Longevity

Longevity has been a key part of some stories. One famous story is Dracula by Bram Stoker. Dracula had a sinister longevity. Another character to defy aging was in the Oscar Wild novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Dorian craved longevity as a very good thing reserved for him.  But is it really such a good thing? Do we need to fully assess longevity as the human life expectancy is increased? The physical body is not the only concern with extended life.  

Each person is like a plant. We are rooted and grounded in the culture from which we spring. People who naturally seem to live long appear to be less myopically wedded to the culture from which they emerged. But for everyone else it is different. At some point, usually early in  life, a snap shot of the culture is coalesced in the rest of us. We may progress culturally in later life as things change. But once we are old, the coalesced earlier culture reclaims us. We reject or deny the culture as it has evolved. We become increasingly disgruntled. We live in the past. This may be a major contributing factor to a shorter life span.

As I watch today’s culture wars, I am reminded that the main proponents are older people. They coalesced at an earlier time. It was a time when the environment that gave rise to their preferred culture was different. The politicians fan the flames and use cultural preference as a vehicle for votes. Trying to bring back an earlier culture is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. To personally accommodate cultural change was the central theme of an award winning science fiction book by Joe Haldeman, The Forever War.

I suspect the bigger problem with longevity for most of us will be the loss of the familiar and comforting. I think psychological well being will be the greatest challenge to extending life. The mental unset will negate the joy of the physical strides.

If I were an Alien

If I were an “Alien” from another planet called in to straighten out America, what would I do?  Mankind is like a two year old child in terms of behavior.

First I would recognize the political system does not work. Democracy only functions well in homogeneous societies focused on very basic needs. Diverse industrialized societies are captured and controlled by special interests.

I would start with the premise that the people are the nation and not the economic system. Based on that premise the government has performed very poorly on behalf of the nation for over 70 years.

Next I would realign finances.  I would review all subsidies and legislation that advantage this business welfare nation. I would not stop business and industry usury, such as that of the banking industry. I would make their actions transparent and exact a heavy costs to investors and management. I would change the business calculus. I would make it clear that investors are not owners of a business, they are speculators and should be treated as such. I would mandate board of directors of corporations have an independent mix of workers that balance the other members [similar to Germany]. I would limit the highest management compensation to 240 times that of the lowest paid full time employees and make certain they do not circumvent the intent of this rule.

Next I would revamp the legal system.  The legal system will no longer be based on the letter of the law, but justice. Justice would truly be blind in civil cases. The judge and jury would not be able to clearly see the defendants or prosecutors to determine ethnicity. All sound would be in monotone. All judgments would be balanced against precedent and reasonableness. Therefore you might have a CEO that authorized a change in insurance payouts that ultimately caused great harm getting 20 year to life, while someone that involuntary kills several people not getting a prison sentence. People would be held accountable across the entire spectrum of society for their actions.  I would recognize incarceration is merely a first step. Once incarcerated, the social factors that resulted in the incarceration must be minimized. If it was drug addition, then while incarcerated get them off drugs and put as much effort in keeping them off drugs once they are out. If it is financial problems, force them to undergo financial management and skills training while incarcerated. Guarantee them a job when they get out with a living wage.

I would recognize that many of the ills we face in society are due to culture. Culture is established at a very early age. I would have early childhood education and daycare free. I would provide meals for a managed diet. I would tax the fast food industry so heavily their most egregious products with high calories, salt and sugar would more than double in price. In other words, the price of fast food and other unhealthy fair would be priced out of the main stream. I would also curtail their marketing.

I would recognize that satisfaction and happiness in life is predicated on your ability to perceive and appreciate. That appreciation is rooted in a liberal education. I would make certain the school systems had a diverse offering of hands-on music, art, dance, physical education, literature and many other things. The focus of the school system would be two foil. First, turn out people that have foundation skills in the sciences and mathematics that will allow them to become productive members of society. Second, turn out well rounded individuals with curiosity. I recognize that education like this will destabilize traditionalism.

I would recognize that for numerous medical conditions cannabis is the best solution and mange it as a fully available medical drug. The drug industries have fought it for years because they can not control and profit from the product availability.

Where will the money come from?  First I would halve the entire military spending. Not just what is apparent, but that which is hidden in “black ops”. Even with halve the spending America would far out distance the rest of the world in military spending.  Next I would require all military related funding to be reauthorized every year. No multi-year funding. I would require that contractors over budget and behind schedule be suitably and automatically financially penalized progressively.

I would disenfranchise corporations as having the legal rights of a person. They would be treated as the inanimate entities they really are. Your car does not have the legal rights of a person, nor would most people think it should. The same is true for corporations. It is legal cover for corporations to perform and seek exoneration for grievous acts.

To create world leading growth I would change the patent system. A patent would only give 7 years coverage. No fundamental patents would be recognized in the legal system or granted. Any patent may be challenged if someone uses some aspect and obtains market share. The rule of patents would be use it or lose it. Patent squatting would not be allowed. Patents would not be granted for things of nature, such as genes. A patent may be granted for a specific narrow use of the gene. I would first void it and send the Digital Millennium Act back to the drawing board. It is used by incumbents as a barricade to prevent the normal business life cycle from applying.  

I would divest cell phone companies from the hardware. I would divest cable company networks from the content. I would force media companies to breakup their conglomerates and sell off the piece parts in markets.

I would use the “pardo” principal and have some basic level of free healthcare.  I would recognize the medical establishment can not handle all conditions and set up a compassionate system for “voluntary” euthanasia. A nation fairs best with a healthy population.

The new government would be “parliamentary”. States with relatively small homogeneous populations would not be able to use their narrow view to shape the politics of the nation, as is done today in the Senate. The other half of government would be modeled after the Japanese “bureaucracy”.  The “Bureaucracy” is distant from the politics and provides continuity over long time frames in government operations. Politicians would be limited in imposing their will. It is effectively like politicians trying to change the course of a super tanker. It can be done, but would require a unified sustained effort. The “Bureaucracy” is immune to “knee jerk” politics.

I would change the tax structure.  I would lower corporate taxes and close the loop holes. Therefore you would not have corporations like GE not paying taxes or the very rich paying next to nothing. I would implement an alternative minimum  income tax that kicks in if their taxes that are owed somehow drops below the minimum amount according to their scheduled tax rate. Unfortunately, this will put a lot of tax lawyers and financial advisers out of work. It would also shake up the banking industry. I would require corporate raiders to hold on to acquired stock of a company for four years or their investment be taxed at 100%.

Finally, I would use the mass media to shape values and actions in the interest of the nation. In other words in the interest of the well being of the people.

Tertiary

We are anthropometric is our perspective of things. This fact hits us at the scientific fundamental level. We are constantly being surprised. Suppose what we consider the most important criteria is insignificant or ultimately meaningless in the scheme of things. We consider “life” and “intelligence” as having defining significance.

But let us speculate about the universe as we know it and assume the importance of our criteria. There are indications that our biosphere [harbinger of our type of  life] might be truly special. In fact it is a product unique to the physics of this particular universe. Slight variations in the physics eliminate our type of life. There is a growing belief our universe is merely one of a "Googol" number of universes. Each individual universe might have its own distinctive laws of physics.

I believe that even in this universe we would have trouble communicating with other intelligent life. Our psychology is binary. All our frames of reference are in terms of duality.  Examples are left versus right, male versus female, yes or no and heaven or hell. Arthur C. Clark wrote an award winning science fiction story, “Rendezvous with Rama”. The story revolves around coming in contact with an artifact of another intelligence. But it is an intelligence that seems to always do things in threes.  

Suppose their view is tertiary instead of our binary? I suspect we would not be able to communicate or even relate. We can not imagine how radically different they may perceive things from that perspective.

Which will it be?

Perhaps we are missing the big picture.  Perhaps there are hidden hands that guide this nation. Traditionally they have done so surreptitiously by proxy – up until now.

Maybe they orchestrated our involvement in World War I as a demonstration of our military power to keep European interests at bay.

There is an underlying current that will not go away about World II. Was Pearl Harbor and our involvement really contrived? Was the intent to get a piece of the action in a reformatted geo-political Europe?

In the early 1960s people were afraid. Their world was collapsing. The youth were dropping out of society and rejecting traditional values. The new young leaders disdained tradition. It seemed all they fought for and sacrificed during World War II was a waste. President John Kennedy was the symbol of the new. He is assassinated. He was replaced by a conservative, Johnson. Johnson did several things to restore the balance. He hired a tremendous number of government workers, making them stakeholders in the status quo. He forced a war upon the younger generation to take their heads out of the clouds. The war sent a fresh flush of cash to the military industrial complex.

America was humbled by the oil embargo and the nation came to the brink of a financial crash. The solution was to make people feel good. That was the message of Reagan. But it was smoke and mirrors. He created the largest deficit of the times and systematically transferred wealth upward. He also shifted a higher percentage of the GDP to a military build up.

Bill Clinton succeeded George Bush the elder. Irrespective of party designations, the net result was two conservatives preserving the status quo. 

In the down turn after the optimism of the 1990s, the hidden hands may have decided drastic measures were needed to preserve the status quo. The solution was to keep the economy afloat by the constant interest rate lowering of Alan Greenspan. Expand the stake holders in the system by making homeownership much easier. Make businesses and wealthy individuals happy by gratuitous government give-a-ways.

It seems the bigger picture has been one of sustaining the nation. But the last decade is different. It almost appears that the hidden sustainers of today have decided to directly take things into their own hands. They have come out of the wood work and made their presence known. They are no longer content with proxy results. They are taking a direct and visible hand like the Koch brother billionaires.  Their agenda is unabashedly clear.

The controllers have created a police state under the guise of homeland security. They control the message and the means of delivery. Now they have come out in the open taking over the government. In the past they feared people would revolt over obvious control. But they have learned to keep the people off balance in a constant state of fear. People will give up a lot to achieve a belief of security.

The question now is which is the bigger driver of these people today, the nation or pure greed? If it is the latter, and I suspect it is, we have been witnessing the biggest looting of the American public trusts. They are creating a situation that will culminate in the American empire going the way of The Soviet Union.