Starting With Two

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Breaking it down to just two, dividing people into two major categories. Those that are inquisitive, and striving for knowledge, those that find intimidation the most efficient approach. After all, being inquisitive and gaining knowledge requires basic skills learned in early childhood. It requires a concerted effort. As a species we have many more attributes than most of the other life forms on this biosphere. Therefore, because we can improve our survival skills throughout life, being inquisitive and keeping knowledge, being self-reliant, has many positive attributes. However, as we observe in many other species, physical power, intimidation, is the predominant normal. In many large mammals, the dominant male controls the social structure, and therefore keeps the dominant genetic lineage.

Perhaps, that our species has always had these two broad divisions. Our current time of global communication simply allows populism to find its echo chambers. The very personal identity, self-esteem and self-confidence, gravitate towards their echo silos. Alternative facts and fake news go viral. Perhaps it could be said that these extremely emotionally charged members of our society can upset democratic processes just through the spread of viral misinformation.

Homegrown terrorism, individuals super charged emotionally, emboldened by viral messages perhaps pushed to their breaking point, "well somebody has to do something, I guess I have to."

Can we trace this back to an earlier beginning? Perhaps. By this, I ponder causation for earlier beginning in individuals. Simply hereditary continuance. Yes, there are natural inherited attributes, brought to my attention that perhaps 50% of our adult persona. The remaining 50% is therefore available for us to nurture and develop. If this remaining 50% from the earliest age is channeled by parental guidance heavily slanted by social and cultural norms. It's the natural desire for parents to guide their children towards a life of social acceptance, and therefore the default outcome is conformity. A higher family social involvement in community, precipitates the natural tendency towards the cloning of behaviours. Whether this be accomplished through gentle encouragement, or intimidation, the young mind is shaped. There are many directions, two that come to mind are; religious teachings, group team sport participation. Perhaps most times both directions are being pursued. It is in this regard that I suggest the following. Both religious teachings, and group team sports are hierarchal and authoritarian by design. The young mind is conditioned to adhere to authority. By design hierarchal power and authority. Climb the ladder to success, be a leader, maybe you will eventually be at the top? Purity of the structure is foremost, individuals may be fallible however the structure may never be tarnished. This appears to be the trend in religious affiliations, sports teams, as well as academic institutions. Perhaps it may be fair to say that all human social groups constructed are infallible by nature, as maintained by populism, despite proven documented indiscretions.

Keep in mind that during the earliest impressionable years of the child, parental guidance is both the facilitator and the responsible agent for underdevelopment of natural skills. A strict and regimented path of development discourages two-way communication in both religious studies and team sports. It is all about the future goal of being on a winning team, and socially fitting in. It is for this reason that the underdevelopment of natural skills is endangered. In order for the young mind to develop their natural inquisitive nature, curiosity and self-identity. Here begins the contrast. The young mind left to discover and learn, with simple nurturing and guidance, develops a self-confidence and self-esteem based on discovery, learning and experience. A path through life begins. The previously mentioned direction is about conformity and adherence to authority.

Over the past years it is been my opinion that in the process of normal social interactions, shared knowledge and experiences requires none of the participants to assume a position of authority. If the social interaction is between people of similar inquisitive nature, and curiosity, then all participants will learn from the experience. However here becomes the divergence of social harmony. Social interactions, where one or more of the individuals come from a background of the hierarchal and authoritative path, friction and dysfunction are the highly probable interactions. The individuals from hierarchal and authoritative paths default in most cases to assuming their personal role as the authoritative individual. It is here suggested that an assumed authoritative role is driven by ego. Self-confidence is the close cousin of ego, knowledge and understanding and experience are seldom required. It's about posture. "Fake it till you make it." Why? Perhaps there is a very simple answer. And that answer is, when the inquisitive nature has been suppressed or oppressed, it simply never developed. An individual devoid of self-esteem and self-confidence because of self-development. When knowledge, experience and self-development skills are missing then domination and intimidation fills the void. Perhaps then populism is simply collections of echo chambers of those deprived of personal self-development through no fault of their own. They simply don't know any better. Those that realize this, simply conclude that they are so far behind that continuing their path of intimidation is their only option.

There is little doubt that we can conclude the following. Members of our species which are immersed in descendents of capitalist, colonialist and Christian societies have the highest dysfunctional social and economic overall status. Internal denial of narcissistic, toxic behaviours. Glorification of the social and political structure. Assimilation, genocide and intimidation repeated throughout the centuries. This is not a sustainable program of endeavour! Our future depends upon members of our society understanding that we must interrupt and break these hereditary social repetitive cycles. We must stop the rigid paths of development. We need to step back and allow for the young inquisitive mind to show possibilities of greatness and then nurture and guide for each young mind towards the possibility of being the best that it can be. Unfettered by tradition and cultural expectations. We create toxic behaviours in our society, because we as a society inhibited the development of any alternative life path. We as a society, have created the minds of those who are now outside of the social normal expectation, drug addicted, homeless. Home-grown terrorists were homemade, by hereditary ideology. It’s a “race to the bottom”, of elevating those most capable of management of power and authority. For it is these traditional and cultural expectations that have brought us to such a dysfunctional state of multiculturalism. Stop shaping the young minds to be a mirror of ourselves, or our parents and grandparents wanted of us to be.

Concentric Circles, our fate?

Throughout history, we have the archaeological evidence of many, many collapsed civilizations.

At in the past, there was a crumb of knowledge. That, for a community to achieve stable self sufficiency, a population of approximately three hundred fifty thousand. During our current era, this threshold sets into motion the internal commerce to self replicate with a notable lower need for outsourcing. The time to achieve this density throughout history varies, dependent upon the advancement of the technology of the era. 

Consider for a moment an analogy to the life cycle of a Cottonwood tree. Each year’s growth ring brings new social height to the species. Each growth ring represents the additional layer, considerably larger in displacement, to the previous layers. For example, a growth ring from the century mark would be considerable area displacement compared to a growth ring from the tenth year. During the later years of growth, the inner core declines, and core rot is the eventual near end life cycle. Eventually, the height and mass of the plant, the weakened core, and a high wind event will bring the tree down. The natural life cycle is completed. 

Perhaps a comparison of our human civilizations, past and present, can foreshadow the certainty that awaits. Let’s for a moment set an arbitrary threshold for internal commercial sustainability at a population of five hundred thousand, and an end point of civilization collapse at five thousand years. Internal core rot, perhaps beginning about the three thousand year mark. This is a threshold when the expansion and establishment of new outer growth declines, and the inner core has already declined and collapse because of infrastructure failure. Water, sewer, bridges and other public service infrastructure. The tax revenue collected from the reduced new outer ring is not sufficient for the repair and replacement of core infrastructure. Inflation has ballooned, civic government has ballooned, the entire population centre is top heavy with annual budget costs and trimming in recent decades, delaying the timely replacement of structures at the core. Technological advances of the time of this population area allow for people to retire at an earlier age and live decades longer. This then becomes the additional burden of civic government, along with yearly inflation, to fund from slower growth at the outer new growth areas.  

For further consideration we have observed that ice ages occur about every one hundred and twenty thousand years. There is geological evidence for three, and further evidence that there have been five in the earth’s past. During these natural event the sea level has changed by about one hundred and twenty meters, or over three hundred feet of fluctuation. Observing that life flourishes along coastlines, with this knowledge we know coastlines are in continual movement. Therefore, our civilizations of the past were oblivious to this knowledge, and decline because of natural displacement that sustained them in their era.

This was this morning’s thoughts, more to be expanded upon. Insight is paramount. 

In The Abscence of Nurture

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Throughout the natural world we observe offspring being nurtured by parents, or the social community. In many species, this perpetuates the learned survival skills. Observe a subtle difference between parental nurturing, and establishment of conformity.

Nurturing will establish survival skills relevant to the surroundings. Conformity will establish behaviour that is peer acceptable. There is little or no acceptable deviation from conformity, because of individual experience and understanding. It is social group solidarity. For the individual to engage in behaviour outside the social conformity will cause negative consequences, regardless of the positive outcome from the deviation. "Self reliance" is discouraged, and chastised to maintain the authority of the group. It's as though, training a puppy, with a rolled up newspaper. Community pecking order establishes the authoritarian leader. Predominantly an alpha personality, maintains their rise to power, through intimidation. Logic and reason are the enemies of authoritarianism. Common western law is based on individuals judged by their peers. This is contradictory to most group dynamics. whereas, beta, as well as alpha personality types, elevate the most intimidating alpha to the position of leader. 

 When nurturing and inquisitive nature are discouraged and chastised, then directed with conformity, the natural development is truncated, and emotional scaring begins. It usually last for a lifetime. With insufficient knowledge and experience, an alternative path of understanding is unlikely. Therefore, toxic behaviour is intergenerational. It is sustained by dominant alpha ego. During the early developmental years; “the world is your oyster, be all that you can be”, then later, endless societal systematic intimidation to conform.

God can do anything!

An over simplification statement made by a “believer” yesterday afternoon. Wow, how did we get here? Well, in a little over an hour of pleasant exchanges and sharing, it came to the verge of personal attack and insult. At this point of observation, I made a general statement to end the discussion and walked away. 

How is it that individuals can agree, and share time in so many areas of life, and gravitate to this ultimate outcome? This most recent event of yesterday may as well be a topic of intrigue the morning after.

Overview; an articulate senior in their mid-70s. Someone that carried on a general conversation as though we had been a long-term friendship. This was a mutually enjoyable in-the-moment time. What happened?

I had shifted the latter part of our conversation towards the achievement of our species over the last half of this decade. Space exploration, new knowledge about biological function including the genetics, a previously unknown to our recent ancestors. How the fifteen hundred foot walls of the Grand Canyon represent layers of history. That in some parts of our continent, we conclude natural process adds approximately one inch of new material during a period of about one thousand years. W have found in sediment of the Mediterranean shore, the remains of a ship from centuries past. The cargo was uncovered, which comprised about three tons of metal ingots. This find concluded that there must have been, perhaps many centuries, of commerce in both directions across the Mediterranean waters. This discovery suggests a sophisticated network of trade between the two continents. In passing during this sharing of discovery, related that translations of ancient Egyptian writings are missing any record of the Jewish people as slaves in Egypt. How could this be? With such interaction between the continents, you would expect a passing mention of the person with special human powers that performed miracles. But no, we find that what is translated becomes simply the daily events of their time. People living day to day, just as we do now. Therefore, possibly the central character of this sacred book perhaps never existed? How could the Egyptians have failed to document such historical events just across the water, on a busy trade route?

Shared that decades ago, the Hubble telescope aimed at the darkest part of the night sky. If you held your arm out in front of you with your thumb pointing upwards, the part of the night sky photographed would be represented by your thumbnail. The results of a three-day time exposure revealed more galaxies of various sizes and shapes that are previously known anywhere in our night sky. We have also observed the coming into existence of three stars, on average, per earth day. Incredible! Objects millions of light years away, formed by process we don’t understand. Our own sun is a medium-sized star which probably came into existence the same way? How then can the Genisis story explain our own star? How can there be a personal relationship with a “creator of the universe”, that is busy creating new stars, planets, complete galaxies far off in space millions of light years away? Really?

They responded with the statement that begins this reflection. “God can do anything!” 

I turned and walked away, stating regret for having this random discussion. 

~The End~ 

How can people be so cocooned in their daily lives they cannot see the natural world around them? Knowledge that to our ancestors could not have conceived in their wildest imagination.

Our Own Insignificance

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What has been the experience of our species over the past two years?  Global pandemic!

Portugal earthquake 1755

The devastation caused many Portuguese to question their religious beliefs and the horrific event has shaped Lisbon's history ever since. ... As the tremors rocked the churches, the candles tumbled, igniting the decorations, and creating massive fires which ravaged Lisbon for five further days after the earthquake.

copied from an article:

In classical Western theism, God is said to be both good and all-powerful. So how do we square natural disasters – global pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, bushfires, and so on – with a God who, because he is good, would not want natural disasters and, because he is all-powerful, could stop them if he wished?

This was a question asked after the devastating Lisbon earthquake by Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the great philosophers of the European Enlightenment. It led to one of his most famous works: Candide, or l‘Optimisme (1759).

On 1 November 1755, at 9.30am, Lisbon in Portugal was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake, followed by further tremors, fires, a tsunami, and civil unrest. It was All Saints Day and large numbers of people were killed as churches collapsed upon them. Statistics for natural disasters, then as now, are notoriously rubbery. But between 20,000 and 40,000 people died out of a population of some 200,000.

Then, as now, people wondered whether there was a divine plan to the devastation that shook their Christian beliefs and monuments.

1918 flu pandemic

Authors of books on 1918 warned everyone about future pandemics.

The 1918 pandemic transpired in three waves, from the spring of 1918 to the winter of 1919 — ultimately killing 50 million to 100 million people globally. The first wave in the spring of 1918 was relatively mild. A majority of 1918 flu deaths occurred in the fall of 1918 — the second, and worst, wave of the 1918 flu

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As you read the above, it should be apparent through the application of logic and reason, as a species: we are not a "top predator".  The past two years demonstrate once again that a life form devoid of human consciousness, can be in control of populations of many varying species.  History does repeat itself.  Communities of social interaction, just as with the Salem witch trials, apply their own conclusions.  "Everything happens for a reason."  When logic and reason are not available, and the understanding of processes in the natural world governed by laws of physics and chemistry, the answer defaults to "God works in mysterious ways".

Beyond a reasonable doubt, the collective endeavour applied with a broad brush of Christians on a global scale, has had absolutely no results and affect on the species that encompass the microbial world.

It should become apparent that all life forms, have the expressed intent to continue, and avoid extinction.  As long as resources are available for life to exist, it will propagate and expand to fill and utilize life's abstinence.  Only when I life form reaches a threshold of limited resources, does the population begin to decrease.  In some cases populations decrease because another life form utilizes the current population as an opportunity for its own expansion.  As we have observed in the natural world, rabbit population expands.  When a threshold of expansion and density of population reaches a threshold, disease begins to take hold in the general population, and the numbers decrease.  This is just one example of the microbial world mindlessly, without consciousness, utilizing resources available for itself.  The cycles of rise and falls of populations of different lifeforms have always followed these general patterns.

Our species is simply another life form on this biosphere.  It is subject to all the laws of nature and physics, the rise and fall of populations, the extinction of lifeforms.  We find in the fossil record distant ancestors of our own species, long ago into extinction.

The consciousness of our species, has very perilous weakness, the internal desire of self, to be "the top predator", as bestowed upon the individual by a power greater than itself.  This very concept is at the foundation of the collapse of dynasties and empires.

The Preemptive Strike

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How do we further our understanding? Perhaps by revisiting a previous thought and digging deeper. Why did that happen? Is there something simple that I'm missing? Therefore I am titling this article based on one possible conclusion resulting from many decades of personal interactions.

"The preemptive strike."
To begin. I will list many phrases spoken to me over the years:

• I don't like the way you think.
• I don't want to talk about it.
• You're so smart, you should write a book.
• Nobody preaches to me.
• I'm too old to change.
• Unless you are asked, keep it to yourself.
• You're a teacher, I don't want to listen to you.
• You don't have to say a word. And I find you offensive.
• There is nothing you have to say that we want to hear.

These phrases, perhaps have one thing in common. They are spoken by someone who has established an emotional opinion. Their self-confidence and self-esteem feels challenged. They are not in inquisitive or knowledge seeking individual. Perhaps an underlying short attention span. Extremely defensive, feeling offended as a result of "too much detail.". Perhaps a dominant personality accustomed to managing conversations, arriving at conclusions or opinions aligned with their desires. I would further conclude that once spoken, these phrases truncate any possible future collaboration or cooperation.

I recently read, that an opinion established through emotion cannot be changed by logic, reason, or critical thinking. The primary goal is to protect ego, their personal opinion of themselves, their self-esteem. Ego, personal opinion, self-esteem, all based on historical emotional interactions. Within our society of echo chambers, Democratic majority, it is easy to conclude how "the Salem Witch Trials" came to pass. Thus any similar statements uttered, would indicate that a cooperative productive mutual future is highly unlikely. Simply walk away, the statement terminates what might have been possible.

Nearly 30 years ago, I held a position of responsibility. The direct supervision of eight trained technicians. Responsible for the quarterly evaluations and performance reviews. In addition, responsible for weekly status meetings with management at the assigned corporate accounts. It was during those years that I purchased motivational cassettes through the Day Timer catalogue. One title comes to mind as I am expressing the above conclusions. That title was: "Why Don't We Do Better Than We Know How Already." As I recall, I listened to this cassette many many many times. It was during those years that I was sent to our training Centre in New Jersey. A five week course on "conflict resolution", a course I found to be child's play, many instances of role-playing and evaluation of scenarios. Why did I find it child's play? For whatever reason, what was being taught, was for the greater part already my natural personality and behaviour mode.

_________________________

Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker:

Born in year 1926 in Alabama, the infamous Zig Ziglar (*1) is one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers. His humble initiation and even his first job as a salesman never stood in the way of his positivity, the output of which yielded him great fame and prosperity. 

His words always seemed to be conveyed straight from his heart and amid his messages about honesty, integrity, hard work and virtue, Zig was a comfortably encouraging person. He seemed to make his listener understand that one could do absolutely anything at all.

*1. Top Results Academy. “Zig Ziglar Biography - Interesting Facts, Achievements, Career Details.” Accessed November 22, 2021. https://topresultsacademy.com/authors/zig-ziglar/biography/.

I'm "done-wasting-my-life" HERE!

 

UPDATE:
"fb" has become such an integral part of our world. "reactivated" because there are radio programs listened to daily that have facebook pages. Quick access to financial institutions by chat on their corporate page presence on the platform. Found that fb has established relationships in the past two years with Samsung and LG to "pre-load" the fb app as part of "bloat" that can not be removed, only disabled.
Tethered to the platform for reasons of daily life that are more convenient than the alternative of using 1-800 numbers and waiting in a cue.

Certainly will no longer be doing the "swipe-down" on the "most-recent" tab. LOL This time has now been "reclaimed" and "repurposed"!!! Trimming of "friends list" will be a persistent attention.

/h
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fb has become a toxic environment of echo chambers - the rest is a steady stream of sponsored/marketing content - I'm "done-wasting-my-life" HERE!

It is with careful thought and consideration over this past week that I will be removing myself from the Facebook platform.

A changed social media arena.

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It's been 18 months of pandemic, now extreme natural events this past week. Social media has become a series of "echo chambers". Since the beginnings of Facebook, it is now clear that those that have felt isolated or marginalized have gravitated to their "tribe". No matter how illogical or irrational, facts knowledge and information are the enemy. There are now many public and private organizations of critical mass to cause extreme disruption in all societies as a whole. Death threats against doctors. The topic of a program called "The Current" this morning on CBC radio. Over past decades, the aging baby boomer population has been unable to have a personal family physician due to the retirement of earlier generations. Both provincial and federal governments have provided paths of immigration for trained doctors. At this current time, many licensed physicians now practising here in Canada are receiving death threats. As per the program, a physician coming forward, being advised by the RCMP, a threat has been received, can find no protection under our Canadian judicial system to take action against a perpetrator that is already been identified.

Unbelievable! Perhaps not so unexpected! Echo chambers? Colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy. The beginnings of every independent nation today with colonial beginnings. The excuse I hear for current policy from people that I have no one for most of my lifetime, "people need jobs." One of the most recent face-to-face interactions last summer, I was told, "Howard, unless you are asked. I don't want to hear it." Wow! An acquaintance for close to 15 years, hook line and sinker, part of the status quo Western Canadian way of thinking. Hatred towards indigenous people, all past events are justified because "those people would not have developed the land and the resources". The subliminal message that indigenous people are inferior and incapable. Just a bit of history about Saskatchewan. During the mid-19 twenties, a town northwest of Saskatoon, was the North American, both Canada and the US, headquarters for the KKK. The Apple does not fall far from the tree. Geographical pockets of conformity, "nobody preaches to me". They will continue to be what they have always been, "proud Christians".

Most recently, "the CBC is a propaganda arm of the liberal government." Really? I listen to the Vancouver morning program's beginning, usually at 5 AM. Two programs, The Early Addition with Stephen Quinn, The Current with Matt Galloway. Paying special attention to this morning's programs. Are they politically biased? Paying special attention this morning. I hear interactions with the public at large in local areas of British Columbia. I failed to observe how this can be labelled political propaganda.

Facebook! Perhaps the time has come to leave this platform. Evangelical Christians elected the most obnoxious president the United States has ever known, Trump!, The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has self identified as now becoming a person of deep faith conviction. Hook line and sinker, now a Christian. Remembering the morning after 9/11. A coworker came over and said to me "Howard, everything happens for a reason. If people would follow the Bible more closely, things like this wouldn't happen." A toxic evangelical Christian workplace. The social media platform is a broad global likewise, "toxic environment". Logic and reason and many will block you. As with my personal musician friend, "I don't want to know". People have retracted into their "cocoons". To further demonstrate, a childhood friend from my high school days. This past summer I dropped in for a visit. As is my usual conversation, I steer the topic to something general in the realm of public events. Then I ask a few questions, and give a few verifiable facts, which have led me to a particular conclusion. In very short order, I was labelled "I should disturber". Wow, more than 50 years later because I have knowledge and understanding, I have facts. Another example of "I don't want to hear it". Five decades, a senior in his own mind space, echo chamber. 

With careful consideration, I realize that an aging population, those of us that are baby boomers, find ourselves in circumstances that cannot be resolved. Therefore, I took the action to disconnect from my childhood friendship. There is no possible way to assist or help a dominant alpha male in an echo chamber. Profanity and hostility are all that they have.

It is thus with careful thought and consideration over this past week that I will be removing myself from the Facebook platform.