Nov: 11:   Veterans Day, Armistice Day, and National Education Day:

Shred the U.S. Constitution!   That was the sentiment of government experts burdened with the secret job of America’s recovery had there been a catastrophic event during the Cold War.  Mostly former U.S. government officials these experienced individuals were driven by the possibility of a nuclear war and the hope of rebuilding our nation after it or some other catastrophic event destroyed life as we know it.  

Astonishingly they named the Declaration of Independence as the document worthy of protection.

It housed the fundamental principles essential for creating any sustainable human system of government dedicated to human freedom, the fundamental promise of America’s greatness.

Abraham Lincoln recognized as much when our nation was close to dissolving over slavery.  That bloody civil war killed more Americans than both world wars, North Korea, and Vietnam wars combined.   Lincoln called the Declaration of Independence our “Apple of Gold” and our Constitution it’s “Frame of Silver”.   Our pledge of “Liberty and justice for all” reflects the same.  Having failed this pledge Americans have been engaged in war after war and proxy wars.  And are now in a permeant war that will not end well for us.

Today, November 11^th was originally celebrated as Armistice Day.  The day that the War to end all Wars abruptly ended (20 million dead).  It then politically ended unjustly with the treaty of Versailles thus setting the conditions leading to World War II.  It was after that war and the Korean War that Congress changed the holiday to Veterans Day to honor only American veterans.  The ideal of permanently ending war was largely lost to two prevailing but untested passions; ‘peace through strength’ and ‘peace by disarmament’.    Neither had a chance in hell of working given the fundamentally flawed global system of unenforceable international law.  Flawed because it was and remains a system worshiping national sovereignty.  It was a useful concept 400 years ago with the Treaty of Westphalia, but it has never stopped or even slowed the wars between nations.  Without just and enforceable rules and regulations to peacefully hold governments accountable for their murderous actions inside or outside their borders, chaos continues to reign supreme to this day.    Put simply, protecting national sovereignty remains the world’s highest priority. Protecting human rights is rarely taken seriously.  And ‘we the people’ accept this without question or pause.

Even after the horrors of World War II (60 million war dead, Nazi genocide killing 6 million innocent people , and the creation of a new bomb that could vaporize 100,000 people in seconds) we allowed a profound effort to prevent another war from being put into place.  

FDR’s wife Eleanor Roosevelt led the effort intended to remedy the injustices that often lead to war by drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It was unanimity’s approved on Dec. 10^th, 1948 (exactly 70 years ago, 30 days from today). But the UN was never given the power to enforce it.  Within a few years the Cold War began and over the next four decades over 100 million innocent men, women, and mostly children died from easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases while hundreds of billions were spent on weapons to prevent war.  Nuclear weapons may have prevented another hot world war but on Sept 11, 2001 just 19 individuals armed with razor knives used our own passenger airliners as WMD, and sparked a global war that continues today, with no end in sight.  It has so far cost trillions of American tax payers dollars and twice as many American lives as the 9-11 attack itself.  And, when today’s extremists acquire tactical efficiency in biological, chemical, nuclear, cyber or robotics technology millions of Americans will likely die.   We must find another way and time is NOT on our side. 

By now it should be self-evident that the most powerful military in the world cannot stop the abuse of technology -- when a person, group or nation is determined to commit mass murder (some willing to die in the process).   And the fact is that global US military involvement since 9-11 has created more committed murderous extremist than existed before 9-11.   Don’t believe that our most capable and honorable military force will be able to stop a biological weapon entering our nation or truck bombs from obliterating our public buildings.  A cyber-attack or EMP event affecting our vulnerable infrastructure could also cause mass murder.  A recent GAO study of our militaries most sophisticate weapons systems reported that 80 percent were hackable by relatively simple methods. 

We fail to realize that security is essentially an illusion if someone is committed to death or destruction.   Making matters more difficult is our Constitution.  Any serious effort to detect and preempt a domestic attack must inevitably violate our 4^th Amendment.  With the recent rise in domestic ‘terrorism’ this must be painfully clear.   The freedom/security dilemma is real.  Resolving it requires deeper thinking beyond our primal fears.  We can start by thoroughly understanding the evolution of weaponry and war itself which should fundamentally change how we calculate the costs of war.   It should no longer be calculated in terms of lost blood and treasure, but possible losing civilization as we know it.  And, this reality has existed for decades.   After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Albert Einstein was asked ‘which weapons would WW III be fought with?’  Einstein wisely answered that he didn’t know.   But he was certain that “WW IV would be fought with sticks and stones.” 

Exponential advances in every technology now yields unprecedented killing capacity to almost any one with a serious grudge and enough money to buy a car, truck or computer.   The dual use nature of every technology means that any disarmament effort can easily be overcome with human creativity if the will is there to commit mass murder.  Even without the Second Amendment.   Take guns away and cars or trucks can be used to slaughter dozens.  Remember what Timothy McVeigh did 25 years ago in Oklahoma City with a driver’s license, rental truck, fuel oil, fertilizer, some coper wire, and a timer.

This single factor of ‘dual-use technology’ alone should fundamental shift our approach to war, peace, and security.  Intentional mass murder is not the only, or even the greatest threat we face.  Pandemics, global warming, super volcanoes, asteroids, and now Artificial Intelligence are also grave threats to our freedom and security.  If you doubt this read Global Catastrophic Risks 2018 https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/annual-report/annual-report-2018

Yet our government’s war budging priorities and procedures have only escalated.  Today we are spending more on defense (still more than the 7 next largest national military budgets combined most of those nations are our allies) and budgeting for a Space Force with the possibility of putting nuclear weapons in space.   Few policy makers question the opportunity costs of relying on weapons to protect us, while our capacity to prevent other threats we know will come and deal more effectively with those we can never really prevent.   Most discussions about any national security threat now stress the word ‘resilience.  Meaning we aren’t going to be able to prevent them given the limited funds our government has, the constraints of our Constitution, and the abhorrent constipation of our elected policy making bodies.

Those who study ‘war’ or ‘peace’ need to get schooled rapidly regarding the fundamental causes of both.  Nothing less will end the inevitable budget breaking costs and accelerating trajectory of weapons and war.   Too many “peace and justice” activist refuse to yield on their decades long ambition to cut military spending, stop arms sales, and their fetish for the ‘elimination of nuclear weapons’.  And those who champion “peace through strength” need to realize that security is not a function of more and better weapons.  Lasting security is a function of ‘Liberty and justice for all’.   This is the prerequisite to improving any and every element of our human condition.  It’s even biblical in origin. 

And, too many in our government continue to pass policies without a serious consideration of our nation’s vulnerabilities and our unyielding global dependence on the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”, so profoundly stated in our Declaration of Independence.  

In this context the education of all Americans is the most vital element essential to our national security.    Unknown to most Americans this was the weighty conclusion of the last report offered by a bi-partisan Presidential Commission on National Security in the 21^st Century.  It was released just six months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.   It considered a lack of education in the US as the second greatest threat to our nation, behind terrorism.  

When we think about honoring veterans or celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the end of WW I this November 11^th (and the coming 70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights December 10^th) it would be good to remember or learn about President Kennedy’s creation of the Peace Corps.  He knew the foundation of peace and since its creation over 220,000 Americans have served in it.  They also risked their lives in villages and hamlets around the world to bring education, health care, and farming to the poor. They deserved to be honored as much as military veterans, who many today actually try to perform such vital services while deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout Africa.   Many rightfully debate the value of having our military do nation building but our best military leaders say if we don’t fund more humanitarian efforts we need to “buy them more bullets”.

Fundamentally, ‘we the people’ need to urgently redefine what is meant by national security and how it will be achieved.   The answer lies more in how we use our Constitution to address the root causes of war, disease, genocide, hunger, poverty and other global injustices.  We must put all people first, not our national pride.   That is the biblical concept that helped create our great nation.  Failing it, we will fail to be great, or even exist as a nation given the evolution of weapons and war.

The foundations of peace and security were recognized and articulated 38 years ago in a bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.   “In the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger, its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar.  Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is late.  Age-old forces of poverty, disease, inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world.  Our humanity demands that we act upon these challenges now...” 

The commission specifically warned that “The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order…  Neither the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical global threats as the growing scarcity of fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources, environmental hazards, pollution of the seas, and international terrorism. Calculable or not, however, this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”

The commission also stated “that promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S. national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”

Today, the only thing other than the 2nd coming of Christ to comprehensively address global injustices is the 17 Sustainable Development Goals every nation agreed to in 2015.  Funding them can be done without increasing any debt to any government.   Such funding options will be explained in the days to come.  Affordable, achievable, and nationally agreed upon solutions exist.  All that is missing the political will of your elected officials to make it happen.

If you voted for them or not, or voted at all, the most important thing we can do as a citizen is to educate those in power on what our priorities are.   Their job is to represent you/us.   They swore to protect the Constitution.  It will not protect you.  It is far more important that we all fulfill our individual and founders promise of liberty and justice for all.   Right now, our best way of doing that is achieving the 17 SDGs.

Connect the dots (everything is connected!). 

See the web (of life).

Insist on justice for all (17 Sustainable Development Goals). 

Or prepare for the catastrophic consequences (Global Catastrophic Risks 2018 https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/annual-report/annual-report-2018).

November 11 to December 10, 2018: A 30 day "We the People Project"

Post-Election 30 day “We the People” Project:   November 11 to December 10^th 

Two deeply important days require more understanding and your civic action. 

With or without the official you voted for now in power the next 30 days is the best time to put your civic super-power to work.  Our constitutional/inalienable right* to “petition” our government is infinitely more powerful than any vote we cast.  Once elected, winners too often go largely unsupervised except for the paid lobbyists pleading their special interests instead of ours “we the people”.  We can no longer leave our Members of Congress unsupervised between elections.  We need to let them know what we expect of them now and until holding them accountable in 2020. 

Consider taking at least one civic action each day for the next 30 days devoted to informing your Congressperson about what you want to see happen-- which is hopefully what we, our community, our country, and the world needs. 

Starting Veterans Day, a blog will be posted focusing on a specific issue related to that day. It is intended to assist you in a focused action for building a friendly and working relationship with your U.S Representative -- and any other constituents in your district that share your vision of a planet that our children can inherit with sustainable liberty and justice for all -- for all time.  

A new blog each day, offers another linked focus.  Use each bog however you like.  Edit it to make it yours.  Then use it wherever you can with the intention of informing and motivating your Congressperson to take an action related to the pledge every American has taken. 

What we pledged is “liberty and justice for all”.   Never before has it been more important to make this our civic priority until 2020.    

Connect the dots (everything is connected!). 

See the web (of life).

Insist on justice for all (17 Sustainable Development Goals). 

Or prepare for the catastrophic consequences (Global Catastrophic Risks 2018 https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/annual-report/annual-report-2018).

FACT:  Every aspect of your life in your home and community is influenced by a variety of global factors that you have virtually no immediate personal control over.  But the quality of our lives, even our very survival, has been forever tied to the lives of people we never knew and may never know.   From job losses, to infectious diseases, to extreme weather events, we are all connected together.  Earth is our home.  It deserves better than we've given it.  Fortunately, our political system gives us the power to make things better.  Especially if used between elections.

"A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability." - Robert F. Kennedy - [Report to the United States Senate on his trip to Latin America and the Alliance for Progress, May 9-10 1966]"

“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."  Declaration of Independence.    

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." -- George Bernard Shaw

1.      Nov: 11:   Veterans Day, Armistice Day, and National Education Day:

*Nov. 12:   Systems thinking Day?  Direct vs Systemic causation.

*Nov. 13:   World kindness day: 

Nov 14:  World Diabetes Day:   Three types of laws:  and International law

Nov 15:  Day of the Imprisoned Writer:  freedom of expression.  Crime. Justice. 

Nov 16:  International Day of Tolerance.   Genocide, ICC…..

*Nov 17:  TRUTH Day!   Freedom Security Dilemma.  

Nov 18:  Science & Engineering day.  Words Should Mean Something!   Terrorism.  Health care.   “Resilience”.  “Rule of Law”

*Nov 19:  World Toilet Day & International Men’s Day: 

Nov 20: Universal Children’s Day:   The hidden holocaust:  

Nov 21: World Television Day: The media, cyber threats, AI, Deep Fakes.

Nov 22: Thanksgiving:   For Earth’s biosphere.

Nov 23:  Loony Liberal’s and Crazy Conservative’s Day.

Nov 24:  Money Day.  24/7/365   Economics is an art not a science.  What do we value?

Nov 25: Int’l Day on Violence Against Women: 

Nov 26: National Law Day or National Constitution Day:  Loss of trust in Govt.

Nov 27: Community security day.   Local health, wealth and security vs global injustices

Nov 28:  Freedom Day or Declaration of Independence Day:

Nov 29:  International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: 

Nov 30:  National Flag Day

Dec 1:  World AIDS Day 

Dec 2:  World Pollution Prevention Day: World Computer Literacy Day, Intl Day for the Abolition of Slavery

Dec 3:   International Day of Persons with Disabilities. 

Dec 4:   Evolution of weapons and war day.  24 factors to consider for security.

Dec 5:  World Soil day:  International Volunteer Day for Economic &Social Development: 

Dec 6:  Justice day :   Religion as a force for good.  Justice for all. 

Dec 7:   International Civil Aviation Day: 

Dec 8:  Civic power Day:   

Dec 9:  International Anti-Corruption Day:  $32 Trillion in offshore accounts…

Dec 10:  Human Rights Day:  70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

*Our Right to petition our Government is a God given right acknowledged in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals, ensured by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union ensures the right to petition to the European Parliament. The right can be traced back to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Petition of Right, and Magna Carta.

Truths that are Self-evident

What are Self-evident Truths?

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." -- Buddha

"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude.  In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."   Goethe

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." - Malcolm X

"Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare."  -  Kurt Vonnegut
"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."  -- Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862) American author, poet, philosopher, polymath, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and transcendentalist

"Truth is not determined by majority vote": Doug Gwyn

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it"  Mohandas Gandhi

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself": Thomas Jefferson

"Truth is treason in the empire of lies." - Ron Paul

If you want to know what self-evident truths are read the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence.

"People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster"  - James Baldwin (1924-1987), Fiction Writer, Essayist, Social Critic  

We can believe ANYTHING and we vote based on that

“Everyone is entitled to be stupid, to too many abuse the privilege.”  Anonymous.

“It is not that I believe that there are too many idiots in this world, just that lightning isn’t distributed right.” Mark Twain

Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -Winston Churchill

"I'm an expert in homo sapiens behavior. They can rationalize anything. Take war. They'll bankrupt their economies, sacrific the best of their young, unleash a bloodbath that impresses even me, at the expense of providing shelter, food, and medicine for their own people." -  Mario Acevedo, The Undead Kama Sutra

"What sets our species apart is not just what men will do to other men, but how tirelessly they justify it." - William Dietrich, Napoleon's Pyramids
"No one really knows why humans do what they do." -  David K. Reynolds

"Men willingly believe what they wish."
-- Gaius Julius Caesar   (100-44 B.C.) Dictator of the Roman Republic

"Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it,
nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it."   -- Maimonides  (1135-1204) Jewish philosopher

"Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true." -- Francis Bacon- (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."
-- Socrates   (469-399 B.C.) Greek philosopher

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity." - Arthur Schopenhauer

America is the only country where a significant proportion of the population believes that professional wrestling is real but the moon landing was faked.  ~ David Letterman

"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe." - Friedrich Nietzsche
The major difference between genius and stupidity…is that genius has it’s limits.

"Information that is consistent with our pre-existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas evidence that contradicts them is critically scrutinized and discounted. Our beliefs may thus be less responsive than they should to the implications of new information" - Thomas Gilovich, How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right." Tom Paine, 1737-1809.
"The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts."    -- H. L. Mencken  (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic
One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.  Malcolm Muggeridge
 
There are endless ways that our beliefs deviate from reality and result in actions detrimental to our health, life, prosperity and future.  Beliefs untethered to reality often creates enormous problems for us individually, as a group or as a nation.

Some experts believe that humans have been getting dumber over the last 2000 years because our societies have protected people regardless of the foolishness of their thoughts.  How many people do you see texting while driving?  I rest my case.

It’s long been recognized that the most powerful propaganda tool comes from the understanding of crowd or mass psychology pioneered by intellects like Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter  and Sigmund Freud.   They saw that people are not so much moved by fact or reason,  but by manipulating their emotions.  Fear may be our most powerful motivating emotion.  Unfortunately, the actions it motivates are usually not based on the best action to achieve a positive outcome.

Ignoring the facts/evidence:  There is no shortage   of words in the English language to describe this human tendency. Stubborn, obstinate, adamant, pigheaded, hard headed, unmoved, dogged, stalwart…we have all seen it and been it.

We can maintain a belief system even when presented with irrefutable evidence that a specific belief is erroneous.

Many creationists refuse to believe in evolution. Many Bush fans refuse to believe that invading Iraq was a mistake. Most liberals will always believe that more gun control will increase individual security.
Many conservatives insist that spending more on the military will increase our national security.
Most arms control experts continue to believe that more non proliferation efforts will increase our security.
Many environmentalists believe population control will help protect the environment.
Most religious followers continue to believe their faith best reflects God’s wishes.

But the most widespread and dangerous belief in the United States may be the pervasive thought that we are independent as a nation, as states and even as individuals.  The word “independence” only reflects a mental construct that has no basis outside the human mind or the paper it is written on.


"To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of
peace; and, that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character."  -- Alexander Hamilton  (1757-1804)  Source: writing as "Publius," in “Federalist No. 34,” January 5, 1788

Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Defining terrorism:   There are over  200 definitions of Terrorism. Even within national agencies the definition can vary. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.  A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force. We believe we are the good guys.  They believe they are.
"Those who can make you believe in absurdities
can make you commit atrocities!" -- Voltaire
[François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778)

"[I]n the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. "-Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
"A half truth is the worst of all lies,because it can be defended in partiality." -  Solon - (c.638 BC-558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker

"Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths: without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: That what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open." - -- Clive Bell - (1881-1964) - Source: Civilization, 1928 

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." - John Lennon

"I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."
-- Issac Newton  (1642-1727) English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian.  Source: 1721, after having lost huge amounts of money in the South Sea Bubble
     
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is
Mass Psychology. ...It's importance has been enormously increased by
the growth of modern methods of propaganda ...Although this science
will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the
governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how
its convictions were generated."  -- Bertrand Russell
[Bertrand Arthur William Russell] (1872-1970) Philosopher, educator

And we continue believing it inspite of evidence to the contrary.

"The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a "pet" notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different" -
John Dewey
“Science is the most powerful means we have for the unification of knowledge.”  John F. Kennedy one month before his death.

"We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ... far too little. His psyche should be studied -- because we are the origin of all coming evil." - C.G. Jung.  26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." -  John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
"In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave " - Geoffrey L. Rudd, The British Vegetarian, September/October 1962

Trust in God? Nothing else will be left.

Today (10-25-18) I attended a presentation at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at Ft. McNair in DC. After undergoing a rigorous two week long security clearance procedure just to get on the military base where the Center is housed and none of the information given was classified. 
The presentation was excellent in packaging a lot of information into the topic “Social Media and National Security” I learned nothing new.  And none of it was encouraging. 

Here’s s brief summary of what I knew going in and what was greatly reinforced during the talk.  (surprisingly the expert and clearly knowledgeable key speaker never mentioned the influence and evolution of AI or Deep fakes).

Trust is the foundation of any working relationship.  National security, government, and human security requires many.
Unfortunately Americans and other populations are learning rapidly not to trust government, if they ever did.  Many Americans have also been rapidly losing trust in the media, science and even religion.
Distrust in government was their to begin with.  Even before Trump was elected social media (Face-book, Instagram, Twitter…) has been amplifying distrust exponentially.

With our minds capable of believing ANYTHING, there was no optimism offered that things are going to get better anytime soon.

With the evolution of Cyber capacity merging with AI and creating “deep fakes” we can only anticipate trust in anything we see, hear or read probably being destroyed.  And in the not too distant future the last shred of trust we have in any thing humans make, especially government, will be gone.   What then?

Global Catastrophic Risks 2018

Global Catastrophic Risks 2018 https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/annual-report/annual-report-2018 

Highly worth reading!   Nothing short of a comprehensive effort to fund and achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ASAP will allow us to address any one of the multiple threats bearing down on us.

Time is not on our side.  Neither is nature.  And nature always gets the last vote. 

Kavanaugh's Comeuppance.

A key word used by left leaning women and democratic policy makers in the Kavanaugh chaos that we just witnessed is ‘survivor’.    An intelligent, upper-class, American white woman who was significantly traumatized sexually and violently 30 years ago as a teenager is called a “survivor” and sees herself as such.  And thousand, perhaps hundreds of thousands of other women with a wide range of similar experiences see themselves as the same.  Survivors.

No doubt, too many graves are filled with women who didn’t survive such heinous assaults.   My mother was almost one of them. She endured multiple beatings and death threats from my father for nearly 20 years.  He threatened to kill her if she ever left him.  Luckily, he left her, and she died a free and happy women.  But before that, no matter what he said or did to her, she never acted like a victim.  Perhaps it was her tough upbringing with ten brothers on a farm in Colorado or her Catholic faith that strengthened her will…but she never expressed herself as a victim or a survivor.

Survivor is a lose word like love or terrorism.  It has multiple meanings to different people within different circumstances.  Too often in our world of social and political conversation a word’s user has a different definition than those who hear it.   And, any proposed solution using such flexible words will likely be opposed.   In such a flawed communication environment it should be self-evident that virtually nothing will change, and conditions will only fester.   Sound familiar?

I don’t think it is an extremist statement that the increasingly chaotic world we live in today is a direct result of good people’s honest efforts attempting to resolve serious problems by using flawed words.

Imagine this.  Would you fly in an airplane designed by mechanical and electrical engineers who used words that could have different meanings between them and even those responsible for building the plane?   Would you allow a group of neurosurgeons to remove your brain tumor if the words they used could be interpreted in various ways by every other doctor, nurse, and equipment monitoring technician in the operating room?

How can we expect our government to work safely and effectively when words and phrases like ‘justice’, ‘independence’, ‘health care’, ‘national sovereignty’, or ‘rule of law’ can mean anything we want, or nothing real at all?  

My next assertions will not make me many friends but in the context of the Kavanaugh appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court I cannot refrain from expressing my own views and word definitions that were frequently used in this mental national scarring event and actual outcome.

Anyone who has been sexually assaulted against their will are only victims in the legal sense.  They need not be permanently scared by the experience.   As Turia Pitt said “We are not defined by what happens to us, but by how we choose to respond.”  

https://optionb.org/stories/were-not-defined-by-what-happens-to-us-but-by-how-we-choose-to-respond-ry1vr0t9w

I don’t believe women like Ms. Ford should use the word ‘survivor’ as a bonding agent to frame the crimes that have been committed against them.  It diminishes the word, themselves, and the very argument they need to make and sustain.

Below are just three examples of conditions that created real survivors…not imagined survivors.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=nobel+peace+prize+2018&&view=detail&mid=8AA2C02B8B754F520ADD8AA2C02B8B754F520ADD&&FORM=VDRVRV

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/authorities-fear-thousands-killed-in-indonesia-earthquake-and-tsunami-1338889795678?v=railb&

http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/survivors.php

I was disgusted by the Kavanaugh hearing before it even evolved into a  ‘he said, she said’ contest where the ‘he’ was clearly caught telling lies.  This confirmation process was important but not deserving of all of the public and political attention it sucked away from real catastrophic consequences that were taking the innocent lives of tens of thousands men, women and children – as well as ignoring global chaotic conditions (war, terrorism, global warming, preventable diseases, poverty…) that could lead to the loss of millions more.

The “#me-too’ movement is justified and needed but it is insufficient unless all of us, especially males, use our citizenship and testosterone for defending the rights of all people (girls and women especially).   If our police and legal system is unable or unwilling to take accusations of sexual violence seriously there is nothing that could stop a “#We-help’ movement of males willing to listen to complaints and step into dangerous conditions to ensure the safety and security of all people regardless of their age or sexual identity.  

Most important however is putting the protection of all human rights, everywhere on earth, more important than the protection of national sovereignty.  Inalienable Human rights are clearly defined in our Declaration of Independence and within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (it’s 70^th anniversary is on Dec. 10, 2018).   National sovereignty is a 400-year-old concept that puts the freedom of every government to do as it pleases, to whomever it wants, whenever it wants…especially if it has nuclear weapons. 

Few people survive the drone attacks that our nation justifies without due process – all in defense of our national sovereignty.   These lethal assaults only fuel the creation of more people who hate us and are willing to die trying to kill us, fueling an endless war we cannot win.   The evolution of war and terrorism combined with the profound evolution of weaponry ensures that in the long run there will be few survivors on either side.  And even fewer governments capable of offering any real defense or the ‘rule of law’ which our nation has always given lip service too but never followed. 

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who Mr. Kavanaugh is now replacing, once gave a definition of the ‘rule of law’ that should resonate with any true red-blooded patriotic American who has pledged to our flag ‘liberty and justice for all”.  Nearly 20 years ago on C-span he was sharing his experience on the bench and at the end of his talk someone asked “What makes the Rule of Law effective”?  He said he believed ‘it required “three essential” elements’.  “First” the “laws need to be made and enforced by a democratic process”.  People want to participate in the rules they live by.  But, he insisted, that was “not enough!”   “Second”, he said “the laws” must be “applied equally to everyone”.  But even that wasn’t enough.   Last he said “the laws must be protective of a certain set of inalienable rights”.  Rights that we have just because we are born.  Not because of where we were born, or the skin, wealth, religion, or ethnic group we were born into. 

This is what makes America Great.  This profound idea of liberty and justice for all.   We should all be demanding that our Constitution codify this “Self-Evident” truth expressed in our Deceleration of  Independence.   Even Abraham Lincoln agreed.  He once wrote, the Declaration is our “Apple of Gold” our Constitution is the “Frame of silver” around it.  It is the picture that brings us honor and peace…not the frame.

Our nation has provided us with unprecedented comforts.  Comforts that have spoiled us and made us soft.  To many hold unexamined expectations that we should be pain free and any indignation or slight against us should be harshly punished.   These expectations are literally killing us, the love of life inside of us, and a sense of shared values among us.

Unprecedented opioid overdoses, suicides, mass shootings, and preventable chronic diseases are evidence of a profound sickness within our culture of excessive freedom (selfishness) without responsibility, independence (individualism) without a sense of community, and tribalism (religious and political beliefs) without humanity. 

In fact, we are all entirely interdependent. Everyone on this planet breaths the same air, will be ravaged by the same pandemic, war, global warming, or economic collapse.

I am sickened that our once prestigious Senate confirmed Kavanaugh.  Many of us will never have the certainty that Ms. Ford has that he was the one who assaulted her.  And she may have feared for her life…which often happens more as a result of our imagination than an actual existential threat.  

But, until we find and agree on the meaning of certain words that can solve real problems -- instead of using words to gain partisan advantage -- our nation’s downward spiral into chaos will not end.  United we stand.  Flawed words will only divide us.  If ‘we the people’ are to form a more perfect union, we must use words that build bridges between political parties instead of spewing words that inflame them.

Victims of sexual assault should be heard and have their day in a court that can be trusted to be just.  Engraved in stone over the entrance to our Supreme Court are the wise words “Justice is the great interest of man on earth.   Wherever her temple stands, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness and the improvement and progress of our race.”  About 16 months ago (6-3-17) Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said “I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.”

We must all value justice more than victimization.   I hope Justice Kavanaugh does and remembers we are not defined by things that happen to us, but how we respond.   Right now more than half of all Americans and I’m guessing most of the world will forever remember how he responded to the assault of just or unjust words, on him.