Sunday, June 14, 2009
8th day, of rest?
My sense of sight creates personal style with individual image development.
The sense of hearing wants me to develop a voice.
Our sense of taste considers who to do lunch with.
Some sense of smell will pick the space and bring the flowers.
The sense of touch is a body of relationships reaching for shared conclusions.
The sixth sense is the drama of opinion by critical awareness.
The health of attitude is the seventh sense of integrity &/or balance.
. . but what you think I am IS WHO? . . projected interest?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
PlayPumps
There are more than 1000 PlayPump systems in sub-Saharan Africa, providing clean drinking water to more than one million impoverished people.
The PlayPump water system is a like a playground merry-go-round attached to a water pump. The spinning motion pumps underground water into a 789,500-liter tank raised seven meters above ground.
Roundabout Outdoor is a company that manufactures, installs, and maintains PlayPump water systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa. PlayPumps International is a nonprofit that raises the funds to donate PlayPump water systems to African communities and schools.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Sibling Rivalry
The color of my blood is red
the color of your blood is red
blood does not lie
it tells us that we are all
members of the same family
the Family of Man
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Be Here Now
Do not dwell in the past
do not dream of the future
concentrate the mind on the present moment
...Buddha...
Open Your Eyes
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Plastic in the ocean (Plastic is forever)
This is Genevieve Johnson speaking to you from the Odyssey in the Canary Islands.
When I reflect on our time researching at sea over the past five years, two unrelated things stand out - sperm whales and plastics.
We are not always assured of finding sperm whales. However, even in the most remote regions of the ocean, plastics are guaranteed. Unfortunately, the relationship between plastics and all marine life is far more intricate than most of us could possibly imagine.
The numerous benefits of modern society's productivity make almost all of us utterly addicted to plastic products. Most of the products we use on a daily basis include, or are contained in plastic. We drink out of them, eat off them, carry food and clothing in them, sit on them and drive in them. Plastics are durable, lightweight and can be made into virtually anything. It is these very practical and useful properties of plastics that make them so harmful when they make their way into the oceans. Unfortunately, most of us give little thought to where plastics come from or where they end up after they have served our brief purpose.
The vastness of the ocean is incomprehensible to those who have never spent any time at sea. Yet, as we gaze out over the horizon from onboard Odyssey over what most of us imagine is a pristine seascape, we are continually confronted with a sea of plastic.
Historically, humans have always tossed waste into the ocean but marine organisms broke it down in a relatively short time. Unfortunately, our quest for convenient packaging over the past 50 years or so, created a class of plastic products that are immune to even the most rapacious bacteria.
Despite the era of recycling, only 3.5% of plastics are recycled in any way throughout the world. Today, plastic debris causes considerable, widespread mortality of marine wildlife, including mammals, birds, turtles and fish through entanglement in monofilament plastic fishing gear and ingestion. Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and other prey. Seabirds, particularly Albatross, mistake plastics floating at the surface for food and ingest them while foraging. Three hundred thousand cetaceans drown annually in fishing gear, while necropsy records of several stranded cetaceans, including large whales and particularly dolphins, reveal the ingestion of plastic debris.
The problem with plastics is they do not biodegrade. When something biodegrades, naturally occurring organisms break down natural materials into their simple chemical components. For example, when paper breaks down it becomes carbon dioxide and water. However, plastic is a synthetic material and never biodegrades. Instead it undergoes a process called 'photodegredation', whereby sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces over very long periods of time. A disposable diaper takes an estimated 500 years to break down while plastic 6-pack rings for cans take 400 years and a plastic water bottle can take up to 450 years to degrade. However, this does not mean they will disappear, all remain as plastic polymers and eventually yield individual molecules of plastic too tough for any organism to digest.
In 2001, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation based in Long Beach California led by Captain Charles Moore, conducted a survey thousands of miles out to sea in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre in an effort to assess the extent of the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean. Gyres are areas where oceanographic convergences and eddies cause debris fragments to accumulate naturally. What the researchers discovered was both shocking and outrageous, a floating mass of plastic junk stretching across an area of ocean the size of Texas. Rivers of soda and water bottles, spray can tops, candy wrappers, cigarette lighters, shopping bags, polypropylene fishing nets, buoys and unidentifiable, miscellaneous fragments collected in a huge rotating mass of plastic pollution.
In addition to large obvious pieces of plastic, the results of the survey revealed minute plastic fragments mixed with tiny sea creatures. The published results from the survey reveal a sea of plastic soup comprising "six pounds of plastic floating in the gyre for every pound of naturally occurring zooplankton." Charles Moore now believes "plastic debris is the most common surface feature of the world's oceans."
Until now, no studies were conducted on filter-feeding organisms such as jellies, whose feeding mechanisms do not permit them to distinguish between tiny fragments of plastic debris and plankton, and no studies to assess potential effects on these filter-feeders. It is now known that plastic fragments heavily impact these creatures. When broken into smaller pieces, these tiny plastic fragments accumulate non-water soluble toxicants such as PCB's, and pesticides such as DDT. Plastic polymers, or tiny plastic resin pellets act as sponges for these chemicals and other persistent organic pollutants, concentrating such poisons up to one million times higher than their concentration in the water as free floating substances.
The implications and scope of the problem is astounding considering about 250 billion pounds of plastic pellets are produced annually worldwide for use in the manufacture of various plastic products. When these products break down into fragments and disperse throughout the oceans, they concentrate and transport toxicants. In the North Pacific oceanic gyre, Moore and his team witnessed filter feeding jellies or salps with brightly colored plastic fragments in their stomachs. Fish consumed by larger and larger predators in turn eat these tiny organisms, all the while the toxicants continue to climb and concentrate up the food chain. In many cases, this chemical pathway leads directly to human beings. Many of these chemicals are 'hormone mimics' and 'endocrine disruptors' and are released into the body when plastic is ingested. The effects of hormone disruption on humans can range from birth defects to cancers.
The facts are daunting and the future looks grim. Moore and his colleagues currently predict a 10-fold increase in plastic in the ocean by 2010 bringing the ratio of 60 pounds of surface plastic to every one pound of zooplankton in the North Pacific gyre.
In the meantime, it is up to all of us to be aware that we share one fragile earth, sustained by one ocean system. We can all contribute to its demise, but more importantly we are all responsible for the conservation of our marine environment and the amazing life it supports. We do not need to make sacrifices in our lives, only minor modifications. We can help minimize the impact by being responsible about the amount of plastic products we consume. Unfortunately labeled recycling bins are not always reliable; if possible reduce the amount of plastic products you purchase by searching for alternative materials and reuse plastics where possible. We can all make a difference.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Are You Sovereign Yet ?!
I'm posting here the part 5 (of 10) but they're all very important for anyone's studies and willings on/for Freedom!
...and I also recommend his :
Johnny Liberty - The Global Sovereign's Handbook
(you can download it here) everyone should read it!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Asteroids
Asteroids is a video arcade game
released in 1979 by Atari Inc.
It was one of the most popular and influential
games of the Golden Age of Arcade Games.
Hours of fun...
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Unknown Rebel
Twenty years ago today the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre. The next day, the "Tank Man" showed the world the meaning of the word fearless.
The protests were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on April 14. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.
The protests were sparked by the death of pro-market, pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square.
Participants included disillusioned Communist Party members and Trotskyists as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful throughout the protests.
The movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on April 15 until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on June 4. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and many different estimates exist. There were early reports of Chinese Red Cross sources giving a figure of 2,600 deaths, but the Chinese Red Cross has denied ever doing so. The official Chinese government figure is 241 dead, including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded.
(Read more)
Monday, June 1, 2009
The War Machine
Cover art for Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.#33.
Art by Adi Granov. Marvel Comics.
War Machine (James Rupert Rhodes) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in Iron Man #118 (January 1979). Jim Rhodes, who became War Machine was introduced by David Michelinie and Bob Layton. The War Machine armor and character was designed by Len Kaminski and Kevin Hopgood.
James "Rhodey" Rhodes as the War Machine is one of the good guys, unlike the real war machine, the global arms manufacturers and the military-industrial complex.
Quote from President Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell address:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
[The following is an excerpt from stopthewarmachine.org]
In his 1961 Farewell address President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of a rogue military-industrial complex (MIC). Ike said the post-World War II MIC had the potential to destroy our democracy and world peace.
We look around at the loss of our civil liberties, rising inequality and the wars we fight abroad every year with our huge one-and-a-half million military forces that are stationed on every continent and in every ocean and it appears Eisenhower was correct. No other county spends as much of its wealth on the war machine as us. No other country has a global military presence that even begins to match ours.
Why do we need such a large a standing army? Some people suggest we had a military coup in our country hidden behind the '50s Cold War rhetoric and that now the war on terrorism is being used to create a global empire for the MIC.
Bob Anderson for the Committee to Stop the War Machine 2/21/03
(Read more)
To Kill A Doctor
"Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today's event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George's friends and patients. This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.
We would like to express the family's thanks for the many messages of sympathy from our friends and from all across the nation. We also want to thank the law enforcement officers who are investigating this crime.
Our loss is also a loss for the City of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality heath care despite frequent threats and violence. We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere."
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The Magisterium
The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a Congregation of religious brothers and sisters dedicated to a two-fold Crusade: the propagation and defense of Catholic dogma — especially extra ecclesiam nulla salus — and the conversion of America to the one, true Church.
OUTSIDE THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION
"Outside the Church there is no salvation" is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught By Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:
"There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved." (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
"The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
[excerpt from catholicism.org]
Price of this salvation? "Religious submission of intellect and will."
(Sounds exactly like a cult to me.........really creepy)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
True Self
We resonate with the frequencies around us.
It is the self that is the greatest threat to humanity.
You gotta be aware, you gotta be aware.
What we hate in others, is what we hate in ourselves.
Our abuse stems from such hate.
A subconscience release, passing of blame.
Find out your life, yourself.
Humanity as a collective is one organism.
Let us put away false ego
the bureaucracies that destroy,
then maybe something will get done.
Maybe a revolution of the mind will occur.
Maybe trusting in a falliable system was a bad idea.
Maybe being deceived by external influences
and even ourselves was a bad thing, wrong.
Maybe we can become one with our divinity.
Maybe the mistakes of our past can be recalled,
trashed and off the shelves and out of our homes,
Of true life
of true liberty
of true love
and of truth itself
will be my constitution
my existence
my humanity
my evolution
my kingdom,
for our sake
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Should this be a (for-profit) business?
By Ken Silverstein, Prison Legal News, June 1st 2000
What is the most profitable industry in America? Weapons, oil and computer technology all offer high rates of return, but there is probably no sector of the economy so abloom with money as the privately run prison industry.
Consider the growth of the Corrections Corporation of America, the industry leader whose stock price has climbed from $8 a share in 1992 to about $30 today and whose revenue rose by 81 per cent in 1995 alone. Investors in Wackenhut Corrections Corp. have enjoyed an average return of 18 per cent during the past five years and the company is rated by Forbes as one of the top 200 small businesses in the country. At Esmor, another big private prison contractor, revenues have soared from $4.6 million in 1990 to more than $25 million in 1995.
Ten years ago there were just five privately-run prisons in the country, housing a population of 2,000. Today nearly a score of private firms run more than 100 prisons with about 62,000 beds. That's still less than five per cent of the total market but the industry is expanding fast, with the number of private prison beds expected to grow to 360,000 during the next decade.
The exhilaration among leaders and observers of the private prison sector was cheerfully summed up by a headline in USA Today: "Everybody's doin' the jailhouse stock". An equally upbeat mood imbued a conference on private prisons held last December at the Four Seasons Resort in Dallas. The brochure for the conference, organized by the World Research Group, a New York-based investment firm, called the corporate takeover of correctional facilities the "newest trend in the area of privatizing previously government-run programs... While arrests and convictions are steadily on the rise, profits are to be made -- profits from crime. Get in on the ground floor of this booming industry now!"
A hundred years ago private prisons were a familiar feature of American life, with disastrous consequences. Prisoners were farmed out as slave labor. They were routinely beaten and abused, fed slop and kept in horribly overcrowded cells. Conditions were so wretched that by the end of the nineteenth century private prisons were outlawed in most states.
During the past decade, private prisons have made a comeback. Already 28 states have passed legislation making it legal for private contractors to run correctional facilities and many more states are expected to follow suit.
The reasons for the rapid expansion include the 1990's free-market ideological fervor, large budget deficits for the federal and state governments and the discovery and creation of vast new reserves of "raw materials" -- prisoners. The rate for most serious crimes has been dropping or stagnant for the past 15 years, but during the same period severe repeat offender provisions and a racist "get-tough" policy on drugs have helped push the US prison population up from 300,000 to around 1.5 million during the same period. This has produced a corresponding boom in prison construction and costs, with the federal government's annual expenditures in the area, now $17 billion. In California, passage of the infamous "three strikes" bill will result in the construction of an additional 20 prisons during the next few years.
The private prison business is most entrenched at the state level but is expanding into the federal prison system as well. Last year Attorney General Janet Reno announced that five of seven new federal prisons being built will be run by the private sector. Almost all of the prisons run by private firms are low or medium security, but the companies are trying to break into the high-security field. They have also begun taking charge of management at INS detention centers, boot camps for juvenile offenders and substance abuse programs.
(Read more)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Ice Blink
Dave and Jaja spent seven years sailing around the world (1988-1995) aboard their 25-foot Cal 25 DIRECTION. Dave purchased the boat in 1985, gutted her to a bare hull, and then went to work beefing up the structure. He glassed in stringers, added keel floors and extra bulkheads, and then re-designed and re-built the interior. "I built a new rudder, re-stayed the mast, built a smaller cockpit, and then christened her with a bottle of warm Bud in an effort to get the mood right for the intended circumnavigation" is the way Dave puts it.
Dave was 22 when he started this project, and 24 when he finished. He met Jaja shortly after starting his cruise in St. John, USVI, and they finally got together in the UK (after a solo Transatlantic) in the fall of 1988. They were both 25 when they left England on their circumnavigation.
From England they headed West to the Caribbean, via the Cape Verde Islands. They were married in Barbados, then transited the Panama Canal, visited the Galapagos; and did the usual trip through the South Pacific, spending several seasons in Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby cruising paradise to the north. A trip through the Torres Straits, Indonesia, and then across the Indian Ocean had them rounding South Africa before arriving back in the Caribbean and then the States in 1995. Along the way they had two children (Chris and Holly). A third (Teiga) was born aboard DIRECTION at the end of the voyage.
The Martin family set sail again in 1997 on their 33-footer DRIVER, and have spent time in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Iceland, the Faroes, Northern Scotland, Norway, Greenland, and Newfoundland. They are currently settling down for the winter in Maine.
Percy Lavon Julian
Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an African American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants.
He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine; and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of human hormones, steroids, progesterone, and testosterone, from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol.
His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills. He later started his own company to synthesize steroid intermediates from the Mexican wild yam.
During his lifetime he received more than 130 chemical patents. Julian was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry. He was the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted from any field.
Liberty
Monday, May 25, 2009
Futility of War
johnny got his gun and became a
rude full-scale joke
impossible to tell
if he was awake or dreaming
what makes you so sure you're not dreaming?
Regarding Talking Heads
Most importantly, these proponents of the status quo who author commentaries that are filled with mean-spirited vilifications of their opponents, offer no solutions of their own to help resolve the many problems that face the society at large. They, in fact, deny that there any problems of significant importance to begin with. For example, to them there is nothing wrong with our health care delivery system despite the fact that there tens of millions of individuals unable to afford health care for themselves or their families. Their blistering attacks on homosexuals, the poor, unionized labor, women’s rights, immigrants, etc are both disingenuous and reprehensible. Furthermore they are useless and of little value, in my mind, for they do nothing constructive for their country and its people though they profess to be unassailable patriots. They exploit their listeners and extract a fortune based on their ability to attract the disaffected and further polarize the country. The game of exploitative capitalism that they are so adept at undermines the possibility of national healing that is so crucial at this time.
During infrequent bouts of wild inexplicable optimism, I suspect they will be ultimately consumed by their own venom.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sam-I-Am
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Self II
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Time Machine
The Hubble Space Telescope is a Time Machine
It can see billions of years into the past
The Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300
61 Million light-years away
Eta Carinae Nebula NGC 3372
8 Thousand light-years away
Messier 81 NGC 3031
12 Million light-years away
The Cat's Eye Nebula NGC 6543
3.3 Thousand light-years away
The Eagle Nebula NGC 6611
7 Thousand light-years away
The Helix Nebula NGC 7293
7 Hundred light-years away
Young Stars in Magellanic Cloud NGC 346
210 Thousand light-years away
The Red Supergiant Star Monocerotis V838
20 Thousand light-years away
The Crab Nebula NGC 1952
6.5 Thousand light-years away
Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image
13 Billion light-years away
Click and enlarge this image
and see an estimated 10,000 galaxies
as they looked 13 billion years ago
Monday, May 18, 2009
USA-Thou art the Highest Pinnacle of White Anglo Saxon Protestant Civilisation
HA HA HA
So now USA has sent a professional assasin to command its troops in Afghanistan.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'U.S. special squad killed Benazir'
Published: May 18, 2009
NEW YORK (Online) - Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney, which had already killed the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief of that country.
The squad was headed by General Stanley McChrystal, the newly-appointed commander of U.S. army in Afghanistan. It was disclosed by reputed U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh while talking to an Arab TV in an interview. Hersh said former U.S. vice-president Cheney was the chief of the Joint Special Operation Command and he cleared the way for the U.S. by exterminating opponents through the unit and the CIA. General Stanley was the in-charge of the unit.
Seymour also said that Rafiq Al Hariri and the Lebanese army chief were murdered for not safeguarding the U.S. interests and refusing U.S. setting up military bases in Lebanon. Ariel Sharon, the then prime minister of Israel, was also a key man in the plot.
A number of websites around the world are suspecting the same unit for killing of Benazir Bhutto because in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV on November 2, 2007, she had mentioned the assassination of Usama Bin Laden, Seymour said. According to Benazir Bhutto, Umar Saeed Sheikh murdered Usama, but her words were washed out from the David Frosts report, he said.
The U.S. journalist opined that it might have been done on purpose because the U.S. leadership did not like to declare Usama dead for in the case the justification of the presence of U.S. army in Afghanistan could no more be there, hence no reason for operation against Taliban.
On the other hand, the diplomatic analysts believe the Benazir Bhutto murder is still a fable and it is for that reason Asif Zardari and other government authorities are stressing U.N. probe in the murder case, also paying huge sums for it.
Another website has disclosed that Benazir was put to death in order to roll back the Pakistan nuclear programme and to take over its nukes, and that India, Israel and the U.S. were making hectic efforts to deprive Pakistan of its atomic capability so as to bring it under their control.
Regarding the Family
The crazed uncle possessed by the demons of his impaired and diseased brain, the patriarchal grandfather with a formidable record of abusive and violent behavior, the promiscuous and pregnant daughter sent off to live with an older sister while bringing her growing fetus to term away from the prying eyes of neighbors, the gay cousin convinced by the language of his authoritarian minister that he is a deviant in the eyes of his personal savior are all examples of realities that are surrounded by a formidable cone of silence in an effort to keep alive the mythological quality of wholeness that is supposed to embody the family.
In reality, the family is fragile and flawed like all human institutions. Families and clans are a natural and practical consequence of the biological urge to propagate the species. Within the structure of the family, resides the entire gamut of human proclivities and possibilities. Yet, it seems that only what is believed to exemplify goodness is embraced while that which is unflattering is coerced into the void of the unspoken. It is not truth that triumphs but rather the lie. It is an insidious lie, for it creates a perception of family members and the family that is decidedly one-sided, and for that reason, grotesque. The family mirrors all the aspects that compromise humanity in general and the individual in particular. It should be seen for what it is and nothing more.
It is from the mosaic of the family that the structure of the larger society is built. We have become in many regards a cult of the individual. Children are raised within the assumption and the implicit notion that the individual is the center of existence; that all of the universe gravitates around the singular person with his or her singular consciousness. Individual happiness is the fundamental goal that is seen as the inherent right of us all. Yet state of being happy is poorly understood and remains illusive. The quality of happiness has come to be seen as achievable through the medium of material success and personal achievements. This seems perfectly natural to us, since this is the essence of the message perpetually conveyed through the communications media and thoroughly inculcated in our thinking and perceptions. In this particular social environment, happiness is not equated with the well being of those outside the territory of the family. Even within the family, this is not necessarily the case. This particular idea of happiness is not dependent upon the health of the natural environment nor the state of being of our fellow creatures.
Those who pose as the guardians of life and constantly and vociferously proclaim their unimpeachable belief in the sanctity of life have an exceedingly narrow conception of the life they assiduously protect. It is certainly not the life of those in dire need; it is certainly not the quality or extent of life of those creatures who are destined to be sacrificed so that we may have bountiful sources of nutrition; it is not he life of those fellow humans who have had the misfortune to be regarded as our enemies. Oddly enough, the life they wish to protect are clumps of cells genetically definable as human and destined to be human, but decidedly without consciousness and incapable of pain or suffering. These pre-humans growing within the body of the women who carry them are living, but not individuals. Yet the suffering of so many individuals born into abject poverty and perilous social conditions are of only peripheral interest to those who carry the banners of righteousness. Yet the conditions of those living creatures who the unwilling providers of their bodies for our mass consumption are not regarded in any way by those who proclaim the moral high ground. Those who take up a cause without reason or intellect are dubious and often dangerous for they are capable of justifying terrible deeds in the name of hollow and ridiculous notions.
The cult of the individual has left us with a world whose natural environment has been sorely abused. The cult of the individual has left us with a social order that is remarkably skewed to the few who hold the wealth and its concomitant power. The cult of the individual is not sustainable for it will continue to rob humanity of its future. Until we see the well-being of all as within the purview of our state of happiness, the human world will remain restive and unfulfilled.