We’re Long Overdue for an Upgrade

Posted on October 1, 2024 · 3 Comments

I’m convinced that humanity has not improved over the last 500 years. Our quality of life has grown by leaps and bounds, but humanity?  Not so much.  We fool ourselves into believing our species has advanced, because our quality of life is so much better than that of our ancestors. Among other things, we enjoy higher life expectancy, air travel and the ability to own and carry mini computers with us everywhere we go. We can’t be blamed for assuming that because our lives our better, we are better.

Over the years, technological advancement has been stunning and rapid, while human frailty has stayed depressingly stagnant. We humans are plagued with the same petty impulses that our ancestors indulged; greed, tribalism, jealousy, anger, envy, egotism and a million other shameful behaviors. These behaviors exist across all of humanity, irrespective of wealth, social standing, ethnicity, race or gender. Technology is advancing, but we are not.

Is my assessment too harsh?

Consider this. Wars are raging all over the world and our world leaders, appear to be at a loss as to how to stop the killing. They wring their hands and shrug their shoulders, rather than take definitive action to end the conflict. This while combatants “mistakenly” attack schools and hospitals. The persistence of the archaic practice of warfare leads me to think that humans are simple people living in an advanced world.

War is absurd. It’s nonsensical as a concept and barbaric in practice. It’s the tool of the powerful and the tragic predicament of the people. In every single case, the horrors of war overwhelm the motivations for it. Yet, in defiance of logic, war is still a thing.

War involves the mass murder of individuals, who have not been tried, nor found guilty of a crime. At its heart, war amounts to punishment of the masses, in order to exact revenge, gain more power or compel a specific response from their leaders. The practice of war, cheapens human life. It is wholly unjust.

After centuries of progress in every other aspect of human endeavor, why don’t we work harder to rein in the violent tendencies of egocentric men who use their power to bring catastrophe to entire nations? I say it’s because we are distracted by new advancements in all the things around us. We forget to stop and examine the flawed nature of who we are and what we do. So, we just keep doing it.

It’s time we work on being better humans.

A good first step would be to decide in no uncertain terms to ban war. It would be easy to get the masses to agree that war should never be tolerated, since it is the masses who suffer the most. If we stop romanticizing war, it will be obvious that there are other options. A hard line must be drawn where each nation is required to achieve its goals without attacking its neighbors or sacrificing its citizens. It’s a low bar to clear.

As the conflicts around the globe escalate, more resources and attention are channeled to them, instead of climate change and ecological issues. More detailed International laws should be written outlawing violent aggression between countries. The United Nations should be refashioned and given more authority on this one subject. New laws should be created to hold the leaders who wage war accountable, using enforceable consequences. Cooperation, sanctions, arbitration and criminal liability for the architects of war, should be used to resolve conflicts and quell even the smallest suggestion of war. If we ban war, we will be better.

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It’s Gonna Be Okay

Posted on September 29, 2022 · 6 Comments

It’s not going to be okay, and you know it. My title was a lie to make you click and read my essay. You clicked because it fits in with our collective need to face impending disaster with well worn and obsolete phrases like, “It’s gonna be okay” or “Everything’s fine.” 

I remember when one could say that things were “going to be okay” and feel 75% sure it was true.  I did it all the time. In fact, I was born an optimist, but not an eternal one. For the first fifty years of my life there was always a genuine smile plastered on my face. That smile sprung from my natural ability to see the silver lining and my embarrassing, but inborn habit of having really amazing music streaming through my head, 24/7.

Unfortunately, the horrible reality of things has grown so heavy that I no longer hold to my previous belief that given enough time, everything will sort itself out. We’ve gone too far off the rails. People are no longer pained by the suffering of others, wrongdoers are no longer defeated by the specter of truth and good is whatever most benefits the one defining it. This is not the road to everything being okay.

We have to fix things, so that we can survive. First, by deciding what we value as individuals. It’s easy to figure out what the hordes on various social media platforms believe. We applaud or condemn the thoughts of others with lightning speed, as if we are playing a game. We forget that before we take sides, it’s necessary to think and decide everything for ourselves. It takes energy and an almost Herculean effort to wade through the noise to find who we really are and what we believe as a singular person. It’s been so easy to be swept along with the tidal wave of thoughts being amplified in our spaces. Now, each of us has to stop and take stock because the stakes are high and we’ve already begun to suffer. The actions we allow and the inaction we tolerate is ruining us. You know it’s not okay.

We can’t fix things if we keep denying that our humanity is our best thing. It’s the thing that can hold us together because it’s common to all of us. We have to encourage our natural empathy for others. When we feel the pain of others, we’re more likely to come to their rescue. That’s a good thing because whatever pains them will eventually slay us.

If we turn back the tide, and elevate the truth to its proper place, we can work toward solutions for the things are destroying us, instead of hyper focusing on the things that divide us. We must stop pretending that wrongdoers, sycophants and liars will save the day. They don’t even want to.

Last week Hurricane Fiona devastated Puerto Rico. I listened to the coverage and read articles about the deep suffering of the people on the island and felt waves of sorrow. Eventually I stopped watching and turned on those happy songs in my head.

Today, Hurricane Ian is growing in strength and is expected to wind its way through the Southeast. There will be more suffering. I don’t know if me or mine will suffer this time, but that doesn’t matter because there are a million more storms brewing. Whether it’s climate change, justice deferred, wars and rumors of wars, lies or those in power who are deliberately chiseling away at the foundation of our institutions, at some point most of us will suffer.

We can decide to stop swallowing whole, the morsels of dysfunction and outright wickedness we are fed every, single day. If we don’t act on our own behalf, the morsels will keep getting bigger and eventually we will choke. Unless we change, nothing is going to be okay.

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PROTECT THE POLAR BEARS, THE WHALES AND THE TRUTH

Posted on March 4, 2019 · Leave a Comment

 

It’s time we pick up the truth, dust it off, and elevate it to a place of honor.

The truth is barely a thing, anymore. It’s viewed as an optional a la carte item, spun to satisfy personal agendas. The truth is now subject to whim, and is regularly and intentionally distorted. The truth is so assiduously ignored, that we’ve become accustomed to its absence. We hardly register the value difference between lies and the truth.

I’ve just decided that I can’t stand it anymore. My head spins when I hear people lie. It happens with alarming regularity on the national stage. Many of us sit by and watch with visible outrage and muted voices. Some lies are spoken so often, with such confidence that I find myself wondering if there is value in considering the merits of what I know to be untrue. In other words, I waste time pondering what isn’t real! I’ve made a decision to fight for the truth. The truth can be agreeable or offensive, but it has intrinsic value either way. We are lost without it.

Esteem for the truth has dropped, and tolerance for lies has risen. No longer are lies and liars beyond the pale. If a liar says what people want to hear, they listen; if not they call the truth a lie. The message is that the truth is only valued, when it supports predetermined goals and beliefs. This is our dangerous, new normal.

Seeking truth for the sake of truth is worth the effort. Naturally, there is a tendency to blunt the difficulty of hard truths by embracing convenient lies, but we can resist it. Think about the reality (truth) of climate change. We are stuck having a debate about the reality of it, making it impossible to have a conversation about viable solutions for it. This would be funny, if there wasn’t so much at stake.

The truth is, we should be ardently pursuing the facts surrounding climate change. Unfortunately, abstract debate about this issue fills the space that scientific truth should have. I believe our reluctance to openly reject lies has to do with uncertainty regarding the superiority of truth. If we lived in a world with a healthy regard for the truth, there would be no such thing as a “science denier”. Affinity for the truth would have generated a proactive plan to diminish the effects of global warming. In this case, protecting the truth is saving ourselves.

Truth exists on its own. It’s not impacted by our acknowledgement, or lack thereof. If a tree falls in the forest, and we don’t hear it, it still fell. The fact of the tree having fallen is true whether it rots unseen where it landed or is cleaned up and used for firewood. We must make truth the foundation for every conclusion we draw. Healthy perspective and useful conclusions are derived from a foundation of truth. When we rely on lies, our perspective and conclusions are tainted, and things get messed up. The truth isn’t what we wish. It is, what it is.

The truth is universal, and the pursuit of it is necessary. When we are at our best, we depend on it, and take comfort in knowing it. It gives value to our every thought, feeling or belief. It is the essential element of any worthy endeavor.

Truth is often hard to hear, hard to live with and inconvenient; but truth is reality. When we operate in reality there’s a greater chance that those with differing views can enter into reasonable dialogue and reach reasonable solutions. Difference of opinion that springs from a foundation of truth, is less likely to be the result of self interest, and more likely to yield tenable resolution.

The truth is beautifully simple. We can’t live successfully without it. Fundamental to every value we hold dear, (love, honor, justice…), is the truth. The people I most admire, and the person I most want to be, loves the truth.

I’m reconciling with the truth. I will pursue it, and speak it. I’ll value it, by setting aside relationships with people who prefer to bury it, rather than deal with it. From now on, I insist on the truth.

The truth needs protection. Quiet acceptance of the lies that we live with: lies that propel the decisions that dictate our lives, is untenable. I can’t change the world, but I can stake out my place, and make it clear where I stand. I plan to speak in no uncertain terms about what I know to be true. Join me. The truth doesn’t need us. We need it.

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