American Evolution: an Exegesis

For those who are curious; you may be many, or you may be nonexistent, in which case I am speaking into a void, I thought I'd explain in detail what I intended when I chose to title this blog "American Evolution." As is done with scripture, I chose to look at each word individually, in addition to their connection to each other.

American: This is easy.  I will be focusing on American issues.  The news I look into, respond to, and talk about is American, or at the very least affects America or Americans.

Evolution: Yes, I adhere to the theory of evolution.  If a better supported and incompatible theory supersedes this as a viable alternative, I may reconsider, but I don't consider religious texts to be hard evidence against this theory.  However, this is not solely concerned with the past and the origins of our species, but also with where we are going; how I see American culture developing, for better or worse.

Now for the two words together.

American Evolution: It is my hope to highlight, and perform my small part to advance, the evolution of America beyond the current state of today.  It is to point out the areas in need of improvement, and highlight a direction to head in, or a path to follow, as I see it.  I desire to see an evolution of consciousness in the American people.  I want to see a people who is educated, and capable of critical thinking.

We've reached a point in American society where we no longer trust our elected representatives to, well, represent us.  The prominence of political "outsiders" like Bernie Sanders (and yes, Donald Trump) are a testament to this growing zeitgeist.  Unfortunately, even amid the backdrop of this awakening to the corruption and disdain of the establishment for the desires and passions of its constituency (which I sincerely hope is a true awakening, with lasting repercussions, rather than a venting of steam into which will be spent the revolutionary fervor, allowing us to settle anew into the familiar complacency of lassitude and despondency) we as a people fall short, for even in the glimpsing of it, we lack the acumen to put that realization to good use.  This is by design.  It is also the hurdle I wish to see us surmount, and play out my little role in boosting us over.

Right now what unites American is a sense of pervasive dissatisfaction, but with what or whom, we are divided.  We have noticed that the narrative we are being fed does not make sense; we've dimly grasped that we are dreaming, but in that foggy way that does us little good.  We are trying to wake up, or at least learn to dream lucidly, but we lack the skills, and they are pumping us full of tranquilizers and anesthetics to keep us under.  It's time to pull out the morphine drip, and face reality.


It is no accident that this is but one letter away from American Revolution.  I see the process of evolution as an inherently revolutionary act.  We must change the way we see the world and interact with it.  If we do that, the status quo cannot remain intact.  Many of us, myself included, are strongly attached to the idea of America.  This attachment to the idea often causes us to don the rose-colored glasses with regards to the truth of America, and the truth is that we are not what we claim to be.  In a sense, we never have been.  Some of you may have the urge to shout epithets at the screen upon reading that, and if it were the end of the thought, I might even say you were justified; but it's not the end of the thought.  Because our history is a tangled mess of people who have been trying to be what we claim to be; and those who beat the drum louder than anyone else, while marching against the tide of history and the values that they would claim to represent.

Part of growing up is accepting the delusions an romantic misconceptions of your childhood.  Despite all of our self-righteous chest-slapping over our moral superiority, our history is filled with some of the worst atrocities in history.  Slavery, the Trail of Tears, the internment of Japanese Americans, mass incarceration, these are only a prominent few.  They need not define us, but we cannot pretend they are not a part of who we are as a nation.  They continue to shape us even now.  Racism did not end with Martin Luther King Jr.  Upton Sinclair didn't forever stop industry from mistreating its workers.  Women's suffrage did not win them equality.

The process of cultural evolution must be accompanied by a wide-spread personal evolution.  It is the responsibility of each of us to become better than we are.  It is our responsibility to pay attention and observe the world around us; our city, our state, our nation, and hold it accountable for being what we deserve it to be.

Thought Police

The FBI has a new plan to weed out divergent thoughts and control our minds.  In a story for AlterNet, Sarah Lazare reports on a plan by the FBI to spy on high school students across America, looking for signs of unorthodox ideologies.  It is "instructing" schools nationwide to report students who "criticize government policies" and speak against "Western corruption."

Ostensibly meant to spot signs of radicalization early and prevent terrorism, this makes any student suspect who has political views out of sync with the established, accepted modes of thought approved by the Party...I mean, by the Authorities.

Let us be clear, this new policy targets young Muslims, but it puts all of our young people at risk.  Among the views now included as suspicious are "anarchism," "animal rights extremism," and "environmental extremism."  This will strengthen the nefarious school-to-prison pipeline, and drags us a few steps closer to an Orwellian dystopia ala 1984.  Treating criticism with suspicion is an easy path to criminalizing dissent.  The Ministry of Love will be sending out its Thought Police any day now to ensure that we love Big Brother. The AlterNet article intervied Hugh Handeyside, staff attorney for the ACLU national security project, who speaks on the issue.

“Broadening the definition of violent extremism to include a range of belief-driven violence underscores that the FBI is diving head-first into community spying. Framing this conduct as ‘concerning behavior’ doesn’t conceal the fact that the FBI is policing students’ thoughts and trying to predict the future based on those thoughts.”

This would not be the first time the FBI curtailed our civil liberties in the name of security.  As early as 1946, J Edgar Hoover was compiling lists of American suspected of disloyalty, and in 1950, proposed a plan to suspend habeas corpus to detain over 12,000 Americans.  In the 60s through 1971 J. Edgar Hoover ran major campaigns against the civil rights movement, including both Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Panther Party with his Counter Intelligenge Protocol (COINTELPRO).  Hoover was famously quoted saying that "justice is incidental to law and order."

Since 9/11, the FBI has had unprecedented leeway in compiling information about American citizens in the name of national security.  The Patriot Act, the controversial domestic spying law made us a surveillance nation, and multiple sources allege that our civil liberties have been repeatedly violated ever since.  A report by the EFF claims that the FBI may have committed over 40,000 such violations between 2001 and 2008.  This included approximately 800 confirmed and reported violations of the law, executive order, or regulations regarding the acquisition of information.  Of these, about 150 were violations of Constitutional protections, FISA, or other laws governing intelligence gathering.  The EFF believes these 800 confirmed cases to be an underrepresentation.  Additionally, the report includes some 7000 more incidents the FBI claims were "potential" violations of civil liberties.  By extrapolation, the EFF reaches their estimate of 40,000 instances of misconduct.

The truth is that we don't know how often or how severely the FBI currently violates our rights, or to what degree such even exist any more.  However, it isn't hard to see that this new procedure, left unchallenged, would exacerbate an already tense issue, and put the heat to evaporating privacy rights.

I oppose the marginalizing of, and the casting of aspersions upon those who express alternate viewpoints.  We should not face suspicion for calling a spade a spade, and pointing out corruption where we see it.  Criticism of the government is not a dangerous act, it is our civic duty.  This policy is shameful.

Sing Out for Bernie: "Feel the Bern"

Time for another entry in the catalogue of Bernie Sanders themed music out there.  Today's post is about Patrick Crawford's rocking punk theme titled "Feel the Bern" after the catchy slogan of the Sanders campaign.

The lyrics are simple and cute, but the real strength of this piece is in the music and the beat.  Crawford knows how to rock.  I can see this song being used to fire-up the crowd at a rally, right before Bernie does a victory lap between two jets of pyrotechnics.  Yeah.  It's kinda like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfx07LNQK-0&index=23&list=PLx13XUpSaxm6dpDAxIfwz3dDCo_Ahyf1A

Sing Out For Bernie:
"Talk Bernie to Me"
"Hey Bernie Sanders"

Vox: "The rise of American authoritarianism"

In an article long enough to need a table of contents, Amanda Taub of Vox brings us an insightful and adroit look at the true phenomenon taking place behind the curtain of Donald Drumpf and his rise to prominence within the Republican Party.

It took me a few days to get through it, due to a combination of its sheer volume and the distressing nature of her findings.  It has been frequently said that the most troubling aspect of Trump's rise is not Trump himself, but the number of his supporters.  In itself, this is not surprising, but the article sheds light on what lies behind the droves of supporters the businessman-turned-reality-star has garnered.  The researchers have discovered that around 44% of Americans (who are mostly found in the republican party) display authoritarian personality traits.  Those with these authoritarian personalities tend to be fearful of foreign threats, and of social change, feeling personally threatened by a change in the structure of society.  In a climate like now, when they are encouraged to fear ISIL, Russia, and Iran; when they are afraid of terrorist attacks and the Zika Virus, when they see Gay Marriage becoming legal, immigration changing the demographics of society, and protesters shouting that "Black Lives Matter" they experience existential dread over their place in society, and desire a perceived "strong man" to take charge and tell them everything will be alright; that he'll make the scary bad guys go away. Enter Drumpf.  He fits their needs to a T.

The Good News
The article seems to suggest that they don't have the numbers to pull off a win in the General election.
The Bad News
The large number of authoritarians in America suggests that their anxieties and their desires will continue to exist as a force in politics long after this election.

Humanism: Physiological Needs

Humanist psychology, in line with humanist philosophy, chooses to examine people holistically, as a person who is more than the sum of their behaviors and experiences, and capable of great things, with an inward drive towards actualization.  It rejects previous deterministic models of human psychology by examining a person's subjective reality and perspective, and accounting for that person's free will.  It assumes a multitiered model of the prerequisites for humanity to be able to achieve that psychological imperative.  When the needs of each level have been met, the human may progress to the next stage of psychological achievement.  Each progressive stage cannot be reached, or at least not maintained, without a solid foundation of the lower order requirements.  If a person's basic needs are not being met, then they cannot fulfill their potential.  Today we will be talking about the most basic needs of humanity, the physiological.

A representation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, By J. Finkelstein - I created this work using Inkscape., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1315147

Physiological

As with any structure, if the base is weak, or incomplete, the structure will collapse.  Humanities most basic physiological needs form the foundation of the pyramid.  People cannot possibly live actualized lives, or have a sense of belonging and esteem if they do not have food to eat or a place to live.  It is essential for the functioning of an ethical society to provide for its people the basic physiological necessities of life.  Therefore, I view these as natural rights belonging to all people, not as granted by god, but by virtue of their humanity and the intrinsic.  Therefore the state is required to protect these human rights.

• Breathing: Duh
• Food and Water:  Everyone deserves food, without question.  As a natural right, I view this as one of the unalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.  Nothing takes away a person's right to food and water.   If a person cannot provide for their own feeding, then they must be fed.  I would oppose as a human rights violation any attempt to abridge the food stamp program that did not supplant it with a superior system.  This includes drug testing.  The use of, even addiction to, drugs cannot deprive a person of the right to eat.  Everyone deserves food, not matter the circumstances.
• Sex: Simply put, all humans of sexual maturity experience sexuality, and must be required to express that sexuality unpunished.  This includes all expressions of sexuality between mature and consenting individuals; man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, masturbation, abstinence, and any other.  It must be stressed that the right to abstain from sex is as integral to physiological needs as the right to sex itself.  Abstinence in this case can mean from sex as a whole, or from any undesired act thereof at any given instance.  Consent to sex on one instance does not imply consent to sex on another instance.  Consent can be given and withdrawn at will. 
• Sleep: Simple put, while no one can or should be legally required to sleep, most particularly not at any specified time, every human is entitled by right of humanity to sleep 8 hours a day should they desire it.  From a practical standpoint, this places an upper limit on the length of any legal work day. 
• Homeostasis: Scientifically, this refers to a sort of biological equilibrium amounting to freedom from excess heat and cold, and other factors.  From a practical standpoint, this refers to two things: clothes and shelter.  All people are entitled to a home address, and clothes to wear.  Chronic homelessness is unacceptable.  An argument could also be made that the right to homeostasis includes healthcare as a means of achieving that homeostasis.  This is, in fact, the position of the World Health Organization.
• Excretion: We all piss and shit.  Deal with it.  It's a right.  People who make you pay to use the toilet are jerks.

Implications

If we accept the premise that the aforementioned physiological needs of humanity are basic human rights, and the premise that it is the duty and purpose of government to defend human rights (such would be in keeping with the Enlightenment ideals in which the United States of America was formed), then it must naturally be concluded that the above needs of humanity must be met, and that it is the duty and purpose of government to ensure that they are met.  

I would also posit that if we are to hold to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, that the "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" guarantees us the right to pursue our greatest happiness--the elevation of ourselves to the pinnacle of our being; our true selves and our fullest potential.  It would be, in a sense, to evolve.

Humanism: What a Piece of Work is a Man!

I go by Renaissance Man on here in part because I believe in the principles of humanism, which first became popular during the Italian Renaissance, which proceeded to sweep throughout Europe and changed the entire way we conceive of ourselves and our place in the world.  I believe in the idea that human beings have inherent value, which doesn’t require God or the church to validate via some special code of action dictated from on high.  People have value because of what we are. 

“'What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god!”

This famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet sums up the humanist understanding of humanity.  Comparing us to angels and gods highlights the limitless capacity of human potential.   The ideal of the Renaissance Man was one who pushed themselves to be all that they could.  They explored every aspect of their abilities, refusing to limit themselves to one job, or one narrow focus for their life, and to become complete, whole, to strive for greatness.  In a sense, it was a push for personal evolution.  Not the evolution of species Darwin spoke of, taking place across millennia, but a microcosm; an individual transformation and elevation across a lifetime.  In a time of complacency, mediocrity, and a culture of lies, misinformation, and anti-intellectual tendencies, it is an outlook I believe to be sorely needed.

Hamlet’s speech is underscored with a certain irony that belies the lofty language and high praise he utters.  The Danish Prince speaks the ideal, but it is not what he sees.  Indeed, we all fall short, and one need only look around to know that most people are not “infinite in faculty.” But we could be.  Each one of us has it within us to be better than we are.  That is our essential nature.  I think it MUST define us as a people if we are going to survive.  I do not see this as a sappy inspirational message, of the sort commonly shared on facebook and pinterest, but instead a moral (I might go so far as to say logical) imperative, and a part of our social contract as human beings belonging to a society.  We affect others merely by existing, and we change the world each time we draw breath.  Society only functions if we agree to treat each other by ethical standards, and functions at its best as a whole when we are at our own personal best.

It is therefore our social duty to self-actualize, and to allow each other to do the same. 

Sing Out For Bernie: "Hey Bernie Sanders"

Here comes another one.  While not especially new, it was new to me when I discovered it the other day.  Brian Estes of youtube channel homemadechickn brings us a modern folk song about our favorite socialist.  Furthermore, he's announced that the song is "common property of anyone who wishes to sing it, share it, whatever," which makes is perfect for a Sing Out, for a rally, a protest, a phone-bank party, or any occasion that moves you to sing along to this tune.

He praises the Vermont Senator with straightforward lyrics and and simple chords, played on the banjo, while you can gaze out his rear window at the forest in the background.  The "grassroots" essence of Bernie's political movement is apparent in this video, in more ways than one.

It's a charming little ditty that is bound to stick in your head, & echoes older populist movements, awakening the spirit of Woody Guthrie and (more recently) the 60s protest songs of Bob Dylan and his ilk.  This is appropriate considering the political and socioeconomic climate of the US today.  We are coming out of a recession that may well have been the worst economic collapse in the US since the Great Depression, and the nation today shows many parallels to he 1960s.  The Black Lives Matter movement echoes, and could learn a great deal from, the Black Panther Party.  The wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, with no end in sight, alongside the threat of more war in Syria has drawn protest and upheaval at home not seen since Vietnam.  And once more, women's sexuality is in question, and women are trying to assert their right to own their bodies and to do with them as they see fit.  All of these parallels make Estes' music seem very timely and appropriate.

Sing Out for Bernie:
"Feel the Bern"
"Talk Bernie to Me"

Sing Out For Bernie: "Talk Bernie To Me"

Bernie Sanders continues to trail behind Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination, but has not lost pace.  He continues to march on with a steady beat, with a following of supporters who are more energetic, and bring a creative energy to the Sanders candidacy that is lacking in any of his supporters.  I encourage anyone who disagrees with this statement to respond and challenge me on it, by the way.

Among the most vocal and artistic of Bernie's supporters are the many revolutionaries gathering on youtube to post songs celebrating his vision and uncompromising integrity.  boobsforbernie2016 brings us "Talk Bernie to Me,"which they refer to as a political "semi-parody" of "Talk Dirty to Me" about the Democratic Socialist.  They want to bring back "Girl Power" and protest the expectation of women to vote for Hillary Clinton.  Rejecting the "special place in Hell" arguments of Steinem, these ladies choose instead to emulate the feminist icons of music that serve as their inspirations: namely Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, and The Spice Girls.  The girls of boobsforberie2016 have the radical belief that feminism allows women to choose for themselves.

Sing Out for Bernie:
"Feel the Bern"
"Hey Bernie Sanders"