The facial expressions of cats are also very telling and they don’t much differ from ours. Domestic cats have advanced the ability to communicate far beyond their wild ancestors and they are able to clearly express their intentions, wishes, and feelings. But this is not the subject matter of this post and I better continue writing about the original theme because I want to finish the text today.

We all want to change the world and make it a better place, don’t we? As I sift through the myriads of comments, notes, messages, elaborations, rants, and tirades on news pages, blogs, chartrooms, social networking sites, and chat clients there appears to be one common sentiment. A sentiment that is voiced in a mind-boggling variety of terms and expressions but nevertheless can be compacted easily into a few essential statements: The world is in a bad state, everything is messed up, things are going into the wrong direction, we are doomed. And the uniform conclusion resulting from this uniform analysis is, that we have to save the world!

The intent to save the world may be uniform, but the approaches and proposals and detailed plans for change differ and are often contradictory. People disagree about the solutions because they view this life from different angles and they live in differing realities and their grievances are not the same.

As sad as it is, “saving this planet” is unlikely to become a coordinated effort. There is undoubtedly a majority of people who want to save the world, but they want to save the world for a variety of reasons and their goals are conflicting and antagonistic.

One reason for instance that instigates the desire to save the world is the fear of a socialist, communist, marxist, anarchist, atheist, nonconformist takeover of the beloved motherland and the installment of rules and regulations that are alien to the true nature of the nation.

Other reasons are the fear of alien immigrants, who could endanger the cultural values and traditions and destabilize the social fabric, or the fear of big government, which could waste tax payers hard earned money for social security or universal healthcare or free education instead of letting the principle of natural selection sort out the unfit.

There are people who want to save the world from non-believers (infidels) or followers of non-christian religions, and there are people who want to save the world from various conspiracies (New World Order, Mind Control, Jewish conspiracy), and from secret fraternities like the Freemasons, Skull & Bones, the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group etc.

There are also people who want to stem the erosion of traditional values and save the world from gays and lesbians, from dropouts and slackers, vegetarians and penny pinchers, and from all the weird individuals who ride bicycles instead of driving SUVs and either don’t own a cell phone or if they have one use it hardly ever, weird individuals who reject genetically modified food or industrial manufactured food in general, weird individuals who spend their free time with garden work instead of flying to faraway holiday destinations.

If one of the reasons, that I listed in the last four paragraphs, is the driving force which makes you want to save the world, you should leave this web page instantly because you will only be annoyed by the following text. Maybe you would even be provoked to an angry comment and successively become the object of ridicule by other blog readers. It could be an unpleasant experience and I strongly suggest that you stop reading this text and instead switch on TV.

You didn’t stop obviously, as you are reading this sentence and I have to ask: What other reasons are motivating you to continue?

You could be a low level CIA analyst who stumbled onto this text through a SAS/VSTI real time sentiment analysis. In this case I can assure you that I feel very honored to have caught your attention but I fear that you are wasting your time. I am dedicated to non-violence and therefore I will not write anything that could make it possible to declare me a terrorist and deploy a MG-1 predator drone to drop a Hellfire missile and convert my lovely home into a smoldering ruin, killing me and my innocent wife and our five cats. My cats are unfortunately not dedicated to non-violence and they are terrorizing mice and birds, but I don’t think that this fact will ever justify the deployment of an expensive Hellfire missile.

If non of the above applies to you, you are probably dismayed, disheartened, frightened, worried, upset, incensed, disgusted, horrified, terrified and whatever else may be an appropriate term for your state of mind by the following issues:

Ravaging wars, oppression, occupation, exploitation, aggression and violence

Social injustice, income inequality, gender discrimination and ethnic discrimination

Corruption, treachery, cronyism, greed, hubris and ignorance of the ruling elites, resulting in a broken social contract and the abandoning of social obligations and ethical restraints

Environmental destruction, reckless plundering and wasting of precious resources, carless use and dispersion of dangerous substances (POPs, heavy metals)

Implementation of new and risky technologies (biotechnology, biogenetics, nuclear technology) and use of new materials with disregard of possible harmful or even catastrophic long-term effects (nanomaterials (carbon) and chemicals in consumer products like bisphenol-A, triclosan, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), phthalates, ethanolamine)

If you are dismayed, disheartened, frightened, worried, upset, incensed, disgusted, horrified, terrified by one or more or maybe even all of the mentioned issues, I feel with you, I understand you. We should do something against these threats — we should indeed start right now and try to save the world!

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So it is true, that you want to save the world? Of course you want, don’t blush!

If we want to save the world, we have to change the world, and the obvious starting point is our personal conduct. We know ourselves better than anything else and we know our shortcomings and we can control and change and reorganize our personal lives easier than anything else. We also have to start with ourselves and clean up our own act because we will not be able to propagate new standards and ideals if we ourselves don’t adhere to these very standards and ideals.

This is a very slippery terrain and one has to be careful not to appear pretentious or pompous or be misunderstood and misconstrued. The following statements are personal conclusions and may or may not apply to you, you are free to accept or reject the ideas, you are free to take it or leave it.

My personal conclusion is that I have to organize my life in a way that uses as little energy and resources as possible and causes no further harm to nature. That means: bicycle riding instead of car driving. Growing my own food in the garden, planting fruit trees. No meat, only vegetarian diet. No more shopping, no new gadgets, no traveling, no vacations. Using my cloth until it falls in pieces. Repairing, updating, and adapting things instead of replacing them (one exception: LED lights). Avoiding banks and other financial services. No credit card.

I’m not the only one who tries to live in this austere and modest way. There is a growing movement of people who change their lives and try to drop out and disconnect from the corporate networks and reorganize themselves. This movement is manifested in various blogs and websites, here a few examples:

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/
http://www.transitionus.org/
http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/
http://transitiontownsaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://transitiontownpeterborough.ca/
http://transitionmedia.memberlodge.com/
http://rowdykittens.com/
http://www.greenlivingonline.com/
http://www.simplelivingtv.net/
http://onthelevelblog.com/
http://www.freecycle.org/

Saving the world is a tough job and there are no shortcuts and no tricks allowed. If you are not able to change and attain a sustainable lifestyle yourself, how can you expect that other people change their life? You will not be able to persuade and convince anybody if you are not a shining example and a role model.

If you are smoking, drinking, gambling, needlessly driving around in your car, constantly checking emails or texting on your iPhone or your tablet, shopping and dining and wasting time in restaurants, pubs, clubs, you should not attempt to save the world and you should also not pretend to attempt to save the world — it would be mendacious. And you should stop reading this text!

Maybe this is too harsh, maybe this is indeed pretentious and pompous. Martin Luther King was smoking and there are suggestions, that he was a womanizer and unfaithful to his wife Coretta. If you are as charismatic as King was, if you are able to galvanize the aspirations and dreams of the people around you like King did, shortcomings like this will not impede you significantly. You will still be able to make a major positive contribution to our combined effort of saving the world (though your sisters and brothers in mind most likely will make a serious effort to help you overcome your nicotine addiction.)

Are you able to deliver a speech like Kings speech “I Have A Dream” or his speech “Beyond Vietnam”?

Maybe I’m very lonely now, but if anybody is still left here, let me present to you a few ideas in the following paragraphs that could be incorporated in a new paradigm and could be a blueprint for a “new society”. I intend to write down more details and more ideas in another blog post with the title “Plan Z”. This is an excerpt of the first rough sketch of Plan Z:

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Plan Z v.0.68

Every person shall live her or his life in the most efficient way using the least possible amount of energy and resources and causing the least possible harm to fellow creatures and to nature in general.

Everybody shall have the chance to develop her or his full potential and to contribute to the wellbeing of her or his fellow creatures.

We have to stop reproducing until the world population has stabilized at a sustainable level of around four billion.

The following proposals are derived from this basic ideals:

The economic organization of a new society

Competition is replaced by cooperation. There are no industrial secrets and there is no intellectual property — discoveries, scientific findings and acquired know-how are available to everyone. If a production line or a business operation is not viable, it has to be audited by experts who decide either to upgrade it with advanced technology or to close it down and integrate the workers and all assets into other firms in the same field. Trade is replaced by computer controlled distribution and sophisticated computer models are used to choose between low volume local production and centralized high volume mass production. Transport is shifted to waterways, railways and airships (dirigibles, zeppelins, blimps).

Advanced computer modeling and computer simulations allows to predict the most efficient size for every industrial process. The international production and trade of indispensable goods (computers, industrial control systems, telecommunication equipment, electronic parts for appliances) will be negotiated between nations to find the optimal locations (most times this will be at existing factories though with a reduced production volume).

Container use and computerized ports and terminals have revolutionized trade already, the new society optimizes it further by eliminating competition and the resulting redundancies and organizing the flow of materials and goods in a global concerted effort.

The same principles are applied to regional and local supply systems. Railway lines are reactivated, rebuilt, and extended to reach even the small and remote towns and villages. big production facilities have their separate railway connections and terminals. Goods are principally shipped by rail, using small containers with a length matching the width of the railway carriage. The containers slide on rails into slots of the carriages, the process of putting in and pulling out the containers is done by specialized forklifts and takes only a few seconds. There are also smaller containers with only two thirds and one third of the length, so that two or three of the smaller containers can together occupy one slot of the carriage.

A similar system is already used in todays container trade, where two small containers have exactly the size of a big unit. As the regional and local container transport will include highly differing amounts for the various destinations, a system with three sizes is better suited.

A particular shipment of goods between a source (for instance a workshop, a factory, a farm, a mine) and a destination (end-users or processing facilities) will be organized online and the railway software will determine automatically the most efficient route, the necessary number and size of containers and the best time — just like the nodes of the internet do it with the data packages that are sent back and forth between billions of senders and recipients. All containers and big parcels have RFID tags.

The loading and unloading of the containers with specialized forklifts takes just a few seconds, as already stated before, and the empty slots are instantly filled with empty containers from earlier shipments. The railway software tracks all containers and knows how many empty containers are on a railway station and where they will be needed next. The computer in the railway station shows the assumed amount of received containers as well as empty containers, therefore discrepancies can be instantly reported to discover and correct errors.

The goods are loaded into small vans to be shipped from the railway station to the end users and to workshops. Bigger companies fetch the goods and materials with their own vans and small trucks, which have slots for the containers like the railway carriages.

The transport from the railway station to the final destination is done by the traditional postal services which were integrated with the parcel services. There is no long distance road transport anymore.

Supermarkets and shopping malls are replaced by online ordering and postal delivery. The online shopping portals are non-profit services accessible for a modest fee by everybody who wants to sell.

Car owners have to join regional car drivers associations, the membership fees are used to pay for the obligatory annual technical checkup and for the maintenance of roads and bridges. Roads and bridges which are not highly frequented can be excluded, they are then closed for car traffic and have to be maintained by municipalities/districts or be abandoned.

Many highways, freeways, and expressways are no longer needed and they are rededicated and rebuilt in various ways. One possibility is, to use the lanes of one direction by setting up rows of small houses intermingling with workshops, depots, communication centers and other communal facilities. The lanes of the other direction are used as a two lane road. Alternatively one or two lanes can be used to build new railway tracks.

Existing high-speed rail lines are maintained but not extended. Mobility is not the first concern of the new society. Most people live in close proximity to their workplace and telecommuting has revolutionized work conditions in areas like software development, scientific research, and administration.

Industrial farming is not viable anymore because of oil scarcity, which causes high prices for diesel fuel, inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. The mentioned materials are also heavily taxed because of their negative environmental impact. Big fields are separated into small areas with hedges, little woods, and biotopes in between. Innovative tools which work with muscle power enable gardening and farming without heavy machinery, equipment that uses horses, donkeys, and cattle is reintroduced in advanced versions.

The replacement or upgrading of machines, appliances, devices, tools with advanced and more energy efficient equipment is on every level decided by standardized computer calculations which balance the energy savings over time with the energy and resource consumption of the manufacturing process for new devices. Upgrading and repairing is the preferred option. Waste minimizing and recycling is accompanied or even replaced by methods of “upcycling”. Repair, restoration, refurbishing of homes, facilities, bridges and other infrastructural buildings are the norm, demolitions are avoided if possible.

There is no unemployment because all necessary work is distributed evenly inside a community, which can be a neighborhood committee, a municipality, a district. Telecommunication and advanced software make it possible to organize work and production efficiently and reevaluate and reorganize the production facilities and the distribution networks constantly on every level (this would be already possible with todays technology and computing capacities, but it cannot be realized because either competing companies hinder each other or monopolies who own the marketplace don’t invest in new technologies and there is no integrated planning of infrastructure and production).

Wealth and conspicuous consumption are not desirable and not tolerated. People can own a comfortable home and some space around it but everything else is common good or nobodies property and therefore off limits. Factories and corporations are basically owned by their employees, but profits are collected in various community funds and state funds. A hierarchical day to day management is possible, but important decisions have to be made collectively. Banks and investment firms and stock exchanges and insurance companies are dissolved and there are only rudimentary bank services left which are non profit and have the sole purpose of organizing the flow of money. Production and distribution of goods is controlled by (legitimate) demand and not by purchasing power, in many cases there is no money involved and pricing is used only to make a comparison and evaluation of products and distribution methods possible and to detect inefficiencies and fraud. There are wages which can differ depending on the skills, the importance of the work and implied dangers and inconveniences. Bonuses for extraordinary effort and achieved quality are possible but the difference between highest and lowest wages must not exceed one to eight.

There are no taxes except on energy, resources, and (unavoidable) pollution. The infrastructure and vital services like health care and education are paid from the various funds where taxes, profits, fines, and donations are collected. Underfunded communities will be helped by affluent ones but money transfers are not automatic and have to be approved in a political process.

Education, healthcare, basic services like water, waste disposal, electricity, telecommunication networks, postal services are organized at the appropriate level, that means for instance: Primary schools and primary care physicians are organized by municipalities, hospitals and higher education by districts or groups of districts, universities and medical research by states. Services are decentralized if it is possible and viable, the ultimate decision between local and central organization will again be made with the help of sophisticated computer models.

Heritage and property rights are meaningless and replaced by the just distribution of resources. There will be no “Tragedy of the Commons,” because nature and all natural resources are not a common good (as Hardin acknowledged already by himself). The land, all plants and all animals are entities in their own right and resources are used as if they were only borrowed or bought with the implied obligation to refund nature in the form of habitat restoration, replanting, reforestation, reintroduction and care for endangered species, intelligent small scale agriculture which harmonizes with or even enhances nature, research in natural phenomena and the small scale application of scientific findings in fields like biological pest control and biological detoxification.

The political organization of a new society

A new more transparent political system is achieved by the incorporation of modern science and technology. The internet makes it possible to replace many instances of representative democracy with direct democracy.

The new society is organized in three or four levels of representation. The basic cell is the “Neighborhood Committee” with not more than 256 members (alternatively 128 members). It elects a representative to a “District Assembly” which is constituted by up to 256 neighborhood representatives (alternatively 128 representatives). Each District elects a representative to the “State Assembly” with 256 or alternatively 128 district representatives.

Neighborhood committees with 128 to 256 members.

Districts (or towns) with 128 to 256 neighborhood representatives
representing 16,384 to 65,536 people.

States with 128 to 256 district (or town) representatives
representing 2,097,152 to 16,777,216 people

265 members in an assembly are a large number and that could lead to the neglect of minority voices and an either chaotic session process or a strict and procedural process which would stifle discussion and instigate stalemate.

A restriction to 128 members on the other hand would make it necessary to install four levels, which means that the leaders are more remote from the basis, though the democratic process in the committees and assemblies is easier to manage.

A four level structure:

Neighborhood committees with 64 to 128 members.

Municipalities with 64 to 128 neighborhood committees
representing 4,096 to 16,384 people.

Districts with 64 to 128 municipality representatives
representing 262,144 to 2,097,152 people.

States with 64 to 128 district representatives
representing 16,777,216 to 268,435,456 people

The parliament is constituted of three fractions:
The Keepers of the Flame
Their number is always half of the district representatives = 32 to 128
The district representatives
Their number can be 64 to 256
The meritocrats
Their number is always half of the district representatives = 32 to 128

The Keepers of the Flame and the meritocrats hold their seat until they retire or die. In case of retirement or death a previously chosen candidate steps in immediately. The Keepers of the Flame are exclusively female and they nominate female candidates for their replacements by themselves. The candidates join the assembly in the same order as they were nominated, nobody can jump ahead. The number of candidates should be not less than half the number of sitting members.

Replacement candidates for meritocrats are chosen by the district representatives and the Keepers of the Flame together, but the votes from the Keepers of the Flame weigh double, that means the Keepers of the Flame can block a nomination. In case of a deadlock an arbitration committee of the parliament has to negotiate and look for candidates that are accepted by a majority.

Every neighborhood committee meets once a week on Saturday evening. Every citizen is welcome. Important new cultural, social and political developments are reported and all decisions of the higher level assemblies are discussed. The meeting room of each neighborhood committee is equipped with a computer plus beamer and has also a direct encrypted link to the central parliament office.

Decisions of assemblies can be disputed and overruled by a majority of neighborhood committees. If a decision is disputed, an election will take place in the following week and everybody who attends the weekly meeting will be able to cast a secret vote. A permanent voting cabin is setup in every meeting room, the voting procedure is clearly defined. The votes will be cast on paper ballots that are sent via internet to the computer in the meeting room and printed out there before voting (if attendance in a neighborhood committee is low, at least no paper is wasted).

The neighborhood committees and also the assemblies can overrule any decision of the higher instances except decisions of the parliament. The vote of lower instances binds the district representatives, but not the Keepers of the Flame and the meritocrats, which means that even an overwhelming public vote could be blocked if the non-elected members of the parliament uniformly reject it.

Such a situation would constitute a severe political crises and the arbitration committee would have to work very hard to find a solution out of this impasse.

The new society has no president or prime minister, only sixteen cabinet members with equal votes. Eight cabinet members will be chosen by the caucus of district representatives, four by the Keepers of the Flame and four by the meritocrats. The cabinet has to file a weekly report to the parliament enlisting all major decisions.

The new society is preferably locally organized in small and independent entities. Most of the decision making and also the responsibility rest on the neighborhood committees and the municipalities/districts. The state government is responsible for healthcare, education, infrastructure, energy and resource exploration/mining.

The general organization of healthcare is the responsibility of the state, but the hospitals are supervised by the districts and the primary care doctors are payed by the municipalities or even by a group of neighborhood committees.

In the same way the outlines of the educational system are decided by the parliament, but the primary and secondary schools are under the authority of the municipalities or in some cases groups of neighborhood committees.

Big infrastructural projects like railway lines and bridges are controlled by the state, streets will be administered (though not funded) by districts. The telecommunication infrastructure (internet, phones) is controlled by districts, postal services by the state.

Waste management and water is the responsibility of neighborhood committees and municipalities together. Every political entity is responsible that no neighboring area is negatively effected by its decisions and can be held liable and subjected to heavy fines.

The jurisdiction is organized exactly like the political institutions. Each neighborhood assembly elects a judge. Municipalities/districts elect a court with four judges. The high court is elected by parliament (or by lower assemblies, which can overrule any decision). A high court judge could be also elected by the population, if the majority of neighborhood assemblies oppose the candidate chosen by the parliament and if the Keepers of the Flame and the meritocrats don’t block the vote. The high court has eight members and no arbitration, a stalled court means, that the appeal is rejected.

The social organization of a new society

This society is based on ideals of free access to all information, free education, and free access to all viable means of communication.

Education is free at all levels. 60 percent of the courses in primary and secondary education are obligatory, the other 40 percent can be chosen according to the talents and abilities of the child.

Primary education starts with six years and lasts for six years till the age of twelve. Primary schools are small and nearly in every village, serving only a few neighborhoods. Class sizes are restricted to 16 pupils, the classes are led by two teachers in tandem.

Secondary education lasts also six years till the age of 18. Secondary schools are bigger entities and they all have dormitories. There are no school busses, but train travel is free and the children from remote areas have to go by train to the school and stay overnight in the dormitories. The obligatory courses are at the start of the week, and pupils which only attend the minimum of courses will be able to go back home Wednesday afternoon. They can spend the rest of the week working as apprentices or learning specialized skills in separate courses provided by colleges, conservatories, companies, factories, and various non profit organizations.

Higher education in colleges, universities and conservatories (art schools) lasts also six years and can be started at any time in life. Normally it will start with 18 but older people can enroll in higher education at any time after passing an ability test. Applicants who fail the test can take introductory courses. All courses are filmed and available to everybody online. There are many TV channels, formerly used for advertising, sport, and entertainment, which broadcast university and art school courses around the clock.

All scientific research is done on universities and colleges, private research centers of corporations and government research (which was mainly for military purposes) are integrated in universities. All scientific progress is freely accessible and useable, there are no patent laws and no intellectual property rights.

Motor sports (like NASCAR) are not possible because of strict environmental regulations and restrictions, enforced by heavy fines. Competitive team sports in general are in decline because there is no advertising of private companies and no sponsorship. Competition and big noisy events with thousands of people clearly contradict the spirit of this new society.

There are no Olympic Games, no FIFA, Rugby, or Cricket World Cups, no playoff and world series, no SuperBall. Big stadiums are parted into small areas which can be used separately for open air concerts, theater, opera, ballet, art installations, exhibitions, fairs, and other shows. The areas of stadiums which face the sun are often used as solar farms or as terraced vegetable gardens.

Athletic training to achieve high performance has still its place but not as a means to beat competitors. High performing athletes are showing their skills in the spirit of the shaolin monks and they are becoming teachers of their art, mentors, advisors, trainers. They pass on their knowledge in the same way as virtuous musicians do it when they teach a new generation of musicians.

Education and art are key factors in the new society, but there will be a lot of work to do even for the uneducated: environmental cleanup, care for the elderly, planting trees, protecting endangered species, growing vegetables, weeding and other less complicated work in gardens and farms. Everybody can take part in the community effort of securing crucial supplies and living a natural and harmonious life according to her or his abilities.

Health care is free. Hospitals are reduced in size or closed down and replaced by small local clinics. Patients are preferably treated at home.

Families have no special status, but lesbian and gay relations are encouraged and revered because they are childless by nature. Polyandrous marriages are also promoted as a way to curb overpopulation and solve the problem of regional gender imbalances. Vasectomy and tubal sterilization are free and rewarded by various benefits. Prostitutes are regarded as social workers and get a special comprehensive training in psychology, social counseling, hygiene, and safe sex practices. They are also regularly tested for sexual transmitted diseases.

Everybody has to undergo an annual blood test for communicable diseases. The result is available online accessible via password, so everybody can prove to her or his partner the status at any time. This test and also a voluntary second annual test are free, further tests have to be paid.

Pornography, that meets certain standards, is considered as art and education. Pornographic films have to teach the viewer how to treat women respectfully and make sex the most pleasant experience for both partners. Suitable film of this genre can also be integrated in secondary education.

Despite a universal paradigm shift, a new society nevertheless has to deal with criminal behavior, which is regarded as metal sickness. The main emphasis is on treatment, persistent repeat offenders, criminals with untreatable mental disorders, violent and dangerous individuals have to be separated. Rapists, child molesters, and violent sex offenders are treated with castration. The most dangerous persons have to live in high security camps which are set up in remote and inhospitable areas. There is constant electronic surveillance. The camps are organized in neighborhood committees like all of society and the inmates have to provide most of their food by themselves. The system is somehow similar to the British policy of sending criminals to Australia in the 18th and 19th century.

There is no military in a new society. Bombs, missiles, and canons are dismantled, military vehicles and military infrastructure are converted to civilian use. The existing arsenals of small arms are slowly used up by police. Men are not allowed to bear arms, the police forces are made up of women. Female police officers, who have to use a weapon and are killing an attacker in self defense will not be punished, but will be reassigned to duties without weapons. Civilian weapons and hunting are banned, the control of dangerous animals and invasive species has to be achieved by natural means and only in cases of emergency is done by intervening female police officers.

About the Keepers of the Flame

The Keepers of the Flame, also known as the “Wise Women of the World” were a group of distinguished women (mostly in their 50s and 60s) who created a discussion forum over many years and took over after millions of humans died in environmental catastrophes and the helpless and clueless leaders stepped down or were chased out by the furious populace. The Keepers of the Flame had worked on “Plan Z” for many years and had developed various nationally/regionally adjusted, detailed variations of the plan. They were called in and helped by the remnants of state authorities and a few sane military leaders who were facing the prospect of failed states, complete anarchy, and the demise of the human race.

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To most of the readers (if there are any left) this excerpt of “Plan Z” probably sounds very utopian and completely detached from reality. Sometimes a visionary picture has to be painted to show the direction, even if it is clear that in this complex life an ideal state of affairs is not achievable.

Furthermore, everybody who is not delusional will be aware, the we are far away from the proposed new paradigm and from a new sustainable society. And despite the courageous and determined efforts of quite a few individuals, it is only a tiny minority which tries to change their lives. The herd is still stampeding and fast approaching the deadly cliffs, and unless billions of TV-brainwashed minds are reprogrammed and the immoral and crooked plutocracies are eliminated, the lemming migration will not turn away from the cliffs.

The lemmings are deadly sure, that everything is okay and that they are heading into the right direction, because all their companions around them run into the same direction! This effect is called “the idiocy of the crowds”.

I’ve described possible scenarios in my blogposts The most creative solution, Mothers of the world, and The ethical cat. I will contemplate and debate other scenarios in further blog posts. I don’t believe in miracles but I see a slight change that genius innovations or the charisma of outstanding individuals — prophets, teachers, dissidents — could turn the tide.

No matter what happens, the minority of unwavering souls who dropped out of this consumer society will not cede and will not surrender. Change will come in one way or the other and change could come sooner than expected, though it unfortunately could be very ugly:

POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead), and the pollution of air, water, food with various other man induced substances could cause an epidemic of cancer.

Industrial produced food (especially GM food), EMF radiation from cell phones and computers, an unhealthy lifestyle with too less exercise and too much sensory stressors (constant noise, constant distraction by phones and computers) could cause a general decline of health.

The overuse of antibiotics in factory farming and in healthcare could cause an increase of fatal drug-resistant infections. Complete hospital wards could have to be quarantined and sealed off completely to prevent the further spread of “superbugs,” with corpses left rotting in the hospital beds.

The continuing spread of HIV and other STDs and the danger that these infections become an uncontrollable epidemic is vastly underestimated. HIV and other STDs could become a health concern for the general population.

And if developments of this kind are not enough to raise eyebrows and make people feel uncomfortable:

Birth defects could increase dramatically. The already mentioned epidemic of cancer could become more severe and reduce life expectancy to 60 years and below. A worldwide ebola or influensa epidemic could kill two billion people or more.

Don’t forget the nuclear option: A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan could settle the Kashmir conflict once and for all and kill a few hundred millions.

Seven billion people are too much in anyway.

When catastrophes of such unimaginable proportions will become reality, far more individuals than the few unwavering souls that I mentioned will think about alternative ways!

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I want to end this blog post with the two speeches of Martin Luther King that I mentioned earlier on. The speeches are rhetorical masterpieces and their content is still valid and they could be useful templates and inspirations for the aspiring “saviors of the world”.

Here is the text of Kings speech “I Have A Dream,” that he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington in August 1963:

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check — a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds”. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundation of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “when will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed — “We hold these these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, and rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight,and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the south. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’

And if America is to be a great nation this must come true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.

But not only that — let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

==================

And this is the text of Kings speech “Beyond Vietnam,” that he gave at the Riverside Church in New York, April 1967:

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read it’s opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don’t mix, they say. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church — the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate — leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.

I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.

Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.

Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.

The Importance of Vietnam

Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years — especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

For those who ask the question, “Aren’t you a civil rights leader?” and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: “To save the soul of America.” We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission — a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for “the brotherhood of man.” This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men — for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the “Vietcong” or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?

Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

Strange Liberators

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not “ready” for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.

For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.

Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.

After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators — our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem’s methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change — especially in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy — and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us — not their fellow Vietnamese — the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go — primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one “Vietcong”-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them — mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only non-Communist revolutionary political force — the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?

Now there is little left to build on — save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.

Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front — that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of “aggression from the north” as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.

How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them — the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.

When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.

Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.

This Madness Must Cease

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:

“Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.”

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.

The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.

In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:

1.End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
2.Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
3.Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
4.Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.
5.Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.

Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.

Protesting The War

Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.

As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation’s role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military “advisors” in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken — the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: “This is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: “This is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.

The People Are Important

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain.”

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept — so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force — has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:

Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : “Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.”

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The “tide in the affairs of men” does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on…” We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world — a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter — but beautiful — struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

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Just as a side note, even Martin Luther King had to pay for his shortcomings, call them minor or major, insignificant or serious: The FBI distributed reports regarding Kings extramarital affairs to the executive branch, friendly reporters, potential coalition partners, funding sources of the SCLC, and King’s family. The FBI also sent anonymous letters to King threatening to reveal information if he did not stop his civil rights work. One anonymous letter sent to King just before he received the Nobel Peace Prize read, in part: “The American public, the church organizations will realize that they have been helping an evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done. King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant [sic]). You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the nation.”

As I close down, a final clarification concerning the conspiracy theories (New World Order, Jews, Freemasons, Skull & Bones, Illuminati, Bilderberg Group), which I mentioned at the start of this text. There may be some truth in a few of the conspiracy theories but there is no evidence that this is the main underlying cause for the dismal state of the world. I believe though in the “conspiracy of the corporations,” which buy the best government they can get (the “permanent government”) and have converted most Western democracies into plutocracies.

I hope it was a relaxing, uplifting and entertaining reading (just kidding). I hope it was at least inspiring and interesting. I am deeply sorry if it was annoying or unsettling. In knowledge of my weaknesses I have to stick to the things that I can do best. I have to leave the relaxing, uplifting and entertaining part to TV and Hollywood, they are so good, so perfect in creating a dreamworld that helps us to ignore the grim realities of life. I never could do it that well, so I rather play the part of the “spoiler,” which suits me better.

Needless to say that not only my rough sketch of Plan Z v.0.68 but the whole text is a work in progress and that I would be very glad about comments and suggestions and constructive criticism.

But Sumo is neither difficult nor unfriendly, she is a lovely old lady with a few quirks and caprices (like everybody of us has). She is still not fully integrated into our cat family but the other cats seem to accept or at least tolerate her. Violent behavior is not allowed in this household and though the cats occasionally hiss and growl at each other, they never have a fight.

Sumo will probably always be an outsider, she was a loner for so many years and now, with 14 years of age she will not change very much. When I look into the sitting room Sumo meows at me. She meows quite a few times with a variety of expressive sounds and she really tells me a story. The story is: “You see, I’m sitting here all alone the whole day and you have to come now and spend a little time with me because nobody else will do it. I don’t ask for much, I just want a little bit of attention and friendliness. I need to feel your warm hand gently striking my fur. You are spending so much time with the other cats, a little bit of time for me should be okay! You did sit together with me before, please come, please don’t leave me alone”.

Of course I sit down beside Sumo and she instantly makes herself comfortable on my lap. Sumo is a big cat and she is well-fed, a discourteous person could even call her corpulent. She is not as big as Harry was but she weighs about six kilogram. Sumo has a very thick and fluffy fur and despite her weight it is a rather pleasant experience when she sits on my knees. As I touch her and pet her, she starts purring and keeps on purring all the time.

Despite the fact, that I’m busy all day long and often behind schedule, I don’t mind spending time with the cats. These moments are welcome breaks that help me analyze and reconsider, what I’m doing, breaks that enable me to recharge and reenergize. Beside that, cats are quite beneficial for my brain chemistry, especially the oxytocin levels (in non scientific terms: they keep me sane). Sometimes, when I sit quietly with a cat, I make breathing exercises or various meditation experiments or I reexamine a recent problem.

After some minutes of quiet contentment I accidentally turn my head and look into the kitchen and I see Princess Min Ki sitting there, staring at me and Sumo. Her eyes are vertical slits, like little arrows. It is quite obvious, that she doesn’t like what she sees. Min Ki is ambitious and jealous, but she usually gets along well with her fellow cats.

After looking at me for some moments, Min Ki quietly walks into the sitting room and lays down beside my feet. Sumo is not intimidated because she doesn’t realize that Min Ki is laying just below her. So we three sit there quietly and peaceful for some time, the only sound is Sumo’s soft purring.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end at one point and as dusk draws near and daylight gets dim I tell Sumo that I have to go now. She curls again in her nest in the corner of the couch and I go up to the music studio, Princess Min Ki is following me.

As soon as I sit down on the piano, Min Ki jumps onto my knees. She normally is not a lap cat but she seemingly needs a reaffirmation that she is my favorite feline friend (she is for sure, every member of the cat family is my favorite cat!) Initially I wanted to practice a tune with the title: “Walking in Darkness,” but playing piano with a cat on ones knees is nearly impossible, so I work on the song mentally and think about the meaning of the title.

As I do so, an odd and creepy story comes into my mind. These kind of stories often appear suddenly and then slowly fade away, leaving nothing than splinters of vague memories. Sometimes I sit down on the computer and try to reconstruct a story from the few memory splinters, but in most cases that doesn’t work out so well and the story is lost forever. In this case though I can write down the story instantly because I simply turn the chair to the right, switch on the computer that is beside the piano and type in the sentences as the story is unfolding in my mind. Min Ki still sits on my knees, but writing on the computer with a lap cat is much easier than playing piano.

This is the story, courtesy of Princess Min Ki:

When you walk in the forest, you better walk fast. The forest is not big, but the way, that you have to take, goes one for some six kilometers. This way is only used by lumber workers, who occasionally retrieve logs from the wood with a little tractor. On some points where the ground is muddy the lumber workers have poured gravel onto the way, so that the tractor doesn’t get stuck. The gravel is now covered by moss and grass, most times the surface of this way is just moss and grass and you can hardly see the tracks of the tractor.

You cannot call this a road, it is only a rugged way and for long sections only a narrow path. There are some other ways criss-crossing the forest but they are even more coarse and overgrown. You will need boots and very robust clothing even if you never deviate from the few pathways, that lead through the wood.

This forest is quite diverse. There are areas with big old conifers and other areas with young trees that are only a few meters high. The younger trees are mostly mixed, there are pine trees as well as maple, ash, poplar, oak and other species. People have found out, that a monoculture of spruce trees has it’s downsides.There are a few clearings, mostly filled with bushes and little young trees. In some places the underwood has been thinned out, but in many areas the vegetation is so dense, that you cannot pass.

There is a big clearing in the middle of the forest where only a few high pine trees are left standing. Some years ago a severe storm broke down many trees, only the biggest and strongest trees survived. This place is littered with decaying trunks and branches, young trees and bushes are growing in between. It is a paradise for animals of all kind because nobody can go in here and disturb them.

The vegetation looks very different as the seasons pass by. Some plants appear only in spring and others only in autumn. In spring the landscape changes in a few weeks from shades of brown to incredibly bright colors. The colors are very intense, nearly psychedelic. In the course of the summer the colors lose their intensity, though every now and then seasonal flowers with wonderful blooms appear for a few weeks and paint the place in yellow, blue, red or white. In autumn everything slowly changes to brown and when the snow falls the forest is painted white.

But as you walk in the forest just now, you cannot see this, because it is around midnight and completely dark. It is a cloudy night and there are no stars and there is no moon in the sky. Sometimes a little breeze makes the leaves whisper but otherwise it is eerily quiet. In the daytime you will hear birds twiddling and branches crackling and all king of strange noises from the animals that live here. Just now you hear only your footsteps and your breath.

When you walk in the forest, you better walk fast. The forest is not big, but you are right in the middle of it and you have to go another three kilometers to reach its end. You better walk fast, because in the forest are the ghosts of all the animals that you have killed. The ghosts of all the animals that died because of you. They are waiting for you and they know that you are coming this way. They are waiting for their chance to take revenge.

You better walk fast, because the ghosts of all your victims are gathering in the underwood beside the way. They are watching you, they are following you. They wait for the signal to attack.

When you reach the big clearing in the middle of the forest, an eagle owl will sail silently across the dark sky and sit down on the highest branch of one of the big trees, that were left standing by the storm. You will not see it and you will not hear it. You hear only your footsteps and your breath and you see only the faint shadows of the trees and bushes along the way.

The eagle owl will watch you quietly as you walk along and when you are right in the middle of the clearing it will give the signal and the ghosts of your animal victims will attack.

The little birds that were smashed on the windscreen of your car will fly right into your face and hurt your eyes, so that you will not see anything anymore. The chickens, that had miserable and pitiful short lives in tiny caches will fly against you. The chickens cannot fly high and they can fly only short distances, but they will take all their strength and they will reach your head and pick at your skull till blood runs down your face and neck. The pigs, that were held in overcrowded and dirty stables and that suffered terribly until they were slaughtered for you will bump into you till you stumble and finally fall down.

As you are falling to the ground all the mice and rats and dogs and cats that were tortured to death in laboratories for the purpose of testing your cosmetic and hygiene lotions and your medical drugs will jump onto you and bite you and tear out pieces of flesh. The mice will tear out tiny pieces of flesh, the rats and cats bigger pieces, the dogs will tear out bug junks of flesh. You will be eaten alive, you will scream in agony but nobody will hear your screams. The next farmhouse is four kilometers away. As your screams will die down and descent into a whining and finally stop as you lose consciousness and the worst and last moments of your life are ending the cows and bulls that were slaughtered for you will trample over you again and again till nothing is left than a bloody pulp with a few bones sticking out.

At this point the eagle owl will again give a signal and the ghosts of the animals will disappear into the underwood. They will be gone without a trace.

The eagle owl will slowly flap its wings and slowly close and open its eyes.

It means: justice is done!
Finally, justice is done.

There is a new book out with the title: Targeting Israeli Apartheid (A Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Handbook) http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4103

This book is indeed the most useful source for information about Israel’s economic ties with the West and also about the economic exploitation (hand in hand with the ecological destruction) of the occupied territories. The activists who researched and compiled this information deserve our admiration, encouragement and also financial support to continue with their work!

The book shows clearly that Israel in its present state and with the present social and economic structures cannot afford to end the occupation and also cannot afford to justly share the resources of the region with the Palestinian people because the Jewish economy depends on the resources from the occupied territories.

The Jewish leaders know that of course and they had at no time any intention to make peace with the Palestinians and let a two state solution happen. Peace talks were never more than a charade and a pitiful spectacle for the naive and daft. It is very clear that Israel’s diplomacy is based on the assumption that all gentiles (non-Jewish persons) are idiots.

Realizing this is sobering and the available options for peace are very limited indeed yet the book shows that Israel’s economy is vulnerable and a concerted effort can bring it down. This is the only viable way to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Update:

New figures show that Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank has reached record levels. According to the Israeli activist group Peace Now, settlement building rose 20 percent last year, with construction starts on thousands of new homes.

The theme of this post is violence, its causes, and possibilities to prevent, contain, diminish, eliminate it. The impetus came from another blogger, who asked in a comment: “How can we stop violence?” An essential question indeed and a question which deserves the most thorough research and consideration.

My thorough research yielded a fairy long text and as the words accumulated I wondered: How can anybody in this time of rapidly decreasing attentions spans be bothered to read this? How can a person who is used to the 140 character limit of Twitter cope with a text that has a few thousand words?

To give everybody a chance to get enlightened, here is a short summary of the findings for the hurried reader:

Violence is caused by aggressive humans. Humans are aggressive for two main reasons:

1. Permanent sensory overload and traumas cause psychical defects, resulting in aggressive and psychopathic behavior. Traumatic experiences are childhood abuse, poverty, crime, war. Sensory overload is caused by too much noise, too much unusual colors, shapes, flashing lights, too much TV, computer, advertising, too many people constantly violating each others private space.

2. Many human males are aggressive by nature (too much testosterone).

Possible remedies are:

1. Less noise, less stuff, less of nearly everything. More leisure, more sleep, more nature. No TV, no gaming, less computer. Stopping abuse, cruelty, war, banning weapons (wondering how? Details in the post Essential Questions.)

2. Reeducating aggressive males in the family, in holiday camps, in Buddhist monasteries, by media and educational institutions. Testosterone lowering medication, castration. No weapons for males. Ending the patriarchy.

==============

Countless studies and books about violence are available and whole research institutes and think tanks are dedicated to this topic. Gene Sharp’s “Albert Einstein Institute,” SIPRI, PRIO, IPI, Life & Peace Institute come to mind, a complete list would fill a few pages. Nearly every nation (even the USA) has its peace institute, most universities have a peace institute, there are also countless non-profit organizations.

It is sobering and unsettling that despite all the academic effort violence is still not abating and this failure proves again that theory only goes so far….

Anyone who tackles the issue by working through the abundance of books, research papers, and websites with often specialized and also conflicting material will find out that this method only leads to confusion and exhaustion. It seems to be an easier and more reasonable strategy to define the issue with commonly used terms and think through all implications just by applying common sense and logic.

Depending on our life’s experience we all have our personal definitions of words that may be congruent with or (more likely) to some extent deviate from the scholarly definitions. To make sure that the here used understanding of the word “violence” was not too far off the mainstream I looked into various dictionaries for officially sanctioned and universally accepted definitions. This is what came out:

1. physical force, used to cause injuries and destruction
2. extreme, intense, swift force
3. rough or injurious physical force, action, or treatment
4. an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power
5. rough or immoderate vehemence
6. an act of aggression
7. a turbulent state resulting in injuries and destruction

Synonyms are: assault, attack, bestiality, bloodshed, blowup, brutality, brute force, cruelty, destructiveness, duress, ferocity, foul play, furiousness, fury, harshness, impetuosity, inclemency, might, murderousness, onslaught, power, raging, rampage, roughness, ruckus, savagery, terrorism, tumult, turbulence uproar, vehemence, wildness.

Antonyms are: gentleness, mildness, nonviolence, pacifism, passivity, peacefulness, quietness, tenderness.

This is a compendium of definitions/synonyms/antonyms from several dictionaries and it is not too different from what I thought to be constituting violence. I nevertheless have to make several clarifications about my personal understanding of the word:

I associate violence most closely with aggression, for me these two words practically mean the same. Being aggressive is the mindset (or mental state) of an individual (or a group) intending to commit violence. Aggression and violence are the resulting behaviors/acts.

Definitions of “aggression”:
1. hostile or violent behavior or attitude
2. readiness to attack or confront
3. attacking without provocation
4. a disposition to behave aggressively
5. deliberately unfriendly behavior
6. to be intense or harsh

Synonyms for aggression are: assault, attack. invasion, offense, onslaught, violation.

The antonyms are nearly the same as for the term “violence”.

Other words beside aggression that I closely associate with violence are weapons, war, neglect, cruelty, brutality, oppression. I will come back to this point later.

Wikipedia describes violence and aggression this way:

Violence is defined by the WHO as the intentional use of physical force or power against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces.

Globally, violence takes the lives of more than 1.5 million people annually: 50 percent due to suicide, some 35 percent due to homicide, 12 percent as a direct result of war or some other form of conflict. For each single death due to violence, there are dozens of hospitalizations, hundreds of emergency department visits, and thousands of doctors’ appointments. Furthermore, violence often has life-long consequences for victims’ physical and mental health and social functioning and can slow economic and social development.

Aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. It has also been defined, as acts intended to increase relative social dominance. Predatory behavior between members of different species is not normally considered “aggression.” Aggression can be physical, mental, or verbal.

I can live with the content of the first paragraph, but the numbers in the second paragraph don’t seem to be well founded. Wikipedia states in its own entry about “suicide,” that one million people die by suicide every year. That would be not 50 percent, but 66 percent of 1.5 million (though I don’t believe this number either, it seems too low).

12 percent war casualties of 1.5 million would be 180,000. I couldn’t find documents to substantiate this number, but at least the magnitude could be right, because for instance the NATO assault against Libya alone caused 40,000 death. The Mexican drug war caused 12,000 death in 2011, is that number included? Are the children, who die from starvation in DRC and Somalia and in other conflict regions counted?

No intelligent person will conclude from these numbers, that suicides and crime are a bigger problem than war, but the paragraph nevertheless doesn’t pay due reference to the menace of war. It should have been stated, that many suicides and homicides are a result of war. US veterans kill themselves at a rate of 18 per day, the suicide rate of Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans, Somalis, who cannot bear the strain anymore is unknown. To which category do suicide bombers belong?

I don’t like Wikipedias definition of “aggression,” it suggests (though this is not explicitly stated), that there is no aggression between different species, because killing other species constitutes “predatory behavior”. From my point of view humans don’t prey on other animals, they murder them, destroy them, cause unimaginable pain to them mostly without need and without justification.

About one trillion animals per year are suffering terribly throughout their short life to be finally slaughtered for our food supply. I have not much confidence in the soundness of this number either, but for a start, it at least highlights the magnitude of our aggression and violence against other species. What we do here is not preying, this is torture, this is inflicting pain just for profit or for fun!

Wikipedia has also a sentence about the root causes of violence:

Evidence shows strong relationships between levels of violence and potentially modifiable factors such as concentrated poverty, income and gender inequality, the harmful use of alcohol, and the absence of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and parents.

And a paragraph about violence prevention:

Examples of scientifically credible strategies to prevent violence include nurse home-visiting and parenting education to prevent child maltreatment; life skills training for children ages 6-18 years; school-based programs to address gender norms and attitudes; reducing alcohol availability and misuse through enactment and enforcement of liquor licensing laws, taxation and pricing; reducing access to guns and knives; and promoting gender equality by, for instance, supporting the economic empowerment of women.

I agree with every word but despite that I’m not impressed, because both the causes as well as the remedies are presented as a collection of buzzwords and commonplaces (the garden variety). This is of course what you get with a community effort that has finally to settle on the lowest common denominator.

Transcending the definitions

If violence is the intent to cause injuries and destruction by physical force, what is the intent to cause injuries and destruction by misleading information, by poisoning, by withholding help?

A researcher who tortures to death hundreds of mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs in his laboratory is not violent. Why is cruelty against animals not considered as violence?

A drunken driver slams his car into a group of pedestrians, killing half a dozen. This is not violence, only recklessness. The victims are crushed to death, bodies lie on the pavement, puddles of blood everywhere. They didn’t die a violent death?

A baby will die when it is not fed, this is called neglect, not violence. Many babies die in a war zone because the food supply is cut off. Is this still only neglect? The political and military leaders give orders to attack, they don’t use physical force, so they are not violent. The soldiers act in good faith, they follow orders, they defend their country, they are patriots, heroes. They are not violent. Even if they kill hundreds, they are still not considered to be violent.

A nuclear reactor melts down. Thousands will die of radiation caused illnesses. They don’t die violently. The nuclear industry bosses and the politicians have not committed a violent crime. The energy consumers, demanding cheap electricity for their appliances are also not guilty of anything.

Chemical pollution and radioactive contamination, global warming, mass extinction, deforestation, desertification, depleted resources will harm and ultimately kill millions of people. The water wars and the oil wars and all the other looming wars over rapidly dwindling resources will be violent and deadly. The ruling classes and their minions, bootlickers, fawners, and the many idiots and cretins who believed their lies, will not be indicted for violent behavior.

What is evil? Is evil the intent to cause pain and suffering, death and destruction? If so than violence and neglect are evil. But what is greed and hubris, who only to some degree include malicious intent? And what is naivety, ignorance, stupidity, idiocy? These traits and attitudes all can cause suffering, death and destruction.

If the reader wonders, why I wrote the preceding paragraphs and what could be my point, I wondered myself but fortunately in the end I found out what I wanted to make clear: In this world everything is connected and related with everything. Wether we apply a traditional cause and effect model or the more recent scientific perspective of dynamic complexity, violence is not an isolated issue and it can only be understood as a part of the whole situation.

And what is the situation? In a few short word: Humans are wasting their lives with useless and harmful pastimes, they are living beyond their means, they are destroying nature, they are recklessly destroying the basis of their existence. Humans are arrogant, egoistic, presumptuous, irresponsible. They falsely believe that they know everything and can control everything. They are proven wrong day by day as the catastrophe unfolds.

The root causes of violence

Violence is caused by aggressive humans. Humans are aggressive for two main reasons:

1. Permanent sensory overload and traumas cause psychical defects, resulting in aggressive and psychopathic behavior. Traumatic experiences are childhood abuse, poverty, crime, war. Sensory overload is caused by too much noise, too much unusual colors, shapes, flashing lights, too much TV, computer, advertising, too many people constantly violating each ones private space.

When we receive new information through our senses, through sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch balance, thermoception, proprioception, nociception, the information is decoded and interpreted in the specialized areas (visual, auditory, olfactory, somatosensory cortex etc.) and sent via amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex to the singular cortex, the striatum and the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus sends a message to the pituitary gland, located just below it, which in turn sends the message to the adrenal glands, which sit on top of each of the kidneys. The interaction of hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland is called HPA axis and it regulates the flow of epinephrine and cortisol in our body. Epinephrine and cortisol are stress hormones.

The hypothalamus also sends signals to the medulla, where the cells that drive the autonomic nervous system are located. These include the parasympathetic vagal nuclei and a group of cells that descend to the sympathetic system in the spinal cord.

The sympathetic nervous system is activated via the hypothalamus by any stimulus over an individual’s threshold that is perceived to be a threat, requiring instantaneous action (fight and flight reaction). In response to the stimulus an immediate anticipatory state is generated by the release of epinephrine. This causes the heart to beat more quickly and strongly, increases blood supply to the muscles, raises blood pressure, dilates the bronchii and accelerates the breathing rate, raises the blood sugar level for increased energy, speeds up mental activity, increases tensions in the muscles, dilates pupils and increases sweating.

This state of high alert should not be maintained for long and after fending off the threat or realizing that there is no threat the parasympathetic nervous system has to slow down breathing, lower epinephrine and blood sugar levels, relax muscles and restore normal body functions. The parasympathetic phase is vital to the maintenance of long-term health. In optimal psychological and environmental conditions the body always swings into parasympathetic mode to repair and maintain health.

When sensory information is decoded and interpreted in the concerned cortex areas, the brain filters out all data that is similar to familiar patterns and processes only data sequences that are new or uncommon. When we go from one room to the other in our house, we will not take notice of all the details of the furniture, of the windows, the walls and the floor, we will only take notice when something is not in its right place. Our brain doesn’t much visual processing, when we are in a familiar location, it anticipates most of the surrounding, it builds an internal model and only takes random samples of the incoming data stream to check, if the data indeed matches the model.

That means, in our cozy home or in any other place that we know well and where we feel safe our brain can rest and the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system will not be bothered.

For our early ancestors who lived in the woods and in the savannas most of the incoming sensory information was familiar, which meant that their brain had only to deal with about 20 percent of the data or even less. In our modern times the percentage of new sensory patterns is much higher, the brain has to work harder to evaluate and classify the information, the hypothalamus will more often send signals to the endocrine system and the sympathetic nervous system.

A constant sympathetic activation caused by a steady influx of unfamiliar sensory patterns without adequate resting periods to let the parasympathetic nervous system cleanup the body will over time undermine health. It also can lead to an internal conflict (autonomic split) where the two parts of the autonomic nervous system get out of sync (the parasympathetic can mask the sympathetic, or vice versa). The two systems can be in active conflict, lacking reciprocal tension and therefore becoming chaotic.

The constant state of high alert will make us edgy, jittery, and stir up feelings of anger, fear, excitement, desire, contempt, hatred. The elevated hormone and blood sugar levels will make us restless and aggressive and will have to be used up by excessive movement.

Both sensory overload and traumas can cause permanent changes in the brain.

The prefrontal lobe (responsible for language) can be adversely affected, the amygdala (responsible for emotional regulation) can become hyperactive (in some PTSD survivors it is actually enlarged). The hippocampus can shrink in volume and the medial prefrontal cortex can lose some of its functions to regulate emotions and fear responses.

Whatever the psychological symptoms may be, they will more often than not result in violence.

Information overload

This is a subcategory of sensory overload and it means the almost infinite abundance of information, delivered automatically to our electronic devices or accessible with a few mouse clicks

Information overload, of course, can be dated back to Gutenberg’s invention of printing from movable type (around 1440), which led to a proliferation of printed matter that quickly exceeded what a single human mind could absorb in a lifetime. Later technologies — from carbon paper to the photocopy machine — made replicating existing information even easier. And when information became digitized, documents could be copied in nearly limitless numbers at virtually no cost.

Current research suggests that the surging volume of available information (and its interruption of people’s work) can adversely affect not only personal well-being but also decision making, innovation, and productivity. One study showed, that people needed an average of 24 minutes to return to a work task after an e-mail interruption.

A recent report, commissioned by Hitachi, found that 40 percent of companies in Australia and New Zealand were suffering from information overload, up from 34 percent two years ago.

Software solutions, that automatically sort and prioritize incoming data, can regulate or divert the deluge. My6Sense and Smart Magazine apps for smartphones for instance track every move and create a personal profile to sort the incoming RSS and social media feeds. But software makes the user dependent on the program algorithm and jeopardizes privacy, people also don’t like to delegate their personal judgement to a program (and to the software company).

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2. Many human males are aggressive by nature (too much testosterone). Science has several evolutionary explanations for gender differences in aggressiveness, one is that males can increase their reproductive success by polygamy, which will naturally lead to competition and conflicts with other males and subsequently to fights over females.

Scientific research has found, that men’s fluctuating short-term testosterone levels respond to competitive situations; the levels rise in preparation for the competition, they go up in winners and down in losers. A study in 1986 confined five men (all physicians) on a sailboat for 14 days with regular blood samples taken. They had similar testosterone levels before and after the trip, but towards the end of the trip the higher-ranking men in the social hierarchy that emerged during the trip had significantly more testosterone than the others.

Since winning social conflicts increases testosterone levels, winners are presumably more sexually motivated than losers. High-status males who win conflicts will do most of the breeding. This may be the evolutionary reason for testosterone to rise in winners — a higher status in the social hierarchy implies more sexual opportunities. Henry Kissinger made it very clear with his often quoted statement: “Power is the great aphrodisiac.”

Genetic studies found, that an estimated 16 million men today, plus an uncounted number of women, are the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, the 13th century Mongolian warlord who carved out a vast empire.

Viking genetic signature from the frontiers of their empire, such as the Scottish Western Isles, the Isle of Skye, and Iceland, suggest that the male invaders took local wives.

A study by a Californian team showed that the evolutionary process of natural selection not only applies to individuals but to whole populations. The most aggressive and audacious tribes were more likely of trying to conquer neighboring territory. When they succeeded, the males took additional females to have more children and the enlarged territory and added material resources allowed the females to be more successful in bringing up the next generation of warriors.

Is it all about genes?

It is not all about genes, because the human brain has an astonishing plasticity and genetic prepositions can be overridden by education and experience. A tribal tradition, a culture of warfare will proliferate itself from generation to generation. Success in warfare is also not only depending on aggression, bravery, ruthlessness. Strategic thinking, analyzing, planning, advanced weapons will be crucial for victory.

The tribes who first used spears and could forge swords had an advantage. The Spanish conquistadors massacred the Incas, Aztecs, Mayas with cavalry, weapons made of iron and steel, and (most decisively) firearms. The conquistadors also used intelligent and ruthless tactics and commonly allied with natives to bolster numerically inferior ranks. The army with which Cortes besieged Tenochtitlan had 200,000 soldiers, but only one percent of them were Spaniards.

While the use of horses was a crucial advantage for Genghis Khan’s Mongol fighters and the Spanish conquistadors, in World War 1 the use of trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns rendered traditional cavalry obsolete. On a side note: The British alone lost 490,000 horses, the overall casualty figures are not known — nobody cared about counting dead horses, when human casualties were between 14 and 16 million.

Speaking of firearms: In 2006 a study at Knox College in Illinois found, that men, who were handling a pistol, had testosterone spikes 100 times higher than a control group of men who were handling a children’s toy. The results suggest that guns may indeed increase aggressiveness partially via changes in the testosterone levels.

Is it all about sex?

Testosterone again — so is it all about sex? One will hardly be able to overestimate the importance of sex as the driving force of human history, of culture, of science, of everything that defines human nature.

From a biological point, sexual reproduction is the most efficient way for species to survive viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic epidemics. Organisms that reproduce sexually yield a smaller number of offspring, but the large amount of variations in their genes makes them less susceptible to diseases. There are organisms who reproduce sexually as well as asexually (Aphids, slime molds, sea anemones, many plants), but humans are not among them. Without sex we would not exist anymore.

Human males, from our earliest ancestors till todays most well educated and cultivated guys (once called “gentlemen” before this word went out of style) have first and foremost one urge: To push their genitalia into the body cavity of a fellow (preferably female) human being. Our social norms only thinly vail this intent which is common to nearly all men.

In a crowded place with many competing males the most cunning, aggressive, and ruthless ones will succeed and proliferate their genes. The offspring will have the genes of the mother too, boys will nevertheless get their trait from the fathers. Yet, as mentioned before, it is not all about genes and the astonishing plasticity of human brains makes it possible to raise a child in the spirit of love, peace, understanding, even if the father was the most heinous and monstrous thug.

Unfortunately, we are not there yet, but the mothers of the world could make a big difference. I addressed this very issue already in an earlier text and one reader criticized, that this notion is placing too much of the burden and responsibility on the mothers. This is a valid objection, education should be a family effort (though many fathers will have enough to do with reeducating themselves).

It takes a village to raise a child. Thats right, education is also a community effort. We are all teachers and every boy and girl in our neighborhood deserves our attention and support.

As said before, we are not there yet, and the realities of war render such recommendations null and void. Despite best intentions, a mother in Gaza, Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, will not be able to raise her child in the spirit of love, peace, and understanding.

What is cruelty?

How does cruelty and brutality relate to violence and aggression? Why do people consider it as necessary to inflict indescribable pain on a fellow human being or a fellow animal that is no threat?

Cruelty has two causes, the first is malicious intent, the second is stupidity.

Indented, deliberately inflicted cruelty is clearly the result of a psychopathic mind. Deranged, mentally sic people do all kind of strange things. They harm other people as well as themselves. They mutilate themselves, set themselves on fire, throw themselves in front of a train. Why shouldn’t they do this to other people?

The fighters who have captured their enemies after a long and bloody battle are all traumatized. Even the most robust and insensitive character would not be able to survive a battlefield scene without severe mental scars. The fighters are shell shocked, or to use the most recent euphemism, they suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

The fighter only survived because their sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system mobilized everything and flooded the body with blood sugar, epinephrine, cortisol, testosterone. Now the battle is over and there is suddenly silence. Normally the parasympathetic nervous system would start and clean up the hormonal mess. But it doesn’t, because the prefrontal cortex, the hypothalamus, the amygdalas, and various other parts of the brain are severely impaired.

These fighters will be aggressive and they will project their aggression onto their captured enemies. They will humiliate them, beat them, maybe even torture them to death.

There is a special variant of cruelty, the one which is used to frighten the enemy, subdue opponents and suppress dissent. Throughout history it has been proven to be a successful strategy, used by ruling elites, insurgents, criminal organizations. It is a strategy which is still widely used by many players — I nevertheless would include this type of cruelty in the category of psychopathic behavior.

The second cause of cruelty is stupidity. Many acts of cruelly are inflicted by humans who are too stupid to imagine the consequences of their actions, who are too daft to understand the signs of pain and suffering, who cannot put themselves into someone else’s shoes.

All this are definitions based on ethical axioms that for practical reasons cannot be discussed here (I discussed them in preceding posts). All the definitions are debatable.

Is the scientist who tortures and kills mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs in his lab experiments malicious or stupid? Are the owners, managers, butchers, workers of meat farms, where thousands of poor animals live and die in terrible and painful conditions, malicious or stupid? Are the consumers who eat the meat and make this cruelty possible with their purchase malicious or stupid?

How to diminish violence

1. We need to avoid any influences that overwhelm our senses and our brain and nervous system.

We need to cherish silence. We have to avoid noisy and crowded environments like: Supermarkets, shopping malls, highly frequented streets, commuter traffic, airports, dance clubs, rock concerts, sport stadiums, mass gatherings of any kind and any size beyond 248 people.

We have to stop looking TV. Most TV productions, may it be news hours, talks shows, music videos on MTV and VIVA, sitcoms, reality TV shows, use any possible trick to catch our attention. Odd camera angles, fast cuts, electronic effects, banners, scrolling text, picture in picture, and various other techniques will raise our hormone levels and make us nervous.

Media productions and advertisements became more and more shrill in the last years to stand out and beat the competition. As the general level of audio-visual pollution rose, Media businesses had to raise the level too. The present level is too high and unsafe for human consumption.

Emergency vehicle sirens also got louder over the years, 120 db seems barely enough nowadays, especially in cities. Avoid cities, move to the country site.

We have to switch off the cell phone and tell callers in an automated message that we never check the inbox and we also never lookup the list of missed calls to see from which number we were called and that we love them but they nevertheless shall leave us alone for the time being and maybe try it again in half a year.

Contacts are important, communication is important, no doubt about it. Yet, the really interesting persons will send us an email (if they know the email address) or write a comment on our blog — they will find a way to contact us. Maybe they even visit us one day to sit down for a cup of tee or to join us on a quiet walk in the forest, enjoying the silence, which will only sporadicly be interrupted by words of wisdom.

We need to reduce our belongings and the paraphernalia of daily life to the bare necessities. We need to drop out of the rat race. Computers are a useful tool but we have to use them in moderation. We will have the best ideas when we are away from the computer, for instance while making a walk in the forest.

We need more leisure, more rest, more sleep.

We need more nature.

We have to diminish or stop the abuse of our fellow animals in industrial meat factories by reducing or ending our meat consumption.

We have to reduce or stop the exploitation of resources and the wars that are fought over resources (oil, minerals, water, land) by reducing or ending the acquisition of new goods. We have to stop participating in consumerism.

We need to become an example for our fellow humans to do the same. We have to become teachers, prophets, saints.

We have to campaign undaunted and undeterred for peace and for a ban of all military weapons.

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2. Children have to be educated following new gender roles that put women in charge and men in a supporting role. Boys should not be educated to become brave and bold fighters, but to be thoughtful and resourceful custodians and stewards of nature and of their communities.

Adult males will have to be reeducated in the family, in support groups, in rehabilitation facilities, in holiday camps, in Buddhist monasteries, by media and educational institutions.

Testosterone lowering medication and castration could be applied in severe cases. Chemical castration for sex offenders is already used in Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Iceland and some states of the USA. Castration for child molesters, rapists, and violent criminals should become obligatory (and replace capital punishment in countries where it is still practiced).

It has been proven a useful practice to castrate tomcats. The fixed felines are less aggressive, less likely to be injured in fights with other tomcats, friendlier, and they don’t contribute to cat overpopulation. This is unfortunately not applicable to humans, human males will resist their castration, and they will eventually resist with weapons.

Though it is utopian at this point in time, the vision of a society that is not patriarchal and where males are not allowed to bear weapons has to be promoted and made part of the public discourse.

Field research

In a longterm behavioral study, biologists Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share followed a herd of baboons in Kenya for over 20 years, starting in 1978. The baboons got much of their food from a garbage dump at a tourist lodge, but the aggressive, high status males in the herd refused to allow lower status males, or any females, to eat from the garbage. Between 1983 and 1986, infected meat from the dump led to the deaths of 46 percent of adult males, all of the high status males died.

After the top ranking males died, aggression by the new top baboons dropped dramatically, with most aggression occurring between baboons of similar rank, little directed toward lower-status males, and none directed at females. Herd members also spent more time grooming, sat closer together than in the past, and hormone samples indicated that the lowest status males experienced less stress than in other baboon troops. These effects persisted at least through the late 90′s, well after all the original more mellow males had died. Not only that, when adolescent males who grew up in other communities joined the herd, they too engaged in less aggressive behavior than in other baboon herds.

Project MIAM

Two years ago I had one of my weird dreams. Cindy was still alive at this time and I dreamt, that my two young cat girls Cindy and Wendy were two young women sitting in the kitchen and discussing a particular thorny and delicate issue:

Cindy: You know, we have to find a name for our secret society and our main project.

Wendy: You mean SSS, the society of the “Sacred Silence Sisterhood”?

Cindy: No, this society already exists and it is so secretive, that we shouldn’t even mention it.

Wendy: So you mean WWW, the “Wise Women of the World”?

Cindy: No, I also didn’t mean this group, we are not wise enough yet to join them. Maybe they only accept women who have reached menopause?

Wendy: I understand, you mean the sisterhood agains aggressive males!

Cindy: Exactly. This will be our own project and if we want to attract other girls we have to give it a meaningful and exciting title.

Wendy: I see, what about MEOW (Movement to End the Oppression of Women)?

Cindy: that is a good title, but MEOW exists already. Can you remember, when we met our friends in the forest, you heard nothing than MEOW, MEOW all the time.

Wendy: So we join the MEOW movement.

Cindy: No, I want my own movement and my own project! And I want it with a special focus on the fight against aggressive males.

Wendy: You are so difficult, but I understand you, what about MFAM (Measures to Fix Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: MFAM doesn’t sound good, I cant even speak it correctly.

Wendy: Or MCAM (Measures to Castrate Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: The same. M at the beginning and at the net is right but we need two vowels in the middle.

Wendy: What about MIAM (Movement to Investigate Aggressive Males)?

Wendy was quite excited about this title, she would very much have liked to investigate aggressive males and her phantasies were flowering.

Cindy: No. We don’t investigate anymore. Aggressive males were investigated already exhaustively by too many of our fellow females.

Wendy: We could use MAAM (Movement to Alter Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: Do you really think, they can be altered? Until now any attempts in this regard have failed.

Wendy: You really are taunting me, but for heaven sake, what about MIAM (Movement to Influence Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: No!

Wendy: Or MEAM (Movement to Educate Aggressive Males)? Or MAAM (Movement to Assimilate Aggressive Males)? Or MIAM (Movement to Integrate Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: —

Wendy: Do you like MEAM (Measures to Eliminate Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: Wonderful, I love it but for official use we should look for a less offensive title. BTW, how could we eliminate aggressive males?

Wendy: Energy drinks, Red Cattle and similar brands. You know, they have lot of taurine (good for cats too).

Cindy: ?

Wendy: You see, someone has to lace the drinks in the bottling plant with a bacteria or virus, one with a long latency like HIV, with the difference, that it is not transferable and not spreading to other persons.

Cindy: What has that to do with our project?

Wendy: Well, do you know who buys all these energy drinks?

Cindy: Lets go on finding a proper title, we can discuss the details later.

Wendy: Okay, what about MEAM (Measures to Exterminate Aggressive Males)? Or MEAM variant two (Measures to Eradicate Aggressive Males)? Or MOAM (Measures to Obliterate Aggressive Males)? Or MAAM (Measures to Annihilate Aggressive Males)?

Cindy: I like that all, I think we are very near a solution, Wendy, you are a genius!

At this moment Princess Min Ki joined the discussion. She had entered the kitchen quietly some minutes before and had listened attentive to the conversation.

Princess Min Ki: We will call the project MIAM (Movement to Incapacitate Aggressive Males). MIAM doesn’t sound too bellicose and nevertheless leaves all options on the table.

And with that statement the discussion ended. Princess Min Ki was the step mother of Cindy and Wendy and the girls adored her. Min Ki’s word was the law.

My here described walk with the cat family in the adjacent forest was in contrast rather routine and the scenario was far less spectacular, but my brain was also busy with similar considerations and when we came home I decided to write down the ideas that were going around in my head as far as I could still remember them.

We started the walk at eight PM. It was very dark, because the sky was clouded and it was nearly new moon. Fortunately darkness is not really an impediment for me because I know the forest so well, that I would find my way even blindfolded.

It was eerily quiet as we walked the way to the big clearing in the center of the forest. The cats didn’t make a sound, but I knew that they were there and every now and then I saw a faint shadow rushing past me.

Suddenly the wind was whispering. Normally the leaves would be echoing the wind, letting the whispering only slowly die down. But as it was winter, the leaves where all laying on the ground, and the whispering stopped as abrupt as it had started. It was exactly at the point where Cindy always joined the walk and therefore I knew, that this was Cindy’s ghost.

Cindy was my little cat friend who disappeared in October, most likely killed by hunters. I commemorated her in my blog post Something Personal and I unloaded much of my grief in this blog post, but she still is always in my mind when we make our daily walks.

Cindy spent most of her time (and in fact most of her life) in the forest, but she nearly always joined the walks. I only had to call her name two or three times, and she came, running with lightning speed towards me and rolling on her back right in front of me, waiting that I would kneel down beside her and softly caress her. She liked that so much and she would immediately start purring as loud as she could.

The cats and I continued the walk and when we reached the big clearing I heard the wind whisper again. I kew, that Cindy’s ghost was still with me, wandering and jumping around and sniffing here and there just like her fellow cats.

Cindy’s ghost often visits me in my dreams. She had the habit of coming home from the forest after midnight and scratching on my bedroom door till I went up and let her in. This was usually between two and four AM. After I had let her in, Cindy waited till I was in bed again and then she jumped onto the bed and laid down right beside me either on the blanket or on the pillow and she often pressed her little head against my cheek.

Cindy and Lizzy were the only cats who made this (Lizzy, the cat love of my life, died on the 1st of June 2010 at the age of 18). They where the two cats which I saved from certain death and they both were well aware of this fact and as close to me as individuals of a different species possibly can get.

I wrote about both cats excessively in preceding blog posts and don’t want to repeat myself, yet for the purpose of this text I have to point out, that Lizzy hat a troubled life with much hardship and suffering. Her first ten years were terrible, the following eight years that she spent with us after she had lost her left paw in a mowing machine were better, but also marked by severe injuries and sicknesses.

Cindy was luckier, though her first year was also not easy because she had to overcome severe bacterial and parasitic infections. After that it went quite well and she lived a fulfilled and happy cat life in the forest and in our home. She was flourishing and we had a great time when she joined the cat walks or came home to sleep on my bed.

It is sad that her little life so suddenly ended after only three years and three month.

Cindy and Lizzy had both their individual and easily distinguishable pattern of scratching, and I knew alone from the sound and rhythm of the scratching which cat was waiting at the door. In addition to that my unconscious brain obviously paid special attention to this two patterns, because I always woke up instantly, when Cindy and Lizzy wanted to come in. Other cats had to scratch harder and longer to wake me up.

Back to my walk with the cats: We had now reached the other side of the big clearing and we would soon come to the log pile beside the way and turn left into a small path that only we and the deer knew and used. I had to stop for a moment and wait for the stragglers so that they could catch up.

While I was standing there in darkness and silence I recollected the various pictures and sounds and episodic memories about my two little friends and one question arose and persisted in my mind: Was it worth it? Was the short life of the two little animals worth the pain and hardship, was it worth the exhausting struggle to survive? And was it worth my efforts, my worry, my anxiousness and distress?

As the question mark grew bigger and brighter and metamorphosed into something completely indescribable with shapes and colors that I never had seen before, I started to ask myself: Is my own life worth the pain and strife, is it worth the toil and the blisters, the sweat, the tears?

The cats obviously had now gathered around me and while we walked on in darkness and silence — only occasionally broken by a faint meow — I came to the conclusion, that it was worth it, of course it was worth it!

One moment of complete harmony, feeling safe, dry, and warm, one moments of elation and utter bliss, one moment of happiness alone would make life worth living. My little friends experienced many such precious moments.

I too experienced many of this moments. Together with my little friends, together with my mate, even when I was alone.

Even when I was alone! This may sound a bit weird to one or the other reader, but it is easy to explain: When I am meditating and the brain chatter dies down completely and the sensation in my naval areal and along my spine and in my whole body becomes more and more intense I occasionally reach a state of serenity and invincibility that makes all my worrying and grieving look petty and immature. Such events for sure also count to the moments that make life worth living.

(On a side note: Moments like this could be called spiritual or mystical experiences and I don’t object to this classification as long as religion, mysticism, superstition are left out of the picture. Neuroscience is perfectly able to explain these special states of consciousness. I cannot go into details here but I will dedicate a forthcoming blog post to this issue.)

Every now and then I enjoy the mentioned spiritual moments also while I’m walking with the cats. Today I didn’t have such an experience, I was composed and calm, but nevertheless far away from feeling serene and invincible. The preconditions were not right, the stars where not in the right constellation, it was just not the right time.

We made another turn to the left and entered an area with very old and big trees. This is a stripe along the north-west and south-west border of the forest, which is easy to pass and which ultimately leads back to our house. The cats were all there and Cindy’s ghost was also still with us.

I know of course that Cindy’s ghost exists only in my head, but that is nearly as good as if she would still be alive. After all, every experience of the outside world exists only in my head and is nothing else than an interpretation of the incoming sensory signals. A vivid imagination and a fairly good memory is all what Cindy’s little ghost needs to ride on. She will be with me till I die.

The cats were now very disciplined and we went all the way home without further pauses and delays.

Though we were fast approaching home it took nevertheless long enough to let me replay the memory of one of the spiritual moments that I was experiencing during another walk with the cats. It was five years ago and we lived in an old farmhouse surrounded by meadows, fields and hedges. I often went with the cats along a small path between the cornfields and meadows that after some time leads into a narrow passage which ultimately ends at a railroad crossing.

Usually we stopped right before the passage and the cats would then explore the surrounding meadows and hedges. After some ten minutes I would call them and when they all had reappeared we would go back to the house. This time though the cats didn’t disperse but set down in a circle. It was not a circle around me, it was a circle including me. The cats sat there quietly and motionless, so I kneeled down too — there was not the slightest sound.

It was night but the sky was clear and inky blue. It was not dark, a million stars shone on us. We sat there for approximately twenty minutes and I went through a multitude of feelings and mental states. Just as I was starting to wonder if we would sit there still in the morning, one cat suddenly went up and all the others followed, stretching themselves and looking at me appreciative. I said: “Okay, my friends”, while I went up and I regretted instantly that I had interrupted the sacred silence with my casual and dispensable words, but the cats didn’t seem to mind and we walked quietly home.

Just as I finished my retrospection of this memorable cat walk five years ago we reached our house. Cindy’s ghost whispered a last meow and disappeared back into the forest. Normally she would have come with us and eat with the other cats, but she doesn’t need food anymore. “Goodbye my friend,” I thought, “till next time.”

My cats don’t ponder about the things and notions, which I tried to describe in this blog post, they are practical, emotional, but not overly reflective. They cherish the good times and muddle through the bad times — as we all do. Are cats wise? Not int the sense that I understand wisdom. They accumulate life experience and react more appropriately to new situations and new challenges as they get older. But their horizon is limited, even more than ours is, and they cannot change and readjust their instinctive behaviors as extensively as we can (or some of us can — or some of us could). Cats are fast and can jump high and far, but they cannot jump over their shadow.

Cats are great teachers though and they are the most charming ambassadors of nature. I deeply admire them!

http://mato48.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/928/
http://mato48.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/

This time I write about her because two days before Christmas she had a health check and was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid gland. The cancer — a papillary thyroid carcinoma — is said to have not metastasized or affected her lymph nodes. Cristina Fernandez will undergo surgery on January 4 to remove the tumor, Vice-President Amado Boudou will take her place until January 24.

Doctors say she has a high chance of recovery and probably will not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Papillary carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer and normally affects people under the age of 40, especially women. According to WHO statistics there are 123,000 new cases of thyroid cancer a year.

The news did strike me for several reasons:

1. Fernandez is one of several Latin American leaders diagnosed with cancer. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent chemotherapy in July, Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer in August 2010. Current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was treated for early stage lymphatic cancer in 2009 and her predecessor Lula da Silva undergoes chemotherapy for throat cancer since November.

Non of these leaders is considered a friend of the USA or an easy partner for global corporations.

Lula smoked for 50 years, one can maybe hold Philip Morris, Lorriard, or Reynolds responsible for that but not the CIA. The other cases are not so clear and while I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories and for now don’t share Hugo Chavez suspicions I keep my eyes open.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/28/bloomberg_articlesLWXDUT6KLVR7.DTL

2. Iodine-131, one of the most abundant substances released by the melted reactors in Fukushima, causes thyroid cancer. Health studies following the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 showed a significant increase in thyroid cancer in the affected areas. Argentina in the south of the globe though is for sure less effected than any northern countries.

3. I fear (and wrote about this in several blog posts) that the constantly increasing pollution of the ecosphere will result in a terrible cancer pandemic.

4. I’m a cancer surviver myself.

I’m not against traditions, they are a stabilizing factor in society. I’m also not against coming together to rejoice and jubilate for whatever reason, may it be to remember a historic event (Independence Day) or honor an important person (ML King Birthday) or celebrate a community achievement (Thanksgiving).

Christmas is a curious mix of pagan rituals (Saturnalia, Yule), the nativity myth and consumerism. This fact alone doesn’t necessarily discredit the Christmas festivities but unfortunately todays Christmas is celebrated in the shopping malls and supermarkets and it is so intertwined and meshed with consumer culture that it has become a main symbol of consumerism.

At Christmas, one has to give and receive presents, and these presents have to be produced, advertised, and bought. Presents should be a surprise and in practice that means one gets a lot of things that are not needed, not wanted, or outright useless.

I cannot remember that I ever got really useful Christmas gifts, but I remember well the many situations where I had to pretend joy and excitement while I was in fact thinking how I could get rid of the received junk as fast as possible. Unfortunately I don’t discard things easily, and the basement as well as the attic are full of items where I still ponder about a possible practical use or at least a way to upcycle or recycle them.

I don’t like to get presents, I told everybody to spare the money, presents are not appreciated. Financial donations though are always welcome, I wouldn’t object to a neatly packed bundle of 100 Dollar banknotes (100 or 500 Euro banknotes would be even more appreciated). I also wouldn’t reject a Solid State Drive with at least 120 GByte and 500 MByte/sec writing speed. I recently updated most computers by exchanging the platter based hard disks with Solid State Drives, but one machine still has the original hard disk, waiting to be exchanged.

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The program of the annual Christmas performances in the music school consists mainly of Christmas carols and I have two favorites which we perform nearly every year.

One has the title: “I saw three ships come sailing in”. This is an old English song, the earliest known printed version is from the 17th century. The reference to three ships is thought to originate in the three ships that brought the assumed relics of the “Three Kings from the East” to the Cologne Cathedral in the 12th century.

I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day in the morning

And what was in those ships all three
On Christmas day, on Christmas day?
And what was in those ships all three
On Christmas day in the morning?

Our savior, Christ, and his lady
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
Our savior, Christ, and his lady
On Christmas day in the morning

And all the bells on earth shall ring
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
And all the angels in heaven shall sing
On Christmas day in the morning

Nat King Cole, Glen Campbell, Sting (Gordon Sumner), The Carpenters, Hawk Nelson, The Chieftains and many others performed this tune but I’m not impressed by any of the recorded versions. Over the years I developed my own arrangement which interprets the song as a medium tempo Jazz tune with a strong swing feeling.

The main reason I like this song is, that the lyrics are quite an interesting rendition of the nativity story. The lyrics remind me in a strange way on a scene in Bertold Brechts “Threepenny Opera,” where Polly Peachum sings “Pirate Jenny”. The difference is that only one ship is coming in and that the lyrics of Pirate Jenny purport a significantly different sentiment:

You people can watch while I’m scrubbing these floors
And I’m scrubbin’ the floors while you’re gawking
Maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel swell
In this crummy Southern town
In this crummy old hotel
But you’ll never guess to who you’re talkin’.
No. You couldn’t ever guess to who you’re talkin’.

Then one night there’s a scream in the night
And you’ll wonder who could that have been
And you see me kinda grinnin’ while I’m scrubbin’
And you say, “What’s she got to grin?”
I’ll tell you.

There’s a ship
The Black Freighter
With a skull on it’s masthead
Will be coming in

You gentlemen can say, “Hey gal, finish them floors!
Get upstairs! What’s wrong with you! Earn your keep here!
You toss me your tips
And look out to the ships
But I’m counting your heads
As I’m making the beds
Cuz there’s nobody gonna sleep here, tonight
Nobody’s gonna sleep here
Nobody!
Nobody!

Then one night there’s a scream in the night
And you say, “Who’s that kicking up a row?”
And ya see me kinda starin’ out the winda
And you say, “What’s she got to stare at now?”
I’ll tell ya.

There’s a ship
The Black Freighter
Turns around in the harbor
Shootin’ guns from her bow

Now
You gentlemen can wipe off that smile off your face
Cause every building in town is a flat one
This whole frickin’ place will be down to the ground
Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and sound
And you yell, “Why do they spare that one?”
Yes. That’s what you say.
“Why do they spare that one?”

All the night through, through the noise and to-do
You wonder who is that person that lives up there?
And you see me stepping out in the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair

And the ship
The Black Freighter
Runs a flag up it’s masthead
And a cheer rings the air

By noontime the dock
Is a-swarmin’ with men
Comin’ out from the ghostly freighter
They move in the shadows
Where no one can see
And they’re chainin’ up people
And they’re bringin’ em to me
Askin’ me,
“Kill them NOW, or LATER?”
Askin’ ME!
“Kill them now, or later?”

Noon by the clock
And so still at the dock
You can hear a foghorn miles away
And in that quiet of death
I’ll say, “Right now.
Right now!”

Then they pile up the bodies
And I’ll say,
“That’ll learn ya!”

And the ship
The Black Freighter
Disappears out to sea
And on it is me

As I read and compare the lyrics of the two songs I’m not so sure if there are not similarities beyond the image of a ship sailing into a port. In both cases the incoming ship means salvation and relief from an unfortunate situation.

There is much misery and suffering in the word and many, many oppressed and tormented people need a savior to come and bring freedom and relief from oppression. In todays world the savior of course does not sail in via ship but sends drones and bombs first to destroy the oppressors. This is much easier done than an invasion via ships and it is done all the times now, it has in fact become routine in the last years. All your oppressed and tyrannized people, be aware that help is as near as the next US embassy or CIA office (often identical) where you just have to denounce your oppressors and provide the necessary geographical information.

Be careful what you call for though, things could go out of hand with you becoming “collateral damage” and being relieved in eternity from the burden of this life.

The second tune that we perform nearly every year is called: “Some Children See Him”. This song was composed by Alfred Burt in 1951, the lyrics were written by Wihla Hutson. Burt was a Jazz musician who also worked as a music teacher and composer. Unfortunately he died in 1954 just 33 years old from lung cancer (he was a heavy smoker). The song “Some Children See Him” is part of a collection of 15 Christmas carols which all became popular. “Caroling, Caroling”, “Come, Dear Children”, and “The Star Carol” are the most famous songs from this collection. Burt finished The Star Carol just one day before his death.

The lyricist Wihla Hutson was an organist and a close friend of the Burt family. Wihla never married and stayed with her mother till her mother died. She served for many years as well respected organist and choir director of the Episcopal Church in Southfield and died 2002 101 years old.

Wihla Hutson never had children but she loved children which is very much expressed in her lyrics:

Some children see Him lily white,
the baby Jesus born this night.
Some children see Him lily white,
with tresses soft and fair.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
The Lord of heav’n to earth come down.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
with dark and heavy hair.



Some children see Him almond-eyed,
this Savior whom we kneel beside.

some children see Him almond-eyed,

with skin of yellow hue.
Some children see Him dark as they,
sweet Mary’s Son to whom we pray.

Some children see him dark as they,

and, ah! they love Him, too!

The children in each different place
will see the baby Jesus’ face
like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace,
and filled with holy light.
O lay aside each earthly thing
and with thy heart as offering,
come worship now the infant King.
‘Tis love that’s born tonight!

In 1995, the country of Palau issued a series of stamps commemorating “Some Children See Him” and its message of tolerance. I don’t discuss the message of this song with my pupils, they are clever enough to find it out by themselves.

I live in a country ripe with racism and xenophobia. It is an affluent country and a preferred destination of economic migrants. My pupils are not bothered by this but the parents often are. I have to consider the misgivings of the parents, which are subsumed in the following two paragraphs:

While the economic migrants on one hand do the dirty work that the locals are not willing to do they on the other hand don’t fit easily into the cultural and social fabric. Ethnic diversity could be beneficial and enrich cultural life but unfortunately many incoming economic refugees don’t mingle with the local people, they settle down in separated communities which are like bridgeheads of a foreign culture from which the foreigners try to gain ground meter by meter.

These economic refugees are not able and not willing to reconcile and harmonize with the culture of their host country and they often are not even willing to adhere to local rules and regulations. The ensuing frictions are causing a rise of racism and a surge of right-wing political parties.

Rereading the last paragraphs I have to acknowledge that I share these views to some extend and I have to ask myself, how it comes that my progressive values and my ideals of tolerance, equality, and justice were so completely corrupted by the reality of immigration politics?

I still want to help, but despite my desire to help all people in need and to accommodate them I see now the practical limitations of this approach, the ensuing problems were demonstrated in many countries over a period of many decades. Taking in all economic migrants means to import the inherent systemic dilemmas of their societies and it generates cultural tensions that inevitably will radicalize both sites.

Why not just stop the still ongoing neocolonial exploitation of poor countries and pay our dues with a generous restoration fund? There will not be much sympathy for such a program, because our affluence is based on this neocolonial exploitation. After all this here is still a democracy and the voters will never approve anything what diminishes their income. A few responsible people try nevertheless with small initiatives in this direction (which should be supported and propagated).

Or we just leave them alone to sort out the problems by themselves? Maybe this is the best what one could hope fore and maybe in one or the other cases wise leaders will turn things around and guide their people into a brighter future, a future where all children can experience a comfortable and happy childhood.

I wish them well and I wish all children a comfortable and happy childhood. I cannot imagine yet how this could be achieved in countries where the average fertility rate is 5 and more children, where the pastures are overgrazed, the forests clearcut, and where everything what is left slowly turns into dessert because of a persisting drought caused by global warming.

Never mind, as I am still believing in the ingenuity of humans and and the ability of nature to heal I keep going on, Happy Christmas to all my friends!

Christmas can be a hard time for people who live alone and don’t have close friends. They cannot celebrate Christmas in the way it is suggested by Christmas carols, Christmas stories, and Christmas advertising. They cannot spend the Christmas Eve joyful and peaceful with family and friends. How should they, when there is no family and when there are no friends?

They can go to their local pub or some other place where they usually hang out and meet the regulars there. Most of the other visitors also don’t have a family or friends. So they all stand or sit together drinking and talking rubbish. It is kind of a family, though a dysfunctional one. Maybe it should be rather called a brotherhood — the brotherhood of the lonely hearts. The men are an allegorical brotherhood who is converging in an allegorical “Lonely Hearts Club”, sometimes listening to an allegorical “Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

It is a brotherhood, no women ever show up. There are lonely women too, but they stay home, looking TV, reading a book, writing their most heartfelt thoughts into a diary which maybe nobody ever will read. Alternatively they hang out on a social networking site or publish their most heartfelt thoughts as a blog post.

Men go out and drink, women stay home, so they never meet.

Why should the lonely women go out to a pub where a few dozen unhappy and to various degrees intoxicated men are standing or sitting around, looking at any females with a strange mixture of craving, anxiousness, insolence, and contempt?

Of course, there will be nice guys in the “Lonely Hearts Club” crowd, but quite a few will be loners, losers, sexists, misogynists, and otherwise deranged personalities. They will set the tone, and visiting such a place is a recipe for trouble.

Suicide rates don’t go up during Christmas, they actually decline, at least according to statistics. Why should suicides increase? Being alone is hard at any time of the year, not only at Christmas. The lonely and terribly sad guys will make it a few more month, as the hopelessness and pointlessness of their existence slowly sinks in. The terribly sad guys will spare their suicide till spring.

The lonely and terribly sad guys would not have to suffer, they would not have to indulge in their melancholy and they would not have to feel unloved, unwanted, useless. They would not have to let their pain accumulate to the point where they simply cannot take it any longer.

They would not even need to be alone at Christmas!

The sad and lonely souls of course have not chosen to be alone. They would like to have a family and close friends. They don’t have a mate because they are either not attractive, poor, dumb, or have unrealistic expectations about a prospective partner. Many of them don’t see themselves as ugly or dumb, and they reject persons as inadequate who in fact would be a good match and perfectly fit to them.

The ones who are aware of their unattractiveness and rightfully consider themselves as misfits will rather hide in their caves than look out for equally unattractive misfits.

In any case, we live in a superficial and shallow world and having a good looking partner is a status symbol. Many prefer to have no partner than to share their life with an ugly one that would maybe deflate their status.

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, how true, but today beauty is standardized (and commoditized) like everything else. If your face is not symmetric, if your nose is too big, your eyebrows are too bushy, and your skin is not fair and spotless, you are simply out of luck.

If you are born ugly and poor and daft, you will have a hard time. If you are only ugly and daft, you can at least try cosmetic surgery. If you are ugly and intelligent, you will acquire skills that will make you attractive over time. You will learn and develop your personality. Over the years you will increase your charisma and your face will more and more reflect your personality. You will be respected and admired.

But this is a long and winding road to go and there are only a few hours till Christmas Eve! How can the lonely souls make it through the upcoming holidays without being depressed, discouraged, dispirited, saddened, damaged, crushed?

Well, you will maybe not be able to find the love of your life in the few hours till Christmas. But you can find someone who needs you and will depend on you and maybe will even trust you and like you.

Go to an animal shelter and adopt a cat!

The animal asylums are overcrowded and many cats have to be euthanized because nobody wants them. You can save the life of an innocent creature who like you is lonely and forsaken and desperately wants to have a home, a warm place, somebody to cuddle with.

Please, go there and look, you will see old and young and pretty and ugly cats. Don’t take the beautiful, take the ugly one, this is the cat that will not easily find a host. This is the cat that most likely will adore you and will be grateful and love you with every fibre of its little heart. This is the cat who will wait for you when you come home and be joyous and meow as loud as she or he can.

This is the cat who will sit on your lap softly purring and who will put its little head in your hand and who will sigh and stretch and relax and who will be happy just for being able to be near you.

Take your cat mate home and show her or him your place. Maybe you need to buy a litter box and some toys or a scratching post. If you are in a quiet area without much traffic you can let the cat out, but not until she or he got accustomed to the house. If you need to keep your cat friend indoors you have to play with and comfort the cat. One hour a day will be required to keep your companion entertained.

Maybe not everything will work out smoothly right away. Don’t be discouraged when the cat pees on your precious persian carpet or throws down an expensive vase. Don’t forget, this cat is a living creature, it will be your friend and companion, it will become more precious and important than any of your material possessions.

This Christmas you will not be alone, you will be petting, caressing, fondling your little friend. You will be feeding your cat and you will be playing with your cat and talking with your cat. You will maybe sit on the computer with the cat beside you, looking up all cat-help sites and gathering infos about how to keep a cat pleased and healthy.

Don’t forget, this is a longtime (lifelong) commitment! You cannot divorce your cat, you simply cannot do that! From now on you have to share your life with your cat friend, no matter what happens. Don’t worry, the cat will give you back all the love and it will give it back twice. If you are a caring person and you have love to give, everything will work out.

If you don’t want to commit yourself and adopt a cat, you maybe will find solace listening to one of the most ingenious songs in pop history, Gilbert O’Sullivan’s composition ALONE AGAIN.

When a little while from now,
If I’m not feeling any less sour,
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower.

When climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it’s like when you’re shattered,
Left standing in the lurch
By a church with people saying
“My God, that’s tough, she’s stood him up.
No point in us remaining,
We may as well go home.”
As I did on my own,
Alone again, naturally.

To think that only yesterday,
I was cheerful, bright and gay,
Looking forward to, well who wouldn’t do
The role I was about to play;

But as if to knock me down,
Reality came around
And without so much, as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces,
Leaving me to doubt,
Talk about God in his mercy,
Who, if He really does exist
Why did he desert me?
In my hour of need
I truly am indeed
Alone again, naturally.

It seems to me that there are more hearts
Broken in the world that can’t be mended,
Left unattended;
What do we do?
What do we do?

{Break}

Now looking back over the years,
And whatever else that appears;
I remember I cried, when my father died,
Never wishing to hide the tears;

At sixty-five years old,
My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn’t understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken;
Leaving her to start
With a heart so badly broken,
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken.
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day;
Alone again, naturally

Alone again, naturally

23 US soldiers lost their lives and about 300 Panamanian soldiers died. Estimates of civilian death vary between 2,000 and 6,000. About 20,000 people lost their homes, the El Chorrillo fire alone displaced 2,700 families.

The working class neighborhood El Chorrillo burnt to the ground in the invasion and was subsequently named “Little Hiroshima” by the population. San Miguelito, a working-class suburb of 200,000 people, was also devastated, pounded by AC-130 Spectre gunships, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and Lockheed F-117A.

Many of the dead civilians were hastily dumped into mass graves. Witnesses reported that US troops used flame-throwers to incinerate the corpses and that many bodies were thrown into the sea. There was a mass burial on Christmas Day.

A report by former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark estimates over 4,000 deaths and concludes that “neither Panamanian nor US governments provided a careful accounting of non-lethal injuries” and that “relief efforts were inadequate to meet the basic needs of thousands of civilians made homeless by the invasion”.

A Human Rights Watch report in 1991 stated, that even with uncertainties about the true scale of civilian casualties, the figures were troublesome because “the ratios suggest that the rule of proportionality and the duty to minimize harm to civilians were not faithfully observed by the invading U.S. forces.”

Why did the USA invade?

The USA had seized Panama from Colombia in 1903. They colonized the Canal Zone (an area of 8.1 km on each side of the canal) and packed it with military bases. The “Panama Canal Department” was for decades the military command center for gathering intelligence and suppressing insurgencies in Latin America until it was succeeded by USSOUTHCOM in the 60s.

General Noriega was an officer handpicked and trained by the USA. He became a CIA operative in 1967 and attended the notorious School of the Americas. When the Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos fell out of favor (and then fell out of the sky in a 1981 plane crash), Manuel Noriega was hoisted into power with US backing.

Under Noriega, US military operations expanded in Panama. Bush Senior personally met with Noriega in 1967 (when he was head of the CIA) and in 1983 (when he was vice president). In the early 80s, Noriega helped set up the CIAs “drugs-for-guns” trade that used cocaine trafficking to finance their secret Contra war against Nicaragua. During the Reagan administration, Noriega got personal CIA and Pentagon payments of nearly 200,000 US$ a year. When Noriega stole the 1984 Panamanian election, Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schultz praised him for “initiating the process of democracy.”

But at this time he USA had already decided to change control over the Panama Canal Zone from direct US military occupation to control through a Panamanian puppet government and Noriega looked less and less to be the right man for this job. Just ten days before much of the administration of the canal was scheduled to go over to Panama (on January 1, 1990) the USA invaded Panama to get rid of Noriega.

The invasion represented a tightening of the grip on Panama and all of Latin America. The collapse of the Soviet Union had left America as the worlds only superpower and the invasion in Panama was one of the first unrestrained moves to push the global imperialistic agenda.

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Thank you to Rosemarie Jackowski for posting this on Common Dreams and reminding us about this significant event in Americas history:

REMEMBERING OPERATION JUST CAUSE

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men…American Style

It was a quiet and gentle night
Filled with joy and childhood’s delight
Some families recited a solemn prayer
While seasonal music filled the night air
Anticipation filled every girl and boy
Who eagerly awaited a holiday toy
It was a time for celebrating Peace on Earth
A time to honor every child’s birth

Meanwhile, in Washington plans were underway
For a holocaust on that very day
The year was 1989, the twentieth of December
A day of infamy, that the world will always remember

Suddenly the silent night air was pierced with a strange vibration
But still the children played with eager anticipation
The strange vibration grew louder, just like approaching thunder
Could it be an airplane, one could only listen and wonder
Suddenly explosions were everywhere
It looked as if bombs were bursting in air
To the sleepy village that was preparing for Santa Claus
The President had sent Operation Just Cause

All hope and joy gave way to fright
Fear and horror filled this historic night
A demonic order from the Commander-in-chief
Brought death and destruction and endless grief
Planes dropping death right out of the sky
Left a stunned world to question, “WHY?”
Dante’s inferno replaced the tiny village
Destruction was everywhere, nothing left to pillage

The village was wiped right off the map
While our national conscience took a long winter’s nap
The president’s planes had accomplished their mission well
They transformed the peaceful village into an instant Hell

When the massacre ended thousands lie mangled and dead
Unarmed civilians and babies snuggled in their bed
Then soldiers came, like robotic slaves
They bulldozed the bodies into mass graves
Hoping that the world wouldn’t see enough to remember
The holocaust that happened on the twentieth of December

Christmas shopping season is in full swing and keeps the upper class and the (dwindling) middle class in Western countries as well as the parvenus and nouveau riche in the so-called “developing countries” busy. Banks are short on cash as people take their savings out and government bonds don’t sell well (one could call it a financial paralysis) but consumers nevertheless seem to be undeterred and the great Christmas tradition of shopping is held alive.

Many consumers are heavily addicted to shopping and deeply regret that because of stringent austerity measures shopping is not the same as it once was. So it is very welcome that in the weeks before Christmas conspicuous consumption is still deemed as legitimate, as innocent and justifiable as it was before the financial reckoning.

April is not a typical shopping season but I was nevertheless forced back then to buy some necessities in a supermarket. Normally I avoid wasting my time with shopping and I leave this task to my wife, but she had injured her ankle and could only walk with crutches.

The shopping list was short and included toilet paper and kitchen tissue, tooth brushes and tooth paste, soap and shower gel, laundry detergent, bananas, yoghurt for my wife, rolled oats, whole grain rice, cheese. All items which are not available from the farmers market and also don’t grow in our garden.

I always buy organic food and/or “fair trade”, if available, though I consider the organic sections in supermarkets as a scam. Even if the food is grown with less pesticide use, it is still shipped over long distances and lavishly packaged. “Organic” simply is the new “premium”, meaning: A bit less polluted and less rotten.

I walked through the aisles as fast as possible looking for the items on my shopping list but the variety of colors and shapes made my head spin. Fortunately this particular shop is rather frugal (no frills) compared with competitors, it offers only about 400 – 600 products instead of 10,000 or more, which may be on display in other shops.

The store belongs to Aldi, a German based company which operates thousands of middle sized supermarkets all around the world. Aldi is not Wal-Mart, but the company has nearly 10.000 outlets in 19 countries and a turnover of 51 billion Euros. Theo Albrecht, one of the two brothers who founded the company, died last year. He was the richest German, worth some 20 billion US$.

That is not bad even compared to Wal-Mart. The six heirs of Bud Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, were estimated to possess about 70 billion US$ in 2007 (this is by the way the equivalent of wealth that is owned by the bottom 30 percent of US Americans.)

Back to my shopping experience. The shop is one of the bigger Aldi branches, the sales area is about 1,400 square meter. Aldi shops normally have between 800 and 1,200 square meter sales area. Around the supermarket building is a large parking space, the whole complex covers approximately 10,000 square meters. The shop is open eleven hours a day on six days a week.

I looked at the ceiling and discovered, that the lighting, which is on all the time regardless of the time of day is a combination of halogen lamps and fluorescent light bars. The halogen lamps are probably used to achieve a more pleasant and warm light. I stopped for a moment and counted 16 halogenic lamps in 10 rows. Just by accident I know that one lamp consumes 50 watts, that makes 8,000 watts for the whole hall. The linear fluorescent light bars were covering nearly the whole ceiling, this technology is far more energy efficient than the halogen lamps but the fluorescent lamps were of the 1200 by 300 mm T-bar kind which usually consume 2 times 36 watts. I estimated that the light bars would need about 9,000 watt and the total electrical power consumption for lighting would be therefore 17,000 watts.

It was a rather cold day but the shopping hall was warm, which reminded me of the fact, that all these supermarkets have an electric heating and air conditioning. The Aldi corporation prouds itself as being environmental friendly, Aldi USA for instance commissioned Eagle Mountain’s Center for Green Technology to design and install a geothermal heating and cooling system for the store in Farmington, NY. The East Syracuse store uses LED lighting and an energy management system which is turning off lights in areas where there’s no traffic and makes sure lights aren’t inadvertently left on by employees when the store is closed.

An Aldi store in Austria is mentioned and lauded by the GreenBuilding initiative of the European Commission. The store uses a heating pump which is combined with the cooling to recycle the warmth that is generated by the cooling. Other stores use a CO2 based refrigeration system (microox ® CO2 gas cooler) and new developed heat exchangers. New stores use massive thermal isolation and low-emissivity glass plus double or triple glazed windows.

All these measures combined are said to reduce the primary energy demand of stores, which is normally 80,000 kWh per square meter and year by half. I’m just checking the numbers:

40 kWh per square meter and year should be the energy demand of a “Green Building”. This store has 1,400 square meter which would mean a yearly consumption of 56,000 kWh. The store is open 52 weeks x 6 days – 14 holidays = 298 days x 11 hours = 3,278 hours. 56,000 kWh divided by 3,278 are 17,084 watts average energy use.

That is what I estimated to be the energy consumption of the lighting alone. My estimation could have various flaws, maybe the halogenic lamps are only 30 watt and the fluorescent light bars use only 2 x 24 watts, a recalculation shows that the energy consumption of the lighting would then be only 11,000 watts. This is still too much, and the use of halogen lamps alone makes this particular store fail the “Green Building” standards.

The energy efficiency in lumen per watt is for

incandescent lightbulbs 10 – 16
halogen lamps 12 – 20
compact fluorescent 60 – 70
fluorescent bars 30 – 110
LEDs 60 – 110

Back to my supermarket shopping adventure. As I walked through the aisles and passed the cereals section, I was astonished how many varieties of corn flakes are sold even in a no frills shop with a comparatively small range of goods. Especially the “Honey Smacks” and “Golden Crips” packages caught my eyes and reminded me of a report published a few days ago that cereal products aimed at children contain more and more sugar. Food companies spent fortunes on advertising cereals as the best breakfast for kids and the investment pays off now with sugar-cereals being the most profitable products for the companies.

The wide acceptance of these sugar-cereal combinations is good news for the industry and bad news for children and parents. 60 years of nutrition research has confirmed again and again that sugar is the single most health-destructive component of the standard Western diet. Children who eat breakfasts with high sugar content have more problems at school. They become more frustrated and have a harder time working independently than kids who eat low-sugar breakfasts. By lunchtime they have less energy, are hungrier, show attention deficits and make more mistakes.

I have only a comparison chart from USA but European products are probably not much different.

Household goods like toothbrushes and toilet paper and most of the other things on my shopping list were at the very end of the hall as far away from the entrance and the checkout as possible. This is an age old trick forcing the customers to pass all the goods that are not essential but could be appealing and trigger an impulse purchase.

After the cereals I passed the other packaged foods and was impressed but not tempted by the various chocolates, cakes, biscuits, candies, and snacks. A whole aisle with food that has practically no nutritional value and contains mainly sugar, fat, white flour or starch, salt, and additives like antioxidants, preservatives, thickening and glazing agents, artificial flavoring and coloring, oleochemicals, silicones, waxes and a whole lot more from the chemical laboratories of the food industry.

I saw only a few cans, canned food is not popular anymore, people have already consumed enough bisphenol A. This is an gigantic field experiment with billions of guinea pigs, I thought, and just following my free flowing associations while I walked through this consumer wonderland it came to my mind, that children with ADHD improved significantly when food with special artificial coloring (sunset yellow FCF (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), tartrazine (E102) and ponceau 4R (E124)) and the preservative sodium benzoate was eliminated from their diet.

The Romans had lead (used for water pipes, pots and drinking cups), we have chemical food additives, bisphenol A, and all kind of other environmental pollutants (POPs, heavy metals), that inevitably enter the food chain. In addition to that meat is laced with antibiotics and hormones, especially the ones which mimic estrogen and make men infertile.

The last mentioned fact could become an unexpected solution of the environmental problems that human overpopulation causes and also lead to unexpected alliances. Where are the conspiracy theorists, fuming about Nazi inspired eugenics and population control? Where are the machos, anxious about their reproductive capacity? Finally they all have a chance to team up with the environmental movement and start growing their own vegetables and fruits!

I fetched yoghurt and cheese from the refrigerated section, hoping that the labels which suggest no sugar and GE-free are truthful. Regulations are controlled and strictly enforced here, so there is a chance that labeling is correct. The refrigerated section in this store covers nearly the whole length of the hall. Even if the extracted warmth from the cooling area is used to supply the heating on cold days, the power consumption and the resulting carbon footprint must be considerable (1000 – 3000 watts).

After collecting everything on my shopping list, I went back to wait in line at the checkout.

The girl on the counter was below 20 and according to her badge, an apprentice. She had black dyed hair with violet and green streaks, nose and eyebrow piercings, black nail polish. Some of the pupils in the music school look exactly like that and so I know that this outfit indicates a preference for heavy metal music. Heavy metal music is an influential part of our popular culture and comes in distinct varieties that suit a wide range of tastes, hearing impairments and mental disorders. At offer are death metal, trash metal, extreme metal, gothic, sludge, doom — I know it all, (courtesy of my students).

The girl wore the company uniform, a long sleeve, navy blue blouse and trousers, so I couldn’t see if she wore tattoos. It would have been very unusual though if she wouldn’t have been tattooed, because tattooing has become an initiation rite. Boys and girls flock to the tattoo shops/studios/parlors to have their skin decorated with various more or less meaningful and more or less explicit graphics in every possible place. Lacking tattoos is painfully uncool and shows a nearly criminal carelessness about fashions and trends.

I wondered, what would happen if this girl and I would be trapped on a lonely island. Would we both flee to the most opposite corners of the island and try to avoid any contact or would over time some strange relation be established or even a faint sexual attraction arise? I think, despite the enormous differences, that this girl and I still belong to the same species (aren’t Chihuahuas, Collies, Golden Retrievers, and German Shepherds all considered to be dogs?)

I will probably never be able to completely overcome and eradicate the intolerance and the cynicism, that are part of my character and that I manifested in the last paragraphs. I am working since decades to alleviate this flaws but ever now and then a feeling of contempt and aversion overtakes completely and I view a particular person not as fellow human being but as an annoyance and burden.

Why shouldn’t the kids show their allegiance to popular culture? Body paint and piercing are part of human civilization since millennia. The hair dye and formaldehyde plus other solvents of the nail polish maybe unhealthy, but it is their health and their choice.

Unfortunately the production of chemicals and gadgets which are a necessary part of modern youth culture and consumer culture and the lifestyle, that is promoted, celebrated, and propagated by this culture effect my health too. The kids are entitled to create their own rituals and their own aestheticism but they don’t, they are brainwashed by advertising, distracted and sedated and led like cattle to the temples of consumerism.

Their culture was designed in the corporate laboratories to maximize the profits of companies.

I took the wallet out of my pocket while I was slowly advancing in the line. The wallet is of blue leather and I have it now for about 20 years. As I don’t like to go shopping and also conduct most financial transaction online it is not used much, but it nevertheless is nearing the end of its life expectancy.

I try to keep my belongings in good order and treat them carefully and I try to use everything as long as possible. I didn’t buy cloth in the last ten years. My wife bought me a pair of blue jeans and leather sandals and I got two shirts from my stepson because he didn’t like them, but that was also years ago. I am in and out of fashion cycles and I’m definitely out of consummation trends. In the mid-1990s, the average US citizen bought 28 items of clothing a year, today she or he buys 59 items.

My cloth all goes through three phases of use, which are: Outdoors, indoors (including garden and forest), and cleaning rag. The cloth that I wore at this shopping trip was all phase one (at least in my opinion), it was a turtleneck, a jean, sneakers, and a leather jacket. Today I wouldn’t buy a leather jacket anymore because of my admiration and affection for my animal friends. I don’t even try to justify my apparent misdeeds, I only want to add that the leather jackets in my possession are ages old and hail from a time where my consumption patterns admittedly didn’t match my environmental beliefs. Now that I have the jackets I will not throw them away, they are useful and practical and last forever — they will for sure outlast me.

I had put my goods onto the conveyer belt while considering all the mentioned aspects of my consumer existence and suddenly it was my turn and the cashier had scanned the goods and had shoved them back into the cart. She didn’t ask me, if I wanted to pay with credit card or cash, she probably assumed that a person like me would not have a credit card (thats right, I don’t have a credit card).

She seemed surprised, when I pulled out a banknote from my worn out wallet, she probably had rather expected me to run with my shopping cart to the exit without paying. I took the change and while I turned to the exit I heard her say: “Have a nice day”. This was probably one of a dozen phrases she was trained to say to the customers and it sounded, as if she would have pressed the button of a jingle machine in a broadcast studio.

I dragged the cart to my car and filled up the boot. It was nearly 30 kg, the supply of roughly 4 month. 30 kg, 4 kg of which is packing material, in a car that weighs 1,100 kg plus 30 kg fuel in the tank, driven by me weighing 66 kg. 1,100 + 30 + 66 + 4 = 1,200 kg.

I would now drive home 11 km and after parking the car into the garage the spent fuel would have moved 1,200 kg of metal, plastic, fuel, packaging, and me just to transport 26 kg of goods! This is insane, this is unsustainable, this is criminal negligence, I thought. And I felt guilty as I always do….

There are alternatives:

A delivery system from stores to customers for instance would reduce the transport costs by 80 to 90 percent. Such a system could be installed immediately, the necessary technology and infrastructure exists already in form of internet shopping sites and postal services. Yet the full potential of home delivery could only be reached with a unified service because the rivalry between competing companies and parcel services would cause unnecessary and unwanted duplicity.

I dare to dream, and in my vision of an ideal society and an ideal economy businesses would not compete but cooperate, would have to deliver necessary services to fair prices, would be owned by the employees, and would be accountable to both the employees and the customers.

I dare to dream, and in my vision of an ideal society and an ideal economy there would be no need for shopping and the time that is wasted now by the affluent people in the Western world to stroll around in supermarkets and shopping malls would be used more productively and purposefully for:

learning and teaching,
fixing things and inventing novel and clever solutions for all the small and big problems that arise, as we go on in our lives,
growing food (garden work),
art (writing, painting, music),
social interaction and meditation,
walking in the forest, watching nature, listening to the birds, being lazy and doing absolutely nothing

Doing nothing, thats my plan when I have finally updated, polished, and published this text!

I don’t have many friends, not on social media sites like Facebook and not in the real world. I need friends like anybody else but I prefer the ones with whom I can discuss thoughts beyond the usual assortment of gossips and rants. In fact I’m looking for friends who spare me gossip and rants and who come straight to the point.

Coming straight to the point, that is what I consequently want to do now. The essence of my blog posts is:

1. Our Western lifestyle is wasteful, unhealthy, unsustainable.

2. We need a paradigm shift and a new value system based on empathy towards all life and the willingness to harmonically integrate into nature. We need to perceive ourselves as a part of nature.

3. We need to simplify our lives and shed unnecessary material and mental ballast.

4. Life is short, we shouldn’t waste even one single second.

Thats basically it, though one could surely add quite a few details, for instance by pointing out the things, that cause suffering and carnage around us. A few suggestions:

Weapons and other machines of destruction (airplanes, cars, trucks, bulldozers, heavy industrial equipment for farming, logging, mining, manufacturing)
Male dominance (testosterone as the driving force of human history)
Hubris and greed of (mainly male) sociopaths
Systematic brainwashing (mind control)
Religions, superstitions, ideologies
Stupidity and lack of education
Overpopulation

One point, that to some extent is implied by the list items but nevertheless has to be addressed separately is the deliberate deprivation of basic needs (unpolluted air/water/food, sexual fulfillment, a quiet place to rest and sleep, income security and health care, social acceptance/dignity/respect) in order to exploit this unfulfilled urges for commerce (consumerism), political aims (nationalism, exceptionalism, racism, xenophobia), and war.

Problem awareness by itself is of course not the solution, it’s only the first step toward a solution. The four points that I mentioned before are abstract and vague, they have to be clarified by listing practical steps and remedies.

A. What can we do on a personal level, in what way do we have to change our lives in order to improve the situation? From my blog post “Essential questions”:

Be an example, be a teacher, be a prophet, be a saint. Love, care, be happy, lead a modest life with the least possible use of energy and materials. Don’t reproduce. Be careful and clever, outwit the powers of evil.

B. What has to be done on a community level?

1. Building research groups or using existing institutions for education, training, research, which is focused on:

2. Developing ways to disable and dismantle weapons and other machines of destruction.

3. Developing smart tools, optimized methods/techniques/practices, and efficient organizational structures of a new economy.

4. Building local networks (neighborhood committees), new distribution models (replacing supermarkets by online ordering), subsistence farming and gardening. Creating a new economy (counter currencies, time banks, co-ops).

5. Supporting and promoting women in every possible way to establish gender equality.

6. Boycotting, disturbing, obstructing, sabotaging the present system.

7. Taking over and reprogramming existing computer networks.

Needless to say, that this text, like anything else what I write, is nothing more than a snapshot of my continuously evolving mind, my opinions, beliefs, convictions — which I’m ready to update and change at any time. This world is a nonlinear dynamic system with infinite interdependencies and I’m only an average human, trying to make sense of it with pattern recognition and memory, using words, which are just markers for bundles of associations, and logic, derived from grammar, which in turn is just a structure in our working memory meant to organize the words. There is no need for an epistemological discussion here, but an assertion or notion on my part to be absolutely right would be presumptuous, preposterous, silly!

Losing a friend

As I wrote at the start of this mail, I don’t have many friends, and because of this circumstance the few that I have are precious. The initial intent of this text was to commemorate some friends that I recently lost. Losing them was an experience that substantially clouded my mood, and the emanating emotions and sentiments were of a kind, that I normally keep private.

But then, talking helps, writing helps, sharing the experience with other people helps. Normally I wouldn’t dare to bother anyone with my grievances, people have enough to do with getting over their own misfortunes and setbacks. For many life is a continuous chain of failures, mishaps, disappointments, defeats, life is a disaster, a catastrophe, a tragedy.

It is astonishing and impressive, how many words the English language provides for describing negative events that could happen in someones life: Adversity, bad luck, blow, calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, debacle, defeat, disappointment, disaster, downfall, failure, fiasco, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap, setback, tragedy, trial, trouble — just to list a few examples. There are even the two derivational morphemes “dis” and “mis” which can be used to turn nearly every word into its antonym or its negative equivalent.

There must be a need for so many negative words!

Back to my lost friends. A report of my personal misfortunes is for sure not called for here, but camouflaged as a plain, unobtrusive, detached study in melancholy, negativity, sentimentality, whining, the text could maybe entertain or even amuse. Enough said, just lets do it:

Though I normally try to go straight in medias res please allow me to deviate from the usual procedure here by turning back the clock and recalling the start of one particular friendship (and a special, enchanting friendship it was) before arriving at the chosen theme.

Three years and three month ago my wife and I made a bicycle ride and when we passed a seemingly abandoned farmhouse, a tiny little kitten was sitting on the way and looked at us. I stopped and talked a few southing words and touched it and when I wanted to continue my ride, the kitten ran after me, desperately meowing. I stopped again and carried the kitten back to the farmhouse to set it down beside a grown-up cat who was laying there in the sun and who could possibly have been the mother, but when I turned, the kitten followed me again, woefully meowing. I couldn’t help myself, I simple put it into my bike basket to carry it home and the little cat baby laid quietly there with closed eyes and didn’t move for the whole duration of this first and also only bike ride of its life.

The kitten was Cindy, maybe you are already familiar with her story because I wrote in several blog posts about her. When Cindy ran after me on this day three years and three month ago, she just wanted to survive, she just wanted to be rescued from the abandoned farmhouse. She realized somehow that this was her only chance.

On the next day my wife and I visited the farmhouse again because we wanted to fetch another kitten so that Cindy would grow up with a companion. We walked around the farmhouse and to our astonishment we saw, that in the stables were cows and in an enclosure behind the house were goats greasing. All the animals stopped with whatever they were doing when they saw us and looked at us interested and appreciative. I knocked on the door of the house just to make sure that no rightful owner of the property was living there and the door opened slowly.

It was pushed open by a big black dog, who calmly walked towards us and sniffed at us. Normally (and mainly out of loyalty with our cats) I don’t care much for dogs but this one was beautiful. It had long hair and it was probably in its golden years. The dog looked at us with such a melancholic expression in its face that I had to touch it and talk with it. I softly stroke it and the dog stood still but after a minute or so it turned and slowly walked back into the house.

I will never forget the sad eyes of this dog. We were welcome, but we were not his/her master for whom he/she passionately had waited so many days now. As a neighbor of the farm told me a few month later, the owner was in a psychiatric hospital and the cows and goats were cared for by a relative who visited the farm every second day. Nobody though cared for the dog who soon afterwards disappeared, probably shot by a hunter as he/she was looking for food and started poaching in the adjacent forests.

After the encounter with the dog we looked into the yard of the farm and found some 40 cats of all ages there. My wife wanted to fetch one of the kittens but they all run away, only one tiny little bundle of fur was not fast enough. This kitten would later become Wendy, a beautiful long hair cat (I assume the product of a visit by a Persian tomcat). Wendy has not the flat face of Persian cats (I’m glad about that), but she has very long hair. As far as I’m concerned, I would categorize her as an “extra longhair cat”. And if that classification doesn’t exist yet, I’m ready to set it up and even initiate an “extra longhair cat breeder association”. No, I can’t do that, all of our cats are spayed.

At this day, Wendy was just a little filthy bundle of fur and she was not much bigger than one of the mice who would later become her favorite diet. She obviously had fallen into a milk container and her fur was covered with clotted milk. We brought her instantly to the vet who gave her some injections and pills and washed her fur with a special lotion and we got a lot of additional medicine for her because she had just about any possible parasitic infection.

It was not easy to get her healthy again and for weeks to come the first thing when I woke up in the morning was to instantly look for her if she was still alive. But now, after three years and tree month Wendy is a lovely and lively cat, laying behind me right now as I write this words on the computer and looking at me.

There are various computers in this house, two in the music studio, one in the office, one in the living room. My wife has one in her private room, there is even a computer in the cellar, because the cellar is a cool place even on the hottest days and during a heatwave I retreat there. We have no air condition, air conditions are not popular here because of their high energy consumption and not much people in my country would ever consider installing an air condition.

I am by the way not at all proud to possess so many computers, they are a legacy of my former existence as a computer freak/geek. The computers are all Mac Mini’s from late 2009 and 2008. I was (and still am) enthusiastic about these particular models because they are the most environmental friendly computers that were ever built. They need very little power and are basically laptops without keyboard and display.

I have replaced the original hard disks by solid-state drives, which significantly increases the performance and further reduces the power consumption (12 – 16 watt depending on CPU load). CPU temperature is low (32 – 38 degree Celsius), which increases durability. I also removed the Airport and Bluetooth antennas.

Unfortunately the latest Mac Mini models are a step back from an ecological point of view, but I will use the computers that I have as long as possible, and that could be a decade or more. If I can use the machines that long I will be able to forgive myself that I bought gadgets that were made in a Foxconn sweatshop in China and benefitted mainly US (Apple) and Taiwanese (Foxconn) shareholders.

Back to my original theme: There are quite a few computers here but I write most texts on a machine in my bedroom, which is also my study. The cats like to gather around me or alternatively lay side by side on the bed behind me, sometimes it becomes very crowded.

Cindy, the cat which I mentioned first, also liked to rest on the bed, but she is not here now. She is not here and she will never be here again and never again lay behind me and purr softly. Cindy disappeared two weeks ago and the circumstances suggest that she met the same fate as the dog that I mentioned before. The circumstances suggest that she was killed by a hunter.

The house is on the edge of a forest and Cindy spent most of her time in the forest, which was her territory, her refuge, her kingdom. The area where we live is not frequented by hunters, but Cindy had a wide range, she explored also the adjacent areas many kilometers away from here.

The very last time that I saw my friend Cindy was when I made my obligatory daily walk with the cats. It was one of the final warm and sunny days of this autumn and I had a pocket camera with me, to make pictures of my little friends. Cindy’s last walk with me is well documented.

Cindy usually went with us till a place near her favorite hunting grounds and then left the group to stay in the forest.

I can remember that she often sat on a tree trunk and looked after me and the other cats as we were continuing with our journey, following the route which finally would lead us back home. I often turned back to her and waved to her and I called: “Cindy, be careful, don’t go too far away!” And she would sit there motionless and look after us till we disappeared as the path took a turn.

On this very day though Cindy departed unceremonious by simply jumping into the underbrush after she had demonstrated to her fellow cats that she still was the best tree climber, unchallenged by any other cat. If I would only have known! I would have run after her, I would have taken her in my arms and carried her home, petting her constantly and telling her sweet little compliments. But I didn’t know and my head was full of other things.

My cousin, one of my few relatives, had died a few days ago unexpectedly from a sudden heart attack. He was exactly one week younger than me. The funeral was the next day and I had to drive 150 kilometers to the town where he lived. It was a sad event. His wife and their three daughters were devastated and everybody — me included — cried.

He was a family man and a loving and caring father. They had a happy though not always uncomplicated marriage and would have reached their golden anniversary if he would have lived long enough. He was a nice and social and not aggressive man and I was glad to have such a relative and friend. Unfortunately he had smoked for much of his life. He stopped smoking when he had coronary artery bypass surgery ten years ago, but the damage was already done then.

The church service was not as nonsensical as I had feared. The Catholic priest spoke measured words of comfort, he played his part very well. He was a handsome man in his forties with an intelligent face and a pleasant voice. I was surprised — how can such a person become a Catholic priest?

I’m full of prejudices! And I have to remind myself of two remarkable persons whom I had the fortune to meet and who had a significant positive impact on my life.

Normally I rather seek contact with and help from women and I avoid men (typical tomcat behavior), but beside the many wonderful women in my life who helped me to find my way there were also three men who influenced me and benefitted me immensely. One taught breathing techniques and Biogymnastics on the Viennese Music University and after some lessons turned out to be a Yogi.

The second was a Catholic Zen priest who was invited for weekend courses in my then home town by a friend of mine. The priest knew that I was a nonbeliever but he respected my position. At the end of the courses he conducted a catholic mass for the participants and he served a communion wafer to everybody of us. It was the only communion waver I ever did eat. I asked him after the service if that in my case would not constitute a deadly sin but he just smiled.

The third man was Lee Ki, an evangelic pastor of the Korean church in Salzburg. Twelve years ago, exactly at the turn of the millennium, he visited me several times in the hospital when I was just starting my chemo therapy. He sat down with me and we talked about many things and he also prayed for me.

Back to the story of my lost friends:

After the burial of my cousin the relatives sat together in a pub and we talked about his life and about our lives and about whatever came to our mind. We talked for many hours till late in the evening. Talking helps a lot. When we came back home our cats greeted us joyful and relieved. They ran to their usual place in the kitchen, looking appreciative and a bit reproachful at me and waiting for food. Cindy was not there.

Cindy was often away for a couple of days and so I was not worried too much when she didn’t appear the two days following the funeral. But I heard the guns of the hunters from far away and every time a shot rang, my heart sank and I had an unusual feeling of weakness in my stomach.

After three days I started looking for her. I walked first the routes that we normally take and after that nearly every other path in the wood. I walked ways and came to places that I never had seen before. Princess Min Ki and Rosy accompanied me on the first searches, but they got tired after a few rounds and then I went alone. I went for many hours, calling “Cindy, Cindy,” then stopping and standing quietly hoping to hear a faint meow as she would be working her way through the dense underbrush towards my position.

I did that before, I wrote about it in my blog post “Cindy come home”. As I described there, I walked and called for her and while I was walking I imagined the joy I would feel when she finally reappeared and I imagined that I would kneel down beside her and I would take her in my arms and listen to her purring and life would be wonderful again.

This time Cindy didn’t reappear — I called in vain. I searched for five hours this day and another four hours the next day, in the end I came home without her, sad, tired, and with a sour throat.

There are not many people who appreciate the beauty of this place and who make walks in the forest. The owner of the forest (a nice 76 year old man), his son, and I myself are about the only persons who can be seen there. Fortunately there are also no hunters frequenting the area. Cindy was not shot here and I will never know what happened to her. I hope that she died instantly and was not wounded, that she was not crawling into the underwood and slowly and painfully bleeding to death.

Cindy would never have left to look for another home. Occasionally I see the notes attached to a post or a tree about lost cats and I have to smile. In many cases the cats are not lost, they just moved on to a better place. But Cindy loved our home, she was my dear and committed friend, she never ever went anywhere else and never courted anybody else.

Cindy was also not likely to get disoriented and she would in any circumstances have been able to find back home, she was an intelligent cat. It could have been that she did eat poisoned bait but that is normally not used here. She could also have been killed by a car but there is not much traffic here and she was very careful and only crossed the road when absolutely nothing was in sight.

I will never know, what really happened to her.

The funeral of my cousin was already the second in a month. Before that I attended the funeral of a colleague with whom I worked together for 30 years. He was the principal of the music school where I teach and I was for some years until my part time retirement his deputy — we were quite close. Two years ago he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was then exactly as old as I was when I had my cancer diagnosis. I underwent chemo therapy (4 cycles CHOP) and am now in remission for twelve years. I had hoped that he would follow my example but his cancer was more severe and turned out to be incurable. He fought for two years but the constant chemo therapy made his life more and more difficult. He suffered from constant nausea and got thinner and thinner.

I would have liked to say goodbye to him and visit him to talk about the old times and all the things that we went through together, but in the last month he didn’t take any calls and secluded himself completely. Only his wife and daughter were around him.

It was undoubtedly an extreme painful experience for his wife, to see her husband consumed by the slow but unstoppable progression of a terminal illness and to watch the resulting deterioration of his personality and so I didn’t blame her for shunning the colleagues of the music school at the funeral and also afterwards.

Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. When the new head teacher asked the wife of our deceased colleague to return an archive of music books and other items from the music school that was at their home, she reacted angrily and just dumped all the material without comment into the hall of the school. I had to sift through the pieces and sort them and carry them into the office.

I don’t bear a grudge against her. I would not blame anybody who has gone through such an ordeal for subsequent inappropriate and unjustified actions. Love and understanding seems to be the most adequate response in such a case (as well as in most other cases).

The next funeral will be of the aunt of my stepson Martin. She has stomach cancer and was just transferred to a palliative care unit.

Sad, sad, sad.

Cindy was a completely unremarkable little gray cat, though she was intelligent, lightning fast and a terrific mouse hunter and tree climber. She was a little gray cat, and yet I’m not ashamed to put her into the same category as my human friends — even if that may seem inappropriate and moronic to some people.

I even have to confess that Cindy’s death still hurts most and the idea that I will never hear her meow again running after me and never again will hear her scratching on my bedroom door and never again will be able to strike her belly when she is turning on her back in front of me with all her four paws up in the air, the idea that I will never be able to do all that again is nearly unbearable.

Surprisingly I’m not depressed and I’m not damaged at all. I was saddened, moved, touched, hurt, but I am not damaged and feel quite well and settled right now. Could it be that my continuous meditation exercises, halfhearted and undisciplined as they may be, are helping?

I also don’t feel bitterness and rancor against the hunters who most likely have killed my friend Cindy.

I don’t dream of taking my AK-47 from the locker to seek them out in the forest and mow them down in a hail of bullets. It would be quite difficult in any case to transform this dream into reality, because I don’t have an AK-47, in fact I never possessed any firearms.

I also don’t dream of going to the pub where they have their monthly gathering, to trow a couple of hand grenades through the open windrow.

I don’t dream of studying the various easily available manuals on the internet about building and planting bomb’s and I don’t intend to attach my homemade bombs under their SUV’s to blow them up when they want to leave the scene after their bloody business is done.

I don’t intend to spend my severance money for paying a Bulgarian hitman 12.000 Euros per exterminated hunter. Even if I would get a discount to 9.000 or 8.000 Euros per extermination I wouldn’t do it.

I don’t feel hate against the hunters but I also have no sympathy for them. It happened already, that they accidentally shot and killed one of their own. I wouldn’t shed a tears if such an incident should happen again. Yet I would also not be triumphant and joyous — death and suffering are never a cause for celebration.

I don’t feel sympathy for hunters and I also don’t intend to reach out and talk with them. They would not understand me in anyway, they are different, they think different, they speak a different language. I would need a translator, an intermediary to communicate with them — maybe one of the blog visitors can lend a helping hand.

I love animals, during my walks in the forest I often encounter deer and hares and I’m intrigued by their beauty and elegance. I would never be able to do any harm to them and it is very difficult for me to understand, comprehend, imagine how a feeling and caring person, a sentient human being can shoot and kill this wonderful creatures.

The hunters insist, that they follow a well established tradition, a tradition which is part of human culture since the first day of our existence. They are right. Torturers, rapists, and murderers all follow a well established tradition.

Everyone interested in history knows about the Roman Emperor Constantine who in 325AD convened the Nicene Council to establish the Roman Catholic Church. Constantines favorite method of killing his opponents was to hang them on their feet with the head down, cut their throat, and watch them slowly die. Dying would take a prolonged time as blood remained in the head. One year after the Nicene Council Constantine executed his son and boiled his wife Fausta alive.

The Borgia Popes (Callixtus III and Alexander VI) were another example of human conduct following well established traditions, the Borgias murdered their opponents preferably by arsenic poisoning.

Prophet Muhammad at the age of 57 took his 17 year old Jewish wife Safiyah after her father Huyeiy was beheaded along with 900 men of the Banu Nadir tribe and her husband Kinana was tortured to death when the town Khaibar was raided and all men there were killed. The younger and prettier widows of the killed jews were given to Muhammad’s followers.

Back to the tradition of hunting.

My little friend Cindy was also a passionate hunter. She killed mice, rats, voles, moles and occasionally squirrels and birds without hesitation. Occasionally she brought mice and birds into the house alive and set them free there but I don’t think that she spared the lives of these animals because she felt pity for them. Cindy was not able to feel compassion for her prey.

None of my cat friends is feeling sorry for the victims, even Wendy, the most social and most friendly cat that I ever met slaughters mice without compunction and scruple.

Considering this fact the question arises about the justification to despise and shame the hunters when my cats do exactly the same? Both the hunters and my cats kill not only for food but also for fun. This is a serious ethical dilemma and I have pondered about it for many years. In the end two main points emerged, one science based and one intuition and common sense based.

A. The scientific explanation: When cats are born, they are ready to run, they are well prepared to face the perils of life, most of their survival skill are preprogrammed. Cats have less than eight percent of the brain capacity of us humans, they have less spindle cells than we have and they cannot change and reprogram their instincts and reflexes easily. In other words: The ability of cats to reflect about and think over their actions is limited and their brain plasticity is limited.

It nevertheless happens that cats adjust to the most unusual situations (aren’t they astonishing resourceful after all?), and become friends with fellow animals that would be normally their food. On YouTube one can find quite a few examples for their flexibility. But this is not the norm.

When humans are born, they are completely helpless. A baby would starve to death or parish in some other way without help from adults. Much of the brain develops after birth and till the age of four most humans are not more intelligent than a cat. Life experience and education have consequently a much greater role in shaping the personality of a human individual than they have for cats (or any other species). For human applies: Nurture trumps nature.

The conclusion: Humans can overcome harmful and undesirable instincts to kill much easier than cats.

B. The common sense explanation: From a deterministic point of view the soldiers, militiamen, terrorists, hunters, butchers and other mass murderers are not personally to blame for their crimes, they are a product of their upbringing and of the social climate.

There are every now and then persons who grow up in appalling conditions (slums, broken families, drought areas, war zones) and nevertheless are able to overcome poverty and deprivation to become shining examples of the “human spirit”.
Some individuals make it against all odds, but they are exceptions.

Children who grow up in a climate of violence will usually become disturbed and traumatized and will become violent adolescents and criminal adults. Children who grow up in a society which condones killing will themselves kill with ease.

So what? What is wrong with killing? Many creatures kill, this is the way of life and it is a way of population control and a way of balancing the ecosystem. Cats kill mice, hunters kill cats and deer, humans kill humans. If the cats wouldn’t kill mice, the mice would ruin the crops. If the hunters wouldn’t kill deer, the deer would ruin seedlings and young trees. If humans wouldn’t kill humans, the exploding human population would ruin everything!

I’m convinced, that overpopulation will lead into an environmental catastrophe but I nevertheless don’t endorse population control by killing. What kind of life is that, if you have constantly to watch out, look for cover, be ready to run and hide. What kind of life is that, if you always have to be on guard, watching your back, be ready to fend off an assassin? Competing against each other, fighting against each other, killing each other is a very cumbersome and exhausting lifestyle. Theres not much joy in such a way of living though some people seem to like it. Genghis Khan liked it, Stalin liked it, Pol Pot liked it, the Mexican drug lords like it, the Afghan and Somali warlords like it, the mercenaries/military contractors like it, the CIA and Mossad assassins like it.

I don’t like it. I prefer to live in peace and quiet and I don’t want to waste my time with target practice and combat training to be prepared for an assault. Maybe I would be able to kill an enemy in self defense but I would be haunted by this experience till the end of my days.

Based on this consideration it is eminent that I have to continue (with the help of my feline friend, who are the most charming ambassadors of nature) to evoke, stimulate, rouse, teach understanding and compassion for our fellow creatures (humans and animals) and to explain the reasoning behind point two of my statement at the start of this text, which was:

2. We need a paradigm shift and a new value system based on empathy towards all life and the willingness to harmonically integrate into nature. We need to perceive ourselves as a part of nature.

Sorting and cataloging words is useful because most of our rational thinking/reasoning uses words. Words and terms are markers for voluminous samples of data or for complex thought sequences and these markers allow us to make logical conclusions about complicated issues. If we would not have the possibility to simplify, straighten, shortcut the reasoning process by using words for proven conclusions or scientific findings as building blocks for further reasoning, our intelligence would be rather limited.

Words/terms/names are memory pattern in our cerebral cortex which consist of various connections/links to other memory patters and other locations of the brain. The links lead to audible and visual representations of a word/term/name, to associated feelings and reflexes, to other words, and to episodic memories.

A thesaurus is a book or a database of words. The entries are usually listed in groups of synonyms and often include related and contrasting words and antonyms.

A thesaurus normally does not include a definition of the entries, because usually the user of a thesaurus has already a fairly big collection of words/terms/names together with their emotional, visual, and acoustic annotations stored in her or his memory, providing a solid framework in which any new linguistic unit can be easily integrated and understood just by its relation to already stored units.

My favorite thesaurus is the computer program Visual Thesaurus 3.0 from Zero G Software/Thinkmap Inc. The software was written in 2004 but fortunately still works (on Mac OSX Snow Leopard). The company regrettably changed its business model to a subscription-based online edition (http://www.visualthesaurus.com) and doesn’t support the program anymore.

The program contains over 140,000 words together with spelling and definitions and it creates word maps with lines between related/associated words. The user can easily follow a chain of associations by clicking on word after word and by doing so making the activated word the new center of the map. This is fairly close to the way our associative thinking works.

The program unfortunately has a serious deficiency: It is not user configurable. The individual thesaurus of any persons brain will differ from this program (and from any other thesaurus) by including associations that are not commonplace and excluding prevalent terms and associations.

Everybody has his own thesaurus and so has the author of the following text, which is in essence a tiny subset of an individual thesaurus, a “micro thesaurus” of words that are related to ethics, to our well-being, and to our interaction with the environment.

Sorting Words (A Micro-Thesaurus):

This text is based on the premise, that we should aim for the well-being and long term survival of humans and that the preservation of nature and the well-being of our fellow animals is an absolute precondition for achieving this goal.

Based on and emanating from the mentioned assumptions, the text names and sorts various things that benefit our lives. The things can be moods, attitudes, methods, occupations and anything else that can be represented by a word or a term. The words are sorted in four categories just for practical reasons — there could be as well five or six or only three or any other number of categories (there is already a list with six categories in the works). The categories are commented and explained to make the categorisation more understandable and to convey a clear meaning of the included items.

The four categories are:

Art and Education

music, painting, designing, sculpting, poetry and all other kinds of artistic expressions
learning and acquiring skills, teaching
becoming a shining example, an inspiration, a role model
researching and inventing
doing beneficial and useful work for the community, fixing things
taking part, planning and organizing community efforts
openness, curiosity, sophistication
common sense, mother wit, sound practical judgement, resourcefulness

Meditation and Thoughtfulness

Hatha Yoga, breathing exercises, Zen, mindful meditation, relaxation, Qigong (Gi Gong)
Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, Eutony, Trager Approach
autosuggestion, autogenic training, self-hypnosis
measured exercise and sport
Some martial arts (Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chuan)

Belief and Direction

faith, hope, trust, confidence
visions, goals, destiny
convictions, attitudes, perspectives, moods
ethics, morals, values, ideals
principles, customs, manners, traditions
responsibility, duty, determination, thoughtfulness

Love and Empathy

sympathy, liking, admiration, affinity, accord
compassion, caring, affection, benevolence, altruism
understanding, tolerance, fairness
joy, happiness, elation, gratefulness, gladness, delight
kindness, tenderness, grace, gentleness
warmth, friendliness

Comments and Explanations

All words/terms are related to each other and connected to each other and the categories morph into each other. Everything is related to everything.

Disclaimer:

The comments and explanations will maybe misunderstood by some readers or not be understood at all. We all have our own distinct vocabularies and define our personal reality in our very own terms, which may be or may not be congruent with the terms of other individuals. Words are words and can have various and even contradicting meanings and the reality can be described in a thousand ways and everybody will describe it different.

About Art and Education

This category subsumes all beneficial activities that are not dedicated therapies (though many of the activities have therapeutic effects). The value and the ranking of the included items may differ individually. Musicians for instance will see music as the most important item and maybe even establish music as a category by itself, because it is predominant in their life as their main vehicle of expression and their main self-therapy.

For other people other arts, like painting, sculpting, designing, and writing may be as important or even more important than music. Even activities that are not generally considered as artistic expressions can be therapeutic and enrich our lives. For instance: acquiring skill that allow us to make a meaningful contribution to the community and improve all our lives.

Though the job market may be tight at times, one just has to look around to see the desperate need for community services, the need for qualified and well educated individuals that can keep the complicated social and economic structures intact or rebuild and improve them (for example medical personal, teachers, scientists, technicians and engineers).

There are also many jobs that are neither glorious nor pleasant or are even dangerous and nevertheless crucial and indispensable. May it be a nurse in a personal care facility or a firefighter or a waste disposal worker, they all can find pride and satisfaction in the notion that this work is necessary for the common good. Not to forget the farmers and rural workers, that provide our food!

About Meditation and Thoughtfulness

This category is about the therapies, practices, methods that help us achieve a harmony of body and mind and a general well-being.

A common and narrow definition considers meditation as a practice to achieve calmness and physical relaxation by diminishing the stream of confusing thoughts that normally occupy our mind. Maybe a more fitting term for the category would have been “Body – Mind Interventions,” this expression though seemed too abstract to use it as title.

All in this category listed therapies reduce distress, help to keep us fit and strengthen the immune system. They elevate our mood (by balancing the levels of neurotransmitters), achieve a reduction in blood pressure, epinephrine (adrenaline) levels and heart rate. Some therapies help us detect and relieve subconscious tensions, detect and eliminate subconscious blockages and heal or alleviate traumas.

This category could also be described as a list of all the means that let us find and develop the matters described in category four.

About Belief and Direction

Believes are the framework of basic assumptions in our mind, the stable structure that we can hold on in an ever changing world. Believes are not absolute, though some may be enhanced by hard wired behaviors that we acquired in the course of evolution (Decalogue: “You shall not murder”). Believes can be proven wrong or right by life experience, they can be shattered, we can abandon them, throw them overboard, and look out for new ones. Searching for the “meaning of life,” searching for a purpose is what we do, when we need to find new believes.

Someone with strong religious believes could find the idea unbearable, that her or his believes may not be the absolute truth. This text is not intended to dismiss anybodies believes and the presented list with it’s four categories is just a working hypotheses. It nevertheless needs to be mentioned, that religious believes often are interpretations of sacred texts by scholars and that some religious believes were and still are causing conflict, human suffering, death and destruction. A few examples: Crusades, French Wars between Catholics and Huguenots, Thirty Years War, Saxon Wars, North Ireland conflict, the partition of India, the Jihad of Islamic fundamentalists.

The term “Direction” is added to the title of the category, because believes by themselves are value neutral, they can be good or bad, positive or negative, helpful or detrimental. One can evaluate believes by their effect on the individual and the society. The result is the final judgement.

That means, if the goal is to feel well, to reach a harmony of body and mind, to live in harmony with the fellow humans and all other creatures and to preserve nature, one has to choose believes that are most helpful for reaching this goals. Some prevalent believes, like superstition, prejudices, racism and nationalism, will be detrimental and harmful. For people with adverse goals the same believes will appear to be positive and helpful.

If one wants to feel well, to reach harmony of body and mind, and to live in peace with fellow humans and all other creatures, one will probably need not much further believes, because this goal by itself is a strong believe that can give guidance in any situation at any stage of our life.

At this point most readers will have realized that the mentioned urge to feel well and to live in harmony is the reason that this text was written in the first place. It would be so much easier to live in a world where everybody feels well and strives for harmony! Publishing a text is a very modest contribution to the common good but it nevertheless could encourage and inspire readers, could point to problems and show solutions.

We don’t live in a perfect world and in the present state mankind is far away from peace and harmony and seemingly drifting even further away from the ideals that are mentioned here. But there are millions of people hoping, searching and tirelessly working for this ideals. Without their efforts the situation would be even worse.

About Love and Empathy

Words have various meanings and different connotations to different people and just for good purpose it should be noted, that the title doesn’t refer to the “Love”, that is advertised on pornographic websites (though sexual relations can also include the kind of “Love” that is meant here).

This category is about the feelings that warm our heart and help us to endure hardship and pain. It is about the advanced state of mind where we don’t worry anymore and accept our fate and nevertheless do everything to improve our live and the lives of our fellow creatures. This category is about he state of mind where we are calm and composed and focused and where we know exactly what to do.

Just to mention a few examples, that fit perfectly into the category: Love of a mother for her child. Kindness and tenderness of an old couple who will stay together and care for each other till the end of their lives. Compassion and determination of a social worker facing the helpless and destitute. Admiration for a role model. Gratefulness of victims to the emergency crew who saved their lives. Satisfaction of a volunteer doing charity work and of the old lady who despite struggling herself donates all her spare money for the ones who have even less.

This category is about feeling good. It for sure feels good to feel good and it is wonderful to be happy and relaxed and cheerful and content. Love in its universal meaning is the greatest experience and the most mature and highest state of mind.

Why are so many people missing out and not able to reach this state?

The Antonyms

The following lists are an inventory of negative, harmful and detrimental things, sorted and categorized in the same way as the list of things that benefit our lives. This hopefully will further clarify the meaning of the words and their interconnections and also show directly which things we have to avoid and against which developments and tendencies we have to fight.

The negative four categories are:

Dumb Jobs, Consumerism, Crime

being uneducated, unskilled, uninterested, ignorant, narrow-minded, apathetic, indifferent
working jobs that have a negative impact on nature and society
(like designing and producing weapons)
taking part in gambling, criminal activities, using drugs
earning an unjust amount of money (CEO’s, bankers, shareholders)
following short term fashions and trends
consuming uncritical and unreflecting

Fear, Nervousness and Stupidity

being unfocused, distracted, confused, clueless
trying to multitask
being thoughtless, heedless, dumb
being complacent, inactive, lazy, indolent, otiose
being naive, artless, reckless, being a hick, a rube
lacking physical exercise, eating junk food
being exposed to mass media brainwashing (TV)
being an internet addict or a computer gamer

Doubt and Confusion

despair, mistrust, hopelessness, cluelessness, resentfulness
cynicism, sarcasm, pessimism, contempt, disapproval
negative believes (superstition, prejudices, ideologies)
negative values and ideals (racism, nationalism, exceptionalism)
being unconcerned, uninterested, amoral, irresponsible

Hate. Aggression, Violence, War

anger, rage, wrath, ire, acrimony
displeasure, dissatisfaction, discontentment, irritation
dislike, aversion, distaste, hostility, belligerence, pugnacity
unfriendliness, impatience, contentiousness, animosity
resentfulness (resentment), bitterness, jealousy, envy
arrogance, pretentiousness, hubris, greed, egoism
killing other creatures, using weapons, waging war

Comments and Explanations

Simply listing the antonyms of the beneficial things didn’t always work, because many terms have no counterpart with the exact opposite meaning or the antonyms would be ridiculous terms that instead of clarifying rather would obscure the meaning of the categories.

The following comments to the negative categories are short, because they are only meant as an addition to the comments of the positive categories.

About Dumb Jobs, Consumerism, Crime, Violence

This category lists negative activities, that hurt individuals, the whole society and all nature. Expressions like “being shallow and superficial” are not included, because attitudes/mind-sets fit better into category three. The expression “being shallow and superficial” is actually a link between category one and three.

About Nervousness and Stupidity

This category lists condition that have a negative effect on the personal well being as well as conditions and attitudes that hinder therapeutic measures which could achieve a harmony of body and mind.

About Doubt and Confusion

This category includes negative mind-sets, attitudes and believes. Some of the entries could also be regarded as feelings (like despair and hopelessness) and would as well fit into the fourth category.

About Hate and Aggression

Does this need any further explanation? Everyone who experienced violence, or once had a choleric fit, or once lost control, knows how it ends. Everyone who doesn’t live in a cave completely secluded from the rest of mankind will be aware of the result. One just has to read the daily news.

Most evil in this world can be traced back to the feelings of “Hate and Aggression”.

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MATO March 12 2009 updated November 30 2011

As stated at the beginning, sorting and cataloging words and writing down a “micro-thesaurus” like this is only one of many possible approaches to acquire a broader understanding of the world. Hopefully one or the other reader can get something useful out of this text. Suggestions and corrections are always welcome.

The choice of words and categories as well as the comments and explanations are based on various assumptions. Detailed and elaborate explanations about these assumptions can be found in the 146 previous blog posts but as apparently not many people can be bothered to read old posts and some of the texts also contain outdated material there will be further postings or updates of old texts to explicate and make clear, in which way and with which reasoning one could arrive at these assumptions.