J.L. Kunkle

It is wonderful how subtle a descent into negativity can be and how swiftly this negativity can be dispelled. All it takes is a decision to do so.

Human language is a dangerous thing. It can inspire to great heights like JFK and the space program, Ghandi and non-violent rebellion, but it can also inspire hate, war, and genocide.

There is one language that does not suffer misinterpretation and that all nations and cultures can learn to speak equally. Many people have already done so. This is the language that is vital to all human endeavors from before the pyramids of Egypt to far beyond the loftiest predictions of the technological future.

I think that those who speak this language will attain and maintain world dominance, and as skill with the use of this language increases, not only the understanding of concrete concepts (of course), but also increasing will be an understanding of the more ephemeral concepts such as emotion, the ebb and flood of history, and the ability to accurately predict the future. Isaac Asimov theorized this possibility in his “Foundation Trilogy”.

This is the language of mathematics. This language has ever been incomprehensible to me, and this is possibly due to the workings of my mind.

All I know is that this is a binary universe.

I read a gloomy article in the CSM about a new UN report on the damage that is being done to the planet earth by its chronic human infestation. The report said that 25% of the earth’s surface is now being used for agriculture, and 60% of this agriculture is done in an unsustainable manner. Species extinctions are on the rise, cod fisheries are depleted, and Paul Wolfowitz wants to chair the world bank. Heady stuff.

I found information about the new synthetic (cultured) diamonds manufactured by Gamesis and Apollo Diamonds. These cultured diamonds are identical to the real thing. Same on the crystal shape, same on the Moh’s hardness scale, identical in appearance to where even master gemologists cannot tell the difference.

Sensing their empire slipping, DeBeers has supposedly developed a “black box” that will be able to detect the difference. This device when released will be too expensive for jewelers and will be installed in gemology labs instead. People who want to know if it is a real diamond or a cultured one will likely have to go to the lab to have their gems certified. My question is, if the cultured gem is identical, what difference does it make if it is real or not? (Only devaluation of all currency that is based on the highly expensive natural diamonds.) I wonder if DeBeers labs are going to have a giant wizard of oz type set-up: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”.)

All this has led to the naturally flawed diamonds having a higher value than the perfect cultured ones. Living proof of the veracity of Gresham's law. As Johnny Hart said in his comic strip "B.C.", would diamonds be as valuable if they looked like raisins?

Perhaps more.

Socrates speaks in Plato’s “Republic” about four forms of government that must interact in a perpetual synchronicity like a huge, human machine.

First there is the timocracy, or government by strength. This form survives by absorbing its neighbors; it must keep growing by continuously swallowing its competitors’ resources. The values of this society favor the strong, those who are most skilled in warfare.

The increase in quality of life brought about by the consumption of resources leads to a gradual shift in values from admiration of the warrior to admiration of money; resources; the spoils of war. This obsession with money shifts values to favor and admire those who are most skilled at accumulating wealth. This leads to government by the wealthy; or oligarchy.

The wealthy continue to accumulate wealth until the obsession with material gain leads to complete polarization between rich and poor. The majority is the poor and this leads to the hungry poor attacking the rich, and the rich, in order to protect themselves from the poor, must exert more and more forms of control until most freedom is lost and everything is subject to governmental restriction.

This last form of government is called a tyranny: The controlling government continues to tighten its grip on the population but finds out, too late, that a class of persons toughened by the conditions created in this social environment arises from the populace, seizes the government and commences a rule by timocracy.

And so it goes.

Do I believe this? No, but it does make me think. Right now from this post 9-11 viewpoint, America seems to be evolving from the oligarchy phase to the tyranny phase. From an American's viewpoint, the world political climate indicates that America is moving from timocracy into oligarchy.

In this worldview, true democracy might be impossible.

The inescapable tendency of the human to practice hypocrisy.

Medicine - healthy people don't need to be treated with the expensive stuff, therefore sick people are good for the bottom line while healthy people are not.

Journalism and mass media - all the news that the owners want to print or broadcast, all the ideas that the owners want their audiences to believe, (like the belief that a boob job will enhance one's self-esteem, or that a candidate is not lying). Propaganda is great for profits.

Justice system - rich guys get their day in court, often with media coverage, all others must plea bargain.

Elected officials - special interest cash and PACs pre-empting ethics through loopholes. If it isn't codified, it isn't illegal.

Some of these items have been fucked up at the same time as they have been vastly improved:

Medicine has advanced human life expectancy (how long we live and the quality of said life).

Journalism by ENG and satellite reporting, the mini-camcorder and camera cell phone.

Elections can potentially revert to true democratic form via the internet.

The justice system can potentially embrace digital justice to correct the snarls created by a postoral and archaic system of trials.

Interactive television as mass media can potentially change television from mindless pandering to actual relevance.

....................................

The technologist believes these scientific solutions hold the key to humankind's salvation, and he or she may be right, but with the unabashed profit motive of corporate personhood, technological advances tend to take the back seat to happy stockholders.

Oil interests and automobile manufacturers are an example; Through use of lobbying and special interest cash paid to corrupt politicians (they know who they are), they misappropriate taxpayer funds away from the taxpayer's highest interests, and they influence passage of restrictive laws, thus driving down competition in alternate energy and environmental technologies. Because of this tendency, the pace of possible realization of environmental reforms are sporadic and unpredictable, therefore too slow.

Automobile manufacturers and Oil Refiners do not need until 2020 to implement reforms of their technology, they just need to tell their stockholders to back off for awhile.

Fat chance.

As this planet’s human population expands to engulf all landmass, human social structure is going to be required to evolve into another form. The human expansion is very similar to a yeast culture in that it consumes all available food, and in the process, gradually poisons itself with its own excrement.

There are many alternative natural models that can be used, and if any large, successful organism population can be studied with an eye as to what its success consist of, and whether this fits within the range of human social norms, then the human mammal might be able to avoid extinction.

Following the social patterns of lemmings, or of a swarm of locusts, while posessing many facets identical to human sociality, would not be favorable for obvious reasons. There are other social structures that allow for sustained growth with sustained supply. avoiding the excremental phase of human social development. I would suggest that a more favorable model exists within the beehive.

The human tendency to prefer male offspring before female that results in population imbalances can translate in to the drone segments of hive society. The female continues to do most of the work and the male will experience a corresponding drop in status until the social preference for males will become a preference for females.

Male population will diminish as a result. OR the females will all become queens and the majority of males will lose the ability and even the desire to reproduce, thereby forming a neutral-gender third sex.

I would call these creatures femans.

People think what they are instructed to think; presumably by someone more in tune with reality than they are. The study of the media in conjunction with the study of history (not necessarily modern history) with regard to the human animal tends to reveal many common threads that even predate the invention of newspapers, the first form of mass communications I know of. There were signal fires and drums previous to this, but these two media were limited in their ability to communicate abstract concepts.

Propaganda and news; it is usually impossible to tell the difference. This might be due to that fact that I am American and have been created and conditioned to be a consumer. The main “agenda” in a consumer society is to summon a desire that would otherwise be ignored by those within the target area, and offer an easy means of fulfilling that desire.

Did advertising learn from government? Did government learn from advertising? This chicken-or-egg argument, though pointless in the grand scheme, does lead to reflection on the best, proper uses of propaganda. When a medium of communication is being abused, does it negate the benefits of it?

Seeing a message that you are led gradually to think is news when in fact it is an advertisement has become more commonplace. This tendency has been increasing steadily in this world, especially since the 1970s.

The last hope for unbiased mass communications is the internet; so how can corporate entities take control of the internet?

Bandwidth?

The phrase "E. Pluribus Unum" that is stamped or printed on to American money is latin for "Of the many, one.". It is commonly interpreted to mean that American citizens are united in their society, goals and aspirations.

The U.S. supreme court was founded by President James Madison for the power elites of colonial America as a condition to their continued support of the brand new constitution. This august body has since been called upon throughout American history to interpret new laws and decide whether these new laws are in keeping with the spirit of the constitution, the sacred opinion. The court was created as a check to the power of the mob to unite and nationalize private holdings. The court has always been made up of power elites and the appointment, which made by the president, and approved by Congress, is for life.

It is a system that was specifically designed to protect the huddled masses from themselves, and to protect the power structure of the upper class already in place in the new nation. Then as now, the working class has a tendency to try to organize itself in this country so that it can collectively bargain for better hours, better compensation, safer workplaces and any other issues of concern, like child labor. Occasionally this has led to strikes that have required federal intervention to break. The government in America is supposedly the people; it is, after-all, a democracy. These strikes are sometimes very violent, consisting of soldiers of the national guard shooting the strikers

The phrase "Of the many, one", though it does sound protective of the rights of the private citizen to constitutional guarantees, is actually a reference to the American practice through capitalism of funneling the combined efforts of the working class, (the many) through the control of the power elites (the one).