What History teaches us

 

What's the point of learning about history? Well it left me will a deep feeling of shame.

 I’m ashamed of being part of the human race that does terrible things to  each other. From what I’ve read of history it’s been one long horror show after another. One tribe fighting another, nations at war for centuries, raiding, slavery, murder, killings, bombings, torture, rape, destruction. Across all cultures and at all times. It’s appalling, disgusting even, but the reality is It’s what humans do, and it continues today. History teaches us that you and I have with in us the capacity to do or permit evil.. Especially when its done to "others" and it’s the easiest choice for us to make.

“What’s he talking about, explain yourself” I hear you demand. Well, It’s like those young tricksters that conned me out of ten euros in Berlin , I didn’t really believe they were collecting on behalf of the disabled, especially when they demanded double what I offered. I just wanted them to go away, I didn’t want to appear mean in front of my partner, I didn’t want any trouble, so I took the easiest path and gave them the money to get rid of them. However, were my actions  right?. Emboldened by their success with me, did they try even bigger scams, so others were conned as well?. Did they go on to  become drug dealers, people smugglers, organised crime bosses?. I hope not, but isn’t it a “reasonable worst case scenario”? Bad behaviours have to start somewhere and all because I didn’t tell them to clear off, or make a scene and attract the attention of a police man. It would have been personally more risky, but better for every one in the long run.

So is that how horrific events happen? Small crimes are permitted, which lead to larger ones and then to massive outrages and all because the perpetrators gain by their actions and others stand by with out taking action against them? Do leaders bark out their orders from their isolated palaces or parliaments, not seeing or understanding the harm it does or the misery it creates and no one stands up to them and tells them its wrong?. Once this process starts, I suspect  nobody can change course as it’s  easier to continue, rather than change.. Leaders don’t want to lose face or power by doing a U-turn, and advisers find it increasing more difficult to challenge authority.  Does it bring any one happiness? I suspect not. The elites and civil servants carry out the orders without question as they take the easiest path to protect their privileged position. Again the foot soldiers don’t take responsibility for their actions, they just execute the orders, because  its  the easiest path for them to rise in the ranks and gain wealth. . And the victims, the people who suffer, that are powerless to prevent their suffering, all they can do is take it with as much dignity and strength as they can muster and hope, hope that something will change.  But usually nothing changes because everyone just takes the easiest path for themselves, as ultimately we all just want a quiet, comfortable, hassle free life by the easiest means.   And so, unchallenged, the tragedy continues, as it is in parts of the world now and will continue into the future,  forever, for as long as there are human beings, unless we face up to the reality of who we really are, what we’ve  been doing and why this despicable  behavior has been continually happening.

I’m not trying to excuse my self or people who oppress or commit crimes, by dismissing it as human nature. I just think that to solve a problem you have to face up to the reality, recognise it for what it is, guilt free, admit the error and then work as hard as you can to solve it. For a start you shouldn’t call it history, the past, or the “troubles”,  as if its kids fighting at the end of the street. This is a whitewash, a cover up, Call it what it is - it’s a tragedy, it’s disgraceful, it’s absurd, but it’s our record, that can no longer be changed. But we all have the power to choose how we behave and we can change the future if we choose to do so.

It’s not as if  there is nothing humans can be proud of. We are a miracle. We are the result of 13 billion years  of  precisely tuned cosmological processes,of 3 billion years of evolution that has generated increasing complex forms of life as it was battered by geological events and astronomical accidents. We have bodies containing trillions of cells that all work together and enable us to reproduce, self repair,  do science, create music and art, love and enjoy this beautiful planet and each other.  For all we know, we could be the only (or first) complex life in the universe, let alone on this planet. Its fantastic, I can’t find a word that expresses my amazement at the story, so I‘m making one up Amazalogical. (Help, please come up with better one!)

Rubbish you shout, who is his guy? what does he know? He’s making it all up, is he mad? And quite rightly so.  I’m  reassured by that response. We shouldn’t accept  all that we're told or read  But the  question as to who I am is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter who I am, it’s the words and the ideas they convey that matter. So, sincerely I ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to consider these thoughts and not simply dismiss them.  Is there a grain of truth within them? I hope you will realise that if we understand how and why holocaust and wars happen, we have a chance to stop them once and for all. 

But only if we stop hoping for a better world and all choose to act together against the madness in the world. We can choose to do nothing, or we can choose to act. And by using the internet, I believe we  can all connect and shout across the Globe in one single voice “Enough is Enough, this is absurd, The tragedy has to stop. Now”  When the printing press was invented, the revolution of the enlightenment commenced. Radical ideas were recorded and spread, the world changed and generally for the better. Today we all have a printing press in our possession, unedited we can communicate what we think, and what we want the world to be like. So with this power at our finger tips don’t wait until an election so you can vote for promises that are never kept. I say send an email or letter or tweet or act however you wish to communicate, each day, now and again and again to every one and anyone. Tell Embassies, Government’s, MP’s or officials, or who ever is in power and can do some thing to bring about change. Deluge them , over whelm them with your shout of protest. Make them listen. Make them act differently. If the people demand it, they will have to take action.
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I believe that it is our obligation to act and if we do all act together, and demand our leaders stop violence against others it will work. Displays of power that are not accepted by the vast majority, soon leads to a climb down. If dictators suppress with violence, the way to defeat them is not by conflict but by everyone standing together in defiance and strength to face down their barbaric and selfish policies, and then their own violence will turn on themselves. Shutting down or controlling basic freedoms is what they do. but with a peaceful Global protest and resistance, they will end up destroying themselves.  That’s what oppressors fear the most, their own people on the streets, backed up by a Global protest. They can’t harm or ignore the one’s they pretend to be protecting, because they are really just protecting their own interests by the use of violence.


So I say its up to all of us, we the people, who share the same genes, the same planet and now the same cyber space. We the people can make this a better world. One with out war, oppression, massive arms budgets, better for every one including future generations and other living things. It won’t be the easiest path to take but it will be the right one in the long run. Then and only then, will the suffering of those people in the wagons, and those like them through the ages, not have been in vain. Even they in the long run, through their suffering and our betrayal, will have made the world a better place..

It worked against Apartheid. It will work again. The power is the People, if we don't bury our heads in the sand and be bystanders. 

PS since writing the above an excellent book has been written by Mary Fulbrooke called Bystander Society, which explains how and why the Holocaust happen.

Human Rights, Human Obligations

 

 Part 1 On the “Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine 1791

Just over 200 years ago Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man was published which sets out his views on governments, economics, revolutionary war, natural and civil rights. Upon reading this historic book one paragraph in particular leaped off the page and struck me as highly relevant, but troublesome, in this modern world.

He describes “Natural Rights as those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others”. Fine words indeed, which form the basis of many western constitutions, and they tell us we have a right from birth to be free, to do and think as we choose, as long as it causes no harm to others. But it’s that caveat  “no harm to others” that needs careful though and definition. Who exactly are “others”

Back in the 19th Century “others” was chosen to include only a select few, those of your own tribe, sex, power, wealth and creed. But slowly the definition has expanded. Women, those of different skin, the poor, the less able bodied, those in other countries and  those of different political views, religion or sexual orientation have all now been included by many legal systems around the world. However, with the environmental crisis plainly evident to all, shouldn’t the definition of others be expanded further to also include future others? What right have we to mess up this planet, in one big fossil fuel driven party, if it means future generations wont be able to enjoy it just as we have? With this updated definition of others, that includes future others, we currently have no right at all to drive a car, get on a plane, use our gas boilers, as all of these actions are changing the planet and will cause harm to people in the future by  continuing the process of climate change.  

Should “others” also include animals that also live on this planet? We share most of our genes with primates and If you trace back evolutionary processes all life originates from a single source and so are we not related to all life forms on earth and equally precious? Well nature is cruel and we have to eat something, but I would argue that animals have a right to exist as much as we do, if not as individuals, then at least as a species. We should not do harm to animals or plants and allow them to thrive along side us. We have no right to cause extinctions or wantonly destroy habitat.

You could also use the same argument for Governments to pursue sound economic policy. Governments can and are borrowing money as if there’s no tomorrow, only for others to suffer higher taxes in the future. Is this acceptable? I suppose it depends on what the money is spent on,  but due to my lack of  knowledge of economics, I will have to leave that issue to others.

Having said all this, I’m still not happy with Thomas Paine’s Natural rights. If we live our lives not causing harm to others, future others, animals or the planet is this enough? Well may be, but I think it should be the minimum. It still all seems a bit selfish to me. Couldn’t we do a lot better? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all pursued our own comfort and happiness, with out harming our newly defined others, but also acted to help all others to increase their comfort and happiness too? If we all acted in this way, wouldn’t this create a viscous, or more correctly, virtuous circle of ever increasing comfort and happiness for everyone?

We can never know the future, we can only choose how to act today. Perhaps if we
acknowledge that we have our Rights of Man, but we also have natural Obligations of Man. then human kind would progress much faster than it is at the moment, and we could leave behind old 20th century modes of thinking. If we all exercise our rights, but also help others and contribute to our global society for the good of all, perhaps then we can all act together to make this world a better place for everyone, now and in the future.


Part 2 Universal Declaration of Human Obligations

Before we go on, lets drop the out of date, sexist, term  “Man” and replace it with “Humans”.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted after the Second world war and sets out the fundamental rights that all should enjoy. But what would a Universal Declaration of Human Obligations contain? Pay taxes and obey the law would be top of the list if Governments were drafting it. However there are unfair taxes and the law is written by those in power and may need to be challenged, so they don’t make it on to my list. Top of my list of obligations comes from the Natural Right namely the obligation to:-

1) Pursue your own personal comfort and happiness. If we have this natural right we should use it to full effect and benefit by making our own choices and not just following the herd. Happiness and contentment doesn’t come from doing what others tell, persuade or force us to do but by acting freely and working towards our own desired goals. After all ,if we haven’t achieved a reasonable level of comfort and happiness ourselves,  we wont be unable to assist others in their pursuit too.

2) Not to cause harm to others. As discussed above, others should include future others and other life on this planet.

3) Help others to also have a life of comfort and happiness too. Promote the virtuous circle of increasing happiness by not acting selfishly or greedily.

4) Not to waste resources including the resource of our own time on earth and our own body. Food, water, money, materials and time are all limited and of value and so should be used  thoughtfully to maximise over all comfort and happiness. I also include our own bodies and mind as a resource. We should keep them both fit and healthy, so we minimise our demands on healthcare services.

5) To volunteer our time, labour and resources for the good of animals and the planet which are not represented in our democracies. Animals don’t get to vote so they need us to represent and protect them in our societies.

6) To continually seek the truth and to question or correct all possible lies and false hoods.  Edward Heath said “never believe the first version of a breaking story“, it will usually be distorted by  those who are most disadvantaged by its likely effects. Socrates questioned everything, assuming he knew nothing. A bit extreme perhaps but I don’t think Trump would have got into power if people remembered these wise principles.

7) To continually endeavour to learn and self improve, help others to do the same and to always correct ignorance and prejudice in ourselves and others.

8) Endeavour to be creative and practical in thought and action. Never fear failure, or fear to take considered risks. Only then will the world improve and not stagnate.

9) Celebrate the differences of our peoples and cultures, but to always think globally.

10) To participate in democratic processes and debates. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so we must all be on guard against extremists and those who tell us that they know best. This is achieved by voting, joining political parties, protecting free speech and free press, debating issues of the day, particularly speaking out against injustice and corruption in society.
 
11) Always act in a way that makes the world a better place, for everyone now and in the future.

These are just my ideas. What would you include in your Universal Declaration of Human Obligations?

PS Since writing this essay I discovered that the United Nations and Unesco have already written their Declaration of Human Obligations and also a Declaration of Responsibilities of the Present Generation to future generations, although these have not been made legal in many countries. (Wales has).





 

It's time to end tribalism

 

 When I was a small boy, my father took me to see a few football matches at Selhurst Park, and ever since I have supported Crystal Palace football Club. I have never lived in or near south London and they are not a particularly successful club, so why I still follow them 45 years later is hard to explain, but to switch my allegiance to another club would be difficult and unnatural. Once you have stood in a crowd and cheered your team to victory, shared the highs and lows, lived success and failure with the fans and players for a season or two, bonds are formed that are hard to break.

Like all good Palace fans, I keep following them as they struggle on and, because it's what loyal Palace fans do, I dislike Brighton Football Club with a passion that equals my love of Palace. I have no idea why Palace fans loath Brighton so much and having lived in Brighton for three years I know that the people of Brighton are lovely kind people just the same as anywhere else. It’s just a learnt behaviour that comes from being a dedicated Palace supporter.

I’m not alone in this irrational football tribalism, as I recently met a man who, as evidenced by his broad Scotch accent, had lived in Scotland for many years. He is a keen supporter of Scottish independence, but still supported his childhood team - Sheffield United. There is also similar loyalty in other sports as demonstrated by John Majors gripe, that people coming to live in Britain from aboard, continue to support the cricket team from their original country, rather than England. the team of their new home.

This may be all harmless rivalry, but on a more serious level, my youth spent in Kent means I grew up in an atmosphere of prejudice against the French. Being just over the Channel, ie near, but  separate, and having (allegedly) not performed in the Second World War as well as they could have, being enemies in the Napoleonic wars and (unbelievably) not using soap as much as they should, moaning and demeaning the French  was common as I  grew up. Echoes of this behaviour continue to this day especially since Brexit. Having now grown up and taken several vacations to France, I see this as complete nonsense, but as a youth I knew no better, so I went along with it. Like road rage, if the other driver cant hear it, what’s the harm in having a rant about other people, it relieves a bit of stress and makes you feel better. The problem is the French are real people and as the world gets smaller and better connected, do hear what we say, just like the other driver when I forget I have my car window down..Such ignorant sentiments are also exploited by the right wing and nationalists which threaten us all.

Similarly, I was raised as an Anglican Christian, so there was an unspoken but ever present undercurrent that Catholics, Muslims, Jews etc where inferior as they didn’t worship as we did, and so were wrong in their beliefs. To acknowledge that they were just different, but equality valid in their religion and style of worship, would undermine our own world view as having the correct way to think and act or,  would undermine our own obviously higher importance and correct superior thinking. It was easier to avoid the complexity of the world and just assume others were simply wrong and ignorant. Now I’m an atheist, I hold the view that all of the religions are contemptible, and based on primitive, backward views  so although in this instance I have switched teams, have I personally developed into a better person or am I still stuck in a tribal rut?

It appears to me that it Is a universal human trait to always “adopt a them and us” attitude, to always divide ourselves into people like ourselves and other people we don’t know or interact with. Labeling and pigeon holing others makes it easy for us to avoid the complexities of the world and is probably deep rooted in our past history. When populations increased, land and resources became more valued and people started to  compete ie kill each other for gain rather than work together for increased overall gain. Ever since. we have been  forever dividing our selves up, maligning the others, promoting our tribe as superior so we can increase our own status and justify stealing, exploitation and  killing of other people. Or, in modern terminology, promoting  propaganda, spreading fake news, being nationalist, racist, sexist, anti Semitic, anti Muslim, homophobic etc etc so our group can get or stay in power. Slagging off the others makes you and people like you appear superior, it also allows you to scapegoat and blame others for your failings  and avoids the issue of saying how your group should address its own problems. Simply get rid of the others and all will be well. No wonder it is a favourite tactic of all politicians around the world. From Boris Johnson and Brexit, Nicola Surgeon and Scottish independence, Trump and MAGA, to Putin and Xi Jinping, tribalism explains a lot..

So is Tribalism, the dividing of peoples into groups, the root of many of the problems of today. Well if there are no national tribes, why go to war? If there are no ethnic tribes, why be racist? If there are no tribal religious sects, why hate other believers in God or Gods?  Acknowledging we are all part of one global humanity, and face similar problems such as poverty and wealth distribution, climate change, war, disease, water and food shortages, education, birth control, human and female rights, racism, sexism, biodiversity loss etc etc wouldn’t these problems start to drastically reduce? I hope you can agree that it would.

But is this all a dream? Is changing a basic human behaviour possible? Are be doomed to be for ever tribal, just looking after our own kind, those like us?

Well, when young children play, they play  happily together, whoever their parents are. It is only when  they get older and “learn”  from their “wiser(!)” elders  to differentiate themselves from others. that the divisions begin. Perhaps it starts when they sense fearful mums or hear negative talk of others, that the divisions set in or perhaps when they start at a different play group, church or school. It happens generation after generation as there is no reason for it to stop if the tribal group think remains separate from challenge. So I conclude that Tribalism is a learn behaviour and not fundamental to human nature. And If it is a learnt behaviour, it can be unlearnt or better still never taught at all.*

This does happen. I recall a TV documentary that investigated the poor relationship between some travellers and the residents of an unfriendly village who wanted them moved on. After showing the bad feelings both groups had against each other, the programme producers organised a meeting and sat individuals from both sides down for a cup of tea together. After a frosty start tensions eased and a more normal conversation developed and understanding of each others problems and worries ensued. By the end of the programme friendship, respect and tolerance started to emerge. Tribal barriers had been broken,   and they started to see the others as people with different life styles but similar problems and desires.

I also recall the tale of the vicar, who during the second world war, organised German prisoners of war to spend Christmas diner with  local families. This wonderful story resulted in many life time friendships developing between people who had been told to kill each other but by actually meeting realised the truth that they were no different from each other.  Tribalism unlearnt. It is possible if people meet and talk together.

On  a larger scale, the tribalism in Northern Ireland is slowly being unlearnt, but it is still a work in progress. Deep rooted divides are being eroded, but unfortunately have recently increased due to the tribalism of Brexit, and the need for borders, barriers and division to satisfy an idea that working alone is better than cooperating together. The Good Friday Agreement and Brexit are totally incompatible, but thankfully negotiations have developed a solution based on pragmatism rather than ideology. 

There is a lot of talk today that social media is promoting tribalism by detecting what you view online and sending you more of the same. This simple algorithm, which is designed to get more clicks and so earn the social media company more advertising revenue, results in you never seeing other peoples differing view points and thoughts. So it  promotes your initial views leading to a more polarised and extreme views. The Social media companies deny all this probably because, when they wrote the algorithms they didn’t know how political social media would become. Initially it was set up to keep in touch with your friends rather than tribe but the lack of  interaction with other ways of thinking leads to a distorted virtual world view of your own creation, rather than a truer picture of the world with all its differences variety and complexity. The result is that Tribalism in America has got so bad that there is only talk of  the fantasy to Making the tribe great again. However increasing the tribal barriers to trade, migrants, ignoring the law  and increasing military power will back fire todays world.
 
Theresa May once said that a citizen of the world is a citizen of no where. Whilst I admire her for her  endeavours to do an impossible job after the Brexit vote, I totally disagree with this statement. I say that a citizen of the world is a person of hope, one who has abandoned tribalism, has a global world view, that accepts people have different cultures, political views, religion and life style but that all people deserve respect, tolerance and understanding. A citizen of the world rejects the labeling of people as black, white, republican, democrat, Labour, Tory: etc etc and accepts they are people just like you and I, but with minor differences that in the big scheme of things are not as important as we like to think they are. A Citizen of the world embraces the variety and complexity of people and endeavours to care for all so the world is a better place for all.

So I say Down with Tribalism, Up with Humanitarianism.

That is, until kickoff. Come on you Eagles!!!!

*Psychologists experiments highlighted in Sapolsky's book Behave appear to indicate this is wrong and that Us/Them thinking is hard wired into our brains. This may be so, but is it hard wired who the "Thems" are? Why do we discriminate against people of a different skin colour and not hair colour, which is an equally striking visual characteristic? When humans evolved and started migrating from Africa we were all black, so if racism is hard wired, it can only be a very recent brain re-wiring which commenced when skin colour changed due to living in less sunny northern climes ie 40,000 years ago. And at what point in time did it become a frequent occurrence for white people to meet dark coloured people, so that all brains become hard wired by evolution? This frequent long range mixing requires transport technology ie domestic horses or ships, so only 6,000 years at a stretch.  I can accept that we are hard wired to be afraid and cautious of  other tribes, which clearly has evolutionary advantages, but it is a learnt behaviour, based on a geographic location, as to which tribes to avoid and which to co operate / trade with, which is equally advantageous. 

Update June 24 A book on this subject has now been published. Inheritance - The Evolutionary origin of the modern world by Oxford Professor of Anthropology Harvey Whitehouse. He says we all have a Tribal bias but should think of humanity as one tribe in order to solve our many problems ie base our Tribalism on the geographic location of the whole planet Earth rather than end tribalism. 

Lies and Free Speech

 I once told someone that honesty was always the best policy, unless you're guilty, then lie like hell!!! This was intended as a joke, but these days some seem to take it as a normal and acceptable strategy, but it isn't.

Lying is the act of speaking or promoting something that you know to be untrue. It is not the same as saying something you believe to be true, but is wrong. That is an error, that should be corrected and an apology made if discovered. But a lie is deceiving, consciously using a false hood to gain some advantage over another, and is a common tactic by many humans, because in the short term it unfortunately gets results, hence my joke having an unsettling ring of truth about it. However, in the long term it will back fire, make any situation worse, and damage the liar's reputation. 

I agree that the truth is sometimes hard to take, but in the long run, avoiding the truth gets you into further trouble, so even a little white lie is unacceptable. A true friend will break the truth gently. “Tanks for the cake, it was so good of you to think of us and spend the time making it, but did you realise you used salt instead of sugar?” is much better than "Thanks for the cake it was lovely" after you have thrown it in the bin. If you also gave a sample and the maker was confronted with reality, you could then have a good laugh about it. A white lie may have made the situation easy for you, as you wouldn't have had to skillfully used some tact and would have avoided the risk of mental discomfort and possibly losing a friend, but lying is a form laziness and cowardice, a sign that you, and that you think your generous friend, cannot face reality. 

Except in extreme circumstances (see below) there is never an excuse for lying. It may be initially easier for you and hard if it takes time for people to adjust to the truth, but avoiding the truth will back fire on you in the long run. ie you will be getting those uneatable cakes forever and you will be wasting a lot of the makers time and money. When you are discovered lying your status in the eyes of the discover will drop dramatically and they will start to doubt what you have said in the past and what you will say in the future. People don't forget liars.

When thinking about lies, it is is important to recognise if the context concerns the long or short term. Short term lies are common, hence politicians are prone to lying to get you to vote for them on election day, unscrupulous sales men lie just to get the sale, and cheats lie in order to get a tax return passed. In these situations there is judged to be no long term so anything goes. But there is always a long term, and when lies are discovered, voters turn away, sales fall and tax men look closer. Lying can work in the short term , which is why it is common,  but totally unnecessary and a sign of a weak character that lacks honesty and integrity.

There is a lot of talk at the moment about freedom of speech especially on social media. However, as I have written before, freedom of speech is not freedom to lie. Lying undermines trust, which leads to a disfunctional society.Trust ensures that when you hear or read something you can accept it as true straightaway, and don't have to find further information to double check, or even triple check. Like corruption, lying makes the smooth running of a society much harder which makes everything more expensive, time consuming and wasteful. Unrestricted lying on social media, will lead to nobody being able to believe anything that is posted, which will devalue those social media brands permitting it as people switch to more trustworthy brands, so permitting lying will back fire on those allowing it. Would you buy a newspaper in which half of articles were true and half not? A brand is a symbol of quality, and owners of those brands will lose business and profits if the brand image is seen as low quality.  I suggest that those promoting absolute free speech, probably want to lie to you.

The exception to the never lie rule is in the extreme circumstance when faced with evil. If someone asks you where a person they intend to murder is hiding, you should lie, in order to protect the potential victim. But facing evil is an extreme case, where it would be excusable to lie. However I still not comfortable with it. 

The perfect response would be to confront evil with the reality of its evil and trust it eventually backs down.But this could only be done with a total disregard of your own safety, which can only be a deeply personal choice.   

Humans prefer fantasy over reality

 Given a choice, do you watch drama or documentaries? Do you read fiction or non fiction? Would you prefer a film based on real life or one that tells a great story created in the writers imagination. Judging by viewing numbers, book sales and box office receipts, most prefer to spend time in the world of fantasy rather than reality.

Conspiracy theories are common on social media, and despite the attempts to control are impossible to stop. Posts telling us that Organisations and Governments have long running programmes to control us, Aliens have been visiting us for years, climate change is made up by scientists to get more research funds etc etc are frequent and unavoidable.  Why are these expressions of “free speech” so common and popular. Well, I think it’s because they are so much more interesting and easy to understand  than boring old reality, about which you have limited data and so little understanding. It sounds feasible and attractive that Governments are not made up of well meaning incompetent people struggling to improve  the world for the better, but cynical master planners, who in their secret elite privileged world control everything so you are enslaved to do what they want with out you even noticing. It's a fantastic story, but I don't think our leaders are that clever. And in posting this “truth“ the status of poster goes up, makes the reader feel very important (so important that the Government needs to control you) and the reader also gets a juicy story to pass on to others.

However, when it comes to making decisions, such as at elections, when we need to decide who is best to improve the reality of the world, the fact that the boring far from simple reality of the world is not promoted to anything like the same degree as the  fantasy, means many base their decisions on the fantasy and the biggest fantasist gets elected. Who will vote for someone who says "elect me, I will try something different than the last guy, but who knows if it will work?" which is what they should truthfully be saying.

“I can stop the war in 24 hours, I can solve the immigration problem, I can make every one rich, I can make your country great again, climate change is nothing to worry about, I can restore the Empire, We can create the socialist utopia” cry our fantasists and many are unthinkingly attracted.

If only it were true.

The reason for war isn’t that simple that it can be solved in a day, cutting immigration will not improve your life, everyone cannot be rich, no single person can make a country great or turn back the clock to a world that no longer exists, or make a dream of utopia a reality.

The reality that we don’t want to  face up to is that the world is harsh, boring, requires unbiased analysis and most problems cannot be solved, only managed. And keeping up with constant change is damn hard work. If you ignore reality, you might be alright for a while, but eventually, the divergence of your fantasy from the real world gets bigger and bigger, until the inevitable happens and reality comes crashing down upon you and leaves you with no other option than to accept your world view was wrong all along (or continue looking increasingly foolish)..

So my advice for a successful life is to base your decisions (as best as you are able) on reality. If you do you will have a great advantage over the fantasists. And don't listen to people who say the world is complex. It only appears complex when you do not understand or lack information that brings the understanding. If you understand a problem, the solution is obvious.

Generosity and Greed

It’s a new year and everyone looks forward to, and hopes for, a better year than the previous.

The trouble is, these days more and more think  “better“ means “better” just for themselves or their social group, and not better for everyone. The result is that the world gets worse, as people vote in their own self interest; leaders order others into battle and grab more power; court judges don’t stand up to the powerful; people chase more status. and we continue to wreck the planet with ever increasing CO2 emissions as we selfishly pursue “better“.

Greed is a word you don’t hear often these days. Calling people greedy won’t win any votes, so no politician will ever use it, but as all the religions of the world remind us, it is a common human trait, but bad for us. Humans are never content, if they have something they value, they will always want more.

 I’ve just read a book about the Bedu of the Arabian deserts before the coming of western influences like education, cars and oil revenues. They were nomadic experts of the desert and despite being poor in a monetary sense where exceedingly generous with what they did possess.. No matter who arrived in their desert camps, the visitors would always be asked for the “Good News” (ie interesting news)  and be fed with the best the host could offer,  even if that meant the host would have no food tomorrow, This unselfish generosity came from the fact that to appear mean would result in a permanent loss of reputation, and reputation was highly valued along with their camels and spiritual faith. Of course the Bedu had their faults,( they had long running blood feuds and some would murder any Christian on sight)  but the books' author, W Thesiger, saw these “poor” desert people as far nobler,  honourable and richer than any westerners. including himself.

I’ve also read that the richer people become the less generous and more greedy they are. Poor people, who have very little to share, are more generous as they know that in the near future, they are most  likely to need someone to be generous to them. On the other hand, Rich people think they don’t need other people, and so give less, help less and so communities suffer as a consequence.

Is that what’s happening today? As the world gets richer, people get more greedy and in doing so forget what made us better off in the first place? International cooperation and trade is under threat and regression to our nation tribes pointing spears at each other looks more likely. This is an intinctive approach but it not new or better. Perhaps in order to make the world a better place, ie long term peace and prosperity, we need to be more aware of greed. We should demand less and give more, even if it is the last of  what we have to give..