When Our Premises Don’t Align With Our Deepest Beliefs

How ‘Good’ People Spend Their Lives Pursuing The ‘Wrong’ Things

Introduction:

The stimulus that led to this effort was a moment of serendipity; the discovery of a book entitled ‘This I believe.’ First published in 1952, it is a collection of the beliefs of 100 people, described in very short essays (2 pages or less). Many of them are ‘famous,’ ‘accomplished,’ ‘successful’ people. Some are just regular ole folks, like you and me.

The testimonies were collected and edited by Edward R. Morrow, who famously, and presciently, ended his radio and TV shows with the iconic line: ‘Good night and good luck.’ Since I no longer am sure that there are ‘coincidences,’ I should mention that I found the book in a cabin on Islesford, or Little Cranberry Island, the ‘Mecca’ of my life, a small island about a mile off the coast of central Maine. The view from the back porch faces Mount Cadillac and Acadia National Park. And so……

Social Darwinism, a criminal twisting of the man’s actual discoveries, has long contained the dominant social theory in much of the world, none more so than in the USA. Darwin, a deeply humanistic man with beliefs that would undoubtedly have him considered to be a Democratic Socialist, is spinning in his grave.

The corollary premise is that our challenge as human beings is to overcome our ‘nature’ with ‘nurture,’ an equally misguided effort, based on the gross misunderstanding of both terms. Since our society, really the entire world, now faces the possibility of a 6th mass extinction, let’s see if we can at least clear away some of the garbage that passes for ‘science.’

Let us begin with the (in)famous phrase, ‘survival of the fittest.’ There is a deep truth in those words, but it doesn’t lie in making ‘fittest’ a synonym of ‘physically strongest.’ First the obvious. Without our weaponry - from rocks to stone flints on spears and arrows to…… - we would be easy pickings for most beasts of prey; probably would have been among the 99% of species to have gone extinct.

What makes us among the fittest is our incredible ability to adapt to changing environments, beginning with the development of those early weapons that allowed us to live in relative safety and provide ourselves with needed nourishment.

We also learned to fashion clothing to protect us from inclement weather, to build houses that did the same, including some amazing forms of ‘air conditioning’ based on a rather sophisticated understanding of air currents, building materials, etc.

So our intelligence combined with opposable thumbs were essential. I would add an insatiable curiosity with which almost all are born, a fever for learning that is now systematically stomped out by our ‘sit down, shut up, get in line’ form of ‘education.’ But I stray. Sigh.

If I have accurately chosen the premises on which ‘civilization’ is built, then it should come as no surprise that we are gearing up for our Thelma & Louise moment, which brings us back to ‘This I believe.’

Of particular note are the folks who spent their entire lives in the pursuit of money, power and prestige, but when asked to write down what they believed, every single one of them said that none of those things were as important as being kind, helpful, caring, and loving.

Many proclaimed deep religious convictions, and many were what we call ‘active in the community’ - sitting on boards, church committees, and various philanthropic organizations. They were ‘good citizens’ doing their ‘civic duty.’

But here’s the thing. None of them changed the way they spent their ‘official’ time, and few seemed to see the disparity between their beliefs and their daily pursuits. They didn’t (couldn’t?) recognize the fundamental contradictions that their lives represented. Doing so would have meant questioning their acceptance of the plague of Social Darwinism, or their religious belief that we are all born ‘sinners,’ inevitably prone to those seven deadly desires.

If, however, we had a better understanding of who or what we are, and if we were prepared to act on that understanding, we might have a chance at survival. Let’s make a list of a few corrections we should make in our self-consciousness.

1. We are animals, a part of Nature, not something ‘above’ or ‘apart from’ it.

2. Living in harmony with the rest of Nature is the only sustainable option. Trying to ‘conquer’ or ‘overcome’ it will lead to our extinction.

3. Our primal instincts are to do what ‘works.’ What works is living within our means, taking only what we absolutely need.

4. We will not ‘save the Earth.’ That arrogance needs to disappear from our minds. Earth has survived much worse plagues than those we have wrought.

There are more, of course, but those would be a start.

These changes, especially # III, present us with a real doozy of a question. Would life be worth living in such a world? Some of us oldsters could probably get along without smart phones, the Internet, etc. Hell, when AI takes over completely, I’m gonna try to do so.

I have just completed five years living on borrowed time. Modern medicine brought me back from 4 heart episodes within a 36-hour span and installed 5 stents in my coronary arteries, all without slicing me open! I was one of the lucky ones whose insurance (Medicare + a supplemental plan) paid for virtually all of it.

The species, however, will ‘soon’ suffer the consequences of depleting the natural resources needed to manufacture and operate the miraculous machines that saved my life and that of countless others. So do we ‘go out’ with a bang or a whimper? I’m not sure we will have a choice.

Strangely enough, I have found a deep comfort in acknowledging all of this. My wide range of reading over the past few years has reinforced my belief in the basic goodness of our species, despite all of the evidence to the contrary. I hang that positivity on the more profound understanding of humans that reading has given me; an understanding that convincingly dismisses much of the BS that ‘justifies,’ or at least ‘explains’ the varied horrors we visit upon our fellows.

For thousands of generations we lived ‘within our means’ by simply doing what ‘worked.’ No, we will not, cannot, purposely return to being hunter-gatherers, but perhaps, after what now seems an inevitable collapse, any survivors can find ways that ‘work.’ Meanwhile, let’s just be the best human beings we can be. Peace.