The Climate Crisis Challenge - Ban The Burn

 I’ve just finished reading Greta Thunberg’s Climate Book. As I progressed through the pages my reactions started as

“ A world changing book - as important as Origin of Species ”,

But as the problems discussed piled higher and higher, ended as

“This is just fantasy, people aren’t going to change as fast as required -  it’s just not sexy being green.”

You see, if I change my life style to a cycling, ticket holding, flatulent lentil eating bloke, who wears worn out clothes, never travels very far, lives in a small flat, (that I share with others), don’t buy anything, have a local job (with low wages), no pet, moans all the time about the “business as usual” establishment, loses sleep over the collapse of civilization, gives all my savings to the developing world as compensation for what my ancestors did and spends my spare time campaigning or volunteering on local do good schemes - will a really wonderful girl settle down with me to raise lots of kids?. Or will she settle down with the bloke with the big car, loads of money, big house, second home in Spain, and goes out consuming all the time with well dressed, well traveled, interesting people?

Sorry Greta, you can’t change the laws of physics, and neither can you change the fundamentals of biology and human nature. The human population will crash, we can’t say when, but only then will emissions come down. It's so sad, but as usual the rich will do just fine and the poor will suffer. (Noah must have been rich to pay for that ark!)

Perhaps it's time give up and go down with one last big party, BUT.............

When I found myself on a rock climb that was way too hard for me, immobile,  running out of strength and about to fall a very very long way, that's when I realised there is really only one option - I'm going to die, so I may as well just fully commit and climb as I've never climbed before. And then something truly amazing and mysterious happens, I would relax and with out thinking, pull on the next holds and somehow, in a blur, arrive at the top. I would have no idea how I had done the climb, but I had. It's unexplainable.

Maybe the Climate Crisis Challenge is like a rock climb. The climb is hard, the top out of sight and the drop frightening. But if you don't worry too much, just pull on the holds in front of you, and then on the next  and the next, and keep doing it again and again, you will arrive at the top. You don't have to believe in success, you just have to start the climb.

As Bruce Lee says "Don't think - do". Maybe something unbelievable will happen.

Perhaps all that's required is we stop burning things and polluting our air, - simple really.

The Mess the World is in and what to do about it

 Professor Robert Sapolsky, author of “Behave” ( highly recommended but a very long read) is currently writing a book about why the world is in such a mess. Well, if he's been listening to the news, it shouldn’t take the good Professor very long.  To assist, with some hopefully constructive comments, here is my summary of world mess and what needs to happen to make the world a better place.

1) We are not as clever as we think we are

The world is increasingly complex, interconnected and interdependent. Billions of people take actions that unavoidably affect others. The environment and weather continually change, as does our information flows and knowledge. Does anyone understand what the outcomes will be? Scientists, philosophers and economists study the world and make predictions, but in making those predictions, they change behaviors with many unintended consequences. So their predictions appear to be wrong, even though the original prediction was right at the time. And someone always pops up to say, 'look I told you so, they don't know what they are talking about......'

 It seems the more we learn the less we understand, but  everyone has a duty to commit to a life of continual learning and self improvement. In my opinion too few do, and remain closed to new ideas and possibilities. 

2) Natural selection hasn't given us the behaviour or skills to solve problems at the Global/Species level. (or "On the Demise of Species")

Our evolutionary advantage, that has made us the most complex, dominant species on earth, was formed by the process of natural selection. If we survived and reproduced, our genes and social behaviors were transferred to the next generation. This all works at  the level of the individual, and because humans live in tribes or communities, also at the level of the group. Its survival of the fittest, or more correctly, best adapted, and the 'best' characteristics are determined by reproduction rates. So we end up with people, tribes and counties competing to be selected for the next generation. The trouble is, this is of no use when it comes to solving global or species level problems such as climate change, resource and food shortages, economic inequality. (This is why the UN and COP meetings achieve very little - too much competition between self interested groups).

In order to solve these problems, we need to rise above our biology and instincts, and increase our intelligence to work as one social group that co operates, respects and tolerates each other rather than competes. Hopefully this will get us through this century without civilization collapse, but perhaps natural selection is just too powerful and we will be de-selected from planet earth. On some days, when listening to the news, I can't help thinking this may not be such a bad thing, as the next civilization wouldn't  have readily available fossil fuels (we would have used up all the easily accessible sources), so would have to start and continue with sustainable energy sources. However, in the process of being naturally deselected, we will take millions of other species down with us - is that acceptable?.   

 
3) Too many people causing too much environmental damage.

At the start of the industrial revolution, burning coal didn’t matter and gave us cheap copious energy. It  made a small number of people rich and the environmental damage was small and local. Now, everyone in the world wants to be rich and the spread of technology means the consequences are large and world wide. The result is climate change and  landscapes transformed, all of which is extremely damaging to the living planet.

Humanity, wants it all, wants it now and isn't going to give it up. We aren't intelligent enough to see, or care about, the damage and long term irreversible consequences of our actions.  We could stop using fossil fuels tomorrow if we wanted, but the vast majority are unwilling to take the cut in wealth and degree of resource sharing need to prevent the collapse of our civilization. 

If we realized the cut would be temporary, whilst we adjusted to a zero carbon world, the future would be so much brighter in the 22nd Century.

4) Too many highly differing tribes being forced together by globalisation and global communications  

For the first time in history, within hours, people can cheaply and easily travel the globe. Likewise, it's a simple task to send anywhere, in a matter of seconds, messages, videos, recordings and money, translated or converted for local use. The world is a much smaller place than the one I grew up in.

This means different cultures, ideologies and political systems are being forced together and can no longer ignore each other. When considering other peoples, human nature dictates that it is us who are correct, not them. Therefore conflict is on the increases as ideas and cultures battle it out for ultimate victory. Not that anyone can win.

Respect, toleration. compromise and recognition that we are all one tribe would help. Why is it so hard?

5) Globalisation means increased spread of disease and alien species.

Many species are taking advantage of humans global trade and travel to spread their genes in a very rapid but unnatural way. Thus ecosystems are thrown out of delicate equilibrium, never to be the same again. 

6) The rate of change is too fast for humans, animals and the planet to cope

50 Million years ago CO2 levels were much higher than they were today, the poles were ice free., trees grew in Antarctica and the British Isles were tropical. Today temperatures are far lower, but because the rate of increase of CO2 levels is so fast, human civilization and ecosystems will be unable to cope and will, ultimately, experience collapse. By the weathering of rocks, the planet will eventually remove CO2 but this takes millions of years, not the decades needed of counter act man made CO2

Likewise the rate of increase in knowledge and technology is changing so fast, that people can no longer keep up, and because our political leaders are old and our education stops early in life, by the time a person reaches a position where they can make a difference, they no longer understand (or even see) the world they live in, So the wrong decisions, based on out dated knowledge and ideas, are made. 

7) Old people.should be allowed to die (I know I will be hated for this one, but from personal experience I think we have to be brutally honest with ourselves)
 
All animals have evolved to live, reproduce and die. We die because natural selection does not weed out defects after reproductive age and so mutations in cell DNA are not corrected. Cells become programmed to get cancer or stop working in old age. 

Humans hang about a bit as grand parents to help raise their genetic descendants, but after that they become weaker and so naturally they die. However, today, modern health care can keep people alive far longer than is natural and in fact so long that frequently  the old people being cared for are no longer living happy lives, or bringing happiness to others or having any sort of life at all, What’s the point? Shouldn’t we be focusing on the newly born and young people who are the hope of the world rather than just running away from difficult decisions concerning those at the end of life? Death is as much a part of life as birth is.  We put down suffering animals and say we are acting humanely, but we don't allow people to die when they have had enough of life.

8) Social media gives positive feed back to our prejudices, biases and ignorance.

Whatever you think, there's someone out there who thinks like you, and social media will put you in touch with them. In order to keep you clicking and so they get rich, the tech firms put similar people together and the advertising money rolls in. The problem is, that as the algorithms controlling social media will never promote contact with someone of opposing views,  your negative and false views will just be reinforced rather than challenged. Result - more extreme views and more conviction that you are correct even if your views cause harm. 

And if you do make contact with people of differing views, the lack of social controls due to anonymity  means people get very nasty. 

9) A generation brought up on violent computer games, porn films and extreme TV can now go and buy real guns and strangle real women.

When I was a kid, the end of the second world war was only 20 years before and whilst war stories, books and TV programmes were common, it was all presented as what happened to other people. Then came shoot em up computer games in which you could kill people to your hearts content. They were very popular. Extreme violence was made personal and harmless. Similarly films and TV programmes have become extremely violent and age classifications can easily be bypassed on the net. Violence has been normalised to such an extent that it is seen to be cool to carry a weapon and it is normal to strangle a girl whilst kissing.

On the radio today I hear that the possibility of civil war in America is worrying many experts. Is it  surprising, if violence has been normalised.

Likewise, who is calling for a cease fire in Ukraine? Its not a game and most people who are living on the front line just want the shelling to stop.

10) It’s easy to turn a democracy into a dictatorship, but very hard to turn a dictatorship into a democracy,

I hope you can agree that democracy has a better record concerning human rights and so is the least worst system of organising a society. Global migration patterns indicate that when people vote with their feet they tend to leave Authoritarian countries and head for democratic ones. However, democratic countries are very hard to create without violence and sacrifice, and it is very easy for democratic rights to ebb away, for of course, very good, but in the long term wrong, reasons.. Then one day you wake up and someone like Putin is in charge and if you object, you are locked up or dead.

11) Out of date Philosophies and Religions

I've read a few books on philosophy and religion and most of it is in need of a serious update. Religion contains lots of wisdom, but the superstitions about God is embarrassing. Confucius - sexist and if he knew my parents would have changed his mind about ancestor worship. Budda - what would happen if every one sat around selfishly doing nothing. Rights of man - what about slaves, future others and animals? Voltaire concluded that the world was absurd, but suggested we should go and sit it out in our gardens. Communism - failed, Capitalism - failing. I could go on but I hope you get my point. 

Perhaps there should be a big review and all the good bits put into one modern philosophy. But I'm think the idea of a single philosophy is out of date, all ideas should be examined in the context of the circumstances and knowledge of the time and used or put aside as appropriate.

12) Uncooperative political systems dominated by a few rather than the many  

In the UK after each election, the lucky winner always says they are going to unite the country. And then the mud slinging really begins. Why don't political parties work together? Co operation could achieve so much more, but our political systems are out of date and in desperate need of reform. Surely with all this new tec and modern communications, people voting on the diverse issues of the day (which it is impossible for just two parties to represent) could be expanded and used more frequently.

Even in democracies it is still only a small minority of people who dominate the decision making process and most of them are only expert in appearing competent rather than being competent. I wrote to my MP and asked, if all her constituents wanted her to vote against her own party what would she do? I still await the answer. Perhaps we should be more like ants. They have been getting along just fine in their societies for millions of years without leaders. When a job needs doing, they just all muck in and do it.

13) Greedy, selfish, lazy, uneducated voters and ignorant politicians

Democracy seems to be the best political system to me, but it's far from perfect. People usually vote in their own self interest rather than the common good. Here in the UK, the party that normally wins is the one that can offer the biggest tax cuts, greatest spending on free health care, the most on educating (and now feeding) our children and who will provide the most free care for our elderly so they aren't a burden on our own lives. If a politician said voters are just being greedy and we should take responsibility for our own lives, would they get elected? No chance. So the state gets bigger and the national debt gets bigger, until one day the currency collapses and the voters all have a riot because our politicians  are so useless. But they just gave us voters what we wanted.

The majority in the UK voted for Brexit. Did they know what they were really voting for or what its implications would be? Most people I have spoken to, voted for brexit as a protest vote or voted emotionally for a dream of an independent country in an interdependent world, which is absurd. Now we have a shortage of workers as lazy unfit Bits won't or cant do the jobs the hard working immigrants used to do. At least in ancient Greece, voters had to sit through the debates in order to vote, where as today you get a vote and can be totally ignorant of how the real world works. In 2002 in Hartlypool UK a monkey mascot was elected mayor and today all the clever people have high paid proper jobs or are running internet scams. So you could say we are voting for which ever Monkey hands out the most bananas!

 14) Our definitions of Wealth, health and happiness are out of date

We all want to pursue wealth, health and happiness, but this is a very  selfish why a living. Wouldn't the world be a much better place if we all helped each other, including future generations and animals, to pursue wealth, health and and happiness? Or as Winston Churchill said, would this just "share the misery"?. Well maybe we need to take a new look at what wealth, health (especially mental health) and happiness really are. Are any of us truly  happy in the current world?  

Likewise, counties use Gross Domestic Product as a measure of success regardless of their peoples happiness. Is life only about GDP?  Isn't the number of food banks or suicides also important?

15) Too few people do what is best for the common good, as we usually do what is of most benefit or least discomfort  for ourselves

Most people know that burning  fossil fuels is wrecking the planet. But how many of us have cut off the gas supply, got rid of the internal combustion powered car, vowed never to fly again and fully switched to renewables? This is the correct thing to do, but I haven’t. Whilst I have reduced my CO2 foot print, I’m not prepared to reduce my standard of living. There is always an excuse at hand to justify inaction, like my partner will throw me out of the house!

When Russian men are called up to fight in Ukraine, hopefully most of them see this war as wrong. However it is easier to join the army and hope for the best, rather than stand up to Putins regime and go to prison for certain. So the war continues and more die …… for what?

It takes courage and sacrifice to get the world out of the mess it’s in. And too few of us are prepared to stand up and do what is right, even when it is very clear that the group is wrong. It would be easier if we all stood together, rather than as individuals, and demanded change, but at the moment it doesn’t seem to be happening. It's easier to carry on as normal.

16) We should all recognise that there is no such thing as an evil person, but there are too many evil acts.

Human behaviour is governed by biology and context and we are all capable of bad and evil acts. Would you murder someone? Well I would murder Putin if he was standing next to me. Read Sapolsky's "behave" and Rabecca Myers "Inside the Criminal Mind" and overcome your bad behivours.

17 Too much policy is based on history and not the possibilities of better futures

Churchill said that the longer you can look back into history, then the further you can look into the future. If you think this is true then your possible futures will be extremely limited. Thinking with this mindset limits human progress to a better world. It makes the past into a self forefilling prophecy meaning prejudices, ignorance and irrelevances will become  entrenched in peoples plans and actions and historical differences between peoples will continue rather than diminish. 

If there is to be any hope for the world, then we must acknowledge that the past has happened and cannot be changed. However, the future is ours to make if only past boundaries, divisions and feuds can be consigned to the history books.  If we are wise enough to not let the past constrain us and choose to co operate and work together despite what our ancestors did or wrote, we would all be better for it.

 
18) The world is absurd because people do absurd things and we all stand by and allow it to continue

I say enough is enough, the mess, absurdity, chaos, what ever you want to call it, must end. We are all stuck on this planet together, with no one coming to help and we have to learn to live together and make it work. We have no choice, no alternative.  There is no planet B. Firstly we must recognise that we all, by our nature, are tribal social animals but this nature cannot help us at a species level. We must rise above it and swiftly recognise that the differences between us are joyous but irrelevant, when it comes to solving our many problems.

Only by living and working together with tolerance, respect and new found wisdom, will humans survive on planet Earth without our civilization collapsing. What happens next starts with you and I.

However.......

Despite all of the above, I've never been more happy than when I'm on the correct path with success within sight. Today I'm reasonably happy that humanity is on the correct path - it just needs pushing along as fast as possible.


 

Women Rule the World - They just don't realise it.

 It was the Rabbi Lionel Blue, who, in his warm friendly manner, said “women rule the world - they just don’t realise it”. He was referring to the influence of his mother on his life, but I totally agree with him.

“If you vote Tory, you can forget about sex!” was the ultimatum I received just before the last general election. So, even though I was totally fed up with the brexit dead lock, I swiftly decided to vote green, even though Boris was promising to get the deal done. Sex is far more important than politics.

Growing up on the south coast of England, school trips to France were common, and the principal lessons were not speaking French but smuggling. Fireworks and flick knives were our favourite contraband, but when a low status lad started waving a flick knife in front of our faces at school, the girls turned on him, calling him stupid, unmanly and pathetic. He sulked off and we never saw another knife in school again. If they didn’t impress the girls, what was the point?

Throughout history, men have controlled the power that women have over them (ie the power to create their offspring) through physical (ie violence, ownership of property) and cultural (ie marriage, religious) means, but today, women around the world are demanding equality, which is fantastic. The world will be a better, less violent, more co operative place for it. Men have nothing to fear from this, women will still want to have male friends and to form a partnership to bring up the kids, its just that men will have to co operate and compromise rather than dominate.  

Women in Iran have had enough of being told what to do and punished by men in the name of religion. The men, who usually use violence against dissenters, don’t know what to do as even they can’t justify the beating up of school girls and women as Gods work. If they do, even more women will join the protests. They have no answer to being shamed by women when the truth is, that the whole point of society is to provide an excellent environment in which to bring up the kids, not a preparation for the next world.  

As I’ve argued in “How to prevent Wars”, the sole point of life is survival, followed by reproduction, and so sex is a fundamental driving force of human behaviour.  If a behaviour leads to less reproduction, natural or cultural selection will suppress it*. So if women around the world all say they want a different world, and shun violent, uncaring men, men will be powerless to stop it.  All it takes is for women to realise their potential, act together and human nature will change.

Gorbachev said It was the Soviet mothers of sons returning in body bags who ended the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Likewise, Russian women could stop the war in Ukraine tomorrow if they sent a clear message to their men that war is no longer acceptable.

If only they realised, it is they who rule the world, not men like Putin. 

 

*I acknowledge that it has not been scientifically proven that behaviours are passed on via our genes. However, if a behaviour is successful, it will be copied by the next generation and thus passed on culturally into the future.

PS Why don't men cover their heads and faces to prevent women having sinful thoughts? My partner has very sinful thoughts when ever Brad Pit is on the screen.

Letter to the Russian Ambassador - All War is Tragedy

 Dear Ambassador Kelin

I Cannot Celebrate Victory - all War is Tragedy

When the Berlin wall came down, and the Eastern European Countries left the Soviet Empire, there is one miracle that is over looked. There was little if any violence, there was no civil war. This shows to me that Russians are a peace loving people, despite all the news being reported.

I sense that people in Russia are beginning to realise that Putin is not the leader they thought he was. It is time for him to retire and  a new leader be found. However, once again, this brings the threat of Civil War and it is time for the Russian people to show their true peace loving colours. I’m sure that there are wise people in Russia who know this, but to assist I have written the following anti violence statement, with which I trust you can agree and perhaps put to good use.

“Do not celebrate victory or defeat - all war is Tragedy. Everyone must understand that war is a primitive, backward and base activity that is promoted by people who are unintelligent and following out of date philosophies. Those who start wars are people who do not have the skills  to solve their problems by normal political means, ie respectful negotiation and compromise. They can only achieve their goals by conning others to commit violence with threats and lies and so are not fit to lead. War only spreads, destruction, desolation, misery and pain. It is no solution to problems. All citizens have a selfless duty, not to hide from the horrors of our past, but to stand together against such cowards and fools. We should all unite to consign war to the history books, to keep war out of our present and humanity’s future.”


Yours Sincerely.

Armour for a Real World Mission

Mission  

CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, the Prussian general and theorist of war, is much-quoted and his most famous dictum is—“war is the continuation of politics with other means”.

If war is politics by other means, then the deeper cause of war is politicians doing what they do, which is attempting to  increase popularity and then stay in power. As power ultimately comes from the people, either as voters or supporting armies, citizens are the fundamental cause of wars, by their approval or passiveness of their leaders actions.

 If an anti war culture could be promoted and embraced by all the peoples of the world, then leaders would lose popularity when promoting conflict. Thus, war would  fizzle out and be consigned to history. To this end I have written the statement below, which I think should be promoted as much as possible -

 “I cannot celebrate victory, all war is tragedy. Everyone must understand that war is a primitive, backward, base activity that is carried out by people who are unintelligent and using out of date philosophies. War mongers are people who do not have the skills to solve their problems respectfully by normal political means ie negotiation and compromise. They can only achieve their goals by conning others to use violence by threats and lies and so are not fit to lead. War only spreads destruction, desolation; pain and misery. All citizens of the world, have a selfless duty, not to hide from the horrors of our past, but to stand together against such cowards and fools. We should all unite to consign war to the history books and keep war out of our present and humanity’s future”.   

 

 Armour

 Yesterday, I went for an enjoyable walk in the Peak District which was enlivened by a mid day heavy down pour. Shortly after the rain, I saw a group of people, who despite the  glorious beauty around them, were paying more attention to their smart phones, which were, no doubt,  the latest models. They weren’t talking to each other, but seemed happy staring at their small, colourful, flickering screens. However, they were drenched,  soaked to the skin, even though they had more computing power in their hands, than existed in the world 50 years ago. 

 It would appear you can’t get smart umbrellas.

I wish they would look up from their phones, see the real world and start thinking about what they could do to improve it.   Smart phones are nothing without smart brains.

The Multiple Butterfly Effect

 I recently discovered a web site called “Making a Huge difference”, that’s proclaimed mission is to make the world a better place. It sounded great, a group of like minded people that I could team up with and really make a difference to this absurd world.

As usual, reality was disappointing.

What I found was lots of posts by academic  Don Quixote types, with titles that I didn’t really understand or desire to read. A few were about the sites problems and one gem about exclusion, but most were vanity essays on trivial concerns. The main objective of most essays was not really about making the world a better place, but trying to show how clever the author was and rack up as many positive comments as possible. The impression I got (based on limited time browsing, so I could be completely cynical and wrong) was that the site had been set up by someone wanting to sell a book and promote educational courses, but it had ended up totally out of control as every one pitched in, in a totally unstructured manner..

I posted a few of my thoughts, received the expected ticking off and decided to leave them to it for a couple of weeks, to see what develops.

Why was I disappointed? My view is that, Ideally, a forum should be a criticism free space where anyone can come up with an idea, however wacky, and then it gets debated, examined, thrashed about and developed, to see if it is good idea. If it gets through this phase it should be put on a list of items for implementation, in priority order (not ease of achievability). My basic priority list would be, but yours may differ:-

1) Reducing fossil fuel usage
2) Preventing wars
3) Promoting human rights
4) Promoting good Governance

Once  priories have been set, then they could be put into sub groups for a plan of action to be developed, and once this was completed, the actions could be implemented, by all of the web sites users. Thus all users contribute, develop into a plan, action and share the successes.

As “Making a Huge Difference” didn’t seem to have any chance of achieving anything useful, except selling a few books, I have decided to continue to pester all and sundry with my correspondence and keep posting most on my blog under my own name. (I use my own name because before I post or submit anything, I ask myself, what is its purpose, would I say this to their face  and will I be proud of what I have written in a few weeks time? Hopefully this cuts out any nonsense, that is all too common on the internet).

Whilst I fully expect my efforts have little impact on a world of 7 billion people, a lot of whom are also tapping away into their computers, I put my faith in the butterfly effect, that a single butterfly can one day create a great storm. The probability is extremely low but Chaos theory stays the probability isn’t zero, Which It would be if I did nothing, so I keep on. It gives meaning to my pathetic insignificant little life!

However, what would happen if our single butterfly, flapped its wings in unison with another? The odds would halve, And if it flapped in unison with 10 others, 1000 others, 7 billion others…… wouldn‘t the storm be much more likely to occur?. The more butterflies the better the odds, and then it is time to place your bets for change.

Percy Shelley. wrote the following in The Masque of Anarchy in 1819 (I stress I’m not an anarchist, we still need competent, selfless leaders, like our Dearly Departed Queen and new King, so the rest of us can enjoy ourselves).

Rise, like lions after slumber,
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth, like dew,
Which in sleep hath fallen upon you,
You are many - they are few.
 

When Shelley wrote this, no one would publish it or his manifesto, as they were too dangerous to the powers that be to print. But if Shelley were alive today, or there was someone of his equal alive, she or he could self publish on the internet and soon his many would be working together against the few. Like Butterflies, all flapping their wings in unison, not to create chaos or a storm, but to make the world a better place. Wouldn’t that be effective?.

Where are the modern day Shelley’s? Like Diogenes with his lamp, I’m still searching.


 

Letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK

 Dear Ambassador Zheng Zeguang

“Those who suppress truth, are those who are benefiting the most from lies”

China’s history clearly shows that there have been many wise people in China and I am in no doubt that this applies today, as it did in the past.

I came across the quote above and immediately though of China.  So I ask you, Ambassador, why does the Chinese State suppress freedoms of expression and stop the people telling what they see as the truth? The state says it is to keep order and prevent chaos, but is it because it is benefiting the most from the lies? Why does the Chinese State fear the truth so much?

In my studies, I have come to accept that the Chinese State system, ie Authoritarian rule rather than democracy, is a viable way of organising society, but for it to work the following conditions apply

a) The ruling elite, has to be composed of the most wise, learned governors, who are willing to put the interests of the country before their own.
b) The ruling elite must have access to the best knowledge and data, so it has a clear understanding of their country and the world
c) The ruling elite combines the wisdom and best knowledge to make the best decisions for the society as a whole..
d) The people are well informed of the actions of the elite and are happy that  the best decisions are being made on its behalf. They permit the elite to rule.
e) The ruling elite accepts that the world is constantly changing, and that past decisions, whilst not wrong in the past, will need to be adapted  to meet new circumstances.
f) The ruling elite accepts that in a world of constant change, it may need to change too.

The above points are very idealistic and in the real world of human social politics I think are very hard, if not impossible, to implement. So I think that the truth is that the Chinese State suppresses its own peoples freedoms because it has to hide the truth to protect itself. It fails on all the points a) - f), suppresses the truth and benefits from the lies. Meanwhile the people of China suffer. The Chinese people I meet are a timid, quiet people, afraid to open their mouths for fear of being punished.

How long does the Chinese State think it can keep this up? Does it think that starting a war over Taiwan will distract the people, so the truth can be hidden forever? This will only heap more misery upon an already suffering world.

So I appeal to the wise and good people in China not to hide from truth, but accept the world as it is, not as you want it to be. Just like the covid virus, truth, once discovered, cannot be eliminated, it will keep breaking out, and those who benefit from lies, will keep on having to suppress it. Until they are overwhelmed by it.

If I am wrong, and the Chinese State is meeting the conditions a) to f), then it has nothing to fear and should permit the people their freedoms.

Yours Sincerely    

Know Yourself - the wisest words ever written?

 “Know Yourself”. In my opinion these are the wisest words ever written. They were written over the entrance to the temple at Delphi about 300BC. My interpretation is that, because we grow up in a relatively isolated social group, we all have built in (learnt) prejudices, bias’s and delusions based on our groups poor knowledge of other social groups and the world outside of our it's experience. These warp our thinking to that of the group, which helps social cohesion, but means that we do not see the world as it really is, but as others want us to see it, or how we would like it to be. However, if you can understand these prejudices, and, delusions and also acknowledge the limits of your knowledge, ie know yourself, then in later life you can compensate, and under stand the world with a greater degree of accuracy. Achieve this ie understanding the present, and predicting the future becomes simple. 

Ironic, isn’t it that the Ancient Greeks came from all over to consult with the oracle, and the key to prediction was written over the front gate for all to see! 

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As for the greatest book ever written, well I've not read them all, but the best one I've read is Don Quixote, which I recommend unreservedly. Plenty of reviews are available but I loved the humorous style that entertains as well as presenting the complexities of being a human being who wants to do good in the world. after reading a load of rubbish.

How to prevent Wars - defluffed

 Summary

Everyone must understand that war is a primitive, backward, base activity that is carried out by people who are unintelligent, people who cannot solve their problems by negotiation, compromise, and respect. They can only achieve their goals by conning others by use of threats, violence and lies, which only spreads destruction, pain and misery. We all have a selfless duty, not to hide from the horrors of ourselves, but to stand together against such fools. We should all unite to consign war to the history books and keep war out of our present and out of humanity’s future.     

How to prevent wars - defluffed

 Someone commented that my essay “How to Prevent Wars” contained too much distracting Fluff and not many references. Well, I thought I had done pretty well to tackle such a difficult problem In 4 pages of A4, but I accept the point and will attempt to express my thinking in a nut shell below. As for references, the essay is the result of a life time of reading, listening, watching, experiencing and thinking about the world. Including references would be impossible, so I’m afraid you are just going to have to think for your selves - am I a nillist shitposter, a paid troll, a ranting boomer, a genuine concerned human being, an AI system destroying human civilization or an idiot? (Everyone needs to get skilled at this very swiftly).

So, if you don't like a bit of fluff -

1) Human beings are social animals that crave the approval of the group and want to rise up the status ladder to get access to get loads of sex with the best quality and highest status group members. Its written in our genes.

2) The group unconsciously knows this and uses it to control you. Those of the highest status especially use it to get you to do things they don’t want to do themselves, but will be of benefit to them. If you don’t conform the group will punish you. Result less sex with desirable people. Your genes will not get mixed with high quality genes or may be not passed on at all.

3) If you understand what is going on, you can rise above it, break free, and challenge immoral group behaviour such as the use of violence as a short cut to increasing or maintaining status within a group or between groups.

4) However, the power of the group means this cannot be done by yourself, There are three paths to take (assuming you don’t just capitulate and  conform, which is the short term, personally risk free, selfish, usual human response - it takes courage and sacrifice to stand up to your own group).

6) You can quietly attempt to convince most of the group to your way of thinking and then challenge the group leaders, and if successful take over.

5) or you can run away and hide, find another group and forget about the first group. But this doesn’t make the world a better place.

7)) or you can tell members of other outside groups about what is happening in your group and ask them to come to your assistance,  to face down the immoral behaviour of your groups power brokers.


Does this explain why holocausts happen, wars start, and why the tragedy that is human history continues? Just scale the above to a national level, with leaders punishing those that criticise them and the world starts to make sense to me. Does it to you?

Please think deeply about it. Its very very important that you do. Globalisation and the internet means that we live in turbulent times. Different social groups with extremely differing views are being forced together. Whether it will get worse or better is up to each and every one of us to take responsibility and act..The world is absurd because people do absurd things and we permit the absurdity. It can't go on.

What Ive been doing is 

a) Promoting the view that status, wealth and power gained by violent immoral means is not sexually attractive. It is a short cut, or cheat, used by low status individuals to jump up or maintain a high position in the group hierarchy. (How many dictators were nobodies in their early lives?)

b) Promoting atheism, so the difference between social groups is reduced.

c) Ridiculing world leaders to reduce their status and power.

d) promoting democracy, feminism and human rights, all of which reduce the status and power of leaders and so lessen their ability to boss others about.

e) Promoting longtermism, (but not at the expense of short term failure).

f) Calling for an end to tribalism - ultimately humanity should be one big social group (but respecting differing cultures - the world would be very boring indeed with out cultural diversity).

g) Calling for it to be a basic human right that you don’t have to follow immoral orders, which will reduce the power of group leaders.

h) Promoting the sharing of resources, which will reduce wars over scarcity. 

Even if you don't agree with the above, the question needs an answer, why are humans always fighting, and how do you prevent it?

Methodology

The  style of the essay "How to prevent wars" may be unusual to many. My approach is as follows.

a) Examine my own behaviour and what motivates it. ie know myself. 

b) Assuming that I'm just a normal typical human, I assume that my behaviour and motivations apply to others. Therefore find and present evidence that confirms this assumption. ie Seek first to understand.

c) Scale up this behaviour and the motivations behind it to examine if they apply to nations and globally in differing cultures . The assumption is that people are behind world events and all people are basically the same. From my travels and reading, I think this is so.

d) Assuming a) to c) are true, use this knowledge and understanding, for a practical purpose ie change the world, stop wars. 

Upon reading d) you may think I'm a romantic fool, and I would agree it sounds crazy on the face of it. However, the rewards are so high ie a world without war, and my life so insignificant, that I'm 100% committed. What's to lose? 

If people don't like my ideas (those group leaders in power), but I'm right, I predict I will be rejected, threatened, portrayed as mad, locked up as insane, bumped off (the ultimate from of group punishment). But so what, I'm old and I've had a great life. If I'm  wrong, I will be ignored, perhaps laughed at, and that doesn't matter either. I've risen above group approval.

It's absolutely fantastic to be so free! 

Hierarchy of Needs - Social acceptance is top, not self Actualisation

                
                                                
Introduction

When I was younger and being told what to learn and what to do, I was introduced to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This theory sets out a ladder of human needs and assumes that the higher you climb the ladder, the happier you will be. At the top of the ladder (at the time) was Self - Actualization which to this day I’ve never really understood. I would have rather scored a wining goal in the FA cup final than Self Actualised. Today I would ask, how does a never ending endeavour to learn and self improve fit into a hierarchy? As far as I’m concerned I’m ignorant and flawed and project Prew will never end. You can never reach all that you can become, because it is a moving target that you can never hit. If you get close to your goals, you can obviously achieve even more.

Know Yourself  

I used to be a construction project manager, and because this gave me a comfortable life style, the proceeds of which I continue to live off, I think I can conclude that I was good at it. I was lucky enough to be able to look at a project, clearly define the objectives, recognise the risks, eliminate the risks, organise people and motivate them, so that when it was all over, there was much back slapping and self congratulation at the pile of cash the client had made. Unfortunately they never slapped my back. “Ah Trevor, that project was easy“, they'd say “We didn’t really need to employ you, did we?” Or another comment would be “Trev - all those worries and risks you talked about at the start, none of them happened did they?” "No of course they didn't, I had managed them out of existence" I would think to myself.  So,  I had worked damn hard, on some very high risk projects, and no one understood or appreciated what I had done.  It felt so unfair, but I suppose I shouldn’t complain, they always paid my fee invoice on time.

Seek First to Understand

So from my personal perspective, project success was not enough, I also wanted to be recognised by my clients and colleagues, my social group, as a great project manager. When this was once again deigned me, on what I considered to the be riskiest project I ever pulled off (total project failure was very probably - an unusable building or total collapse at completion!) I decided to put two fingers up  to the world and retire. If my social group didn’t appreciate me, they can all go and hang!

So does the importance of social group approval apply to others or is it just my problem? Well lets think about scientists.

What would be the pinnacle of a Scientists career? “To discover some great fundamental truth of the world” you might say, but is this enough? If you discovered a unified grand theory that was completely true but no one acknowledged it as such, you would certainly be self actualized, but would you be happy?. It would probably drive you mad, knowing what you knew, but no one is listening or understanding. It would be like Cassandra, being given the gift of the ability to predict the future, but no one believing your predictions. It would make you howl with frustration.

So I say the pinnacle of a scientist's career is not only to make a great discovery but also to get a Nobel for it, which means he/she will forever have the adulation of the scientific social group, and if its noticed by the public, the whole world. Richard Feynman wrote about the proudest day of his life was when he drove into the university car park and parked next to all the other Nobel prize winners. So for him the pinnacle of his career was a coveted parking space! Social group acceptance confirmed!*

Darwin, when he had worked out the details of natural selection, and had written Origin, which is one of the great leaps in human understanding, what did he do? He hid the manuscript in a draw and didn’t publish for over a decade. Why did he do this? It makes no sense. But if you look at it from a social group perspective, it makes perfect sense. He knew that if he published, his group, that was dominated by creationist Christian thinking, would lead to nothing but trouble, namely group rejection. So he hid it away. It wasn’t until Russell  independently came up with the same theory that he decided to come out and jointly they introduced the theory of natural selection to the world. At least he had a social group of two, him and Russell.

So based on my own experience and a couple of examples, (that's good enough for me because I'm lazy and easily bored!!) I propose that the pinnacle of human  endeavour is group adulation, and the larger the group the better. If you achieve fame and glory you will even achieve everlasting group acceptance, as your name will be remembered forever.

(The above  has a heavy male bias. A Women’s opinion or examples would be very welcome)

Better to go to Troy, young Achilles, and achieve everlasting fame, than stay at home and live like a sheep.

In my essay “How to prevent War” I proposed that the primary motivation for humans is to reproduce, because it’s programmed into our selfish genes. Am I not contradicting myself with the above? Well not if you ask why do people  crave group acceptance? Lots of group acceptance means more people will like you and that means more sex and therefore more reproduction if male or better genes if female. But why seek everlasting fame after you have reproduced? Well your genes want to be passed on,  not just to the next generation, but also into all the future generations to come. If you are famous, wont all your children be attractive too? And their children also? This makes sense to me, rather than a hierarchy of needs. High group acceptance ie status (and the power and wealth that goes with it) gives your genes an advantage in the natural selection game, now and well into the future. This explains why hereditary honours were the most coveted reward a monarch could bestow on a loyal subject. It rewards not just your self but your future generations. 

But choose your social group wisely.

*I’m sure I read this in “Surely you are joking Mr Feynman”  but I can’t find it - there’s no index. It may have been a different  Nobel prize winner altogether!!! I hope you  can accept the  point I’m making anyway. Perhaps it’s in “Chaos” a book I obtained from the library, so I don‘t have a copy to check.

How to Prevent Wars

Introduction

When I stood in the darkness of a railway waggon that had carried Jews to the concentration camps to be industrially murdered, I found the horror of being a human being too much to bare. I turned and ran. From then on, like many who have experienced war, I tried not to think about it and certainly never talked about it. But the experience remained.

Then came covid and the lock downs. For the first time in my life, I was stuck indoors and unable to explore the world as I pleased and I was bored. With all the fear, panic and talk of death in the air, I thought I might write something of what I had learnt during my life, so that others might read something useful, and perhaps my life wouldn’t have been a completely self indulgent (but enjoyable) waste of time.

Know Your Self

The first essay was “A history of the world of the World in a Single Object” in which that waggon resurfaced. Whilst shaking and crying with emotion. I let my mind and imagination run free and forced out what was within. What was it like to be an ordinary person on that train, why didn’t they resist, why did they let themselves be herded meekly like sheep onto those damn waggons? Then I imagined the guards. What motivated them to partake in such behaviour. Surely they knew what was going on - but what would I have done in their shoes?

The deep dark horrible truth is that I would have done exactly the same as them, and herded the Jews onto the waggon. It’s a horrible truth, and it still upsets me to write it now. I would have taken the easy option, not stood up to power, not challenged orders and invented a false truth that justified doing something that was terribly wrong. Herding Jews was much better for me than fighting on the Russian front, much better than being shot for disobeying orders, much better than having my family threatened by thugs. So I would have chosen the selfish easy path for myself, not the correct path that would have benefited the many.

I’m deeply ashamed of who I’m. But is this just my personal problem?   

Well from what I’ve read of history, ever since people could write it’s been wars, misery, destruction, slavery, rape and murder. Tribe fighting tribe, nation fighting nation, empires against empire. religious wars, civil wars, right up to present. Historians continue to chew over the violence and tragedy  without any emotional empathy for the people of the time and without any imagination of what it was like. We too, sit watching the news while seeing tanks blown up, homes destroyed, lives wrecked and then we switch off and watch cat videos and worry about our fuel bills. We choose not to think. We choose not to look into the waggon and face up to the fact that we all have the capacity permit or do evil within us. (see Rebecca Myers work with violent prisoners)

Is this how its going to be forever? Will it be wars forever more, as long as humans exist? The current evidence is Yes.  It would appear it is human nature to do what is easiest for the self and not what is morally right. If we carry on as we are, ie choose the easy path, not the morally correct path that would benefit all, the future looks bleak or maybe non existent for humans. (Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The planet will settle back into equilibrium and the next civilization to develop won’t have fossil fuels available because we will have used them all up!)

(See also the experiments of Milgram 1963 which explored humans ingrained trait of following orders, although my interpretation (unscientifically tested) is that humans choose, regardless of others, the path of least discomfort or maximum gain for themselves, especially when not genetically, culturally or geographically related to those others),

Seek first to Understand

If you have read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, you will have recognised the resonances with his Congo and my waggon. Conrad saw the world as a giant absurd machine that keeps spewing out utter madness, desolation and despair and all we can do is stand and stare, powerless to turn it off or stop it. Voltaire thought similar, in Candide he concludes we should all hide in our gardens. Well I agree that the world is absurd, but I don’t agree that we are powerless to change it. The world is absurd because people do absurd things, and we stand by and let them. If we could understand human nature, and why wars are fought we can use this knowledge coupled with the power of the internet, to disseminate ideas and bring about immense change and a much better future world. The Enlightenment happened after the printing press was invented, so lets get the second enlightenment underway using the world wide web.

So what is a human? Like all life forms, humans are programmed to firstly survive, secondly reproduce successfully, and additionally, as we get older, to help bring up successful grand kids and community youngsters. Then we die because  the genetic mutations that affect old age cannot be weeded out by natural selection. And that’s it. Live, have kids, hang about to help, die. So why fight wars?

[Religion says this life is preparation for the next, but to me this idea is absurd. Once your body and brain stop functioning, that’s it, your time is up. So promoting atheism, gets rid of religious wars for starters. See my essay “Neurodegenerative diseases disprove the existence of a Soul and afterlife”  on my blog or Richard Dawkins excellent book “The God Delusion“. ]  
 
For most surviving is easily achievable. Because we live in social groups, we have the support of  parents and others that give mutual aid, food, education, healthcare and good governance that maintains law and order in a world of plenty. Humans have been known to fight just to survive, when resources such as food and water are in scarce supply and this will become a bigger problem in the future as global warming brings about rapid environmental change, However adaptation, migration and sharing of resources will reduce the risk of these types of wars, and people are in less of a position to fight when low on the basics of life. No, the serious  problems start when you have to find a mate to successfully reproduce. And this means competing with other human beings, whether you are male or female.

Males want to reproduce with the most beautiful, healthy, intelligent caring wealthy mother they can find so that their offspring are also attractive and their genes will be successfully reproduced down the eons. Also because the woman carries the child, it pays for males to fertilise as many women as possible to increase the chances of genes continuing into future generation. With men it’s quantity first, quality second.. Females want similar but because of the long time and resources it takes for mothers to bring up children, they want a long term, stable, well provisioned home with a caring father who will stick around to help in the years to come. (I can hear feminists howling, but I’m taking a biological view point to get at fundamental human motivations, stripped of cultural overtones). Also once females have got a good man and home for the kids, they can later have flings with sexy men (who are going for quantity) and this explains affairs after the first batch of kids is successfully being reared. (And why they continue to make themselves attractive after settling down with a Steady Eddie sort of chap!).

So we have males competing with males for as many of the best females as they can bed, and females competing with females for the best fathers, with a bit on the side to spice things up later.

What’s this got to do with war?.

Well I say that males competing with males leads to violence and war, as they fight to get the most wealth, power and status, which means they are in the best position to provide stable, well provisioned homes for the kids. What was Elizabeth Bennetts reaction when she went around Pemberly? Have you seen a young woman's face light up when she walks around a rich mans house? Is she thinking “I can fill this place up with kids?” Well I’m not a woman so what do I know and I accept this is a gross over simplification of humans who are very complex confusing creatures. However, if you are a man who doesn’t have wealth power and status, rather than work hard to get it, why not inspire others to come and fight and take it from those who do. “Lets all go on a Viking raid, it will be fun and exciting” As a young man (who knew nothing of war) I  would have gone. The stakes are high, you might get killed, but the potential rewards are huge - a palace and harem, servants, and all the pleasures of life. (Religious leaders con men to fight wars saying they will get this reward in the next life, whilst they continue to enjoy the pleasures of this one. It‘s unbelievable people still fall for it!).

Of course, if you are a man who already has wealth power and status, but are afraid of losing it, war is a means of holding on to power. Doesn’t this explain the current Ukraine / Russia war with Putin (whose current girl friend is a beautiful gold medal winning gymnast with excellent genes!) losing popularity and power and so launches an attack, that if successful will be popular, as his 2014 annexation of Crimea was. (Poor Ukraine - it should have kept it’s nukes).

Wealth, status and power are men’s peacocks tails that attract the opposite sex and war is a short cut to obtain them. And women permit wars because they want a share of the booty and the perceived protection of violent men.  Would men go to war if all women shunned them and denied them sex, I don’t think so. (But they might go to war to rape instead - horrid thought)

How to stop wars - 1) Religious wars

To stop religious wars, actively promote atheism  Religious people with deep beliefs will be offended but I am offended that they expect people to believe made up stories without evidence and usually forbid the teaching of other alternatives to children. It will be forever impossible to know what happens after death, because you can’t communicate with a dead person, but that is not an excuse to make up a load of stories to fill in for what is unknowable. There would be a danger of starting a new war of religion between believers and atheists, so education of the alternatives to religion is the answer and have faith that people will decide what makes more sense. There is also a danger of losing all of the wisdom and good things that the Worlds religions do but I don’t see that you have to believe in God or an afterlife to be wise and do good in the world. Educate people of humans natural selfish behaviour, but show them how much better the world would be if every one helped each other to be happy.

Once people accept there is no afterlife (which is a comforting but imagined idea) or a God to take care of things, they will value their lives much more and also the lives of others. Our Lives are a precious rare fragile thing of immense value and not something to be risked in a destructive war. We are all stuck on this planet together and we have to make it work. No greater power or being is helping or coming to help..

How to Stop wars - 2) Wars due to scarcity of resources.

As discussed above, humans must share resources, but not be greedy in their requests. Controlled migration must be accepted by every nation but we must accept that completely un controlled migration could cause more problems than it solves. We cannot  ignore geographical and cultural differences. (These are my Preliminary thoughts on migration - ignorance factor high!)

How to stop wars - 3) Wars to grab power.ie invasions and civil wars

 A) Democratic countries are less likely to go to war, as leaders have less power to order people around, so promotion of democracy must be continued. The uncensored internet will be a major player in getting rid of authoritarian regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party, which is a hang over from the last century, I call for the cutting of all trade with China because the CCP only stays in power because China is getting richer and the lives of the Chinese are improving. As soon as standards of living start to fall the Chinese will be looking for an alternative to the outdated ideas of the CCP. A peaceful change over is unlikely but not impossible, given the wise Chinese leadership that they possess in abundance if only it was given a chance. (An explanation for my pro democracy bias see “Why the West is Best and the evidence to Prove it” on trevorprew.blog.com
b) Promote Governments to take a longer term view. There is too much crisis management and not enough focus on important but not urgent matters. Governments should sign up to UNESCOs declaration of Responsibilities of current generations towards future generations. (Read the excellent 7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey If you haven’t already - concentrate equally on the important but not urgent,  as well as the urgent matters)
c) The idea that soldiers have no obligation to obey orders that are not for the defense of their country or are not morally right must be promoted. This will make doing the right thing easier and reduce the power of war mongering leaders to order people about. The UN should add something to the declaration of human rights, and see how authoritarian states howl in protest. However it will remain a personal responsibility to stand up to authority, and social networks must be used for brave people to stand together. This is why authoritarian states control/shut down the internet at the first sign of trouble.
d) Women must make it absolutely clear that they will have nothing to do with men who go to war or, promote war or violence in any way. It must be shameful to obtain wealth, power and status by violent means and clearly expressed that it is any way sexy..  This principal could also be used to reduce knife and gun culture. Real men don’t need weapon to solve their problems, weapons are not sexy.
e) In cases of civil war, which are more complex problems , use of violence must be condemned and arms sales halted. De-escalation and a return to political democratic processes should be encouraged by sending in overwhelming peace keeping forces or supporting the pro democratic side. What would have happened if the West went in to Syria? The second Iraq war and  Afghan war were a mistake by the west but so was not getting involved in the Arab spring, which degenerated into war that continues to this day. It may be that you just have to let all sides fight it out until they realize the futility of war but make it clear full support will be available to a democracy after the fighting is over. .
f) If an invasion  happens, all countries of the world, all the peoples of the world must come to the aid of the attacked, and, without escalating the violence, stand with and fully support that country  with hard hitting sanctions and military aid. Those inside the attacking country must do what ever is in their power to show that they do not agree with the violence. Protest on line and in the streets, hold vigils at dead pacifists graves, make it clear that the vast majority love peace. Acting together the violent oppressor can be faced down. Deign a warmonger the power and status they crave and they will back down no matter how high and mighty they think they are. A flood of disapproval will wash them away.
See my essay “Putin Craves social acceptability” on trevorprew.blogspot.com

In Summary

Wars happen because men want to be sexy and attractive to women, and women find wealthy, powerful, high status men sexy. . War provides an easy way to get the wealth, power status and sex. To stop wars change the culture - wars are not sexy.

To stop wars, recognise that humans are social animals that make selfish decisions for the benefit of themselves or their social group, even if they are morally wrong. They obey orders from their group leaders so they stay accepted by the group and thus maintain or increase their status,  Humans, and males in particular, crave social approval and without it they are nothing and unlikely to get much sex. So deign violent warmongers the approval and status they crave and we will have a peaceful world.

Act today. Make the world a better place.
 
Trevor Prew
trevorprew.blogspot.com

Footnote
The  style of this essay may be unusual to many. My approach is as follows.

a) Examine my own behaviour and what motivates it. ie know myself. 

b) Assuming that I'm just a normal typical human, I assume that my behaviour and motivations apply to others. Therefore find and present evidence that confirms this assumption. ie Seek first to understand.

c) Scale up this behaviour and the motivations behind it to examine if they apply to nations and globally in differing cultures . The assumption is that people are behind world events and all people are basically the same. From my travels and reading, I think this is so.

d) Assuming a) to c) are the true, use this knowledge and understanding, for a practical purpose ie change the world, stop wars. 

Upon reading d) you may think I'm mad, and I would agree it sounds crazy on the face of it. However, the rewards are so high ie a world without war, and my life so insignificant, that I'm 100% committed. Whats to lose? 

If people don't like my ideas, but I'm right, I predict I will be rejected, threatened, portrayed as mad, locked up as insane, bumped off (the ultimate from of group punishment). But so what, I'm old and I've had a great life. If I'm  wrong, I will be ignored, perhaps laughed at, but I've risen above group approval, so that doesn't matter either.

It's absolutely fantastic to be so free!