Lullabies from La-La-Land

On the whole, I'm a pretty easy-going guy. In general, I don't get too upset about too many things. But, like everyone else, I have things that can just set me off and having to deal with things that could have been easily avoided is right up there at the top of the list.

OK, I'll admit it: what irks me is that fact that most of the folks I know would rather sit on their well-padded backsides and tell themselves that everything's OK instead of recognizing that we're all being taken to the cleaners. We're being duped, and dumbed down to boot. I'm not saying there is a conspiracy. Power doesn't need a conspiracy, it only needs to take things as they come. We've been deluded, and most of it has been our own doing. Because we love to be deluded ... it takes so much responsibility off our own shoulders.

We like to think that life is so much easier these days, that we've somehow progressed as a species, that we've overcome so many limitations that our forebears suffered under. This is largely untrue. Some societies have suffered long and hard, and have suffered more because others, allegedly more civilized societies, have made life miserable for them. Just ask the Africans or Native Americans. They both enjoyed more freedom, health, and natural wealth than we like to admit. And for all the comforts of modern living, like indoor plumbing and the Internet, we're not really all the better off for it. We've got gene-modified food and we have no idea if it's good for us or not; we have industry processed food and we know it's bad for us. We have artificial light and no more natural routines, be they daily or yearly. We have bad air, bad water, and a whole lot of bad ideas. Our life expectancy is longer, yes, but that's simply an actuarial bet, not a fact. And who would want to live in Hell for 80 years?

No, life is a struggle. It was very early on in our history as a species, and the one thing we really haven't changed -- but could have -- was our struggle for life. Yes, we are barraged by stimuli our ancestors couldn't imagine in their wildest nightmares. Yes, we are faced with food and environment that makes us sick instead of nourishing us. Yes, we devote inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to "get ahead" only to realize we are slowly sliding behind. Oh yes, we've come such a long, long way and life isn't any easier today than it was 100,000 years ago. The specifics have changed, but the big picture really hasn't. Oh, don't we have so much to be proud of?

And you see, all of this was avoidable. It doesn't have to be this way. Again and again throughout our history people have tried to get others to see that we weren't doing all of us a favor. But, we haven't been smart enough, and lord knows, not wise enough to stop and listen.

All of the ills of modern society are the result of rules we have made for ourselves. Yes, we made it up. It is, in the truest sense of the word, a fiction. We are in a position to make the world into just about anything we want, and we can do it to the benefit of all or the benefit of the few. Why we have chosen the latter path is incomprehensible to me.

The clock is ticking however. It is precisely all those things that we thought had brought us further that will be the seeds of our undoing. We simply believe it is otherwise. But, we love to be deceived.

Why do only catastrophes motivate us?

Exaggeration? Hyperbole? The title sort of sounds like it, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I don't think it's all that far off the mark.

Think about it: most of us "have ours" (whatever that really means) ... we've got a job or a decent retirement, a house, a nice car, decent prospects. If nothing really bad happens, we'll continue doing OK. Life can be tricky, we all know that, so purposefully rocking the boat may not be Option #1. Admit it. That's how most of us think.

What most of us don't think about, however, is that we make up a rather small minority of the world's population. Oh sure, we'd like to think that just about everybody in America or Europe is getting along pretty much like we are, but we know -- at least in the back of our minds -- that this is not the case. So, there's only 6% unemployment in the US these days; in Germany it's around the same; but, we all know that the way the statistics are counted is for the sole purpose of making things not appear as bad as they really are. We all also know -- whether we like to admit it or not -- that wages have been stagnating, that inflation is still making itself known, that the disparity between rich and poor is still growing steadily in the entire developed world. In other words, economically, we tend to put on our rose-colored glasses whenever we think about these kinds of things. After all, acknowledging that so many others aren't doing so well doesn't really do much for us when we're trying to be satisfied with ourselves.

And, in the back of those same minds, we know that the planet is warming, the climate is changing, and it doesn't really matter whether we humans are behind it or not. Any change, any significant change, is going to disrupt our peaceful, and rather oblivious, way of life. We know that we've got infrastructure problems, energy problems, that the housing and banking industries are still shaky, that the US, at least, as a massive crime problem ... in other words, the future is not exactly set on a positive trajectory. We know all of this, but still we act if there weren't any real problems at all.

Don't get me wrong, I know full well that many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, that others are saddled with crushing debt (and not just students), that taxes keep going up for the most of us and that we are too often just busy dealing with the squeeze that all of us are feeling. And that's my point.

Let's be honest: as long as we're busy keeping our heads above water, we're not all that "worried" about the big picture. I, for one, can understand that, but it doesn't help. You don't have to be either a genius nor a conspiracy theorist to recognize that the more I have to deal with the details, the less I can deal with the big picture, and those who allegedly represent us have done so much to allow that big picture to fade, to ensure that we have more than enough details to deal with that things will most likely just keep going on as they are till they finally go down the chute.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it will most likely take a catastrophe -- environmental, social, economic -- to get us motivated. I'm not talking about a scare like happened in 2008. That was a wake-up call, and guess what? we're still sleeping. Pleasant dreams.

Not everything you can count counts, but ...

Numbers can be fascinating and for many they are simply painful (when they remember all those torturous hours in math classes). Other find them to effective tools, some use them as weapons. There have been and still are those who think that they hold the key to life and the universe. Regardless of where you stand and what you think, sometimes they are simply interesting in their own right.

Numbers can take many forms: formulas, facts, accounting figures, statistics, and more. Each of these can be used in any number of ways, some for good and some to the detriment of others. We're confronted with them all the time, and a lot of us simply feel that we are somehow powerless against them. Still, I find them interesting nevertheless. Of course, my engagement with numbers always remain on a small scale. For example, Google (which hosts this blog) provides statistics (or analytics, as they like to call them ... sounds much more impressive) and I like to check them out from time to time, just for fun.

For example, Google shows me how many times a blog post has been viewed. Notice I didn't say "read". There is no information how long any individual remains on a page, only that the page was called up; that is, viewed. It seems to me not all that far-fetched to compare how often a blog is viewed with its topic. People who write are always interested in what interests their audience and one possible indicator would be how often a given post on a given topic is viewed. If you make the effort to look at these over a period of time, it is also not surprising that trends can appear. We have to be careful with trends because we can see what they are, but there is nothing in the numbers to actually say why they are that way. Still, patterns arise, and I've noticed one lately.

It would appear that posts I write which deal with general, broad, encompassing topics, be they historical, political or such generally get more views that those posts which deal with us as individual human beings. In other words, when speaking to "you" plural there is more attention than when speaking to "you" singular. I simply find that interesting. When I'm suggesting we clean up the planet, there is more of a "yeah" than when I suggest we clean up our own acts. There could be any number of reasons for this, and as I said, the numbers don't really provide a clue. Still, I can tell you what I am thinking:

To me, there are two possible, and I believe equally probable, "explanations". First, we simply don't feel spoken to. Even though the point is always that even though you may think you've got your act together, it never hurts to double check, perhaps against other, more broadly based criteria. Second, people don't like to think they're part of the problem. I can understand that, for I often feel that way myself. But a simple point remains: we are all part of the problem, if not the problem itself.

The world is as it is because we -- all of us -- allow it to be that way. The only sure way to change it, even minimally, is to change ourselves. The moment we think it is "the others" who are the problem, we become the problem. Think about it.

Why it matters, why you matter

All of the big issues -- war, prolific criminality, wealth inequality, economic instability, pollution, climate change, diminishing resources, animal extinctions -- affect all of us. The world has become small enough that none of us can escape the effects of these. Other than "war", (which has always been a scourge that we've never learned to deal with) the rest of these issues simply started small and were allowed to grow unchecked. Yes, the rollback is going to be more challenging that it perhaps needed to be, but the rollback can still be done. Still. At the moment. The window of opportunity is closing on a number of these, to be sure.

As I said last time, though, we don't have to try and save the world ourselves, and even these big-ticket issues have deep, but tender, roots that can be dealt with. Quite a few of them are the result of other factors: lack of quality education and training, narrow perspectives, isolation, and more. In other words, we don't have to start at the top and work our way down, rather, the most effective strategy would be to get together and work from the bottom up. There is strength in numbers, so we need to generate the numbers that can make a difference.

Your piece of the solution puzzle is small and it is local. It can (and should) be found in your own house, your neighborhood, or community. Those of you who think big and aim high can do so, but they need to recognize that most of us don't think or act that way. But again, we all should be building on our own strengths, not solely on the strengths of others.

Broad-based support for local and community activities matters, be it improving the public schools, helping the needy, supporting local businesses and organizations, bringing your own ideas into making your own little world a better place, not only for yourself, but for those around you. The point is that by finding something you can do and doing it will inspire others who are more hesitant about taking that first step. Succeeding at solving even small, non-complex problems is a motivator to expand one's horizons and scope of activity. Nothing succeeds like success.

Yes, some things are being done, but they're being done by too few people in too many uncoordinated ways. The vast majority of us are waiting for the others to get started, but if we all wait, nothing will ever get done. This is why you matter. You can't wait for the others, you have to do what you can, if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. All of have friends and family whom we care about and for whom we are willing to act. Then do that, and then find the others like you who are of the same mind.

Start the snowball rolling. From then on, it will gain size and momentum on its own. But someone has to start. Why shouldn't it be you?

Get involved

Yes, get involved. As the saying goes, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

There is more wrong with our world today than is right. There are too many altercations, crises, issues, and pending catastrophes that we can simply lean back and think that someone else is going to take care of them. Not every one of these "problems" affects every one of us. Some are more obvious, some reflect our own interests, some are such that we wouldn't know where to start. All of that is OK.

No one ... absolutely no one is expecting you to save the world all by yourself. You aren't and are not going to become a superhero. You don't need to be one. In fact, there are none, except in comic books and films based on them. No, you are just like everyone else: human, subject to error, of limited time, energy and other resources. No one is asking you to do everything, all I'm asking is that you do what you can. Every little bit helps.

OK, I do expect you to at least be trying to get yourself together, to become secure in your person and your beliefs, to realize that you can't know everything and can't have all the answers, and to be tolerant of others, just as you want others to be tolerant of you. All I'm asking is that you put your own person behind the problem. All I'm asking is that you put the problem first, then do what you can.

Sociologists and psychologists will tell you that your effective range of influence is no more than about 150 people. Physiologists will tell you that your effective range of operation is probably not much farther than you could walk in a day. That, in case you hadn't noticed, is actually your world. Sure, you've got all this modern technology to expand those ranges, but the farther the range, the lower your effectivity. It's not only time to get involved, it's time to get back to basics.

This is not an original idea, to be sure. I'm not that bright a guy, nor do I have to be. I'm happy that I can recognize and learn from the genius and insight of others. The point I'm trying to make was stated best, I think, by Marian Wright Edelman in her commencement speech to the Milton Academy 1983, in which she said,

"Pick a piece of the puzzle that you can help solve while trying to see how your piece fits into the broader social change puzzle." [1]

That's all you really need to do. Find your piece of the puzzle, and get involved.

Notes
[1] As quoted in Howard Zinn (2003) A People's History of the United States, New York, HarperPerennial, p610.

Have suggestions, not answers

Beside the side effects mentioned in the previous post, there is another -- to my way of thinking much more important -- side effect to knowing oneself, being secure in oneself: you realize you don't have ready-made answers for problems you are confronted with.

I'm talking about "bigger" problems, like war & peace, wealth inequality, interpersonal and intercultural relations, religious tolerance, social policy, education, or any number of others with which we are confronted every day. We all know people who have an answer for everything, a quick fix, a pat solution. Very often we've elected just these sort of people to public office, too. It turns out and it becomes very obvious very quickly that in truth, these folks have really nothing on the ball. They're just talking heads, blusterers, con men, fast-talking glad-handers ... the epithets go on and on.

Although the world is simpler than we often make it out to be, it is still a rather complex place. A person who has gone to enough trouble to take that inner journey known as the Hero's Quest soon realizes that there are any number of conflicting needs, interests and desires within us and that trying to satisfy them all all the time is a hopeless endeavor. You also realize that in many regards that the outside is like the inside in the respect and trying to juggle and accommodate a wide range of needs, interests and desires of others is a sizeable challenge. Those who are insecure of themselves will want solutions, answers, because they don't have the (inner) security necessary to come to terms with life. They want others to make decisions for them, they want others to take the responsibility, they want others to tell them what to do. A person who is secure in him or herself knows that at best you can try things and if you give it all an honest effort, you'll find out quickly what works and what doesn't and you'll be open for new, reasonable suggestions as to what changes need to be made to keep things moving forward.

If you stop to think about those seeking answers and leaders, you also quickly realize how dangerous these people are in the greater scheme of things. When you abdicate your own responsibility, when you place your power in the hands of others, you can be pushed, shoved, flattered, and cajoled into doing just about anything those "leaders" want. You become a "yes person", a blind follower, a passive pawn who would rather be liked than be effective. You become a person who is easily scared, easily frightened, easily manipulated, and easily sacrificed. And you will be. Believe me. History is replete with just such examples. And every day we provide countless more.

A brief look out into the world quickly reveals that the issues we need to deal with and the problems we need to solve are such that we truly need everyone's full attention and energy. The luxury of passivity is one that we can no longer afford. We all need to get involved.

Be secure in yourself

Who you are, why you think you're here, what you think you need to do ... these are all important questions to ask. If you don't, you simply don't know ... you don't know yourself. You're guessing. You're on uncertain ground.

When you're on uncertain ground, you're a prime target for those who love to divide and conquer. If you can't decide, if you can't make up your mind, well, they are more than ready and willing to do just that.

A side effect of being secure in your person is what we call a "moral compass". You tend to not only know the difference between right and wrong, for example, but you are also more inclined to act in a way consistent with that knowledge. Say you have a problem with ethnicity (or race, if that's the word you understand), then when it comes to killing, you will most likely recognize that this problem is influencing (if not dictating) your attitude. You'll most likely pull back. If you realize, in another case, that you find no reasonable grounds to think that any one human life is worth more than any other human life, you come to realize that all killing is questionable at best, immoral in most cases. Some of tried to make the case that, say, serial killers know exactly what they are about, but I would argue that they often don't acknowledge that what they are doing is wrong because they lack the empathy that normal human beings have. In other words, it is a person who is of healthy mind who can know him or herself. People who can't are ill and in need of help. In other words, knowledge in general, and self-knowledge in particular, tends toward and leads one to consistency and uniformity on the one hand, but also to a strong(er) recognition of "the other" as well.

Another side effect of being secure in your person is increased sensitivity of what I'll call your "nonsense" detector (though any other reasonable terms, such as "insanity", "stupidity", "bullshit", etc. would work as well ... I'm trying to keep it neutral). You hear someone trying to make a point, presenting what they think is a cogent and coherent argument, offering a (at least to them) "reasonable" opinion, and you immediately realize that they don't have a point, their argument is full of holes or what they are offering isone of those opinions that is uttered in place of, not as a result of, thought.

The upside to this is that you needn't lose your cool when another starts spouting nonsense. You realize, very quickly in fact, they aren't contributing to the dialogue, and they certainly aren't contributing to the needed solution. You needn't waste any time trying to convince them of what they don't want to believe, and that frees up you and your own energy to find other thoughtful, reasonable, individuals like yourself who are secure enough in their beliefs and their persons that they are willing to try and fix real problems, not merely fix the blame.

Divide et impera

Yes, this has been "wisdom" for a long time. Even my old friend Julius (Caesar) knew this adage: divide et impera ("divide and conquer").

This can, of course, apply to just about anything: the family, the neighborhood, the community, the country, or more. It is relevant in just about any field of endeavor, too: in politics, in the military, psychologically or sociologically. But it works only as long as one group can keep other groups pitted against themselves.

It's not all that difficult if you see an opportunity to employ it, and those who realize they can quite often do employ it at every turn. It could be the 1%, the political or military establishment, the educational system, or the so-called, but certainly not-so, free market.

Why does it work? How does it work? It is, as I said, rather simple. You identify the fears of your opponents and you simply turn those fears most suited toward one of the others' fears. For example, if I am ruthless and rich, I can acquire lots of land or resources, and I can thereby create a shortage for others. I favor one group, let's say white workers, and give them jobs enabling them to acquire small pieces of that land or resources. There are other groups, let's say unemployed blacks, who now have nothing but think, rightfully so, that they should be able to have some themselves. All I have to do is convince the whites that those blacks want what little they have, and they will go to great lengths to ensure that the blacks are not going to get it. I who control everything have very little to worry about as long as the blacks and whites are fighting amongst themselves. Divide and conquer; very simple indeed.

There are enough fears to go around, and all I need to do is feed them from time to time. I can tell the blacks that the whites are actually trying to eradicate them like they did the Native Americans, for example, and I can tell the whites that those blacks only want something for nothing and certainly aren't deserving of what they have worked so hard to achieve. In other words, I control the primary flow of information, of opinion, of psychological energy. Yes, it's very, very simple. Why? Because we all have too many fears we don't know how to deal with. We have too many fears that we simply don't understand.

One of the necessary by-products of the Hero's Journey is confronting one's fears, of facing them, of recognizing that in all cases they are illusions which evaporate under the close scrutiny of truth. You come to realize that we human beings have much more in common with one another than what is different, and that what is truly different is a source of enrichment, not a reason for fear. At that point, my dear friends, you free yourself, you become truly free, not just as free as those who are trying to control you would like you to think you are.

This is what Goethe meant when he said, "None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." So, free yourself. Know thyself.

Life in the mirror

This is a different way at looking at the turning point. Truth be told, things have gotten turned around.

Let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that you were willing to take the inward-journey challenge. Let's also assume, just for the sake of argument, that you have started (or are somewhere along the way) on the path to self-recognition. And, let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that you are coming to the realization that things could be better than they are, that it is, in fact, up to you, too, to see that the world becomes a better place. Now what?

It could just be that you realize that we actually live in the mirror. Everything is backwards from how it should be: the have's profit at the expense of the have-not's; the rich can buy their rights, but there's really no justice; your own success or failure depends not so much on what you know and what you are capable of, but on who you know and how much of your self you are willing to sacrifice for it (at the expense of others, of course). Or, at the political level: that the greatest military might the world has ever known is powerless against ideas; that the freedom and democracy they claim they are spreading through the world, they are denying their own citizens; that what is portrayed as aid and support is actually exploitation; that notions like the "free market" are deceptions; that people who need help the most get the least, while those who really need no help at all get things shoved down their throats anyway; that what "the people" want and believe is only important as far as it coincides with what the wealthy and big corporations want and believe.

This isn't anything new. I'm not exposing any deep, hidden secrets. In the US, for example, it has been this way for so long and most Americans have no recollection or knowledge of history that they tend to think things have always been this way. And, Europeans, by contrast, see the biggest, toughest, allegedly strongest country in the world behaving a certain way that they start believing that that's just how things are. There's nothing natural, given, or even normal about all of this. Since time immemorial, mirrors (or shadows, in Plato's case, but the effect is the same) have been used as metaphors for getting reality backward. That the few should benefit at the expense of the many has been a sham perpetrated by the few for as long as anyone can remember. That it necessarily be that way is not given at all.

It is only that way because we buy into the illusion.

If you embark on the Hero's Journey, and especially if you are successful, you come to realize that none of these givens are given at all, that none of this well-that's-just-the-way-it-is is really that way at all, that while everyone need not necessarily all have the same things or the same amount of things, that so few should have so much that so many should suffer so terribly is, well, in a word, unnatural. We've allowed things to be turned around.

The time is coming -- quickly, I might add -- to turn them aright.

At a turning point

To sum up the thrust of the past few posts, I'd say: if you have no real idea who you are and why you're here, you're most likely making life unpleasant for at least one other human being. I'm not being harsh, I just have a very low tolerance for people who simply take up space and don't contribute even the least to making the world a livable place.

The more conservative of you will be thinking of long-term unemployeds and welfare recipients, but I'm not talking about them. They're not the problem, really. Granted, they may not know precisely who they are and why they're here. In fact, they may spend a lot more time thinking about what happened and how they got to where they are. I don't blame them. Most of them have had limited opportunities and a limited range of choices all their lives. They've learned to manage with all kinds of limitations. No, I've been talking to and I'm still talking to you: someone who has a comfortable-enough life to be reading this blog; someone who is in the luxurious position of being able to decide and choose how much of a boon or bane one is to humankind.

Granted, we're a disappearing species. We are. The ranks of the wealthy grow slowly. Very slowly. Glacially slowly. The ranks of the impoverished, on the other, hand, are growing faster than rabbits can reproduce. Most of you, I'm sure, have never stopped to wonder why. But I can tell you, that is one of the reasons that things are the way they are.

Let's face it: we bust our backsides ... at our jobs, at raising our kids, at trying to get ahead, at paying the bills. We spend inordinate amounts of energy trying to succeed, make the grade, get that next promotion. And while I may be right that it would be great if I took a few minutes to look inside, to find out who I really am, well, the rat-race, the daily grind, the job, the family, the ... just fill in the blank ... really make enough demands on me that I don't get to it as much as I would like. I know. Been there; done that. It sucks. But it doesn't have to be that way. All of that is just an excuse. Really. Those are all excuses.

There's an old saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." Why? Busy people always seem to manage. People who aren't busy never, ever have the time for anything. They're always overwhelmed. So, if you're one of the busy ones, you can do it. If not, perhaps you should revisit you self-evaluation. The point is, nevertheless, that if anything in this world is really going to get better, it's up to you to make it happen. OK, you and everyone else like you. We're all the folks in the middle, the ones being squeezed, and we're the only ones left to make a difference.

Because we're in the middle, we have the greatest possibilities, the greatest chances of success. Because we're in the middle, we have the greatest liabilities, the most to lose. That puts us in the proverbial pivotal position. We're not just at a turning point in the year, or at the threshold between inside and out. We have arrived at an existential turning point as well, and I'm not sure we're up to the challenge.