Ayn Rand Got It Wrong (Mostly)

Ayn Rand was an author, philosopher, and scriptwriter who died in 1982. She is most famous for her popular novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." Her name and book "Atlas Shrugged" enjoyed a resurgence a few years ago when politicians Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Ted Cruz began talking about her work.

My initial take on "Atlas Shrugged" is that it promotes laissez-faire capitalism and the idea that companies should do what they want without government interference. The idea of both the book and Ms. Rand's philosophy is to allow individuals to obtain their highest objectives, which will add to the betterment of humankind.  The insinuation is that government regulation, the poor, and federal programs all put a stranglehold on individual rights and personal achievement. Her book is a complete flip of Karl Marx because she sees the capitalists as the good guys and the government and poor as "parasites," "looters," and "moochers," who want some benefits from the capitalist's labor. There are plenty of things wrong with this philosophy, most notably the deck of cards in this country is stacked in favor of the capitalist and the poor worker or welfare recipient is only wanting a little equity.

I do understand Ms. Rand's perspective. She lived in Russia during the Communist takeover and she saw her middle class family transformed from a good life to a hard life where they were required to share an apartment with two other families.

Objectivism

At the core of Ms. Rand's writings and lectures is a philosophy she developed called Objectivism. To put her ideas in my words I'll say that Objectivism is all about recognizing reality. We can only determine reality from our five senses and even then the facts in our world must get through our reality distortion filters. We taint our realities with all types of delusions that fit in with our preconceived notions of how the world should be. It is my lifelong struggle, and it should be everyone's, to get through the white noise of life and discover what reality really is. For me, reality is my religion.

In this part of her philosophy I agree totally. If everyone practiced critical thinking and made decisions based on rational thought rather than emotion, our society would be much better. But then her ideas take an unpleasant turn into the world of self-interest. First, she said that the pursuit of happiness should be the moral purpose of life. This ideas belies Christianity and my own philosophy. Christianity says the purpose of life is to "glorify God," by living a Jesus-like life. According to my philosophy, known as "Todd's Tenet," the purpose of life is to make a contribution, either by helping nature, other animals, or fellow humans. Yes, the Rand doctrine promotes self achievement to make the world better, but you can also be a greedy, selfish ass, and if that makes you happy, so be it. As for me, I have zero respect for people who live for themselves. Wealth does not impress me one iota and it's not a criteria I use for sizing someone up.

Granted, most people on this earth are just trying to survive, and have nothing left to give to others. But then there's people who focus on their own self-comfort, hedonism, and hoarding wealth. The Rand philosophy says this is okay, but I put these people in the EPS category — all they do is Eat, Poop, and Screw and make no contribution to the world. Sadly, 80 percent of humanity falls into this category.

Altruism

So, okay, hold on here. We are about to dive deep. Ms. Rand dismisses altruism as a standard for morality. But I am the opposite. Only a few animals in the animal kingdom show this highly advanced behavior and it's one of the few things that make humans stand out from other creatures. Altruism is what makes humans special. When Atlanta was flooded in September 2009 I think of the guy who drowned trying to save a complete stranger. He is the greatest hero to me. You can drive around in your luxury car and enjoy your big house, but I respect you not. You are nothing but a resource user and your large environmental footprint is simply sinking humanity faster.

However, having said all that, many people misinterpret what Ms. Rand means by "selfish." Indeed, we are all selfish because it is essential to our survival and happiness. For instance, Ms. Rand rightly argues that even love is a form of selfishness, and she's sort of right.  According to one of her essays, she argues that selfishness is a virtue because it enables one to achieve and guard their own well-being. Furthermore, she argues that one must have a serious concern for their own interests to have a "healthy, purposeful, and fulfilling life." I'm okay with this definition, but where things go wrong is when people put their own comfort and welfare over others and the natural world around them.

Environment

Sadly, Ayn Rand and her followers neither had nor have any love for the environment. A search through the Ayn Rand Institute website and similar sites show a general attitude that environmentalism is a move backwards in human progression. Now, Ms. Rand was a smart cookie and if she saw the current environmental problems now she might change her tune. Her followers trouble me because they are supposed to be supporting Objectivism, the search for reality, but they push it aside in their quest to push human comfort at the expense of the planet's health. This is the typical right-wing hypocrisy that I see every day.

In my research I found articles where Rand disciples support GMOs, oppose compact florescent lightbulbs, and say that a bigger environmental footprint is better, as opposed to a smaller one that would compromise our lifestyles. Rand lovers accuse us tree huggers of installing fear and guilt into people. So, listen to me, you objective Rand people — do the research yourself, turn off your pro-corporate filters, and if you think that we can triple human population, and if you think corporations can do whatever they want, and if you believe all that won't harm the environment, then you have lost your reality.

Religion

On March 29, 1974 Ayn Rand did a fantastic interview with James Day, focusing on the topic of "The Ideal Man." I encourage everyone to view this 25-minute interview because she succinctly and brilliantly summarizes her positions.

Both she and I have the exact position on religion, which is to say it's dangerous. Religion is where someone exempts themselves from reality and invents a story to explain something that's unknown. Sure, there are a lot of things we still don't know in this Universe but that is the purpose of science — to expand our knowledge. Ms. Rand sums it up perfectly when she says, "I don't believe that a lack of knowledge is a license to start inventing fantasies." She said it's not necessary for humans to be omnipotent, but we need to act appropriately with the knowledge that we do have.

Ms. Rand was a confirmed atheist and also pro-choice, so, again it's weird that Christians have no problem crawling into bed with pro-Rand capitalists.

Summary

Ms. Rand spent much of her career talking about a rational person who is guided exclusively by reason. The "ideal man" in her mind is independent and has great self-esteem. A key tenet to her philosophy is that all people must have the right to freely choose and determine their own destiny, without control or domination by anyone else. Now, I can understand her viewpoint since she grew up in the Soviet Union and saw the failure of collectivism first hand. In fact, I agree with her that communism and socialism are failed systems, but I also think capitalism is destined to fail, and especially her brand of hands-off capitalism. To the contrary of her beliefs, I don't think regulated capitalism strangles innovation, but, rather, it's the best of several bad economic systems. Unregulated capitalism offers short-term wealth but destroys the environment and exploits the working class, and ultimately self-destructs. Unregulated capitalism is where the wealth moves quickly to the top, and at least regulation slows the process down. And to say that regulation smothers innovation is not necessarily true since 60% of rich people inherited their wealth. We live in a country of spoiled 1-percenters who want even more, and justify their greed and selfishness with books like "Atlas Shrugged," which views any challenge to their avariciousness as mooching and parasitical. No wonder Paul Ryan digs this book, you squirmy little pig.

The only economic system that will ever work on this planet is one that is driven by the best human attribute, which is altruism, and NOT one that is driven by our worst attribute, which is blind selfishness at the expense of others. To me, wealth makes you look bad, not good. You can still be a fantastic innovator and live a simple life because that gives you humility, which is an attribute I respect.

Now, getting back to Jesus Christ. As I've said before, Jesus actually provides the model for a sustainable society and environment. Where I am troubled is when Jesus pushes his exclusivity stuff, basically saying accept me or else be a roasted weenie for a billion years. But I believe Jesus was just a man and I do not believe that the Universe has any supernatural element whatsoever. So, when I take the teachings of Jesus allegorically instead of literally it makes Him even greater to me. By that, I'm saying that when he talks about the "kingdom," he's talking about everyone who's accepted his model for living. In that term, I am a Christian. And Jesus was all about altruism and Ayn Rand was not.

I guess Todd the Toad is a philosopher too, and my vision is a society where we CONNECT to nature, and not DISCONNECT just because Ayn Rand says that makes us primitive. She is dead wrong. In my world grass lawns will be gone and we will all live in small houses, powered by clean energy. We will have vehicles built to last 20 years with zero emissions. We will lead simple lives and get our happiness through relationships and community and not by hoarding junk, and NOT by going to the mall every Christmas season and running up credit card debt. Materialism is the antithesis to both environmentalism and true Christianity, and even though Ms. Rand gives you the green light to reward yourself with junk, you will never find the happiness that she talks about.

Ms. Rand was a great philosopher and gave us at least a benchmark that allows us to compare and contrast our own feelings. Even though she has become a role model for right-wing ideologues she didn't think of herself as a conservative and only subscribed to one political belief — radical capitalism.

She was a firm believer in individualism, but it's unrealistic to talk about that when human population has nearly tripled in my lifetime and all our selfish actions are simply sinking our mother ship faster. She believed that government should only do one thing — protect individual rights. This belief makes the wild assumption that corporations will do the right things and a few will. But most will pillage and rape the environment and working class to make the maximum quarterly profit. See, Ayn, there is so much you didn't think about. These corporations that you loved are locusts and beasts that consume everything. Didn't you care about the future of your planet?

Sources:
The Atlas Society - the Virtue of Selfishness
The Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand.org

Ayn Rand photo s ource (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link
Cover photo: Artur Lysyuk

Curiouser and Curiouser

"Curiouser and curiouser" is a quote by Alice in Alice and Wonderland. She said it when the world she was in got stranger and stranger.

Now, here we are in 2019 America and things keep getting weirder and more bizarre. I won't even mention that the U.S. president reminds me of a rabid baboon because I know so many people love him. Love away, folks.

I guess what strikes me most is that I'm told we live in a "Christian" nation yet our country is so extremely violent. Of course, evangelicals will say "it's a sign of the last days" rather than actually doing something about it. And to live the example set by Jesus Christ, well, that appears forgotten.

U.S. politics have become entertainment and we all secretly enjoy the president's continual crass statements and then the shocked liberal response. It's better than any reality show. Meanwhile, the wealthy business people continue to take over American politics and push policies that promote immediate wealth, at the expense of the environment and working class. 

Just this week in my state of Georgia the governor DID NOT appoint an esteemed congressperson to a vacant senator position, like he should have. Instead he put a wealthy businessperson in the senate seat, a woman with zero political experience who just happens to be a huge Republican donor. Sadly, she replaced one of the last few good Republicans, Senator Johnny Isakson, who was a dignified statesman that worked his way up the political ladder like a politician should. The senator is leaving December 31 due to health reasons. I wish him well.

Christmas

Christmas has always been a holiday that's hard for me to figure out. As a kid I was told it was to celebrate the birth of Jesus and then there was the guy in the red suit who gave toys, and then there were the lights and trees. Christmas is actually several traditions all rolled into one day.

The idea of Santa Claus mainly comes from a 4th century Greek bishop named Saint Nicholas, who gave gifts to poor children. Now we have hundreds of container ships coming from Asia and bringing junk to America. On Black Friday, people wait hours in line to buy the junk and run up their credit card debt. Poor St. Nick is now used as a retail symbol during holiday advertising. As hordes of shoppers rush into stores they may throw a quarter into the Salvation Army bucket, so the helping poor kids thing is covered.

Then there are the pagan traditions. While our Earth desperately needs trees to combat climate change, thousands are chopped down and put inside houses, and then tossed. And while we desperately need to reduce fossil fuel emissions, electric plants across the land must burn more fuel to power all the pretty lights.

I'm one of those few people who've actually read the Bible and I can tell you that if Jesus knew what we've done to his birthday he wouldn't like it. As for me, I've decided not to celebrate it anymore other than buying one gift each for my grandchildren.

For years I've called Christmas "environmental genocide," and I am then called a "Scrooge" for even questioning this bizarre holiday. Plus there is the issue of lying to children about a magic man coming down the chimney. Lying to children can never be a good thing and creates a bad precedent for their future lives.

As a simple man I don't think Jesus would want his birthday to be celebrated at all. And as for the mass retail consumption and various traditions that hurt the environment, I don't see the point. If you want to honor the tradition of St. Nick by giving a few items to the poor, well, that's what the holiday is really all about.

Back To Basics

Getting back to Alice in Wonderland I think author Lewis Carroll was a genius in his ability to depict modern America 150 years into the future. We are now living in a phase of our history where nothing is real anymore and truth, facts, and civility have all lost meaning. If there is something you don't like or don't want to deal with all you have to do is deny it or create a lie about it. Our society has become completely unmoored from facts.

I want to keep blogging and I want to maintain hope, but deep down my gut feeling is that the human species is doomed. We as a civilization are unable to do the things that make sense, and instead do the things that bring us immediate gratification. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die," is our collective motto.

What we need to do is actually follow the example set by Christ and live a simple and nonviolent lifestyle. We need to get our happiness in other ways besides retail orgasms and constant indulgence. We need to stop using people and start thinking about what we can do that really makes a difference. At the end of the day all the partisan chest pounding is meaningless. What really matters is our actions.

I'm an avid recycler and even recycle the items of others. I bring my own shopping bags to grocery stores. I try to lead a simple and humble lifestyle. I wish I could afford a hybrid car because even though it creates a ton of pollution to build one at least they are a good symbol and reminder for a green lifestyle.

One thing that particularly wears me down is the constant hypocrisy I see on both the political Left and Right. No one can smell their own shit any more. As a liberal I will always open my mind and arms to conservatives even though I see them as blind lemmings marching off a cliff. These people need love. To the Christians who provoke a fight with the gay community, I can say that my disappointment in you is particularly high. Learn to love people who are different than you and then you will get a real blessing.

The Earth

Oh, to get to the point of the picture above I wish that we could all just get back to the things that matter. Instead of buying carts full of junk at Christmas, instead of dwelling over gay marriage, or partisan bickering, why can't we just chill out and plant trees? I'm tired of all the comments of disconnection about climate change like, "it's unproven," or "Al Gore is just trying to enrich himself." The science supporting climate change is overwhelming and to question it is simply a form of laziness and denial. If we really want to go out and have a good holiday it needs to be Earth Day on April 22. Better yet, every day should be Earth Day.

So, get drunk on your eggnog, kiss your librarian under the mistletoe, and sing happy Christmas carols until you're hoarse. Worship your nationalism, religion, and your orange bloated cult leader. Go with the flow and enjoy the day, for tomorrow won't be so good. Hold your liquor mugs up high and shout that "America is Great." For in the end, nothing matters except for doing the things that matter.

Me with my foster dog and St. Nick, who is actually my old gym coach.

Yahweh and the Cosmic Egg

Yahweh continues to be the primary god for North America, and recently I've learned a lot more about Him. He doesn't like gay people and He doesn't like women ending their pregnancies, even though it's an ancient practice. He doesn't like Harry Potter, Starbucks holiday cups, yoga, and some new TV show on Amazon Prime called Good Omens. When I was a teenager and attending a fundamentalist Baptist church, I also learned that Yahweh didn't like guys with long hair, rock music, and jeans.

One thing that I do know about Yahweh is that he's a locally grown god that was invented by men (sorry ladies) during the Bronze Age in the land of Canaan. He was the official god of the Kingdom of Israel and later the Kingdom of Judah. He was worshipped not only by the Israelites, but also by other people in the area, including the Edomites, Kenites, Moabites, and Midianites.

Some scholars believe Yahweh is a spinoff from Canaanite religion, which had El as their supreme  god. At the time Yahweh was a sub god in charge of metallurgy. Following the Babylonian captivity era of the 6th century BCE, Yahweh was formalized and canonized into the Hebrew god we know today.

During the Second Temple Period (515 BCE - 70 CE) Yahweh decided to have a son, so he inseminated a young Jewish woman, which was likely quite a shock to her. She had a cute little baby boy named Jesus and thus began the Jewish splinter group called Christianity. Later, Yahweh became Allah and became the foundation of the Muslim faith.

In my last post I said that Yahweh was influenced by the Babylonians, who had their own top god named Marduk. In turn, the Babylonian religion was strongly influenced by the earlier Sumerians. Now, throw in a little influence from the Assyrians and Egyptians, and you have Jehovah, the one true, correct, real, proper God that American evangelicals worship today.

The Cosmic Egg

To summarize, the official, correct god Yahweh was not invented by goat herders in 3,500 BCE, as I said in earlier blog posts. More likely, he was made up by copper miners in the Timna Valley of southern Israel.

Now, if you want a more interesting story let me tell you about the Cosmic Egg, which for some unknown reason exploded 13.8 billion years ago and created the Universe. Yep, I'm talking about the Big Bang Theory.

The whole point of my blog post today is to tell you that the Universe has gone from a single electron hydrogen atom to the extremely complex living organism known as a human. So, if you are not really into the Hebrew copper miner god and are looking for something new to worship, it may as well be the hydrogen atom.

The real god is also gravity and heat, and the story of how supernova explosions and red giants turned hydrogen and helium into heavy metals. Our Earth is the product of dust from three previous stars and without iron and other heavy metals we wouldn't have a planet and we wouldn't have life.

Abiogenesis

The Solar System and planets are believed to have formed from a cloud of dust, with the Sun at the center. Not too long after the Earth was formed, life began to appear in very basic forms. Now, to clarify, the creation of life is called abiogenesis, and is not related to evolution. Secondly, I've heard creationists say that creating the first cell would be like dropping a bunch of parts from the air and have it all come together as a fully assembled B-747. This is nonsense because ancient cells were nothing like the sophisticated cells of today — they started out simple and then grew in complexity.

For life to form on Earth I believe we needed heat, provided by the sun and the cooling Earth core, and movement, provided by the gravitational pull of the moon. We also needed nucleobases and amino acids, which were provided in part by meteorites. How organic compounds ended up on meteorites freaks me out a little, but electrical discharges seem to have played a role.

As the Earth was peppered by organic compounds in meteorites it was only a matter of time before more life-like structures began to emerge. The first pre-life forms of gook had no complex protein machinery but rather simple fatty acids. Under a range of acidity (pH) they began to spontaneously form stable vesicles that were permeable to small organic molecules. Once the vesicles encountered the free fatty acids the life functions of eating and growth began. Slowly, a living cell began cranking up. Once a vesicle was broken off, likely by waves caused by the moon's gravitational pull, then you have a basic form of reproduction. Holy cow, the tough part was getting genetic code to emerge. But in the pre-life environment there were hundreds of types of different nucleotides, such as DNA and RNA, floating around. It may have been a trillion to one odds, but somehow, somewhere one drop of gook self polymerized, which paved the way for a modern cell. Recent experiments show that spontaneous polymerization is possible, such as in the creation of of Phosphoramidate DNA. Once polymerization occurs, it's possible to create new templates or extend existing templates. Now, we are just one tiny step away from life.

Having assembled all the things mentioned above, the goop floats in the ocean and perhaps gets caught in a hydrothermal vent, so now you have the movement of the current and heat. All these factors increases the sub-cell membrane's permeability to monomers. As the temperature cools, spontaneous polymerization can occur, and the cycle repeats. This starts an engine, using basic thermodynamics, where lipids are "stolen" from a vesicle with less polymer. This cycle begins evolution because the little bastards are eating one another and the vesicle that can replicate faster, and grow and divide faster, then dominates the population. Early genomes did, indeed, have a form of coding but it was completely random and thus provided no useful information. But evolution is all about mutation and natural selection and, eventually, increased information. Early mutations first changed the sequence to contain the most common nucleotides, and eventually the cycle stabilized. Next the secondary structures begin to form that begin enzymatic activity. Suddenly, a living, replicating cells emerges and life begins.

Evolution

Once that first living cell emerged the rest of creation was easy. Cells joined other cells to give them an advantage in getting food and self-defense. Over millions of years more complex life forms began to emerge.

Evolution can work both slowly (sexual selection, genetic drift) and through major mutations. Most of these genetic mutations end in disaster but occasionally one will give a creature a major advantage in survival. This creature then multiplies in greater numbers because it has a biological edge over competitors. Millions of years ago hominids left the forests and settled in the savannas of Africa. Continued evolution — both slow and fast — turned them into you and me.

Summary

The best way to understand ourselves, and appreciate our humanity in 2019, is to put our lives into perspective. We are simply part of a journey that started with hydrogen and eventually became humans, which, as far as we know, is the most complex structure in the Universe. There seems to be a natural law of ever-increasing complexity, and I have no idea where that will take us. Maybe we will just do a loop or maybe we will ditch our carbon-based bodies and become part of the fabric of the Universe.

As for the human-invented Yahweh, he showed up at a time when humans didn't have science and it apparently made us feel better to invent gods to explain the unknown. But a god who calls for the execution of gays and slaughters little Egyptian babies can't be all that great. If you want a real god, go to your grocery store and buy a balloon, since helium is the basis of everything and hydrogen balloons are a little too dangerous.

It's interesting that young earth creationists say that the Earth is 5,500 years old, since that is about the same time Yahweh was invented. Enough said.    

Sources:

• The Terribly Tiny God of MAGA Christians by John Pavlovitz

• Yahweh by Joshua J. Mark

• How to Make an Element, NOVA, PBS

• Organic Material in Meteorites and the Link to the Origin of Life, EDP Sciences, 2014

• The Origin of Life - Abiogenesis, Dr. Jack Szostak, Harvard Medical School

• Origin of Organic Compounds on the Primitive Earth and in Meteorites, By SL Miller, HC Urey, and J Oro.

Photo: Alexander Andrews

The 1,001st God

It's Thursday evening and I'm at the aquatic center taking my weekly swim. I go to the bottom of the pool and there I find my favorite thinking spot. There are no cell phones to bug me, no one can reach me. I am all alone and I'm enjoying the peace and serenity.

What am I thinking about? I could be thinking about all the times I had my heart broken or all the bad decisions I've made in life. I could be thinking about my poor country and its broken political system and broken healthcare system, and dying economy. But this time I am thinking about what a dear friend once told me. She said that God is compassion.

Now, my body is wanting to come up for air and I see the lights from the ceiling blurred and swirling on the surface of the water. Nothing is definitive down here because the water blurs the light. But I know that if I don't breathe the peace will soon become darkness.

But I keep thinking. See, here in America the predominant God is Yahweh, the God of the Bronze Age Israelites. It is no secret that the creation of this God was influenced by both the neighbors and invaders of the Kingdom of Judah. The Western God, you know, the "real" correct God is mixed with a little Babylonian and Canaanite theology, and for the icing on the cake is the ancient belief of Zoroastrianism. Later, Rabbinic Judaism emerged and splinter groups emerged as well, including one little salvationist cult called Christianity. The Roman gods just weren't cutting it any more, and in an act of brilliance the Empire morphed from a physical organization to a spiritual one under the umbrella of catholicism. As time went on groups who believed differently continued to spin away from the Roman Catholic Church, and soon there were the Protestants, Calvins, Baptists, and so on.

I let out a little air and see bubbles quickly rise to the surface where they disappear forever. Now I'm thinking about the people who have their own ideas of God. A person once told me that Jesus was an alien from space, while someone else said that God is simply a collective, universal energy.

I don't know, but suddenly air is my primary focus so I rise to the top, take a breath, and return to my own dark abyss. Now I'm thinking about a recent poll on Twitter that asked the following question:

If you could teach everyone in the world one concept, what concept do you believe would have the largest positive impact on humanity?

Now, we are getting somewhere. We are discussing the very reason of why I blog and what I futilely scream about all the time. The survey had 3,900 responses and I could hardly wait to read the answers. As I scrolled down and read hundreds of answers, there was a consistent theme about teaching the world empathy, compassion, kindness, and unconditional love. So, I'm beginning to think my friend is right. Maybe God isn't one of the 1,000 deities invented by men over the course of history. I now realize that God is our more highly evolved attributes that distinguish us from most other animals. God is altruism, compassion, sympathy, kindness, and love. I know that Yahweh remains the main God for Western civilization, but He could be a real bastard at times. He's the guy who murdered little Egyptian babies and ordered people executed for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. He is not my God, nor will he ever be.

And it's easy to talk about "concepts" like compassion but the reality of applying them is far more difficult. From birth, humans are pushed into a pattern of thinking and behavior that is influenced by their upbringing, religion, and other factors. Most people are unable to break from their patterns and mental programming. While they may acknowledge an attribute like "kindness," they may have more overriding behaviors built in like self-righteousness, piousness, arrogance, and selfishness.

The best way for everyone to make a difference is to accept and learn critical thinking, have an open mind, and tolerate competing ideas. This way of thinking creates the foundation for more higher-level behaviors, such as altruism. Many of us grow up in painful environments and the narcissism and sociopathic behaviors arise as coping mechanisms. Many people will go through life self-absorbed and even indifferent or neutral toward the actions needed to save our world, both socially and environmentally. So, those of us who can still feel must feel, and those of us who can still love must love. That is the collective and positive energy that will create the 1,001st God, and the God that becomes the catalyst for real change.

And now I can come up for air.   

Bottom Photo: Lina Trochez Top Photo: Cristian Palmer

Hate Preaching Resurgence

I haven't blogged in a while, but I feel compelled to say something about a new religious group called the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement. This is a group of 30 churches that take a literal and extreme interpretation of the Bible. Most shockingly, they call for the execution of everyone in the LGBTQ community.

My reaction to this group is not anger but more-so I'm tired of all the hate. It's strange to me that religions that supposedly promote love are responsible for so much hate in the world.

From childhood many gay people face persecution, and religious people appear to show the most zeal and hatred. LGBTQ members do not provoke fights and don't attempt to harm anyone, yet a group of fundamentalist Christians wants to give gays capital punishment.

For those who have lost their compassion and empathy, let me assure you that gay people have feelings too. They have dreams and aspirations, and they just want to be happy like the rest of us. They are put into this world "different" and must live their entire lives with their differences rubbed in their face.

To the hate groups who are disguised as Christian groups, I have nothing to say. The haters are always going to hate and those of us who can still feel love need to overwhelm all the evil in this world.

Stating the Obvious

The favorite gay bashing verse in the Bible comes from Leviticus, an old law book that evolved over time. Around 500 BCE a group of priests developed the book into its current form. I won't go into all the other extreme and weird rules in this book, but it's evident that Christian extremists cherrypick the versus to fit their agenda.

I also shouldn't have to mention that gay people have no control about who they are. They are simply wired differently than the majority population. To persecute people for this and call for their death is heartbreaking.

Conclusion

I've already covered the gay issue in an earlier blog post,  and I won't dwell on it here. I will only say that I am saddened and discouraged because all the hate in our world never seems to go way. While we have made great strides in the area of social equality, in the past few years I've been seeing a regression. I realize that Donald Trump has created a climate where it's okay to hate in the open again. I realize that America's conservative, religious whites are feeling threatened and are lashing back. At this point I don't know what to say anymore, other than I'm simply sad.

Photo:Jordan McDonald

It's Time To Eat the Rich

Yesterday, I listened to how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is going to fight single-payer health care with full fury. For me, this is the final straw. The greed in this country is out of control.

Sadly, the red hat masses will swallow all the lies that the corporate elitists say about single-payer care and "Medicare for all." We are the only developed nation that doesn't offer universal healthcare for our citizens, yet we are told it doesn't work. Instead, we buy insurance policies and when we actually need them the insurance carriers fight us tooth-and-nail to get out of paying all of it. In fact, there is a law firm here in Atlanta that advertises the fact that they are "experts in fighting insurance companies." So, you often have to hire a lawyer to get a carrier to pay you, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling that a great system? Wake up, red hats!

The History

First we were told that Reagan's "trickle-down economics" would create jobs for the middle class, but it was a complete lie -- most of the money went to the corporate robber barons. More recently, we were told that Trump's corporate tax cut would "create jobs" and "bring jobs back to America." Again, a giant lie because the executives at the top simply kept the excess profits.

I recently read that the CEO of Disney was making $428 million a year, yet some employees at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA could barely get by and were living out of their cars. The wealthy elitists don't care if the underclass starves, and you red hats support this madness.

It's a simple fact that once you are wealthy it's easier to create more wealth. What is worse is that the millionaires and billionaires manipulate the political system to create more wealth for themselves. Soon, all the wealth rises to the top, which we are seeing now. Worse yet, people like the Koch Brothers create front groups that meddle in public policy at even the most local levels. Billionaires are not only trying to control politics, but they run for office themselves, and win!

A Better Economic System

James Madison, one of our country's founding fathers, was a true genius when he created a government that really is near-perfect. Our constitution is the absolute secret to America's success as a nation. Sadly, our democracy was damaged with the Supreme Court's Citizens United case, which gave corporations First Amendment rights. Despite this bad court case, the gerrymandering, and foreign political interference, we still have a good political system that works.

Now, the next step is to acknowledge that capitalism is an utter failure and we need to find a better economic system. I don't know the answer yet, and I've studied the ideas of tightly regulated capitalism and democratic socialism, but I think the ideal economy will be based on some kind of bartering. Greed is a negative human attribute and it's a shame that we have an entire economic system built around it. What we need is the opposite -- an economic system built around empathy.

Should We Really Eat the Rich?

Yeah, of course, I'm promoting cannibalism -- it's an excuse to enjoy ketchup. But, hey, after all it was Marie Antoinette who started the whole thing when she said, "Let them eat cake." That idea didn't turn out well because shortly afterwards the heads of rich people were falling into baskets all over France. 

The truth is, selfish, greedy people are not worth eating because they turn me off. Now, there are plenty of good rich people who give generously and I'm not talking about these folks. What I'm talking about is the overall nature of an economic system that is engineered to suck the last dollar out of the desperate middle class to greater enrich the wealthy. Look at the pharmaceuticals industry, for instance, which works to keep drug prices high rather than helping people. And there are many other examples of this behavior.

Holy Red Hats

When you look at history the religious institutions usually side with the powerful right-wing even at the expense of the people. In Turkey, Islam is siding with the right-wing government and in Russia the Russian Orthodox Church is on the side of Putin's party. A look at history shows that the church took the side of the conservatives in both the Spanish and Russian civil wars. So, it's no surprise that Christian evangelicals are supporting the wealthy elitists in our country now. Some megachurch leaders even justify their own wealth and the wealth of others by preaching the "prosperity gospel," which flies in the face of Christ's teachings and examples.

I've always been intrigued by the statement of Jesus that says: "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." Now, to me, this sounds like a green light for a revolution. But maybe what Jesus is saying is that humble people are more open to his teachings. So, yes, a economic system based on the teachings of Christ is a great idea -- love, kindness, etc...

Conclusion

I recently saw a news show where the speaker was saying that some people are incapable of questioning anything because there is something broken in their brains. For some, this is probably true, but if you are able to question, I encourage you to QUESTION EVERYTHING, including your religion, government, and economic system. Don't just swallow everything the corporate-paid talking heads say on the radio or TV.

It is human nature to simply adapt and tolerate a little discomfort rather than to seek change. Our standard of living is no longer better than our parents, and, in fact, we've now reached the point where it's declining. And all the while the super rich are getting richer and engineering the system to screw us over even more. If this is the environment you like, simply because you think you're better looking in a red hat, then I say, "wake up!" Throw that red hat in the trash and become an agent for change!

Look at all the social and political disruption that's going on right now in our country between the haves and have-nots. Rather than a violent revolution I think it's better to just circumvent the greedy and selfish bastards that control our country and then find creative ways to develop our own economy.

As for you red hats, wake up or enjoy your fall over the cliff. 

Photo: Sharon McCutcheon

Conservatives, Religion & Climate Change

Lately, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what makes people conservative or liberals. The situation has become urgent since right-wingers almost always choose to deny climate change even while we are already seeing the serious impacts of our changing weather. What will it take to reprogram their minds and get them on the climate action bandwagon before it's too late?

Research

I've read several articles on conservatism v. liberalism  and no two authors agree completely on what makes a person "conservative." However, there are some common elements:

• How people process fear.
• How people handle compassion.
• Suspension of reality.
• Protecting the status quo, need for order, and resistance to change.

As always I like to look at human evolution to understand current behaviors. As I've said before, our current civilization has only been around for 10,000 years, which is a blink-of-an-eye compared to the 2 million years we spent as early humans and hominids. I imagine that conservatives and liberals have been arguing since our earliest days. One side likes things the way they are, and the other wants to take the risk of change for the betterment of the group.

Religion

To me, religion is like the human appendix. At one time it likely had an evolutionary purpose, but now it remains a biological and cultural vestige, long after its purpose is gone. Jonathan Haidt, an author and social psychologist, confirmed what I had already figured out by saying: 

Some people think that religion is an adaptation evolved both by cultural and biological evolution to make groups cohere in part for the purpose of trusting each other and then being more effective to compete with other groups.

In America, especially, conservative religion and politics appear intertwined and seem to support one another. I saw this first hand with the election of Donald Trump, who is a brass, crude human who enjoys his opulent lifestyle and womanizing, yet I've heard Christians call him a "godly man." Christians who support Trump show me just how far people will go to justify and support their conservatism.

Demographics

As a friend pointed out to me a few weeks ago, the "blues" in the 2018 mid-term election were mainly in populated areas, while the "reds" were typically in rural parts of the country. My own personal take on this is that when you are around a lot of different people with differing ideas you tend to become more tolerant and open-minded. At the same time, there is a little "self selecting" going on because people like to live with others who look and think like themselves.

Convert or Overwhelm?

A regular discussion I've had with my colleagues in the environmental movement is: Do we try to open the eyes of conservatives through rational discourse or do we try to defeat them politically and legislatively through better organizing? I believe the latter is the answer. I live in a very conservative state and regularly have conversations with right-wingers. If I make a "zinger" point they simply brush it off. For instance, they say: "Isn't Trump doing a great job?" Well, he packed the Supreme Court with another conservative and gave a tax cut to corporations and the wealthy, but other than that he has done nothing. When right-wingers brag about the soaring stock market, well that just means companies are getting better at exploiting the underclass and exporting jobs to sweat shops overseas. But conservatives love to throw the stock market in my face as if it's Donald Trump's scorecard.

In the 1960s it was the liberals who pushed through civil rights legislation and got us out of the Vietnam War. Both of these feats were accomplished by "overwhelming" — it was a continual pushing against the Old Guard until it finally cracked and relented. And that, my friend, is the only way we are going to get meaningful legislation passed on issues like gun control and climate change. When we take to the streets it makes conservatives uneasy because they require order. If enough of us clog the streets they will compromise to get us back in our houses. If we burn up the Capitol switchboard enough with our phone calls they will finally push through good legislation. And, better yet, if we elect good politicians in the first place, we can make forward progress.

My Personal Journey To Liberalism

In the fourth and fifth grades I had some amazing teachers who forever altered my thinking. One teacher, Mr. Copenhagen, would have daily group discussions. We would put our chairs in a semi circle and he would play a piece of music or read a newspaper article, and we then discussed it. This opened my mind to critical thinking, which is something schools today appear to avoid.

My next epiphanies came in the late 1980s when I had a job that exposed me to gays and Planned Parenthood. I was raised in a conservative household and attended conservative churches. In the right-wing world there must always be a common enemy to unite the base. For decades the favorite enemies of evangelical Christians have been the gay community and Planned Parenthood. But once I got to know these two groups I discovered that they were not bad, but rather fantastically wonderful people. I then developed resentment toward Christians because they were hating people they neither understood nor knew.

I remember once attending a Planned Parenthood luncheon through my role at work. Part of me said I was in the "bowels of the enemy," and the rebellious side of me liked it. I was curious. Far from being blood-thirsty baby killers, the people I met were loving, kind, and had a real burden and passion for women's health, especially lower income women. The work they were doing was incredible. A decade later I became a Planned Parenthood volunteer.

I guess what makes me a liberal more than anything is that I always want to root for and protect the underdog. Robin Hood is my hero and Donald Trump is the polar opposite -- he is the leader of the brutes who go after everyone who don't conform with mainstream white America. He is gold-laced trailer trash. 

Summary

Conservatives are so good at reality suspension that they deny and forget that they were ever on the wrong side of an issue when positive change finally happens. It is no secret that large Christian evangelical groups opposed civil rights. Now, that's conveniently forgotten. Instead of African-American bashing, religious conservatives have moved on to new enemies like gays, Muslims, liberals, and immigrants. Their leaders touch all the fear buttons and the conservatives dig their heals in and protect their status quo, even if it means suspending compassion. In America being a evangelical Christian has nothing to do with following the example of Christ. Rather, it's all about protecting the cultural status quo.

There's been a lot of talk lately about climate refugees and much of the human disruption in the world, like the Syrian crises and current migrant caravan, can be traced to droughts, which, in turn, can be traced to climate change. By protecting the fossil fuel industry and ignoring climate change the political conservatives who currently control the U.S. government have a lot of blood on their hands. I hold them directly responsible for the unfolding climate disaster that's harming millions of people and animal species. 

Photo: Christopher Campbell