January 13, 2008

LEADERS

January 13, 2008/ Doug.E.Barr

Bill Gates is the leader of the rich. It is not possible to mention the leader of the poor because the name changes too frequently, probably at least every second or so. Other known leaders are Mohammed, Caesar, Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Pope Benedict, George Bush and Stephen Harper. Among the unknown to me are local priests, pastors, imams, mullahs, other religious leaders and all manner of secular leaders. I could have gone on and on but I only need a short haphazard list to make the point each person that makes the list was or is now the leader of a group that was or is now a division of humanity. I could be missing the significance of leaders, groups and the conflict between them but for the life of me I can’t see that they are of any benefit to humanity whatsoever. In fact, I believe, to reword the second half of the old saying “united we stand, divided we fall”, in division there is self-destruction.

Leaders do not cause self-destruction; nor as a consequence can they prevent self-destruction. Not even God can do that. We cause self-destruction. It is with our collective choices, active or passive, that we create and maintain the groups that leaders lead. Every great leader needs great followers. Indeed, leaders must be constantly looking behind them to keep in front of their respective groups. The only reason we need leaders is that we don’t know where we are going and they give us someone to blame. Egotistic rhetoric notwithstanding, leaders are at best indicators of division. As long as we continue to ‘follow’ leaders they will 'lead' us to self-destruction.

It should be obvious that we won’t prevent self-destruction by getting rid of leaders. We have tried that and the rate at which we are approaching this destination has only increased. The only way we can prevent self-destruction is for each of us to take the lead in making the choice to empty the void and consequently eliminate groups. Without groups there can be no leaders; and when we have no leaders we will know there is no self-destruction. With no self-destructive divisions there will be unity; and to reword the first half of the old saying, in unity there is self-realization.

(see) HEALING CHANGE, DEMOCRATIC SELF-DESTRUCTION
the last why: the poem; the last why: the precis; the last why: the essay

THE LAST WHY

The explanation of life and related writings.

02/02/24

INTRODUCTION
Like everyone, I inherited an existence. Mine collapsed circa 1970 while I was at McMaster U, Hamilton, ON, Canada, getting a BA(math) and B. Phys Ed, so I could teach. While sorting through the rubble of my life I noticed, though not as pervasive as it is today, a continuum of varied and increasing conflict permeating our existence. I wondered why.

Though wondering for myself I thought I should find the reason for conflict before a student I might teach asked me. I couldn’t deduce the reason with math; nor did I think I found it in the 5 major religions and their thousands of offspring, or in the 11 volume history of philosophy I skimmed for electives.

So besides my formal degrees, I graduated with a major degree of motivation to find before I taught, the reason for conflict. I never taught. By the time I discovered the answer to why increasing conflict pervades our existence, I’d become, with the help of my brother, a self-employed carpenter.

I tried and failed to share the answer at least three times and each time I vowed to quit trying. The last was in 1998 when a friend of a friend, a philosophy professor, wished me good luck on other projects. To help keep my last vow I started an addition to my house. I received even more help in 2000 when I began caring for my parents.

But then, when my father died in 2004 I was motivated to try sharing my analysis one more time before I died. I was still thinking of a hard copy when a friend suggested I publish on a website. I’d never heard of websites nor could I type but with more help from my Mother I bought a computer, learned to type, and with expert help, created a website.

I first thought I’d bury the reason for conflict in an essay. But having already experienced web attention deficit disorder I decided to highlight the essence of it in my website logo and add context with blog posts.

Since there is no answer to “Why am I?”, attempts to answer it, such as the myriad religions and philosophies I skimmed, and a variety of other responses I found, are tries to fill the void. Though we can mix them, some may be similar and even have identical names, because we direct them to the void within us, our tries are all opposed and so cause conflict to the extent of our belief in them.

But, conflict is not inevitable. We can diminish it and resulting death to the degree we empty the void. Now, if we choose to empty the void, our lives are not then devoid of activity, on the contrary! Because it is essential, we each possess some remnant of “reaching out to the limits of our capacities, to others and to Nature’s God”, the natural activity that creates and tries to maintain all life.

So, even though in the 200k years since the birth of humanity we have replaced almost all our inherited natural activity with the human made unnatural, self-destructive activity of trying to fill the void, if we choose to empty the void, the remnants of our natural, self-creative activity will at least refill our lives and possibly answer “Why am I?”

I have been trying share these basic facts of life for a few years by advertising. Last year (2023) I bought 8 million page views with half the value of my home, without effect; but this time I won’t quit. The warnings about fatal climate change by hundreds of climate scientists over many more years have also been ignored.

However, I do have to reduce my advertising. If it is too late to prevent it, I’ll need a place to live where I can watch the increasing conflict within us, between us and with Nature, causing at least the death of us and maybe all of Nature, possibly even before I’d have died in peace.

If you feel moved to help me share these facts you can by using the share icon at the end of any post, notably my most recent piece of rhymed reason, “Analyzing Conflict”, or any other way of sharing. If you also click on the like icon you will see an explosion of hearts, an expression of my gratitude. 🙏 Doug E Barr.

Read: Nature’s Nutritional Ideal

Part 1. Nature’s ideal diet: It protected our predecessors from disease from conception to the birth of humanity when they realized the capacity to choose. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of individuals chose to ignore ’Her’ ideal and thus, our increasing disease.

Part 2. Nature’s ideal life: It protected our predecessors from conflict until the birth of humanity. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of individuals chose to ignore ‘Her’ ideal and thus, our increasing conflict.

Part 3. The integration of parts 1 and 2

Part 4. Existential risks: They are the result of our ancestors increasingly choosing to ignore Nature’s nutritional ideal. They may be reduced by expanding our mental capacity beyond what was realized at the birth of humanity. It would only take an instant, but the time we have to make the necessary choice is quickly running out.

Part 5. Appendix: Mostly diet related math that may have caused the mathematically challenged to quit reading in the middle of Part 1.