Life & The Donald

Living this long, I find myself thinking about why things happen, and what life is really all about.  On a daily basis, I am reminded that humankind is a vastly complex entity, as is everything on this earth of course.  With complexity, comes variation, and with variation comes different life styles of adaptation.

Alright, what do I mean? 

Well, it is now very clear that humankind is one kind of animal, with amazing variations.  How do we all vary? Well . . .

·         Gender – some folks come, as we have named, female, and some as what we label as male. But actually, we also know that we have variations within and among those two seemingly unique types, folks who are uncertain of gender, or who are uncertain how they should act as one type or another.  Well, they’re not so much uncertain themselves, but their actions cause the rest of us to become uncertain how we are supposed to react to them.   And these variations have caused over the many centuries we have had humankind, many problems and many blessings, sometimes both at the same time.

·         Skin color – We have a fantastic color spectrum present in humankind. No one is quite “white”, but are certainly close to that end of the spectrum. And some are fairly close to black, but are really a shade or two one side of a perfect black.  As one moves from “black” to “white” other colors are introduced, a bit of red, some yellow, such that we have really a marvelous array of beautiful skin colorings.  For reasons quite mysterious, this skin color variation also causes difficulties in how humankind reacts to one another.

·         Physical size -- From nearly 7 feet, to perhaps 4 feet in height, and from perhaps 20 inches to what, four feet (??) in diameter, humankind presents itself as almost different species.  The size thing certainly creates some tension since relative aggressiveness towards one another seems at least related to the size variation, depending on how different folks perceive size.

·         Brainpower – Here too, amazing variation, not so much in actual physical size of the brain, as in the seeming utility of the brains we possess.  The brain and its apparent utility creates perhaps the most significant of the many variations experienced by humans.  The seeming capacity of the brain seems partly a result of random chance, with genetics being an important component. But also, the extent to which we “train” our brains to think and adapt determines the brain’s utility to us, as we waltz through life.  There seems an odd connection between the ability of the brain to conceive and adapt, and the relative tendency towards violence.   This latter point is unclear at best.

      Alright, so humankind is highly variable. So what?  Well, one of the common characteristics of all animals seems to be a desire to control the environment in which they live, control being seen as necessary in order to survive.  And each animal designs its own approach to assuring its own survival, through controlling its environment.  In the case of humans, we seem to have created three distinct mechanisms or systems to assure survival.  We employ these mechanisms, partly in response to our own personal characteristics. What are the three?

1.       Brute strength – especially early man employed physical strength, and then weapons in order to survive (obtain food) and prosper (obtain more food than you need to survive). But brute strength became enhanced dramatically through tribalism.  If strong folks can attract others, perhaps family, or simply others who live nearby, to identify with one, a tribe begins to emerge and then the tribe is relatively stronger than the individual.  And then the stronger/larger tribes are able to counter other tribes, perhaps to become even more powerful, and therefore more secure.

2.       Religion – we seem uncertain when, but relatively early man devised this devilishly clever scheme, we now call religion. Someone began claiming an authentic channel to God. “God has told me thus . . . therefore, you must listen to me. Otherwise, God will smite you dead.”  As different humans claimed a direct relationship to God, different forms emerged whereby ordinary folks could become enchanted with God. And the “wise ones” (those who claim a direct connection to you know who) began writing down assertions about what God wants, such that even more folks could begin to understand who are the “wise ones”. Thus, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and the many variations that now exist, came into being. The key to all of these systems, though, is that leaders claim they have direct knowledge of what God expects, and they have devised approaches that a: allow them to control the dialogues, and b: give them authority and therefore power over the other ordinary humans who possess no special insights.  Ponzi schemes spring to my mind whenever I think of organized religion.

3.       Money – Money seems to have originated through trading. I kill more deer than I can eat, and you kill more buffaloes than you can eat. We can trade and then we will each have a more diverse food stock.  As people traded more things, some folks devised a way to value food stuff, and then other commodities, and so money became necessary and was devised.  Over time, some people became proficient in the art of collecting and trading money (banks??). As some people gathered more money than they needed, they began using money as a way to better control their environments.

      But all of these approaches are about control at the most basic level. Now when you combine some of these approaches, you enhance your control, and therefore your power. Tribes, for example, claim religious authority and thus enlarge their power over ordinary humans.  Or religions become themselves a variant on tribes, and impose their authority over other religions (see Christianity). 

      While tribalism and religion are fairly obvious about their control aspirations, money seems a bit different, more neutral perhaps. After all, what exactly is money? Money is a way to value almost anything and everything, so it seems more technical than control oriented.

      But no. As people or institutions gain more money, they begin using that money to do what??? Exercise control.  I am willing to give you some money if you are willing to follow my lead in whatever job you hold. Seems especially important if the job you hold is a member of the government, or even, the head of government (see Trump).  So, the acquisition of money becomes now explicitly an instrument of control. And that is how it is now used, almost exclusively. So, banks of course become instruments intended to help you become more powerful, by increasing your assets--money.  Some banks seem not to mind turning to organized crime, as they help literal organized crime to “launder” its illegally obtained financial assets (see HSBC). 

      So, having observed this world for now over 8 decades, what I see is the almost complete deterioration of human values, as humanity turns to control mechanisms to control other parts of humanity.  It’s like a caveman system in which we seem to now live, except the cavemen have upgraded their tools of control to the Mark X Mod 9 version.  Slowly, we seem to be losing those aspects of our humanity that make life worth living—love, respect, compassion seem now almost quaint.  Let’s see, what have I been able to observe since I was born in 1934?

Well, the 1930s was a kind of dismal swamp atmosphere. The great crash had just occurred—oh, that was when bankers of the world so overreached their greed (the money thing) that the entire financial world simply collapsed. Now, doubtless, many of the bankers of the world suffered great losses during this period. But my tiny vantage point only revealed the effects on the little people—specifically folks like my grandparents and parents. My grandparents just literally ran out of money. They were now beyond working, and their savings simply disappeared.  My parents were rarely together as a couple, so my mom did the best she could to keep us alive. We had literally, no spare cash.  Money, or the lack thereof ruled our world. In an odd way, the bankers still ruled the world, because although they might have been hurt financially, they still had access to money, whereas the little people had none. Our world stumbled along, with misery being the kindest assessment anyone could make of this dismal swamp universe in which we resided.

And then, the world’s humans awakened to create a new world—a world at War. Yeah, the Hitler tribe in Germany had been forming for some time, becoming more powerful, and finally they simply lost all reason and began killing people, just because they could—all in the name of greater control of course.  And so, the rest of the world decided to forge its own larger tribe, so as to counter the Hitler tribe. And WW II began seriously. Millions died during this period, of course, but the bankers seemed to recover, and then money began flowing again.  And so, money, brute strength, and organized religion joined in a battle for survival of our species. For a while, the outcome was uncertain, but then the Hitler tribe and the Hirohito tribe began losing their way and finally gave up the battle for control.

Now, one would think that some rationality might have crept into that post-War world. But no, humans have this capacity for control and almost immediately the Cold War began. Oh, the shooting stopped for a tiny bit, but then the tribal forces began exerting themselves again, and we were right back at it.  There was Korea, and then that never ending Vietnam thing, both wars all about who would control what territories.

Finally, the wars in Asia stopped, but then the Middle East began erupting, with the overthrow of the Iran government, to be replaced by a terrorist religious faction, demonstrating that organized religion is equally as cruel, yet effective at the control thing.  And that Middle East mess continues to this day, a true never-ending war of control.  It is only partly about religion. Mainly, folks use religion as an excuse for killing people. Religion is so convenient that way. Always available when needed.

Despite this amazing killing field world of the Middle East, always threatening to engulf the whole world, we had some bright spots. Apparently tiring of the despots on the right wing of our nation, some forces for good emerged, and we elected a decent man, who was both bright and ethical, Barack Obama. The right wing never stopped exploding in rage about the election of a decent, humane, intelligent person as our president.  Apparently republicans really hate it when an ethical, bright person takes charge in America. But, we did have eight years of a good leader. He continued to try to do good things, but republicans never let him forget that they were always around him, and they would not stand for a leader trying to do the right thing.

And then Donald Trump.

Explaining Donald Trump is a bit like trying to explain the Big Bang. No one really understands this terminally weird phenomenon. A narcissistic, sociopath, who lies all the time, even when everyone around him knows he is lying, and who is demonstrably unsuccessful at everything he attempts, including both marriage and business, gets elected and continues to have the support of millions of Americans.  His faithful supporters even say they do not mind when he lies. They still love him.  My only conclusion is that he is a religion, all by himself. Only he doesn’t really promise anything after death, you know that thing that all religions promise. He doesn’t.  But it seems not to matter to folks who apparently hate everything for every minute of every day. They hate for a living apparently.

But now, what has he gone and done? Well, having been accused of colluding with the Russians to corrupt our election system, and then denying it, he now loudly announces that he is open for any and all foreign meddling in our next election. He not only doesn’t care, he actively encourages foreign interference.

So, he is announcing that everything people suspected about him is true. He really is corrupt, terminally stupid, and he believes that he is above any Laws of our Land. He doesn’t believe in the Law. He doesn’t care about The Law. He is the complete Narcissist, or maybe, he just imagines himself to be King Donald I, our first absolute monarch.

And with that thought, I am really out of words.