The Unconditional Human Spirit

Topics below

“Anarcho-unconditional” or more realistic “min-unconditional” as my takeaway from Javier Milei’s “Anarcho-capitalism” and “min-archism” compromise in Argentina.

Also newly added at the bottom of this opening section:

A little Christmas gift to readers- My paraphrased translation of the core theme of the Historical Jesus message to affirm my “Historical Jesus-mas” alternative to “Christ-mas”. Again, don’t take my waggish impulse too seriously.

And the basic intention of this site to properly solve problems by confronting the “Mother of all oxymoronic combinations” in Paul’s “Jesus Christ” myth. I do this because of the critical issue of the rejection of history’s greatest potential liberation movement, a liberation that was short-circuited and buried by Paul- i.e. the liberation of human minds and spirits from threat theology, at the deepest levels of subconscious archetypes.

And then the G20’s latest program to push the “censorship industrial complex” as preparation for the new totalitarianism.

Sitesplainin excuses: The writing style here is running blog comment, not formal essay in any sense.

More below on probing what is behind public presentations of narratives, ideologies, movements, and related policies, programs, etc. The “evil triad” thing. And yes, further below I’m picking on Paul’s myth again. Its the anti-bullying thing in me, taking on history’s biggest ever threatening bully.

See also below: “Climate scientists officially declare ‘climate emergency’ at an end: Press release by the Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL).”

This from a post to our discussion group: Wendell Krossa

Jordan Peterson on Greg Gutfeld… All of you listen to this brilliant summary by Peterson on the adventure of life. He says so much in this few minutes of video… from minute 28 of the video on.

For example, he says that psychology long ago discovered there was no difference from “thinking about yourself and suffering from negative emotions”… “self-consciousness and suffering anxious emotions are the same thing”, and the answer is to not deny all thinking about yourself, as that is hard to do, but to pay attention to the moment as it unfolds, meaning the adventure of your life.

And in other places he has added that freedom from self-absorption is found in focusing on others and helping them with their problems, that is liberating and healing.

This is all good, but at the 28-minute mark Peterson starts on the quest of life for adventure, truth, responsibility… listen to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFySQQiyiw

Elsewhere Peterson has noted that this has been the curse of this generation to focus intensely on themselves and how they feel as the dominant concern… This has ruined this younger generation with excessive self-absorption. Read the rest of the opening comment here

See new stuff below on Kevin O’Leary’s good rant about getting Trudeau out so we can begin to clean up the mess that he has made of Canada. Also Greg Gutfeld on “Get out of your own head” and focus on helping others (i.e. recommends from psychology research on getting over anxiety). And more…

More theological speculation, Wendell Krossa (In service to the meta-narrative issue)

It’s coming on Christmas and I am doing some theological speculation, aware that some share the view of the pissed atheist who said, “Let’s get rid of all this metaphysical bullshit”.

If only, eh. Reaction to religious speculation on the metaphysical is a well-intentioned materialist sentiment that is reacting to religious extremism, as it should. And notable materialists have done us all a service in exposing the lunacy of so much inherited religious belief and practice.

But speculation on “metaphysical” realities has always been critical to the human meaning impulse, and the inseparably related impulse for purpose. You know- the search for TOE, for what actually created it all and why, for what reason/purpose? The meaning/purpose impulse in our consciousness gets to nitty gritty daily life stuff.

The best that materialist minds have come up with to explain the creating and sustaining Source are speculations like “multiverse mythology”. That suits the materialist belief in meaningless randomness as a fundamental explanation for what is and why it exists. Philosophical nihilism in my view. The multiverse myth is widely accepted as true by the public, but entirely unproven, as physicist James Baggot argues. See his “Farewell to Reality: How Fairytale Physics Betrays the Search for Scientific Truth”.

Amazon advertising blurb for Baggot’s book:

“Modern physics is heady stuff. It seems that barely a week goes by without some new astounding science story; some revelation about hidden dimensions, multiple universes, the holographic principle or incredible cosmic coincidences. But is it true? What evidence do we have for super-symmetric squarks’, or superstrings vibrating in an 11-dimensional space-time? How do we know that we live in a multiverse? How can we tell that the universe is a hologram projected from information encoded on its boundary? Doesn’t this sound like a fairy story?

“In Farewell to Reality Jim Baggott asks whether all that we currently know about the universe is based upon science or fantasy. In addition, he wonders whether these high priests of fairy tale physics – such as John Barrow, Paul Davies, David Deutsch, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Gordon Kane and Leonard Susskind – are the emperor’s latest tailors.”

Multiverse is the myth that infinite trillions of universes have been and are being birthed till one randomly falls together in the impossibly fine-tuned balance of “Just Six Numbers” (Martin Rees). Just like the now disproven myth of DNA falling together randomly in the mud puddle long ago. Read the rest of the opening comment here

A wee ‘quibble’ before a strong affirmation: Wendell Krossa

I am not with Shellenberger and Jordan Peterson in their arguments (in other forums) for the general restoration of religion/Christianity in society. They appear unfamiliar with Historical Jesus research and the critical distinctions between Jesus’ message and Paul’s Christ myth. But where Shellenberger is good, he is real good. Notably in probing the psychopathology of elite domination in our societies, as in, for example, the Censorship Industrial Complex. He was a main figure in exposing the Twitter Files corruption of liberal democracy.

This from actress Justin Bateman, posted below in Shellenberger’s article: “I am neither one extreme or the other,” wrote Bateman, “but am one of the millions of people who believe in common sense, and that everyone should be free to live their lives however they want, unless that freedom interferes with someone else’s freedom to live their own life.”

“We Are Only Now Starting To Recover From The Madness: Its political power has broken, but Wokeism is still ruining the culture”, Michael Shellenberger, Nov. 10, 2024

https://www.public.news/p/we-are-only-now-starting-to-recover

Shellenberger is responding to posts on X by actress Justin Bateman…

He quotes from Bateman’s posts: “Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years,” she wrote. “I have found the last four years to be an almost intolerable period. A very un-American period in that any questioning, any opinions, any likes or dislikes were held up to a very limited list of “permitted positions” in order to assess acceptability.”

Shellenberger notes that Bateman is not conservative and, in fact, writes from a more liberal perspective. Bateman says that over the past decade Wokeism discarded common sense, demonized intellectual discussion and only permitted certain speech and behavior.

Shellenberger continues with Bateman’s comments on Wokeism where “Complete intolerance became almost a religion… and one’s professional and social life was threatened almost constantly. Those that spoke otherwise were ruined as a warning to others.”

He notes that many other liberals agreed with Bateman’s assessment of how Woke especially took over Hollywood. “We spoke to more than 25 writers, directors, and producers—all of whom identify as liberal, and all of whom described a pervasive fear of running afoul of the new dogma.”

He adds: “The dominant emotion was fear: fear of being attacked by the Woke. While the latter was far more violent, the fundamental characteristics were the same — including the desire to remake society and the tendency of particularly weak individuals to join in with the mobs created by the bullies.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

This site author identifies as “independent commoner”. Fiercely so. I also identify as a “mutable self” in open process (open to new information, change, growth, and development), not as an “immutable self”, focusing identity on fixed objects as in dogmatic loyalty to some ideology, religious belief system, nationality/ethnicity/race, occupation, or other objects. Source on this: Louis Zurcher’s “The Mutable Self: A Self-Concept For Social Change”.

Just so you know where I am coming from: Its about the open process of “float like a butterfly, alight to enjoy some nectar, then moving on”. On a journey through life with no “fixed place to lay my head”. A visitor to this realm trying to learn and experience what it means to be human. And mostly trying to understand what love actually is and how to love. Love as the main identity-marker of being human.

That explains my repeat posting of the central Historical Jesus theme: “Love your enemy because God does.”

This is a reach for the highest and best of being human. It is the single most profoundly humane insight in history. It gets the “behavior based on belief” relationship right as never before. It tells us how to tower in stature as maturely human like a Mandela. It tells us how to conquer the real monster/enemy in life by winning the inner battle to vanquish the animal inheritance of impulses to tribalism, domination of others, and punitive destruction of differing others.

Success in the inner battle is the greatest contribution that we can offer to making life better.

See some more “sitesplainin” at the bottom of this opening section.

See also below… The psychopathology of today’s hyper-sensitivity, as in the over-sensitivity to personal “hurt feelings… sense of being offended…” that then crusades for harshly punitive treatment of purported offenders, Wendell Krossa

Surveying the wreckage. Again, what lies beneath it all? Wendell Krossa

I am a tracer/prober of root factors that contribute to problems and argue that to properly solve problems for the long-term future we have to deal with the more fundamental contributing factors to problems.

You may notice a repeated pattern on this site of pushing past the “surface” engagement of issues to understand the deepest roots of the thing under consideration, of some problem. I am just taking the wise advice of that military guy, responding to the ISIS eruption of violence in 2014, who advised us that we can crush such pathology with force but it will only keep erupting until we deal with the ideas/ideology that drive such movements.

I apply that advice to the current situation in Western civilization where a new totalitarianism has emerged and has infected all sectors/institutions of our societies. And again, this site appeals to the US situation as illustrative of what is going on across Western liberal democracies. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Some new stuff coming soon that takes off from Michael Shellenberger’s good probing of the psychology behind totalitarian Woke Progressivism that has tried to infect and take over Western liberal democracies, to the ruin of these democracies.

Personal Obsessions, Wendell Krossa (my identity “pronouns”- proudly “independent commoner…. Classic Liberal”)

The obsession of this site is with individual freedom and rights for everyone, equally, under common law systems and Classic Liberal institutions. This obsession is based on Classic Liberalism principles as the best that we have come up with to protect us all from today’s elites pushing the re-instatement of the primitive “elite/commoner” divide on our societies, the restoration of totalitarian control over us commoners.

Classic Liberal principles are also how we win the real battle of life against the real enemy in life and become the heroes of our personal quests- the inner battle against our inherited evil triad of impulses to tribalism, domination of others, and punitive destruction of differing others.

But even more than this Classic Liberal obsession I would suggest a deeper obsession with trying to understand our primary identity marker as humans- i.e. love.

This has led to a lifetime of questions: What is love, really? What does it mean to love? How do we achieve the highest reach of love and thereby “tower in stature as maturely human”, as the heroes of our personal quests?

My ongoing interest in Historical Jesus is because he pointed to the answer to such questions in this summary of his message: “Love your enemy because God does”.

My belief is that the no conditions love taught by Historical Jesus was a significant contributing factor to the eventual development of the Classic Liberalism that protects the freedoms and rights of all citizens, equally. Not the dominating “Lord Jesus” of Paul’s Christ myth (“Christ-ianity”), but the “whoever wants to be great must serve others” of Historical Jesus (“Jesus-ianity”).

And I do agree with my friend Bob Brinsmead that if love is not unconditional/universal then it is not authentic love.

Added note to the Christian influence on developing Classic Liberalism in England: The modern-era antislavery movement was initiated by British Christians, notably the 1783 proposal by Quakers to end slavery. That was no doubt influenced by the teaching of Jesus as opposed to Paul’s contrary command to slaves- “slaves submit to your masters” (Ephesians 6:5-9). Gandhi was similarly inspired by the teaching of Jesus, but not by Christianity overall. Another element in the larger point that there is a profound difference between the message of Historical Jesus and the Christ myth of Paul.

And an added note on ‘bothside-ism’ in abusing and deforming the Hero’s Quest: Both sides engage catastrophism that exaggerates the threat of the differing others (demonized, dehumanized) and both sides irresponsibly use panic-mongering “end of days” language to incite populations (i.e. the apocalypse is nigh, and here is my date for the end of the world). Read the rest of the opening comment here

Coming soon- My take on the real “clear and present danger” to our liberal democracies.

Apoplexy- My definition: Internal rupture and hemorrhaging with irrational fury.

Countering Snowflake or Buttercup syndrome, Wendell Krossa (we used to call this “spoilt brat syndrome”, the refusal to “grow the fook up”)

The First Amendment in the US Constitution was designed to protect democracy and freedom of speech from hypersensitive “snowflakes” or “buttercups” unleashing their totalitarian impulse to deny freedom to differing others.

Snowflakes? “I am offended by your opinions and speech that differs from mine. I feel threatened by your disagreement. My opinions and speech alone should dominate public discourse and policy. You, who disagree, must be censored, silenced, banned.” As Hilary Clinton explained, when she recently argued for censorship of others who disagree with her and her party, if we can’t control public discourse with only our viewpoint and speech as permissible, then “We lose total control”. Talk about “Freudian-like slip”, eh.

Your belief in and advocacy for freedom, for free speech, is only authentic if you are willing to protect even offensive, repugnant speech (speech that upsets and pisses you off) knowing that if we start to censor other’s speech then that censorship will come back to bite us in the ass also.

And who gets to decide what speech should be banned? To decide what is “hate speech”? “Hate speech” categories have already been extended by “concept creep” to now include the differing opinions and speech of political opponents. That is totalitarianism and its is being promoted as salvationism (“save democracy”) across our liberal democracies.

The lack of awareness among Woke Progressives as to the totalitarian nature what they are doing is still stunning to many of us on the Classic Liberal side. These are colleagues/fellow citizens who just a few years ago identified as “liberals, democrats”, people who in the past fought for full inclusion of all, protected diversity of opinion and speech, equal rights for all. What happened?

Watch this brief clip from Joe Rogan interviewing former ACLU director Ira Glasser on the issues involved: “Former ACLU Head Ira Glasser on Why You Can’t Ban Hate Speech”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kypokn111hU

Added note:

“Snowflake and Buttercup are names given to progressives that are massively and exaggeratingly offended or put out by things they find objectionable. Non-political correctness throws them into apoplexy. They are devoid of a sense of humor. They look for reasons to be offended and are not happy if they do not feel victimized, although their victimhood is in their mind”, Mark Hyatt Tynan. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-political-things-have-snowflake-and-buttercup

The above comment affirms the good probing by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, Jordan Peterson, Christine Brophy, and many others who are trying to understand the psychopathology of left-wing authoritarianism, the left-wing deforming of the ideal of “compassion” into virtue-signaling narcissism that promotes policies and outcomes that destroy lives.

Notably, “Climate crisis” policies” that are presented as salvation schemes (to “save the world”) but are destroying societies with Net Zero decarbonization. So also, these self-identified “liberals” proclaim their compassion in fighting for victims but are advocating for policies like censorship that destroy liberal democracy and harm everyone. Read the rest of the opening comment here

“Feelings, nothing more than feelings” was the Baby Boomer mantra. This will make sense later, below. Apparently, according to commentators like Christian Parenti, us Baby Boomers started this “feelings first” pathology in the modern era.

These articles from Ruy Teixeira and Charles Rotter cover a lot that is wrong today- the prominence of hyper-sensitivity to hurt or offended feelings as a new dominating standard of what is permissible or not in public discourse, the framing and deforming of the Hero’s Quest with such nonsense, and more…

First, this by Teixeira. Is the great re-orientation of our societies back to common sense coming now? Hope springs eternal, eh.

My post to a discussion group: “Free at last, free at last, thank God we are free at last”, Martin Luther King. My paraphrased take on King’s statement: Free of the curse of Woke Progressivism. Hallelujah, Wendell Krossa

Someone please pass this memo on to Justin Trudeau and David Eby (premier of BC who went total Woke Progressive and pushed that all throughout his party’s governance in BC).

Kamala Harris appears to have seen the light and is now becoming truly woke, which is why she is now embracing many of Trump’s policies. C’mon Trudeau and Eby. Time to wake up too…

“How Progressives Blew It: Defund the police. An open border. Identity politics. End the use of fossil fuels. Is it any wonder America turned against the progressive movement?”, Ruy Teixeira, Oct. 27, 2024

https://www.thefp.com/p/progressives-blew-it-crime-open-border-identity-politics-kamala-trump?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Teixeira opens with: “It wasn’t so long ago progressives were riding high. They had a moment; they really did. Their radical views set the agenda and tone for the Democratic Party and, especially in cultural areas, were hegemonic in the nation’s discourse. Building in the teens and cresting in the early ’20s with the Black Lives Matter protests and the heady early days of the Biden administration, very few of their ideas seemed off the table. Defund the police and empty the jails? Sure! Abolish ICE and decriminalize the border? Absolutely! Get rid of fossil fuels and have a “Green New Deal”? Definitely! Demand trillions of dollars for a “transformational” Build Back Better bill? We’re just getting started! Promote DEI and the struggle for “equity” (not equal opportunity) everywhere? It’s the only way to fight privilege! Insist that a new ideology around race and gender should be accepted by everyone? Only a bigot would resist!”

Teixeira follows, noting that these were horrible ideas, and aside from the progressive left, most others were not interested in embracing them. He states that “the progressive moment is well and truly over.” Others add that even Kamala Harris has abandoned these former positions that she held when campaigning for president in 2020.

Teixeira then lists how the progressive movement fell apart, quoting survey/polling results.

“1. Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea, and voters hate it.” Read the rest of the opening comment here

See new material below- “Next level hatred”, Elon Musk

A neighbor’s NDE, Wendell Krossa

I was just out for my daily walk in the early dark of approaching winter mornings, expelling my usual fake coughs and throat clearings to give pre-notice to local cougars and bears, time to move back into the bush. I want no more adrenaline rushes, like the recent loud surprised grunt and snort that came from the bush on the roadside as I walked around a corner. And then those large cougar paw prints in the soil of our yard just a few weeks back.

I nodded at my neighbor sitting on his porch in the dark as I passed- “Good mornin”. I was about to walk on by as usual but felt an urge to stop and ask about his recent heart operation. So I retraced my steps and turned into his yard.

He gave me some details- It was his second heart attack and this time they went in with stents through his thigh so it was not too invasive. We agreed with my Dad’s late life summary, “Aging is the shits”.

Then I ventured a curiosity- “During your heart attack did you have any sort of out of body experience?” I was just “drawing a bow at a venture” as such experiences are common among heart attack patients.

My pleasant surprise- He responded, stating emphatically, “I am not a religious person, but I saw a great Light”.

Wow. People having these stunning experiences are all around us. My brother-in-law had one. A friend had one. Another acquaintance told us about his. And on and on… Some research estimates about 5-8% of people have had these experiences. That’s 5 to 8 out of every 100 people you know. Most are shy to talk about them as they fear being considered wacky.

Some have remained silent about their experiences for decades because someone hearing of their experience dismissed it as due to “drugs, lack of brain oxygen, hallucinations”, etc. People then remain silent out of fear of being considered weird or crazy. But these experiences offer valuable insights for the rest of us to benefit from in a substitutionary manner, like the diminishment of fear of death.

On the varied hardcore materialist dismissals of these NDE accounts, Dutch cardiologist/scientist, Pim Van Lommel, covers all of them in his excellent general treatment of the NDE phenomenon, “Consciousness Beyond Life”.

If you don’t agree with what is revealed in these experiences, at least remain neutral in your expression and response to anyone sharing such an experience, not dismissive or degrading. That is the advice given to emergency room staff at some hospitals when a patient recovers and wants to share one of these experiences.

Example of wrong response: An elderly man, a former NHL player, once shared his out-of-body experience with several of us. A friend of mine- hardcore dogmatic atheist- poohpoohed the man, mockingly stating, “Oh, I’ve had the same experience when drinking too much”. That was a careless, callous, and thoughtlessly stupid response to someone trying to share something very personal. I was disgusted with my atheist friend. That other man subsequently refused to talk further about his experience.

Continuing with my early morn conversation with my neighbor… I probed my neighbor in regard to some of the common features of such experiences. I asked him about his state of consciousness during the experience. In NDE research, people having these experiences commonly note their state of consciousness as “hyper-lucid, more real than our waking consciousness in this material reality”. He agreed with that.

I then asked him about the most common feature of NDE’s, the realization that the Light or God is “inexpressible unconditional love”. He reacted a bit to that term- “unconditional love”. Nah, he replied.

I took that as his feeling that it was a too religious-like a term and he was firm that he was not religious. So am I.

I agree with his reaction, because I sense a bit of cringe every time I write or speak the term “unconditional”. Like Cyrus on Gutfeld “Ugghing” the term unconditional.

I get that “unconditional’ evokes as sense of something mushy, too religiously soft, weak-kneed in the face of evil- i.e. impractical “turn other cheek” in the face of violence.

What might be a better alternative that communicates the core point- i.e. that deity is absolutely “no conditions reality, none”? There is nothing of religious conditions with the Light, with God. That was also the central insight of Historical Jesus, until Paul buried that with his highly conditional Christ myth.

Religious traditions are all about religious conditions. They cannot be other and still hold dominate sway over populations. No religion has ever communicated the unconditional nature of God to people. No religion has ever liberated human consciousness from the horrific personality-deforming and mind-enslaving burden of divine conditions and threats of consequent punishment and destruction if conditions are not fulfilled. If any religion were to communicate the true nature of deity to people… well, that would spell the end of religious authority and domination.

My neighbor preferred explaining how he felt in terms of “inexplicable bliss, peace”.

He then added that he thinks a lot about his experience, and he desperately wants to have another similar experience. He has already had two heart attacks but nonetheless wants to experience again that Light, peace, and bliss. I told him about the chemical DMT that many are now taking as a quick short cut to a similar experience of things/realms more real than this.

He further added that he had lost all fear of death. Another common outcome of such experiences.

I was glad that I heeded that urge to turn back from my uphill walk and talk to my neighbor. As I told him, everyone of these experiences is a white crow challenging the black crow narrative of consciousness/mind dependent on the material brain and body for its existence, afterlife beliefs, and major religious theologies of tribally judging, dominating, and punishing deity. Most interesting to me personally, they are a direct challenge to Paul’s Christ myth and an affirmation of the central breakthrough insight of Historical Jesus.

More on Tribal life, Wendell Krossa Read the rest of the opening comment here

See new material just below– i.e. summary of site topics for new visitors

A bit of auto-biography, Wendell Krossa

It’s a Philippine tradition to start celebrating Christmas early in the Fall, around Septemberish.

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-in-the-Philippines-start-celebrating-Christmas-in-September-It-is-beyond-all-reason-and-the-exact-opposite-of-tradition-in-the-rest-of-the-world-What-is-wrong-with-Filipinos-Almost-everything-there-is

I picked that up from my 11 years of living and working on the island of Mindanao (Bukidnon, Davao del Norte, Agusan del Sur) with the upland Manobo tribal groups (i.e. Langilan, Ata, Tigwa, Matig Salug, Dibabawan, etc.). So fortunate to have befriended some of the best (and funnest) people on Earth who taught me much about being human.

That venture with the Manobo was about initially venting my “do-gooder” impulse among some of the poorest people (tribal groups) and getting firsthand experience of the degrading, dehumanizing nature of poverty. There is nothing more distressing than the stunning death rates among poor people, especially the deaths of children, from the otherwise easily treatable maladies in well-off areas (i.e. infections, diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia/TB, etc.). Manobo were in desperate need of better wealth-generating occupations and incomes to handle the costs of basic medical care for survival.

In response, I immediately got involved in varied programs- literacy, medical, economic/livelihood, and eventually erosion control as in agroforestry projects (originating out of East Africa), etc. Manobo are upland farmers and hunter-gatherers. Farming the very steep volcanic slopes of the Pantaron Ridge of mountains (a tribal name), the central spine of Mindanao. Protecting soil on those steep slopes is vital to their livelihood.

The experience working with erosion control fueled my initial desire to return home and do a Soil Science degree (fascination with slope processes, erosion). But Calculus 101 popped that balloon real quick. I had been out of school too long. I retreated to a “generalist” approach to education that was more fitting with personal interests (geography, anthropology, etc.).

A subsequent 4 years of undergrad at Simon Fraser University, and 2 years of post-grad education at University of BC, added nothing to understanding the causes of poverty, due to the domination by Socialist/Marxist profs in the departments of those schools that I took courses in. This relates to Jordan Peterson’s point that much of Western university education is beyond salvaging now as it has gone so far left into Woke Progressivism.

Imagine, after taking the prerequisite courses to get to a third-year course on “Development/Underdevelopment Theory”, and hoping that course would finally explain poverty, to discover the proposed Marxist solution was to blame the CIA for assisting US business domination in other countries (not excusing the elements of corruption in such ventures).

More generally, the Marxist explanation is that global poverty was due to capitalist urban centers that drained resources from surrounding smaller urban nodes, that in turn drained the resources of peasants from the further outreaches of rural life.

That’s it? Sheesh.

Back to my Manobo friends… They helped me to temper my do-goodism with their patience and wisdom born of long experience of suffering in tribal life. And a resounding yes, there is still a place for aid and development endeavors across the globe- i.e. sharing information, skills training, infrastructure projects, etc.

But critical in such endeavor is respecting the priority of local people’s freedom and self-determination, avoiding Western “savior” complex (“Manifest destiny-type complex”). Absolutely basic to work with and serve others, is to learn to live and treat one another as fully equal members of the one human family. Not pushing your perceived solutions but working with local people to discover what they feel is needed, how to approach any issue, and ensuring local control from start to finish.

As an old “aid and development” text cautions- (pardon the colonial-like terms “First world… Third world”)- “The ‘Third world’ is littered with the rusting projects of well-intentioned ‘First world’ intervention programs”.

An Asian friend at university once checked me, after I had used the term “Third world” in reference to his country. He remonstrated me with, “No. My country is not ‘Third world’”. I thanked him for the correction. People in aid and development now use terms like “developing, developed”.

And oh, I finally found better explanations to understanding poverty, its causes, and proper resolutions, in the good research on Classic Liberalism. See, for example, William Bernstein’s “The Birth of Plenty”, and Daniel Hannan’s “Inventing Freedom”, among others.

Why did I initially go to the Philippines? Since childhood I have day-dreamed of Asia, reading uncountable books and articles on the region and cultures. Best explanation? I am Asian in spirit but born in the wrong part of the world. Kind of a trans-like issue, eh.

Oh well, I married my Asian love and have the blessing of partially Asian children. One could not hope for a better outcome. God is good, as the religious folk say.

And no, there are no “rivers to skate away on” in the Philippines. Read the rest of the opening comment here

The “behavior based on similar belief” relationship: “If your God uses force, then so may you, to get your way against your ‘enemies’”.

Preface: Probing further the ideas that validate the impulse to dominate others, to re-establish the destructive “elite/commoner” divide in our societies, where power-mad elites irrationally enact policies that destroy our world to “save the world”, that destroy democracy to “save democracy”, Wendell Krossa

First, a reposting of comments from psychologist Harold Ellens and psychotherapist Zenon Lotufo regarding their work on the influence of bad religious ideas on human personality and society, how “threat theology” deforms human personality and societies.

Again, my point here is that the fundamental themes of primitive mythologies have not faded from human narratives and consciousness today but continue in the great world religions and have also been given new embodiment in so-called “secular/ideological” versions as in the climate alarmism crusade.

The old themes of past human narratives still impact our consciousness, lives, and societies.

Here are the comments from psychotherapist/theologian Zenon Lotufo (quoting psychologist/theologian Harold Ellens) on how images/beliefs, notably images of ultimate reality and ideals like deity, how such images influence human consciousness, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior in daily life. Both men are/were affiliated with the Christian tradition. Ellens was a US Army chaplain. In the comments of these men there is no throwing of stones from without. Read the rest of the opening comment here

Pre-notes: More on the still puzzling abandonment/rejection of Classic Liberalism by many Western liberals… Trying to understand what happened.

People like to believe that they are well-intentioned, and they often are, but being well-intentioned does not prevent us from causing great harm to others that are the objects of our compassion, if the policies that we embrace and promote cause that very harm. So the test is the “test of facts, of outcomes” of policies. What actually happens to people as a result of our policies. Like the 100-million plus deaths from socialist collectivization policies last century. All from socialist compassion for “equity” outcomes.

Again, the problem of the most dangerous people in society being those who believe that they know what is best for all others and will use state coercion to force submission and conformity to their policies. “Social-contract” type agreement from a population, under Classic liberal systems of law and institutions, helps us avoid the coercion element.

See reposting below of revised comment on Kristian Niemietz’s “Emotional satisfaction, not rational thinking, and despite contrary evidence, dominates our choice in beliefs.”

The human meta-story is the story of “exodus from the animal to live as truly human”, Wendell Krossa

Since the earliest exodus from our animal past to begin to live as human in civilization, our attempts at creating human societies have been undermined by those unable to control and repress the worst of their inherited animal impulses- i.e. the “evil triad” of impulses to tribalism, domination, and punitive destruction of differing others. The outcome has been the persistent manifestation of the elite/commoner divide in societies, a reversion to primitive animal-like existence (the alpha male/alpha female thing).

It has taken the passing of multiple-millennia for our developing human consciousness to understand and learn how conquer and subdue the animal inside all of us, and to fortify and energize our human impulses (Solzhenitsyn’s real battle against evil that takes place inside each of us).

We have slowly and gradually, across millennia, learned to discern what it means to be truly human in contrast with our animal past.

Just over the past few centuries we have made the stunning breakthroughs to fully grasp the ideals, principles, and institutions of Classic Liberalism that are the best that we have come up with to restrain the animal in us and to promote our human spirit. We now get, generally, that a truly humane society will protect the equal rights and freedoms of every individual from alpha elite meddling and control. Classic Liberalism is the best approach yet to subdue the animal and to promote the human. Classic Liberalism best gets us to human maturity. Read the rest of the opening comment here

See below “An inside job: Western liberal rejection of liberal values and policies”, and much more on elite domination of commoners…

The comments below probe the endless struggle against the elite/commoner divide in human societies. Classic Liberalism was created to liberate us from that primitive animal-like shaping of human societies and to protect the equal freedoms and rights of every individual. Classic liberals formulated systems of common laws and institutions to keep government institutions oriented to serving the will of commoners- “the people”, to prevent elites from using governments to meddle in, dominate, and control the lives of common citizens.

The struggle against the impulse of elites to dominate and control others is the struggle for equal freedom and rights for all.

Among other articles summarized below, this from Jesse Kline of National Post…

“Jesse Kline reviews Brendan O’Neill’s new book ,”After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation”, that “sheds light on the morally bankrupt ideology that has caused many of our elites to turn their backs on liberal values and forge an unholy alliance with religious extremists”. Kline says that O’Neill blames the current worldwide eruption of virulent antisemitism on “modern progressive ideology, which is a complete bastardization of the values that liberals once held dear.”

“Western support for the genocidal terrorism of Hamas is, according to O’Neill, “the logical inhumane conclusion to a pseudo-progressive politics that judges people’s moral worth by their skin colour, their presumed privilege and their placement on a racial hierarchy fashioned by the unaccountable overlords of western opinion.”

Kline comments on the “hysterical hatred” once again being widely incited against Jews, with Canada leading the way. So also, we see the base tribal impulse stirring “hysterical hatred” against political opponents, illustrated notably in US society, but also across most Western nations and elsewhere.

This, by C.S. Lewis, deserves a reposting for nailing the sickness of the busybody personality that we are all currently suffering under. Relate this to the contemporary eruption of elites re-establishing the “elite/commoner divide” in our societies.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals”, C.S. Lewis.

What is this busybody impulse to meddle in the lives of others, to dominate and control others? What is this mind that believes it should “righteously” meddle with and dominate others for “their good”, the arrogance that claims it knows what is best for all others and will coercively use state mechanisms to manipulate and control others? Where is the Classic Liberal mind that embraces and promotes “Live and let live” as in respecting individual freedoms and rights to self-determination?

See also below, Libertarian Kat Timpf’s comments on John Kerry’s recent advocacy for neo-totalitarianism, his demand to set aside the First Amendment so he can “hammer out of existence” all dissent to his “consensus”. As Timpf said, “This is scary”. Read the rest of the opening comment here