Humankind
Advancing, Vol.7, No.4 October 1996
Theme: Concern for One Another
CONTENTS
 | Editorial | ||||||||||
| Quotes from Laszlo and from Morrow | ||||||||||
| Quotes from Fromm and from Ehrlich | ||||||||||
| Treasure-Trove of Pearls of Wisdom | ||||||||||
| Concern as Natural Imperative
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| Concern and Reason
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| Concern and Facts
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| Thought in Action
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| Acknowledgments and References
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Editorial: Can the basis of civilization, concern for one another, survive in a world that interprets intelligence as ever fiercer and more lethal competition and that ignores wisdom? How can we gain the knowledge we need?
Laszlo et al
(Preface to The Evolution of Cognitive Maps)
Lance Morrow informs us in TIME that "Writing his natural history in
the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder reported that when water rises into
the atmosphere to form rain clouds, it sucks up with it shoals of fish and
sometimes quantities of stones." -- Morrow then discusses the absence of
contact with extraterrestrial life and ends: "Perhaps a master system of
intergalactic ethics dictates that no planet may have contact with another
until it has subdued its own self-destructive violence. Maybe the earth is
under a sort of quarantine. If that should prove to be true, the actual
encounter with alien life might mark a higher stage in earthly progress, a
liberation. Then theology, history, astronomy -- all the strands of human
thought and striving -- would converge in a fusing shock of understanding
that would also be a planetary self-transcendence. -- Until then, however,
it will go on raining mackarel and speckled trout and stones upon the
human mind."
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What is love? The law of sanity for mankind. Erich Fromm **************
Paul Ehrlich
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Treasure Trove of Pearls of Wisdom
God is my Father,
Nature is my Mother,
The Universe is my Way,
Eternity is my Kingdom,
Immortality is my Life,
Mind is my Home,
Truth is my Religion,
Love is my Oneness,
Form is my Manifestation,
Conscience is my Guide,
Peace is my Stillness,
Experience is my School,
Obstacle is my Lesson,
Difficulty is my Stimulant,
Joy is my Radiance,
Pain is my Warning,
Work is my Blessing,
Light is my Realization,
The Friend is my Companion,
The Adversary is my Teacher,
The Neighbour is my Brother,
Struggle is my Opportunity,
Future is my Promise,
Balance is my Attitude,
Beauty is my Ideal,
Perfection is my Destiny.Anonymous
Responsible, rational, and divine components of human nature mingle in this expression of wisdom, found in Enhumanity,
a Greek initiative. Inquiries about the author of the poem (and a permission request) are underway.
* * * * * Knowledge is basic. It is knowledge which enables us to understand the world and ourselves...It sets us in a fruitful and significant relation with the enduring processes of the universe. And, by revealing the possibilities of fulfilment that are still open, it provides an overriding incentive. -- We, mankind, contain the possibilities of the earth's immense future, and can realise more and more of them on condition that we increase our knowledge and our love.Sir Julian Huxley
Discussion of
Quoting Cleckley,* he describes a psychopath as unable to "take even a
slight interest in the tragedy or joy or the striving of humanity as presented
in serious literature or art. He is also indifferent to all these matters in life
itself. Beauty and ugliness, except in a very superficial sense, goodness,
evil, love, horror and humor have no actual meaning, no power to move
him. He is furthermore lacking the a bility to see that others are moved. It is as if he were color-blind...to
this aspect of human existence. It cannot be explained to him, because there
is nothing in his orbit of awareness that can bridge the gap." (*Reference on p.22..)
Hare has developed an extensive and detailed checklist of typical
characteristics that reveal psychopathology. A few key symptoms are the
following:
Functional/Interpersonal Social Deviance
glib and superficial impulsiveegocentric and grandiose poor behavior controls
lack of remorse or guilt need for excitement
lack of empathy lack of responsibility
deceitful and manipulative early behavior problems
shallow emotions adult antisocial behavior
In spite of these serious drawbacks, psychopaths are often witty and articulate, amusing, and even charming. But they contradict themselves from one sentence to the other, and they are unable to learn from experience. Like infants, they aim for immediate satisfaction, pleasure, and relief, without consideration of possible consequences. They equate love with sexual arousal, treat children as inconveniences, and their lifestyle is always unstable and unfocused. They may have goals, but don't understand the qualifications required to achieve them. Short-tempered, hot-headed, highly reactive to perceived insults or slights, they can't get along with anyone. Nor do they tolerate routine occupations; crimes are often committed just for excitement and thrills. Hare reports that operators of nuclear power plants carefully screen all employees, but often miss psychopaths.
Early indicators of psychopathology are lying, cheating, fire setting, truancy, class disruption, substance abuse, vandalism, violence,
bullying, running away, precocious sexuality (by age 10 or 12) and always cruelty to animals and other children, including siblings. Such traits
are reinforced in violent neighbourhoods. But the typical psychopath
comes from a well-adjusted family.
"Why are most people good?" Hare asks and lists as reasons fear of
punishment, rational appraisal of the odds of being caught, philosophical
or theological ideas of good and evil and, most importantly,
"an appreciation of the need for social cooperation and harmony, and a capacity for thinking about, and being moved by, the feelings, rights, needs, and well-being of those around us." (Emphasis added.)
He explains that parenting, schooling, social experiences (incl. religion)
create a conscience that regulates behavior in the absence of outer controls.
These influences, however, do not work with persons who have the specific
personality disorders he studies. Such persons are attracted, instead, to
films portraying psychopaths, which are on the increase (as well as serial-killer comic books, board games, and trading cards) and which act as
powerful and dangerous role models for them, although they may have no
or very little effect on normal youths. A corresponding increase in crime
leads Hare to believe that the sense of responsibility for the well-being of
others is on the wane.
He estimates the number of psychopaths in North America as about two
million "with staggering implications for society." Statistics report that
20% of prison inmates are psychopaths, that psychopaths are responsible
for more than 50% of the serious crimes, and that 44% of all cop killings are also committed by psychopaths. The scariest part of
psychopathic violence is its influence on inner-city crime, such as
"swarming." Rape is typical, as is sadistic sexual behavior; wife-beating
can't be stopped by any treatment programs, and Hare recommends that
women should end abusive relationships.
Of special interest is the author's discussion of "white colour
psychopaths." The character traits of these persons attract them to high-level manipulations, in which they are often extremely successful,
managing to operate in a technically legal manner, though what they do is
ethically wrong. They differ from normal ruthless, greedy, but otherwise
honest businessmen and are especially dangerous to individuals who trust
in the goodness of human beings. Typically, psychopath are servile and
deferential to their superiors, while trampling those below them.
At the end of his book, Hare counsels on how to protect oneself against
these individuals, who take advantage of the trust, upon which normal
social interaction depends. -- But he also warns that we have to be careful
not to ascribe psychopathology to persons indiscriminately and without
reason.
Disturbing? Can a psychological assessment which admits that our
society, and its health, is based on trust and concern for one another be
disturbing? No! It is a sign of hope in a torn and confused society.
In the end, all human evolution turns around the notions of good and evil, of justice and injustice. It is still today as it has always been. Visionary are those who despite appearances prefer good to evil, justice to injustice. These concepts were created by humans for the survival of humanity, and they will always reappear as a natural phenomenon. Nothing would be more wrong than to see in them idealism, childishness and naivety. It is humans of justice and of public good who are on the contrary the greatest realists and the ones most knowledgeable of the foundations of life.
Robert Muller
Morality is a meaningful concept and desirable goal for humans only in the absence of belief in a "first cause," natural law and natural justice.... If there were an established moral order in nature, what would human choices matter? (P.53)
Pat Duffy Hutcheon
(Discussing David Hume)
Thought in Action: Robert Theobald (futurist and social innovator) will present the prestigious Massey Lectures -- an annual Canadian feature -- on CBC radio October 21-25, 1996. An economist by training, he promotes a practical step-by-step initiative that changes despair about declining living standards into positive and creative striving toward a meaningful life of superior quality.
Additional information available through Robert Stilger, Northwest
Regional Facilitators, E525 Mission, Spokane, WA 99202, U.S.A.
The author maintains that a humane way of fertility reduction (through birth
control rather than increase of death rates) "is probably one of the easier
problems that currently face humankind." The hard part is to get top
decision makers and religious leaders to even acknowledge this "single
most destructive force ever to threaten human wellbeing and the
ecosphere." Involved are fundamental principles. General agreement has
been established (at the UN World Population Conference in Cairo, 1994)
to erase poverty and to secure sustained economic growth, empowerment
of women, reproduction health care, family planning based on choice, and
so on. But it is unclear how these aims are to be achieved. "This," McLaren
says, "is, in fact, the most important problem facing humankind." At the
same time, the reduction of resource use and waste in the North is obstructed by "an economic system firmly committed to growth."
Discussing the cost of population reduction, McLaren reports that in
Mexico expenditure on contraceptives saved $1.4 billion on maternal and
infant care. Similar examples from other parts of the world are provided.
Unfortunately, the U.S. reduced its funding for global population assistance
between 1985 and 1987 and withdrew from the UN Fund for Population
Activities. -- To make birth control effective, it is necessary to double the
amount currently spent worldwide, which is not an unrealistic demand.
Even then it would not be more than 1% of present expenditures on
armaments.
The most difficult task is to change attitudes about what is morally right
or wrong. Is it right to prevent birth control and let children starve to
death? Is it right to protect an ever-increasing humanity while the rest of
creation, including the fundament that supports us, is being destroyed? --
The choices of the future, McLaren concludes, will not be between good
and evil, but between the lesser of two evils.
The paper ends with two powerful paragraphs, which demand awareness "that our existence is dependent on a deeply complex life system that exists on the face of the Earth, in balance with the equally complex and unstable substructure of the planetary crust," and that "population,...by the impetus of its growth, is preventing an immediate and urgently needed end to destruction of our own life support system."
When neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Roger W. Sperry wrote his last paper in 1994 (published posthumously), concern for the subject he discussed was overruled by concern for our world. "Holding Course Amid Shifting Paradigms" describes his position between two opposing assumptions: (1) that brain function can be explained in purely physical terms, neglecting consciousness, and (2) that consciousness can exist without a living, functioning brain. But the paper's last page contains the following words:
"This issue, however, and all others raised in these re-examinations of science, may not matter in the light of a very real and rapidly growing possibility that the enormous built-in momentum in today's global population explosion and the irreversibility in related ecologic degradation could now carry us and the ecosphere past "the point of no return." This mounting threat of total cosmic oblivion overrides today all other concerns, and overturns many ethico-moral imperatives that prevailed without question in the past. Traditional, national, ethnic, religious, and cultural loyalties become subsidiary to survival. New higher moral perspectives of survival must now overrule even long established humanitarian traits which evolved in human nature itself, but without regard to the projected effects in today's kind of world. In the context of today's worsening global situation and our imperiled future, perhaps the most important feature of the described new outlook of science is its provision of a prescription for long-term, high-quality survival and a way out of our current global predicament."
Roger W. Sperry*******
Only a new spiritual vision -- cosmic in its dimensions and global in scope -- can rescue civilization.
Vaclav Havel
| The budget for the UN's core functions -- the Secretariat operations in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna and five Regional Commissions -- is $1.3 billion a year. This is about 4 per cent of New York City's annual budget -- and nearly a billion dollars less than the yearly cost of Tokyo's Fire Department. |
| The USA's share of the UN's regular budget is $321 million a year -- the equivalent of $1.24 per American. |
| The UN has no army. Governments voluntarily supply troops and other personnel to halt conflicts that threaten peace and security. The USA and other Member States on the Security Council -- not the Secretary-General -- decide when and where to deploy peace-keeping troops. |
| The New York Headquarters of the UN requires the services of 4,831 people. The Swedish capital of Stockholm, by contrast, has 60,000 municipal employees. |
| 53,589 people work in the entire UN system worldwide, which includes the Secretariat and 25 other organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Three times as many people work for MacDonald's; while Disney World and Disneyland employ 50,000. |
| Eighty per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to helping developing countries build the capacity to help themselves. This includes promoting and protecting democracy and human rights; saving children from starvation and disease; providing relief assistance to refugees and disaster victims; countering global crime, drugs and disease; and assisting countries devastated by war and the long-term threat of land-mines. |
| The United Nations and its Funds and Programmes -- UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and WFP -- have $4.6 billion a year to spend on economic and social development, which is used to assist countries in such areas as population policies, children, agriculture, food distribution, etc. This is equivalent to 80 cents per human being. In 1994, the world's governments spent about $767 billion in military expenditures -- the equivalent of $134 per human being. |
| The total cost of all UN peace-keeping operations in 1995 -- in the former Yugoslavia and 13 other places -- was $3 billion. This is less than the combined budgets of New York City's Police, Fire and Corrections Departments. It is the equivalent of 1.1 per cent of the US military budget -- and less than 0.3 per cent of worldwide military spending. |
| Until the US Congress unilaterally reduced the American share of peace-keeping expenses to 25 per cent, Washington had agreed to pay a higher share, close to 31 per cent of the yearly total, or about $1 billion a year in 1995 -- less than one-half of 1 per cent of the annual US military budget. The US share for 1996 is expected to decline by 50 per cent, to $500 million. |
| Member States share the risks of maintaining peace and security. Since 1945, nearly 1,300 UN peacekeepers have died in the performance of their duties. Less than 3 per cent were Americans. |
| Under the supervision of an American, Joseph E. Connor, the Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, the UN Secretariat operates on a zero-growth basis. The $2.6 billion budget for the next two years -- $1.3 billion a year -- represents $250 million in savings, which Mr. Connor said will be achieved through efficiency gains and a new 10 per cent staff cut. |
| Ten per cent of the UN Secretariat has already been cut since 1988, and restructuring and streamlining continue. One of the Secretary-General's first actions after taking office in 1992 was to cut top posts by 25 per cent. Tough new standards have been set for staff performance. UN staff members have about one-third of their salaries deducted in lieu of taxes. |
| A special UN investigative unit -- the Office of Internal Oversight, established in 1994 -- is aggressively pursuing its mandate to eliminate waste and corruption. |
| The total operating expenses for the entire UN system -- including the World Bank, IMF, and all the UN funds, programmes, and specialized agencies -- come to $18.2 billion a year. This is less than the annual revenue of a major corporation like Dow Chemical, which took in more than $20 billion in 1994. |
| The top seven contributors to the UN are the USA (25%); Japan (15.4%); Germany (9%); France (6.4%); the United Kingdom (5.3%); Italy (5.1%); and Russia (4.4%). Collectively, they amount for more than 66% of the regular UN budget. |
| The United States of America -- Whose citizens hold more UN Secretariat jobs than any other Member State, as well as the top posts at UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the World Food Programme, the Universal Postal Union, and the World Intellectual Property Organization -- owes more in unpaid assessments than any other Member State: $1.5 billion. |
| Of the $396 million in procurements approved by the UN Secretariat in New York in 1995, American companies got 47 per cent of the business, or $197 million. For every dollar that the USA contributed in 1995 to the New-York bases United Nations Development Programme, American companies got back more than $2 in UNDP procurement orders. |
| The UN, its agencies and diplomatic and consular corps contribute $3.2 billion a year to the economy of the NEW York City area alone, according to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. That has generated 30,600 jobs, yielding $1.2 billion in annual earnings. |
THOUGHT IN ACTION
The Spring 1996 Yachay Wasi Newsletter (on indigenous cultures, esp. the
INKA) reports on p.2 that the concern and inventiveness of a single person
is helping to reduce the $1.6 billion U.S. dept to the United Nations, which
seriously paralyses the latter's function:
"John C. Whitehead, former Reagan Administration official, now head of
the U.S./U.N. Association, calculated that $4.40 per American would wipe
out the red. He set the ball rolling in a letter of apology to Mr. Boutros
Boutros-Ghali with a $44.00 check from his family. The movement
snowballed among 1,963 American citizens sending $11,665.11 to date.
This included pets said to be concerned U.N.supporters. -- The NYT April
21, 1996.
The Executive Committee of NGO's/DPI confirmed this public fund drive
and sent the enclosed statement of UN Facts. -- Address checks: United
Nations Secretariat General, New York, NY 10017 Attn: Susan Mills"
- - -More "Thought in Action" on p. 12 (Theobald - Massey Lectures)
I wish to thank Mrs. Norma Sperry for the continuation of Dr. Sperry's blanket permission to quote from his work and M.D. Samuel and E. Lacroix-Hopson (Yachay Wasi, Inc.) for permission to quote from the Yachay Wasi newsletter.
REFERENCES
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Cleckley, H. -- The Mask of Sanity, 5th ed. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 1976. |
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Ehrlich, P. -- As quoted by Richard J. Stanewick, who refers to "a recent TV interview" in his contribution (dated April 30, 1996) to Operating New Civilization, May 96, P.62. |
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Fromm, E. -- Condensed from The Art of Loving (Harper & Row, 1956) and The Sane Society (Rinehart & Winston, 1955) by E. Lacroix-Hopson in World Order, Spring 1970, p.20. |
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Hare, R.D. -- Without Conscience. The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among us. New York: Pocket Books. 1993. |
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Havel, V. -- As quoted by K.L. Woodward in "Havel's Declaration of Interdependence." Newsweek, July 18, 1994. |
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Hume, D. -- An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Reprinted from the posthumous edition of 1777 by L.A. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1975. |
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Hutcheon, P.D. -- Leaving the Cave. Evolutionary Naturalism in Social-Scientific Thought. Waterloo (Canada): Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 1996. |
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Huxley, Sir J. -- Preface to The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin. Collins: London. 1959. |
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Keyfitz, N. Population Growth Can Prevent the Development That Would Slow Population Growth. In J.T. Mathews (Ed.). Preserving the Global Environment, (pp.39-77). New York and London: Norton. |
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Laszlo, E., Masulli, I., Artigiani, R. and Csányi, V. (Eds.) The Evolution of Cognitive Maps. Switzerland: Gordon & Breach. 1993. |
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McLaren, D.J. -- Population Growth -- Should We Be Worried? Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 17(3), January 1996, pp.243-259. |
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Morrow, L. -- The Objective Scientist and the Tabloid Mystic Collaborate in Our Fascination With Extraterrestrial Life. TIME, February 5th, 1996, P.45. |
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Muller, R. -- Original contribution. Part of a diary entry of Feb. 10, 1974 (translated from the French by Dr. Muller), received with his letter of June 18, 1996. |
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Sperry, R.W. -- Holding Course Amid Shifting Paradigms. In New Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science. W. Harman and J. Clark (Eds.) pp.99-124. Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences. 1994. |
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Theobald, R. -- Massey Lectures, CBC Radio, October 21-25, 1996. |
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Treasure-Trove of Pearls of Wisdom -- Enhumanity, Jan. 1994, p.7. |
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(Editor: H.H.Vacal, Eleonon Rd., Akroyali Avias, 24100 Kalamata, Greece) |
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United Nations (Facts about the) -- United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). -- (Insert in Yachay Wasi newsletter of Spring 1996, Vol.II, No.4.) |
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Waal, F. de -- Good Natured. The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and other Animals. Harvard University Press (recent). |
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Yachay Wasi Newsletter. -- Yachay Wasi, Inc. 708 West 192nd St. #6B, New York, NY 10040. |
