Competition and Conflict

I have been reading two books that influenced me to write this monograph on competition and conflict; viz. Total Freedom, a collection of the works of philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Nadeau and Kafatos’ book The Non-Local Universe: the new physics and matters of the mind. One could, perhaps, make an argument about fate when the point at which I was in both books was talking about conflict and competition.

Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote “Man has accepted conflict as an innate part of daily existence because he has accepted competition, jealousy, greed as a natural way of life.” At the same time Nadeau and Kafatos were talking about competition versus cooperation between species and making the point “While emergent cooperative behaviors within parts (organisms) that maintain conditions of suvival in the whole (environment or ecosystem) appear to be everywhere present in nature, the conditions of observation are such that we distort results when we view any of these systems as isolated.” (2)

It was one of those moments when I felt that I am not alone in the universe. Someone else sees the same things I see.

Actually it is far more than just the four of us and a few of my friends who would agree. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you follow me or have read any of my previous work this will not be the first time, not the last, that I point the finger of blame for the human slide to perdition in large part on the characteristics, idealogy and/or influence of capitalism. Competition is definitely used and promoted by capitalism.

Before someone starts pointing out the Greek olympics, Roman Circus Maximus, and Mayan ball games where the loser literally lost their hearts, I am not saying that competition is in any way new or unique to capitalism. Capitalism makes great use of competition and wants us to believe that jealousy, greed and competition are a natural way of life.

Capitalism survives on a relatively poorly educated work force that is trained from childhood that to be happy you must work hard; =df be a fierce competitor in the workplace; and spend more money than you earn to buy things which you do not need but which keep the wheels of capitalism turning and the capitalists growing richer. By keeping the workforce as minimally educated as possible they encourage greed and jealousy. Then they preach that the way to fix the greed and jealousy is to be a fierce competitor. It is so obvious and ludicrous that it is almost laughable except . . . it works.

There is really no evidence in nature that greed, jealousy and competition are an inate part of existence. Being a very arrogant species with the ability to abstract, we have a strong tendency to anthropomorphize just about everything. If you don’t believe this, go to a Disney animal movie.

I always find it rather ironic that radical, fundamentalist Christians will adamantly deny Darwin while equally adamantly defending many of his theories and concepts. But, of course, that is the religious defense of capitalism. Many modern researchers may not deny evolution as the on-going development of nature but are finding that Darwin’s hostile competition between species is not supported by fact and research.

Modern scientific research has realized that Darwin’s hostile competition just doesn’t exist. In fact, they find a definite cooperation between species.

Biologist V.C. Wynne-Edwards writes, “Setting all pre-conceptions aside, however, and returning to detached assessment of the facts revealed by modern observation and experiment, it becomes almost immediately apparent that a very large part of the regulation of numbers depends not on Darwin’s hostile forces but on the initiative taken by the animals themselves; that is to say, to an important extent it is an intinsic phenomenon.“ (3)

From reading the works of current ethologist it appears that this is achieved by adaptive behavior that divides the habitat into ecological niches where similar species can co-exist. (4) Actually cooperation is the key. This is confirmed by the works of James Gould and Paul Colvinvaux.

Gould, in his book on mechanisms and evolution of behavior, studied African predators and discovered a very efficient non-competitive system in place. He writes that “Carnivores avoid competing by hunting primarily in different places at different times and by using different techniques to capture different segments of the prey population. Cheetahs are unique in their high-speed chase stategy, but as a consequence must specialize on small gazelle. Only the leopards use an ambush strategy, which seems to play no favorites in the prey it chooses. Hyenas and wild dogs are similar, but hunt at different times. And the lion exploits the brute-force niche, depending alternately on short, powerful rushes and strong arm robbery.” (5)

Likewise Paul Colvinvaux, in his study of herbivores, found the same avoidance of competition. (6)

Of course this cooperation isn’t a conscious effort. There aren’t a lot of advantages of being the new kid in the animal kingom. Our fellow creatures tend to have thousands to millions more years of experience than us. The one advantage that we have is that we’re the new model. We have a larger cerebral cortex. One of the advanages of a larger cerebral cortex is that it allows us language skills and greater, or perhaps better said, expanded problem solving skills. Our brains have evolved to the point that we have the ability to abstract. That does not forgive our ignorance, or our arrogant refusal to learn from creatures that have survived far longer than us.

While we’re at it, we can not overlook the truth that we are the only animal species that will hunt another species to extinction and kill just for pleasure. We think we’re so superior, but all of the other species have learned and practice what Mr. Spock so eloquently stated in the movie Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home. “To hunt a species to extinction is illogical.” All of the predator species, who do not have our larger cerebral cortex, do not hunt a species to extinction.

When Jiddu Krishnamurti said “Man has accepted conflict as an innate part of daily existence because he has accepted competition, jealousy, greed as a natural way of life.” I’m not sure he had capitalism in mind, but, as the old saying goes, “if the shoe fits, wear it.”

There is no doubt that we have been indoctrinated with the idea that competition, jealousy and greed are a natural way of life. Reality confronts us with the fact that they are not a natural way of life to any other species on the planet. That should make us question whether or not they are really a natural way of life for humans or whether we have been indoctrinated to accept conflict and the suffering it brings for the benefit of a few who benefit from the suffering they cause.

FOOTNOTES

(1) Krishnamurti, Jiddu

(2) Nadeau, Robert and Menaas Kafatos. 1999. The Non-Local Universe: the new physics and matters of the mind. New York. Oxford Univ Press. p. 118 (electronic edition)

(3) V.C. Wynne-Edwards, “Self-Regulating Systems in Populations and Animals,” Science 147 (March 26, 1965): 1543

(4) Ibid. Nadeau and Kafatos. p. 116.

(5) James L. Gould. 1982. Ethology: Mechanisms and evolution of behavior. New York. Norton. p. 467

(6) Paul Colvinvaux. 1978. Why big fierce animals are rare: an ecologist’s perspective. Princeton, NJ. Princeton Univ Press. p. 145

Do humans serve a purpose?

Even the lowly and malaligned cockroach has an important role in its ecosystem and the system would be the lesser without it. Every creature one can name serves a purpose on earth. Sorry bug-haters. Bugs are probably the most important. What about humans? Do humans serve a purpose?

The arrogant homo sapiens seems to believe that the earth could not survive without them, when the truth of the matter is that the Earth would begin to heal without humans. We are invasive and destructive, destoying almost everything we touch. Even when we think we’re doing something good we are generally doing damage to the ecosystem. The only time that we actually do something that is constructive and positive is when we decide that we need to stay away and keep our hands off an area, species, etc.; i.e. do nothing.

Can you think of any purpose served by homo sapiens? I can’t. Our continued population growth and expansion threatens every ecosystem and other species on Earth. So let’s change the question to ‘COULD’ humans serve a purpose? Could we, by some miracle such as getting rid of capitalism, actually change our ways and serve a bona fide purpose?

I believe that there is evidence that we have the skills and capabilities to actually change from a destructive to productive part of nature. I do not believe that we have either the desire nor the incentive. We still believe that technology and capitalism are going to get us through the Sixth Extinction. We will not consider changing our ways until we actually witness the death. Once we are absolutely confronted by reality, then I believe two things will happen. Firstly, many will turn to religion, praying to their gods for salvation. Secondly, we will try to find a technological solution. When both of those fail, we might consider changing our behavior. I would suspect that we are incapable of arriving at that point before it is too late.

As to what purpose we might serve, I haven’t a clue. I guess we could become a more assessible part of the food chain, but that isn’t something to which any species aspires. Besides, observation and some research has shown that most predators don’t really like the taste of humans. Even when an another animal kills us, they rarely eat us. We evidently don’t taste like chicken.

We have all sorts of physiological advantages over other species. As we look at evolution, we realize that we are the new kid on the block with some serious changes to the brain such as a larger cerebral cortex. One of the advanages of a larger cerebral cortex is that it allows us language skills and greater, or perhaps better said, expanded problem solving skills. Our brains have evolved to the point that we have the ability to abstract. Put all this with our prehensile hands and opposable thumbs, and you’d think that there is something we could contribute to the good and welfare of nature and our world.

Damn! There must be something we can contribute … something that we can do other than destroy.

Blowin’ in the Wind Revisited

Sitting here sipping tequilla listening to Peter, Paul and Mary sing Blowin’ in the Wind in the hopes that it will dull the pain. There really are lots of perks to living so long, but you definitely pay the price. It seems like yesterday that I was a young activist dreaming, hoping, working and fighting for a better world for all people. I have always been proud of what my generation did in the 60s to get this nation moving in the direction of equal rights for all people. Many of us died. The closest I came to getting killed was the machine gun placements in Washington as we marched. Then I realized that they were too busy watching the young girls skinny-dipping in the Reflecting Pools to worry about me. LOL. Well, I guess I almost forgot about the night that about ten of us (graduate students) turned out to stop some over-zealous college students from getting killed by trying to extinguish the Gettysburg Peace Light. Police and rednecks were waiting for them. It would have been a blood bath. We stood in the middle. Thankfully I was young enough that I didn’t realize how close I came to dying. But the reward, equal rights for all people, was worth the risk. I really thought I’d depart this life in a more peaceful, equitable world. What a fool! So here I sit sipping tequilla, listening to Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the others who expressed our dreams in music realizing that it’s all gone now. It’s gone. Were we so naive to think that humans are capable of compassion and treating others with respect? The questions raised in this song still go unanswered. There’s one question not here; viz. how long can we continue to endure this evil before we totally give up hope? Is hope dead? Has evil won? I’m afraid of the answer.

Life in the Desert

We have four deserts in continental United States. The Great Basin Desert goes well into northern Oregon, covers part of southern Idaho and almost all of Nevada and Utah. The southern tip of Nevada and part of southern California is the Mojave Desert. A bit of southern California and a large part of Arizona has the Sonoran Desert. The vast majority of our desert time is spent in the Sonoran Desert. New Mexico and Texas have a bit of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Four year ago Pamela and I had never spent any appreciable time in the desert. We both thought we’d like to, but we had no idea if we would like the desert. We were filled with so many of the myths and misinformation about the desert. Being educated conservationists we had read books and seen documentary programs about life in the desert, but none of those prepared us for reality.

We were relatively new Montanans. We started working as volunteers for the National Park Service at Glacier National Park in 2013 and fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and the heavy cedar and hemlock forests of the west side of Glacier. How could we ever love anything else? Well, guess what?

Perhaps one of the greatest surprises for either of us was how we almost instantly fell in love with the desert. Granted, we don’t get here before October and we’re not only homesick for the mountains of Montana by March but the desert heat is driving us out. We’re not the only ones. The little town of Quartzsite, out in the Sonoran Desert, will have a million people there during its big RV show in January but even most of the locals are gone by mid-March. Summer temperatures get close to 120 degrees.

We move around a lot. That’s partially because we’re nomads and can’t handle being in one place too long, and partially because many of the places we stay have a 14 day limit. We abide by the rules even if we never seen anyone checking on us. Our favorite places are well away from towns or large gatherings of people. If our neighbors are in sight, they are generally no closer than a quarter of a mile away. We park Nitsitapiisinni so its big back window is facing the most interesting geological or natural feature. Right now I’m looking at the Whipple Mountains.

If you have been following me for any time you know that I frequently blog about life in the desert. Of course I’ve always been talking about the wildlife and plant life. But the desert has also been home to people since approximately 5500 BCE. Despite what most modern people think, these people, sometimes called “archaic”, had a good life. There was plenty of food and they could move to higher, cooler elevations in the summer and down to the low desert when there was snow up north. Actually, we have a lot of evidence that they didn’t generally play the snow-bird. If you’ve ever been in one of their dwellings on a warm day you can understand.

In what is now Big Bend National Park there is the remains of a home where a man raised several children and lived until he was well past 100 years old. When we stepped inside the temperature dropped significantly.

With furs, blankets, a fire and thick insulating walls, they were comfortable in the coldest of weather.

You and I probably wouldn’t appreciate their diet. I know I wouldn’t. I’m a vegetarian. They ate fish, clams, squirrels, rabbits, birds, snakes and lizards, and there were bighorn sheep and mule deer in nearby mountains. They didn’t need to farm. The plant food in the desert is phenomenal. Here’s just a quick summary.

Mesquite was probably the most important plant to desert people and they would try to put their villages near a large stand. One large shrub can provide twenty pounds of pods and seeds used for food. Agave provided food as well as material for bowstrings, clothing, shoes, baskets and many household items. Of course we can’t mention agave without mentioning that they did make a drink called pulque. When distilled that is tequila. Yucca provided soap and fruit to eat. Beavertail and Prickly Pear Cactus were excellent food sources. They would eat the paddles, flowers and fruit. Today we call it Nopalitos and I love to cook with it. To flavor your nopalitos you can use Fourwing Saltbush. Gourds were used for food and storage. Creosote was the local pharmacy. It is antibacterial and was used as a salve and for pain. We have creosote salve in our medicine cabinet right now. It does work. Juniper berries – which are actually the plant’s cone – were used for salves and foods. Ocotillo is an excellent for pain and swelling and makes good firewood. Pinyon pine is still a treasure. Currently Amazon sells them for around $45/pound. The nut contains 15% protein. That’s better than a burger points out the vegetarian writing this.

I could go on and on. There are entire books on this subject. These people ate well and all they had to do was go and get it. I’m sitting here looking out Nitsitapiisinni’s big back window and I can see six out of the eleven plants I just mentioned.

I don’t want to end on a down note, so I won’t talk about the reason we don’t find indigenous people living out in the desert since they encountered the whiteman. There is a tribe that holds out in the mountains of north-central Mexico. The literal translation of their word for whiteman is “bearded devil”.

The desert is a beautiful and fascinating place with an abundance of life. If I would ever just disappear you can believe that you’d probably find me in the desert, as far from so-called civilization as possible, kicking back in my earthen trench hut with the cottonwood roof, cooking up a mess of nopalitos while sipping on pulque. Want to join me?

20190114 – Baby, it’s cold outside

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This morning isn’t going to make it into the top ten of Arizona Desert Mornings. It’s only 45 degrees with an expected high of 58. Of course, back in Columbia Falls it is only 20 and they’ll be lucky to hit freezing. It’s all relative. The big thing is the overcast. I went out early and aimed the portable solar panel at where I think the sun might be.

Here’s where you get in the discussion about tilting solar panels versus flat-mounted panels, aiming, etc. Our roof top panels are flat-mounted. Whether or not they are tilted toward the sun is generally not an issue. The new photovoltic technology has made it so these panels will actually activate in a full moon. Nevertheless, basic logic will tell you that your panel is going to get more sun and therefore produce more energy when directly facing the sun. That means that the highly efficient photovoltic panels will be even more efficient when getting direct sunlight. This is why I add our portable on cloudy days or if we’re actually under trees, like we are at Glacier. I can aim the portable directly at the sun.

Our friend across the way had company by 0800. It’s another of our friends checking in on him. He has a tear-drop trailer. That means that he has a bed inside the trailer and the back end opens up for a kitchen. He now has a tent that covers one side of the trailer giving him a dry place to stand when getting in and out, and a canopy with a windscreen to give him a place to sit. It also covers his cooking area. He says he has over 200 sq ft of living space. Just most of it is al fresco.

This is really pleasant on nice days but we know that he experiences a lot of days like today and even worse. Like everyone out here, this life-style is his choice, but we all know it can sometimes be harsh. Pamela and I are extremely aware that we are the spoiled ones. That is why there are so many times that we have as many as eight people in our little trailer.

Heat is a big issue for full-timers, especially car and van dwellers. These folks must be very creative. Battery isn’t going to run a heater but open flames can be dangerous. There are some very nice catalytic heaters but they are still rather expensive. We have friends who live on as little as $600 a month. That’s a pretty tight budget. The biggest issues are, however, space, safety and venting. When you are living in a very small space every inch is important. Even if you get a relatively small heater you need space for your fuel source. Whatever you get must fit in your rig and not be underfoot. Even if you are in a rig as big as ours – 160 sq ft – safety is an issue. Where can the heater be placed that it isn’t going to get knocked over or be too close to a combustible material? Once you find such a place, which generally means some creative carpentry, you must be aware of venting. All of them require at least a cracked window and that creates other problems.

Most Americans rarely experience being uncomfortably cold without some way of getting warm. Those living on our city streets face it almost daily. Those living in vans and cars who are on a limited budget may be out of the elements, which is good, but they still face being cold. Heat is a precious commodity.