Happiness: Factors Which Affect It

Happiness: Factors Which Affect It

I prefer the term contentment as opposed to happiness, but most all the research uses the term happiness. To me happiness is fleeting, like your team wins the championship, or you win money at the racetrack, or get a good grade etc. Contentment is an overall state of mind which makes us feel good about ourselves over a long period of time.

We know a lot more about happiness/contentment today than say, fifty years ago. The methods to study such mental states have improved a lot in recent times. We now know, for example, which parts of the brain are activated when we are happy/contented (or not active). What follows is an attempt to pull what we now know about happiness together in some sort of coherent and informative fashion. A lot of it is not surprising, but at least now there is a lot more scientific documentation. 

Let’s start with the relationship between good health and happiness. They are correlated, but as with many things that are related to happiness, it is seldom clear which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case either good health causes increased happiness or increased happiness generates good health. Most likely it is a bit of each. It has always seemed to me that the terminational years can be quite contented if we have good health. Without good health it is not clear just how much contentedness or happiness we can have. 

The relationship between money and happiness is interesting. Up to about $70,000 a year income, happiness is correlated with wealth, but after that it is not. This comes as no surprise to me since it has always puzzled me why so many of the wealthy are so unhappy, and I have been around enough wealthy people in my life to have noticed this. Enough is never enough for most of them. While there are exceptions, it seems that the wealthier people are, the less happy they are. Related to this, and also of interest: the middle class and poor give away a higher percentage of their money than do the wealthy. Thus, in this paragraph we have two good reasons to tax the wealthy with a progressive tax. First, after $70,000 the money doesn’t even increase their happiness level, and secondly, they are often not going to be generous and share their wealth with the less fortunate. The question arises immediately as to why the wealthy are not more generous, and give a high percentage of their income to the less fortunate. There seem to be several factors here. First, they really think they achieved their wealth the old fashioned way—they earned it. Second, people who put a high value on material possessions have the motivation to acquire wealth and things, and this obsession is not amendable to giving their wealth away to any great extent. Wealthy people, with exceptions, have less compassion for the less fortunate, compared to the poor and lower middle class. The poor learn early in life that they need help and fully understand how precious that help from others is to them. Thus, when poor people see the less fortunate in need, they understand the situation and are more motivated to help others out. I remember once walking down the downtown streets of Chicago where there are many panhandlers. Most people, for varied reasons, do not give panhandlers money, including myself. I mean, like where would you stop, there are so many of them. But walking behind two genuine young ragamuffins, low life street thugs if you like, I was impressed when they stopped before some down and out guy begging on the street, and one of them kept searching his pockets for some money, finally came up with some loose change, and gave it to the guy. The rest of us, with far more money, gave the guy nothing. I now wonder what percentage of the money collected in their cups comes from the affluent compared to the poorer segment of our society. Studies show that households earning less than $50,000 donate 4 percent of their adjusted gross income while those earning $200,000 to $250,000 donate 2.4%. In another study the participants were given $10 and told they could either keep all the money or share it with a stranger. Those who earned less than $25,000 a year gave 44% more to a stranger than those earning $150,000 to $200,000. I personally noted in my university teaching career that those students who came from affluent families were less sharing and less involved with other students, again with some exceptions.  None of the correlations to be noted here are absolute. There will always be exceptions. However, the correlations are strong.

What about happiness/contentedness as it relates to age? People in their 60’s and 70’s tend to be as happy as young people. Women, at about age 40 and men about age 50 (in the U.S.) tend to become less happy or more depressed for a period of time until about age 60. Maybe at an earlier age we are more full of energy, more exposed to various experiences that are new, and have a more competitive nature. With time perhaps we have ‘been there, done that’ in many cases, so the previous thrill is gone. With age perhaps we begin to shift into a mode where we value peace and calm more than excitement and competition. Again, this is just a generalization and there are clearly exceptions. My dad used to say, when challenged to do more exciting things, “The hell with it”. 

Anger, an appropriate and necessary emotion in certain conditions, can destroy happiness/contentment. Anyone who has been around someone who has gone through a bitter divorce knows how much anger can ruin a person’s contentment with life. People who appreciate diversity are more contented in life than those who feel threatened by diversity or see them as ‘heathens’, whom God himself can’t stand. Religious purists seem the most on edge and fuming about others a lot. I doubt the Ayatollah has ever smiled, and if he did maybe he would fracture his face. And the same is true for many religious leaders of other sects. The people who get angry at the right time for the right reason and in the right way and for the right length of time, are the ones who can stay contented in life. On top of all this anger is not good for our health. The physiologic stresses associated with anger are many, and can lead to all sorts of medical conditions like heart attacks, strokes, etc. This is a whole other topic, so will stop here on that. 

Evidence that physical exercise is good for your state of mind is voluminous and strong. Science has known this for a long time. The only trick is to find the right level of exercise for a particular person. And we need remember that librarians tend to live a long time, even before today, when now some of the librarians are out jogging every day. People who exercise are less likely to develop depression. My own guess, as a physiologist, is that when tensions in life are directed toward physical exercise rather than internalized without any exercise, this helps dissipate the tensions that exist. It is harder to be tense and physically tired at the same time. People who exercise tend to reduce any existing depression by about 20%. 

In addition to regular physical exercise there are many mind-body programs which can help a lot of people to be more contented/happy with their lives. Again, to go into this with any detail would be impossible. The literature here, some with scientific studies, and others with just beliefs, is extensive. We need remember that often just believing something is good for our mental health, and is often enough to make it so. At any rate, there is scientific evidence at this point in time that the following can help one achieve more contentment/happiness in our lives: Tai Chi, Yoga, Mindful meditation, nature walks. People tend to have increased vitality and a greater sense of well being after walking in nature compared to a similar walk indoors or outside walking on side-walks. Nature walking seems to make time slow down, makes one feel they are part of something greater than themselves, and tends to inspire awe. Awe is an emotion which has been shown to reduce the levels of chemicals in the body which play a role in systemic inflammation. Again, as with many of the factors in this musing, we need to remember we really don’t know yet whether lower levels of these chemicals lead to positive ‘awe’ emotions or do the positive ‘awe’ emotions lead to lower levels of these chemicals. It is important to remember this, if the cause of our unhappiness is our life situation, and we find ways to make our mind more accepting of our situation, then the motivation for correcting our life situation is decreased. So there is a downside to manipulating our mind in this way.

Social support has been shown to help us attain a higher level of contentment/happiness. No one flourishes as well as they could with zero social support. Exactly how much social support and of what kind, will vary a lot from individual to individual. What is now known via studies is that giving help to others, especially outside our immediate family, plays a bigger role in health benefits than simply receiving help. While this is true at all ages, it is especially true for those over 65. 

Being part of a social network can help build self-esteem and foster a sense of purpose, which in turn benefits mental and physical health. While this may be generally true, we need be a bit cautious here. Some people, including myself, find forced social endeavors involving a lot of chit-chat with people we will never see again, to be inane and a waste of time. It would be hard to convince me that having meaningless social encounters would in any way benefit my mental or physical health. If one does not enjoy something it is probably not benefitting either your mental or physical health. People who tend to help others in need live longer and have a more contented life than those who spend inordinate amount of energy trying to get others to entertain them. Those who are never less alone than when alone have an easier time achieving contentment. Obviously this does not include those who are angry that they are so alone. I reckon, the more one is dependent on others for a meaningful life, the harder it is to achieve contentment, especially in the elder years. 

None of the information in this musing is ‘one size fits all’. My own situation in life was such that in my productive years I was in a position to help others and spent an inordinate amount of time going just that with those who had difficult hurdles to overcome. It was clearly good for me, increased my sense of self worth, and increased my appreciation of diversity. Once I retired this sort of face to face assistance to the less fortunate is too frustrating. In many cases, if we don’t have a title and the power of an institution behind us, our effectiveness to help others is limited and therefore more stressful. So I now use my generated FANAFI Fund to give grants to those organizations which are structured to help the less fortunate or protect the environment. I spend more effort ensuring that I have sufficient money available to adequately fund these yearly grants than I do ensuring I buy or spend money on whatever pops up in my mind at the moment. It often comes down to thoughts like: “I could spend money to travel in Europe for two weeks or provide enough money for at least 1500 children to be vaccinated against diseases that could kill them.” The trip to Europe would give me temporary happiness.  Saving others from fatal diseases is a far more lasting contribution to personal contentment. It is much harder to be contented with our lives if we are not helping the least fortunate in life one way or another. Exactly how we do this will vary for a lot of valid reasons.   As an ethical principle, the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) fits right into this musing on Happiness/Contentedness. It is no longer some sort of abstract ethical guide to a Heaven after Death, but a way of life that has ample support from scientific studies. No one has to get to a Heaven to reap the rewards. We are rewarded right here on earth, time after time, up until we take that great leap in the dark. 

Take a risk and be kind and helpful to someone who is from a different culture, race, religion, personality, or whatever—and in most cases, we will be surprised at how genuinely they appreciate our effort, and we in turn will be pleased that we took the risk. Really now, anyone can be kind to those who expect us to be kind because they are a family member, share a common religion, race, or culture or personality. And because this is expected, after time, familiarity can breed various degrees of contempt. What is expected will not be accepted as so meaningful. The unexpected means a lot more. I, for example, can’t remember all the kindnesses that were expected over my life but I will always remember those kindnesses from others which were not owed or expected or required, and yet were major inputs into any modest successes in my life. When it is support needed to save our ass, the support, more often than not, will not be input from our parents, or siblings, or close friends, or preacher, and so on who will be able to save the day, but from those respected who have no reason to back us up except to want right to win out over wrong. It is these kind of events, from both sides, which make both more contented or happy with their lives. I think what we remember most in our lives are those times when someone says to us “Why did you intercede on my behalf, you had nothing to gain?” or a student or anyone of a different racial background suddenly says: “I didn’t know I could talk to a white/black person the way we talk to each other.” Now that I look back I did have something to gain and did gain—more contentment in my life for having done precisely what Lincoln advised us to do: “Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”  And what is the right? To follow the Golden Rule to the extent we have the determination to do so. 

I am done now with the scientific studies of happiness/contentment. 50 years ago little of this had been studied in any controlled studies. What follows is opinion based on my own observations. 

It is a mistake to assume contented or happy people do not express a good amount of sadness. Being contented or happy does not make us impervious or protected from all the sadness in the world. Feeling the sadness of those outside our own immediate circle is actually what gives us the strength to better assist those in need. It is as if, and maybe actually is, the need for us to do our best for others to maximize our own contentment. Ethics means little if there are no rewards for ethical behavior. Sure, we can insist the reward comes later as some sort of Heaven after death, but we also need consider whether ethical behavior may bring rewards in our lives here on earth. It seems there is plenty of observational evidence that it does. No one could live through sadder times than Lincoln, and no one could have been more sensitive to the unfair situations of all kinds of people than Lincoln, and yet Lincoln was one of the most self contented figures in history. There is a distinct difference between sadness and depression. It would be abnormal for Lincoln not to be sad considering the time at which he was President.  It is only a medical condition when someone is sad or depressed for no real reason. That means there is a chemical imbalance in the brain. 

It is also a mistake to think everyone who is very active socially is a happy camper. No addiction leads to contentment. No compulsive behavior leads to contentment. Seeking social popularity as a means to contentment often fails miserably. When someone feels uncomfortable being alone, even for a short time, or can’t be on a bus or train or ride in a car unless they constantly have someone on the other end of a modern day electronic device, that is hardly contentment. No one else can make you contented or give you a happy life. Others, carefully chosen, can be part of making us contented; our hobbies or interests can be part of what makes us contented; helping the less fortunate can give us a happy life. What makes all of us contented or have a happy life is the peculiar mixture of activities which blend together to enable us to be contented. There is no best way to have a contented life. Before we can be contented, we must first understand our own selves well enough to live a life that will bring us contentment. We all have trouble in life knowing when enough is enough. When we fail here, we overdo things and contentment will escape our grasp. There probably is no such thing as perfect contentment with our lives. There is no such thing as perfect fairness in life. There is no such thing as perfect justice in life. Life is never about perfection. Life is about opportunity, experiences and the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule maximizes contentment for the greatest number of people. That is why it is precisely an ethical principle. None of us have control over the Golden Rule except, so far as we participate in it, we receive some contentment for our participation. Some of us have a lot of gratitude for what others have done for us in life, and others have little to be grateful for. The emaciated child or adult in a refugee camp is one of the saddest sights imaginable. And when that last flicker of life goes out from their eyes, we just know the depth of sadness that can exist. Pets tend to practice the Golden Rule better than many humans do, and that is precisely why the death of a pet hurts so much. They treated us right, not some of the time, but all the time, no matter how many times we were so imperfect with them. Are there exceptions? Of course, but not many. Befriend a pet, especially during a rough time in their life, and they will never forget it. You will have a friend for life. Human intellectual superiority makes it more difficult for us to have the same allegiance to the Golden Rule. Lincoln is precisely so great in world history because he seemed to never not implement the Golden Rule in his daily life.  

Relevant Attestations—These are probably best read a few at a time so one has time to think about to what extent they relate to our lives.

“I am arguing that science can, in principle, help us understand what we should do and should want---and therefore, what other people should do and should want in order to live the best lives possible.” Sam Harris (neuroscientist)  Ethical behavior does not have to be derived from some inherited religious scripture. 

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Aldous Huxley (English Writer)  Opinions, lacking sufficient evidence, are hardly the building blocks on which to live our lives.

“If we want life, we must conquer darkness.” J. T. Fields (American editor, publisher, and poet) The darkness here is having little understanding about ourselves and the worlds in which we live. 

“The principles now implanted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity; and in that maturity thou wilt find thy Heaven or thy Hell.” D. Thomas (American Agricultural writer) 

“Not all that tempts your wand’ring eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glitters, gold.” Thomas Gray (British Poet) 

Little we see in Nature that is ours.” Willaim Wordsworth (British Poet)  Nature is the best source that we have for reality. Plus, an appreciation of nature keeps us humble and mellow about life.

“When a small child....I thought success spelled happiness. I was wrong. Happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.” Anna Pavlova (Russian Ballet dancer) 

“The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life.” Carl Gustav Jung (Swiss psychologist, psychiatrist) 

“The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.” Lucretius (Roman Poet)  Another way to state ‘enough is enough’

“Look at one of your industrious fellows for a moment. He sows hurry and reaps indigestion; he puts a vast deal of activity out to interest, and receives a large measure of nervous derangement in return....I do not care how much or how well he works, this fellow is an evil feature in other people’s lives. They would be happier if he were dead...He poisons life at the well-head.” Robert Louis Stevenson (British essayist, novelist, poet). Sounds a bit like Trump.

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car. Laurence J. Peter.” (Educator, author of Peter Principle) 

“In our complex, modern world....large private fortunes can easily be extracted by clever folks through imaginative zero sum or negative-sum games. You may become engineers, physicians, or product entrepreneurs who earn your income as a reward for contributing to the welfare and prosperity of society as a whole....On the other hand, you may join the ever-growing corps of income redistributors---tax experts, legal experts, regulatory experts, financial wizards, lobbyists, legislators, and so on---who use so much of their time and intellect not to create net social value added, but merely to redistribute toward themselves and their clients claims to the useful production of others.” Uwe E. Reinhardt (Princeton Economist)   Nor does it lead to contentment in life. 

“I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye.” Edgar A. Guest (English born American poet) 

Youth is a period of building up in habits, and hopes, and faiths- --not an hour but is trembling with destinies; not a moment, once passed, of which the appointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blows struck on the cold iron.....by all means some- times be alone; salute thyself; see what they soul doth wear; dare to look in they chest, and tumble up and down what thou findest there...for the principles now implanted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity; and in that maturity thou wilt find they heaven or they hell.” Unknown   The heaven or hell here would be contentedness/happiness.

“We see and cherish diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives, and accomplishments. We don’t seek to live anyone’s life for him. We only seek to secure his rights, guarantee him opportunity to survive, with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot oth- erwise be performed....for we Republicans define government’s role where needed at many, many levels----preferably, though the one closest to the people involved; our towns and our cities, then our counties, then our states, then our regional contracts and only then the national government.” Barry Goldwater (American Senator) 

“We have built rockets and spaceships and shuttles; we have harnessed the atom, we have dazzled a generation with a display of our technological skills. But we still spend millions of dollars on aspirin and psychiatrists and tissues to wipe away the tears of anguish and uncertainty that result from our confusion and our emptiness....The closed circle of pure materialism is clear to us now---aspirations become wants, wants become needs, and self- gratification becomes a bottomless pit. All around us we have seen success in this world’s terms become ultimate and desperate failures. Teenager and college students, raised in affluent surroundings and given all the material comforts our society can offer, commit suicide. Entertainer and sports figures achieve fame and wealth but find the world empty and dull without the solace of stimulation of drugs. Men and women rise to the top of their professions after years of struggling. But despite their apparent success, they are driven nearly mad by a frantic search for diversions, new mates, games, new experiences---anything to fill the diminishing interval between their existence and eternity- --the way to serve yourself is to serve others; and that Aristotle was right, before them, when he said the only way to assure your- self happiness is to learn to give happiness.” Mario Cuomo. (U.S. Governor) 

“Success has made failures of many men.” Cindy Adams (American gossip columnist and writer) Success, with certain goals, does not always bring happiness/contentment. It is the old saying, “Be careful what you wish, it may come true.” 

“The rich have a passion for bargains as lively as it is pointless.” Francoise Sagan (French playwright and novelist) 

“He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.” Benjamin Franklin (American author, printer, politician, scientist) 

“One of the worst things about life is not how nasty the nasty people are. You know that already. It is how nasty the nice people can be.” Anthony Powell (British novelist) 

“What is hateful to thyself do not do to another. This is the whole Law, the rest is commentary.” Hillel (Jewish rabbi, teacher) 

“Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” Carl Gustav Jung (Swiss psychologist, psychiatrist)  This is yet another way to define the Golden Rule

“In political speculations ‘the tyranny of the majority’ is not generally included among the evils against which society requires to be on its guard.” John Stuart Mill (English political economist, philosopher) Still another way to state the Golden Rule

“The love of glory, the fear of disgrace, the incentive to succeed, the desire to live in comfort, and the instinct to humiliate others are often the cause of that courage so renowned among men.” Francois De La Rochefoucauld   Reasons why the Golden Rule is abandoned. 

“I beg of you to remember that wherever our life touches yours we help or hinder----wherever your life touches ours, you make us stronger or weaker.... There is no escape---man drags man down, or man lifts man up.” Booker T. Washington (American author, educator, and orator.)  Another version of the Golden Rule

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” George Eliot (English novelist)  The Golden Rule again.

“Hard to dislike a chap who likes you, isn’t it? Well, there’s your peace plan.” Unknown

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Stephen Grellet (French Quaker missionary) There it is again, the Golden Rule in a different form.

“God, give us the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr (American theologian) 

“Treat everybody with politeness, even those who are rude to you. You show courtesy to others not because they are gentlemen, but because you are.” Unknown.  I may be exempt here.

“The test of courage comes when we are in the minority; the test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.” Ralph W. Sockman (Church of Christ Minister)  The Golden Rule snuck in again.

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts; To return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, ‘I was wrong’.” Sydney Harris (essayist and drama Critic)  The Golden Rule pops up everywhere. 

“A good person loves people and uses things, while a bad person loves things and uses people.” Sydney Harris (Essayist and Drama Critic) 

The way to be happy is to make others so.” Robert G. Ingersoll (Civil War Veteran, political leader and orator)   There are so many ways to illustrate the Golden Rule

“Care is not weakness. Care to us is the very essence, the greatest demonstration of strength. That’s what makes us democratic socialists. That’s what makes us so categorically different from them. We believe that strength without care is savage, and brutal, and selfish. It’s the strength of the jungle. We believe that strength, with care, is compassion; the practical action that is needed to help people lift themselves to their full stature, their full potential. The strength to care. Not the strength of the jungle but the strength of humanity.” Neil Kinnock. (Welsh politician)  The Golden Rule is the strength of humanity.

“Poverty is a bitter thing; but it is not as bitter as the existence of restless vacuity and physical, moral, and intellectual flabbiness, to which those doom themselves who elect to spend all their years in that vainest of all vain pursuits---the pursuit of mere pleasure as a sufficient end in itself.” Teddy Roosevelt. (American President) Neatly put. I remember a long long time ago working on a grounds crew during summers in college. Hardly had dime to my name back then but I don’t recall these guys being hard to be around or wallowing in misery. Of course back then one could at least afford to have a car and rent a decent place to live even with a job like that. Today the same workers need two jobs. Teddy Roosevelt uses the term pleasure as I do, fleeting sort of feeling. 

“We keep countless men from being good citizens by the conditions of life with which we surround them.” Teddy Roosevelt (American President)  There is a tendency today to think we (collectively thru our elected officials) have little responsibility for the environment of the poor. 

“Bring me all your flowers now
I would rather have a single rose From the garden of a friend
Than have the choicest flowers, When my stay on Earth must end.
I would rather have the kindest words Which may now be said to me,
Than flattered when my heart is still--- And this life has ceased to be.
I would rather have a loving smile From the friends I know are true, 

Than tears shed round my casket,
When this world I’ve bade adieu!
Bring me all your flowers,
Whether pink, or white or red.
I’d rather have one blossom now
Than a truckload when I’m dead.” R. D. Richards (poet)  The Golden Rule brings the blossoms now.

“I have never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” Henry David Thoreau (American libertarian writer)   

“The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before. Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along. You have two choices in life: you can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be.” Alan Ashley -Pitt. (Western Film) 

“Serving God is doing Good to Man, but praying is thought an easier service, and therefore more generally chosen.” Benjamin Franklin (American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor)  Praying is often used to substitute for the Golden Rule.

“The man who gets angry at the right things and with the right people, and in the right way and at the right time and for the right length of time, is commended.” Aristotle. (Greek philosopher) 

“Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class (or family).” Plato (Greek philosopher) The Golden Rule again in another form. 

“No nation can last, which has made a mob of itself, however generous at heart. It must discipline it’s passions, and direct them or they will discipline it, one day, with scorpion-whips. Above all, a nation cannot last in a money-making job; it cannot with impunity--it cannot with existence---go on despising literature, despising science, despising nature, despising compassion, and concentrating its soul on Pence.” John Ruskin (British writer). 

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” John F. Kennedy. (American President)  This is just about where America is today. 

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint---and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” Oprah Winfrey (American TV talk show host) 

“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.” Bernard Berenson (American art historian) This is directed as those who are always opposed to change. 

“Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.” W.H. Auden (English/ American poet) 

“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.” Gene Roddenberry (American TV screen writer and producer) 

“Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be with- out.” William Sloane Coffin Jr. (American clergyman and Peace Activist) 

“Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity. John Hume (Irish politician) 

“The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” John Milton (English poet) 

“Nothing can bring your peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist and poet) 

“Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty. But learn to be happy alone. Rely upon your own energies, and so not wait for, or depend on other people.” Thomas Davidson (Scottish-American philosopher) 

“I often compulsively pursue happiness no matter how bad it makes me feel” Unknown 

Does the 2016 Presidential Election Really Matter?

Does the 2016 Presidential Election Really Matter?

There has never really been an election like this. Political leaders are used to determining who their candidate for President will be. Not any more. There used to be political conventions which did the choosing, and then a campaign for two months. Not any more. Fringe candidates rarely got a chance unless the conventions were deadlocked. Not any more. Every ego fueled with strong feelings and little substance can be in the headlines for years, campaigning for money, a lot of it going directly into their own bank account, even when getting nominated is farfetched. Elections today are the political version of the Jerry Springer Show. 

The Democrats lucked out in that there are only two candidates and the debates could be issue oriented. The Republicans unintentionally created some kind of Dating Game/American Idol combination—where they pitch everything to stir up the worst prejudices of voters, and even cough up nasty little degrading nicknames for each other. 

How many persons really qualified to be President would even consider going through such a process which lasts a couple of years? If you weren’t deranged when you started, you would be by the end. It does seem that Bernie Sanders is too old (my age) to be racing around all over the country, every day, everywhere, and trying to be mentally sharp enough to compete on a debate stage. Maybe after his first stroke, and left with babbling apoplectic anger fits, he will switch parties to fit in better.

What will, when all is said and done, and more said than done, be the result?  For a start, all the ‘issues’ being discussed are short term nuances in the evolutionary process. It is the issues not discussed which will determine the future of our planet. Thus, in the long run, it really doesn’t matter who wins. Let’s come back to that later in this musing. 

So what about the short run? Whose base would we rather get really pissed off? The conservatives or the liberals? Both groups have an intellectual base and both groups have an ever growing ‘nobody’s home’ crowd. The Conservatives have their ‘crucify the heathens’ rural ghetto mob of various ilk, while the liberals have the urban ghetto ilk. It doesn’t take much insight to correctly pick which camp has those most likely to throw caution to the wind, take to the streets and create chaos. No one seems to understand to what extent all these ‘smart phones’ and other gadgets will, at some point, alter the nature of street riots. They will soon become very organized riots, in the sense that while the police can’t be everywhere (or the national guard), the rioters can be quickly be programmed to be where the police or national guard are not. Riots will be breaking out all over in a coordinated fashion and things can go down rapidly when this happens. No one will be safe. And as always, those with nothing to lose will win, and those with much to protect will lose. This has a strong historical background.

Anyone my age just hopes for reasonable calm another ten years. In that respect, us affluent better hope the democrats win. The Republican conservatives will squeal like pigs but their pacifiers (the trough of food and THINGS) will be close by to calm them down a bit. But having said this, there is no real assurance a democrat victory will avoid street riots except in the very short term. Obama kept the ‘have nots’ relatively calm for ten years. But income inequality has continued to soar, especially in the United States, and so those at the economic bottom may well go berserk just out of economic frustration. Time will tell rather quickly in the next couple of years where this all goes.

Now back to the long run. The sequence of events about to be described are not Einsteinium in nature.  It is not a matter of intelligence. It is more a matter of see no evil, hear no evil. It is like a mother who knows one of her children is rotten to the core, but can never bring herself to admit it. We see such a parent all the time on TV telling the press “My kid would never do a terrible thing like this. It is all a mistake.” This is just a sad, but realistic, aspect of human nature. 

Hardly anyone will deny that letting the human population of our planet double, like it has in my lifetime, will be disastrous. Even today, there are not the natural resources available for every person on the planet to live the kind of affluent life that I and others now live. We learn in Biology 101 that every species pays a disastrous price for overpopulation. This basic and major issue is never discussed in any Presidential debates by anyone. Without drastic measures to control human population on the globe, nothing else in any party platform really matters much in the long run.  As the human population continues to surge ahead Donald Trump is going to be pretty busy having Mexico and other countries building real high walls to keep others in/out. I wonder how far down his walls will go, because the usual way these days through walls is to go under them in tunnels. 

This musing could end right here since there really is no alternative to stopping human overpopulation on our planet. But we might just mention another immediate issue which needs attention, and no one talks about it. There can be no decent living wages for all workers anywhere in a global economy until there are global minimum wages. We could declare everyone in America must be paid $20 an hr but then how can we sell any goods produced abroad?  Could America really be self sufficient if it simply stopped trading with other countries? How long can most workers in this country hang on when more and more the trend is to lower job security via individual year by year contracts, reduce pensions, leave social security ripe for disaster, refuse to guarantee good health care for every child (and adult), refuse to spend the same amount of money to educate every child, have unemployment rates in many rural and ghetto areas hover around 60-70%, continue to spend more money on military matters than all the other top industrialized countries combined, and allow income inequality to increase exponentially?  How can all this not be a ticket to national disaster?

So while the candidates in both parties pull our emotional strings on cultural, religious, and racial matters, matters which will bring about some kind of massive evolutionary correction to our planet’s situation— the important matters will be ignored while we get apoplectic about all these in our face hot button issues.  Rome is getting ready to burn. 

Even climate change, which is starting to be addressed, is rather certain about to be too little, too late. It took more than half a century of ever increasing use of energy and other natural resources to bring us close to the tipping point here, and it would take another half century to reverse it, and only if human population is made to decline.  Imagine taking a purely scientific matter, such as climate change, and letting the general population vote their feelings about it? Now really, how many of us could even give a 5 minute knowledgeable lecture on the science of climate change? No matter how many doctorate degrees we have, unless it is in the area of climate change, we know as much about it as the person who gives you change at the grocery store. All we have are feelings about the whole matter. Riva the horse has feelings. So why can’t she vote?

The issues which people tend to have the strongest convictions, in today’s world, are the issues which are most determined by feelings. Thus religious beliefs generate strong feelings, gay marriage elicits strong feelings, right to carry guns around are seeped in feelings, who will win a sports contest is saturated with feelings, the legality of marijuana is wrapped in strong feelings, and so it goes—many people are a bundle of feelings—in many cases created by the constant media input from various electronic devices. The issues discussed in this musings have little to do with feelings, and everything to do with logic and scientific data. In a world population increasingly operating on pure personal feelings, these logical and scientific issues are less and less issues of any real focus. 

It is clear that humans do not today have the foresight to limit their own population on our globe. It is also clear that today there is not even a remote chance that there will be a global minimum wage. It clear that we have already passed the point where we have the time and circumstance to prevent climate change. So what will really happen in the long run? Will the future on this planet still have humans as the most developed species?  Will the human species become extinct like the dinosaurs? Will a new species involve in which humans are no longer the dominant species? All these questions are beyond human prediction. It is hard to envision how the human species could possibly co-exist with a new and higher life form species. What is for sure is that human overpopulation will cease—and probably through violent pitched battles for the limited natural resources needed for human survival. Maybe evolution will not proceed via a new dominant species but an improved human species in which further advancement of life on this planet will be via machines or gadgets which make human work, mental or physical, almost incidental---but this would kind of make us obsolete wouldn't it?

Let’s stick with this a minute. Human overpopulation of the globe is already here. Will humans solve this in some sort of chaotic genocidal fashion? Will weapons of mass destruction be our Waterloo? Will some sort of climate change, for whatever reasons, be our Waterloo? Will some sort of microbial infection run rampant across the globe and exterminate us like it virtually did to the American Indians? Will terrorism become so sophisticated and accessible to most any angry group that any human genocide becomes basically mass terrorism from multiple directions? For example, our best success to date against terrorist groups has been drones to take out the leaders, one after another. Trouble is, these leaders get replaced readily one after another. If we can locate an address for our target, we can take them out with smart drones which will deliver a bomb practically right up their ass. But what happens when various groups get the capability to make their own drones? UPS is already talking about using drones in the future to deliver packages right to your home. That’s nice except suppose someone wants to send an explosive bomb instead, and has drone capability. What’s to stop drones from being sold on the black market?  We already have generated ‘stand your ground’ laws which essentially legalize murder as long we feel our life has  been threatened. There are so many people whose lives are so unrewarding, for so many different reasons, who choose now to take their own lives and take as many others with them—the others often being anyone around the site of their massacre. A sort of generic mass murder. Most don’t even plan for any escape, just kill as many as they can before the police take them out. How is any world leader of any ilk going to be protected from drones? Do we really realize what kind of multiple potentials exist out there for chaotic human genocide?  

We seem to think that income inequality and inequality of living environments is just another political issue to be decided at the ballot box. Based on the daily news reports, more and more people, at an exponential rate, are modifying the stand your ground concept as a personal choice to generate death as their own public way to offer—if necessary, their own death as means to take out an immediate irritant or just generic human lives in general. Most of us probably haven’t made a list yet of how many drones or explosive devices we will need if the ‘shit hits the fan’ in any chaotic breakdown of civilized order.

Clearly, something has to give, and not in some far distant future. Humans have lost control of their own civilized destiny. If we wonder why this coming Presidential election is so strange and volatile, we only have to more closely observe what a global human overpopulation really begins to look like. The more overpopulated the human species becomes, the cheaper individual lives become, the more it becomes every person and group for themselves. The only thing for certain is that the human species will be reduced in number one way or another. Evolution will proceed.  It is just unimaginable the direction and how long any massive evolutionary correction will take. We tend to think in terms of our own lifetime, and are not too good at predicting corrections which sometimes take millions of years.      

In my life time humans have gotten really smart in some areas, and yet remain amazingly dumb in other areas. None of us, individually or collectively as a species, are controlling the evolutionary process. We like to think otherwise. The laws which God (however you choose to define God) created to control the process will continue to operate. We all prance around and do our little thing for a minuscule period of time in evolutionary history. Our human activities have gotten out of hand to the extent we are currently in the midst of the 5th or 6th massive species extinction rate in all of evolutionary history. Mother Nature bats last.  The only thing for certain is that Time will stay, we will Go, and what will be the historical story on our species is anyone’s guess. Neither Sheebiejiebee the cat or Riva the Horse seem to give a shit about these issues. In this sense they are smarter than me.  Frankly, at my age why should I either? 

The Current Heroin Crisis

The Current Heroin Crisis

Politicians and law enforcement officials are highlighting a new epidemic of heroin use. As has been true for 50 years now politicians could, but won’t alleviate recreational drug abuse, and law enforcement officials can’t solve the problem, just remain disingenuous about drug abuse, as they have been doing for decades. 

This topic has long been close to my heart, and for years I taught a University course in the Physiological Aspects of Drugs and Drug Abuse. So what follows is a different take, hopefully a more realistic and factual discourse on this problem.

The American approach to recreational drug abuse has always been one of “just say no to drugs or else we will fine you or jail you. Nothing could be less effective and more ignorant than this approach. It hasn’t worked for more than 50 years, and it has zero chance of succeeding now. People who are having success in their lives and are contented (both must be true) are rarely abusing any recreational drugs. They have no need to.

People use recreational drugs in order to feel different. What drug they choose to feel different will vary depending on what their emotional state is at that point in their lives. Recreational drug use can be as simple as a couple of drinks to give us a buzz in social situations, or marijuana to mellow us out from a stressful day. What recreational drug we can legally use is determined by what recreational drugs are most commonly used in our society. It rarely has much to do with toxicity of the drug to our bodies. In the U.S., nicotine and alcohol are legal, and they have high toxicity, and are behind many medical problems over time. If you die from cancer it is often from a history of smoking; if you have liver disease it may be from alcohol consumption over a period of time. And so it goes with many related medical situations due to nicotine or alcohol use.  In the case of alcohol there is a genetic component. Some people should never touch alcohol. 

If we know a person’s overall emotional state we can pretty much predict which recreational drug they may abuse. People have been led to believe, by people who know little about drug abuse, that it is the drugs themselves which are the total culprit. In the case of heroin the notion is promoted that if  you take it, your body will be forever addicted to it. This is totally incorrect. Only as long as you have a certain emotional state will you have an interest in heroin. It is basically as simple as that. Heroin and morphine, for the purpose of this discussion are the basically the same thing. Heroin is changed into morphine and the body has receptors for morphine. The body produces it’s own endogenous opiates, which is why heroin has receptors in the body for opiates like heroin. This is also why heroin/morphine are so non toxic. If heroin is so non toxic to the body, why are so many dying from heroin overdose?

First, the vast majority of heroin deaths are from imbibing alcohol when there is heroin in the system. Too much of anything can kill you, including oxygen, glucose, carbon dioxide, too many calories, etc. So yes, there is lethal dose for heroin just like there is a lethal dose for most things we put into our body. But law enforcement officials want people to stop using heroin so they conveniently label the death a heroin overdose, not bothering to mention that the death would never have occurred in the absence of alcohol being present. When both are present, breathing can be inhibited and you can die from respiratory arrest. If law enforcement just wanted to stop the deaths they would be preaching that people should never take both heroin and alcohol together. But that would just mean fewer deaths and continued use of heroin. 

Heroin/morphine block the emotional aspects of physical or emotional pain. We still feel the physical or emotional pain but it just doesn’t bother us as much. We would tell a doctor it still hurts but the pain doesn’t bother us as much. That is exactly why the body produces it’s own endogenous opiates. If our situation in life is such that we have constant emotional or physical pain then it doesn’t take a genius to understand why we would use opiates for relief. Nor does it take a genius to understand why telling us to stop using opiates is essentially a waste of time. That is not much different than telling people ‘just say no to sex’. Telling people on heroin to just stop using the drug is really disingenuous. You are really telling them to just continue to feel bad about their life situation and shut up—or be fined or go to jail. 

The real crisis in this country is so many people are so little contented with their lives that they turn to heroin to get relief. Under heroin our life situation is the same, it is just that we don’t care as much—the situation does not bother us so much. So why then, isn’t it ok for us to continue to use heroin?  It sounds like a good deal to just not be so emotionally disturbed by our life situation. The problem, and it is no small problem, is that we are less likely to solve our life situation if it doesn’t bother us as much. “How can you live like this? We live in a dump, we can’t pay our bills, etc.”? And if your spouse doesn’t care so much about that anymore, the chances of him/her upping any effort to better the living situation goes down exponentially. 

This means the current heroin crisis simply reflects a dramatic increase in the number of citizens displeased with their lives—lives in which they see little hope of improving. Thus they turn to heroin. This is a time in history when there is global anger over a wide range of issues with more and more people finding dissatisfaction with their lives. So where is the surprise that there is a concurrent heroin epidemic? It is simply irrational to believe that we can make laws to stop people from seeking relief from all this personal turmoil in their lives. Part of the problem is information overload. People are on their gadgets most of the day getting input which yanks their emotional state in varied directions. The pace of life itself is overwhelming for many, while the economic squeeze overwhelms many people. Shifting religious values upsets a lot of people. Many simply believe all these rights others are now getting have made it more difficult for them to be successful. The lack of community spirit is impacting on how people feel about their lives. It is hard to feel we have control over much when so much of our day is spent in inane chatter with a handful of people. Sometimes all this chatter is mostly limited to close family members (the family values crowd). With all these gadgets anyone who is fanatical about anything can find a a cabal to join without ever actually meeting other members. With all these gadgets streaming input into our brain, the risk of illogical indoctrination rises. More and more people are driven by feelings, not rational reasoning. The career politicians are good at this, push the right buttons and the electorate will react as a politician desires. “You mad? I’m mad too, so vote for me.”

At any rate, however we try to document all these personal frustrations, heroin is always there to help us care less, and thus be less frustrated. The solution is obvious enough. But effectuating the solution is a huge task. Take a typical inner city victim whose life is likely going nowheres for a host of reasons. The only relief he/she gets from his/her dire and hopeless situation is heroin. The solution is for this person to find some meaning for his/her life. If we can’t do this then his/her need for heroin will never vanish.

The cruelty of what we have been doing for years is plain enough. A person is emotionally tormented by his/her life situation. They find relief in heroin. We jail them, at a cost of $30,000/yr and put them in a cell where there is zero chance for them to get any relief in any form. Why would any sane society spend $30,000/yr to torture someone whose life is saturated with emotional torture already? This picture from life’s other side is not very pretty. And the logic here is bizarre. Yet politicians promise to get tougher on these heroin addicts, put more of them in jail, get mandatory long term sentences on the books, and spend more money to find and destroy the heroin market. If we can’t destroy the marijuana market how the hell would we ever destroy the heroin market?  Our whole attitude is more one of anger at these people than any empathy for their mental state. 

For us to solve the heroin crisis we would have to alter exactly on what we collectively, through government, spend our tax money. Every child deserves to have the same amount of tax money spent on him/her as any other child. This provides a child with a good school and good teachers. Every child deserves good health care. Every child deserves a safe neighborhood in which to live.  Every child lacking proper family mentors (parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts) needs volunteer grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. All this enables a child to have a proper formative years environment. Maybe not perfect, but workable. Every child, in fact every citizen, with the ability to do so, deserves an employment opportunity commensurate with their skills. And the job ought to pay a reasonable livable minimum wage or more. And this reasonable minimum wage should rise every year with the cost of living increase. 

How can we afford to give them a livable minimum wage when other countries can pay workers slave wages? We simply need to impose steep tariffs on any goods coming into our country made by slave labor wages. Thus if South Korea wants to sell us TV’s those TV’s would have to be made in a company over there which would have comparable minimum wages as in our country. Of course none of us wants to pay more for a TV. But we will deal with this shortly. 

In the past, machines which could better do work which humans had to do by hand, resulted in cheaper products and reduced work week hours. No need for people to work 50-60 hrs per week.This was clearly the benefit for having these machines. Somehow all this got lost this past 50 years. Computers of varied sort can now do so much more in less time compared to the past, when humans did the work. Thus, there is no need anymore for people to work 40hrs/wk. If we maintain the 40 hr work week there will be unacceptable unemployment rates. Coupled with non living wages we end up with a grossly unethical and unsustainable economy. The combination of machines to do the work and the influx of females into the work force, not surprisingly, leads to massive unemployment and under payed employees. No society can last long in such a situation. And yes, in such a situation we will have a heroin epidemic. If we spend the money to provide all children with a level playing field in the areas listed earlier, then we have a competent work force available. If the work week is cut back to 30 hrs/wk we have work for everyone. If we have a livable minimum wage we don’t have so many people working two jobs. This makes more jobs available. We no longer then have 60-70% unemployment as now exists in our urban ghettoes. In fact our urban, suburban, and rural ghettoes will shrink instead of expanding. When most all people have jobs that pay a living wage, then practically everyone has money to spend and this stimulates the economy and less tax money needs to be spent on welfare. If less tax money is needed for welfare, then taxes can go down and the money we save on taxes enables us to pay more for goods produced by higher wages. It all boils down essentially to greed and our values as a nation.

The last paragraph would need to be tweaked in numerous ways. I have not suddenly become an economist. The end result desired is clear enough. The real talent is in the details. I would reckon that no one can be permitted to work two full time jobs or the purpose is defeated. Companies could not hire people on contract with no benefits, health care etc.  A global system would need to be implemented which required responsible reproduction (which essentially means no person could have more than 2 biological offspring. Nothing is going anywheres in the future without a reduction in the global human population. Anyone who thinks the global population can be allowed to double again, as it has in my lifetime, is missing a few screws.  A  spouse, or anyone I guess, could work half-time providing they did not have another job too. Anyway, assuming all the kinks could be worked out, essentially everyone would have a full or part-time job with a livable wage and there would be a more level playing field for those currently struggling on rigged playing fields. In order to keep this musing shorter, I will not attempt here to go into all the details. I am not even the one to do such a thing. 

There is no need to do away with capitalism, but there is a great need to put limits on it and ensure that vast amounts of money earned by some is returned, in due time, to the society from which is was earned, via progressive income tax and heavy inheritance taxes. Genetic welfare (inheritance) needs to stop. There is nothing wrong with expecting all young people, as adults, to earn their own wealth. There is nothing wrong with ensuring that all kids get level playing fields so they too can become productive and responsible citizens. There is nothing wrong with expecting those working at a minimum wage level to earn a living wage. There is nothing wrong with this minimum wage increasing every year as the cost of living goes up. All the arguments against any of this centers around the right of some to pursue monetary greed with no limits. The rights of society as a whole always exceed the right of individuals to harm society with their greed. Remember, almost all successful empires in history imploded because of high income inequality at home and an empire abroad which was too expensive to maintain. That, unfortunately, is exactly where America is right now. 

The scary aspect of all this is that nothing is about to be done about any of the real problems facing a global human society. Overpopulation is not being addressed.  Livable minimum wages are not being addressed in any serious way, full employment is not being addressed in any serious way. Level playing fields for all kids is not being addressed in any serious way. Precisely because little is being done to give most all citizens a meaningful life, many citizens turn to heroin for relief. 

This current heroin epidemic is nothing more than a strong signal of the deeper problems. As long as these deeper problems exist the heroin epidemic will grow stronger at an exponential rate. Human overpopulation and the subsequent human activities seems to be leading to a massive evolutionary correction in the not too distant future. Again, if anyone thinks that the human population can be allowed to double as it has in my lifetime, and there not be dire global consequences, then they are either on heroin, or LSD, or have lost touch with reality, or have limited comprehension ability.

Writing musings of course is not an addiction. I should know, I have been constantly writing musings for many decades. Smile.