God Sez

Humans must grow up in a social environment – a baby alone is soon dead. For the rest of our lives we live in a hierarchy ruled by parents, bullies, leaders or amorphous entities like society or government. Naturally, like fish who take water for granted, we assume the universe must be structured the same way .

The easiest concept is animism, where everything has a spirit and connects with a greater spirit. This seems to have been practiced for all ahistoric people for a very long time and still seems sensible to those who like to imagine a vast spiritualism to the universe. Sometimes it is refined into religions like Taoism .

Historic agrarian cultures with writing and formal government organization imagined a kind of supernatural governing elite. The most fun of those were the Greek gods, awesome and stupid at the same time. The worst was the Old testament God of the desert. But all those superheroes needed to be appeased and prayed to .

The question has always been who speaks to or for the spirit or god. Shamans and priests and prophets claim exclusive rights. Individuals claim intimate direct communication. Skeptics explain bits of cheese or festering neurons .

I admit to being somewhat of a skeptic, while at the same time feeling the natural (as if I were a fish) belief that there must be more to existence than we are aware of .

Locally True

Since I was a baby, the culture has screamed I must pay attention to the larger world. My parents had fought in world war II and now isolationism did not work. That was reinforced by the fear of nuclear devastation. Science taught that there was a “real” world not at all like the one of “common sense.” The ecological cry to “think globally act locally” rang out everywhere.

Then there came a flood of “real”, global issues. Crazy society, crazy people, crazy climate, crazy catastrophe, crazy new everything. Each more frightening than the last, more to be ignored, all “real”. As antidotes we try to drown out the cacophony with work, alcohol, drugs, meditation, religion – any loud internally focused obsession. Peace for a while, but often just making things worse in the long run. Perhaps we should just slow down and accept – concentrate- on what is “locally true”.

Examples: we are informed the earth is round, bricks are made of empty space and molecules, pain is just electric impulses interpreted by brain neurons, diseases are all around floating invisibly. But: everywhere I go, the Earth is flat with hills and valleys. If I drop a brick on my toe I feel it, and the pain is real – interpreted electric signals or not. Mostly those invisible diseases do nothing. That is all locally true .

So I take a deep breath. My neighborhood is made of mostly normal people. My weather cycles more or less as usual. I age as always. And, I reflect, all this local “untruth” is where I really, truly live and the medium in which my acts actually mean something .

Once in a Lifetime

Hucksters are always promoting “once in a lifetime opportunities.” Something that will never happen again while you are around to see it. By implication, something wonderful and extraordinary, so unlike your humdrum static existence.

One perspective we gain as we age is that everything is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Nostalgically we look back at a past never to return, filled with vanished people, scenes and events we took for granted. It can be sad, or relaxing to remember, but those times are gone; those times gone can never be recreated .

In these chaotic times, changes are an annoying and sometimes frightening constant. Often we may wish for that humdrum static existence. At least for a little while. But the flood of new and different rushes on .

A proper attitude is to accept that each day, each hour, is truly once in a lifetime. If it seems not so, we are not engaging the universe properly. Opening to the wonder of every instant is the secret of enchantment .

Oh, it’s often hard, sometimes impossible. There are lots of nasty bad things to endure. Maybe many heartbreaks, anxieties, and pains. But always – almost always – mixed with hopes and joy. Each uniquely packaged into not only once in a lifetime, but once in a lifetime for only you .

Tall Tales

Ancient Greeks had the labors of Hercules. The Midwest had Paul Bunyan and his blue ox. Our frontier heroes were Davy Crockett “killin’ a bar when he was only three.” Recent giants were JP Morgan or Howard Hughes. Tall tales, absurd stories, grand exaggerations have always been entertaining .

The Greeks half believed in the half god Hercules, think of that as you will. Only children thought the giant and his immense ox once roamed the prairies. Those who cared realized that a lot of the stories about real life folks were apocryphal.

But the internet age has turned into a festival of credibility. Folks seem to believe anything at all, as long as it fits in with their worldview and is entertaining. If some AI visionary presented a Paul Bunyan “documentary” I think half the people who saw it would think him at least as real as the aliens shown on other channels .

All in great fun. Until it gradually slides into malicious lies from entertainers who wish to be rulers. There is no greater example of how power and fame corrupt absolutely. Promise anything. At least some of the voters will believe it .

Somewhere, obviously, our education system – designed to preserve a reasonable citizen democracy – has completely failed. Anyone who claimed to be Paul Bunyan or Hercules reincarnate could probably get elected. Oh Tempe! o mores!

Journal of American Wealth

In the ’90s (when I could finally find a way to afford it) I subscribed to the Wall Street journal and read it every day. At the time it claimed to be something like “the journal of the American dream.” It was filled with dry economic facts, relevant foreign news, and investment advice. I figured it was excellent reporting. Which had to be mostly true to help investors place money wisely .

Over the years it was sold and had to react to the wipeout of most printed newspapers. And now, although I still enjoy the actual news articles, it has become something totally different from what it once was.

First, investors are now speculators – not what is something worth in the long run, but will it go up or down tomorrow. The economic news features puff pieces about “business leaders” paid millions a year even when they fail. The editorials – once calm and conservative – have become hysterical religious rants. And at least half the paper is now devoted to wealth. It reads like the Great Gatsby. Mansions to buy and decorate. Fabulous world vacations. obscenely expensive cars, clothes, gadgets .

It had to change to survive. It is doing well, so in that respect its owners made the right moves. I place what it once was into my bin of golden olden nostalgia and decide that I myself must now move along and let the wealthy play with themselves. It has little remaining value for me .

Dual Reality

Many times I have emerged from an art museum seeing the world totally differently than when I entered. We all know a simple mood change can reset our outlook. And mental illness produces severe distortions such as paranoids believing the world is out to get them when everyone is in fact ignoring them entirely. Or, of course, love.

Since printing we’ve had to deal with at least two realities – that of the ‘larger’ world and our own local one. News lately has focused on the sensational – crime and disaster. Cable news began to focus on singular scenarios. And now we can spend our lives immersed in worlds only manifest within computer screens .

Most notably, the Republicans claim that we live in a dystopian country. Cities are burning, if you notice before you are shot or cannibalized. Foreign hordes sweep up from the border like Mongol hordes of old, looting and burning all in their path. Evil bureaucrats spread all their time assuring that the good people will be cheated of their rightful wealth and respect .

And then we open the door and in our local reality (unless we are mentally ill) the sun shines, people smile, and we enjoy the greatest security and standard of living in history .

The world will always have problems. Some of each our lives involves tragedy and misery. But there are different worlds about us if we simply reset our outlook once in a while .

Tribal Theology

If we take theology in its broadest sense of “how does an individual relate to the ineffable mystery of existence,” then all philosophic systems such as those of economics or government are as much “visions” as any religion from Animism to Zen. All rest on unprovable assumptions.

Are people naturally good or bad? Should we treat people in our tribe differently from those in others? Do markets work flawlessly? Is the best government the smallest? What are the limits of a person’s power, and does it depend on their social position? And on and on .

The days of full belief in the 19th century laissez-faire capitalism, or 20th century global corporate trade are rapidly vanishing in our brave new world. As have Marxism, communism, socialism and all the other artificially constructed economic or government theologies .

Nobody knows what will take their place. There’s a lot of noise in the electronic interconnected world, and a lot of chaos in the real climate challenged one. Prophets are many.

But one thing is absolutely clear. Recourse to reactionary theologies will be no more effective or useful than calling on Quetzalcoatl or invoking the Greek gods at Delphi. Those who cling to ancient absolute doctrines are usually the worst fanatics. Probably we can agree that fanatics are the one set of theologians who can kill us all .

Sketches

As an upon a time amateur artist, I enjoyed sketches immensely. Quick and incisive, a vision condensed, less prone to error than a detailed drawing. Sketches are a joy for an artist, and can be for any later connoisseur .

Although not directly related, political vision is usually more like a sketch of a goal than a map to get there. Whether the goal is “build a canal to lake Erie”, “build a railroad across the continent”, “go to the moon”, or “end poverty.” Even business leaders say generalities like ” improve profits” or “grow market share.”

Details, of course, are important. But at first nobody cares if the way to do it is with 8% state bonds or by reducing labor cost. The means of achieving a goal can often and should often be tweaked or abandoned. There is nothing worse than a means that has lost its purpose but meanders on like some expensive zombie ghost .

So those media calls for “specifics” in a political campaign are ridiculous and only applied for partisan reasons. We vote as we live, for a vision. That is not a failing and it is in fact the only reason things like democracy work .

The only realistic demand to make of potential leaders is to narrow the vision significantly. Not “make life better” but focus on the most salient goals, make them clearly defined. Only then can means be developed, results measured, and possible new approaches tried if necessary .

Discontinuity

A discontinuity is an unexpected, dramatic event which “changes everything.” A good example is the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution could have been plotted and future trends established based on all the data available 65 million years ago. Suddenly – no more dinosaurs! We can imagine many others, the most important of course being our own death .

In modern civilizations, plotted trends good and bad are somewhat comforting. Prices go up by 3%. Average life is a few months longer. The summers are hotter. Trends imply a degree of base stability to be modified relatively predictably – either good or bad .

Oh, we realize that trends reach “tipping points.” Global warming can no longer be prevented. A patient getting worse past a certain point will not recover. But the time factor somehow makes tipping points an almost gentle change .

“Existential” threats often imply a tipping point. As seas rise, coastal barrier islands will disappear. Sure, it’s terrible and final – someday .

On the other hand, much of modern disconnect discontent is the realization that true discontinuities – with no trend lines before – are all around us. Nuclear war, authoritarian takeovers, computers amok. Or, for that matter, a large asteroid strike .

Like the dinosaurs would have done, were they capable, about the only thing most of us can reasonably do about such possibilities is to totally ignore them in our daily lives .

Old Grump

Both political parties this year have suddenly become aware of exactly how fast changes can occur as a person goes through their late ’70s. No matter what protestations of ” being as sharp as ever” there are significant mental and physical issues, some minor, some worse, and all only afflicting sporadically .

The two biggest obvious changes from being, say, 60, are 1) the daily energy level fluctuates a lot and 2) the mind works best in unchanging “safe” zones. Old people dislike the way the world has gone “wrong.” It’s happening to me and to everyone I know my own age. Let us alone in our familiar routine at our own pace and we are usually as good as anyone. Hit us with surprises – especially any that require a vigorous response and out of the box thinking – and our natural response is an angry lashing out .

It rarely makes us incompetent. After all (especially by our late ’70s) our lives have usually settled down considerably. We are happy that it is so. Why can’t everyone else understand?

The classic problems are encapsulated in the highly contentious debate about “should we take the car keys away from Grandpa?” Obviously, he and Grandma are fine most of the time driving to the same old store to get bread. Equally obviously they too often get in an accident or near accident. And mostly they don’t even realize .

Well, our politics has arrived at the same dilemma. It’s never easy, especially concerning politicians (or industrial titans) who are used to power and always think only they are right .