What about Cuba

 *  Beginning with the Cuban revolution, I have contemplated a counterfactual history better than the actual one.  For example, could Castro have turned to democracy had we respected the revolution?  Could we have respected the revolution had our relations been lawful and altruistic?  Would this have been better for average Cubans?
 *  Two decades ago the Cuba embargo ceased to be justified by our national security, and I hoped that President Clinton would begin lifting prohibitions and special immigration rules.  At that time, Latin-American socialist countries were no threat to us.  Now, President Obama has the wisdom and courage to begin normalizing Cuban-American relations.
 *  My enthusiasm for opening up US-Cuba relations is somewhat dampened by the possibility that Cuba might be better off without US investment, trade and influence.  Specifically, isolation from us probably preserved Cuba from capitalistic over-exploitation of their resources, including recreational and agricultural ones; and it probably protected Cuba from the corrupting effect of American dominance, including New-York-mafia influence.
 *  The supposition that life of an average Cuban citizen under communism was very restricted, deprived and slavish, and that liberation by us would be good for the Cuban populace seems questionable.  When one considers the large proportion of our citizens who are uneducated, impoverished, isolated, bored, depressed, disappointed, excluded, invisible, hopeless, disaffected and/or incarcerated, then the average Cuban condition may not be worse than the average American condition.  Cuba and its people fared better than many non-communist island nations, eg Haiti and Puerto Rico, possibly Philippines.
 *  American life looks great from afar because only rich or celebrity Americans were traditionally exposed internationally.  Average Americans were not.  Moreover, material wealth is not the only wealth.  The security and prestige sought by most in the capitalist rat race are elusive.  Last week driving home, I was detoured into a neighborhood of  houses fit for royalty.  I couldn’t help wondering whether the satisfactions sought by the planners and owners of those houses would ever materialize.  If not, then they were little happier than average Cubans over the past half century.
 *  Finally, I would vouchsafe that the average Cuban’s ratio of happiness to environmental destruction is far higher than the average American’s.
 *  US-Cuba dynamics were addressed in this blog near its beginning, Feb 28, 2007.

Disrespect of a great president

 *  The July-1 Tennessee Voices column by Ryan Haynes set me to wondering why many of my kin and friends are attracted to the Republican party.  Like a Rush Limbaugh broadcast, the article is a stream of unsubstantiated and misleading invective against President Obama and the ACA.  I take implacable umbrage with Haynes’ declaration: “The effort to restore dignity to the White House must begin now.”  This could come only from someone so immersed in racist company as not to recognize racism.  It is hard to recognize a characteristic shared by everyone at the barbecue.

 *  Based on my experience of 13 presidents (beginning with Roosevelt), I conclude that Obama is among the more informed, rational, sober, capable, ethical, even tempered and dignified of our presidents--far more than Bush II, who led the unethical, expensive and harmful invasion of Iraq to distract from Afghanistan stalemate, which destabilized Syria and upset the power balance in the neighborhood–also far more than Donald Trump, now leading Republican polls.

 *  Talk about “untethered...from...reality”.  The Republican myth that people “know their health best and how to properly manage it”, is untethered from reality.  When trying to pay for shelter, transportation, food, clothing, communication, education and entertainment in a safe neighborhood, people neglect retirement saving and insurance.  Democratic programs address these two natural neglects with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ACA.  Republicans count on Democrats to save America from Republican doctrines.

 *  Were it not for Democratic social programs to expand the fraction of our population with a stake in our economic system, we would probably have seen Wall Street and Greenwich Connecticut burn long ago.  Contrary to mythology of both parties, we cannot forever solve our societal problems by economic growth, accelerating the conversion of resources to waste.  Eventually, we will have to share a more steady-state economy/society–or burn.

Analysis of harmful events

* There might be less harm, regret, resentment, pain and hate were our judgements and conversations more objective, ethical, analytical, empathetic and imaginative, less self-righteous and blaming.  We could start by recognizing that actual events are caused inextricably by antecedent determinants, then by attempting to identify determinants of regrettable events, then by imagining alternative determinants that might have steered the cause-effect chain to a less regrettable outcome.  Cool analysis would diminish harmful revenge and repeats of regrettable events.  This counterfactual thinking is how humans and other animals improve their futures.
* Freddie Gray’s death in custody of Baltimore police can be a case study.  The six arresting police officers have been charged with 2nd degree murder.  This wouldn’t have happened without the riots.  The riots might not have happened without the fiery speeches by black leaders and not without recent deaths of other black suspects.  The police would administer milder street justice were they not frustrated by repeat offenders, noncompliant suspects and disrespectful populace.  The populace would be more respectful and appreciative of police could they imagine their neighborhoods without police hence ruled by remorseless bullies.  Rap culture probably plays a role in the disrespect.  The demography, unemployment, disaffection in black enclaves can be attributed to 400 years of slavery, racism and neglect by entitled Euro-Americans, recently also automation and outsourcing.  The 1970s opportunities for reconciliation were squandered by blacks and whites.
* All of the above dynamics might be less  toxic were it possible to share economic activity more rationally among tribes (ie races, religions, geographic locations, languages).   Access to employment is a necessary component of dignity and contentment.  The self-reinforcing advantage of technological superiority needs to be dampened.
 * The diagram below is a crude attempt at the analysis espoused herein.  What is missing?  What is erroneous?  If it's too small, click on it.

A disturbing doctrine

 * Determinism is the irrefutable doctrine that: Every event and condition, including every thought and action, is an inevitable consequence of antecedent events and conditions. A corollary is that every evil act in the past, present and future was caused by conditions at the beginning of the universe. Regret, melioration and evolution are links in the cause-effect chain, which should gradually diminish avoidable harm. * Determinism slips from our minds when we are riled by another's misbehavior, but it should enter contemplations of history and justice, when analyzing the dynamics of harm, when seeking to identify significant causes of regrettable events. * Resentment of Andrew Jackson by Native Americans (Albert Bender, Tennessean Mar 15), should dampen Jackson’s apotheosis. Bender’s condemnation might be less vitriolic had he recognized that we all are tribal, ie we evolved with a drive to acquire and expand for our ourselves and our kin, or had he recognized that Jackson’s acts of ethnic cleansing (and genocide) were destined at the beginning of time. * In moments of reflection, we Euro-Americans (beneficiaries of tribal success) should be more modest even humble, considering that the land we occupy and resources we exploit were stolen pristine from Native Americans. To that we could add our treatment of Africans and Mexicans. We might give due credit to our resource advantage over economic competitors throughout American history. Can my tribe be satisfied enough with less pride?
* * Addendum: It's interesting to consider the validity and implications of determinism; but I suspect that the best, noblest, most accomplished, most generous, most admirable people ignore or reject determinism. It interferes with ones sense of purpose, value and meaning.

Of cells, people, tribes, nations and tumors

 * Healthy animal cells submit to signals bridling their acquisitive and reproductive drives, so as not to become tumors.  A society is analogous to an animal most of whose cells resist bridling and create tumors in every organ.  That is, most individuals of a society seek wealth, power and offspring.  Eventually, every normal family or clan is a tumor to the society.  A corporation is a super tumor, required by law to acquire and expand, and this is often augmented by political corruption.  Likewise every tribe, religion and nation is a tumor to the neighboring tribes, religions and nations, especially where resources limit prosperity.  These tumor-like behaviors are directed by primitive drives in the brains of all animals.  Perhaps it should be said that a society is analogous to the collection of microbes in every ounce of fertile soil, all producing antibiotics to kill unrelated microbes.  All of the above is in service of respective DNAs.
 * European tribes exploited, displaced and/or dominated their neighbors for centuries.  They colonized distant lands cancer-like.  Now, non-European tribes formerly colonized by European tribes are metastasizing throughout Europe.  Russia is pushing into Georgia and Ukraine and is eyeing Baltic states.  Israel is a permanent tumor to Palestinians and various middle-east peoples.  Anglo-America expanded tumor like throughout today’s US, first stealing from and eradicating natives, then stealing from Mexicans, much of this fortified by slavery.  Now Latin-Americans are metastasizing back.  Whites and blacks are still unreconciled.  ISIS is dominating and displacing inhabitants of Syria and Iraq and parts of Africa.  Longstanding borders suddenly seem arbitrary as incompatible tribes find themselves bound in sovereign/subject relations.
 * Observers of the above dynamics typically cheer for or justify whichever side of a conflict resembles them most, not necessarily the side that is more ethical or deserving.  There is much to regret about the competitive gerbil wheel that humanity is on.  It is associated with gratuitous pain, harm, fear and waste of resources that should be kept for future generations.
 * Civilization attempts to bridle those primitive drives that perpetuate conflicts between individuals, between tribes and between nations.  Some of us contemplate a more satisfactory civilization, one based on evidence, reason and noble aspirations.  It should be fun to discuss that civilization’s specifications and the path to it from that which we have.  What about agreement among leaders of all kinds and everywhere on the need for self-restraint of acquisitive and reproductive drives?

Appeal of Jihad to Western Muslims

* In his Mar-1 Letter to the Tennessean Editor, Mark Goldstein  rants against a Jan-24 Saritha Prabhu Tennessean column that discussed factors enhancing the appeal of Jihad to Muslim youth.  He begins with a dismissive caricature of her column.  The rest of his letter is a series of rhetorical questions the expected answers to which associate Islam with violence.
* It is indeed shocking to find that some young people in the 21st century would be attracted to a group that beheaded and burned alive its helpless prisoners most of whom were never its enemies.  It is discouraging that young people in our midst would join in ethnic cleansing aimed eventually at us.  Such disrespect for and intolerance of those judged as infidels is incompatible with a civilization worthy of the name.
* Goldstein seems too opinionated for an objective or curious reading of Prabhu’s column.  Perhaps he has forgotten the turmoil of the adolescent mind, the antisocial fantasies that bubble up, the pleasure of mischievous company, the remoteness of eventual life satisfactions, the pain of indolence, the minefield of temptations–and, for a Muslim kid, the addition of special restrictions and humiliations.  These conditions with the provocations listed by Prabhu can account for numerous Jihadist choices.
* We could all use some modesty, considering that adherents to every monotheistic religion have engaged in religiously justified atrocities.

   *   *   Addendum:
* Prabhu listed the following provocations:  1) Iraq invasion, 2) Abu Ghraib, 3) Gitmo, 4) Drone strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan seen as indiscriminate (and cowardly), 5) Palestinian suffering (and hopelessness), 6) Specific disrespect of Islam.
* To that one could add:  7) The Crusades,  8) 1953 CIA overthrow of duly elected government in Iran, 9) Our national pride in "Shock and Awe", 10) Guarantees by our government to protect autocratic regimes in the middle east and elsewhere, 11) Hateful treatment of Arabs/Muslims in our popular culture (films, TV), 12) Unemployment in Muslim enclaves in western countries.

Some thoughts evoked by Vanderbilt Rapes

Psychosocial dynamics of rape:
* An animal’s brain is endowed with primitive drives promoting voluntary-motor functions to enlarge the animal’s DNA footprint.  These drives are steered and restrained by cortical processes in and about the frontal lobe, influenced by information on expected risks and rewards.  The bridling of primitive drives involving social interaction is the essence of civilization.
* Sixty years ago, a pious friend remarked that the sex drive needs extra constraints because it’s so strong and potentially harmful.  It clouds the mind and impairs judgement.
* Western culture has now largely abandoned the mating mores that developed over 3000 years.  By age 20, a guy has had 10 years of dirty jokes and video-pornography, designed to erode romance of mating and respect for women.   Hooking up with a different partner weekly isn’t condemned.  College students are getting inebriated and silly early on a Saturday afternoon, hoping to get lucky with somebody before morning.  Other pressures include fear of missing out (FOMO) and desire to belong and be included.  Sports stars may have groupies.
* In that mix, there is a significant probability that, on a given Saturday night, a guy too drunk to consider the legalities and a girl too drunk to consent will do something defined as rape.  When that happens, what would be appropriate punishment?  Would it be just?  Would it be practical?  What else should be done?  More restrictive campus rules?


Mind in a deterministic universe:
* Determinism is the doctrine that all conditions and events (physical and mental) at a given moment flow inextricably from prior conditions and events.  There is an unbroken cause-effect chain from the beginning of time to the present.  Determinists would recognize a society’s right to detain harmful individuals for safety and punish them for deterrence, but they should not indulge in self-righteousness.  Individual learning, recorded history, scientific discovery, laws, mythology and all responses of life forms to inputs are part of the cause-effect chain.
* Accordingly, the Vanderbilt rapes resulted inevitably from conditions and events at the beginning of time.  Our wish that the rapes had not occurred can translate into policies to diminish future rapes.  Reaction to experiences so as to promote favorable ones and avoid unfavorable ones feels like free choice, though it is determined.
* The brain has many synapses and the mind is tumultuous, so we review many possibilities, make many decisions and take many actions that defy simple explanations and seem to be free expressions of ourselves.  Our system of justice is based on that sense of free choice, agency and responsibility.  But the tumult of a moment is determined by tumult prior to that moment -– according to determinism.


Are sins unbridled primitive drives?
Deadly sins:   wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony
Commandments:  Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder,  commit adultery , steal, 
bear false witness against your neighbor, covet.