Resolutions

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Do not become excited, these are not government resolutions. It is that time of year, amid Christmastide, when many determine that they have not served themselves well in 2013. Perhaps it is time to feign purpose and motivation that they will be a better model of themselves than in the past. The mariner, it goes without saying, was as fine a model of himself as he will ever be in 2013. At a certain age, older folks get a pass on resolutions.

In lieu of trying to make himself finer than he can be, the mariner looked about to see what resolutions others should make – if not to be finer, at least to be prepared.

Government is easy. Just say “government.” We’ll all understand. The Country is closer to revolution than resolution. The mariner supposes we should make a resolution to stand our ground not against people wearing hoodies or walking in public places but against further damage by compromised and incompetent Federal, State and Local governments.

The other day, a friend of the mariner resolved to assist the South in seceding a second time. Several years ago, another friend said the US would be better off if the northern boundary of the western United States (49th parallel) just continued straight on to the Atlantic Ocean, implying that such a solution would lop off most of New England. As accepting as he always is, the mariner agreed it would be a good move – not only would the US not lose any territory, it would gain a great chunk of Canada including the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and half of Newfoundland. The mariner received little gratitude for helping. Another friend actually sent emails to all her Federal, State and Local representatives asking them to pass one-term limits for all elected officials.

How does one construct a resolution for government? Probing rational solutions requires walking through a dark wood as frightening as any horror film. Every kind of lurking and vicious creature lies in wait for one who dares tread this mindless darkness of elected creatures and citizen creatures. Some, like lobbyist creatures, are more like the Sirens of Greek mythology who lured sailors to their death on the rocky shore. In Government Land, however, one dies of depression and hopelessness.

The mariner’s recommended resolution: Have your passport ready and your duffel packed. The ship sails any day for better ports.

One is not supposed to talk about politics so we’ll talk about religion. One just as easily could say “religion.” We’ll all understand. There’s little difference. The dark wood is replaced by a wood invisible in dense fog. Some nasty creatures lie in wait – especially those that also lie in wait in the dark wood of politics.

It is more difficult to suggest a resolution about religion. Politics has boundaries similar to a twenty-ton boulder coming down the mountainside to visit you. For many, perhaps the boulder already has arrived. Either way, one can see the shape of the boulder. Religion, on the other hand, is like being lost in an endless swamp in Louisiana. There are so many circular paths that one will never leave the swamp.

Over the centuries, the integration of the Old and New Testament into one Bible at Nicaea has caused the most confusion. The Jews have a special place for the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – the Pentateuch). The mariner doesn’t intend to be too skeptical but he suspects that’s as far as most Jewish children are taught in religion class – at least that’s the case with Christian children who are taught the Jewish Pentateuch in religion class (on Sundays). Except for the Christmas and Easter stories, the New Testament is unknown to Christian children until they are forced to take a world religions class in college.

Meanwhile, debates about the origin of our species have raged endlessly for more than 150 years. The Christian part, the New Testament, never mentions the issue. Adult Christians should read all of the Pentateuch, which promotes a few severe practices reminiscent of other Middle East religions. One is to stone rebellious children to death but I will not say more in fear of giving away the plot. It is widely known that one cannot eat pig, but gecko? That’s going too far.

Perhaps the resolution for Christians is to start reading the Bible at Luke or Matthew instead of starting at Genesis. There is some important stuff in the New Testament that has nothing to do with creation or stoning children or not eating geckos.

If one cannot talk about politics or religion, then one might try talking about sexual practices or, if the reader is a US citizen, talk about one’s annual income or net worth. The mariner doubts any of these conversations will last long enough to formulate a resolution.

What’s left is gossip. The reader can always resolve to gossip better than in 2013.

Ancient Mariner

 

Goodbye, Knowledge

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The mariner wants to believe that in the distant future knowledge about all things will be available instantly – so that the wisest decisions about life, religion, politics, health, philosophy, science, music, sociology, mathematics, and the world of all arts, will contribute to a better experience for all humanity.

However, for at least the next one hundred years, he has a decreasing belief that knowledge will be important to the person on the street. Many situations raise doubt:

Allowing governments and corporations to think “for” the reader. Personal preferences – not only credit card and banking data but presumptive knowledge about what we will wear, buy, move, die, marry, even when we will divorce – all are in databases owned by others who will leverage that knowledge to limit a reader’s personal choices. Already Google, Microsoft, Amazon.com and most online retailers shape what the reader sees, reducing the reader’s free choice to make informed decisions. Google reads your email to improve product placement.

The government no longer depends on any reader’s unique, single vote. The reader is a quantifiable entity, a mark on a standard deviation table, a phone number. The reader is grouped into a set of opinions that will be dealt with by targeted advertising and speech making all the while passing legislation that will never be vetted by the public.

The public is sated by the easy life. That is the message promoted by those who will own the reader. Who wants to read books? Who wants to dig underneath the surface to see why governments and corporations hide their intent? It takes time and intellectual energy to learn things one is not supposed to know.

Perhaps The Matrix is more revealing about future deception through intellectual repression. The reader unknowingly will lose free will. The mariner sees no urgency on the part of the government to repair the education system that has dropped the nation to twenty-seventh on the list of most educated countries. Knowledge is not as important as greed and power.

Libraries are under duress to find a new role that replaces the old one of rich collections of literature, science, and meaningful fiction. Today, many folks go to libraries to play Internet games (or as the mariner has witnessed, look for jobs). The desire to enrich one’s knowledge of reality or informative fiction is failing – easier to pick from Netflix.

True, there are many who are devoted to their calling, many which will excel in their field. The many are becoming the few. Turn on the Kindle. Highly trained fields often are controlled to keep the demand and expense high for those who leverage education (think medical doctors, sport coaches, CEO’s and tenured professors).

Something has happened to natural inquisitiveness. Do children still look for salamanders or collect tree leaves, spend a part of each day reading, experiment with how the world and its people work? Do adults maintain an informed consciousness about prices, inflation, value for the dollar spent or the dollar saved? Do adults know that salaries have not risen since Reagan while profits have climbed far beyond expectations?

Goodbye, knowledge.

Ancient Mariner

 

Morality Conclusions

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Replies from readers have been enlightening. One ends up poking around in ego, alter ego, altruism, behaviors of many species in crisis, and consideration of genetic responses that preserve the species. The original question, “where does morality come from?” involves all the above subjects in one way or another.

To a large degree, morality derives from alter ego and genetic responses that preserve a species.

Perhaps the most vivid example of morality arising from alter ego is a soldier falling on a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers from harm. Another is similar: the suicide bomber (exempting mentally disturbed individuals of any nation). One can conjure many examples in many circumstances that have a trained obligation to give one’s self to protect another.

Alter ego does not require death or injury to be moralistic. Nuns give up a secular life to dedicate themselves to Jesus and God. Many provide bone implants to save another individual. Families may uproot themselves to favor the hardships of a family member, including selling the home and quitting jobs.

What all these examples have in common is that the people involved are trained to respond the way they do. Training is easily visible in the soldier who has his civilian alter ego torn down in boot camp replaced by a military code that puts the team first under every circumstance. Simple punishments like making the entire squad run ten miles because one member failed a group standard. The training embeds team morality so intensely that it is a matter of faith that a soldier is prepared to sacrifice himself. The suicide bomber is conditioned in the same manner.

Behaviors (morality) rooted in the alter ego include any social influence that becomes accepted over time. Examples are behavioral differences between classes, between races, between religions, between social issues, etc. One need only be receptive to a concept to allow unstructured training to occur, thereby establishing a code of morality.

The other source of morality is the behavior hard wired in any creature’s genetic code. Several philosophers and social scientists contend there is only one absolute morality: survival and propagation of the species. Strongest of the morality behavior is the urgency to have sex, thereby assuring the future of the species. One need not search far in the history of any group or nation to identify moral rules and traditions associated with sexual behavior. From Helen of Troy to Prince William of Great Britain, sex has obvious rules about who, when and where. The mariner will leave how to his readers. The commoners are not excluded from obvious rules that control sexual behavior. It may be that the reaction to homosexual marriage is that it seems to change rules of sexual propagation – a very important issue that seems averse to survival of the species. One must think hard about the issue to understand that it is a moral issue arising from the alter ego rather than a change in the genetic requirement for human propagation.

The mariner has found many curious genetic behaviors in other species and invites the reader to investigate a few. Understanding the genetic morality of other species will clarify one’s understanding about the influence propagation has on the social behavior of the species – including humans.

For a few examples, check out the angler fish, elk, mayfly, checkered whiptail lizard, and dolphin.

Ancient Mariner

 

Where does Morality come from?

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There is intrigue about morality. Unless there is a psychopathic disorder, everyone has a moral sense. It seems to be a universal ability but why do we need morality, perhaps a unique trait in the world of living things?

In our search for morality as a human condition, we must omit those moral behaviors that are induced by groups. This will be hard to do because many “moral” actions by more than one person, for example religion, charities, corporations, mobs, the military, in fact, any group action that has a predetermined purpose for its moral behavior, does not accurately measure the source of morality. Group acts are salted heavily with cultural conditioning and prejudice. So clouded are the definitions that even one person’s apparent behavior is heavily salted.

The mariner would like to press beyond surface definitions such as, “virtue,” “conformity to ideals of right human conduct” and “since each person is raised differently with very diverse experiences, each person has a unique definition of morality and ethical beliefs.” More directly, it is the personal ability to possess morality rather than the behavior that is measured socially. What inside an individual enables morality?

Just as secular groups have prejudice and predetermined expectation of behavior, religious organizations do as well. Religious groups have taken the position that morality is related to Godliness in some way or can be acquired by following rules of behavior cited in religious literature. While the objectives of religion promote goodness more than secular groups, still having preset objectives means that religious organizations are prejudiced.

It was author Graham Greene who said, “Christians can’t steal all the virtues…. Even the caveman wept to see another’s tears.” His comment suggests that moral ability has been part of our species for a long time.

If morality is not based on cultural prejudices, what is left?

Dachel Keltner, The director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, who recently published “Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life,” suggests that compassion and empathy are genetically embedded in our genome and are the reason Homo sapiens morality is a central element to the success of the human race. If the reader wants further information without buying the book, Keltner talks about the content of his book on the Internet at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRRXRlddibg

Keltner builds a case against the common position that depends heavily on Freud and Kant, which says human behavior is a negative, defensive response, one that is motivated to avoid bad things and that this drives the human psyche rather than positive behaviors like empathy and compassion.

We are left with a decision to accept Keltner’s examination of compassion and empathy as a genetic role that is the salvation of humanity versus the idea that human behavior is a reactive defense system designed to optimize success.

Interestingly, this choice seems familiar. In capitalism, success is a negative action that takes advantage of a situation where someone else will pay the price that assures success. This proves to be a successful economic strategy across the planet. However, just because the capitalistic model works for some, does that means it is good for the survival of the species? This is a deep question. The reader should note that the capitalist model concentrates wealth for the few while the population gives up its capital to assure that wealth.

Is wealth of the few a guarantee for the evolving human race? History suggests that the accumulation of uncontrolled wealth eventually leads to a breakdown of society. Cyclical breakdowns of society indicates an unstable function among the species. A less selfish model for sharing resources, that is, a model based on compassion and empathy as Keltner suggests, may in the end, lead to an improved human species.

Let’s leave it there for the moment. Ponder the powerful short term advantages of a negative reactive behavior, which has its financial merits, versus a positive behavior driven by compassion and empathy, which has long term stability.

Ancient Mariner

Merry Christmas

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2013 candles

Happy holidays, Readers, even a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The television schmaltz is actually correct for a change: Relax in any manner you can. Join the spirit of the season. Make room for family in some manner, whether near or far. Prepare a treat you would not ordinarily prepare. Take a day to go somewhere that has been on your list for some time. Visit or call that long lost cousin four states away.

Some of us are alone, ill or incapacitated.  Still, one can find a peaceful spot inside; there is a lifetime of memories if nothing else. A relative of the mariner used to visit the grave of her father and mother some time during the holidays. Christmas is sharing life, memories, joy.

Christmas is not all flash and boxes. The gifts are a metaphor for birth and the life that follows. It is not a time for depression or loneliness; it is a time for self-actualization. No matter how old or alone one is, there is an ability to celebrate one’s unique experiences, finding a satisfied wisdom that younger folks cannot fathom.

Find someone singing Christmas carols. It can be a church service, in the mall, on television or radio. The church carols are timeless and comforting.

Many have feelings of inadequacy when trying to find a gift for someone. When the mariner was in Taiwan, he learned that gifts were given on any occasion, for Chinese New year, Christmas and even a friendly visit. The gifts were not expensive. In fact, many had been passed around before; the wrapping of many was worn. The gift was rarely of significant use. Yet the Taiwanese had mastered the spirit of intent. The presence of the gift was the value – not the gift itself. The mariner once received a single small lotus blossom (invokes wealth in Hindu); another time he received an old doll for his daughter; another time he received a small wooden apple in a tattered box. The spirit is the giving, not the gift.

Many say Christmas is for the children. This is not true. Certainly, there is a parental desire to make the holiday as memorable as possible. However, the gifts will disappear from memory. The gift will be many family Christmases that mature into a blissful memory. If you have children of any age, do they have a chance to help bake cookies? Decorate the house and tree? Get a big Christmas Day hug?

All these thoughts entwine with the birth of Jesus, whose birth is the greatest joy and the core of the Christmas celebration. In celebration of the giving spirit of Jesus, many celebrate the season performing charitable work for shut-ins, for those in institutions, or for the homeless and needy.

Thanks again for being a reader of the blog.

Merry Christmas – tonight, have warm mead or hot chocolate.

Ancient Mariner

Marriage

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An esteemed reader of the blog has asked for an opinion of the United Methodist Church’s rejection of homosexual marriage for the son of Methodist pastor Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, who presided at the wedding in 2007. Reverend Schaefer was found guilty of not following the Methodist Discipline (a thick book of rules and procedural statements, including rules for church property), which accepts homosexual individuals but not homosexual “consensual” sex (stupid). Pastor Schaefer was defrocked.

The mariner will not engage in this issue without considering the whole history of marriage and its impact on religious, social and political circumstances. The first issue to examine is the marital relationship between a man and a woman in earlier centuries.

“Chattel marriage refers to a form of marriage in which the husband owned his wife, and any children of their union, in a legal relationship similar to that of slavery. The term refers to the root word ‘cattle’, from which comes ‘chattel’, which refers to personal property as opposed to real property, such as land.”

Most European noblewomen were party to chattel marriages, although if they brought money or property with them to the marriage, there usually were contracts involved, and “dower rights” were preserved to the wives. While the Roman Catholic Church may or may not have been involved in these “noble” marriages, it stands to reason that matters of money were not subject to Scriptural interpretation.

Marriage in pre-Christian times always considered a woman chattel. Harems and concubines were common and acceptable and “philandering” was common – by both sexes.

Historical references do not discuss the sexual legalities of common people in the Christian era. The mariner suspects it did not matter to the Christian church, the couple being irrelevant to doctrinal priorities. Perhaps a local vicar performed marriages without much ecclesiastical oversight. Likely these marriages are typical of today’s common marriages, also irrelevant to today’s ecclesiastical doctrine unless the homosexual issue arises.

To make a long, long dissertation on marriage short, marriage boils down to convenience. That marriage is a convenience goes back to the early Egyptian era. What the mariner extracts from history is just that: convenience. He feels this is a pragmatic approach to the many ramifications of people that are united in all things. In the case of Reverend Schaefer, the pastor is a victim of transition. Today’s secular culture has begun to acknowledge the situation where homosexual unions need legal recognition. In the mariner’s mind, religiosity has nothing to do with this transition. It is all about convenience in the context of society. Even the Blessed United Methodist Church has mixed feelings about homosexual marriages.

Now to the legality of homosexual marriage in the United States. As a secular concept, homosexual marriage complies with history – it is convenient. However, there are tax and property issues not dealt with by State and Federal law that, by specific definition, never considered the situation of homosexual marriage. This omission is because of religious standards set by strident movements of the Reformation. The framing of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights more or less coincided with religious authority in the eighteenth century. Laws must be modified to acknowledge the convenience of two homosexuals who desire to be married. This is happening at this moment. The legal issue is related to the Constitution rather than to a specific religion.

Homosexual marriage would not be an issue except for those individuals or organizations who remain in the sixteenth century practicing chattel marriage – a marriage that required a man and a woman. Those individuals may be glad not to have lived during the age of Roman emperors when pedophilia and homosexuality were acceptable.

The mariner has opined many times that we live in a tumultuous era of cultural shift that will not pass until late in the century. The issue of homosexual marriage is just one confrontation to be resolved along the way. He thinks the conflict eventually will give way to the historical norm: what does the society consider convenient? Obviously, it is more convenient to rewrite a few phrases of tax law than to turn back the pages of religious history.

As to the United Methodist Church, I question their intent based on Mark 12:33: “To love him [God] with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Homosexual marriage surely is included in that mandate.

Ancient Mariner

Trade Agreements

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The mariner is in a mood today. He appreciates that you choose to abide. The cause of his mood is the condition of the common person on the street of any country in the world – including the United States. Looking across the continents, looking at the circumstance of a public citizen in 194 countries, that public citizen is in bondage. With the exception of a few Nordic countries, the public citizen gets the scraps of government and commerce, the crumbs, if any, that governments and corporations leave only because it is convenient to do so.

The mariner speaks from experience. The value of his land holdings was cut by a third in 2008. The third that disappeared showed up in million dollar bonuses at investment banks. However, the mariner is fortunate in his diversification; many were not – especially those whose total asset was their home. One does not willingly choose foreclosure. One does not easily uproot the family to sell a home to avoid a debt that will last a lifetime. It is egregious that the banks holding the mortgages made record, if not obscene, profits on the public citizen’s hardship.

The mariner grows wary of corporate greed. Under the guise of fair trade agreements, corporations have avoided national law and regulation in virtually every country. Multinational corporations are pirates roaming the seas between nations to avoid accountability for human rights, human dignity, and a fair distribution of profit. Year by year the profits grow larger and flow to the top faster.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed under the guise of a new continental achievement in international cooperation. Corporations wrote most of the details. As many States and communities experienced, shortly after the agreement was ratified Iowa lost Maytag jobs to Mexico. Most corporations that absconded relocated just across the Mexican border. American truck drivers lost jobs because Mexican trucking companies were permitted to cross the border to deliver goods and avoid dealing with trucker unions or vehicle maintenance and road regulations. A total wrap up of overhead for the relocated corporations: lower wages, no unions, lower distribution costs and higher, undistributed profits – not mentioning less US tax.

There are many international trade agreements ratified by the US Government that never receive scrutiny or see the light of day. Virtually all trade agreements favor the foreign country, especially Japan, China and South Korea. The net loss in these agreements is a loss paid for by the US taxpayer. Further, corporate agreements with other countries give away large quantities of American jobs in exchange for larger contracts – think General Motors and General Electric among many.

Recently, China wanted to buy one hundred 736 jetliners from Boeing but to get the contract, Boeing had to agree to move part of the manufacturing to China – along with the patented technology that was needed. China ignores patent rights. Now, China has ordered another one hundred jetliners and wants to double the amount of manufacturing in China – again with added technology to do the job. The Seattle area has lost thousands of jobs under these agreements. Corporations are giving away America’s advantage in the world – superior technology – thus weakening the international role of the US.

Today, the largest trade agreement ever imagined is under negotiation by the Pacific Rim countries – including the United States. This trade agreement is called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Its development is under the control of corporate negotiators overseen by member governments. Not only is it the largest trade agreement ever assembled, it is the most abusive. TPP allows member nations to locate in any other member nation and ignore that nation’s national and local law and regulation if these laws interfere with profit margins. For members that refuse this liberty, the member nation can be sued. TPP members can ignore human rights legislation, wage and health requirements and any other impediment to maximized profit, which, of course, is undistributed. Further, the multinational nature of the agreement virtually eliminates taxes and tariffs.

The more the mariner studies commerce, the more he realizes that nations are no longer the primary players of the future. The big players are multinational corporations – corporations for which there is no national boundary and no regard for fairness and human dignity.

The mariner is reading the biography of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson’s dream was a global government that would see to the rights and dignity of all people. As the mariner reads about Wilson, he compares that dream to the reality of the 21st century. The United Nations, a global organization modeled after Wilson’s dream, is hogtied, generally disregarded, and executes only a tiny fraction of its charter. The UN certainly is not in a position to compete with multinational corporations who are on their way to writing the charter for world peace, AKA profit.

This realization is what has the mariner in a funk.

Ancient Mariner

The New Age

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A reader asked the mariner how one will know that the new age has arrived, that the chaotic factor drops in stress value (in reference to the post, “On Being Old”).

When the dust of the new age settles, there will be a great, cosmic sigh of relief by the society. Unfortunately, before our relief, we must pass through chaos at its greatest stress. Many stressful situations will move to new, stable states. One that must happen first is redistribution of wealth. This will not be a planned event – either by the wealthy or common man. The nation will experience the bursting of a small dam behind which much wealth is stored. Everyone will suffer the economic disruption but quickly new investments will occur in new social and financial objectives. In turn, this will lead to new (and attainable) careers.

For examples of sudden redistribution, one is reminded of the bloody French revolution; the rapid collapse of the Edwardian Age (where a very few held all the wealth); the emptiness of culture and fall of imperialism in Europe before the First World War and then the Second World War; the American robber baron era that ended with the American economic collapse of 1929. Some say we are in a robber baron era today.

Another indicator will be a change in the way corporations make their money. Increasingly, the age of industrialism is falling by the wayside. Currently, opportunists are taking advantage of outdated legislation and regulations (the U.S. banks in 2007-8) and giant loopholes in global economic regulation – undisclosed corporate profit, arms and oil just to name a few. This will end slowly as a new financial model takes over the economy, which, remember, must wait for the dam of wealth to break and for a new political agenda to emerge.

Some evidence of a new age is visible. Although the current Federal and State governments are a deplorable example of Democracy in action, the battle lines are drawn between status quo financial/social conservatives and new goals/new spending liberals. Looking closely at the liberal agenda – full funding of education, modernizing legislation and regulation, single payer health insurance, funding new research and industry – all harbingers of the event horizon mentioned in the last post. Governmental conflict is a very visible sign of chaos.

Another prognosticator of the new age is a move toward intense restructuring of infrastructure. This is not just bridges and roads but a completely new horizon of utility management, travel efficiency, communication, electronic grids that carry information and power at the same time, and a revitalization of the responsibilities of States to manage ecology as a renewable resource that not only pays for itself but also improves the physical state of the Earth.

However, large international corporations do no play by national rules and have shown there is no concern for labor, health, salary or other employee standards. International corporations use government trade agreements as a method of avoiding the laws of many nations, especially the United States. This process will be difficult to bring under control.

Do not be faint of heart. All this chaos will require resilience.

Oh, for the fifties again! Wait. Have you forgotten the tragedy of acne and thermonuclear annihilation….

Ancient Mariner

On Being Old

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The mariner has some years on him – age separates his association with the community at large. This likely has always been true through the generations. Younger generations grant elderly citizens wisdom without proof. In ancient oriental cultures (perhaps even today), an elderly citizen was considered especially important to the community because of the elder’s wisdom. Elderly often were called upon to make judgments about divided opinion. Even a gesture of deference was given by members of the community much as would be given for the Queen of England today.

The mariner suspects this elevated role was important in days when oral tradition prevailed before language could be printed. A lifetime of experience was a valuable thing in an oral culture. Today, the best that can be said for usefulness of the very mature is to remember family ancestry. Ancestry.com can do a better job.

The specific age of supposedly wise status is about seventy-two or three, when the family suspects the old codger (or matriarch) will be around for a while. The codger recognizes quickly that elevation is not what it used to be.

Older folks have learned rules about staying engaged, keep working, keep busy, and, if the wise one has children, grandchildren and great grandchildren around, stay involved with family activities. Further, a valuable asset is old friends, or at least a bunch of otherwise old friends. Keeping the mind alive and the body fit become a daily exercise.

All this is true, of course – unearned wisdom, the tendency to be set aside as life moves on, and the extra effort to remain engaged in life no matter what – but another need for the elderly is growing.

That need is to sustain the virtues of greater good, human rights, common law justice, kindness and other unidentified but critical behaviors that hold a society together.

The mariner often uses the mathematics of chaos to describe the state of affairs today. Chaos is a time when pressure to change the status quo grows in intensity until the status quo fails and a new status quo takes its place. A good example is rising resistance when closing an open latch; at a given point of increasing pressure, the latch suddenly gives way and locks – a new status quo for the latch.

Since about 1970, cultural chaos has grown slowly in intensity and speed. Hindsight provides a trail of increasing stress. The “oil crisis” weaves in and out of our recent history. Oil leads to shortages, quantity manipulation to sustain high prices, wars, and a battleground for world economic supremacy. The financial system of the United States has been brutal in an effort by everyone who can to become richer and richer at any cost until one percent of the population owns forty percent of all stocks and bonds. Agriculture shifted from one family farms to farms equivalent to Walmarts of the countryside, leaving many heritage landowners strewn in its path.

Electronic capability changes by the hour, increasingly wiping out traditional jobs, intruding further into our private lives, and distracting culture from managing its mores.

There is a new role for the elderly. It is a role as hard and demanding as any job in the lifetime of the elderly. That role is to sustain ethics, moral priorities, and to transition high-ground values as our culture moves toward the event horizon that creates a new age. It is the role of the oriental elder – to provide wisdom in an age where printing does not have a defining role.

What is the new role: become politically active; become active in local political and cultural organizations; become an active role model in obvious situations that occur in neighborhoods and communities; detach your progeny from electronic obscurity and insist on engaging other people. Keep a steady keel and hold the rudder on course to higher moral ground even as the waves and wind grow higher.

Often mariner is overcome by metaphors of the sea. However, the course is set: the elderly have a new role to play – advocates of civility.

Ancient Mariner

Dealing with Humanism – II

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The mariner knows in his heart that every reader read the full length of the last post, Secular Humanism – I. If, unbelievably, one did not, one missed a fine response to secular humanists using Christian arguments. The mariner, himself a free thinker of sorts, has issues with secularism. What is noticed immediately is their intense desire to disown God. Methinks they shout too loudly. The mariner understands this position; He also read other sources that spoke to the deficiency of secularism. The secularists desire to live in a natural state as an inseparable part of a finite reality that requires no mysticism and, it may be added, no ownership.

A second observation is that secularists believe in being nice to others, nature, and the cosmos. Being nice is the end of it. There is no challenge to be more devout than one may be or to enlist spiritual power by leading a cause. Spiritual, in this case, means human behavior, not God’s influence. True, there are some who take responsibility to counter abusive behavior to nature by the industrialists and entrepreneurs. However, each secularist is left to their own perceptions about responsibility or even the definition of abuse. The short of it is there is no central mandate for secularists. The Bible is a good example of a mandate; the US Constitution is a good example of a mandate. One special mandate is practiced among secular humanists who mandate that all creation is at the service of the human being; humans have the highest value. To the mariner, that position sounds vaguely similar to the position of the Holy Roman Catholic Church at the time of Galileo. That seems to lead to absolute abuse if the humanist is so inclined.

The struggle had when dealing with secularists is their right to individual freedom, which means there is no desire to surrender to a superior authority that can unify thought, mores and objectives. Where would charitable organizations be, or even governments beyond the most minimal interpretations? One of the responses to the last post was to invoke the United Nations. Already the UN has documented fairness and equality for all humans. The UN has hundreds of projects in critical spots of the world. What it doesn’t have is the authority to invoke its policies. The top twenty nations have seen to that. If a nation were one person, it would be a secularist. The holistic approach to reality is a good feature of secularists.

Their awareness of the grand scheme of things provides an understanding about the planet and an awareness of the orderliness of nature. The secularist’s preference for scientific reality is a sound approach. What is missing, to paraphrase an old friend, is a demand for love. In Christianity, it’s the first Great Commandment; in Buddhism, it’s matrī, a Sanskrit word meaning loving kindness; love in Sikhism is the premier quality among five commandments in the Gurbani (Bible). Other qualities include Truth, Contentment, Compassion, and Humility. Even in ancient Persian mythology, Mihr was the spirit of love. The point is that the belief that there is no god, and therefore there is no accountability to spirituality, is the point of failure in secularism.

The lack of an accountability to love beyond one’s self leads to a self-centered life and the vague path of situational ethics, where no rule but pragmatism prevails. Is there a God? It can’t be proven. What can be proven is that if one believes in the presence of spirituality and a feeling of responding to that spirituality, wherever it comes from, one has a fuller and more rewarding life.