White Supremacist Racism (WSR)

WSR-2

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.

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.

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.