Citizen’s Lament

The results of the election for President of the United States on Tuesday Nov 11, 2016 is a day that brings me great sadness.  I regard it as a regrettable turning point in the rather short history of the American Republic.  On this day, the American electorate – or at least half of them – have knowingly chosen a man who has exhibited, during the campaign, behavior that clearly shows him to be mentally disturbed, a person lacking in moral principle, almost completely devoid of compassion for his fellow beings, bigoted towards huge portions of the American population and especially lacking in the intellectual acuity to appreciate the complexities of the modern world and the legitimacy of science.  To have such a personality replace a man of such stature, poise, acute intelligence, compassion and understanding is almost too much to bare.  President Obama is a true statesman and will be regarded as such by future historians.

The nation has apparently chosen the darkness.  The nation has apparently chosen “leadership” that has maintained that climate change is a hoax.  To accept such an idiotic and destructive point of view is to consign future generations to a hellish environment.  This is no small matter.  We should all be deeply concerned about the future of the planet we share with all of humanity.

The nation has apparently chosen a man who has little or no understanding of the complexity and nuances of international relations and has a distorted affinity to those authoritarian world leaders that he regards as strongmen.  He has already enlisted members of his cabinet who are outspoken advocates of violence and aggression as a legitimate tool of foreign policy.  They have shown themselves to be extremists that look upon all of Islam as the enemy and are bound to get us into war once again.  They are bigoted men who seem to look favorably upon torture and wholesale destruction.  They are individuals that operate on principles that can be likened more to fascism than a supposed democratic republic.

The nation has apparently elected an administration that insists upon finding scapegoats to explain the complex issues that surround the realities of economic life in America.  The flaws in our economy have as their source the fundamental reality of a system that is almost completely devoid of compassion and has created a grossly inequitable distribution of wealth in favor of the powerful.  Interestingly, Trump and the economic class he represents is closer to the source of the issues that befalls us than immigrants or Muslims or Blacks could ever be.

The nation has apparently decided upon a President that could quite possibly lead us down the dark road to Fascism – the man possesses all of the qualifications that clearly indicate his affinity towards such a worldview.  One need only study the rise of Nazism in Germany to see the disturbing similarities.

If we are not vigilant, the nation could face a deeply dark and devastating future from which we may not easily recover.  I am saddened by this possibility, for we have chosen a path to decline when so much more is possible.  

Reason, Compassion and Intellect Absent in American Politics

On November 8, 2016 Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States.  Although Hillary Clinton apparently received more populate votes, she lost the election as determined by electoral votes. 

During the campaign Trump demonstrated many characteristics that one would think would preclude him from any chance of winning this most powerful position within a pluralistic democratic system.  In my judgment, the preeminent cause for concern is a distinctly troubled mind and flawed intellect.  During the lengthy campaign, he demonstrated clear signs of paranoia and extreme narcissism and proved himself to be an unmistakable sociopath. 

He repeatedly showed himself to be exceedingly bigoted with clear disdain for people of color, for the disabled, for immigrants and especially hostile towards women.  In addition, his capacity to comprehend the complexities and nuances of foreign policy is questionable and of concern especially in regards to his open support for the use of torture and his apparent infatuation with alleged strongmen like Vladimir Putin of Russia.  One of the most troubling aspects of his intellect is his inability to recognize the worldwide threat posed by climate change that he has labeled as a hoax.  The reality of climate change could very well pose the most significant threat to humanity’s future.

These negative attributes were apparently not enough to dissuade tens of millions of people from choosing him to be President of the United States and to represent this nation within the family of nations   The shock waves of this electoral result still reverberate domestically and around the globe and will no doubt continue for years to come as he attempts to implement some of his extremist notions.

As a people, we should prepare ourselves for a social, economic and political climate of continual turmoil and unrest.  It would not be surprising to see once again the insidious face of war rising within our midst.  What else can we expect in a climate where reason, compassion and intellect have been successfully voted out.

During such times, our voices should not be muted.  To the contrary, we need to focus our attention on the resuscitation of reason, of compassion and intellect.  The opposition to fascism needs to be clear, determined and persistent; otherwise, we could risk a repetition of the darkest aspects of our collective past.

The Tragedy of 21st Century America

The long and agonizing political campaign leading to the Presidential election of 2016 is nearing its torturous end.  The candidates for the President – Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and Donald Trump of the Republican Party could not hold more disparate political, economic and social points of view regarding the American future. 

For me, Donald Trump represents the antithesis of my worldview, my personal outlook and my political philosophy.  This election is like no other that I have ever experienced.  It is my conviction that it is an indicator of the tragedy of 21^st century America.  The nation is dramatically polarized and the differences seem irreconcilable.

In my judgment, Donald Trump has managed to give credence to all the fears, disappointments, feelings of personal inadequacy and sense of rage that have been festering within the minds of those who find his message appealing.  He has opened up a Pandora’s Box within the national psyche.  The repressed feelings and personal conclusions that have found release reflect the endemic racism, prejudice, sexism and xenophobia that have haunted the American scene since its very inception.  They represent exceedingly volatile feelings of resentment and personal inadequacy within this rapidly changing modern world of humans held for so long by a significant portion of the American population especially within the white male community.  Furthermore, it was the national ascendancy of a remarkably intelligent and successful Black man as President that more than likely helped reignite these perceptions.

In fact, the American system of education and American-style capitalism have failed this population completely.  As a consequence, they feel left-behind and disposable within an economic system that regards nearly everything as a commodity to be exploited. 

What is currently unfolding in American life is reminiscent of what occurred in pre-World War II Germany.  Adolph Hitler found scapegoats for the economic and social malaise that gripped Germany during that era in the Jews, Gypsies and the Communists.  For Donald Trump, the “villains” have been identified as the Immigrants and the Muslims for the most part.

Whatever side manages to become “victorious” in this election will not prove to have any curative value in regards to the sickness that haunts this country.  These forces, once unleashed, cannot be contained or restrained any longer.  There is a new norm that is arising on the political scene that is quite unsettling.

In spite of any well-meaning optimism, America is not the country we would like to envision and probably never has been.  Historically it is a nation steeped in feelings of intense racism, an endemic fear of difference and a mistaken and severely overblown sense of exceptionalism within the world arena.

America seems to possess all the hallmarks of a civilization on the decline.  It has become a bloated militaristic state with a well-armed citizenry where the economic spoils are going to an exceedingly small proportion of the population leaving a huge wave of deprivation in its wake.  Ironically, the person chosen to soothe the angst of those that have felt abandoned is exactly the person that has taken full advantage of his position of wealth that is at the root of the nation’s ills. 

The Human Brain - A Truly Marvelous Organ

I would like to spend some time talking about the marvelous organ we all possess and reliably take for granted – the human brain.  On average the human brain weighs between 1300 and 1400 grams (about 3 pounds).

This marvel of neuronal circuitry.  possesses about 90 billion neurons – those remarkably specialized cells designed to carry information through electrical impulses.  It has been demonstrated that the brain consumes nearly a quarter of all the energy the body produces in order to keep it functioning.

The Neuron

It is within this organ that consciousness arose during the course of  human evolution.    This profoundly organized structure is the site where all our perceptions arise and is the origin of our personal identity and our personality.   This brain is the site not only of our often unruly emotions but also of all the elemental qualities that make us sentient beings – our intellect, our ability to reason, to learn, to think, to analyze the world around us, to problem solve, as well as our creativity and our judgment.  It is also the center of our moral and ethical universe.

My point is that this marvelous organ that we possess is capable of so much more than we seem able to utilize.  With this amazing organic wonder, we can certainly fashion a better and more sustainable world than the one we have created to date.  Collectively, we have done an abysmal job at fashioning viable and enduring habitats for the globally far flung members of our species.  Instead, we have allowed short-sited and often emotionally-charged visions of our world to dominate our thinking and shape our misguided perceptions as to what constitutes successful living.  We have allowed the darker elements of our psyche - embedded within the lower brain - such as fear, vanity, violence and greed to dominate our thinking and sculpt our existence.

We are quite capable of transforming the world of humans into one in which all people can prosper and develop into individuals that actively discover and realize their full capabilities and potential.  We are quite capable of creating a world where hunger and war and needless suffering are effectively eliminated and one in which the future holds promise for everyone.  We are quite capable of finally and irrevocably removing ourselves from the endless cycle of violence and retribution that we have endured for millennia.

Why we continue to fail so miserably at realizing what we already possess is a mystery that continues to haunt me and will most certainly pursue me to my grave.