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Todd Daniel

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Green Guilt

I stand before you as a broken man. But in brokenness comes humility and humility is the attribute I admire most. A key part of humility is to show respect to nature, animals, and one another. The lowest among us is the greatest among us.

Little bugs crawl on my kitchen counter and I observe these complex little organisms. I respect them, and they have just as much right to be here as we do. I love them because we are all connected by the web of life.

Lifelong Guilt

For years I thought the guilt that constantly torments me was instilled in me by my religious upbringing. But now I see it comes from a hyper-sense of responsibility. I want to save something I love, but instead I'm contributing to its death. I go to extremes to recycle everything I can, but still there are some plastics that don't recycle, and end up in my garbage can. Some of these items will last 500 years and with our human population continually growing there will be a cumulative effect as items rot slower than we toss them. At some point Earth will become a giant garbage heap. Every time I toss a non-recyclable item in the trash I picture it in some landfill a hundred years from now. I will be gone but my waste will remain, haunting the planet.

There is that plastic trash area in the Pacific Ocean that's now the size of Texas. There is nothing more to laugh about in this life. People are still blowing off fireworks, which terrify both domestic and wild animals. And not to mention the balloon releases, which harm wildlife. Where is the respect? Where is the acknowledgement that we are to live in harmony with nature, and not continually harm it? I can't afford an electric car and every time I drive my car I'm spewing carbon into the atmosphere — it is the same as littering. And every time I shower or brush my teeth or clean my sink there are chemicals going down my septic tank and into the soil beneath my yard. Some of the crap that goes down the drain will permanently foul the soil. We are turning the planet we live on into a giant shit hole. There are other countries far nastier than our own and all the pollution is going into waterways, soil, and air.

All the while our social order is collapsing as black America begins the much-needed revolution and invisible predators continue their tireless work of counterbalancing our extreme overshoot. We humans love our cities and must have them for our economies, yet areas with dense populations is what viruses love the most. Even if we create a vaccine for the current menace, it will just mutate and other viruses will make the jump into the human herd. It seems that humans would cooperate to fight off the microbe predators, but then I keep hearing about the anti-mask movement. Good Republicans will do nothing to change their rigid patterns because their entire mantra is all about sacrificing the future to maintain the status quo in the present.

Then there is the Rev. Ralph Drollinger, a conservative minister who leads Trump's White House Bible study group. In a recent blog post he said gays cause "God's wrath," (code word for COVID-19) and environmentalists and people with “depraved minds” are also igniting "God's wrath."

A quote from one of his recent Bible studies:

Man is created in the image of God whereas the remainder of the created order is not (Genesis 1:26). Therefore mankind is separate, special and superior as it relates to all God has made. It explicitly follows from Genesis 1:26 that mankind is not equal or subservient to all that God has created; conversely he has preeminence over creation and the environment. Properly understood, God has appointed man to be His steward over the earth. Clearly indicative of God’s forsaking wrath is when the abandoned serve the creature rather than the creator. 

So, this preacher gives me a punch straight in the mouth. Screw you, sir. The Holy Bible has been used to justify slavery and many other abominable practices, and now some Bible thumper is going after environmentalists. How convenient that a "man of God" is giving the capitalists free license to rape and plunder our environment. Sir, you are disgusting.

But then again, I've resigned myself to the fact that people just play out their pre-recorded roles like the insects on my countertop, and never question the insanity of their actions.

Our Invisible Enemy

I stand corrected from my comment last week that we gained the upper hand over land predators about 10,000 years ago. I was at a science museum today and I learned it was actually 50,000 years ago. We humans built weapons and worked cooperatively to fight off the large land animals that threatened us, and, in fact, we wiped many of them out. It would seem that we'd want to work cooperatively again to fight off the coronavirus, but what I'm hearing instead are ramblings about conspiracies and that the virus is a hoax.

Honestly, our species as a whole is so detached from reality that I wonder if we will ever make it. As I said last week, I no longer care if humans go extinct. It's the best thing that could ever happen to the planet and millions of other species who continually suffer from our destructive apathy and ignorance. Yet, there are some beautiful, wonderful people, like Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who make our species worth saving. 

It is imperative that each one of us try to make the world better by helping the Earth, animals, or one another. As an environmentalist, much of the time I'm trying to mitigate the excesses and laziness of the people who don't give a damn. These people are wearing me out.

I respect people based on what they do to "give back." Your nice house, fancy car, and boat mean absolutely nothing to me. I realize that 80 percent of the world's population is in basic survival mode, and you guys get a total exemption. I'm with you all and I get it. But you can still give back by just giving a smile or words of encouragement to a store clerk. No matter how miserable your life is as a bottom feeder, you can still lift others up. And I'm a bottom feeder too, just trying to survive, day-to-day.

Only One Shot

As for religion, if you'll read my recent blog posts you'll see that I've recently done a deep dive into astronomy, quantum mechanics, evolution, and abiogenesis. I've also studied theology and world history. It's not that I don't believe in God, it's just that I haven't found him yet after 40 years of study. At age 15 I started having doubts about a superior being and five years later I began my search by actually reading the Bible. No "smoking gun" or "silver bullet" was ever found in my research, so I can tell you this: the life you have now may be the only one you get, and it's your choice to use it for good or throw it away. I love the term "caretaking," and I assure you that is where you will find the only meaning to this life.

If you are a caretaker to the Earth, animals, or humans, then you are making a lasting contribution to the betterment of your world. If more of us became caretakers then our species would stand a chance at survival. But as for now, I have serious doubts about whether we will make it to the next century.

My fellow tree-huggers have assured me that the Earth will recover from the brief little dark spot in history known as "industrialized humanity." It's possible that after our 500 years of shitting on the planet is over that the Earth may never recover. In fact, we are already doing irreversible harm to our planet.

Unbendable Thinking

I know that nothing I say or do will change the natural evolution of industrialism and the systemic destruction that goes with it. Most people are just like insects, and eat, poop, and screw, and go about their lives searching for happiness, which for many means more and better junk, at the expense of the environment. The world we created for ourselves is an absolute disaster, with so many people degrading their one shot at life with alcohol, tobacco, and drug addiction. The herd just slowly marches to the cliff as billionaire politicians scream about "Making America Great Again."

After freeing myself from the bondage of religion, I started out as a wandering idealist in my late 30s, and I was hoping to save the world. It only took six years of fighting the systemic resistance to change and the inflexible institutions to make me jaded and cynical. I am now an old man of 60, still ready for one last good, righteous fight, but still unsure where to throw in my last reserves of energy, strength, and caring. The Christian Nationalists run my country and they constantly drone on about the evils of homosexuality and abortion, and as the world crumbles around us they blame all our problems on, you guessed it, the evils of homosexuality and abortion.

Is it just me or are people becoming even more ignorant and irrational? We are certainly our own worst enemy and the animal kingdom and planet won't miss us when we're gone. If there is a God he's an ass for letting so much madness go on.

********

It's time for a few shoutouts. The first goes to Maggie Sargent, who, like myself, broke out of a conservative religious culture and has become an activist for veganism, the environment, and is an antinatalist, which is a movement to respect woman who choose not to procreate. Below is a video where she shares her thoughts and throws in a yoga class.

Any time I find someone who shares my vision of saving the world I list them on my "We Live on a Planet" website. Last night I came across the Deep Green Resistance, which is a group that feels that mainstream environmentalism is ineffective and that the real threat is industrial civilization. Of course, I agree.

Lastly, I wanted to say farewell to my beloved friend and companion for almost five years, Kopek. On our weekly hikes he always watched over and protected us and our other dogs. He was fearless, loyal, and a deeply loving animal. On Thursday I laid him to rest in the lot behind my yard. After almost 13 years of a wonderful life he died of congestive heart failure. I cried a lot and the pain is deep. Life will not be the same without him. Goodbye, Kopek.

Source:
Is God Judging America Today?, Ralph Drollinger
Photo by Keith Camilleri on Unsplash

Conflict, Racism, and Species Survival

Let's take a step back and ask ourselves, "What value do we have as a species?" Most of the millions of species on our planet have a purpose by keeping the ecosystem in balance. Do humans have a purpose? The purpose of life is to be a caretaker for animals, the Earth, and each other. There is no other meaning to life. A biologist may say that our purpose is to procreate, but we have already done that all to well.

I was told in church that our purpose is to "glorify god," but I'm not sure which of the 1,000 gods I'm supposed to glorify. They are listed on the Internet; I suppose I could pick one at random, or maybe glorify a garden gnome.

It was around 10,000 years ago when we learned to use technology and teamwork to protect ourselves against large land predators. Finally, we were safe. But the little creatures that attack us, in the form of microbes, continue to remind us that we are just like any other species and that we must succumb to the checks and balances of nature. 

With our current attack by a mutated animal virus, it would seem like we would unify and work as a team to defeat our invisible enemy. This enemy simply wants to hijack our cells to reproduce itself, and doesn't care if it destroys its host, for it will simply move on to other living cells. And if we defeat the corona virus there will be other viruses constantly mutating and becoming more lethal, and we provide every virus with exactly what they want — millions of humans packed into tight places.

Industrial Age

Let's take another step back to our social evolution in Europe. Modern science took off in the late 1500s and when Voltaire and Rousseau ushered in the Age of Reason in the early 1700s, religion was supposed to go away, but it did not. I am now grateful for religion and the mass ignorance it creates. See, I've always believed in science and reality, but science created technology, which has led us to the bad predicament we are currently in.

In the 1820s we humans led a sustainable existence and fit into the ecosystem like every other species. But along came technology and the steam-powered engine. Textile factories sprung up in northern England, which created a much greater demand for raw materials such as cotton. Who was going to provide this material, so that everyone could own more clothes? Slaves, of course, working in plantations in the southern U.S. But black slaves were in the New World far beyond that time. Initially they were brought to the Americas to work on sugar plantations because Europeans had developed a taste for sugar. And as slaves in South America and the Caribbean worked under appalling conditions, Europeans got fat eating sweets.

So, I'm now grateful for the institutionalized ignorance created by religion, which slows down our technological progression and gives us a better chance at keeping pace socially.

Capitalism

Another byproduct of science and technology is capitalism. See, capitalism simply follows the laws of Darwinism and the system is ruthless and systematic as greedy people try to grab whatever they can. Everyone is now in a race to get more things. When I question capitalism, people are quick to slap me down and they tell me it encourages innovation and efficiency. That is true on a small scale, but now capitalism has taken a life of its own and big corporations now gobble other corporations and the rich are getting richer to the point where half the world's wealth is in the hands of a few. And how do the American people respond? They elect a fucking billionaire as their president, who is a cog in the great machine that will squeeze the common man and woman to death as the rich horde everything.

From childhood I was told that socialism, communism, and Marxism are all evil. Our government has meddled in the affairs of other nations, staged coups, gone to war, and even engineered assassinations to protect our "way of life," which is a lie fed to us by the blood-sucking capitalists. Poor Che Guevara, a fighter for the people, was murdered by a CIA minion. All he wanted to do was start a global Marxist revolution, and the American government wouldn't have it.

Sustainability

Small wonder that people are angry. We live in a failed system that never did deliver the promise of a decent life for the masses. In the U.S. we have a medical system that's our enemy and only wants to suck the sick of their last remaining dollar. Many in the medical industry are filthy rich thanks to bilking insurance companies, which, in turn, bilk us. This is Donald Trump's America, a broken, soulless place that survives based on lies and misconceptions. 

And in this backdrop a part of our population is taking to the streets, and I don't blame them. The system has been particularly brutal to African Americans, who were brought here against their will and under appalling conditions, and the appalling conditions never ended. 

And we called it capitalism when entrepreneurs docked their ships at slave ports on the west African coast and purchased slaves. It was the black slave traders who went into the interior of the African continent to kidnap innocent people, which devastated the societies and economies of west Africa. And then the ships sailed to the Americas where the slaves were purchased by aspiring capitalists who simply wanted to make money, which, I know, is a good Christian thing to do.

Racism

It wasn't enough that the African Americans had to endure 250 years of slavery in north America. After they were freed in 1865 they had to endure another 100 years of Jim Crow laws, and if you don't know who Jim Crow was look it up, and I can tell you he was a disgusting fictional character. So, this is all due to our beloved capitalistic system and the Christian religion, which is clear in its support of slavery. And worse yet, Christianity was pushed on the slaves to help make them docile and to allow southern socialites to proclaim, "See, we saved the souls of these black savages." And as the descendent of a Druid I know what it's like to have someone else's religion forced upon you.

Small wonder there is a drug problem in black America with law enforcement and racist vigilantes murdering blacks, not to mention the carceral state and prison industrial complex that profits when young black men are thrown in jail. The system squeezes and exploits black America, just like it's been doing since the 1600s. I stand with my black brothers and sisters who are particularly singled out and used by a dark and grotesque economic and social system that whitewashes itself with nice pictures of white families sitting in steepled churches and proudly wearing their MAGA hats at Trump rallies. Modern America is a venomous snake and with large corporations controlling the media we are fed disgusting propaganda that would make Joseph Goebbels proud. And it's not surprising that the white capitalists would use a disinformation model that was invented by the Nazis, which is designed to make you safe and sound at night, and to scapegoat someone else, and all the while exploiting the underclasses, who they say are "lazy."

Summary

I started blogging in 2004 to help me see my own intellectual progression as I traveled through life. Shortly after getting into the environmental movement I was exposed to the rancorous immigration debate in the Sierra Club, where the old white guys didn't want America invaded by the brown hordes, which they said would compromise their environment. I'm proud that the Sierra Club stood against them and said we should address "root causes," because that is the correct answer. Following the economic crash of 2008 and the current hostile anti-immigrant atmosphere created by Trump, immigration is less of an issue. Besides, human migration is a normal and integral part of our 100,000 year existence as a species. We are always moving in search of a better life.

During the heat of the immigration battle I once said there is no use saving the environment if we are just going to fill our rivers with blood. Eventually, I created this blog, which was my second blog, and is devoted to social sustainability. I realized that we can't have a sustainable environment when we have such an unsustainable and unjust society.

I used to want to save humanity but in the last five years I've changed my thoughts. I now see humanity as just another species. Right now we are a misbehaving species that is wiping out thousands of other species, doing irreparable harm to the Earth, and hurting and harming our fellow humans. DO WE DESERVE TO EXIST? I would say "no," except there is always a handful of good people who give me hope. If we think we can provide some positive benefit to this world, then it's up to us to save ourselves. Otherwise, I no longer care if humans go extinct — under current conditions it's the best thing that could ever happen to the Earth.

Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi are my three greatest heroes because they showed me that being human can be something special. They showed us that we don't have to be a violent, all-consuming species that tramples on our brothers for our own personal gain. Why the fuck do we forget their teachings every single day?

In 1966 Martin Luther King said something extremely beautiful. He said a riot is "the language of the unheard." Why don't you listen, America? Maybe it's time to listen.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Lucky, Voltaire, and Me

April 26, 2020

A dear friend of mine just lost his son and another good friend recently damaged his spinal cord in a bicycle accident. My heart grieves for them. Life is real, especially for those who suffer, and though we may have empathy it's not like being there. We are all trapped in a giant Shakespeare play that doesn't end.

As for me, I am a handful of stardust and one of billions of people, just trying to get through life and trying to survive. I am thankful for my rescue dogs. Animals have feelings too and I am grateful that I can give them food, shelter, and warmth. Once they were wolves and great hunters, but humans bred them into companions and work dogs, and without human help they can barely survive on their own. At best they might scavenge for enough food to stay alive.

The fact is that we're all organic matter and we live, eat, crap, screw, and die. It's called being alive and though some people search for a deeper meaning, there is none. The only meaning is what you apply to your life.

Two More Epiphanies

Okay, my blog is all about writing down epiphanies as I go through life trying to figure it all out. So, here are my two "ah ha" moments for today, which are a continuation of last week's blog post.

The first is about my fellow journalist Voltaire, who lived a long and productive life in the 1700s. As I touched on last week, he was a leader in the Enlightenment movement and put forth major ideas like religious tolerance and separation of church and state. He was a deist and he came to that point by reason, which is the basic pillar behind the Enlightenment. So, now I see how he got to that point. He believed that God set the universe in motion and stepped back.

Voltaire, my hero.

In 1775 Voltaire wrote a fantastic poem about the Lisbon earthquake. It gives me goosebumps to read it. In the poem he takes a swing at philosophers who, at the time, were into the "all is well with the world" ideology. And he also slam dunks the religious people who said it was "God's will." Estimates vary on how many people died in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which was followed by a tsunami and great fire, but Voltaire goes with the high number of 100,000, which he said "the earth devours." If anything, he said in his poem, the Lisbon tragedy reminds us how fragile human life is and how close we all are to death from "cruelties of fate."

So, Voltaire came up with his deist belief through reason, which, to me, is the same as critical thinking. He was very much into science and a big fan and promoter of Sir Isaac Newton, one of history's greatest scientists. But Voltaire lived 200 years ago and missed all the discoveries and knowledge that we've acquired since that time. If he were alive now he would probably reach the conclusion that nature and evolution are handling everything and, based on discoveries, we can say that there's not much work left for God to do. He's basically unemployed because physics and evolution seem to get everything done.

The point being is that Voltaire felt that religion was good for the masses, and here is my epiphany, which I found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

For Voltaire, those equipped to understand their own reason could find the proper course of free action themselves. But since many were incapable of such self-knowledge and self-control, religion, he claimed, was a necessary guarantor of social order.

This one sentence completely changes how I view religious people. To summarize this statement, religion fills the gap for people who are incapable of critical thinking. It is incumbent to all of us to travel our path of life through reason and self-reflection. With all the science and knowledge now available, I think it's impossible to believe that a guy lived three days in a whale, but if that's where your intellectual journey takes you then, well, okay.

Now, let's jump to a quote I found by someone reviewing Conversations With God, by Neale Donald Walsch:

Most people who swear by the Bible haven't even read that much of it. Why? Because society has ingrained and brainwashed and created their belief systems and then anything that contradicts their paradigm of the way the world is must be wrong and blasphemous.

Reason demands an open mind. What I'm seeing now in the U.S. is a massive amount of willful ignorance, which is the opposite of reason. I'm guessing that people follow this path because it gives them comfort, and as I mentioned last week, it requires less brainpower.

Why I Love My Country

The Founding Fathers were strongly influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and incorporated much of the ideology into the Constitution. What I love about the men who created our country is that, yes, many of them were rich, but they were not corrupted by money. They were true idealists, which is something that has been lost in American politics. They looked at all the problems in Europe and wanted to create a country that was better and they drafted this remarkable document that holds us together after nearly 250 years. That is the miracle of true idealism because our country is fused together by an ideas, and not race or creed.

But, sadly, those with money and special interests are continually coming up with insidious ways to undermine our democracy to meet their own, selfish objectives. The way we keep our country strong and democracy strong is to continually defend our ideals and national integrity. Some people have told me the world would be better off being ruled by enlightened dictators, but I find that a pitiful cop out. I'm an idealist, my country is founded on idealism, and we just have to defend our principles.

A perfect example of the problems in the U.S. is when my governor, Brian Kemp of Georgia, appointed a wealthy campaign donor to fill a vacant Senate seat, a woman with zero political experience. To me this is the perfect example of money and special interests corrupting our ideals. But I assume the governor thought he could get away with it because apathy is so rampant in our country. We, as citizens, should have burned up the phones and written thousands of letters expressing our dismay at this decision. Politicians who violate the intent of democracy must be held accountable. It is an educated and engaged citizenry that will keep our government strong and healthy.

So, my second epiphany is that our country and government are GOOD, but it's the money and self-interests that corrupt it, and we must guard against that. Conservative politicians regularly claim to be Constitutionalists, but they selectively push a right-wing agenda, and we must guard against that as well. The Constitution is for all the people.

My rescue dog Lucky

Industrial Revolution

My other favorite author Daniel Quinn marks the birth of totalitarian agriculture, which began 10,000 years ago, as the key turning point in human history. I agree with that but feel that the other main turning point is the Industrial Revolution, which hit its peak around 1820. This era was mainly ushered in by James Watt and his steam engine, which completely revolutionized society. The steam was powering trains and factories and people were moving to towns to find work. The industrialization also created a huge demand for raw materials, which required the labor of a vast army of slaves in the Americas.

Before the Industrial Revolution, people had basically lived the same way, in an agrarian based society, for several hundred years. It was a hard and simple life where every household had to do their own sewing, grow their own food, and make their own goods. Industrialization brought efficiency to the world and despite all the terrible hardships, overall people began to see a rising standard of living.

I bring all this up because I'm a believer in science, and the natural byproduct of science is technology. I'm not like the Unabomber or Luddites who blame technology on our social problems. I will just say that it's advancing faster than we humans are adjusting, which has caused all sorts of disruptions and many unintended consequences, such as obesity and various diseases.

Industrialization has also divided people, which we saw so sadly in the American Civil War, where the agricultural South fought the industrialized North. Today we have this great chasm between urban and rural people, and among the various financial classes. When we see the huge divide between the MAGAs and Libtards here in modern day America, we have to remind ourselves that this division is nothing new and has taken place around the world for hundreds of years. What we DO NEED TO DO is listen to the other side and show acceptance and tolerance. That's how Voltaire would have done it.

Conclusion

In Europe there were constant wars for hundreds of years. Sadly, in the 1600s many of the wars were about religion and among the most brutal. According to Quinn, while most of the focus is on the 10,000 years since agriculture, we need to look at the thousands of years before that time to put human behavior into perspective. I will add to that by saying we also need to look at the last 400 years to understand why people behave the way they do. There must be a reason why most people lock themselves into the "one right way" and never question their beliefs or never accept new ideas from others. I don't understand it, other than to say it's some sort of defense mechanism or that by holding on to the status quo, and never questioning, we achieve some sort of comfort. What we need are more social mutations of free thinkers who can put progressive ideas into action and help us to make forward progress as a society.

I do not believe it's possible to be a critical thinker and religious at the same time. Voltaire explained all the pain and suffering of the world by simply saying God started the whole mess and then stepped back. But I know that everything that happens is ultimately the result of physics, and no supernatural being is needed. Maybe God triggered the Big Bang to start us off. I don't know, but what I do know is that Voltaire is right — God is not around now.


Sources:
Voltaire, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, July 30, 2015

  Photo: Grant Ritchie

Leavers, Takers, and a Virus

To say that viruses aren't alive is an insult to these creatures. They are alive, but just live in a different way. The first organisms came to life on our planet about 3.8 billion years ago and for another 1.4 billion years our ancestors were just single cells. It is believed that viruses started showing up about 1.5 billion years ago, so they've traveled on the evolutionary highway a long time with us.

An argument can be made that the virus is beating us in the evolutionary race. They don't even need a reproduction system, and instead they hijack host cells and make them create their babies. They focus on simplicity and are super efficient. As I mentioned recently, viruses are not bad and, in fact, we mammals have incorporated some of their coding into our own coding. For example, a viral infection that infected primitive mammals a 100 million years ago now helps females to transport nutrients to her fetus.

The virus that is currently devastating our population was likely evolving in other lifeforms for millions of years before it made the jump to us humans. Now, we are appealing to whatever god we believe in for help, but like the victims of the Great Flood, there is to be no mercy.

My Life Change

The one book that completely changed my life is "Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn. One of the key tenets of the book is that instead of always viewing life through the last 10,000 years, when the agricultural revolution began, we should look at life from our hunter-gatherer or "caveman" days. For instance, I was recently astounded to learn that if our ancestors who lived on the African savanna could get past infancy they would then live, on average, into their early 70s. This is completely mind blowing since healthcare is a $6 trillion industry in the U.S. and nearly 18 percent of our GDP, yet we've only succeeded in increasing average life expectancy a few more years. Despite the wonderfulness of capitalism and finding the one true, correct god, something is horribly, terribly wrong in our society.

The author of "Ishmael" divides people into two groups — the Leavers and the Takers. Before I dive into this topic I'd like to say that humans are obsessed with control, and I'm not sure why. We are even arrogant and cocky enough to think we can control nature, and the coronavirus has given us a huge slap in the face and is waking us up to the fact that we are NOT little gods, but rather just one of 8.7 million animal species here on Earth.

So, along those same lines, the author defines Takers as the dominant culture that drives into our heads "the one right way." The vast majority of people I know are so covered with and embedded into this facade that they don't know anything different, and they are only able to see life from their Taker culture viewpoint. But look what we're doing, folks! The Taker mentality is destroying everything, including ourselves. We are no better than the little virus, who doesn't even care if it kills its own host.

The Leavers, on the other hand, are typically the native, indigenous peoples, or individuals who have gone off the grid. They lead simple lives and don't have to worry about unemployment or the value of their stock investments. They don't have to be strung out on alcohol or antidepressants to get through life. Yet, we call them savages just because they don't live like the Kardashians.

You can make fun of their bad hairdos or whatever, but the fact is that the Leavers have lived in harmony with the Earth for thousands of years. There are still a few Leavers left in the Amazon Rainforest and a few other remote areas of the world. But the ranchers in Brazil are trying to run them off their land and take what little they have. Why? Because a Taker has no limits and has no boundaries. They simply consume until everything is gone, just like the virus multiplies until there's no more cells left to hijack.

A second key tenet of Quinn's book is that there is no "one right way" to live. I've always had trouble grasping this concept because the Taker culture is definitely not a right way to live. But, the Takers have given us technology, which I sort of like. The Amish, Luddites, and Unabomber have all shown their disdain for technology but without it I couldn't stream Gilligan's Island reruns on my iPad. I guess our lives are more comfortable now, as contrasted to 200,000 years ago. I'm sure the capitalists will say that it is because they want to make money on all the crap they sell me, which is supposed to make my life better.

What I can say is that we have a corrupted form of group-think in our mainstream culture, and maybe if this was fixed we Takers wouldn't be so harmful. For instance, it was the Republican governors and president who wanted to keep the economy going as the coronavirus was spreading like wildfire. The religion of capitalism is drilled into their brains so deeply that they don't want to change, yet by delaying action they only exacerbated the problem.

Diet

One sure way to fight virus pandemics is to get rid of the nasty, filthy industrialized meat industry. Now, I'm not talking about family farms, but rather the large corporate meat facilities. Certainly, with diet there is no "one right way" of eating. The diets I've seen and have been on are usually in contradiction with one another and to further complicate things, it seems that people respond differently to various diets. It appears that everyone needs a custom designed diet to optimize their gut flora.

There is no "correct" diet but the one I like mimics what our ancestors ate on the African plains. It's a myth that our ancestors were big meat eaters, although they did enjoy some fish or lean meat a few times a week. What they mainly ate were lots of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Milk and milk-based products should be eliminated. If you can live off the foods on this Happy List you are less likely to give your dollars to the multi-trillion dollar healthcare industry scam.

Population Density

Population density is another factor that is making the coronavirus race around the world like lightening. Every time we TAKE from the world we are leaving other animals with LESS. One way that we take is by exploding our human population. To do so is senseless and irresponsible. In 1798, Thomas Malthus said that we were going to simply breed to the limits of our food supply, and our improved agriculture methods are only accelerating this process. To produce more food to feed starving people is a dark comedy because more food only creates more human reproduction and more starvation. So, what we need to do is limit our family size to either zero or one child, and two maximum.

Final Thoughts

The other thing we all should do is adopt a simple lifestyle. I don't expect us all to switch from Takers to Leavers, but we can adopt some aspects of the Leaver culture. The Takers are obsessed with accumulating crap, and some people even suffer from a mental illness called Hoarding Disorder. What we need is a life that is built around human connections instead of inanimate things. We need to find our peace and happiness from within, instead of from buying junk.

Better yet, instead of Takers and Leavers, we also need Givers. We've done enough taking and now we need to give back to wildlife, the Earth, and each other.

I hope that during this virus crises we all take some time to think about what we really want in life, what makes us happy, and the direction we should be going.

One thing I've learned is that there are rarely absolutes in life. Agriculture did not really begin 10,000 years ago. People were planting things they liked around their homes for hundreds of years prior. But what changed is the introduction of totalitarian agriculture, where the farm workers and other life forms become subordinate to the endless, ruthless creation of food for people. It is the Taker belief that all the land in the world is for farming and grazing, and fences are put up to enforce this idea.

There is also the fallacy that humans are flawed, but I believe that Leaver humans, at least, are not. Our entire Christian religion is built around the idea that we are born as bad, or "sinful" people. No, we are all born innocent and then immediately get sucked into our culture, and only a few of us ever question the lies that are programmed into us at an early age. It is our CULTURE that is flawed, not us.

I find the Adam and Eve myth intriguing because eating from the Tree of Knowledge is what got us into our current predicament. Sure, the first human couple on the Earth screwed up by breaking the rules, but as God-fearing people shouldn't we try to rectify that by denying knowledge? When scientists started showing up in the 1400s and 1500s the Catholic church executed only a few, most notably Giordano Bruno. For the most part these scientists were allowed to give us knowledge and we ate more and more apples from the forbidden tree. Maybe God was right and we should have listened to Him. If so, we wouldn't be in the predicament that we are in now. For the knowledge has corrupted us and created the all-consuming Taker culture that we have today.

Oh, and why the picture of the gorilla above? The main character in Ishmael was a gorilla who could communicate telepathically. Yeah, I know, it's a little crazy.

A must-read for every human.

Sources:

• What Came First, Cells or Viruses?, by Viviane Richter,  Cosmos Magazine, October 2015
• Ishmael By Daniel Quinn, and the Movement It Inspired, by Pete Reinwald, Chicago Tribune, July 2013.
• Ishmael.org
• Experiencing Globalization: Religion in Contemporary Contexts, edited by Derrick M. Nault, Bei Dawei, Evangelos Voulgarakis, Rab Paterson, and Cesar Andres-Miguel Suva.
• The Guerrilla Diet & Lifestyle Progra
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Photo: Carlos Cram

From the Perspective of the Virus

During this difficult time please spare some money to help the artists — the musicians, painters, chefs, actors, dancers, and comedians. They are the ones who showcase the good side of humanity — our creativity and richness. Many of these artists were already just barely getting by, and now their industries have stopped cold. Send some money to an entertainer who touches your heart. Not someone famous, but one of the hundreds of wonderful, creative people who are just getting by.

Secondly, build up your immune system. Take extra Vitamin C. Contrary to what you may hear, don't stay inside — your body needs sunlight to produce Vitamin D. If you smoke or drink excessively, now might be a good time to give those bad habits up. And exercise!

While the death rate of 2 percent may seem small, if left unchecked the virus would kill 200 million people, which is four time the total death toll of World War II. If no action is taken it would only take 60 days to infect the entire world. The risk of death increases based on your age. People who are in their 70s have an 8 percent chance of death and those 80 and above a 14 percent fatality rate. If the Coronavirus mutates, it could kill far more people.

A lockdown of the entire Western world may be necessary to stop the virus, and it could last 6 weeks. Even then, it only takes one infected person to start another flare up and restart the 60-day clock. So, it's essential that we develop good testing systems and quick response procedures. Every time there is an outbreak it will need to be isolated, and this will need to continue for at least a year when a vaccine is available.

If you get the virus, there is little anyone can do. If it goes into a secondary infection in your lungs, you can get antibiotics, assuming that supplies are available. If you are having trouble breathing, you can be put on a ventilator, assuming there's enough of them.

If you want to explain this pandemic with a conspiracy theory, well, it's unlikely. Viruses have existed for nearly as long as life on this planet. They've had plenty of time to mutate into their current state. Saying that some scientists created them in a lab is an insult to the little bastards.

Please don't describe this virus with a religious explanation unless you like irony. So, you are telling me that God made 8.7 million animal species in a single day, but he couldn't even stop a bat from drinking someone's soup? And now that this virus is spreading around the world, do you think God will say, "Oh, little Johnny is praying for me to protect him. I'll make sure that Uncle Eddie stops sneezing on him." I mean, come on, folks.

Oh, and please don't give me the "God is punishing us" explanation. He already drowned us once, and only one holy family survived. And they were a mighty strong family considering that they built a giant wooden ship that would be hard to build even by today's standards, and even with a shipyard, dry dock, and cranes.

I don't want to hear the prophesy stuff either. If the Coronavirus is a sign of the last days, then what was the Black Death of 1347 or the Spanish Flu of 1918? Was God just messing around with us a little? Heck, we're little shits and certainly deserve it, but the fact is that viruses just live with us. In fact, some of their DNA or RNA is even included in our genome, and their coding helped us to evolve into humans, in certain ways. Hey, if you don't believe me, find someone from the Genetics Society, buy them a drink and get them talking.

Now, on the one hand, we are packing the world with people and making the Earth warmer, which are two things that viruses like. But we're also getting better at identifying and killing them. It's like playing whack-a-mole, which I happen to be very good at playing. Viruses are one of the prices we must pay for being alive. We are fragile, organic creatures who live in a universe that doesn't seem to want us here. Sure, we killed or wiped out most of the large animals that ate us, especially those saber-toothed tigers, which scared the poop out of cavemen. Thank goodness my ancestors were fast at climbing trees. But, see, little Willie, all of us species living on the planet must deal with viruses.

And the strange thing about viruses is that they don't care if they kill their host, which would defy common sense. They don't really think or play poker with the boys, or do anything very productive. They just hijack cells and let you blast them to other creatures when you sneeze. I don't know why they are here — they just are.

For some reason, the 1982 music video below is stuck in my head. Every time there's a government press conference, the music below starts playing in my brain. It's about a scientist who checks into a center for deranged scientists, falls in love with a staff member, rebukes science, and then leaves. The song gives me comfort in a weird, sort of way. It's like when the orchestra played music as the Titanic sank.

Source:
Coronavirus: What If We Did Nothing?, Thunderf00t
Viruses Revealed To Be a Major Driver of Human Evolution, Genetics Society of America

Photo: Dimitri Karastelev

Are We Alone?

It was the height of the Vietnam War and I was 9-years-old, and living in Miami, Florida. I was laying in the living room watching TV with my sister, who had fallen asleep. Suddenly I noticed a light and looked out into the backyard. A small, cylindrical object came into my yard at an angle, hovered for a few seconds, and then shot straight up. It made a "swoosh" sound as it landed and then took off. I had seen a UFO.

My immediate neighbors quickly learned of the sighting and an explanation was given to me. I was told that it was the neighbor's sprinkler system cutting on and spraying water in part of my yard. What I saw was light hitting the water. And the "swish" sound I heard was the sprinkler turning on. Well, maybe that explained it, or maybe it was a rip in the fabric of our universe. After all, I'm the guy who believes that nothing can break the laws of physics. So, maybe the object came from the world where dark energy, dark matter, and God lives. Maybe there are no physics in that world.

Whether it was real or not, the experience did instill in me a lifelong interest in aliens and UFOs. I read books and watched documentaries on them and have always wondered what I really saw. But, now in my older age I've almost given up on the idea of flying saucers. Sure, my obsession with crop circles, cattle mutilations, and spaceships taking away the Big Foot corpses was fun, but it probably wasn't real.

See, the first radio telescope went online in 1937 and over the years scientists kept building bigger telescopes and even started launching them into space. Other than a few quasars and some old Happy Days episodes that bounced off the moon, all we've ever found in space are crickets. So, we humans keep building bigger telescopes, but still crickets. In 2025 a new, massive radio telescope will go online, which will be known as the Square Kilometer Array. As its name implies, this telescope will be a freaking square kilometer large. I'm hopeful that this super telescope will find something in the universe in my lifetime. Since childhood I've had two dreams: to see humans land on Mars and to see the discovery of life beyond our planet.

The Problem

In June I wrote that without the moon and the tides it creates, evolution could have never happened. But it's even more complicated than that. See, without our moon being just the exact right size our planet would wobble and spin too fast. Evolution needs eons of a relatively stable environment, it needs water, and a planet must be at just the right distance from its sun, so that the water doesn't freeze or become steam. This range is known as the Goldilocks Zone or the "habitable zone." So, to find life there must be a Goldilocks planet with a Goldilocks moon.

The good news is that scientists and amateur astronomers are discovering planets all the time, and the total of known planets is now at about 4,000, with more being discovered each week. One estimate is there are 1 trillion planets in the universe. Now, let's look at the hurdles any civilization would need to reach to became a spacefaring species. Assuming a life form is on a warm and stable planet there are many more challenges. First, it only takes one giant solar flare or astroid to destroy an evolving species. Secondly, there are many more challenges, such as having all the needed ingredients for life and getting past volcanos, wars, and the list goes on.

When people say "it would be a 1 in trillion odds for an advanced civilization to emerge from organic materials," well, they are probably right. We won't even start getting data from the new, super radio telescope until 2027 and by then I'll be 67 years old. So, I don't know if I'll get to realize my dream of being alive when extraterrestrial life is discovered or not. I would be thrilled if we even found living cells on another planet, but getting from a cell to an intelligent animal that builds spacecraft is a massive leap. Unless astronomers prove otherwise in the next few years, it is my belief that we are all alone in the visible universe. Now, I'm not sure how big the universe is beyond what our devices can detect and there may also be billions of universe, so having an advanced civilization in one out of every trillion planets may be no big deal, but for me it is.

Cosmic Loneliness

What makes humans exceptionally unique is our consciousness. We are the poets, writers, and musicians who give our universe life. We even have a super evolved feature called altruism, where we will sacrifice ourselves to help others. We are an incredibly amazing species. The one thing that really freaks me out is that our brains evolved to make us much smarter than we need for basic survival. That doesn't make sense to me because it breaks the rules of evolution, which only adapts enough to avoid prey, get a good meal, and reproduce. So, somewhere in our evolution there had to be some wild mutations that created a human with a bunch of extra brain mass. Or, maybe an earlier alien civilization altered us, or maybe there is a God who somehow lives in the non-physical world. Whatever the case may be, a consciousness developed in our big brains, and along with that I believe there must be responsibility.

Maybe other civilizations never become advanced because they kill themselves with war and pollution. I look at our own civilization and I grieve deeply. We are wasting our planet and the incredible miracle that is us. Our religions and obsession with living in the present are both great evils because they distract us from what is important, which is taking care of our planetary home and the billions of creatures that we coexist with.

Our Responsibilities

Through thousands of years of selective breeding we turned wolves into dogs, and as I write this I have three of them in my backyard. They have no control over the fact that humans are digging up ancient swamps and burning them. In fact, for 500 years we've been burning swamps to keep us warm, to give us light, and to power our transportation system and industry. At the same time, our human population finally hit 1 billion in 1804. Since that time population has doubled six times and is about to hit 8 billion. I have already seen population double once in my lifetime, and if I live long enough I could see it double again. All these people want to burn fossil fuel to make their lives more comfortable, and the end result is we are creating a disaster.

So, what I'm trying to say, is that we are a 1 in a trillion miracle and we have a great responsibility to care for our beautiful planet and all of its inhabitants, including my dogs. It took several billion years of evolution to get us to our current point and in just a few decades we are fucking the whole place up. The pollution in our air, soil, and water is bad enough. Fishing our oceans to depletion and destroying millions of other species is bad enough. But our greatest disaster is how we are releasing 37 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year. For billions of years we had a relatively stable climate that allowed life on our planet to flourish and advance; we fucked it all up in 50 years, and I believe it will take us 1,000 years to recover. WHAT IS WRONG WITH US? I believe the 1,000-year punishment to ourselves will become known as "The Era of Learning."

Humans are a stubborn species and we don't learn lessons easily. But I do believe some of us will survive the climate disaster and slowly work to repair the massive damage. More and more fossil-burning engines and plants will be taken offline and replaced with clean energy sources. Millions of trees will be planted to mitigate the damage, and slowly we will heal. The people leading this effort won't be the general, brainless, masses, but rather it will be the handful of activists who give a damn. To those of you who are climate change activists, I dedicate my blog to you.

As a species we are finally starting to do a fairly good job of avoiding war, so I'm seeing some progress. There is still the risk of bio terror, nuclear accidents, and astroids hitting us. It's been a long climb to get to where we are now and I believe that we'll continue to get through our challenges. We are a tough and hearty species — we can do it.

The Future

Perhaps it's our destiny to seed the universe, and I think it is. I used to oppose this idea because humans destroy and foul everything we touch, but after the Era of Learning I think we will have our act together enough to be responsible spacefarers. I hope so.

In the mean time, I can't say enough how I have the most deepest and incredible respect for activists who work for social, environmental, and animal welfare causes. You are the ones with the special callings and I love each of you deeply. You are the ones who are saving the world. Thank you.


Source:

Where Are All the Aliens?, Stephen Webb, Ted Talk, 2018

See My Related Blog Post: Yahweh and the Cosmic Egg, June 23, 2019

Photo: Guillermo Ferla