Responsibility to nature

Because we have skills many other animals don’t have, those skills come with responsibility. A number other animals have the problem solving skills and causal reasoning that we have, (i) but we have the more complex brain. That’s because we’re the new creature on the planet. We’re the new species in evolution. Unlike humans, most species of animals are hard-wired to do the right thing. Whether a good or a bad thing, we have the ability to make “rational” decisions. With these gifts of nature comes responsibility. If we clear land to plant a crop we have certain responsibilities to nature to avoid damage to the environment; avoid destroying habitat for other animals.

For example, I put a trail through our Black Fox Hollow, which I’m proud to report is now a certified wildlife habitat.(ii) I fear that most people would fail to see the environmental impact in a simple trail. So let’s take a look. It is our responsibility to nature.

Almost all animals end up making trails simply because they use the same routes. Hunters call them game trails. I love to follow game trails when I’m “off trail” (iii) When we create a trail, either purposely or like other animals do, we firstly impact the environment with our presence. When I wander the wilderness well away from human trails, roads, camps, etc., I don’t have to worry about causing a steady stream of homo sapiens behind me that might negatively impact the lives of the animals whose habitat I’m visiting. Nevertheless, I still must be extremely careful where I step and what I do. Going “off trail” should be a very thoughtful act. When done properly, it isn’t as easy as it appears but provides a wonderful intimate experience with nature.

If we create a trail, as I did in the hollow, we must be aware of at least five things. (a) We must be aware of the impact our trail has on wildlife. Is my trail too close to places where animals might den and give birth to their young. I know that we have a number of animals that borrow or den in the hollow. Most of them are near a brush pile that I purposely created for that purpose. I kept the trail away from there. We were rewarded for our efforts this year by the presence of a beautiful Red Fox and the three kits to whom she gave birth in the safety of the hollow. We learned that three of them, the mother and two kits, were captured and released in a very nice place. The remaining kit has returned to the hollow, probably because this is a safe place for her with food and water. We would not have had this wonderful experience if we had put the trail too near their den.

(b) Does my trail destroy any food source or keep animals away from vital food sources? Governments building roads and putting up border walls are the worst at destroying food sources or keeping animals away from food sources. Our current GOP Congress and Administration are doing irreparable damage to the environment and cutting off animals from food and essential migratory routes. As you travel through the west you will see wildlife bridges across roads, especially four-lane roads, to provide animals with a safe means of accessing food and following migratory paths. The Black Fox Hollow trail makes a loop. Inside the loop is an area rich in plants and seeds that provides food for birds and small animals. Were it not for the very light foot traffic on our trail, such a small loop; only 1/8 of a mile; could potentially be a barrier to animals seeking food. Since the trail does not have heavy traffic, it is not a hindrance.

(c) Human presence can be stressful to wildlife. Even bears (omnivores) and big carnivores will move away from humans. I’m very familiar with bears. They have been a significant part of my wildlife management avocation, an important part of my life, and almost a daily event in our lives managing a campground sixteen miles into the Rocky Mountain wilderness. I can’t help but wonder whether they can tell that we humans are a violent and dangerous species. If we put stress on bears, wolverines, mountain lions and other large animals high on the food chain, you can imagine our impact on those further down the chain. Stress is as deadly for a wild animal as it is for the human animal. Does my trail cause stress? Is that stress forcing them away from important parts of their habitat? Our trail, by design and lack of heavy traffic, does not interfere with the fox hunting. Also we know that most of their hunting is going to be outside the loop. If you are on a wilderness trail, in bear or mountain lion country, and you see an animal carcass near the trail, get away from the area as quickly as possible. Your presence could well stress a big predator into believing it must protect its kill or its food by attacking you.

(d) Is my trail going to cause erosion damage? A poorly constructed trail can be an erosion nightmare! In my pictures you can see that my trail is small with minimal impact. At the same time you will notice the picture of the graveled area. I put creek gravel on areas that showed signs of heavy water drainage. Had I not put that gravel in those areas I would soon have deep erosion ruts which would cause significant damage to the land. If you hike a well maintained trail, you will notice areas that have rocks, logs or other erosion barriers and even small channels dug to move water away from high risk areas. When we start removing the plants that hold the soil, we risk erosion damage. You will notice that my trail is not totally bare, but that’s only because it isn’t heavily traveled.

(e) Is my trail going to impact or destroy vegetation or microbiotic crusts? (iv) My trail winds because I designed it that way. Trying to imitate a longer trail in the wilderness, who wants to walk in a straight line? At the same time I was mindful of the vegetation through which my trail would pass. I kept it almost complete through grasses, ground cover and wild onions that are very hardy. One big bend avoids a group of Hackberry trees that have a number of edible and medicinal plants growing below them. I don’t have to worry about microbiotic crusts in the hollow, but it is a very important factor in trails and off-trail hiking in the desert. I can’t strongly enough impress upon my readers the importance of acquired skills and extreme awareness, mindfulness and observation when off trail. There are great numbers of places where one wrong footstep will take nature a hundred years to repair. Part of my job on one of my trail patrol assignments was to keep mountain climbers from taking short-cuts through fragile alpine vegetation. Unknowing and thoughtless hikers often cut corners on trails. Usually there is a reason for a corner, curve or switch-back. Cutting corners often results in environmental damage.
So why should we care? Why do I think we have a responsibility to nature?

Nature is our life. We are a result of nature, both as a species and as individuals, therefore we owe our very existence to nature. We are a part of nature. There is an undeniable oneness in the universe that has been confirmed by quantum physics. (v) Even if we are so selfish that we haven’t an altruistic bone in our body, we can still relate to the fact that by hurting nature we are hurting ourselves. Unlike other situations where we are expected to simply believe that someone/something has done something for us, we have empirical evidence that nature is not only the source of our existence but also provides everything that we need to survive: water, air, food, shelter. We could not exist without nature. We cannot live without nature.

FOOTNOTES:

(i) We’re discovering that more and more species do have problem solving skills and causal reasoning. https://www.primate-cognition.eu/fileadmin/content/Primate_Cognition/Dateien/Schloegl___Fischer_2017_Oxford_Handbook_of_Causal_Reasoning.pdf

(ii) Black Fox Hollow was certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation in May 2020.

(iii) “off tail” is where one goes cross-country not using an established human trail or road. With the proper back-country skills it is an exciting and rewarding way to explore the wilderness. It does, however, require a significant skill set and the willingness to be mindful and observant that you don’t do environmental damage or negatively impart local wildlife.

(iv) Microbiotic crusts consist of lichens, bryophytes, algae, microfungi, cyanobacteria, and bacteria growing on or just below the soil surface (Eldridge and Greene 1994). These types of crusts have also been known as cryptogamic, microphytic, microfloral, or cryptobiotic, https://www.fs.fed.us/r6/icbemp/science/leonard2.pdf

(v) Ricard, Mattdhieu and Trinh Xuan Thuan. (2001). The Quantum and the Lotus: a journey to the frontiers where science and Buddhism meet. New York. Three Rivers Press. Especially Chapter 4 “The Universe in a grain of sand.”

Nature will prevail

Isn’t it amazing how nature can carve mountains and move boulders like this. This is the rock which we use to make monuments to ourselves. No artisan is capable of creating any statue or building or painting that can compare to the wonders of nature. Yet we appear daily to do our best to replace the magnificent natural world with our fragile monuments and scrape the earth to make way for our infestation. Even though nature is the sole source of all that gives us life and sustains that life, we purposely pollute and destroy nature. Isn’t that tantamount to omnicide? My only hope lies in my firm belief that nature will prevail.

This really isn’t anything new. I would venture to offer a theory of how this all came about.

I have written several essays about social systems (i) concluding that they are not the friend of the homo sapiens. Quite the contrary. My theory in this case goes back to the days when social systems were just developing. I can’t put a date on it, but suffice it to say that homo sapiens prospered for ninety-percent of our time on earth without social systems. Social system began to develop with the concepts of private land, ownership, government and organized religion. Because of their superior recording systems we are most aware of this in ancient Egypt and China.

Since any expertise I might be able to claim as an historian or student of human development is going to relate to Europe, including the Mediterranean countries, and North America. I can claim a strong understanding, verging on an expertise, of the Abrahamic religions. (ii) Judaism, the parent religion of the three Abrahamic religions, appears to be the original antagonist. Even though other religions were beginning to become organized and socialized over a larger area, they still held nature in a central role.

Judaism was the most obvious to start placing people above nature and treating nature as something apart and humans as not being a part of nature. Now, I’m sure that there can be arguments made against other religions, but these other religions did not spawn the religion that would dominate Europe by the time Europeans began to colonize the world. Judaism’s attitude toward nature is established in the first chapter of their Torah “fill the earth and subdue it.” (iii) This is a part of what Christians call the Old Testament, and so Christianity, the first child of Judaism, took this ‘other-than-nature’ attitude with them on their colonial conquests.

This concept may have been present in other cultures by the time that white Europeans began to colonize the world, but a major part of that colonization was to impose their belief systems on those whom they conquered. The colonization of North America is vile litany of white Europeans destroying the culture, religion, language and history of the indigenous people. The indigenous peoples of North America felt very much a part of nature. (iv)

Enter capitalism. Actually capitalism goes back to England and the Netherlands of the 17th century. Many people believe that capitalism is an “American” idea. Sorry to break the news. (v) It was beneficial to capitalism to court government and religion. Capitalism added the concept that nature is a resource (vi) only valued for the wealth it could bring. If land could not be used to further one’s wealth it was considered useless even though it might be an immensely important part of an ecosystem. A good example is how humans will drain “useless” swamp land to build or farm when in reality the swamp is critically important to all life – including human – as a source of clean water, air and food. However, to the capitalist it isn’t worth anything unless it makes them money. As a result we see places like the large area along the Grand Canyon that cannot be hiked because of the old uranium mines that have ruined the land and made it dangerous to all animals, including humans. (vii)

This theory then brings the three social systems; religion, government and capitalism; together as the perpetrators of the three most egregious falsehoods that (a) humans are superior to nature, (b) that human over-population, mega-farming, lumbering and industrialization do not hurt nature and therefore all living creatures, and (c) that nature is nothing more than a resource.

Today we see that there is little regard for nature unless it is providing profits or the raw materials to make a product to make a profit. Religion, which can be argued to be the first to disregard nature, relied for a long time on good relationships with the reigning government. We have seen that, since Citizens United v Federal Election Commission (viii), government has become dependent upon the wealthy capitalist for their continued power. This, then, ties religion, government and capitalism together. Three great social systems run by an elite few for the benefit of an elite few.

Make no mistake. We are not above nature. Human history is filled with examples of nature, in little more than a blink of an eye, laying waste to humans’ sad monuments to their own glory, taking back what human have endeavored to destroy or control. One of my favorite examples is how humans thought that they had taken control of the Mississippi River for the purpose of commerce on the river and farming in the low wetlands stolen from the river by a series of levees, the first being built in 1717 to create New Orleans. The first time the levees were taken out by nature was 1844 in the Great Flood. In 2005 over fifty levees failed. (ix) I happen to drive across one of the few roads and bridges that were high enough to go from the east to west side of the river. I drove for almost twenty miles with the Mississippi on both sides of me. Nature had prevailed, and nature will continue to prevail.

In her June 1st, 2020 New York Times article, Rachel Neuwer (x) reports that experts give us 10-15 years before we reach the critical point of no return. After that we will rapidly progress toward the point where the earth is uninhabitable to animals such as homo sapiens. The down side is that we homo sapiens must bear the greatest guilt in hastening this mass extinction and are killing ourselves by making no effort to change our ways. The up-side is that nature will prevail. As long as the building blocks for life still remain, nature will clean the water, soil and air that we have fouled, create new life forms, and start anew. Nature will prevail, but human will probably not be a part of it.

FOOTNOTES:

(i) See my essay on “What constitutes a social system?” https://oldconservationist.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-constitutes-social-system.html

(ii) First as a history major as an undergraduate, followed by three years of graduate school where I carefully studied the Abrahamic religions and read two of their three holy books in the original language.

(iii) Genesis 1:28

(iv) Hudson, Charles. (1976). The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville, TN. University of Tennessee Press.

(v) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism

(vi) resources =df a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively. Similar: assets, funds, wealth, money, riches, capital.

(vii) https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/grand-canyon-uranium

(viii) A copy of the actual Supreme Court opinion. http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/cu_sc08_opinion.pdf.

(ix) https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Portals/52/docs/MRC/MRT_Levees.pdf?ver=2017-07-27-141912-910 -and-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_levee_failures_in_Greater_New_Orleans#:~:text=On%20August%2029%2C%202005%2C%20there,Katrina%20and%20landfall%20in%20Mississippi.

(x) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/science/mass-extinctions-are-accelerating-scientists-report.html?fbclid=IwAR1yr9C3VW5JCmR6dd56Zbsu2USMGCVePY_vZLR6DKhq2moyN7uwYWwmixU

From street to court room

Some of us still remember the 1960s when millions of us took the the streets of Washington D.C. and other major cities to protest social inequalities and the war in Viet Nam. I was in Washington for two of the biggest. We took to the streets because, in the 1960s, politicians at least acted like they cared and ultimately gave in to the will of the people.

More than once in the years I have been blogging and writing about environmental and other issues, I’ve had readers reply with the idea that we need to take to the streets again. I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, the more people in the streets the greater the evidence that a majority of people do not like what the Washington Swamp is doing and want change. I cheer every time students walk out of school or show up at a capital en masse. They know it is their future that we are destroying. BUT … you knew that ‘but’ was coming, didn’t you? … we all know that politicians no longer need to appear to work for the people or care what the people feel, think, want, etc. Especially since the Citizens United decision politicians do not need to appeal to the people. There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of politicians are controlled by mega-corporations because the corporations give them millions of dollars to get elected. Would you “bite the hand that feeds you”, i.e. the one who keeps you rich and employed?

In the 1960s it was still almost embarrassing for a politician to admit that they wanted to make politics their life-time occupation. We still lived under the delusion that going to Congress was a public service which entailed some degree of sacrifice. I well remember the first political science major I met at a large Midwestern university who was bold enough to say that, for them, college was preparation for becoming a life-long politician. Suddenly public service had become an occupation and the politician was in a position of ‘doing-what-was-necessary’ to keep their job. With Citizens United they soon forgot for whom they were supposedly working. Elections soon became totally about who had the most money – which was always relatively true – and not about issues.

I’m not going to try to address election reform, but we must realize that our real battle is going to take place inside a courtroom. When you start deciding which environment or social-issue organization you are going to support I recommend that you check out their legal department. Do they have attorneys with excellent success rates? What’s their win ratio against the government? While there are many fine organizations which deserve our support, we must realize that we need to put the bulk of our meager funds into organizations that can beat the government in court. Until we can get rid of Citizens United, this is the best for which we can hope.

Racial Capitalism in the United States

Racial Capitalism is alive and thriving in the United States, as well as almost everywhere in the world. Tracing its roots back to the so-called voyages of discovery; i.e. Europeans “discovering”, conquering and enslaving non-white people around the world; racial capitalism turns humans, most notably non-white humans, into chattel.

Capitalism actually does this to all humans which is evidenced by the fact that corporations see humans as “resources”. I don’t want this fact to redirect our focus from the desperate need to address racial capitalism which has always plagued the US, but I believe that by looking at how capitalism works in a broader generalized population we can better understand its place in racial capitalism.

The definition of resource is “a stock or supply of money, materials, staff and other assets . . . .” Right in this definition, which is an internet definition but no different than any you are going to find anywhere, you see people listed as “assets”. If you look up asset you will find that asset might mean being of value, as in “she is an asset to the team.” You also find that it means “property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitents or legacies.” Oh, my!! If a resource is an asset and an asset is property it follows that a resource is property and therefore you and I are all property of our employer and/or government. Does that make you feel good?

Now let’s apply this to Racial Capitalism. For the white population our only awareness of being a resource is that we’re getting poorer while the capitalist is getting richer. It is impossible for a white person to fathom how this plays out for non-white citizens, but consider this scenario: you’re driving through a wealthy neighborhood and see a black man mowing the grass. How many people are going to assume that he’s the gardener or an employee? Be honest. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a racist, how many of you would make the same assumption. Are you surprised to find that it is his home?

In an Antipode Foundation video, which can be found on YouTube and is well worth watching (i), entitled Geographies of Racial Capitalism, Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore points out that racism, slavery and capitalism go hand in hand. Our beloved capitalism developed and survives by the exploitation of people, especially non-white people.

If that isn’t bad enough, according to the founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini, when you combine capitalism and government you get Fascism. (ii) What was the result of Citizens United versus the Federal Election Commission? (iii) Ah, that’s right. It permits wealthy capitalists and their corporations to put as much money into a political campaign as they wish. Now we have our politicians legally crawling into bed with the capitalists. Oh, my! What did Mussolini say? Fascism is the merger of capitalism and government. That means we have . . . dare I say it? . . . fascism right here in the USA.

Oh, but there’s more. While racial capitalism exploits non-white citizens, our government – most specifically the president – has continually made the hatred and mistreatment of non-white citizens a matter of patriotism. Is it no wonder that a non-white journalist was arrested in Minneapolis while his white colleague was not.

Nancy Leong, in her 2013 article on Racial Capitalism in the Harvard Law Review, concluded “One colleague with whom I discussed this project observed that being a person of color within an institution means that “you’re going to get used,” and that the best and only response is to make sure you get as much as possible in return. But my own view is that racial capitalism is not inevitable. Ending racial capitalism may take a great deal of effort across generations, but in the end I think it can happen.” (v) I wish that I could be as optimistic, but we must put every effort into making it happen starting with holding our government accountable and ending fascism (government + capitalism).

FOOT NOTES:

(i) https://antipodeonline.org/geographies-of-racial-capitalism/

(ii) Mussolini, Benito and Giovanni Gentile. (1932). La dottrina del fascismo [the doctrine of fascism]. Enciclopedia Italiana.

(iii) https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

(iv) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/05/29/was-a-cnn-reporter-arrested-by-minnesota-patrol-for-working-while-black/amp/

(v) Loeng, Nancy. Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review. Vol 126 Issue 8. June 2013. p. 2226.

White Supremacist Racism (WSR)

The world is trying desperately to deal with racism and white supremacy but the more we listen to those who have suffered from white supremacist racism (WSR) for centuries the more we realize that we have a daunting task ahead of us. I recently changed my Facebook page ‘Studying the Hunter-Gatherer‘, which was a research page, to an advocacy page for HG, indigenous people and all people of color who have and are suffering from WSR. My current idea of support is to study questions about the history and practice of WSR. As an undergrad historian and philosopher, (i) I truly believe that we can learn from history. Understanding the history can help us know the best attack. Why do you think that professional sports teams spend so much time studying game films? Knowing what happened – history – can identify an opponents’ weaknesses and/or help one avoid making the same mistake again.

For me, in our current crisis, looking at the game film; i.e. studying the history of WSR; is an important step. I can’t blame people of color (POC), which is basically the entire world except those of European ancestry, for boiling over and demanding immediate action. They deserve it. Nevertheless, acting too hastily can result in laws that are passed just for show, have no teeth and are about as good as the Indian peace treaties the US government has made over the years and subsequently broken. I’m not advocating for slowing down or backing off!! Quite the contrary. We just need to make sure that we have a game plan that will not only bring some quick success and relief as well as success that will endure backlash and last for perpetuity. Besides the fact that most people have neither the patience nor the desire to do this type of research, I’m seventy-four years old and people like me don’t have the physical ability to hit the streets like I did in the 1960s.

I believe that the first, and perhaps biggest question is “how did the white colonialist overcome all these people?” -OR- “what is the origin of WSR?” We know the Europeans weren’t smarter. Europe was just coming out of a period of great superstition and ignorance while their POC neighbors, in what is now the Middle East, were the keepers of knowledge in what we call the western world and Asians had successful, sophisticated medical systems. The Asians had gunpowder long before the Europeans. Some native tribes in North America had been successfully practicing pure democracy (ii) for centuries before the white colonialist. What happened?

We know that the white Europeans believed themselves superior and so treated others with total disregard and inhumanity. I think we see that that is still true of the modern WSR. This belief can be translated into a total lack of concern for the effects of their behavior. In other words, early colonialists might smile sweetly at the indigenous person while another colonialist stabs the indigenous person in the back. Do you think that the modern WSR would do this? You can bet on it. Andrew Jackson told many stories about the horrible, bloody, ruthless behavior of the Indians. He was actually describing his own behavior and that of other white people but, to turn the unsuspecting and naive US citizen against the natives, he attributed his behavior to his victims. The white historical account of Lt. Col George Custer’s defeat at the Battle of the Greasy Grass; the native name for what whites call the Battle of Little Bighorn; was called a massacre and an appalling example of Indian savagery. This is what appears in many school books. Thankfully historians aren’t going to be put off. If you read the whole story, the true story, you find that Custer had just slaughtered a village of women, children and elderly, and that wasn’t the first such slaughter. Whites tried to rewrite history. There were, and probably still are, those who tried to make slavery look good; depicting the southern plantation as a comfortable, happy life and ignoring the reality of being chained and dragged from their homes in Africa, of being bred and sold at auction, and being whipped at their owner’s discretion, and much more. Do you think that the modern WSR would resort to such lying? You’d better believe it. Colonialist, which include the so-called pioneers, had no qualms about murdering native women, children and elderly, and as a result the saying “the only good injun is a dead injun” (iv) made its way into the twentieth century western movie. Speaking of movies, for decades the black slave was little more than a simpleton, and people of color were almost always the bad guys.

These are just a few of the behaviors and issues which I can tell about without having to go do research. As the son of an historian and a history major myself as an undergrad, these are facts that I’ve always known. These are the facts, coupled with personal experience, (iii) which made my Father and me the protagonist of the WSR. It is written in the Cambridge English Corpus (iv) that “All good protagonists require a formidable foe,…” We have that in the WSR. Our efforts and the results of the 1960s civil rights campaign were good, but only a good start. They have proven to lack the strength to survive much more of the modern WSR attack. Looking back and thinking about the blatant racism that still exists, I think we failed to cut off the head of the evil serpent.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel “The Hobbit“, Bilbo Baggins crept into the lair of the evil dragon, Smaug, and discovered the weak spot in the dragon’s armor. Until then the dragon was invincible. Until now WSR has given indication of invincibility. While people are still manning the front-lines of the everyday battle, I propose that we dedicate some serious brainpower to finding the weak links in the WSR armor and exploiting them for the good of all.

FOOTNOTES.

(i) I did history and philosophy as an undergraduate. Even though I ended up a psychotherapist, these are still subjects important to me.

(ii) pure democracy is where everyone in the community, males and females, had equal say in the community decisions. There were no “representatives” and the chief was often selected by the people and subject to their demands. Read Hudson, Charles (1976). The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville. University of Tennessee Press.

(iii) My Father grew up in a small Midwestern town that had no people of color. His first introduction to racism was in World War II. He was a disabled vet, who could barely walk and had just been returned to the US days before, when a gang of white men threatened to hurt him because he held the door for a black lady. That was his trigger. He became a member of the NAACP and, as a professor, advocated for black students throughout his career. He was responsible for the Pennsylvania university system offering black history, and, realizing that there were no black faculty to teach it, he did copious research so that he could be the first professor. His original specialty was the US Constitution.

(iv) This saying can be traced back to General Philip Sheridan, 1869, when he replied to Comanche chief Tochaway’s statement about being a good Indian by saying “the only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” Racism. WSR

(iv) The Cambridge English Corpus is a multi-billion word corpus of English language (containing both text corpus and spoken corpus data). The Cambridge English Corpus (CEC) contains data from a number of sources including written and spoken, British and American English.

White Supremacist Racism (WSR)

WSR-2

FOOTNOTES.

(i) I did history and philosophy as an undergraduate. Even though I ended up a psychotherapist, these are still subjects important to me.

And they came

Martin Anastas sat at the end of the bar with an untouched glass of raki in front of him. He sat quietly staring at the line of bottles below the standard bar mirror. The bartender would occasional pause near him, look at the untouched glass, and move on.

O’Sullivan’s was a good Irish pub just off the university campus. It was mostly frequented by faculty and graduate students. Undergrads didn’t come in much because it didn’t have loud music. O’Sullivan’s was more of the local debate center and the venue of some of the most outstanding exchanges of opinion the university community had ever known. Hardly a night went by that there wasn’t a large table of faculty being challenged by grad students over a pint of beer. The debates were often heated and lots of beer was consumed. Everyone left friends, agreeing to disagree. It was the academic’s paradise. The campus, the library and the classrooms were the formal centers of academia. O’Sullivan’s was the informal primus locus for debating ideas and testing hypotheses.

Martin Anastas, PhD, Ledbetter Professor of Philosophy until about two hours previous, had been a participant in many of the debates and a moderator in many more. His entire life had been dedicated to his greatest loves; philosophy, learning and education.

Dr. Raymond Fedder, Professor of Psychology, walked in the door. Sean, the owner/bartender, called out a welcome and with a tilt of the head set the new arrival’s attention on Martin. Raymond pulled up a stool next to Martin and ordered a pint of stout.

“You still drinking that Greek rot-gut?” Raymond tried to be light and friendly, but got no reply.

“Okay,” said Raymond, “so much for the casual approach. What the hell’s going on, Martin?”

“Sorry,” said Martin. “I just got fired.”

“You what?!”

“I got fired.”

“How in the hell do they fire the most popular professor ever to hold one of the most pretigious philosophical chairs in the country?”

“They tell you that you’re a liability to the university.”

“You’re a what?”

“They said I’m a fucking liability because the federal Department of Education says they think I’m teaching anti-American philosophy! They’re replacing me with a DOE approved teacher.”

“You must be kidding. It’s April 1st. This must be an April Fools joke. This type of thing doesn’t happen.” Raymond was dumbfounded. What the hell was anti-American philosophy? “A DOE approved teacher is an oximoron!”

“They made me clean out my office before I left campus.”

“That’s absurd! You have to fight this!”

“And how do I fight it?” Martin asked. “I’ll be lucky to get my pension.”

As they talked another friend, Amos Frank, PhD, Associate Professor of Physics, entered the pub. He pulled a stool around the end of the bar so he could sit on the other side of Martin.

Amos’ experience was with the government always wanting his department to develop something that the government could use to make a bigger and more destructive weapon. Amos had survived several such episodes, so his advice was “hang in there, this too will pass.”

“I wonder,” Martin said after a great deal of useless suggestions made to make him feel better, “if this is what refugees feel like?”

“What do you mean?” asked Raymond.

“They have no control over their lives or their destiny. That’s why they’re fleeing. There are people whose sole purpose in life is to destroy their lives as well as their way of life. They are often treated by those who are driving them out as well as those with whom they seek asylum as inferior and losers. Do you think refugees are angry? I bet they’re damn angry. Isn’t anger a part of the cycle of grief? I’m absolutely pissed beyond belief!”

“But what are you fleeing?” Amos was lost. He was usually lost in anything other than a scientific argument.

“I feel like I have no control over my life. My own government seems absolutely intent upon destroying my life as well as my ability to live. It is definitely destroying the land that I love and calling me inferior and a loser because they have the power. I’m watching nature being raped. I’m watching people being abused for the benefit of a handful of super-rich people. I’m watching prejudice and violence being normalized. I’m being told that my students can not seek truth and understanding but must be taught to conform and believe what the government tells them. If I do otherwise it is called anti-American.”

“I can’t believe that you would ever be accused of being anti-American,” argued Raymond. “To disagree with the government is an integral part of democracy.”

“Who says we still have a democracy?” questioned Martin.

“That’s a ridiculous question,” Amos snapped. “Soon enough people will see through these ass-holes and vote them out. It will be okay.”

“Normally I love your naivete,” Martin almost smiled, “but that type of naive sentiment actually pisses me off. These monsters survive because of such sentiment.”

“I have to agree with Martin on that one,” said Raymond. “Even before Hitler’s final take-over of the German government people were saying ‘it can never happen here.’ We’re doing the same thing.”

“Oh, come on guys,” Amos looked seriously concerned, “you guys are talking like a couple of conspiracy geeks.”

“Do you know poem by the German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller?” Martin asked.

“Who?” both of his friends asked.

“Martin Niemoller was a Luthern pastor who opposed Hitler and paid dearly. He did survive and in 1946 wrote the famous poem . . .”

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

“We’re not there yet,” exclaimed Amos.

“Aren’t we?” questioned Martin.

“I know how you feel, Martin,” Raymond said, “but we’ll take this to the Regents and we’ll win. You’re a phenomenal teacher and a brilliant thinker. They won’t get rid of you.”

“Thank you, Raymond,” said Martin. “but they don’t want a phenomenal teacher or brilliant thinker. Those are the last things they want. They want someone to indoctrinate students with the government’s latest position. It’s 1984, my friends.”

Martin’s two friends tried to disagree but they couldn’t find a flaw in Martin’s argument or logic. The government was using double-think and snubbing morality while claiming to be the definers of morality. They were teaching that war is peace, slavery is freedom and ignornce is strength, just like the novel. They finally gave up the argument and invited Martin to join them with a couple of grad students who wanted to pitch the idea of an interdisciplinary doctoral program.

As expected, Martin politely declined and the two friends moved to a neaby table.

Martin was actually listening in on the grad students as they made their pitch when three men entered the pub. They stood for a moment at the door. They were all dressed in black suits, white shirts with bright red ties, and an American flag on their suit-coat lapel.

“We’re looking for Professor Anastas,” they demanded of the bartender.

Before Sean could say or do anything, Martin looked up. “I’m Professor Anastas.”

The men made their way to the end of the bar; one on each side of Martin while the third stood facing him.

“Dr. Martin Anastas, you are under arrest for unAmerican activities and teaching subversive philosophy. Please turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

As everyone in the bar was paralyzed with shocked, Martin stood up and put his hands behind his back as instructed. The men in black hand-cuffed him.

He turned to his friends and said “And they came for me . . . .”

Martin was led from the bar. His friends looked at each other wondering what they should do. It was then that they heard the shot. A single shot and then silence.

The evening news ran a report.

“Martin Anastas, an immigrant college professor, was shot dead as he resisted arrest for unAmerican activities.”

And they came . . . .

One more step toward totalitarianism

Does this article (i) scare anyone else? I can’t believe how many of my family and friends have taken an “oh, it’s going to be okay” attitude throughout this debacle even if they are strongly against Donald Trump. Here is yet another step toward totalitarianism. We should be afraid and take action. I grew up with an historian father – a specialist in Constitution. Maybe this is why I seem to be more aware of ebbs and flows of history around me. Perhaps this is why I take the saying “those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it” so seriously.Sports teams and fans should definitely understand the concept. The team that doesn’t review a game to see why they got their butts whipped is destined to get defeated again and again. The people who believe that their government is immune to those things which brought down governments throughout history are one day going to be greatly surprised. That’s us. Freedom of speech and the existence of a free and unfettered press were the first ones listed in the Amendments to the Constitution…. freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Trump has openly said that he thinks this is ridiculous. We should do whatever he says. Wait a minute. Doesn’t that sound like authoritarianism or totalitarianism? We already have fascism according to the very definition of fascism written by its founder, Benito Mussolini. “The definition of fascism is the marriage of corporation and state.” “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” (ii) Donald Trump has openly violated the constitution, calling it an archaic document and calling its authority over him “phoney”. (iii) Trump’s most recent act of taking over the US Agency for Global Media and replacing its leadership with faithful followers should give all American cause for concern. Actually I propose that this is cause for more than concern. It is a cause for fear and action. For most dictators, that’s one of the first thing they do – take over or shut down the press. I did a bit of research. I took twelve of the best known authoritarian rulers (dictators) in twentieth-century history and, reviewing their history and methods of rule, arrived at nine things which almost every dictator does. None of the twelve had more than two of these nine that did not apply to them. All tyrants . . .

Attack the press
Have someone for people to hate and blame
Promise to make the country great again – the promise of lost glory makes uneducated people think they’re going to get something. Nationalism.
Attack intellectuals
commit human rights abuse
practice and promote political persecution
nepotism
corruption
economic mismanagement

The authoritarian rulers I reviewed were . . . . Benito Mussolini, Italy, 1922-1943 Adolph Hitler , Germany, 1933-1945 Mao Zedong, China, 1949-1976Vladimir Lenin, Soviet Union 1917-1924Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union 1924-1953António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal, 1932-1968Francisco Franco, Spain, 1936-1975Abdul Qassen, Iraq, 1958-1963Hafez al-Assad, Syrdia, 1970-2000Saddem Hussein, Iraq, 1979-2003Muammar Gaddafi, Lybia, 1969-1977Idi Amin Dada Oumee, Butcher of Uganda, 1971-1979
Actually, on a global basis, this list just scratches the surface, but I couldn’t check them all.
Now consider how Donald Trump compares to them.

Attacks the press. Trump calls the press the “enemy of the people”. This is not unique to him. While most commonly associated with Adolph Hitler, several of the above dictators used that or a similar phrase. Trump has been tireless in his attempt to discredit the American press. Fox News, which has been caught in lies and doctoring photos, is his only ally. Now he is literally taking over the US Agency for Global Media.
Have someone for the people to hate and/or blame. Hitler used Jews and people of color. Mao had the “capitalist pigs”. Hussein had the Shi’ites and Idi Amin had the English. Trump uses Immigrants, Muslims and to some extent any non-Fundamental-Christian group, “liberals” and LGBTQ. He has attacked these groups as not only un-American but a threat to America and all but given followers permission to physically abuse and attack them.
They all promise to make their country great again. Super-nationalism is not only dangerous but a very powerful control tool, especially over generally uneducated people. This was part of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Question is, who defines what makes a country great. Trump obviously feels that making the super-rich even richer is making America great. Nevertheless there is no doubt that he is using MAGA for his own purposes.
Attack intellectuals. (iv) All of the above dictators either attacked, tightly controlled intellectuals or both. The Khmer Rouge (v) systematically jailed or killed most of their intellectuals. We sponsored a young Cambodian girl whose father, a police office, was killed while she, her brother and mother, a nurse, were dumped in the jungle to die. Trump has very carefully created a conspiratorial fear of scientist, educated people and anyone who insists upon thinking for themselves. He has successfully used a very long-standing American attitude; viz. anti-intellectualism and “my ignorance is as good as your knowledge.” (vi)
There is no doubt that Donald Trump has committed numerous human rights violation. It is strongly suggested that he is aware of what he is doing since he has refused to permit United Nations human rights investigators and advocates into this country. His treatment of people presenting themselves at the US border seeking asylum, the separation of migrant children from their parents, and treatment of Native Americans is absolute evidence of human rights violations. In reviewing the dictators we find that they generally pick on people who, as a group, might pose a threat or gain public sympathy and vilifies them.
Political persecution is perhaps the best known hallmark of a dictator/authoritarian ruler. That Donald Trump practices political persecution is beyond argument. Obviously, since he is not a confirmed dictator yet, he doesn’t have the power to throw his political opponents in prison as the other dictators did. However, he does the next best thing. His tweets, such as “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” incite violence. (vii) His sole method of dealing with political opposition is insult, threat and encouraging followers to do the same.
Nepotism is another common practice of dictators and authoritarian rulers. They do it because they can. Donald Trump’s children have no qualification for the positions they hold other than being his children. Need I say more?
Corruption. This is another very common practice. Of course, there is the old saying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Trump is a master at corruption. He puts visiting dignitaries up at hotels he owns and then charges the US government. He vacations and golfs at his own facilities yet charges the US government. He funnels money intended for his campaign into his personal account. His children travel the world at the US taxpayers’ expense. Even before announcing his intentions to run for President he was known as a liar and cheat being sued countless times for it.
Economic mismanagement. If running up the largest deficit known in US history and having the worst economy since Herbert Hoover, isn’t proof of mismanagement, let’s not forget the billions of dollars he has directed to the super-rich without accountability or oversight.

Now, the fact that Donald Trump practices all the same behaviors as a dictator doesn’t mean that he is a dictator . . . . yet. The fact that he has asked foreign leaders to help him get re-elected … the fact that the GOP is practicing voter suppression to retain power … the fact that he actually said that he would leave the White House peacefully if he loses the election indicating that he is aware that we know him capable of using violence … the fact that he definitely sees himself as being superior to the Constitution and law of the land … the fact that he practices these behaviors and appears to be using famous dictators as his role-models, all tell me that he wants to be an absolute ruler and we should worry. Many powerful countries throughout history; some bigger, older and more powerful than the US; have fallen to an authoritarian regime. This tells me that we should be afraid, and do everything in our power, as citizens, to get this man out of power as we work to return the republic to being the truly representative democracy we all desire.

FOOTNOTES.

(i) https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html a news report by CNN, among others, on 6/17/2020 describing Trump’s take over of the US Agency for Global Media.

(ii) As dictator of Italy and founder of Fascism, Benito Mussolini strongly influenced totalitarian rulers such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, António de Oliveira Salazar, and several others. In 1932 the Enciclopedia Italiana published a thirty-seven page essay by Mussolini and an Italian philosopher, Giovanni Gentile, entitled La dottrina del fascismo (The doctrine of fascism.).

(iii) https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/23/how-trump-disparages-the-constitution/ a 10/23/2019 article by the Washington Times

(iv) I must impress upon the reader that the term “intellectual” does not describe some sort of highly educated elitist. It describes a person who is a seeker of knowledge and wisdom. Often they are educated, nevertheless, I know several people who are definitely intellectuals and have very little formal education. Intellectuals also tend to be free and independent thinkers which pose a threat to dictators.

(v) The Khmer Rouge was a communist military junta that governed Cambodia from 1975-79.

(vi) see: Pierce, Charles P. (2009) Idiot America: How stupidity became a virtue in the land of the free. Doubleday. New York. and Hofstadler, Richard (1962) Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Vintage Books. New York.

(vii) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-shares-video-of-supporter-saying-the-only-good-democrat-is-a-dead-democrat/ a 5/28/2020 article by CBS.

Finding out who we really are.

I find it quite sad that so many people never find out who they really are. It seems, from rather simple observation, that the lucky ones among us tend to discover who they really are rather late in life. I have a number of nomad friend whom I think have discovered their real selves, but even most of them were well into adulthood.
     If you have read any of my philosophical essays on social systems, you will know that I believe that social systems (i) tell us who we are, what we believe and set expectations on our lives and behavior. This is quite unfortunate because it leave us totally out of the loop. What is the current popular acronym? WTF? It’s our life. What right do social systems have telling us who we are.
     My Mother has been called a “spitfire”. Sometimes that was meant as a compliment. She defied her father, who was speaking for the social system, and refused to just get married and start having babies. She went to college. Well, college was interrupted by WWII, but when I was eleven years old and she graduated from Indiana University, you wouldn’t find a more proud father. Sadly, I’m not sure she ever discovered who she really was. She had lots of talents. She earned her PhD when she was over 60 years old. The up side is that I don’t think she ever stopped trying to find out, even though I don’t think she was conscious she was looking.
     My Father was again limited and pidgeon-holed by the social systems. Returning from WWII as a disabled vet, he completed his PhD with a specialty in US Constitution. He was strongly recruited by the US Department of State but the social systems told him that he shouldn’t risk taking a family to foreign countries. He turned down an unbelievable opportunity. He was cautious to the extreme. Even though he had a good career and retired as a highly respected professor, knowing him, he wasn’t happy. He learned about our family roots in Ireland. That seemed to be a turning point in his discover of who he really was. He studied Irish history and became Cainteoir Gaeilge (Irish speaker), which, by the way, is one of the primary reasons that I ended up moving to Ireland and starting my PhD. By the time he retired at 65, he was spending three months a year in Ireland. Part of that time was spent on the west coast where they don’t speak English, and part of that time was in Belfast. He started a program where he brought Belfast teenagers from both sides of the trouble to the US where they could get to know each other on neutral ground and become leaders of peace. It was a very successful program. The program meant that he spent a lot of time in the middle of the dangers of Belfast and he told me stories of being followed by “protestant” gangs and rescued by the provisional IRA and being on the English MI6 watch list. He enjoyed Irish dancing into his 80s, founded a very active Irish heritage group, and traveled the country visiting or presenting at Irish festivals. He had learned who he was and it wasn’t the frightened, bespeckled academic he had been taught to be.         It would be interesting, but I’m afraid that it would be depressing, to know how many people actually have the opportunity to learn who they really are. I’m seventy-four years old. Until I was twenty-one I spent as much time out in the mountains and forests as possible. I loved sleeping on the ground under a tree, canoeing down a fast stream, being in the middle of a forest far from humanity. It would have been interesting to know where that love might have led me, but, alas, my future was dictated by social systems. It was understood that I would become some sort of academic or professional. Ending up in medical school was a bit of a surprise, but it was in keeping with the dictates of my social systems. It was understood that I would end up in a “helping” profession. I have to credit my eldest grandson with being the catalyst of my enlightenment.   My eldest grandson, who was about seven at the time, wanted to run a 5k race at Disney World. His father had had a hip replacement, his mother was running the half-marathon, and his two sisters were in college. Even though I walked with a cane due to arthritis, I figured that I could hobble along for 3.1 miles. I didn’t know there was a time limit. Long story short, I learned to walk, then run, and fell in love with running to the point that I was soon doing ultras – running 40-60 miles through mountains and deserts. It brought me back to what the social systems had forced me to give up when I was young. I started traveling the country running and living in a 5×8 cargo trailer that I fitted out with a bed, galley, chest of drawers, and table.
   I lost my wife in 2011. Being disabled by a serious heart condition and a host of other problems, she had been my biggest cheerleader. Then I met Pamela in December of 2013. She had been a tri-athlete. She became my catalyst, my fast-track, to learning who I really am. We clicked and by the spring of 2014 we had hit the road together in a sixteen foot 1980 trailer. We worked as volunteers for Glacier National Park. That’s how we ended up Montana residents.
   It was this opporunity that enabled me to learn who I really am. The farther off the grid we lived, the happier I was. We went to the deserts of southwestern Arizona for the winter and fell in love with the desert. Again, the farther off the grid, the happier I was. I can’t express how happy I was to find myself, and I can’t thank Pamela enough for helping me.
   Thanks to Pamela and our nomadic life, I learned who I am. I find that I love being a nomad. I love living and sauntering through the wilderness. It is my natural home. I don’t want a place to settle down. Sticks-n-bricks; the nomad’s term for houses, scare me. I’m also pretty much of a recluse. If it weren’t for Pamela, I’d be happy by myself for great lengths of time, as long as I had the wilderness. We are currently riding out the pandemic in a lovely home, with a wonderful 1.25 acre hollow, in a nice western Kentucky town. I’m happy spending my time here with Pamela. Nevertheless, I’m desperately homesick for the wilderness. I’ve learned who I really am.
   It is sad that it should take so long for the lucky few of us who learn who we really are. It is even more sad that so many people; I’d guess a vast majority; never have the opportunity. I can’t help but wonder whether the real problem with humanity is that most people never have the opportunity to discover the real “me”. The more I study social systems, the more I find them the source of our misbehavior, our unhappiness and the barriers to becoming who we really are, the more angry I become. Perhaps, rather than try to make sense of the horrible destructive, violent, apathetic society, I should be focusing on how people can overcome the social systems that misdirect us, mislead and misinform us, and create the evil, destructive, violent creatures we’ve become.
   With this realization, my heart goes out to the uneducated, misdirected masses who have become the almost mindless, definitely unsuspecting, slaves of the social systems. It will be hard to free them. The social systems love to vilify the intellectuals; i.e. people who think on their own. It appears to be coming down to a battle between the social systems and the intellectuals. The prize is the freedom of the masses who still think that “this is all there is in life.”

No such thing as bad publicity

The line “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” is credited to PT Barnum of Barnum & Bailey fame. He was a self-publicist and a publicist’s publicist. Is his saying true? Movie stars and politicians seem to believe it. Barnum’s show, touted as The Greatest Show on Earth, and its precedessors ran from 1871 to 2017! What do you think?

It is really difficult to stop someone like Barnum. Case in point: Donald Trump. Whether it is a picture and an old statement about his daughter that leads one to wonder about incest or factual evidence of encouraging violence, they all provide name and face recognition.

We can’t stop the tweets, posts and behavior, but we can reduce the publicity impact by following a few guidelines.

(1) Don’t use derogatory nicknames. It immediately turns off everyone you’d like to have read what you write.

(2) Don’t show pictures of Trump even if you’re talking about something horrible he did. Pictures create face recognition. Post pictures of what he did; e.g. a picture of polluted water on a native American reservation. People remember the face and forget why they know it.

(3) Don’t read and react to every Tweet he posts. The man puts out about 1 Tweet every 15 minutes for 8 hours a day. To acknowledge and argue each of them gives him name recognition. People recognize a name and forget why they heard it. You also give his faithful something about which to argue.

Another factor. Twitter will tell you of the millions who follow Trump’s tweets. That doesn’t mean that all of those agree with him. Those vast numbers who disagree and debate his tweets are counted among “followers”. That builds his ego, which already surpasses Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar and Adolph Hitler all rolled into one. I think we would be best to totally ignore him on social media and focus on his actual behavior. That gives anyone plenty about which to write.