, and hygiene: (prevents ~50% of global infectious diseases)

2. Reproductive, maternal, and child health (Reducing IMR key to stability)

3. Menstrual health and hygiene

4. Blindness prevention

5. Blood and organ donation

6. Clubfoot treatment

7. Diabetes awareness

8. Hearing

9. Hepatitis eradication

10. Multiple sclerosis awareness

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH:

1. Endangered species protection (new drug discoveries or detection of zoonotic disease) 

2. Environmental sustainability (Vital for human health)

3. Food plant solutions (Healthy soil & food vital for health)

ECONOMIC NEEDS: Meeting community basic needs. 

1. Community economic development

EMERGENCY-related RAGs: Priority of keeping people healthy! 

1. Disaster assistance

PEACE & HUMAN RIGHTS: 

1. Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention (RAGFP)

2. Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Migration

3. Slavery Prevention / Child Slavery Prevention 

I have recently committed to starting a District 7620 (about 60 clubs in the DC/MD area) to forward this collaboration between Mental Health experts and Peace activists focused on community, national, and global peace efforts.  Please contact me for more information or involvement. chuck@igc.org

What will you say to someone in the future when they asked you what you did to make a difference?

Five Divine Words. Can solve most of humankinds problems. But we must become the land lord of our minds.

 

Freedom, truth, health, family, and love are the five divine unambiguous wise words that humankind possesses. They should never be outlawed, ignored, or taken for granted.   Our body and spirit embrace these.  Unfortunately, our mind now weaponizes concepts that divide us and yield hatred of others, justifying their mass murder, that is a jolts our soul.  

We are not our mind.  It is a voice in our head that can justify the most horrendous atrocities.  Then we lose our humanity when we become desensitized to this insanity.   And that reflects where too many of us are now.   This is an aberration of our true nature.  A self-inflicted mental illness that we must urgently correct if we are to root out the origins of the global evil we now see.  If we fail to return our mind to its original purpose of solving problems, its defense of identities inconsistent within our biology, it will take us into a hell scape of insecurity, pain, sorrow, loneliness, and deep regret for those who might survive.  

Concerns about AI are not overblown. From job disruption, to the expense of data centers and its growing number of dissenters, waste of water, and possibly humankinds overlord. Just remember that all technology and information is neutral. It is the hearts and minds of individuals that will determine how any technology and information will be used.  If we believe that national sovereignty and wealth is superior to unalienable human rights and the health of nature then abandon all hope. And if enough of us wake up to this insanity, and rediscover our natural 3C superpower of cooperation, coordination, and compassion, our species has everything it needs to flourish far into the future.  

An apocalyptic future AI is possible. If our minds continue globally to prioritize competition instead, God won't save us.  What's clear now with the evolution of AI, which ever nation achieves AI's highest productivity for what it is committed to, will dominate global policy on every issue, over every other nation. Then that supreme nation will need to quickly figure out, how to control its own super AI from becoming its overlord. 

In a dozen or maybe a hundred years, Ted Krasinski, the Unabomber's manifesto may be the new bible.  And his warnings replace the wisdoms of Jesus Christ and the golden rule, as a stupid rule. 

Technology has given humankind the greatest power to do good or do great harm. The greatest good it has done so far is the eradication and Small box. The greatest harm it has done is the perpetual evolution of weaponry.   Albert Einstein saw it coming.  He urged humanity to establish the global Rule of law through a United World Federation, instead of another World War with Genocides and the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction.   Unfortunately, humanities leaders chose protection of national sovereignty and corporations, instead of protecting unalienable human rights and the environment.

Wisdom does not automatically come with high intelligence. Mass volumes of information are not useful without knowledge and application of the "self evident" "Truths" offered in the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Truths offered by religions and indigenous cultures before religions were created. 

Our intelligent minds ignored those fundamental principles and invented our own. Then used these to engineer our national and global governing systems, using powerful technologies to engineered a modern world around us that our human bodies and spirit were not engineered for.  We have prioritized comfort over compassion for others.  Partisan tribal politics over the fundamental purpose of politics (according to Thomas Payne), to protect people's "freedom and security".  Tribal party whims passed by majority vote ignored the fact that "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" always get the only objective vote. 

The result of both democracy and autocracy lacking justice and the protection of human rights has given us the deadly rise of obesity, depression, suicide, chronic diseases, wars, genocides, and perpetual accelerating global chaos.  And only weapons or energy producing corporations will profit.  Not the health and wealth of people in the environmental sustainability.  And our brains and bodies will still have micro plastics in hundreds of years after we’re buried or composted. Cremation will only pollute the air of our offspring. 

If humanity fails to urgently wakes up from this western 'progress' our science fiction movies and apocalyptic predictions and nightmares will become real.   We are a human family - but our mind prefers division, divorce from reality, and species assisted suicide.  And even knowing this won’t stop us.  Simply because our mind has at least 18, at last count, of ways to resisting and blot out our human spirit within us.

We now have less than 90 days to use AI to unite humankind and transform our world using the profound wisdom within that 1776 declaration.  That's what Abraham Lincoln intended to do when he first ran for President.  But another mind, decided to terminate Lincoln. 

And now, even more minds have adopted this insanity of killing our way to superiority.  The mis and dis information we are being fed and gobbling up fuels our mind rot and truth decay with delusions of grandeur-  that our culture, politics, economics, and religion are superior and independent of nature and the will of others.   Some are starting to wake up, but still resist being united in adapting to this insanity.   And willfully refuse to unit around the one thing, achieving, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, that could put the brakes on our self-destructive path.  Our confusion by our mind's delusions will not end well. .

Since the 2024 election the delusions have been picking up speed with a US foreign aid cuts, the soft power needed to make more friends and less enemies. Researchers at the Center for Global Development calculated 1.6 million excessive deaths in 2025 compared with the 2024 caused by cuts to US humanitarian and health assistance. Now, this may be getting worse.  A recent study in the Lancet, a highly respected medical journal, projected that 9,400,000 to 22,600,000 people could die by 2030. A quarter of them children under the age of five, due to the falling assistance levels from all donors. 

The success of any species is best measure by the protection of is offspring.  This is the highest priority of any mammal species.  Yet infant mortality rates are not as important as the most powerful nations GDP.  

Meanwhile, the 2026 World Happiness Report reveals that people who give and activate others are happier. Other key findings: freedom to make life choices matters more than GDP.  Social support, real-life connections, and a sense of belonging sustain wellbeing. Thus, the best measure of progress should be in the 169 subgoals within the UN 17 SDGs.

The Ashoka Fellow's network is expert at improving lives. It has been building these foundations for a long time and with some volunteers winning Nobel Prizes as leading social entrepreneurs globally. They champion innovative new ideas that transform minds and society’s systems, providing benefits for everyone and improving the lives of millions of people. This is the root of local, national, and global security. Examples:  In the UK, Mark Swift's Wellbeing Enterprises released an independent evaluation showing that social prescribing through community-rooted health and education generates up to £74 of social value for every £1 invested. In Kenya, Tom Osborn's Shamiri Institute scales care with a focus on gratitude to improve youth life satisfaction. In India, Sachin Chaudhry's TrustCircle brought school-based mental health for women and girls to last month's UN Commission on the Status of Women, while Rebekka Dober's YEP released a participatory study of over 5,500 youth bringing solutions directly into policy. And in Kenya, Jimmy Westerheim's The Human Aspect recently completed reporting-focused fieldwork to amplify South-led narratives about mental health.

What is wrong with western thinking?  We don't know we have a mental health problem. Our body feels it and senses it. But our mind gets in the way of acting on it.  And this flawed thinking is simply unsustainable by any standard of wisdom, compassion, or philosophical argument. The undiagnosed insanity of humanity is becoming a global self-evident Truth. Fortunately, our mind has this problem solving capacity if that is what our human spirit demands of it. 

William F Buckley Junior, a conservative, intellectual revered by most Republicans, was founder of the national review. In its mission statement, Buckley promised it would stand athwart history and yell “ st stop at the time when no one else is inclined to do so.”

It is now time for people of all political persuasions to demand. We stop this train of insanity of humanity before it’s too late.

World Health Day! Adapt governments or we perish.

 

HEALTH and survival of government depends on adapting to reality. Our mental  resistance is futile. 

 A nation’s body of citizens can survive many ailments—division, corruption, even periods of apathy. But there are other vital conditions that are harder to diagnose and more difficult to treat.  Like the systemic failure to adapt to reality. Truth decay isn’t like tooth decay - which might limit your eating of steak. Truth decay kills trust in all systems: political, economic, religious, education, and even science.  All are vital in preventing collapse of the entire body - unless a healthy brain with a healthy mind understands the survival value of strength!  Not military or economic strength.  But the evolutionary strength that Darwin discovered.  Life’s greatest and most essential power of adapting to change.

 Imagine the U.S. Constitution not as a sacred artifact, but as a living body, as some of the founders intended. They even engineered into the Constitution, ways for adaptation by “We the People”, offering us a vigorous, resilient, and responsive means for changing it.  Unfortunately, the mental constitution of the American electorate isn’t up for that.  So now, this body of freedom lovers is plagued with a terminal condition of symptoms that are clearly visible above the Truth decay.  Nearly half the voting population is disengaged from elections.  And existing elections are stuck with a rigid two-party system unable to metabolize new ideas based on the fundamental principles that birthed the nation.  Add a culture of individualism so extreme that it fractures the very social fabric required for collective rational action, and ‘Houston, “We” have an earthly problem.

NASA would never use a governing system to engineer a space vehicle.  But this is precisely what we all live on – Spaceship Earth. It is exactly what has enabled us to survive and thrive.  Buckminster Fuller framed this reality over 50 years ago.  Artimus 2 confirms this. But not for those with minds that believe it’s fake news.   Keep in your mind, if it accepts it, that the greatest flaw of the mind is its capacity to believe anything! Literally, anything.  Like the delusion that our mind accepts without question. That we are independent. Albert Einstein confirmed this as delusional because everything in the known universe is interdependent.  Unfortunately, our U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Charter are both founded on the delusional concept of independent nations.  This will never end well given the accelerating evolution of weaponry paired with humankind’s resistance to adapting to our global interdependence.  

This is not simply political dysfunction. It’s the breakdown of civilization itself.  With two powerful nations now supporting the genocide in Gaza and vocally justifying war crimes in the Middle East.  At least former war crimes by powerful nations attempted to hide them.    

No democracy, or democratic republic can remain healthy when large portions of its citizenry feel alienated from participation - and act as if they are independent. Even and ‘Independent’ political party cannot resolve this existential threat.  Even its leaders and believers are dependent on wisdom - if they intend for this new party to achieve any of the seven intentions in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. That would require our collective human intelligence to finally grasp the wisdom that humankind and nature are all interdependent. Yet we persistently avoid this reality. 

Tragically, our minds have nearly a dozen other cognitive flaws that keep us from changing our catastrophic concepts that no longer work. Like peace through strength. The protection of national sovereignty and the wealth of corporations should remain superior to the protection of human rights and nature. Market forces will solve our problems. Or, we can keep our freedoms without being a virtuous people.

When governance becomes a binary contest of win or lose, rather than a collaborative process, representation narrows, innovation stalls, and trust erodes. The “self-evident” “Truths” referenced in 250 years ago in the 1776 Declaration of Independence must be taken as gospel.  These were ordained by “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  The document was originally titled without the word “independence”.  Was that done out of laziness or an indifference to ambiguous words?  And it was never officially renamed to exclude the delusional word of independence.  Or replace it with an accurate word like “Separation” or “Divorce”.  

Meanwhile, the cultural emphasis on radical individualism—once a source of strength—has now metastasized into isolation, polarization, Truth decay, and a growing sense of disconnection - not only from one another, but from global realities and ecological limits.

Tragically, even under ideal national conditions, a government with a visionary leader, a functional Congress fairly representing it citizens, even with a wise Supreme Court – our Constitution still relies on other ambiguous words. Thus, its prognosis remains poor or terminal.  Simply because the interdependent global forces acting upon this independent political body can no longer secure its borders -or its citizens - with the most powerful military ever - or a majority ruling it, that ignores our irreversible global dependence on the health of 8 billion other people and nature.   

Global economic systems, climate instability, violent extremists, pandemics, and the persistent technological evolution of disrupting forces like weapon systems (cyber and biological) or nature’s evolution of pathogens, will all continue - beyond the reach of any single nation’s constitutional design - without significant adaptations.  These lethal or debilitating external forces now shape the health, wealth, vitality, and sustainability of every nation’s internal outcomes.

In medicine, there are moments when reacting and treating symptoms are no longer sufficient—when the underlying system must be reimagined entirely. That is the crossroads humankind now faces.  Not just the United States. And without transformational change—both within the U.S. Constitution’s framework and within the architecture of the United Nation’s global governance Charter—efforts at reform will only yield temporary relief rather than a lasting cure. Old structures that once ensured stability now struggle to respond to a world defined by small pinpricks capable of causing global harm.

There is a “Hail Mary” treatment.  A global reorientation toward a deep and sustainable global partnership.  Once it was framed as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was intended to prevent another world war, use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and genocides.  Like the Geneva Convention it was a global acknowledgment of humankind’s universal values with measurable ambitions to transcend national boundaries.  But that pill was never swallowed by the powers then.  Now it is a discipline that needs to be codified and practiced.

It demands prioritization, coordination, and a shift in mindset from competition to cooperation.  And it can be purchased given humankind’s unprecedented wealth. And it can be achieved by 2030 with existing technologies and natural resources, without jeopardizing human health and nature’s systems now, or future generations to follow – if there is the political will.    A plan exists that was globally approved in 2015 by most nations and thousands of organizations.  Those who remain deeply concerned about the cost in lives and dollars at the local community levels, within every nation.  

The greatest of all human achievements wasn’t visiting the Moon.  It was the global eradication of Smallpox in just 10 years.  A virus that had killed over 300 million people between 1900 and 1980 - more people than both world wars (`100 million), and genocides (`160 million) over the last century - combined!  Its cost? Approximately $300 million (approx. $2-3 billion today). That one single success continues to save billions of dollars each year!  No need for vaccinations, treatment, or outbreak control.  Its savings continue to grow exponentially over time.  

Polio could be the next on the global disease eradication list. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has so far cost $18 -20 billion (1988 to present). So far 99.9% eradication has been achieved. Efforts were stalled primarily by conflict zones (Afghanistan and Pakistan) and a mistrust of vaccination efforts.  Currently the Taliban are insisting that all parents have their children immunized and are utilizing their armed ‘terrorists’ to protect vaccination workers and clinics as well.    Rotary, so far, has contributed over $2.5 billion, plus millions of volunteer hours to this global campaign. 

Imagine the cost savings everywhere if Rotary and the other nations united in establishing a global network of local health clinics in every community where needed, with trained staff and sufficient equipment to prevent infectious disease. This could also alert the world to novel disease outbreaks yielding real time warnings of other calamities hitting locally – potentially preventing costly global ramifications.

In evolutionary terms, species that fail to adapt can’t negotiate their survival, they just die. Extinction is not a dramatic event. It is often the quiet result of insufficient change in the face of mounting pressures.

The U.S. is not alone in this global ecosystem. Nearly 200 nations, each with different governing systems, are navigating the same global accelerating challenges. Some may prove more adaptable. And find ways to collaborate, align, and endure – while others will falter.  The question is no longer whether change is necessary. It is whether it will come in time. And whether it will be chosen or imposed.  In the end, survival and thriving of any system, political or biological—belongs not to the strongest, but to those most capable of adapting.

 

Easter. What is it really good for?

 My first Easter post. 

As a child in Sunday school I learned of Jesus, the golden rule, forgiveness, and what it meant to be a good person. Not just a good Christian. But a good person. 

Now, as I biologist I have doubts about his rising from the dead without medical intervention without human intervention.  Something urgently needed now to achieve heaven on earth and restore our goldilocks planet to a garden of Eden.  

I won't waist my breath praying for President Trump to do the right thing in the Middle East, prioritize the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or to stop lying.  But I will offer a warning to everyone if we don't turn our actions urgently to comprehensively, holistically and synergically achieving the those 17 SDGs. 

Given the evolution of war, weapons, pathogens, violent extremists, violent weather patterns, and government debt by simply reacting to wars, pandemics, terrorism, and storm destruction - we must invest in preventing these disruptive forces now needlessly taking lives while we ignore vital environmental systems.  And just pay the consequences.  

Humankind has never had more wealth and technological solutions in human history. We have everything we need to achieve these affordable goals, but we are running out of time - our one non-renewable resource.  

While we all have thoughts constantly arising in our heads, we rarely have wise questions.  Such as 'what legacy are we leaving for generations to come?'.  Or 'why do we keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result?'  Especially since our species has known for millennia what we need to do, and have always had the resources to do it. 

The simple answer. Our minds are collectively insane.

God gave us all agency to control our destiny.  But our mind's gave us ambiguous words like peace, democracy, and terrorism - and delusional concepts like independence, national sovereignty, and peace though strengthen.  And then our mind resists the fundamental biological principle in the DNA of every higher life form. Offspring should not die before their parents.  

Life is a profound gift of anti-entropy in an unimaginably immense and hostile universe. I don't believe we are alone in the universe.  But I'm 99.999% sure, no other life form is coming to save us, and if they did, they would notice once the got up close and saw what we are doing to each other, and our miracle planet, we are not worth saving. 

Why is it, that each time humankind has had a chance to unite the world we chose to divide ourselves.  Starting with the golden rule, then the wisdom of indigenous cultures, followed by the Declaration of Independence, the League of Nations, the invention of nuclear weapons,  the creation of the United Nations, and then the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Now in 89 days Americans (and the world) have the 250 anniversary of the Declaration of independence, a document that Abraham Lincoln said was for everyone, everywhere, for all time. 

My mind believes, given the evolution of weaponry, this may be our last change at dodging Armageddon. If it is not already too late.  Even some MAGA lovers believe Trump may be the Anti-Christ.  I'm guessing most economists would agree that SDGs are a true measure of human progress.  Yet they and our governments continue to prioritize the GDP.  The best means of measuring the wealth of those who don't need it, then rarely use it in serving the most basic needs of human health and nature. 

WTF is wrong with us?  In a nutshell.  Our mind (that voice in our head) now runs roughshod over the love and wisdom in our heart, soul, and human spirit.  And our mind is addicted to being right, keeping our body feeling good, while the health of our body and environment turn to crap.  It is that freaking simple!  Unfortunately, our mind has fallen into the Intelligence trap and believes everything it thinks.  Regardless of the horrific consequences to our body, mind, spirit, family, community, environment, government, and economy.  

What will it take for us to WTF up?  A nuclear war? If Jesus returned he'd get killed for being a Palestinian. It is not the prefrontal cortex of our brain that we need to listen to. It's the human spirit within each of our bodies.  Bodies that are all 99.9% the same genetically. In reality we are a human family.  Not special identities (national, religious, economic, political party, sexual preference, race, culture that are all unrelated to our basic biology) worth killing and even dying for.   

Our brain has been hardwired to react, but it also has the capacity for deeper, wiser, and systemic thinking. Protesting, voting, and mental depression is reactionary.  What's needed is transformational political advocacy to tackle the root causes of human suffering and environmental degradation.   For this to happen in mind, we must learn to use it for its original evolutionary purpose.  To solve problems related to the survival of our tribe.  Now the human tribe.  

And for God's sake, and the hopes of Jesus, stop defending dumbass ideas that may have worked once, or a few times, but are now, given our unpresented technological killing capacity, time to adapt and profoundly change our way of thinking. 

There is a name for species that fails to adapt.  Extinct. I'm positive that Jesus, even without a biology degree, would agree. 

The purpose of Government. Its devolution and an antidote.

 “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. 

"It has been thought a considerable advance towards establishing the principles of Freedom, to say, that government is a compact between those who govern and those that are governed: but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments did not exist, and consequently there could originally exist no governors to form such a compact with. The fact therefore must be, that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist." – Thomas Paine

“You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.” – John Adams

"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, poet

“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)

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address [January 17, 1961]

“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

Cw Summary:  If we are to meaningfully oppose big government power and prepare for the local consequences of its failure of ‘independent’ system of national sovereignty to prevent or deter globally disruptive interdependent forces - it is necessary to encourage and rely on local community resilience, health, and sustainable economic grow using institutions and organizations, not federal states that too often will their enormous power to control or prohibit whats needed and wanted. When people support a local parish, raise a family, build a business, create mutual aid organizations, or foster local civic interdependence, they are doing work that is absolutely critical to muting state power while flourishing locally. While it is always good to support global efforts for justice, health, and a sustainable environment while opposing big government’s countless violent and impoverishing policies, all of this is still insufficient. We must strengthen the health of mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment and governing/economic institutions in every action in our daily work and daily lives. 

Overhaul urgently needed for US Constitution and UN Charter

 

The Justice Department just confirmed the delusion our government has been operating under for about 240 years. The U.S. constitution was founded on the quicksand of independence, a mental construct Albert Einstein was not around to warn them about, but the Decantation of Independence was.  Most Americans don't know (I didn't until a month ago) that wasn't its official title then. It was "The unanimous Declaration of thirteen united States of America."   Einstein called "independence" an "illusion" in our irreversible interdependent universal reality. He understood this fundamental principle of the universe. Everything is connected, interdependent and vulnerable - operating on "the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God", which was expressed in the Declaration. Then ignored by those democratically codifying the Constitution with a majority vote asserting (and some believing) slaves were only 3/5 of a human being.  

Imagine all the wars our nation could have avoided since then, plus pandemics, violent extremism, extreme violent weather conditions, or unsustainable debt, had we not just reacted to things we believed were separate.  And used systemic thinking instead.  

Only four of the Declaration's signers came to the Constitutional convention. And now, all the ambiguous words within it give the Supreme Court job security, and to make decisions on their own interpretation of history.  Ignoring biology, physics, environmental sustainably, and psychology of the human spirit.  Delivering not justice, but more chaos and personal/national/global insecurity.  

We need a new constitution engineered by NASA. Not more lawyers and corporate lobbyists. Those on the Artemis space mission, if they return to before the next world war, might be able to convince us after their experience with the overview effect - that humankind's collective insanity is real. And the US constitution and UN Charter are in need of an urgent overhaul.   Not by majority vote.  But by adhering to Thomas Paine's Common Sense, science, and the foundation of every religion (the golden Rule on our goldilocks planet. 

POLITICS and Rotary in a time of war. Plus a global prescription for action.

In politics Rotary has long held a principled position.  It is not partisan!  Yet Rotary International is deeply political in the most fundamental sense.  It's concerned with how we (Rotarians and humanity) organize ourselves to serve the common good. This distinction is critical.  Avoiding partisan alignment does not absolve anyone from confronting whether our national or international systems of governance are fulfilling their most basic purpose. 

Rotary proudly promotes that at least 49 Rotarians served as delegates, advisors, or consultants from various national delegations in drafting the UN Charter at the San Francisco conference during World War II.  Three notable Rotarians were Archibald MacLeish, a U.S. delegate that helped shape the Charter’s preamble, including its enduring moral language.  Lester B. Pearson who later became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, participated as part of the Canadian delegation, and contributed to diplomatic negotiations that influenced the Charter.  And John Foster Dulles, was part of the U.S. delegation, and played a role in negotiations and the Chater’s structural elements including the UN Security Council.   In hindsight, the Security Council has been the greatest barrier to preventing, stopping, or resolving conflicts and genocides (more deadly that wars).  Or in protecting other unalienable human rights or holding those who committed them accountable.

While the UN Preamble remains inspirational, the Charter itself cemented the protection of national sovereignty over the protection of human rights and the environment.  This has been tragic for hundreds of millions of people and billions of square miles of nature.

In 1776, six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was published.  In the first 5 pages his reasoning defined the vital importance of politics. He reminded us that ‘government’ is a necessary construct - precisely because we are not angels. And its legitimacy rests on a simple foundation: the protection of human “freedom and security”.  Not the preservation of nations, political parties, the defense of abstract borders, or the enrichment of corporate elites. Thus, when government drifts from that purpose, it becomes not a safeguard of liberty, but a distortion of it.  And the Declaration of Independence followed six months later, building on his logic with “Truths” that “WE” should all “hold” “to be self-evident...”

Current disruptive conditions are the result of at least 8 decades of ignoring these Truths. Particularly since the onset of GWAT (the global war against terrorism) we have witnessed an acceleration of problems, starting with the erosion of clarity with constitutional mandates.  Just today the US Supreme Court is considering ‘birthright’ citizenship language in our Constitution.  A few ambiguous words within that statute will eventually be decided on human principles.  Principles decided about 240 years ago by wealthy white landowners participating in Constitutional convention. In the sweltering heat then is surprising they didn’t consider the biological ‘fundamental principles’ exhibited by “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” offered a decade earlier in the Declaration.

Today’s Supreme Court Judges and lawyers parsing the Birthright Citizenship case kept using the two words “fundamental” and “principle”.  They never put them together.  This is the human mind rationalizing the defence of historical concepts instead of the biological nature of our DNA and human spirit.   Then American citizens wonder why our nation’s partisan politics are increasingly polarized and sometimes literally insane or violent.

Engineering a government and its laws using ambiguous or delusional words that cause division instead of unity is a form of insanity -based on the delusion of independence.  Consider the blurring of the power to declare. Or the definition of “terrorism” that has been expanded with zero precision into endless ambiguity.  Like enabling the lethal targeting of individuals and/or groups based on suspicion, no trial, or any clearly defined legal standards.  Such mind calculated policies (domestically and globally) shifts our nation further from the original intent of government - as envisioned in both the US Constitution’s Preamble and the UN Charter.  Zero consideration of the wisdom within the Declaration of Independence - with the prioritization of universal freedom and unalienable human rights.

History offers a parallel insight and call to action. Abraham Lincoln decided to run for President because of a proposal by a US Senator suggesting voters in above the Mason Dixon line use democracy to allow slavery if into territories where it had previously been prohibited.  Lincoln felt this was an abomination, making for an even less perfect union.  His objective wasn’t merely political victory. He intended a moral realignment—bringing the Constitution closer to the ideals expressed in 1776.  And this is exactly the realignment between governance and principle urgently needed now.

Rotary’s Four-Way Test—asking whether something is the TRUTH, is it FAIR to all concerned, Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS, and Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? —provides a powerful, nonpartisan framework for evaluating today’s Presidential, Congressional, and Judicial decisions. Applied honestly, it demands that we have the courage to question policies that undermine international law, including clear violations of the United Nations Charter, or that weaken the commitments embedded in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution: to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.

There is a growing contradiction between our nation’s stated ideals and our collective actions. We pledge allegiance to “liberty and justice for all”, yet to often tolerate policies that fall far short of those promises—both domestically and globally. This dissonance is not merely political; it is ethical and detestable.  A literal blood stain on a Rotarian commitment to service above self.

An emerging insight into our human cognition suggests that our primary challenge is not just institutional, but neurological.  As sociologist Erica Jordan framed it, some minds are oriented toward pattern recognition and systems analysis, while others are oriented toward social connection and cohesion. Whether or not one accepts this evolutionary framing associated with these differences, the practical implication is clear: healthy societies require both capacities. When policy is driven solely by strategic calculation without empathy and compassion, or by group identity without systemic understanding, an imbalance and conflict will follow.

The question is not whether we have both—but when, where, and how can we unite build something just and sustainable together. And ASAP. The evolution of weapons, pathogens, and hate is not going to stop on a dime.

Rotary is uniquely positioned to model that integration and possible transformation of human thinking and action. Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million members, 46,000 clubs, in over 200 countries. All have sworn a commitment to ‘service above self’ and have credibility across cultures placing it at the intersection of moral vision and practical action.  In this unique moment in history, this role should be elevated—not diminished by hesitation.

Central to this effort must be an enlarged and undivided commitment to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are not abstract aspirations; they are a comprehensive blueprint for human and ecological well-being. The potential to attain most of the 30 rights listed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights for most of humanity.  By ending poverty, ensuring clean water, sanitation, primary health care, basic education, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and creating more peaceful/non-violent communities. These are the real measures of whether governance is serving its purpose.  They represent a shared global agenda that transcends borders, ideologies, and partisan divides.  An affordable, achievable, measurable, holistic, comprehensive and synergist plan that requires our species to finally unite and apply our minds to solving problems – not creating them by defending unsustainable concepts and principles.

Prioritizing the SDGs is not an optional extension of Rotary’s mission.  It is its natural evolution. Service above self, in today’s interconnected/interdependent world, means recognizing that the health of people and nature are inseparable. It means understanding that insecurity anywhere - creates vulnerability everywhere.

If Rotary is to remain true to its values, it must be willing to engage—not in partisan advocacy, but in principled political critique. It must ask difficult questions, challenge inconsistencies, and encourage a re-alignment of governance with the foundational ideals/principles of freedom, justice, and our shared humanity. The future will not be shaped solely by those in positions of formal power, but by those willing to transform and align how we think – and with what we know to be true.

In that alignment of mindsets and governing policies—lies our best hope of building a world that is not only more secure, but more just and sustainable for all.  A legacy far beyond eradicating Polio.