I find it somewhat ironic the we place on our money "In God we trust" when in reality western society has effectively given up believing in anything but our money. No vision of where we are headed, nor idea of who we are or why we are here remains. There is only the creation, accumulation and dispersement of money that remains.
The divin…
I find it somewhat ironic the we place on our money "In God we trust" when in reality western society has effectively given up believing in anything but our money. No vision of where we are headed, nor idea of who we are or why we are here remains. There is only the creation, accumulation and dispersement of money that remains.
The divine $ has given us the technology to kill at a 1000 miles distance by drone or missile. From this technology we have created a market which feeds the money machine and lets anybody, anywhere play the killing game.
We have spent the last century pursuing money throughout the world often in a zero sum game. The "other's" constant losses...as we are very good at the money game...have created myriads of people who have reason to hate America and Americans. Would it not fit our objectives better and serve the peacefull pursuit of our life to address the causes of the potential terrorist threat that this represents rather than eliminating by drone its symptomes.
Your words have touched my heart and soul Stuart. I often think about how we, and the world, would benefit from the energy, money, and emotions that fuel all the fighting, bitterness, and anger could be channeled into such technical, scientific, and medical advances that could truly change the world! If I sound naive forgive me... but it's so obvious... it's all about the money. You nailed it.... I guess money and power. Shame on us. All of us.
In many ways it's always been about power and money. Now, we have the technology to kill at a very long distance on a regular basis....no need for hand to hand combat or even flying over a place to drop a bomb. We are also primates (just finished Mama's Last Hug about primate emotions) and we are primates who have very evolved and potent technology while we remain in many ways that mammal that fell out of a tree or walked out of a cave.
Neanderthals are also the first humans with a demonstrated belief in a caring community - from fossils of people who had broken legs and such that were reset (meaning care in that and recovery) and the burial of the dead in expectation of an afterlife.
Not to mention that - depending on the Homo Sapiens population sampled - we carry anywhere from 5-15% of our DNA is Neanderthal.
This is the central point. Close reading of Darwin indicates that people are at different levels of evolution. This is either a benefit to mankind or, depending on our approach, a challenge.
Stuart, I agree with your assessment. It seems like greed, hate and delusion are the driving forces of humanity today. Back when I was still teaching at University I’d often ask students to do a thought experiment and place themselves back at the end of the 4th Century AD living in Southern Europe.
If you saw the imminent collapse of the Roman Empire what would you have done? Moved? Re-ordered your life? Gone into isolation?
I get this chilling feeling we are (in the Western world) at that point again.
Charlie, I am curious what your students would have chosen to do. Did they contrast life in 4th century southern Europe versus the east part of the Roman Empire, which thrived centuries longer. Thanks.
Richard, The most cogent answer was to 1) sell current assets, 2) reduce the cost of living, 3)re-locate to the outer reaches of the Empire (i.e., the borderlands). In short, get out of Dodge before it blows up.
Yes. The University of San Francisco. But here is the interesting thing. I did the same exercise in Austria and Sweden doing consulting gigs. Same basic pattern but what the Europeans considered to be the 'borderlands' was, shall I say, somewhat different. Some great stories there.
The average Afghan household consists of eight people. If the two trillion spent on Afghanistan (largely military spending) had been parceled out in cash or securities, every Afghan household today would have a 401(k) of at least half a million dollars. We should have been able to buy a little love with that.
They could also do the same with American households. Imagine, people here, there and everywhere living a stress free, enjoyable, full and productive life! Instead we wage wars to expand the wealth of so few and create “myriads of people who have reason to hate America and Americans” as Stuart said. This has also created myriads of Americans hating our government and other Americans. This path we are on can not end well.
Obviously our problems aren’t new ones, but have been around for a while. Just curious, was the letter from James written around the beginning of the fall of Rome? ITT took quite a while for the carcass to die after the Emperors poisoned it — about four hundred years — wasn’t it?
Seems like the debate over the who and when of James has persisted from times past to time present. Be that as it may, the corruptible condition of the soul the author of James writes of transcends time and place - and remains present in my soul. Thus the need for standards, checks and balances.
No one knows what actual civilian deaths are unless tracked by neutral people on the ground. Anything reported by the military is a lie.
Aerial bombardment removed the air crew from the reality of what they were doing. Drones only take it one step farther. Years back there was a movie "The Last Starfighter" in which a teenager who was so good at a video game was used as a fighter pilot by the good aliens against the bad aliens. Isn't that what our video games are doing now? When you include visual face recognition AI into single strike anti-personnel drones, you have the perfect assassination machine. Except it doesn't work so accurately for Black or brown faces (not that it matters to some) but may help eg China against America. The next 25 years will be interesting... all against all.
All that you said and more. How long before dictator Kim, conventional criminals (drug cartels), and other antisocial actors adapt and misuse personal drones as weapons?
Stuart, what you're saying applies to the way that parts of the US are treated by the more prosperous, corporate parts. I live in NM, a beautiful place with mostly clean air and nice people, but the ravages of uranium mining and a coal-powered emmissions plant in the 4-Corners Area has affected poor tribal people, farmers, ranchers, and anyone else living within the huge area where the tailing ponds exist and the wind blows. The Dakotas, Montana, parts of Colorado, etc, etc, have been used as colonies by the big populations on either coast. I sound like some kind of a red neck, but I'm a raging progressive! I just see the way it is. Many people here are poor. We struggle to educate our citizens and provide them with basic services; many POC live here as well as indigenous people, and drug addiction and alcohol abuse are rampant. It's still a great place to live in many ways, and we have some of the best laws in the US as far as individual rights (gay marriage, abortion). I just believe that as part of the US's recreation area, the needs of our citizens, particularly our children, go unnoticed by the rest of the country.
I wouldn't have mistaken you for a redneck. (And I'm in Massachusetts.) You sound progressive to me--wanting to protect New Mexicans from uranium and coal pollution. More power to you!
Patricia Greathouse, you are so right, but you forgot down-winders from Los Alamos and other states. This only proves your point though. The western states have been dumping grounds for urban experimentation for more than a century at this point. I have family that ranched in western New Mexico and grew up in West Texas myself. I know too well the atrocities visit on Indigenous and POC in that area. Thank you for bringing it to light while recognizing this exquisite beauty of the area.
It seems to be a self-perpetuating mechanism; the more they use it, the less it works, the more it needs money...to correct the problem! Time to try something different, perhaps.
In an effort to try to rein in military spending, my late father, an expert on the Soviet economy wrote a handful of op-eds for the NYT explaining why the CIA estimates of Soviet military spending were inflated.
I dunno. I think any of us would rather see our local fire and police departments remain unused, even though we happily pay for them.
What's we have locally but have lost nationally is the wisdom to know when to use these tools of defense. It seems like common sense when you look at a fire department - if the firefighters are just sitting around the fire station, you don't set fires intentionally so you can justify paying them.
Things seem to work differently for the military. Why?
I disagree that we have this wisdom locally with regard to the police. The police are often used, when perhaps a social worker might be able to defuse a situation better, especially in poorer communities and against people of color. If the only tool you have is a hammer (or a gun), everything looks like a nail (or a target).
In Mama's Last Hug the two primate societies closest to us are chimps and bonobos. In chimp society it's usually the males who are fighting and often senior females like Mama help with reconciliation which is important to maintain the group. Bonobos are more peaceful and they are matrilineal. One of the things the author noted about other primate societies and us is that inequality will result in the disruption of the group. For chimps it means lots of sharing of food (they kill monkeys and share the meat for example) and grooming while being able to reconcile many times after a confrontation.
I think we have too many people who don't truly pay attention.
There was an attack ad against Rep. Susie Lee on FB paid for by The Petroleum Institute.
Me and two other people spoke up to try to tell people, but the rest, maybe 12 people at the time just wanted to bash her, making comment about her looks and how she is bought by big corporations.
God is a concept that so many of our leaders hide behind. And, yes, in reality everything is all about money, despite the fact that beyond an annual income of ~$74K in most of the US (more in Boston, NYC, the Bay Area, Seattle, etc.,) additional annual earnings do nothing to increase happiness.
Yes, we need to address the causes of the potential terrorist threat.
No. I'm decades beyond college (I'm assuming that is or was a college class--forgive me if I'm wrong about that). I do read a fair amount of behavioral economics, and I'm interested in what really contributes to well being. And I'm well aware of the law of diminishing returns.
Ironic with all this focus on $s that only about 20% of Americans feel they are living a life of well-being. Money does not buy happiness. My dream is to have the focus on a Well-Being Index rather than GNP. Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, has a wonderful theory of Well-Being. It has five elements: Positive emotions, Positive Relationships, Meaning, Engagement and Accomplishment. He set up the Soldier and Family Fitness program which measures these elements across the U.S. Army. Countries like Great Britain are using a WBI requiring all policies and legislation to show how it will improve the well-being of all citizens. We need to quick the zero sum games and go for making the pie bigger for all.
I'd advocate simply spreading the pie out more equitably among us. No-one needs to be a billionaire. On the other hand, for those who have very little, money does buy happiness and peace of mind--up to about $74k annually in parts of the country that lack super-inflated real estate and other prices.
It is so very sad to me that as a civilization we have come so far, made incrediable inventions and discoveries, but very few are really of benefit to the future of civilization . By that I mean protecting the planet, working with other countries for peace and stability, embracing differences and strengths to better all lives. I guess the human flaw takes over with greed, power and jealousy. Wish things could really be different.
Margaret, I feel you. I had a dream the other night in which the grandparents united to save the planet for their grandchildren. There are plenty of us who feel as you do. What is stopping us?
“The three conservative Democratic lawmakers threatening to kill their party’s drug pricing legislation have raked in roughly $1.6m of campaign cash from donors in the pharmaceutical and health products industries. One of the lawmakers is the House’s single largest recipient of pharmaceutical industry campaign cash this election cycle, and another lawmaker’s immediate past chief of staff is now lobbying for drugmakers.
The threat from Democratic representatives Kurt Schrader (Oregon), Scott Peters (California) and Kathleen Rice (New York) comes just as the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbying group announced a seven-figure ad campaign to vilify the Democratic legislation, which aims to lower the cost of medicines for Americans now facing the world’s highest prescription drug prices.”
I was betting that was the case, surprised honestly there are not more of them. So many in Congress have lost sight of representing the people and doing what is best for them and the country. They only care about being re-elected for power and greed. They listen to their donors and the lobbyist and have forgotten their duty to the American people. Congress is not in touch with the regular Americans with their free best in the world health care, pensions and all the perks to make contacts and deal for personal profit on the side. We need an overhaul of Congress and we need their sworn oaths and duties of office to actually mean somthing to them and hold them accountable. Not just by election, they can do too much damage, as we are witnessing now not to have some consequences within their term.
Interesting you should take this tack today, Stuart. Money and Soul is the theme this week for Richard Rohr's daily meditations. Here's a link if anyone is interested.
I think you have hit on the 1 thing that has caused division in all societies, money, from the gold of the Roman Empire to today's virtual Bitcoin. Those that have want to make sure they all get their "fair" share.
I find it somewhat ironic the we place on our money "In God we trust" when in reality western society has effectively given up believing in anything but our money. No vision of where we are headed, nor idea of who we are or why we are here remains. There is only the creation, accumulation and dispersement of money that remains.
The divine $ has given us the technology to kill at a 1000 miles distance by drone or missile. From this technology we have created a market which feeds the money machine and lets anybody, anywhere play the killing game.
We have spent the last century pursuing money throughout the world often in a zero sum game. The "other's" constant losses...as we are very good at the money game...have created myriads of people who have reason to hate America and Americans. Would it not fit our objectives better and serve the peacefull pursuit of our life to address the causes of the potential terrorist threat that this represents rather than eliminating by drone its symptomes.
Your words have touched my heart and soul Stuart. I often think about how we, and the world, would benefit from the energy, money, and emotions that fuel all the fighting, bitterness, and anger could be channeled into such technical, scientific, and medical advances that could truly change the world! If I sound naive forgive me... but it's so obvious... it's all about the money. You nailed it.... I guess money and power. Shame on us. All of us.
In many ways it's always been about power and money. Now, we have the technology to kill at a very long distance on a regular basis....no need for hand to hand combat or even flying over a place to drop a bomb. We are also primates (just finished Mama's Last Hug about primate emotions) and we are primates who have very evolved and potent technology while we remain in many ways that mammal that fell out of a tree or walked out of a cave.
Give us a little credit. We have at least have advanced to the Neanderthal level.
As a descendant of the Neander Valley I would ask that you please not disparage our peoples by saying you have “at least advanced to our level”.
Evidence is that Neandertalers were a peaceful people preyed upon by Homo Sapiens. Perhaps it was forever thus. 🤔
Neanderthals are also the first humans with a demonstrated belief in a caring community - from fossils of people who had broken legs and such that were reset (meaning care in that and recovery) and the burial of the dead in expectation of an afterlife.
Not to mention that - depending on the Homo Sapiens population sampled - we carry anywhere from 5-15% of our DNA is Neanderthal.
All these observations and comments have brightened my day even more. We live in a beautiful or ugly world or both depending on where we are standing.
This is the central point. Close reading of Darwin indicates that people are at different levels of evolution. This is either a benefit to mankind or, depending on our approach, a challenge.
It’s both a benefit and a challenge. That’s how evolution works.
Correct, that's my first point.
But the concluding point is: "This is either a benefit to mankind OR, DEPENDING ON OUR APPROACH, a challenge."
This point is the vast consequences between exclusion (superiority) and inclusion (equality of differences).
Maybe.
Yes, and what a fabulous book...
Stuart, I agree with your assessment. It seems like greed, hate and delusion are the driving forces of humanity today. Back when I was still teaching at University I’d often ask students to do a thought experiment and place themselves back at the end of the 4th Century AD living in Southern Europe.
If you saw the imminent collapse of the Roman Empire what would you have done? Moved? Re-ordered your life? Gone into isolation?
I get this chilling feeling we are (in the Western world) at that point again.
I hit 'like' but your message punched me in the gut, sad....
Charlie, I am curious what your students would have chosen to do. Did they contrast life in 4th century southern Europe versus the east part of the Roman Empire, which thrived centuries longer. Thanks.
Richard, The most cogent answer was to 1) sell current assets, 2) reduce the cost of living, 3)re-locate to the outer reaches of the Empire (i.e., the borderlands). In short, get out of Dodge before it blows up.
So, you were teaching in America, right? My ironic button got pushed when I read their answers!
Yes. The University of San Francisco. But here is the interesting thing. I did the same exercise in Austria and Sweden doing consulting gigs. Same basic pattern but what the Europeans considered to be the 'borderlands' was, shall I say, somewhat different. Some great stories there.
Pura Vida anhyone?
The average Afghan household consists of eight people. If the two trillion spent on Afghanistan (largely military spending) had been parceled out in cash or securities, every Afghan household today would have a 401(k) of at least half a million dollars. We should have been able to buy a little love with that.
They could also do the same with American households. Imagine, people here, there and everywhere living a stress free, enjoyable, full and productive life! Instead we wage wars to expand the wealth of so few and create “myriads of people who have reason to hate America and Americans” as Stuart said. This has also created myriads of Americans hating our government and other Americans. This path we are on can not end well.
Instead all that money went to defense contractors and corruption.
From yesterday’s epistle reading:
James 4
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain, [so] you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Obviously our problems aren’t new ones, but have been around for a while. Just curious, was the letter from James written around the beginning of the fall of Rome? ITT took quite a while for the carcass to die after the Emperors poisoned it — about four hundred years — wasn’t it?
Seems like the debate over the who and when of James has persisted from times past to time present. Be that as it may, the corruptible condition of the soul the author of James writes of transcends time and place - and remains present in my soul. Thus the need for standards, checks and balances.
No one knows what actual civilian deaths are unless tracked by neutral people on the ground. Anything reported by the military is a lie.
Aerial bombardment removed the air crew from the reality of what they were doing. Drones only take it one step farther. Years back there was a movie "The Last Starfighter" in which a teenager who was so good at a video game was used as a fighter pilot by the good aliens against the bad aliens. Isn't that what our video games are doing now? When you include visual face recognition AI into single strike anti-personnel drones, you have the perfect assassination machine. Except it doesn't work so accurately for Black or brown faces (not that it matters to some) but may help eg China against America. The next 25 years will be interesting... all against all.
All that you said and more. How long before dictator Kim, conventional criminals (drug cartels), and other antisocial actors adapt and misuse personal drones as weapons?
They already do. Drug cartels are in no way conventional criminals. They are ruthless, heavily armed, and have very, very deep pockets.
https://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/narcodrones-180974934/
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/06/drug-cartels-using-drones-with-explosives-to-attack-cops-in-us-and-mexico/
Surely this was obvious from the outset.
The only morality among hitech junkies is "If it can be done, it will be done. And to hell with the consequences.
Sheesh!
Exactly, Allen.
Stuart, what you're saying applies to the way that parts of the US are treated by the more prosperous, corporate parts. I live in NM, a beautiful place with mostly clean air and nice people, but the ravages of uranium mining and a coal-powered emmissions plant in the 4-Corners Area has affected poor tribal people, farmers, ranchers, and anyone else living within the huge area where the tailing ponds exist and the wind blows. The Dakotas, Montana, parts of Colorado, etc, etc, have been used as colonies by the big populations on either coast. I sound like some kind of a red neck, but I'm a raging progressive! I just see the way it is. Many people here are poor. We struggle to educate our citizens and provide them with basic services; many POC live here as well as indigenous people, and drug addiction and alcohol abuse are rampant. It's still a great place to live in many ways, and we have some of the best laws in the US as far as individual rights (gay marriage, abortion). I just believe that as part of the US's recreation area, the needs of our citizens, particularly our children, go unnoticed by the rest of the country.
I wouldn't have mistaken you for a redneck. (And I'm in Massachusetts.) You sound progressive to me--wanting to protect New Mexicans from uranium and coal pollution. More power to you!
Patricia Greathouse, you are so right, but you forgot down-winders from Los Alamos and other states. This only proves your point though. The western states have been dumping grounds for urban experimentation for more than a century at this point. I have family that ranched in western New Mexico and grew up in West Texas myself. I know too well the atrocities visit on Indigenous and POC in that area. Thank you for bringing it to light while recognizing this exquisite beauty of the area.
When you have the most-funded military in the world, you have to use it somewhere.
It seems to be a self-perpetuating mechanism; the more they use it, the less it works, the more it needs money...to correct the problem! Time to try something different, perhaps.
In an effort to try to rein in military spending, my late father, an expert on the Soviet economy wrote a handful of op-eds for the NYT explaining why the CIA estimates of Soviet military spending were inflated.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/opinion/what-defensespending-gap.html?searchResultPosition=5
Sad, but true. What's it for if you're not using ut?
I dunno. I think any of us would rather see our local fire and police departments remain unused, even though we happily pay for them.
What's we have locally but have lost nationally is the wisdom to know when to use these tools of defense. It seems like common sense when you look at a fire department - if the firefighters are just sitting around the fire station, you don't set fires intentionally so you can justify paying them.
Things seem to work differently for the military. Why?
I disagree that we have this wisdom locally with regard to the police. The police are often used, when perhaps a social worker might be able to defuse a situation better, especially in poorer communities and against people of color. If the only tool you have is a hammer (or a gun), everything looks like a nail (or a target).
it
YES! But does man really know how to serve peaceful pursuit, Stuart. I do not have much hope in that department.
Hopefully Woman does!
In Mama's Last Hug the two primate societies closest to us are chimps and bonobos. In chimp society it's usually the males who are fighting and often senior females like Mama help with reconciliation which is important to maintain the group. Bonobos are more peaceful and they are matrilineal. One of the things the author noted about other primate societies and us is that inequality will result in the disruption of the group. For chimps it means lots of sharing of food (they kill monkeys and share the meat for example) and grooming while being able to reconcile many times after a confrontation.
Amen!
I'm with you.
I think we have too many people who don't truly pay attention.
There was an attack ad against Rep. Susie Lee on FB paid for by The Petroleum Institute.
Me and two other people spoke up to try to tell people, but the rest, maybe 12 people at the time just wanted to bash her, making comment about her looks and how she is bought by big corporations.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I just can't give up hope....
Yes. But we must show others.
God is a concept that so many of our leaders hide behind. And, yes, in reality everything is all about money, despite the fact that beyond an annual income of ~$74K in most of the US (more in Boston, NYC, the Bay Area, Seattle, etc.,) additional annual earnings do nothing to increase happiness.
Yes, we need to address the causes of the potential terrorist threat.
Did you by chance take the science of well being class with Laurie Santos?
No. I'm decades beyond college (I'm assuming that is or was a college class--forgive me if I'm wrong about that). I do read a fair amount of behavioral economics, and I'm interested in what really contributes to well being. And I'm well aware of the law of diminishing returns.
David, the Santos “class” mentioned is a free, lauded course offered to all via Coursera.
Thank you Ashley!
It's a great free course. But if you prefer podcasts Dr. Laurie Santos has one entitled The Happiness Lab. It has tons of info you might enjoy.
Take care!
More power to Laurie Santos!
Ironic with all this focus on $s that only about 20% of Americans feel they are living a life of well-being. Money does not buy happiness. My dream is to have the focus on a Well-Being Index rather than GNP. Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, has a wonderful theory of Well-Being. It has five elements: Positive emotions, Positive Relationships, Meaning, Engagement and Accomplishment. He set up the Soldier and Family Fitness program which measures these elements across the U.S. Army. Countries like Great Britain are using a WBI requiring all policies and legislation to show how it will improve the well-being of all citizens. We need to quick the zero sum games and go for making the pie bigger for all.
I'd advocate simply spreading the pie out more equitably among us. No-one needs to be a billionaire. On the other hand, for those who have very little, money does buy happiness and peace of mind--up to about $74k annually in parts of the country that lack super-inflated real estate and other prices.
It is so very sad to me that as a civilization we have come so far, made incrediable inventions and discoveries, but very few are really of benefit to the future of civilization . By that I mean protecting the planet, working with other countries for peace and stability, embracing differences and strengths to better all lives. I guess the human flaw takes over with greed, power and jealousy. Wish things could really be different.
Margaret, I feel you. I had a dream the other night in which the grandparents united to save the planet for their grandchildren. There are plenty of us who feel as you do. What is stopping us?
Perhaps thee inability to make our dreams really?
Yup.
Money conquers all. 😩
From The Guardian.
“The three conservative Democratic lawmakers threatening to kill their party’s drug pricing legislation have raked in roughly $1.6m of campaign cash from donors in the pharmaceutical and health products industries. One of the lawmakers is the House’s single largest recipient of pharmaceutical industry campaign cash this election cycle, and another lawmaker’s immediate past chief of staff is now lobbying for drugmakers.
The threat from Democratic representatives Kurt Schrader (Oregon), Scott Peters (California) and Kathleen Rice (New York) comes just as the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbying group announced a seven-figure ad campaign to vilify the Democratic legislation, which aims to lower the cost of medicines for Americans now facing the world’s highest prescription drug prices.”
I was betting that was the case, surprised honestly there are not more of them. So many in Congress have lost sight of representing the people and doing what is best for them and the country. They only care about being re-elected for power and greed. They listen to their donors and the lobbyist and have forgotten their duty to the American people. Congress is not in touch with the regular Americans with their free best in the world health care, pensions and all the perks to make contacts and deal for personal profit on the side. We need an overhaul of Congress and we need their sworn oaths and duties of office to actually mean somthing to them and hold them accountable. Not just by election, they can do too much damage, as we are witnessing now not to have some consequences within their term.
I've sent a message to Scott Peters, effectively a DINO based on my experiences with him here in San Diego during his terms on the SD City Council.
Democrats don’t need Republicans l not when they have their fellow Democrats .😩
:’-(
Interesting you should take this tack today, Stuart. Money and Soul is the theme this week for Richard Rohr's daily meditations. Here's a link if anyone is interested.
https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/?&utm_source=cm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dm&utm_content=footer
The great spiritual question facing America is How can we make more money out f each other.
I try and tell people that we are just consumers or commodities everyday. They just laugh.
You wax philosophic this morning, Stuart. Good morning to you! (I liked it by the way).
Good Mornin' to you too Alexander.
I think you have hit on the 1 thing that has caused division in all societies, money, from the gold of the Roman Empire to today's virtual Bitcoin. Those that have want to make sure they all get their "fair" share.