Neurodegenerative Diseases disprove the existance of a Soul and afterlife

 The concept of having a Soul, a spirit, or immaterial part of you that is separate to your body, is fundamental to the idea that there is an afterlife or reincarnation. In order to go to heaven, (or hell), or keep coming back to life for the rest of eternity, it is assumed that your soul or the essential essence of your uniqueness, continues  after your physical body has rotted away and turned to dust.

This idea of a soul is fundamental to the worlds religions, who say that your life on earth is preparation for the next. Be good now,  and after death reap the rewards for eternity. We must earn those “pennies in heaven” as my mother used to say. The idea has attractions for everyone. Individuals, even the lowly can have a great afterlife, Rulers get compliant subjects, and Priests get status and perks too.

But knowing what happens to you after death is unknowable and always will be. Communication between dead people and living people has never happened and never will, despite all the ghost stories and séances held. Whether you believe in a soul and life after death or not, it is impossible. You can imagine a wonderful afterlife, but imagining something, is not proof of its existence. Neither is the fact that nearly every human being that has ever lived believed in an afterlife make it true either. It just means that human beings find the idea of life after death attractive and it is comforting to think that death is not the end of everything we are. Also, belief in a soul and an afterlife also means our ordinary lives are not a waste of time, even if  they have been hard and joyless lives.

Peoples recent experiences have lead me to conclude that there is no such thing as a soul, and so there can be no such thing as an afterlife. Because of modern medical knowledge and accessible high quality  health care,  more and more people are living far longer than at any previous time in history. Whilst this is wonderful progress for humanity, the down side is that we are now exposing ourselves  to new forms of dying, such as neurodegenerative diseases of the brain. Today, we can keep our bodies going far longer than our deteriorating brains, because the ongoing death of neurons is currently unstoppable, The results of modern health care is frequently sad and depressing, as people have to witness their loved slowly fading away inside a frail but still functioning body. I have heard all too frequently stories of elderly parents who no longer know their own homes, can’t recognise their loved ones, or remember their own offspring. Their brain dies faster than their bodies and confusion results.

So, if it exists, what is happening to the soul, as the diseases of the brain take hold? 

“She is just not there anymore” I have heard sons say of mothers, who fail to recognise the person they once knew in front of them, despite all the love they give them. It’s hard, but when the brain fails the person is damaged, their character diminished, memories lost.. If they ever did have a soul, it is also damaged and diminished. And so,  if the soul is diminished as more and more neurons die, the soul will also die when the person dies too.

If you believe the soul does exist, why can‘t a person with dementia still recognise their own spouse, son and daughter? If a soul does exist, will it be this unloving, confused soul that will continue to exist for eternity, or the one we remember of them in their prime, a soul from a previous time when they were at their most beautiful? And if this is true what or who decides when they were at their best? Or is the reality of  a modern disease just requiring us to use our imaginations a little harder to make the new facts fit an old idea that it's time to ditch? Perhaps their soul only exists in our living minds?

For this reason I reject the idea of a Soul, an afterlife, reincarnation or ghosts hanging about after death. Our brains and bodies are inseparably interlinked to make the person and both must function correctly for us to exist. If one develops faults, our living consciousness is affected and our lives and character changed. The stark reality is that when we die, we end. There is nothing of us that can continue.

You may find this hard, cold and desolate, but if you accept there is no afterlife, every minute of this life becomes precious, priceless and wondrous and not something to be squandered. Our time alive is truly the most amazing and valuable thing you can possibly own. And if you accept this then it is easy to realise that the life of others is also the most amazing and valuable thing they own and we all share this fantastic life with each other and the other forms of life around us, making it all even more valuable, wondrous and precious.

I see paradise not as a promise of something to come, but right here, now, all around us at this very moment. We don’t need to invent the idea of a soul to experience it. What ever your circumstances, however hard  or easy your life is, celebrate the miracle of your and everyone’s else’s lives, as our time is limited to only one short precious life.   Enjoy it and help others to enjoy theirs.

And If people accept there is no afterlife, perhaps they wouldn't waste their life fighting wars just because some else tells them to.

Atheist Faith, Hope and Prayers

 Many years ago, I took a long walk in the Pyrenees. Deep in a mountain forest, I came upon a small stone chapel that hadn’t seen a congregation or priest for a very long time. Hoping for rest, I pushed open the rusty metal doors. However, inside, I didn’t find anywhere to sit, what I  found was something stunningly  beautiful.  

Lacking any form of decoration, furniture or embellishment, the bare stone walls and plain wooden rafters made an ideal home for a roost of bats, who were clinging upside down over the earth floor of the dimly lit interior. At the far end, a solid rectangular stone alter sat below a single lancet window which was the only source of light. There was nothing of artistic note in this simple building, so, why am I bothering to tell you about it, you might well think.? Well, at precisely the moment I walked in, the sun shone a dazzling shaft of mote filled bright pure light onto a simple iron cross set centrally on the alter. It was as if my entry had switched a blinding laser beam directly onto the cross, at the precise moment I walked in.

It is my strongest memory from that 600 mile walk through the mountains.

I like English country churches, which may strike you as strange for an atheist. Many churches are locked up these days, especially urban ones, because bored or selfish people amuse themselves causing damage, but thankfully many village churches remain open and welcoming to all, even non believers like me. Most date back to medieval times and often there will be perpendicular windows, Norman doors ways and if you are lucky traces of Saxon walling in one unaltered corner.  Light floods in and the thick stone walls keep the noise of the daily grind outside, so a peacefully calm insulates you from the troubles of the world. The churches usually contain tombs to the rich and famous of the parish, such as crusader knights, past priests and local land owners. On the walls will be a Georgian heraldic board, telling everyone "Us Georgians are in charge now“, that no one has bothered to take down even after a couple of hundred years.. Frequently  stained glass will beautify the choir and the shimmering light shining through the coloured glass puts on an amazing technicolour light show.

They are timeless, unruffled, sentinels that have seen all the joys and troubles of parishioners over the centuries. Like sleeping old hounds, nothing can phase them.  You can sit in an old church and imagine generations of screaming babies baptised in the font, countless joyous weddings and too many sorrowful funerals. You can almost hear the priests thoughtful sermons to an enduring congregation, with fidgeting children, dozing old men and over dressed parents. Imagine a bit longer and you will also see the flirtive glances between a young man and woman that says in the universal language of love ’See you latter?’..

Today the trouble is that people aren’t coming any more. Congregations are small because, like me they don’t believe in a God or the afterlife or perhaps its just that modern life gives them the opportunity to do much more entertaining things on a Sunday. So now in this time of rapid change the English parish church is under threat. The roof starts leaking, but there's no one to make good the repair with local skills using local materials, and over zealous Health and Safety rules wouldn't allow them on the roof anyway.

Why should an old atheist cynic like me really  like English parish churches? Well I think it is their ageless simple honesty. Because, if you forget about the God bit, accept there is no afterlife, and ignore church politics, you are left with the constancy of humanity down through the ages getting on with life as best it can, coming together in one place and endeavouring to base their existence on a love of others, selflessness and compassion. It’s just a pity human nature usually gets in the way of such noble aims and makes life such hardwork.

There are a lot of people at the moment trying to work out what Putin is thinking. Well I don’t know what he is thinking, but what he is definitely not thinking about is Love, selflessness and compassion. I get the impression he is only thinking about himself and how he will be remembered in history. I wonder if he really wants to be remembered alongside Hitler, Stalin and Mao?  I would recommend that he goes and sits in a church on his own for a few hours and thinks about others, rather than himself.

                   
Recently, I concluded that because we have a brain, we can learn of different options and can chose how to act. The point of life, other than the biological need to survive and reproduce, is to make the world better not only for yourself but for all others, which includes future others and the other life forms with which we share this planet. So I started letter writing and emailing any one who I thought might have the power to make the world a better place. I’ve no idea what happens to my correspondence, I expect that most of it gets deleted unread, but the few responses to my atheists prayers, give me hope that the butterfly effect might kick in and my ideas might alter the chaotic system that is the world for the better. It is my act of faith that any good idea will be pinched by someone else and claimed for their own selfish benefit, so if I have a good idea and sent it to enough people, someone out there with more readers, skill, resources or power than I will promote or implement it.

I’ve frequently written to the Russian Ambassador asking for Russia to drop it’s 20th century militaristic mode of thinking.  In a BBC interview 18th May 2021, Sergi Naryshkin the head of Russian Foreign Intelligence service referred to certain respectful correspondence and spoke of his desire for future meetings with MI6. Coincidence? Did the Russian Secret service, in their mindset of espionage, think I was working for British intelligence probing for better relations? There is also a group of Norwegians spammers that, similar to an idea in one of my essays, are currently randomly bombarding Russian email addresses with the truth of the Ukrainian war and advising how Russians can verify it. Did they read my essay? It’s unlikely, they most probably thought up the idea themselves, but it could be possible they read my blog and they used their computer skills in order to help Ukraine and Russia.

So, are my atheist prayers changing the world? I correspond with love of humanity, hope and brutal honesty, so I have faith that they will do no harm and may even change the world for the better.  I will continue to write and hit the send button and encourage you to do the same.

The more I learn and see of the world, the more I realise how much I don’t know and that it’s all a deep, deep mystery. Why did that beam of light shine on that rustic iron cross at the precise moment  I walked into a forgotten chapel, when I was in the middle of a remote forest, a long way away from home? The boring atheist says it was just coincidence, but others might ham it up into a really entertaining essay.

Well, that’s my delusion. But is it closer or further from reality than yours?

Civilization Collapse - Is Humanity Committing Suicide?

 I've avoided writing about climate change, as far better writers than I have provided a glut of info on the subject. However, this is my (be warned gloomy) view of  reality. 

What more is there to Say about Climate Change?

   
Back in Victorian times the river Thames was London’s waste disposal system. All of the cities rubbish, excrement, filth and muck was chucked in so that the river could flush it away. Even dead dogs where lobbed in for nature to dispose of. The problem was, that whilst the river carried the poo downstream, the tide brought it all back again six hours later. The stench was appalling, but nothing was done until the summer of 1858, when Parliament was suspended, because, such was the pong, that the retching MP’s could no longer debate the important issues of the day. Only after MP’s had been directly inconvenienced, was it finally decided to build a modern sewage system that piped the waste a long way down river, thus shifting the problem to some one else’s back yard. The whole affair came to be known as the “Great Stink“.

In our small attempt to make the world a better place, my partner and I often litter pick our local roads and paths. All too frequently we come back from a walk with a couple of bags of drinks cans, plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, surgical masks and crisp packets. On the quieter country lanes, fly tipping, cannabis farm debris and the contents of stolen cars are too common, but require clearance by the  Council. If our experiences are anything to go by, most people in the neighbourhood don’t give two hoots about their environment and are quite happy to live in a place that looks like a rubbish tip, or assume the people at the Council have nothing better to do, and plenty of money, to clear up after them.

Our friends, who have a wood burning stove, have just had a few hundred weight of coal delivered. They have decided that wood, even though it is a carbon neutral fuel, doesn’t give as warm and cosy a fire as burning wood, so have stocked up on coal. They are both animal lovers, intelligent middle class folk, and one of them volunteers for the local Wildlife Trust, so outwardly have good environmental credentials. However, when it comes to their own personal luxury and comfort, hang the CO2 emissions.

Whilst being driven about in a large 4X4 SUV, a retired science Professor I have known for years said “When I watch David Attenborough, and he is talking about Climate Change and damage to the environment, I feel so helpless”. I was truly shocked that such a clever and intelligent person could say such a thing. “Well we all have to start making small changes, as that’s what’s got us into this mess” was my lame reply. Politeness stopped me staying “well you could start by getting rid of this F******* big gas guzzler”
 
Even though in a previous essay,  I’ve come to the conclusion that because it harms future generations, it is morally wrong to use fossil fuels, I have to own up to still driving a diesel car. So I am a hypocrite of the highest order. When I bought the car 8 years ago, it was the most fuel efficient car for my driving profile and whilst my next car is going to be electric, I’m not going to change until the diesel packs up. With a 600+ mile range, low road tax and enough room to sleep in the back, an electric car will not be as good for my holidays to Scotland or the West Coast. Giving up my personal conveniences for the environment is proving too hard, even though I know it is morally wrong not to change.

The UK Government has set targets and says it is tackling the Climate emergency, but the first thing they did, was to propose a law that restricts people like Extinction Rebellion  protesting about it. People on the streets causing disruption is just too inconvenient. As for their other policies, I get the impression they will do as little as they can get away with, as they know that the vast majority of voters, when it comes to the crunch, want cheap fossil fuels to maintain their life styles of luxury, parties and selfish enjoyment. The future can’t vote, so its business as usual please.

It’s the same the world over. As counties wake up to what reducing carbon emissions will entail, resistance is becoming more visible and vocal. India, whose population size will soon over take that of China, says it wants to build coal fired power stations to develop its economy as it is the cheapest way to do it. China continues to increase the number of coal power stations even though it professes to be on a path to net Zero. Australia and Poland keep on digging the stuff, Saudi Arabia pumps the oil as its is its only source of wealth. Germany keep buying Russia gas even though it knows it is funding the war in Ukraine and heating the planet.The UK sets targets and talks the talk about building wind farms and nuclear power plants but that is a knee jerk reaction to our national security rather than because of the climate emergency. What do you think will happen when the war is over and we can resume buying Russian gas and oil without feeling guilty, have got a handle on how much green energy will cost, and the next election is won by the party that promises the voters they will cut your fuel bill and taxes?

And that's the problem with the Climate Change Emergency. Everyone, every Country, and even myself all act in our own self interest rather than for the good of the whole. We do the easiest thing and not the correct thing. It’s human nature, to primarily look after ourselves or our social group, but it can’t go on or we will wreck our ecosystems, collapse our civilization and kill millions.

When the meteorite hit 66 million years ago the planet changed radically. The world dominated by the dinosaurs ended and the mammals  evolved to take their place.  The world has never been the same since. The Permian Triassic extinction had an even bigger impact. What isn't generally know is that both of these and all the other mass extinctions, were caused by wild changes in CO2 levels. Life couldn't cope with the rapid environmental change. Meteorites impacts make for a better movie but is was the Deccan traps pumping out C02 that saw off the dinosaurs after the deep winter of the impact. Currently we humans, by burning fossil fuels, are doing what  volcanoes did millions of years ago but at a far faster rate. Our man made Climate Change will have a similar effect. Mass extinction. (see Scotese, Mills & van der Meer (2020) for the global temperature curve over a geologic time scale.)

The problem is that unlike a meteor strike that would obviously require action, carbon dioxide is invisible, likewise sea level change and ocean acidification. You can only see them in scientists statistics which are not very interesting to people concentrating on their daily problems. Even though it is not a climate change problem, plastic in the ocean is visible and so action is easier to promote, . Flooding or large storms may be increasing in frequency, but they come and go locally, so have no permanence in the wider public's imagination. Exotic species, always the first to go extinct, don’t affect anyone and soon get forgotten. Fishermen have already forgotten about North Sea herring  and are currently working their way down the food chain, catching not fish but crustaceans. I expect they will soon be harvesting the plankton. . 

Compare the climate change problem with the recent covid saga for instance. Almost overnight,  a great many people on this planet suddenly woke up to the fact that if they caught the virus, they could die tomorrow. Having to face up to their own mortality, what happened? From the fear, panic and hysteria that followed there was instant action. People immediately surrendered their freedom, locked themselves away, stopped seeing their friends and family, refused to go to work and hid away like frightened rabbits. And as the majority is always right, the Governments of the world went along with it even though historically covid is a mild disease that only picks off the old, unhealthy or genetically unlucky. In the UK £400Billion was spent and what have we got to show for it now? Older people are still dying of covid.  In China they are still trying to defeat nature - good luck to them.  But climate change is not like Covid, its hard to get worked up about a concept that will affect future generations, not ourselves. There is no immediate threat, so why take immediate action?. When will the changing climate become a crisis - only when it is too late to do anything about it. As demonstrated by the Great Sink, those in power will only take action when it affects them directly and stops them dealing with their important short term issues - like making money.

 
So I think that we will be very lucky indeed if the world solves the climate change problem and scientists warnings don’t materialise. Hopefully fusion reactors will be economic. If not, I doubt Governments will show the leadership required and will continue to pander to greedy voters who can never be criticised. Also the challenge of  changing human nature through education in so short a space of time will be never be possible. Unless there is something equivalent to a “ Global Great Stink” or Covid Crisis or dramatic meteor strike, the required drastic action will not be implemented.  Because of human's selfish genes, preprogrammed tendency to look after your own social group and lack of real intelligence, we aren't geared up to deal with an invisible and indirect problem of such planet changing magnitude as global warming. Evolution doesn't work at the level of an entire species. We will just keep fighting over a decreasingly smaller portion of an ever more poisoned pie. Future generations will have to adapt to the mess and destruction we are making. 

There simply aren't enough people who want to make the world a better place and are willing to make the sacrifices to their lives to make a difference.

If there is anyone in the future to read this, I apologise for our carbon crimes. But if it is any consolation, we did have great time. UK to Barcelona for £5 return - Eee, them were't days!

World Leaders - do we really need them?

 

I had to smile at the lead article in the Economist this week, that was trying to advise its readers what China was going to do about the Ukrainian war. It clearly had no idea how China was going to react, but I suppose  they have to make up some sort of nonsense to fill their pages*. However,they shouldn't worry, as like most managers, leaders, and heads of state such as Mr Putin and Mr Xi Jinping, they haven’t got a clue what they are doing either, they are just better than the rest of us at pretending they do.

For example, the book "On time and water" contains an interview from the 14th Dalai Lama from 2010. In this, his Holiness predicts confidently in his happy laughing style that the 21st Century will be one of peace and that China will become progressively more liberal and tolerant to alternative thinking. Well the Dalai Lama is a wise man, and the 21st century isn't over yet, but when it comes to prediction I'm sure the people of Ukraine and Hong Kong would see him as just human like the rest of us.

Why do you think there have been so many old Etonions as British Prime ministers? Its not because they are taught the skills the job requires, but are taught how to project an image of competence by demonstrating their skills of debate, education and confidence which hide the fact that they are just as useless as the rest of us. It was scientists who got us through the pandemic, not Boris. Implications of Brexit - he had no idea, so he just made it up as he when along with a confident joke or two. Thanks Boris.

Actors and comedians also make great leaders. Ragan and Zelensky spring to mind. Play the part that is required and all will be well. I grew up in the cold war of the 1980's and used to love a show called "Not the Nine o'clock news". Ragan was portrayed as a mindless idiot (which wasn't really fair) and my favorite song written by Mel Smith went "if I had a bomb, and a place to drop it from, I'd drop it on you world leaders, drop it on you world leaders." It would probably be banned today. (I wonder if the internet security algorithms will pick this up).    

I’m becoming more anarchist in my thinking every day. Anarchists are no threat to anyone – they can never get organised to do any harm! Who needs leaders anyway, like the mafia, they all use force to control our resources - have you tried not paying your taxes recently? Ants have been doing just fine without leaders for millions of years by sharing and recognising what needs to be done and just getting on with it.  Read Ant Encounters by D M Gordon if you don't believe me.

Once again many thanks for reading my nonsense, it takes my mind off the unbearable  “misery and folly of the world” as Thomas Carlisle called it. I said in my last post that that would be my "last post" but when I see such rubbish being written, I can't help but think why shouldn't I chip in with my own. 

*(Incidentally, based on the fact that the Chinese do not worship a God but do worship money, and that the Chinese Communist Party stays in power only because it continues to raise the living standards of the Chinese people, I predict that China will react to the Russian Ukrainian war in order to boost its economy. It will not help Russia and stay neutral thus keeping access to western markets.) 

Update Oct 2022. Boris has been booted out for breaking his own covid containment laws only to be replaced by another useless leader, Liz Truss. Fortunately this economic illiterate could only fool the tory membership, but not the financial markets, who saw through the unrealistic policies and forced her to resign. It's amazing that the people who voted for her are such poor judges of character and this sorry saga only proves that democracy only works if the people voting have reasonable level of understanding of the world we live in and don't purely vote in their own self interest which is based on prejudice and delusion. 

Human Progress - Don't make me laugh!!!

 I read Herodotus’s Histories recently and  the events he describes from 2500 years ago have uncanny parallels with today’s news. As the summary on the back of my copy (Penguin Classic) says

“Herodotus’s Histories is the first great prose work of European literature. It’s main theme is the heroic and successful struggle of a small and divided Greece against the mighty empire of Persia - with the underlying conflict between the absolutism of the East and the free institutions of the West”

The book records the story of the massive slave army of the Persian King Xerxes heading for Small democratic free Greece (if you ignore the slaves and womens lack of rights) with the sole aim to conquer and bring the Greeks into his empire. Under the leadership of Leonidas, the Greek advance party of  a few Spartens heroically halt the Persian advance at Thermopylea, and fight to the death in order to give the Greeks time to prepare the defence of their country, The Greeks eventually win the war by abandoning Athens and fighting a sea battle at a location that gives them the advantage. Defeated Xerxes heads home, defeated but still King of Persia.

I’m sure you can see that if Greece is replaced by Europe, Persians by Russians, Spartans by Ukraine, Leonidas by Zelensky, Xerxes by Putin it’s all too familiar to watchers of today's news programmes.

It would appear that Putin has not read Herodotus, which is a pity. If he  had he would know that massive slave armies are not as mobile, skilled or motivated to fight as freemen, who with their voting rights and freedom have much more to lose. They fight to the death to protect their rights. You have to whip the masses to fight for something they don’t believe in and generously reward the elite warriors in order to get them to do the whipping. Free men fight for nothing but an idea. Herodotus learnt this 2500 years ago and recorded it as he thought it was important, Some called him the father of history, others the father of Lies, so you could pick and choose your delusion then, just as we choose between truth and fake news today.

What will happen in our current Greek Tragedy is still to be decided, but if you follow the plot, Ukraine is doomed, but they give Europe time to prepare and eventually push Putin back into Russia. If you continue a few hundred years later Alexander the Great revenges Xerxes and invades Persia, sacks the capital, Persepolis, and continues on the rampage as far as India, making the Greeks just as bad as the invading Persians. So who could the modern Alexander be? Trump with nuclear weapons? Lets hope not.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It seems we have learnt nothing since Herodotus‘s time, and whilst the technology has changed, human nature hasn’t and we may as well be living in the Bronze age. Human Progress is a sham, and we will only start to progress when human nature changes and we all start to use our Brains rather than be ruled by our hormones and selfish genes.

When we start thinking about what we do, how it effects others and the future, and choose to only do things that benefit every one, not just ourselves, when we choose to only do things that make the world a better place, then will we start to make progress.

______________________________

I started .this blog a year ago with a “History of the World in a Single object” (please read it) and it now seems I have come full circle. I don‘t think I will write any more, as what else is their to say?
I’ve written to Ambassadors, I’ve had  a letter published in the Economist magazine but so far only 53 people have looked at my blog and I bet only a handful have actually read any of the essays. We seem to be fixated on our tiny screens, too busy destroying the planet and ourselves to  take time to  stop, learn and think, too busy  to look and listen to the whole wide world in all its majesty, grandeur and beauty, that is right there before us.  We don't deserve it.
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I Thank YOU for reading my thoughts, I have no idea if they are right or wrong, wise or foolish, but I know one thing for certain, they are 100% me, expressed freely and without fear from anyone or anything, for which I’m truly grateful. .

Its up to you and others now. Doing nothing is not an option. For me, the cats need feeding and the toilet is blocked!!! 

Make the World a better Place. 

My Love to Every one 

Trevor Prew.
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Mr Putin - it's ok to be Gay

 Dear Mr Putin

I know you read my blog, so as a friend, I would like to give some advice - it’s the 21st Century, it's ok to be Gay.

I know you live in a hyper Macho society, where the Alpha Male rules and the effeminate man is deemed mentally ill, but judging by your recent actions, I can see that it is not making you happy. You say that you feel threatened by Nato, Ukraine, the west, democracy, the internet and people protesting on the streets, but I’m not buying it. How can a man in control of over 1000 nuclear warheads feel threatened?

Have you heard of Toxic Masculinity?  It refers to the imagined “rules” that men need to act tough and avoid showing all emotions. It leads to damage of their mental health and to suffering both  physically and emotionally. Well I‘ve seen you playing ice hockey, strutting bare chested, etc and don‘t you think this is over doing it a bit? Aren’t you displaying classic symptoms of Toxic Masculinity, over compensating for the real you?

So, If you need to come out, and declare the truth, be brave, have a word with Mr Macron, he‘s French, he will understand. If you do, I can guarantee that you will feel a whole lot better. It will be a release of the real you, a truthful and honest you that will no longer feel threatened by the world.  And the world will learn to love you as you really are, unconditionally.

Have you seen drag race? Did you enjoy it? How magnificent you would look in a big taffeta meringue dress and high heels.

Much Love


Trev   XXX

(if you are wondering why I wrote this,  I very much doubt if the Russian army would fight for a Gay leader, so spread the rumour - Putin is Gay! )

How do we break the cycle of endless wars?

 It is wishful thinking on the part of Mr Harare (author of Sapiens) to believe that there have been long periods of human history where peace predominated.     

As history is one unending tale of misery and woe, he refers to prehistory  (ie archaeological and palaeontological evidence) to assert this claim, but as knowledge of what our prehistoric ancestors got up in their day to day lives is extremely limited, I would say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I would point out that primate behaviour does include troop warfare and killings, and, as  we evolved from the apes, I think it is highly unlikely that in the gap between the apes and our historic period, there is an idyllic “garden of eden” when humans didn’t fight each other.

Humans need to face up to what they are - which isn’t very nice - and only then will be able to address the problem and change our nature.

We should start by asking  why do we fight wars? Taking the current war, the Ukrainians are fighting for their survival and Russia is fighting because it believes it can win. Russia would not have invaded if it was not sure it could not.                

The economic and technological advantage of one group over another means that the leaders of the more powerful country will profit from the war thus increasing power and status of that country. The temptation of easy pickings is too great if you have machine guns and your opponents have swords.
The leaders, elites and warriors want to increase their wealth status and power, and if poorly defended peoples of a different culture are nearby, the easy way to get it is to raid, war and kill, using your technological advantage, rather than trade, negotiate or co operate. Humans take the easiest path, not the right path.

So why do males, (rarely do females fight) want more wealth status and power? The answer comes from evolutionary biology. Powerful, wealthy, high status men get the best pick of the women and lets face up to it, women like powerful, wealthy high status men, who will provide excellent homes, protection and support to bring up their offspring. Aren’t 50% of people in Asia descended from Genghis khan? Didn’t Russian soldiers rape lots of German women at the end of the second world war? Do homeless men have wives or girlfriends?

So to stop wars we have to change human nature, or more bluntly female sexual selection. If women no longer see the profits of war as a peacocks tail, war would stop instantly. If women said, on mass “you fight a war - no sex” peace would come swiftly. I’m not a misogynist, I love my partner and women, and I’m not blaming women for wars - men, not women fight wars, I’m just trying to highlight a way of breaking the cycle of humans fighting wars for ever more.

History can only teach us so much. Humans are animals with atomic weapons and need to evolve fast. Education should not specialise if humans are to become wise.

TV footage of the horrors of war should not be censored. Everyone should see what humans do to other humans and be revolted by it. The truth will bring about change.

The Direction of Human History

 

(An edited version of the essay below was published on 6th March 2022 as the lead letter in the Economist magazine. It deeply saddens me that I have had to write such words)

 

I find it reassuring that, from my experience, the vast majority of humanity has already chosen not to make war, but chosen  a peaceful co-existence with their fellow sapiens. The major problem, highlighted by tensions over Ukraine, is how those peaceful people get rid of the minority of people who choose to use force and violence to increase their  power and status. How do you control someone who points a gun in your face?.

 The direction of  humanity will be decided if it can stop such people. But how?

 If a tyrant  gets elected, by making popular  promises of short term gain for their electorate, you may think that  using the law to expose their corruption or illegal activity will bring them to heel. But the law  and constitutions are human constructs, which can be  changed to suit those in power, and judges can be manipulated with rewards and bribes.

You could try protests on the streets, but these  don’t seem to work. Leaders will just send in the police as in Hong Kong and Belarus or tanks as in Tiananmen Square.  

Will spreading the truth about those in power control their behaviour? No chance, as speaking out will get you branded as a terrorist trying to cause harm to society. Arrest and a long term in jail will follow, which silences you and deters others.

Perhaps people should vote for different people at the next election, but it will probably be too late by then, as the opposition has been locked up  and voting  rigged  so that real change is impossible.

Perhaps feminism can exert soft power over powerful men? Well this has never happened in the past and would need a massive show of girl power to work.

Don’t look to religion for help either, religious leaders have never done anything in the past, as they are too intermeshed with the elites, to want the status quo to change. They think some supernatural, made up force will sort it all out  anyway. After 2000 years where has religion got us?

Will the freedoms and anarchy  of the internet  promote free speech and  enable the people to co ordinate and rise up against the oppressors? Well not if it is constantly monitored and controlled by those in power. Once in power the elite who have no shame to use force are proving very hard if not impossible to shift by their own people.

So international help is needed from  other peaceful countries imposing sanctions, but this is a long game, and if you look at North Korea seems to have no end. Also Sanctions only have the effect of harming the peaceful majority of people rather than the uncaring leadership, who continue to live in isolation, luxury and delusion. I’m sure Mr Putin knows that Russia will be worst off economically if he invades Ukraine, but I doubt if he cares. He will still be in power, living in luxury and wealth, convinced that his world view is correct. As long as his army obeys him, nothing can stop him, and his army is currently busy a long way away from Moscow, dealing with other matters. No the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth is, that the only way to stop dictators is by an internal coup (which will probably just replace one dictator with another) or by meeting violence with violence ie threatening war.

 After all, wasn’t the modern version of democracy born from war during the French revolution, American war of independence and the English Civil war? And what happened to the first democracy in Greece when the Spartan's and Macedonian's turned up? Historians go quiet on that one. Democracy is not the default setting for human societies.

 If the free world wants to stop Putin and protect the fledgling democracy in Ukraine, it will have to threaten to meet force with force and treat Ukraine as if it is already a Full member of Nato with all it’s implications of possible imminent nuclear war. I’m sure that everyone reading this will find this statement shocking, but what other way is there? Many in the past have fought for freedom, is our time to stand up for what we value fast approaching?

 Hitler was elected by a free and fair election , and if Trump had had an organised paramilitary wing he could at this very moment be the first dictator of the USA. The destiny of humanity is most definitely in all of our hands. The Question is not what to choose but how to act.

 

Now is the 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 (and is 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, do hear what we say, just like the other driver when I forget I have my car window down..

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, to Putin and Xi Jinping, tribalism can explain 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 which is the better deal? The one that promotes peace or the one that creates divisions?

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 persons differing likes 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 and 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 talk of a possible civil war after the next presidential election.

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 so important than 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 "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 ships, so only 4000 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 as to which tribes to avoid and which to co operate / trade with, which is equally advantageous. 

A Gift from Mr Putin

 Dear Mr Russian Ambassador to the UK

A Gift From Mr Putin

Last night I had a dream. A package from Russia arrived which turned out to be a gift from Mr Putin. The package, which was a bit battered from its travels, contained 6, dusty old Chateau Lafite wine bottles with half used candles stuck into their necks. They reminded me of candle stick holders from a gothic Victorian film and would not look out of place in Miss Haversham’s house of decay. The accompanying note explained that Mr Putin enjoyed the Raspberry jam I sent to his ambassador and in return for my gift, though I might appreciate a means of lighting my house during this winters power cuts, due to Europe’s lack of gas.   
 
What a brilliant gift! It not only highlights Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, but the empty vintage wine bottles demonstrate what a rich and powerful man Mr Putin is, how he enjoys his great parties and what a contemptible  poor peasant I am, having no means to buy expensive wines and having to light my house with candles. After laughing at the irony of the world, I chucked the lot in the shed, suspecting that if I lit the candles they would give off novachock, or explode or some other deniable way of bringing about my demise,  which Mr Putin wanted for no other reason than to demonstrate he could do it.. However, all was not lost, as I did rip off the fine high value Russian stamps on the package for my collection.

What a wonderful dream, how I wish it was true. Mr Putin sending me a gift, (thus boosting my ego) and also living up to his reputation as the cunning and fiendish bad boy of Europe. How the UK press and media love to pump out the anti Russian stories  We in the West just love it. However could you tell me if Russia wants to play this role or does Mr Putin just want to stay in power (by what ever means), sell some gas, and have a normal relationship with the West? Well I don’t know, but I can’t believe the Russian police are so incompetent, or Russian agents so out of control, that murderers are never brought to trial or anyone can poisoning who ever they like without repercussions. I don’t believe Mr Putin would allow such anarchy in his Country. I also don't believe Mr Putin would be such a very bad sales man with "buy my gas or I will cut you off" tactics, especially when the world is talking about switching away from fossil fuels and seriously investing in renewables.

Did you see my letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK? I copied it to you (the Russian Ambassador to the UK), because I get the impression that in order to stay in power, Mr Putin is copying the way of the Chinese Communist Party ruthlessly stamps down on everyone and everything that could be judged as a threat to those in power. I explained that ultimately this will fail as they are always working against human nature. The same resulting failure applies to Russia, but even more so, as Russia has no Confucian culture which for 2000 years has drummed into the Chinese that they should be satisfied with their place in society and not challenge the wise rulers. The Russian people are not the Chinese, which probably explains why the Soviet Union collapsed and the Chinese Communist Party is still in power.

Going against human nature is a totally inefficient way to organise  a society. Not allowing people to express their differing views means a large expensive state organisation to suppress it with fear and force and a smaller pool of people to come up with good decisions. Not allowing individuals to use their talents to gain status and wealth is a waste and will make the country poorer in the long run. This is why I believe democracy and capitalism are the best systems for societies..

Does Mr Putin think he has come up with a better system of Government? If he is just playing the tyrant, I suggest he reads a few history books and reads what happened to them and their countries. In his actions, I see no long term strategy that will be of benefit to anyone, least of all Russia, a country which has such potential.


Yours

Why the West is Best and the Evidence to Prove It

 Why the West is Best and the Evidence to Prove it

The leadership of China often says that their method of Government is superior to Western democracies and that ignorant people like me should shut up and stop criticising China’s way of doing things.

Well they may have a point, as I have never been to China, but based on the fact that all the people of the world I have met, seen or read about, have similar goals and drives in their lives, I assume that the Chinese people have similar ambitions ie to live their lives peacefully, strive for happiness, acceptance and wealth and continually improve their lives for the benefit of not only themselves but their family, friends and the society and environment they live in.   

So why do I not agree with and admire the Chinese authoritarian style of Government? Well it is because the method it uses is not aligned to the reality of basic human nature and to overcome this fundamental nature it needs to use force in order to get people to comply to its methods and goals.

Because  human genes are constantly shuffled and mutated at birth, every human being on the planet is biologically slightly different. Also, as each person grows up, what they experience and learn is also unique, No two people can live exactly the same lives at exactly the same place, time and circumstances. (Even one identical twin will leave the womb before the other and so have a very small circumstantial difference to its twin ). Therefore as each persons brain develops, the synapses connect in different ways and the memories and learning stored internally are uniquely personal and given different value and importance by the thought processes (Evolution of the Sensitive Soul. Ginsburg, Jablonka 2021).

It is because of these biological and neurological differences, that every single person will think in a different way, have a different personality, different skills, interests, values, motivations, creativity, and ideas on how they should live their lives and what’s best for the future. It’s what makes people so special and wonderful, we should celebrate and enjoy all the marvelous variety of humanity and its different cultures. “Vive le difference” as the French would say.

As everyone is unique and thinks in a slightly different way, any system of organising society, which aims to increase the happiness of the society it manages should acknowledge and accommodate human nature,  accept different ways of thinking and provide an outlet for these views and resulting behaviours. It should allow people to express themselves,  to  be heard, tolerated' It should then  debate and judge if their ideas are of any value. If these ideas are widely accepted they can be implemented sensible policy or rejected as folly. Obviously negative behaviours that affect other peoples happiness must be enforced by the law, but the law is a human construct and should also be discussed and changed as and when required by the society to which it is relevant.

In my society in the UK, freedom to think and express your own views is accepted, and after debating and deliberating, a consensus is eventually reached and this usually arrives at a good decision. Even if a bad decision is made this is highlighted ,challenged , reviewed and altered if necessary. Although to people in China this may look like chaos and disorder. everyone can have their say and so feels valued and a part of the whole. The differences of human personalities are acknowledged and accommodated as the unstoppable, changing world, increasing human knowledge and new technologies of humanity demands.

However in China, the expression and debate about different views only appears to take place out of sight at the highest level of Government, and very recently only seems to take place (if at all) by a very select few at the very top level . How these few can know everything that is best for the other 1.4 billion people is beyond me. Assuming they are just people and not all knowing gods (which seems a safe bet ) they will not have perfect knowledge, wisdom and predictive powers and so not all their decisions will be perfect or correct. Like every one else they will make mistakes and lessons will have to be learnt, as we often say in Britain. The current Chinese system of government is based on  fallacy, It assumes the leader(s) know best, will make the correct decisions and that people can’t and don’t think  differently and if they do are automatically wrong.   So as the Chinese system of Government dose not accommodate people being who they really are and goes against human nature the system has to be kept in place by constant surveillance, policing, imprisonment, and force. This method may bring order, harmony and peace, but does it bring happiness? The evidence suggests not.

As China has no free and fair elections,  the views of the Chinese people are unknown. However there is a way of judging what ordinary people think of how the Chinese Communist Party runs China, and these are the net migration figures. These are as follows (from macrotrends.net)

UK        1986 - 2021 always positive and currently +2.9 per 1000 ( i.e.  more arriving than leaving)
USA      1950 - 2021 always positive and currently +2.8 per 1000 ( i.e. .more arriving than leaving)
Russia   1975 - 2021 always positive and currently + 0.9 per 1000 (i.e.  more arriving than leaving).
China    1950 - 2021 always negative and currently -0.25 per 1000 (ie   more leaving than arriving).

Therefore, even with the recent Chinese (capitalist) economic boom, for the last 71 years more people have voted with their feet and decided that they would be happier out side of China than within it. If the Chinese way of doing things is so great, why are not people  flocking to your shores asking to live under the Chinese system? If  it is the best way to Govern why isn’t China's migration figures well into the positives numbers? From the statistics, it would appear that people would rather move to Russia than China!

I would suggest that the vast majority of Chinese people are good hard working people (all those I have met are), who, because of their Confucian culture of knowing your place in a society and being ruled by wise leaders, they keep their heads down and do not challenge the status quo for fear of their “heads being bashed against the iron wall“. The Chinese communist party takes advantage of this culture, and also China past history of massive tragic civil wars, as an excuse to rule using lies and extreme force whilst living a life of luxury, as has been done so many times in the past by other tyrants, dictators and despots.

If Mr Desmond Shum (Red Roulette 2021) is to believed, Xi Jinping is president not because he has been elected by the people or is a competent politician  but because he is the most ruthless, and he is using the Chinese State for his own benefit rather than for the good of the Chinese people. Well, I don’t know if this is exactly true and I sincerely hope it isn’t, but from what I see reported in the West, the Chinese leadership is trying to justify it’s position by talking tough and “Making China Great” as fundamentally they have no legitimacy. They are only sons of the original revolutionaries, (just like the European Medieval kings who claimed divine right to rule) and are using old 20th Century outdated ideology well into the 21st Century. No wonder they hate the internet so much and have seized on the pandemic as a way of shutting China off from the world.

How long can the Chinese Communist Party keep their system going? How long can they keep fighting against human nature, the modern world, the internet, global trade and travel? Well no one can know that but such a  system is ultimately doomed to failure, it’s just a question of how may millions of lives will be destroyed when it breaks down. However there is hope, Russia’s Communist System fell apart with few casualties, because the leadership controlling the guns faced up to the reality of the day. Hopefully China’s leaders  will act wisely too.