Reflections on travel - people's fear - DNC's impotence

 Dear DNC Fundraisers, please realize your relentless deluge of fund raising texts - filled with melodramatic to hysterical messaging - is counter-productive.   If the Democratic Party isn't changing minds, we are losing! 

I had a travel day, which meant a chance to talk to and listen to people, watch them, think about the general state of things.

It was quite depressing trying to have intelligent fun conversations with people - it’s like so many are on a razor's edge, a layoff away from personal financial and emotional collapse - so many people who have built big facades, but with futures that are filled untenable expectations - especially in this MAGA age of self-inflicted wounds - and the gears starting to grind.  There is no rescue in sight, it would require millions who haven't shown any interest so far.   All the while, the Haves can only dream of spending and squander yet more!

As we keep moving closer to a maelstrom, lost as can be, because most have never bothered to develop any deeper scientific or philosophical self-understanding, an enlightened emotional appreciation for ourselves as a product of Earth's processes.  With a mind that our body creates and limitations that ought to respected.  

But most are too busy worrying about what others are thinking of them, and putting on airs, to hide weaknesses we'd rather not face. 

Too busy creating problems and worries to fret over, to have the time and focus to bring it back down to simple basics - like coming to terms with why you are here.  One way or the other.  

Like living your life, going through its seasons, having dreams and pursuing them,  the storms and the beautiful days, and the people, kin and friends and community.  Seeing what you've made of what the universe offered as we stumble through our individual days, and so on.

Considering current conditions - we’ve handed our government over to despots, who have complete (ignorance of, and) contempt for USA’s pluralistic future looking ideals and laws of the land. As well as contempt for agreements made and regulations, as well as, understanding history, the rule of law, education, expertise, cooperation, pragmatic goodwill and FairPlay. Not to disregard for dealing with the world populations and human relation from a position of sober rational appreciation for today’s reality, *not yesterday’s domination.* And so on and so forth.

A Democracy has always demanded a respect for ideals we’ll never live up to.  We still want to acknowledge their importance and striving to do better, (not regress into another dark ages).

Healthy Democracies demand an informed and engage electorate,

We needed a large cross-section of citizens understanding the workings of governing within democratic principles as practiced by being active in special taxing governing boards, local governments, civic and other organizations that follow [Robert’s Rules](https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/) of [Order](https://www.forakergroup.org/is-robert-in-the-room-rethinking-how-we-use-roberts-rules-of-order/)

Now in this time and place the single most important and significant thing the Democratic Party could do is rethink their nonstop donations demands, which I think is pissing off, more than helping attract participation - DNC needs to realize that text space should start being used to help inform, engage, strategize (with the donation pitch at the bottom!!).  Help us citizens network with like-minded - let democracy grow.

We need substantive helpful information and connection building. A suggestion: Why not a private Democratic online discussion forum?   

This would enable the DNC to communicate directly with interested voters; it would be a platform to inform, engage, motivate and help us network directly with likeminded. 

Can the Democratic Party leaders do that? Probably not. Especially if the DNC “brain trust” of the past decades isn’t tossed out.

Anything less will accomplish nothing, except for normalize our government’s literal self-destruction.

Dear DNC Fund Raisers, take a break.

Please realize your relentless deluge of fund raising texts - filled with melodramatic to hysterical messaging - is counter-productive.   

If the Democratic Party isn't changing minds, we are losing!  

DNC needs to inform, engage, and motive us!  These constant texts do nothing but irritate and worse - they drive people away because we are tapped out.  Instead, why not help us regular grassroots people network with likeminded Democrats to raise awareness.  Let's recapture the sense of the community spirit that once fueled our democracy.

We need substantive helpful information and connection building. 

A suggestion: Why not a private Democratic online discussion forum.  

That eternal question, Who Am I? In 169 words.

 

Who Am I?

I am an evolved biological sensing creature, a filament in the pageant of Earth’s evolution.

I am the product of nearly half a billion years of Earth’s uninterrupted generations of research and development and reproduction.

My Body/Brain is the cumulative product of Earth’s evolutionary processes; 

My Mind is the cumulative product of my Body/Brain interacting with my world (interior & exterior);

My God(s) along with all of my other thoughts are the product of my Mind.

I appreciate and respect the Physical Reality ~ Human Mind divide(with its many cascading implications) and believe it’s about the most fundamental observation we can make regarding our human condition and it is worth ruminating on since all else proceeds from there.

I respect and appreciate serious science as our best chance to understand ourselves and the Earth that sustains us. I also believe that the science of our Earth/biology/evolution and deep time offer opportunities for spiritual revelations, challenges and resolutions well beyond what our self-created ego-driven religions can offer. 

 

Democratic Party online Forum. To help us network and build community. Why not try it.

Democratic Party leaders how will you start reconnecting with alienated voters whose budgets won’t allow for constant political donations?

Oh if wishes were horses and I had tons of money, then someone at Democratic headquarters would listen to this suggestion.  We could talk it around until a big wig decides to take the idea for themself and make it happen. Politics at its best.
Now it’s the proverbial, … never mind.  Now, if you think it's a good idea, pass it along.

DNC’s never ending assault of political donation demands have become counter productive. We need ideas and community and encouragement.

What’s worse is the melodrama, rarely do those Democrat texts communicate any constructive information or reason to engage.

We need substantive helpful information. We need something with teeth that engages.

One suggestion, why not a private Democratic online discussion forum.  The DNC could communicate directly with interested voters; create a platform to inform, engage, motivate and help us network directly with likeminded.

Give us something to help build a little tangible feelings of solidarity.

Muthukrishna - Theory of Everyone vs. Earth's Ultimatum

A CFI member recommended that I listen to this interview of Michael Muthukrishna. I’ve listened to it twice and enjoyed the interview, especially the first 50 minutes about how we got here. Some fine observations that sync with my understanding. I made plenty of notes and will save them incase someone shows an interest in discussing the talk.  What I want to discuss happened 51 minutes into the discussion. 

Sean Carroll's MIndscape Podcast #255

Michael Muthukrishna on Developing a Theory of Everyone

Can we even imagine a “Theory of Everyone,” providing basic organizing principles for society?

Michael Muthukrishna (Ph.D. in psychology) believes we can, and indeed that we can see the outlines of such a theory emerging, based on the relationships of people to each other and to the physical resources available.

Michael Muthukrishna received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of British Columbia. He is currently Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. … His new book is A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going.       podbean.com   Video Link

“Phase transition in mental ability” - an interesting key concept, I like it. Are human’s capable of such a thing? I ask because reality challenged the entire human race in the 1960s to ‘70s.  It came as a realization and warning that humanity and Earth had entered dangerous unchartered existential territory.

Thanks to science we were increasingly taking on Godly powers and our population had entered an exponential population explosion, while Earth's natural systems and landscapes had limits who's crossing would start increasingly damaging those complex systems that support human society, and if we were really careless, we could even trigger events leading to our extinction.

The choice was simple, slow down a little, use a little forethought and wisdom before rushing into the unknown.  To recognize and learn from our mistakes.  Learn more about Earth’s processes.  Strive to work with those processes.  Instead the powers-that-be decided citizens should hold nature and Earth's needs in contempt.

Free Will in terms of tiny daily decisions. (forum.centerforinquiry.org)

 I participate at Center of Inquiry Forum.  It's small, only a few of us old guys/gals, I keep hoping others would discover us, but I'm told: discussion isn't a "thing" anymore.  Maybe that helps explain the mess our society is in.  Some new voices on the platform would be fun.  Recently a member shared a few paragraphs about his experience and I felt like following up and sharing from my experience.  For this blog I'll single out a few sentence, visit the CFI forum for the discussion:

"...  First needed item to change it to really need and want to change. And you need help, And you need to have the will to pay the price.

At 30 I was in a dead end, I needed to change, 2 years of psychotherapy. It was hard. I finished some sessions crying."

I've developed a well defined perspective, a specific frame of reference I hope is worth sharing  An evolution respecting Earth Centrist perspective.  Something I'd love to discuss with anyone who 'gets it' - or at least is curious.  Thus I share.  The following was my follow on, (though it is going to go through some changes as I clean and rewrite for this blog).

Thanks for sharing that. I hope it’s okay to extent it into a bit of a dialogue, because thinking of what you’ve gone through, of course makes me think of what I’ve been through. We’ve had different journeys, but we’re healthy humans and it seems to me key events are similar, such as needs for partners/friends, careers, community, etc.  We go through the same emotional roller coasters, have similar needs, our challenges are relatable.  Though I was very lucky and my twenties were '75 to '85 and the road was welcoming for this clean cut nice guy.  Jobs were plenty for those who showed up, and cared, and were reasonable competent, along with being enthusiastic students.

Philosophy Club - Is Belief in God Rational?

I should be going to bed, but my head is full of dancing memories from this evening’s (Dec 3rd) panel discussion that had four FLC professors debating the question: “Is belief in God rational?” Excellent stories told and arguments offered, claims made and responded to with counterclaims and more questions, as words upon words cascaded over each other.

Not for the first time. I found myself wondering, if philosophy’s goal is to help us understand, why the love for adding layers upon layers of creative complexity and hairsplitting that often obscures the fundamentals? After all, it is the simple fundamentals that make a coherent understanding possible?

I come at this God question from a different, and apparently somewhat unique Earth Centrist, science respecting, bottom up, evolutionary perspective that I’d like to share with you. 

Is Belief in God Rational?

To me, that framing feels like a trick question of sorts

God is a belief in itself.

God is not a Thing.

Regarding people’s faith in a God - I ask, how does an assumption of God get transmuted into a Thing?

Is a belief in a belief rational?  ( Is faith rational? )

I’d say sure, from an evolutionary and pragmatic societal perspective, there are a host of reasons faith in meta-physical beliefs could and does bring benefits to believers. 

Regarding what God is, that needs to start with resolving the ageless question, “Who Am I?”  

Fact is, I, we, are evolved biological animals, the product of half a billion unbroken years of Earth’s processes.  

From the beginning all creatures have required a degree of awareness, processing and action abilities, each according to their individual biological complexity and kind.  Ours is simply the most advanced mind, thanks to our incredible evolved body and its experiences.

Still, our thoughts are the interior reflection of our body communicating with itself as it processes incoming information from within and outside. (See Drs. Solms, Damasio, Sapolski, etc. for details.)  It is our body and brain interacting with physical reality that produces our mind, our sense of self, all our thoughts - collectively our Mindscape.  

The inevitable conclusion from the full scope of relevant biological/physical sciences is that consciousness is not a thing, it is an interaction.  Our Consciousness is produced in the living moment by our living body.

As with the dynamo that stops producing electricity when it stops spinning - so too when our body stops living, our mind/consciousness ceases to be produced, after that, we become memories within those we leave behind.

It seems to me self-evident from the above that our God’s must be a product of our thoughts, which in turn, are driven by personal biological imperatives, needs, ego, bias, etc.  

The Hard Problem is figuring out why such a straightforward observation - that our body/brain interacting with the world produces our mind - is so assiduously avoided.

Our Gods are very real, still we should be very clear, our Gods belong to the meta-physical realm.  

Gods are not part of this physical reality that makes up the biology of our bodies, nor the substance of this miracle planet Earth that created us to begin with, along with the rules all of Earth’s nature operates under.

Key concepts:  Appreciating the ‘Physical Reality ~ Human Mind divide.’

Appreciating that our living body produces our thoughts, and that our Gods are born from within our own ego-centric thoughts. 

***

The other question discussed was: “Does Morality Require God?”  

How can it, if we create our own Gods? 

For me, that realization puts the responsibility right back upon us humans, collectively and individually.

Thank you.  

Peter Miesler 

Remembering our Loss of John F Kennedy, and it's long shadow

 On this day in 1963, at about the time I’m typing this, recess was over for the younger kids at John J. Audubon elementary school. I found myself climbing back up the stairs to my third grade classroom when I overheard an older boy coming down the stairs for their recess time. He was telling his friend, “did you hear, they shot the president.”

My parents being civic and interested in the politics and world affairs, plus proud Democrats, we knew all about our President. For my sibs, along with millions of other Americans back then, the Kennedy’s were like distant relatives, meaning it was personal - and the words were like a punch in the belly. Reinforced by our sad struggling teacher explaining what was being broadcast on the news and informed us school was over for that day and that we should go home to our families. We left school and all of us walked back home to be with our parents.