The Human Paradox

Gilbert E. Mulley

Description

The human paradox: we human beings are all the same, yet each one is unique. This is life’s continuum—always has been, always will be.
The information about the author is not available as of this time.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Parentalité et Éducation des Enfants
• Self-Help
• Social Issues
• Political Science
• Historical
• América
• Self-help (disambiguation)
• Military
• Parenting
• Psychology
• American
• United States
• Family
• Nature
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 26 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781669821083
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE HUMAN PARADOX
 
It’s Time to Think and Act as a Species
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gilbert E. Mulley
 
 
Copyright © 2022 by Gilbert E.

Library of Congress Control Number:
           2022907727
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-2110-6

Softcover
978-1-6698-2109-0

eBook
978-1-6698-2108-3
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 03/24/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
837687
CONTENTS
Quick-Read Option
Introduction
Chapter 1     Everyone’s Three Worlds
Reality
Life’s Basics
Paradox and Politics
Reality Deniers
Chapter 2     Sameness and Difference
Exceptionalism’s Traps
Accepting the Human Paradox
Human Sameness
Differentiation’s Grasp
A Species Focus
Naiveté?
Species-Wide Issues
Chapter 3     Natural World
Nature’s Rules
Adapting to Nature
The Human-Caring Value
Our Carbon Nature
Our Personal Nature
Sustaining Nature
Natural Human Traits
Adaptability
Dignity
Beholdenness
Recognition
Persistence
Chapter 4     Human-Made World
Capitalism’s Pull and Push
Economics
Democracy and Capitalism
A Hopeful Future
Human Paradox Asks
Elites
Middle Class
Unfortunates
Leaders and Followers
Purposeful Women
Chapter 5     Ethereal World
Creating “My” World
Religion
Belligerence
Trumpism
Chapter 6 Wrap-Up
Endnotes
QUICK-READ OPTION
For a quick overview of this book, read the Introduction, boldface text , and Chapter 6.
INTRODUCTION
The human paradox: we human beings are all the same, yet each one is unique. This is life’s continuum—always has been, always will be.
At one end of this enormous spectrum is you, the unique individual. At the other end is our collective species, the other eight billion of us alive on this rocky and wet planet. All social interaction from our earliest existence has occurred within the bounds of this huge range. No human activity, ever, has happened outside this paradox, and none ever will. The human paradox will persist as long as we Homo sapiens dominate planet Earth.
As civilized human beings, we have come a long way in improving individual lives and our me/us cultures, but we haven’t paid much attention to our species. Why? Because we haven’t given the human paradox much thought. We’re delinquent here because our energies, for millennia, have focused on smaller social entities such as families, clans, tribes, city-states, and nations. For practically all of human existence, we didn’t know we were one species, but now we do.
If the earth belongs to the living, as Thomas Jefferson said, then we, the living, need to acknowledge the human paradox and upgrade the political importance of our species. Our planet can no longer accommodate the overabundance of me/us cultures that deny our species sameness. Earth cannot endure our worn-out social orders, our mindless adoration of strongman leaders, and our religious sanctimonies that separate rather than unite. Our finite planet is pleading with us to think and act at the species level because this may be the only social order left that can meet its potential.
This book presents ideas about how we can accept the human paradox and gestate a species-wide mentality. A few preliminary thoughts:
1. Our species makes a century-long (at minimum) transition away from the predominant themes of nationalism, voracious materialism, and fractious religiosity that undergird hierarchical politics. In their place, we move toward a path of human fulfillment based on global themes of species survival and planetary integrity. Impossible? Naive? Crazy? For living human beings, nothing should rise above the positive goals of species survival and planetary integrity working in tandem— not hing .
2. We humans have no choice but to concede that nature will prevail over our own and the planet’s future, so why not admit that fact and adapt to it? The COVID-19 pandemic proved how vulnerable we are and how nature can, with little warning, bring us to our knees. Creeping climate change is already kicking our derrieres and upsetting economies well ahead of predictions. Overpopulation may push us to eating our seed corn if we’re not careful. We love fantasies, utopias, lottery wins, “technology that will save us at the last minute,” and every other dream that fulfills our egotistical selves and our me/us identities, but this self-absorption and limited focus preclude action at the species level—that’s been our species’ Achilles’ heel up to now.
3. Of course, we can continue to laud national sovereignty and kill one another in the name of some ideology or savior politician, or we can believe that some deity will save us because our brand of faith is better than others, and we can wallow in our wealth/achievements/comforts and enjoy some schadenfreude for those below us. In other words, we can keep doing what we’re doing now and feel helpless in the face of power perversions, discrimination, and huge income gaps, or we can accept the human paradox, understand it, teach it, and base political power on it.
Question: how often do you say out loud or just to yourself, “I am a Homo sapiens ”? Not part of your daily routine, is it? Odds are you have never said anything like this.
We don’t think of ourselves as members of one species because we’ve got dozens of other identity options available. Every day our personal identity grows away from species identity, not toward it. For most of us, species identity is just a taxonomic designation taught in biology class—and a rather boring one at that. Being a social media personality or a red-state republican individualist, a humanistic democratic #MeToo liberal, a Black Lives Matter activist—now that’s what’s important!
Hey, I get it. All around the world, it’s the same. You, the individual, love being a prideful American, Chinese, Christian, Muslim, Jew, or whatever core identities make you feel unique. These distinctions seem infinitely more notable than being a member of a species. Being just one of billions is ego diluting, not uplifting—almost every healthy ego will say that, and there are all kinds of emotional and spiritual reasons to feel gratified about who you are, your heritage, your culture. That is not going to change, but that’s no longer all that’s important for you and our planet.
The first time I got a scent of species identity was in Cu Chi, South Vietnam, 1969. Rockets were stepping across the base camp early one morning, and I could tell they were headed my way. I thought about sprinting to a nearby bunker, but my gut said I wouldn’t make it, so I hit the floor instead. A rocket blew up my hooch, filling it with dirt and debris—I had a new skylight courtesy of the Viet Cong; my door was blown off its hinges. Shrapnel passed through my little wooden hut, wounding two men nearby, but I was not hit—a small miracle.
Traditional flag-waving, “Pledge of Allegiance” patriotism was a big part of my life as I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. I completely fell under the spell of emotional nationalism. I added a semester to my college career so I could get a commission in the U.S. Army. All the movies, TV programs, and World War II–hero worship of this era created a deep curiosity within me about “defending” my country. I was not then nor am now a warrior and was not a fan of the Vietnam War, but I was quietly infected with patriotic fervor. Experiencing war firsthand would affirm my duty-honor-country beliefs, satisfy myriad curiosities, and be one of life’s great adventures—I was sure of that.
When my service Bronze Star tour in Vietnam ended, I realized that I had been—and there is no other way to say it—conned. My disillusionment did not stem from the discipline and maturity the military provided (I was grateful for that) but from the bungled political leadership that created and sustained such a wasteful war. Upon reflection, I had risked my life for no great purpose—no purpose at all, really. I had no burning interest in purging the earth of communism. I never felt I was doing that in Vietnam. I had nothing personal against the Vietnamese people.
The fact that we human beings all share the same biology, psychology, needs, wants, and sensibilities plays little role in the political debate that generated the fubar Vietnam (or Afghanistan and Iraq). Species similarities are hardly ever publicly considered by leaders. Instead, it’s the power competition, the one-sided contest that was so important at the time and still is oh so important. Us versus them, win or lose, democracy versus communism —binary fixations like these are still today’s power imperatives, and to hell with the rest. Leaders and most citizens don’t seem to understand or care how this ultra-competitive form of geopolitics undermines our species and the planet’s future.
Our ancestors’ legacies of wars, ever-upward economic growth, and massiv