Stuart's Thoughts  2/15/2020

Bop Bop’s Universe In A Nut Shell

Personal Notes: A Preface

In writing this, I’m inviting the reader, primarily my grandchildren, Kyle, Allison, Colin and Skylar,

to come with me on an imaginary journey through my universe as I attempt to provide a peek into the mind of their grandfather and, in turn, a greater understanding of who he is and how this might be playing a role in who they might become.  I do this not from the standpoint of hoping to influence them in any way but rather simply as an aid in coming to know themselves.  Future generations always build on previous generations and understanding our routes can only aid in the transitions that invariably take place.  I’m sure I retain elements of my own parents and to a lesser degree of my grandparents.  

Unfortunately, I really only knew one of my grandparents, my maternal grandmother, who I spent much time with during my early childhood.  She read me stories and allowed me to help her bake cakes and pies.  She was a tireless baker who kept an endless supply of goodies  coming from the oven and sometimes available to me if I ate all my dinner, which only happened occasionally.  I was not a good eater as a child.  She and my maternal grandfather lived with us  during my early years.  My grandfather was very quiet, tended to mostly sit in his rocking chair, reading his collection of Zane Grey western novels and eating “Good and Plenties” from his sweater pocket.  A pocket that I was ready to probe whenever I had the chance perched up there on his lap.  He often took me on walks around our neighborhood  but, honestly, I can’t remember a single thing he ever said other than an occasional “hmm” or “sit down on the stone block Toot” and take a rest.  Thee were large stone blocks on many street corners, just above the curb.  To this day I don’t know what their actual purpose was but they made convenient little seats for a child.  I imagine he called me “Toot”, everyone else did in my childhood years.  Evidently that is how they heard me trying to pronounce my name “Stuart” when I was 1 - 2 years old.

My paternal grandmother died very young, in her 50s which was during my baby years so I virtually have no memories of her.  The Reverend, My Dad’s father often briefly popped in and out of our lives.  He was a Methodist minister, a faithful servant of his congregation always involved in all matter of church affairs and activities.  Several times a year, he would show up at our home in Salamanca, New York for a Sunday, after church, diner. During my early childhood he held parish assignments in several communities on the border of New York State and Pennsylvania, roughly an hour’s drive from Salamanca.  Other than patting me on the head and proclaiming, in his Scottish brogue, nice to see you laddie have you been a good boy?  I had nothing resembling play time with him but sat quietly while he always said grace before we ate.  Soon after finishing the meal and securing some medication and occasionally a bit of financial aid from my dad, he and his second wife “Aunt Cora”, would bid us all “goodby” and head off back to wherever in their black sedan.

I shouldn’t be so self centered but I’ve always been envious of other friends who had close relationships with more of their grandparents, especially one friend that frequently visited grandparents in Florida and reported many good times with them in their ocean going fishing boat.  He often told of adventures involving trips to wondrous places like “Bimini”,  other islands in the Bahamas and the Florida keys.  Several other friends had grandparents that they often spent time with during summer vacation.  I vowed to remember how lucky I thought they were and would make sure I was that kind of a grandparent when my time came to enjoy grandkids.  Because my wife, “Nanew or Nana”, is of like mind and grew up in the company of wonderful maternal grandparents, we’ve hopefully been able to accomplish this.

Before setting off on our journey, I thought you might like a glimpse into my childhood growing up in Salamanca, NY.  The following is a reproduction of one of my previous essays, Christmas 1947.  It just provides a snippet of insight and flavor of what it was like being a kid before TV, before PCs, before the Internet and before cell phones.  As I look back, I have to say some things, not everything, was better then but that's probably just a bit of nostalgia coming out.

Salamanca 1947

You might say that Salamanca, NY is quintessential small town USA. I doubt that there is a more quintessential small town than Salamanca.  It’s located in the far western corner of New York State along the Allegheny River in a narrow valley among the Allegheny Mountains and adjacent to Allegheny State Park.  The park, large in its own right at nearly 65,000 acres, sits on the New York - Pennsylvania border and continues in Pennsylvania as the immense Allegheny National Forrest which stretches out for over 500 thousand acres from Allegheny State Park in the north to the middle of the state of Pennsylvania in the south.  My childhood home was no more than a few hundred yards down the street from the mountain rising to the south into the State Park.  It was often said that you could begin by climbing up that mountain, which I did many times as a young boy, and by walking steadily south, not emerge from the woods for 200 miles or until you reached Pittsburgh.

Although Salamanca considered itself a city, no one actually remembers when it actually had a population of at least the 10,000 supposedly required for city status.  As of the 2010 census, its population was just over 5,000.  Salamanca’s primary claim to fame is that it was known at the time as the only city in the U.S. located entirely on an Indian reservation.  Salamanca is intimately associated with the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy and many of my high school classmates were Senecas.

Salamanca’s summers and falls were spectacular, relatively cool sunny summers and beautiful fall days with a broad spectrum of dazzling fall colors to enjoy, although often on briefly, because winter came early to that corner of upstate New York.  You could count on snow by Thanksgiving but it frequently began to fall in October.  I even remember one birthday, September1st, when it snowed.  When I say winters were snowy I really mean major league snow.  Salamanca was smack in the middle of the Lake Erie snow belt.  Once snow time began in the fall, it seemed to snow every day until spring made its brief appearance, usually sometime in late April.  I remember winters as being especially cold.  Salamanca was at an altitude of nearly 1400 feet even though it lay in a river valley.  As I walked the half mile or so to school each day, I would note which houses produced the largest icicles, some reaching two stories in length all the way from the roof to the ground.  The city kept the sidewalks plowed using horse drawn snow plows.  It was great fun watching the city workmen guide the horses to clean the sidewalks.  Nearly all the cars and trucks put on tire chains to help them navigate the streets and roads in the area which always seemed to be covered with a layer of hard-packed snow.  You could easily tell when a vehicle was approaching by that characteristic clickety clack of the tire chains.

My parents and the other adults in town tolerated these intense winters but we kids absolutely loved them.  School was never called off because of snow.  If that practice had ever gotten started, we would never have gone to school in the winter.  The Salamanca Ice House, the adjacent ice pond with the rising hill behind was the winter focus of the school age population.  Weekend days were spent sledding, tobogganing and skiing on the hill and every evening after supper most kids in town would grab their ice skates and head for the frozen pond.  It was like a big, winter-long, party with boys meeting girls out on the ice and spending frequent breaks in the warming house for a warm cup of cocoa or just meeting others and visiting.

 Christmas

What I remember most about that era was the Christmas season.  In December, 1947, I was 11 years old and in Mrs. DeGroat’s 6th grade class.  The big annual event of the winter in those days was the arrival of the Sears & Roebuck Christmas catalogue at the Sears catalogue store down on Main St.  We didn’t have an actual retail store where you could go to actually see, in person, all those wonderful things that were pictured in the catalogue.  When news got out that the Christmas catalogues were in, there was a steady stream of people, many children flocking down to the catalogue store for their free book of Christmas wonders. In our house that catalogue got heavy use every day after school and in the evening.  I suspect it got significantly more use than any of my school books. Nevertheless, the appearance of that wonderful catalogue signaled the beginning of the Christmas season.

The Christmas season was pure magic as we counted down the days to the Big One.  The local newspaper had a small picture of Santa in his sleigh at the bottom of the first page each day proclaiming how many shopping days remained until Christmas.  At first, with the number in the twenties, it seemed interminable but as that number worked its way down to single digits, the thrill intensity nearly reached a fevered pitch.  The town was aglow in multicolored Christmas lights, reds, greens, yellows, blues and more.  Some bubbled, some sparkled and some blinked off and on but few if any were the plain-Jane white lights that appeared in future years.

Everyone had a live tree which most people obtained by venturing into the woods on family quests to find that perfect tree.  Bringing the decorations, strings of lights, the toy train and, best of all, the platform down from Minnie’s Room was the definitive event that assured me that the Christmas season had actually arrived.

Minnie’s room was a unusual storage room that was tucked up under the eaves and entered through a door part way down the back stairway.  Peering down the back stairway which led to my Dads medical office portion of the house, I could clearly see the door leading to Minnie’s room, a room that was often featured in my early childhood nightmares.  I would never have dared to enter Minnie’s room alone in those days without my parents. 

The large platform which occupied more than half of one of our two living rooms, was used to hold both the Christmas tree as well as the toy train layout that extended the full length of the platform.  Even though the platform stood about table height above the floor, the room, with a 10 ft high ceiling still accommodated a large tree sitting on the platform.  With many other special Christmas items placed by my mother around the house, I spent many hours just sitting amongst it all in a dreamy state of euphoria.

In the days leading up to Christmas, there was a steady flow of friends and neighbors coming and going at our house and, likewise, we visited many of them in their own homes.  It was a time when people paused from pursuing their busy lives to just enjoy the season and their friends.  These were not formal visits, often people just dropped in.  We were all accustomed to this kind of very casual, informal  interaction.  Al and Maude Johnson would stop by in the afternoon with a plate of one of Maude’s Swedish goodies.  Mel Fry would come to the door with an offer to take us on a horse drawn sleigh ride around town.  We would stop in for a few minutes to visit Leland and Florence Stoll and their son Ralph, my best friend.  I can still hear Leland asking, “Can I get anyone an eggnog?”

Emanating from our kitchen as well as kitchens from other homes we visited was that wonderful smell of Christmas - cookies just out of the oven, stollen, fruit bread, and many other smells that became familiar at this time of year from the kitchens of the diverse nationalities that made Salamanca their home.  Polish and Italians comprised large segments of the Salamanca population but there were also Swedish, German, Scotch, Irish and a smattering of others, not to mention the large compliment of our hosts, The Seneca Indians.  Many of my Dad’s patients would stop by with a plate of cookies or a loaf of homemade bread.  Frequently that was the extent of Dad’s pay for services since there were a number in town who he took care of without regard as to whether or not they could afford the $2.00 for an office call or $3.00 for a home call. 

Days were short this time of year with darkness beginning to creep in around 4:00 PM.  I suppose it came especially early because of our location deep in a valley between mountains to both the south and north.  As Christmas drew near, evenings were often spent around a large console radio in our living room listening to Christmas music or some of those wonderful radio programs of that era. Shows like The Jack Benny Program, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, The Lux Radio Theater of The Air, The Shadow, and many more presented their special Christmas programs.  We didn’t have television but those old-time radio entertainers were highly successful in creating a vivid visual realization in our minds.  I often lay on the floor in front of the radio with my eyes closed visualizing in great detail all that was being acted out and described verbally.  As I think back about those experiences today, I’m not sure television has really added that much.

Christmas Eve 1947 was very special.  Mom made a beautiful prime rib.  Al and Maude Johnson came over to celebrate with us and, as usual, Maude brought her special Swedish Christmas dish which I didn’t like but all the adults raved about it.  In fact I was so excited about the next morning I was barely able to eat anything, a slice or two of roast beef, bit of potato and a Santa cutout cookie was all I could get down.  Carolers were in front of the house and as they sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem” I said good night to the adults and hurried upstairs to bed.  My little sister, Lois, was already in bed and probably fast asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head.  I think I probably set a speed record for getting to bed but once there, tossed and turned for what seemed to be at least an hour.  I just couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d find under the tree the next morning.  Then almost before I knew it, I was awake and ran in to get my sister and to beg my parents to allow us to go downstairs.  I knew the drill, we had to wait for both of them to get up, put their bathrobes on and then wait while Dad went down first to set up his movie camera and turn on the tree lights.  Finally after what seemed like a lifetime he gave the o.k. for us to come down.  Lois first spotted a new doll and there leaning against the platform as the little train chugged by was what I had hoped for, a pair of skis.  I was so thrilled with the skis that I barely noticed the other gifts, our stockings stuffed with small toys and other treats and the presence of another surprise gift from Santa, a new Lionel diesel locomotive.  Yes, the one I had drooled over for the past six weeks in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue.

After breakfast and after the excitement settled down, Grand Pop and his second wife Cora arrived to share Christmas dinner with us.  Grand Pop was a Methodist minister and had come from delivering his Christmas message at his church in Eldred, Pennsylvania.  Grand Pop was the perfect minister in his suit with tails, a crisp white shirt and neat tie.  He was the essence of proper, offered the blessing before dinner in his classic Scottish accent.  He called me laddie and referred to Lois as lassie.  He made sure Lois and I understood the true meaning of Christmas, stayed for a while after dinner telling us of experiences he had as a young lad having recently arrived in Nova scotia from Scotland.  I really liked talking to him on these rather rare visits and was totally fascinated with his Scottish accent.

After Grand Pop and Aunt Cora left, our small family gathered in the living room.  I lay down on the floor as we listened to Christmas music on the radio with only the tree lights illuminating the scene. After the turmoil of the war years, I’ll always remember that Christmas of 1947 as the one when I felt that now, finally, there is peace on earth and I felt contented, very contented and very thankful as I lay there at home with my family, falling asleep with the Christmas music and very peaceful tree lights.

So now, let’s head off on this journey through “Bop Bop’s universe in a nut shell” to see what, if anything, resides in Bop Bop’s noggin.

Before heading off into galaxies far away, we should start here in our own solar system in order to visit some basic values which, hopefully, are recognized as the critical basis for more distant places we’ll visit in the depths of outer space.

A brief overview should be sufficient.  Nearly all my basic values emanate from the “Golden Rule” i.e., “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”  In plain English, “treat everyone else you deal with the same way you would like them to treat you”.  That doesn’t mean to hand everyone you meet a crisp new $100 bill but rather be totally fair, honest and compassionate with them.  Let them know you will advocate for them and help them whenever you can.  Always show them respect and never belittle them or make them feel inadequate.  If they dislike you, hate you, or show a lack of respect, turn the tables and show them respect and convince them that you sincerely want to be friends.  Many times that will work to effectively disarm them and you may witness a nearly miraculous transformation.

In spite of the “Golden Rule”, recognize that being human means we all have basic faults that, I believe, have mostly arisen as our species has struggled to emerge successful in the “survival of the fittest” competition that all life forms are compelled to engage in.  Many of us are tempted to stretch the limits of fairness slightly, not seriously, but just a little or cheat “just a bit” to make it over the next barrier to survival.  For example, we may exceed the speed limit,  just a bit, especially if the highway is nearly empty, or fudge “just a little” on our income tax deductions?  How many times are we tempted to jump ahead of a crowd in line for ice cream or some other precious commodity?  Do we ever try to sneak ahead of a crowd waiting for a few remaining tickets to a “block buster” concert and do we ever try to get ahead of others when we see that threatening highway sign, “right lane closed ahead for construction”?  Most importantly, how easy or difficult is it to resist such tendencies to cheat (“just a little”)?  Hopefully, we are able to resist such temptations because regardless of how slight the deviation from the straight and narrow path seems to be, cheating to any degree is still wrong.

Let’s now head a bit further out into our galaxy, beyond our own solar system, to investigate some of the basic questions facing mankind, the creation of our universe, the source of knowledge and the nature of reality.

Creation

Most experts in the field of cosmological physics now agree that the universe likely began by what they have termed, “The Big Bang”.  It’s believed that at the instant of creation an explosive release of all of the matter making up the current universe suddenly burst into existence from a singularity or point source of matter contained at near infinite density.  While the term “big bang” suggests a loud noise, there is no way there could have been any noise at all because, in order for there to be a noise, there would have to have been a biologic entity present at the moment of creation. For there to be a noise, there needs to be a biologic system able to interpret an intense sequence of rapid air movements as a sound, i.e., a sensing device or organ such as an ear which, in turn, is able to send a chain of nerve impulses to an organ such as a brain that interprets this as a noise. Since there was no biologic entity in existence at the moment of creation. It’s like the age old question, if a tree falls in the forest and no-one is present, does it make a noise?  No, it may produce the sequence of rapid air movement but there are not the appropriate biologic organs present to interpret them as a noise.

The traditional concept of the “big bang” as the event of creation also suggests instantaneous rapid inflation of space containing every bit of matter from a singularity, a region of infinite density.  Interestingly, all equations and laws of physics fall apart as we trace events back from several microseconds after the moment of creation to the initiating spark.  Perhaps the reason those equations and laws of physics appear to break down is due to the traditional vision of this “big bang” being an almost instantaneous event with a zero dimension of time and emanating from a point of infinite density.  Physicists find great difficulty in coming up with equations that are able to handle such extreme conditions.  A more plausible view might be obtained by slightly relaxing the initial conditions.  Perhaps it would not be too far out of line to imagine an initially relatively slow event over the first few microseconds as fundamental particles spew from a nearly infinitely dense point into existence followed by very rapid acceleration but during a finite period of time, a condition that is, perhaps, more amenable to description via the current equations and laws of physics.

The alternate view of creation that, may in fact, be held by the majority of people, is that everything was created by a “God”, i.e., a supreme being.  We cannot, nor should not expect to understand this or describe this using our “totally inadequate” reasoning ability.  This view cannot be arrived at via the usual critical thinking and analytical analysis techniques so useful in material reality.  It must be accepted strictly as a subjective and spiritual element of faith.  This idea will be further explored in a future section.

Information and Knowledge

Our five senses are our windows to the universe of absolute material reality. Through our senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, we are able to quickly gather important information about our surroundings.  Through the interpretation of this information by our brains, we accumulate knowledge.  While our five senses serve us well in this regard, we need to understand  that our potential store of knowledge is also limited by the range of our senses.  We have no capacity to detect such information which might be provided by spectral ranges beyond those detectable by our senses.  Our ears cannot hear frequencies much above 20,000 kHz and our eyes are not sensitive to ultra high or ultra low wave lengths.  Thus, humans are limited with respect to the percentage of potential information we can take in and, therefore, limited in the percentage of knowledge in the universe that we can make use of.  It’s my belief that we humans may only be aware of a tiny percentage, perhaps as little as 1-2%, of the entire body of knowledge contained in the universe.

Reality

Knowledge obtained as a result of information gathering and analysis from many material sources throughout the universe can be considered to be knowledge of absolute reality.  These facts of material reality are subject to confirmation and verification through scientific study. They are the tangible facts of material reality and can often be supported by a body of factual evidence.  Conversely, there is perhaps an even greater realm of reality that we might term subjective reality, i.e., the sum of our ideas and beliefs.  In general, this body of reality is largely based on the more spiritual notions of conviction and faith rather than on hard, tangible material facts.  Most of us would say that love plays a major role in our lives.  That strong devotion we feel toward our spouse, our parents, our children and other family members has no visible, material evidence to support it, and we have no instrument capable of measuring it but those of us who feel love have no doubt as to its existence and the power it has in our lives.  Religion is important to approximately 84% of the world’s 7.7 billion people.  While no-one can provide hard evidence for the existence of “God”, the fact that roughly 6.5 billion people believe in God, including some of the world’s greatest scientists, proves the existence of God.    Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Erwin Schrodinger are a few who, despite having a deep view into the material realms of Physics and Biology, also could not dismiss the likely role of a creator.  The subjective realm of reality exists based on faith which, to many, is even more important than the support of the material realm of reality by material facts.

As humans, we continually seek information about our surroundings from birth and throughout our lives.  This is the basic orientation drive that all animals and, perhaps, one might be inclined to say, all living things have.  It’s incredible at how quickly a new born human learns to have its needs, e.g., water, food, attention, etc., fulfilled.  Information gathering continues throughout life, including our childhood, our years of schooling and advanced education, our working years and, for many, throughout the remainder of their lives in retirement.  We are voracious information gatherers because with accumulating information comes accumulating knowledge.  We gather information through use of our five senses.  Although the range of our senses is greatly restricted to narrow bands of the full spectrum of light, sound and other sensory inputs, we have developed a plethora of instruments to help us overcome these restrictions.  Nevertheless, the total scope of information in our environment is nearly infinite and as previously suggested, we humans, only discover, at best, a tiny fraction of the whole, perhaps as little as only 1-2% of the total bank of potential knowledge. Thus, if this premise is accepted, our total sum of knowledge regarding what we may term “reality” is also tiny.  IHowever, it should also be pointed out that the total amount of human knowledge appears to have grown exponentially in the last few centuries and continues to grow exponentially.  If so, what we humans may know in the future might only be a faint dream today. 

If one subscribes to the rational process of decision making, having substantial relevant knowledge is the first requirement.  However, we can assume that having all relevant knowledge rarely, if ever, occurs.  Laking total knowledge which would be required to make an “air tight” decision, we characteristically proceed to decision making by making our best estimate.  As described in “A Path To The Gold”, this involves the concept of “probabilistic rationalism”. where one assigns best estimates of probabilities for all possible choices as they evolve  Thus, one’s best decision is simply that option with the highest probability estimate of being best.  Selecting the best is not guaranteed but, lacking full knowledge, it’s probably the best a person can do.

Recently the question of evidence came up and was claimed to be a moral requirement for holding any belief.  One could say that most beliefs are often based on evidence that the believer has, maybe not evidence in the material sense ,but at least a mental sense that some input has provided ample evidence to support a belief.  For example, a medicine man waves a hickory stick over a sick aborigine and the man shortly later arises feeling cured and firmly believes the medicine man’s action has cured him.  In fact he may have had other several similar experiences throughout his life.  The educated observer may claim the situation was simply a fortuitous coincidence and that the medicine man’s actions were not relevant.  However an alternate, equally possible, explanation may be that the aborigine’s faith in the medicine man was strong enough to result in the internal release of hormones and/or humoral factors that resulted in the cure.  Who is right?  Did the medicine man have a real effect on the patient’s health or was this simply a fortuitous coincidence?  It’s possible that they were both correct.  From the aborigine point of view, the medicine man effected the cure.  However, from the viewpoint of the educated observer, this was simply a fortuitous coincidence.

Two eye witnesses to a traffic accident turned up in court with opposing accounts of the accident and opposing views about which car was at fault, the brown one or the blue one.  Both accounts seem to be equally valid from equally reliable sources but what has yet to come out, is the different viewing positions of the two eye witnesses.  One piece of evidence is valid or accurate, one is not, separated only by position of the witnesses relative to the accident scene.  Another man reported seeing a blue car erratically driving down the road shortly before the accident and expressed the opinion that the driver of the blue car may have been drunk and caused the accident. However, when all witnesses described the blue car, the descriptions of the third man didn’t match the description given by the two eye witnesses.  His evidence was not relevant because it dealt with a car not involved in accident in question.  Great care must be used in dealing with so-called evidence.  Is it accurate, is it valid and is it relevant.  Evidence needs to be thoroughly vetted before accepting it as a valid reason for forming a belief

What about evidence outside the realm of material reality such as the evidence for the witch doctor’s curative actions.  With this question, we introduce the concept of subjective reality vs material reality.  According to my definition, material reality consists of that spectrum of sensations in the universe that are clearly perceived by at least one of our five senses or reliable instrument detection.  The existence of the great pyramids, the Atlantic Ocean, the moon, Mars, the Milky Way Galaxy, etc., etc.  These are items of existence that we would all likely agree have a material existence even though we, ourselves, may not have actually seen them.   Also belonging to the material world are a range of beliefs that are not material items but exist in most of our minds.  Such “whispy” yet real beliefs as love, honor and compassion are arguably true components of one’s personal reality.  Other such concepts that contain one or more elements of indecisiveness such as the existence of God, the existence of flying saucers and alien visitors from other worlds, the existence of heaven and hell and the benefits from long periods of fasting are less unanimously held.  In fact the number of people doubting these concepts may be equal to or greater than those accepting them.  Thus, we introduce the notion of subjective reality, i.e., realities that are custom designed by each individual.  Many who claim to be atheists doubt the existence of God yet many other religious people are certain that God exists.  Before discussing the pros and cons of such a belief, the definition of God needs to be clearly understood by all.  If one means a supreme being actually existing in physical form somewhere in the Universe, that’s one thing that might reasonably be argued against.   However, if it’s intended that God  represents a powerful and forceful conceptual component of one’s mental construct of reality, that cannot be summarily dismissed.  While the world’s population may be relatively evenly split on the first definition, it is not unreasonable that the majority may agree with the second definition, i.e., a component of the subjective realities of millions.  Regardless of how vehemently an atheist holds his disbelief in God, he cannot deny the presence of the God concept and the strength of this faith in the minds of others.  Thus, once again, both the atheist and the religious person are possibly correct.

Some may question whether or not subjective realities actually exist while others such as Richard Lanza posits in his book, “Biocentrism” that all reality is a product of the human mind, i.e., life has created the universe, not the other way around.  Biology is the foundation science upon which all other fields of science rest upon.  Without humans, there would be no universe.  Nothing would exist in either subjective reality or material reality.  Personally, I can’t go that far but Lanza is highly respected as a genius and his book, “Biocentrism”, is fascinating and certainly thought provoking, especially as to how this might play into religion.

Labels

I cringe whenever I hear someone condemned as not being a “true” conservative or a “good” Christian, a “loyal” Democrat or some other politically or otherwise charged label.  Why do so many people covet labels?  Labels do nothing for a person other than to restrict them as to how others define the label and pass judgement on it.  What is a “true” conservative or a “loyal” Democrat?  Is it a person who, like a robot, agrees 100% with the official party line? How about a “good” Christian?  Is it a person that totally agrees with everything in the Bible and how should we regard a not totally “good” Christian and what about “bad Christians?

Personally, I don’t want anything to do with labels.  I don’t want to be put in any political coral.  I’ve stated that my preferred style for decision making is what I have called “Probabilistic Rationalism” and, as such, will certainly be regarded as conservative on some occasions and liberal on others.  I could care less about how my decision is classified by others on a ideological basis.  I only want it to be the one decision that I regard as having the best chance of achieving the desired objective.  To illustrate this, I can use a well-worn example.  Is it better to help a poor man by “giving him a fish” or “teaching him to fish”.  Both Liberals and Conservatives claim they want to solve the poor man’s problem but classically, Liberals are seen as coming down primarily on the “giving” while Conservatives are seen as coming down primarily on the “teaching”.  My personal solution would depend on whether the poor person is in immediate danger  of starvation or if he has time to learn to fish in which case he might be better off pursuing this more long-term solution.  In addressing one issue, others may regard me as a Liberal while in addressing another issue, others may regard me as a Conservative.  As long as I am choosing the best solution to a problem, as I see it, I couldn’t care less.

Religious labels are even a more highly charged issue.  Most of us are born into families with pre-existing religious labels.  Your parents may be Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu etc., thus, so are you before you utter your first cry.  While many people would consider this very appropriate, consider its very high cost.  Many of the most bloody battles in history have come about simply because of these labels.  While I may be in the minority, I would prefer to consider religious labels from simply the historic perspective.  I truly believe that the only aspect of religion that really matters is what is known as the “Golden Rule”, i.e., that we all treat everyone else as we would want them to treat us.  That’s it.  We don’t need labels that divide us into competing tribes.  Who cares about thousand year old profits or what took place from a religious standpoint in the year 325?  The important thing is for each of us to now treat all others with respect and compassion.  Think how much better the world would be if that attitude prevailed.

No, I refuse to label myself.  I can’t help what labels others stick on me but my name is the only label that I’m interested in.  I’m an individual member of the human species who strives to seek solutions to problems rationally and to treat all others as I would like them to treat me.

At this point, we are probably ready to consider two of the foundations of our culture, religion and politics

Spiritual/Religion

In introducing the term “spiritual”, I don’t only mean religious reality but rather all those ideas that emanate from our minds without concrete proof or an absolute reality basis.  However, it may be appropriate to begin this exploration by recognizing that recent estimates indicate that about 84%  of the world’s nearly 8 billion humans are religious while only 16% are atheists. So, we might ask, why is it that such a large majority have beliefs that have no basis in the absolute material world of science and technology and thus, no foundation in the concept of absolute reality that plays such a central role in all of our lives.  We can see and quantitatively measure many features of this material universe but when it comes to the “spiritual” universe, nothing is either visible nor able to be quantitated in any way.  It is a universe of beliefs that exist strictly on faith.  This is often referred to by the atheists as “blind faith” because there appears to be no provable facts from the material world to back it up.  This begs the question, do ideas emanating strictly from the human mind need to have backup from the material world to be credible?

In the minds of the atheists, there needs to be some observable or measurable proof from the absolute,material world to provide some evidence and rational basis for a subjective belief.  In one way, this makes sense.  For example, if I claim that small dragons exist on the moon, no one would or should believe me unless I could provide convincing evidence.  On the other hand, why does such an overwhelming proportion of the world’s population believe in “God” or some similar deity in the total absence of any evidence from the material world?

One explanation might be that since humans first appeared on earth, he has asked  the question - “Where did I come from and how did I end up here in this scary place”? What unknown force or unexplained factor(s) delivered me from who knows where.  We know from the study of history that a litany of mythical entities, mystical characters and all-powerful deities have been imagined. One source reports that there are or have been as many as 4200 religions in history and as many as 8,000 - 12,000 gods, although, currently theologians suggest that only 9 different types of gods are recognized based on theological characteristics.

My own view of religion and “God” is that religious philosophy and the concept of “God”exists solely in our minds as personal components of one’s subjective spiritual reality.  Therefore, these issues cannot, nor shouldn’t, be criticized by others.  All religious philosophies and perceived “Gods” should be respected by others, provided those religious philosophies, in turn, respect the rest and interact with them in the spirit of peace and good will.  No religious philosophy can or should be respected that expresses or acts contrary to the “Golden Rule”.

With respect to the existence of God, it is my personal belief that God does exist, not as a component of the material universe but rather as a component of individual spiritual subjective reality.  God is a personal belief that may be held by anyone and there is a litany of examples throughout history where  a strong belief in God has been key in people surviving severely serious and, often, life threatening situations.  This strong belief in God emanating from the mind can instill the powerful force of faith that may be responsible for apparent “miraculous” results.  Miners facing death imprisoned in a collapsed mine, soldiers faced with almost certain death after being entrapped by the enemy, medical patients given almost no chance of living are examples of the many cases in recorded history establishing the power of faith.  I would say to the atheists, don’t deny your own minds ability to accept this concept of God and the possible benefit of faith that it offers.  In accepting this concept of God, there is no need, indeed no possibility, of obtaining concrete proof because concrete proof can only come from material reality and “God” is not a component of that universe.  Rather, the concept of “God” is a component of subjective, “spiritual” reality emanating from the human mind and is dependent on faith.

Political Philosophy

Political structure is important because it provides the framework for devising the rules of the game of how each of us should behave in order for humans to come together in groups to produce mutually beneficial conditions necessary for compatible living.  History provides a multitude of examples and, in fact, actual experiments in building such a framework.  Some of these attempts have been successful but many have failed, primarily because of human weakness rather than inherent structural design.  Thus, we need to recognize that any framework concept must necessarily anticipate the possible sabotaging effects of human nature.

So called defects in human nature that might sabotage any political system include dishonesty, a willingness to cheat, lie or otherwise deceive others as well as a tendency to ignore the “Golden Rule” and failure to treat others with respect and compassion.  Interestingly, these defects of human nature have likely arisen, as might be expected, throughout the evolutionary process.  Therefore, it may be unfair to label them defects as they likely arose as individuals were driven to follow the biologic reality of “survival of the fittest”.

Early societal frameworks were often the result of conquests fashioned by strong alpha leaders.  Strong tribes could conquer weaker tribes and take control of their territory and possessions.  Throughout the early history of the world war lords such as Alexander The Great and Genghis Kahn conquered huge sections of the known world. Great leaders of Ancient Greece and Rome ruled the years stretching from several thousand years BC until the fall of Rome in 476 AD. In later times, particularly throughout the middle ages from roughly 1100 - 1463 AD kingdoms ruled by kings predominated, some good and some bad.  Success of the society was often determined by a single king or, over a longer period, by a royal family.  The concept of a democracy where the average person participated in government originated with the ancient Greeks and then the Romans.  Eventually, all vestiges of Empires ended with the fall of the Nazis at the end of WWII.  Today, even the once great British Empire exists only in memory and literature in spite of the remaining symbolism and fascination with the British Royal Family.

Today, in 2020, much of the world is governed by semi-democratic political systems, although more dictatorial systems remain common, particularly in communist regions and many of the poorer countries where the population frankly needs the guidance of a more capable ruling class, sometimes mostly acting in the best interests of its citizens but sometimes featuring excessive greedy corruption.  It’s this later group of countries that present the greatest challenge to world peace.  Everyone wants to survive and as we clearly observe in the animal world, individuals will often fight to the death to obtain the resources, mainly food, water and shelter, deemed necessary for survival.  For this reason, for any nation to enjoy long term survival, its citizens must be convinced that they have a fair shot at obtaining these necessary resources.

As societies have become more and more educated, the citizens demand the opportunity to play an ever increasing role in establishing the rules of the game.  The United States has a two party political system that feature slightly different ideas of how a fair system should be structured.  The Republicans (conservatives) believe that most responsibility should be borne by the individual citizens with the government playing a limited oversight role, especially in caring for the physically and mentally handicapped. On the other hand, the Democrats (liberals) believe that the government needs to play a more central role in guiding the society to the plateau of fairness.  Thus the Republicans believe in limited government while the Democrats believe in more extensive control of individual objectives.  Under Republican rule, the government exists to facilitate the individual’s quest for wealth and power while under Democratic rule, the government exists to insure an equal portion of wealth and power for all.  There are also a variety of less central differences in the opinions of the two major parties such as abortion rights vs right to life, addressing the problem of illegal immigration and gun ownership rights.  Simply stated, Republicans basically want more extensive individual rights with less government intrusion and a basically capitalistic economy with equal opportunity for all while Democrats basically desire more government oversight of individuals, a more socialistic economy and equal results for all.

In my personal opinion, the Republican prescription for a successful society in our country is preferred, primarily because I believe it offers more incentive for people to take primary responsibility to become the best they can be.  Free market competition, in my view, is the greatest driver of creativity and personal success.  However, I also believe that government stewardship is critically important for those who do not have the capacity to handle free market competition on their own.  In point of fact, our government is an interesting hybrid of socialism and capitalism.  Free pre-college education for all, social security and medicare are some of the major socialistic features of our society and there is always room to improve and expand upon these as the society deems appropriate.  Republicans believe that success gained through primarily self efforts is far more valuable and empowering to the individual than that given to them by government.  Thus, the basic economic model supported by Republicans is capitalism with appropriate social welfare which has produced a multitude of self-made  successful citizens and led to the most successful nation earth.

Capitalism vs Socialism

Because of the recent emergence of interest in Socialism being promoted by several of the current Democratic candidates for the Presidential election in 2020, I thought it important to review the history of the successes and failures of Socialism.  Governments which have featured a purely collective economy, communism or total socialism have always failed.  There is no example of any that has been successful in the long run.  Because of iron fisted control of the government, often led by a total dictator, socialism can appear to be working for a time, but ultimately, the entire system unravels as ultimate government control is rejected and the formerly socialist society moves towards free market capitalism.  We are observing this transformation taking place both in Russia and China as well as in the tragic case of Venezuela.  Those U.S. liberals currently hinting at a move toward Socialism often point to the Scandinavian countries who, in truth are not socialist but rather free market economies with a large dose of welfare and known as the “Nordic Model”.  It seems that the “Nordic Model” is actually a modification of our current U.S. model with a bit more welfare.  It would be my suggestion that we forget about arguing capitalism vs socialism and rather accept free market capitalism as the most successful economic system because of the incentives that clearly optimize human achievement.  Secondarily we might add suggestions and discussions concerning the best combination of social welfare add-ons, all intended to fully optimize government for the entire population spectrum of our nation.

My Expanding Universe

Now that we have the basics under our collective belts, let’s put them to practice as we tackle several of the major issues that, in my estimation, still are in need of resolution, the disparity of wealth, healthcare and the major problem of negativism, hatred and violence.

Disparity of Wealth

This is an issue of concern for many in all political factions in our country.  The fact that wealth is not distributed evenly among the citizens of our country is not the issue.  In fact, one should expect unequal wealth distribution in a free market economy as people compete for earnings and this is basically of great benefit to the entire nation as it is the key incentive that drives innovation. It’s why the best in technology, medicine and most other marketed goods are available to us.  I don’t begrudge million dollar salaries to the entrepreneurs who have given us these thing. They earned that million dollar wage by engaging in high risk ventures often requiring them to initially go into high stakes debt in order to pursue their dreams.  For every one making it, there have, no doubt, been many who have failed.  However, when personal wealth climbs to the billion dollar level, this is a problem.  No-one needs or should expect to hold on to multi-billion dollar estates.  The difficulty begins when others try to suggest how a significant portion of this wealth should be redistributed to the needy.  I think imposing huge taxes on wealth would not be good.  In fact, if the government obtained all personal wealth above 2 billion dollars, that total of 5 trillion dollars redistributed to the bottom 20% of the population would only amount to about 7 thousand dollars per person and would be unlikely to have  a very significant effect on their lives.  While it might be a nice gift, it is not enough to put someone through college, start them in a business or buy them a house.  Some would argue that it makes no sense to institute forced wealth redistribution and I think I agree with that.  In fact, it may end up doing more harm than good. I would rather see our billionaires be challenged to come together, as a group, and devise a novel strategy that, ideally, would be led by them in an effort to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth.  These are highly talented individuals who are rightly very proud of what they have accomplished.  Rather than punishing them for their success, give them the opportunity by challenging them to come up with innovative ideas for solving this difficult issue. Perhaps, the President could assemble a core working group of these highly successful  business entrepreneurs to lead their colleagues in such a worthwhile endeavor for the benefit of their nation and society. Success in solving a difficult issue might best be achieved by those with proven records of success.

Healthcare

Health is, and has always been, one of the major concerns of any nation.  Nearly everyone recognizes that if they don’t have good health, little else matters.  Thus, maintaining the health of the nation is a major goal of both the public and private sectors of our society.  In times of relative world  peace, healthcare is arguably the primary issue the population is concerned about.  The large number of TV ads regarding numerous aspects of health attests to this conclusion.  Ads for a large number of pharmaceutical products, cancer clinics, ads for diets and nutritional supplements, exercise equipment, CPAP equipment, hearing aids, etc. etc. far out number the more traditional product ads like soap products and beer.

I’ve been intimately involved with healthcare my whole live.  I grew up with a father who was a dedicated small town general practitioner who enjoyed his work because he enjoyed helping people in need with health issues, certainly not for the money.  He gladly took care of people whether they could pay or not and certainly never asked them ahead of time how they were going to pay their bill.  I doubt that many people in the late 1940s even had any form of medical insurance.  Most could afford my dad’s fees which in those days were $2 for an office call and $3 for a house call, whether day or night.  Those who didn’t have the money would often drop by the house with a loaf of homemade bread or a bag of apples from their yard.  In other words, the cost of obtaining a doctor’s care was not a serious problem.  Without getting into detail, we all are well aware that the situation is far different today.  Paying for medical care is a major concern for all, particularly for all in the middle class,  Everyone clearly needs some form of medical insurance.  Without adequate medical insurance, even moderately serious illness could lead to bankruptcy.

Reasons For Current High Medical Costs

The rapid increase in sophistication of medical care with newer and newer technology has led to amazing possibilities for successful medical treatment that didn’t exist only a short time ago, certainly not in my Dad’s time of the 1940s and 1950s.  Advanced imaging equipment and techniques, surgical robotics allowing operations to be performed through tiny incisions with extreme precision are great for the patient but their cost is justifiably very expensive.  New, more sophisticated pharmaceutical and biologic agents achieve efficacy in many challenging conditions but, due to the very high costs of research and discovery, long development times  (10 yrs +) and huge risk (only a small percent of new chemical entity discoveries make it to market), companies often need to recoup mammoth investments with great cost to the ultimate users.  In short, medical treatment now is able to achieve near miraculous results against disease previously untreatable but, unfortunately, at a necessarily very high cost.  Consequently, it is becoming more and more imperative for everyone short of the extremely wealthy to have medical insurance, itself also becoming very expensive.  Thus, the healthcare conundrum, medical science has progressed to the point where it can effectively treat many of our most feared diseases but relatively few prospective patients can afford it.  What are possible answers to this situation?  In my view, this is one area that may require a massive, government facilitated, task force approach to design a health care complex, consisting of input and funding from many components of our society, the government, the medical community, the insurance industry and the great U.S. spirit of charitable giving.  In place of devoting 90% of their time conducting political battles, perhaps our congress could spearhead a multifaceted working group whose directive would be to fashion a comprehensive plan, involving both government and private efforts, to design and finance a program of comprehensive medical insurance for all.

Individual Health Maintenance

We hear a great deal today about the benefits that can come to us through the adoption of healthy living habits.  We are literally bombarded with TV ads for products aimed at providing “healthy” nutrition (diets, supplements, etc.), exercise equipment and health clubs.  There is a plethora of information available, much from credible sources, that tell us what we should eat and how we should exercise and more and more of us are heeding at least some of this advice.  The problem is that there is nearly a information overload.  Additionally,  a lack of real proof of efficacy is often lacking.  The following series of sketches illustrate this issue.

Healthy Eating - A broad range of diet advise is promoted as necessary, or at least desirable, for us to optimize our general, overall health.  Vegetarian and Vegan diets have been touted recently as highly beneficial.  What about the recent rages of paleo diets, non GMO, gluten free, sugar free, Super Beets, lactic acid free milk etc.  Although, while many of these recommendations have come about via excellent basic biochemical and nutritional research, absolute proof that they are able to either positively effect life span or quality of life is unlikely.  Double blind, placebo controlled, clinical trials such as the kind the kind required for new pharmaceutical agents probably cannot be conducted for a variety of reasons.   Thus, we are dependent on extrapolations from animal studies and/or in vitro biochemical lab studies to suggest such a benefit.   In summary, I think it best for each to listen to his own body which can provide clues as to what is best for him.  We are all different and there is probably no single diet that is best for us all.  I don’t, personally, feel that avoiding all red meat is best for me, I’m happiest when I get a nice steak or a burger once in awhile.  I also feel it best to vary my protein from day to day, beef one day, fish then next day, chicken the next day and roast turkey whenever I can get it.  I also enjoy reasonable servings of bread and deserts, life is good.  I drink a half cup of coffee every day with breakfast, a glass of wine with dinner once or twice a month, an occasional piece of pizza but most importantly, I limit the quantity of food I eat and practice my cardinal rule - “Moderation in all things”.  How has this formula worked out?  So far so good. My weight hasn’t varied by more than about 5 lbs throughout my entire adult life, although, my height has.  I’ve shrunk several inches since my teen years and this I blame for the “Fleming male tummy” that invariably makes its appearance somewhere around the sixth decade.  But, in summary, I think it best for each of us to assess what is most personally appropriate.

Physical Exercise - It’s all good as long as you don’t over-stress your body, especially your heart and your joints.  Given these restrictions, the more the better.

Smoking/tobacco use/psychotropic or narcotic use - It’s all bad.  Simply avoid it all together.

Mental Exercise - It’s all good. Keep learning, thinking and innovating your whole life.  Don’t quit school just because you’re retired, some of the most satisfying learning can occur in those later years.  Just as with physical exercise, use it or loose it.

Sleep -  Just get 8 hours or more every day with both nighttime (preferred) and short daytime naps.  Avoid late night activities and eating after 8 PM.  Your body and mind need decompression time before you pull up the covers for the night.

I could go on and on but I think you get my pitch.  I’ll finish with one especially important item that many times can expand from a negative feeling about someone else to outright hatred and, on more than one occasion can lead to man”s most evil act, murder of another human.

Negativism, Hatred and Violence

(Note! some of the following comments have been repeated from a previous section but need to be re-emphasized here.)

The human species has been involved in wars for roughly 90% of the time that we have existed.  We have been granted the wonderful gift of life yet, for some inexplicable reason, our species has focused on hatred, fighting and killing rather than on compassion, aiding our fellow man and optimizing our mutual existence.  Why have we chosen to spend our precious time on earth killing each other?  It’s estimated that as many as 1 billion human lives have been lost in wars.

While there is surely no simple answer to the question of violence, I believe we can get a clue by observing other organisms. Both plants and animals are engaged in a constant struggle for survival.  Whatever instructions nature has built into all of us as basic biologic drives, survival must certainly be at the top of the list.  With that realization also comes the realization that all life forms are in constant competition with all others for the ultimate goal of survival.

There are certainly examples where an individual sacrifices his or her own life to save others.  Mothers will often shield their offspring from danger while placing their own bodies in harm’s way.  Soldiers in combat have been known to throw themselves on a grenade about to explode in order to save their comrades.  Even certain animal species have demonstrated this extraordinary behavior.  A mother dog or cat goes back into a burning building to rescue young trapped by the fire.  This kind of behavior is most often observed between parents and offspring and might possibly be explained by understanding that survival, in the long run, is survival at the genetic level.  By rescuing offspring, the genetic material itself achieves survival.  Thus, we might conclude that survival of the genes trumps survival of the individual.  The action of the soldier in sacrificing himself for his comrades must be due to a higher order reaction that may be explained by the training and conditioning of a fighting force in preparation for combat.

However, except for the above exceptions, most of the time individual survival receives top priority and its ramifications filter down through numerous day to day, common, non-life threatening behavioral decisions. Individuals are driven to win.  Much of life is in the form of competition. We compete as young children for the attention of a parent, we are taught to compete in school for the best grades.  In sports, we are often taught that winning is not simply the best outcome but it is the only acceptable outcome.  Yes, sportsmanship is encouraged but as can be often observed in professional sport, winning at any cost is the ultimate goal.  Professional football players will frequently illegally interfere with an opponent, as often as they can get away with.  As I pointed out in an earlier post, most of us as average citizens going through day to day life, often cheat or even break the law, just a little, in order to gain a slight advantage over others.  How many of us will exceed the speed limit or squeak through a changing traffic light to gain a small advantage.  If we’re truly honest, we can see how often small examples of cheating creep into our behavior, all of which can be traced back to that basic biologic drive, survival.  Whether or not we are willing to recognize the many small infractions, survival of the fittest rules the day and we all want to be one of the fittest.

I’ve previously suggested that people are basically dishonest, not in all ways or in all situations, but in small ways like driving a bit over the speed limit.  While a person may routinely engage is such “small” infractions of honesty, many of us justify it as common behavior that everyone does and would never engage in higher levels of dishonesty such as theft.  But hold on, we might be tempted to fudge a bit on our income tax return.  After all, millionaires with clever lawyers and accounts sometimes get away with paying little or no tax. at all.  It isn’t fair that they can get away with such gross tax avoidance just because they can afford crafty experts while the small guy who can’t afford such assistance should feel guilty overestimating contributions to charity or medical costs in order to save a few bucks.  Small and seemingly harmless straying from the strait and narrow and may be discounted by many, “routinely honest” people but in truth, even these small matters are dishonest.  There is no sense to the concept of being relatively honest.  Thus, my contention is that people, surely not everyone, but most of us are basically dishonest.  We are all strongly driven to survive.  But, how does this lead into our propensity for violence?

While most of us never become overtly violent, it appears that most of us are fascinated with violence to the extent that it comprises  much of our attention in the areas of entertainment and interest in news stories.  If you do even a quick survey of movie choices available on TV for example, you will soon realize that the warnings of violence or extreme violence is appropriate for most, 80% in a quick survey I recently conducted.  Likewise, news articles focused on acts of violence attract the largest audience, not stories of kindness and compassion.  In fact, it’s even difficult to find the later.  The entertainment business and the news business are in business to make money and what they produce reflects what the public demands, case closed, we crave experiencing violence, not for real, but certainly as observers.

This desire for engaging in violence as only an observer creates an atmosphere or environment that may well be a trigger for sending an unstable person, such as teenager, on drugs, playing violent video games, in the direction a taking a gun to school and engaging in some real, exciting violence.

When speaking of why we’re violent, we need to recognize that we are speaking of the world’s entire population of all humans who have ever lived.  We are speaking of a behavior of the species not simply one segment, whether ethnicity, era of earth’s history, religion, political, mental health or any other specific segment.  In order to initiate such a discussion, let’s take a look at a very crude estimate of all causes of human death, historically.  I say this is necessarily a crude estimate because precise statistics, particularly in the thousands of years considered pre-history do not exist. The excellent book “The Mosquito” by Timothy Winegard is an account of how the mosquito has accounted for approximately 50% of all human deaths worldwide.  Beyond that 50%, it’s suggested that approximately another 10%-20% of human death can be  reliably accounted for by other major causes including other diseases, war, accidents, suicide and  homicide.  Senescence may account for about another 20%.  However, these  figures are based only on modern data, mostly data since 1900. These estimates necessarily fail to include large numbers from pre-history and the large category of undetermined.  Nevertheless, in spite of the estimated nature of these data, they will be used in comments to follow.

Historically, humans have killed each other at about the same rate as seen with other primates, i.e. about 3-4% of human deaths could be directly attributed to human on human violence.  While that figure appeared to climb as high as 12% during the “bloody” Medieval period. In recent years as we have become more organized (“civilized”?) the figure has apparently fallen off to slightly under the prehistory rate to 2-3%.  Naturally, there are great variations in this rate across the globe from society to society, with Iceland at one end of the spectrum and Somalia at the other. The recent rate of homicide was reported to be 4.9/100,000 population in the U.S.. This can be compared to the U.K. with a rate of 0.9/100,000 and Japan with a rate of 0.3/100,000.

Reasons for homicides are numerous but can be organized, for discussion purposes, into 3 main categories, sexual/interpersonal lust or jealousy, financial greed and the pursuit of power,. In looking at the animal kingdom overall, it’s reported that the meerkat is the species that most often has killed its own species.  Nearly one in five meerkats, mostly youngsters, lost their lives at the paws and jaws of their peers.  Disclaimer, because I am only reporting a conclusion from a non-scientific journal, I can’t attest to it’s accuracy.  However, if that report is factual, it suggests that the meerkat kills to eliminate different blood lines from its realm, much the same way as a new male gorilla winning over a new harem is said to kill all the babies.  Could this be in the category of sexual/interpersonal lust or perhaps the pursuit of power.  Only the meerkats and gorillas really know.  In the case of humans, the motive for homicide is usually readily identified, i.e., sexual/interpersonal lust when a wife or girlfriend finds a new lover, financial greed when theft is involved and pursuit of power when a king is murdered by another in line for the throne.  Murder by religious fanatics is quite a different matter.  In this case they are often driven by the belief that their religion expects that of them but in truth, this is also probably in pursuit of power.  But, what about the teenager who takes a gun into school and pointlessly takes innocent lives?  Is that person also seeking power but in a very self destructive way.  In his lust for recognition, he has not only inflicted great harm and tragedy on innocent families, some of which he doesn’t even know, but he has effectively destroyed his own life and maybe the lives of other family members.  Such a case may be representative of another homicide motive category, non-specific mental illness.  Drugs, alcohol or simply insanity could be behind such murders.

I need to bring up another matter that bothers me and that could conceivably be behind some homicides but, at least, is most certainly behind psychological/physical, cruelty.  I’m referring to the extreme extent of negativity that exists today in our society.  Led my the heated level of political animosity, the hate Trump movement and the disgusting behavior of the Washington establishment, our population is more divided than it has ever been.  This extreme negativity has fractured families and ruined careers. It’s my impression that more people display “hate” now than ever before in my lifetime.  This is bad for mental health and, in reality, often harms the hater more than the hated.  Hans Selye described the many harmful effects that the stress induced by hate can have on the human body while, on the other hand, Norman Vincent Peele described the Power of Positive Thinking.  Here we have two opposite effects of human emotion that undoubtedly have pronounced medical consequences.

In conclusion, my advise to the world would be to be positive in thought and action. Reject negativity. Disavow the temptation to hate and finally,  respect and treat all other as you would like to be treated. Even if you’re nonreligious, “The Golden Rule” would seem to be the most “rational” piece of advise to chip away at human violence.

There are undoubtedly a number of other important issues that we might investigate as we continue on our explorative journey of “Bop Bop’s Universe In A Nut Shell” but I think we’ll reserve those issues for our next star flight into my universe.

 To take a preliminary peek into possibilities for future exploration of Bop Bop’s universe you can find more than 100 short essays I’ve written over the last 10 - 12 years on jstuartfleming.blogspot.com.