Leaders Are Terrible At Making Peace, Brilliant At Making Money—And The Hard Question of Culture.
Qiu-Zhi-Jie-China-Map-of-Mythology-2019
On Ownership
On Customs
On History
On Religion
On Law
On War
On Peace
We write passionately and thoughtfully about our beliefs, desires, needs, and challenges.
The result of all of this is Culture. Simply put, Culture is what we think, believe, and do.
We have developed many tools to help us think, believe and act.
We can create an unlimited amount of debt (what a concept!) to make money (what a concept!) to spend on war, but we can't imagine spending money on making Peace or ensuring the future of Civilization. This particular thing we call Civilization may not last. From the beginning, our particular ways of doing things when societies scaled up beyond small bands and tribes contained the seeds for its destruction. Much has been written over the centuries on this subject.
Since we discovered energy in the form of fossil fuels and our semi-mastery of laws of physics, science, and machinery, the Industrial Revolution and various economic religions have rapidly grown our Civilization like a cancerous tumor.
Civilization has an identity crisis.
As Capitalists learned to code capital and Culture, influential corporations have become international behemoths capable of capturing politics, increasing their power exponentially. At the center of this project is neoliberal, neoconservative, neocolonial competition for control of resources during a time of civilizational collapse.
An ideological cancer spreads throughout all systems, destroying life at a blistering pace.
Some people across generations have been watching this self-emulation while sounding the alarm and hoping that imaginative solutions might be forthcoming through understanding the real problems and causes of disease.
Tragically, the information super organism running the hearts and minds of people has been and is becoming more efficient and capable of spreading and maintaining its pathological Culture.
Few people work to understand REALITY—those who do have a humble understanding of the risks and tradeoffs of every endeavor.
My friends, Reality is undeniable even though its comprehension is inaccessible to many of us, and depending on the complexity of various functions of Reality, it remains mysterious and hard to grasp.
When you argue with Reality, you lose the argument. When you go against Reality, bad things happen.
Intrepid explorers down through the generations have sought new tools to help them discover how Reality works. And in doing so, bend Reality towards their goals.
REALITY, this mysterious whole, is greater than the sum of its parts and the complex, emergent systems they animate.
First, we figured out how tools help us get what we want. The first tool may have been a stick. As time passed, we picked up more tools and used them to improve our lives on the way to the emergence of language. I'm sure language was the mother of invention. Language allowed for abstract thought and greater collaboration and cooperation with community members. More and more innovations were adopted, imitated, and passed on to future generations.
In ancient times, stories became powerful tools for developing and maintaining Culture. Culture is necessary for large groups of people living in concert with one another and controlling stockpiles of commodities to trade. Stories and surpluses of grain allowed for the development of cities and kingdoms.
At the center of many of these culture-building stories were the Gods. Early on, Gods were like people, only they lived longer and had superpowers. Later, in some places, the Gods became the One True God, the first Creator, who, for some reason, had enemies, emotions, and other attributes simple humans could imagine.
The One True God, the jealous God, favored certain people and things, and soon Divine rights were conferred upon His favorites, always the most powerful of the tribe, and these favorites created, interpreted, and administered God's law.
Much has been written.
Religious sensibility is a universal reality of psychology. But let's leave stories for now and move on to other kinds of tools we've used to build Civilization.
I'm skipping some things, but this is an essay, not a book, so please indulge me in my sketch.
Oh, Philosophy, the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, Reality, and existence, took stories to new heights, and all the cogitation led to new tools like logic.
People were learning how to do the math in novel ways.
In ancient times, people found math and keeping records useful for maintaining surpluses and trade. People back then figured out how to make meaningful symbols and quantify things using numbers. Suddenly, they could do the math. Math was an excellent way to represent Reality. Weights and measures flowed from these new tools. Logic emerged from all the bargaining needed for trading and maintaining one's cultural stories while keeping them more attractive than the competition's. I'm pretty sure logic is inherent in Reality and existed before the ancient Indians and Greeks. Still, it helps to locate developments in a time and place because context matters when telling stories.
For example, In ancient India (circa 6th century BCE - 2nd century CE), Indian philosophers, particularly from the Nyaya school, developed sophisticated logic systems. The Nyaya Sutras, written by Gautama, are foundational texts in Indian logic. They dealt with rules of inference, debate, and methodology. In Ancient Greece (circa 4th century BCE - 4th century CE), Greek philosophers like Aristotle made substantial contributions to formal logic. Aristotle's work, especially in his book "Organon," laid the groundwork for classical logic. He introduced fundamental concepts such as syllogism, deductive reasoning, and the law of non-contradiction.
During the Middle Ages, Islamic scholars preserved and expanded upon the knowledge of ancient Greek philosophers, including Aristotle. Scholars like Al-Kindi and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) translated and commented on Aristotle's works, contributing to disseminating logical ideas.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, scholars like Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas made significant strides in developing medieval logic. The Renaissance saw a renewed interest in classical texts, leading to further exploration of logical principles.
In the 17th - 19th Centuries, the development of formal mathematical logic gained momentum. Mathematicians like George Boole and Augustus De Morgan developed symbolic logic, which treated logical relationships using symbols and algebraic notation. Boole's work laid the foundation for Boolean algebra, a fundamental concept in modern computer science and digital circuit design.
In the late 19th - Early 20th Centuries, Gottlob Frege, a German mathematician and philosopher, is often considered the father of modern logic. His work in predicate logic and formalizing mathematical language significantly influenced the development of modern logic.
In the 20th Century Onward, the 20th Century saw the rise of various branches of formal logic, including mathematical logic, modal logic, and symbolic logic. Mathematicians and logicians like Kurt Gödel, Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, and many others made groundbreaking contributions to these fields.
One must marvel at these new disciplines and tools.
Mathematical logic
Philosophical logic
Modal logic
Computational logic
The human mind is the bottle from which all these genies, with their ability to grant wishes, spring. How do we conjure them? Life is genuinely mysterious, and Reality can seem a bit vague.
Dear God, much has been written.
Reason and its close conceptual cousin, Rationality, are exciting tools. In the interest of brevity, I'll list a few more tools we've developed since the "Age of Reason" that spanned from the 17th Century to the 18th Century.
Intellectual Tools:
1. Scientific Method: A systematic way of investigating the natural world through observation, experimentation, and formulation of hypotheses developed during the scientific revolution.
2. Philosophy of Empiricism: Knowledge is primarily derived from sensory experience and empirical evidence.
3. Positivism: A philosophical theory stating that knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations as verified by the empirical sciences.
4. Critical Thinking: The ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, fostering rational and logical decision-making.
5. Social Contract Theory: Philosophical concept exploring the relationship between individuals and the state, emphasizing mutual obligations and rights.
Technological Tools:
1. Steam Engine: Invented by Thomas Savery and improved by James Watt, it played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, powering machinery and transportation.
2. Telegraph: Invented by Samuel Morse, it revolutionized long-distance communication, transmitting messages quickly over vast distances.
3. Telephone: Invented by Alexander Graham Bell, it allowed for voice communication over long distances, transforming personal and business communication.
4. Electricity: The harnessing of electricity led to the development of various technologies, including electric lighting, motors, and electronic devices.
5. Internal Combustion Engine: Invented by Nikolaus Otto, it powered automobiles and airplanes, revolutionizing transportation.
6. Airplanes.
7. The personal computer and the Internet.
Methodological Tools:
1. Statistics: Developed by statisticians like Sir Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, statistics became a crucial tool for data analysis and decision-making in various fields.
2. Scientific Taxonomy: Carl Linnaeus developed a systematic method for naming, defining, and classifying organisms, forming the basis of modern biological classification.
3. Psychological Testing: Developed methods for measuring intelligence, personality, and other psychological traits, leading to advancements in psychology and education.
4. Market Research: Systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing data about consumers, competitors, and the market, aiding businesses in making informed decisions.
5. Computer Science: Algorithms, programming languages, and software development methodologies have revolutionized computation and information processing.
6. Genetic Engineering: Techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 have enabled precise manipulation of genes, leading to advancements in biotechnology and medicine.
These tools, among many others, have shaped the intellectual landscape, driven technological progress, and provided methodologies for understanding and improving the world since the Age of Reason.
These are all complex subjects that many people spend a lifetime studying. Few people we know have mastered all of these tools. Many people fear them, preferring simpler, more mysterious, and heroic times when Kings rained and spirits inhabited dense forests.
But as I have said, our minds and imaginations are what genies come from, and once they are out, they don't disappear unless we disappear. If people suddenly disappeared, the genies would too. Perhaps the extinction of homo sapiens is Devine justice. I prefer not to think so.
What goes around comes around? Karma? Reality?
It requires hundreds of millions of enlightened minds to avert catastrophe brought on by immense systems of power. Unfortunately, the influential people creating and running the system's logic are not enlightened. They are passionate about control, maintaining power, status, and many other emotional impulses that keep them focused on The Great Game.
The Great Game is the story of Civilization and has, throughout its history, had winners and losers.
So much has been written.
Powerful Players like to win. They focus on doing whatever it takes to win. This is easy to see and understand.
The Players are building more and more tools to help them win the game, tools even the Players don't fully understand. For regular folks, these machinations and technologies are black boxes, opaque, and hardly understood at all. We know The Great Game through stories in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, propaganda, marketing, public relations, psychological operations, and all manner of information manipulations.
The system's logic trains us to go along and get along, which brings me, yet again, back to Culture.
We all find ourselves within Culture, and there can be layers of Culture, like concentric circles or Russian dolls, each with its own set of meanings and requirements. We don't invent Culture. It emerges from social experiences and envelops us in its unique context of time and place. We then fall into cultures within cultures as we try to discover and define our identity within the context of our community.
Some of us get lucky and wind up in circumstances where our material, spiritual, educational, and other needs are well met. We can develop greater independence, imagination, and creativity in such cases. We think of this set of fortunate circumstances as Freedom.
Circumstances flow from The Great Game and Reality. Events can be brutal. Everyone would choose the best circumstances if they could.
Civilization has always existed in turmoil. The competition between great Civilizations has been violent, but there have also been periods where cooperation and collaboration trumped zero-sum gamesmanship backed by violence.
When we look around and contemplate deeply, using all available tools, with heart, compassion, and an honest appreciation of Reality, we see that everything is accelerating.
We can examine our circumstances from multiple angles and perspectives across many domains all at once and develop a fine-grained picture of the complexity and dangers of our current predicament that flows from a culture and ideology incapable of making Peace or maintaining the requirements for healthy lives and life systems.
We live in extraordinarily creative and destructive times, informed by and blinded by our ill-considered passions and emotions.
Life Because Life
Consciousness Because Consciousness
Reality Because Reality
Culture Because Complexity
CULTURE IS THE HARD PROBLEM!
The hard question isn't how life, consciousness, or Reality came to be but rather how this global Culture came to be, what it means, and where it's going. The tough questions revolve around Culture and whether we can invent a better one before it's too late.
For those of us with agency, we'd better work on Culture.
Robots, general artificial intelligence, science, God, and tools in our toolkit won't save us from a sick Culture.
What emerges from a deadly disease is death.
We can't fight crime with crime.
No more gimmicks; we must put selfish endeavors to one side and pursue collectively answers that stem from Reality. It will require tremendous effort on all our parts. We will have to compromise. Healthier Cultures take time to create and build. We must survive and be patient. We must find Reality-Based solutions together across Cultures.
We must learn to feel comfortable and proud of diversity. We must live and let live as long as cultures are pro-Life in all its miraculous forms.
The only way to do this is to invest everything we have in health, welfare, knowledge, and Peace.
Make Peace, not money. Money is Satan. Health is God. The Universe doesn't have to be fair. Humans, on the other hand, need to understand Reality to stay healthy, and when healthy, most humans are beautiful creatures, blessed by all the Gods of our brilliant imaginations.
Dear Lord, much has been written about making Peace. I pray you will help your people understand.
We have the information, tools, and knowledge to make Peace. Peace is the only thing worth building now.
