Surrender Complex

 

An atom is a weird assemblage of leptons and strangeness.  There are 100 trillion atoms in each of our cells.  Current Cosmology outlines the astonishing path required to create each of the 118 elements in the universe, and the distribution, accretion, explosion, and implosion to get them all here now.  Geology and Biology add more layers of ineffable wonder with tales of molecules, force, erosion, decay, and evolution.  Properly understood, a shell on a beach is an impossible object.

There are about the same number of cells in our body.  Some are symbiotes or parasites, most are parts of complex systems.  Each of these cells is undergoing incalculable chemical and electrical internal interactions at each moment.  A breath or heartbeat is incomprehensively complicated.  Digestion, disease control, all our basic functionality, let alone consciousness and memory, are infinitely convoluted and intertwined.  We happily assume that such “natural” conditions continue as we enjoy holistic health.

Understanding environment and social structure can be frustrating.  How is oxygen level maintained, where does water come from, why can humans build and maintain cities _all the “simple” questions of children _ are really only partially answered, no matter how much we think we know.  Yet at this level, at least, we have always claimed a certain amount of understanding and control.  Hunting, farming, tribalism are part of our nature.  We try to figure things out and then use tools as necessary to make them better or at least keep them from getting worse.

A primary mental tool is belief in cause and effect.  It did not require Newton to grasp that when an object hits another object, there are consequences.  Since we can manipulate the “cause” in many cases, it is natural to assume that something else controls what we cannot _ such as making lightning and thunder and rain.  This idea of agency requires a guiding principle or intelligence for everything we do not understand.   Usefully, it allows us to ignore deep and often irrelevant underlying issues so we can deal with how to move that rock from here to there.

People conflict when seeking to control that agent.  Praying to a spirit which brings rain is inconsequential to society unless a tribe decides such prayers require human sacrifice.  Which brings us to current civilization.  Science has discovered too much cold complexity; we dream of comforting simplicity.  Cults fill that need with slogans and beliefs _ for example, “my job and life are bad because of immigrants.”  Even if we can do nothing about it, it is a solid backstop in our confusing existence.

Little of that is new or necessarily bad, everybody needs illusions.  Unfortunately, we are also at a point where slogans have taken on the varnish of unquestionable writ, at which point those who oppose it are seen as blasphemers who must be silenced.  As frequently noted, this is the opposite attitude to that of science, which questions everything.  But surrender in the face of complexity is not only intoxicating, but also paradoxically allows us to sleep peacefully at night, happy in knowing the simple truth.

Rip Van Winkle

 When the coronavirus pandemic ends _ or at least becomes controlled _ most people seem to believe the world will return to “normal.”  But I think we will discover that very little will be the same.  Ancient customs we took for granted will be gone forever.  New outlooks and practices which would formerly have taken years to come to fruition will be in place.  We will be just like Rip Van Winkle, waking up after a two or three decade sleep into a society we hardly recognize.

A short essay can hardly enumerate even the broadest changes.  A quick survey would note that the nine-to-five job at an office is probably gone with the horse and buggy.  Travel will be vastly more complex.  Restaurants will never return as they once were.  Technologies which were only gleams in inventor’s eyes will be rampant.  And society itself _ its makeup of families and property and rules and ideals and goals _ will frighten any who cannot adopt.  Short term confusion clears with new paradigms invisibly but firmly in place.

Will it be better or a kinder and gentler world?  Probably not.  Changes are just changes, society may take routes none of us ever desired (like an acceptance of security over freedom.)  We may pine for the nostalgic golden age before the plague, but nothing will bring back that imagined sunny world.  Climate change will become increasingly vicious, forcing adaptations that would frighten our ancestors.  The struggle to determine what is truth or fact may play out in internal wars as vicious as those of the European Reformation.

There are good and bad options in all this.  Technology affords all kinds of possible wonders.  But, unlike the politicians, I am not going to say that those of us now living in American and Europe can much influence the path of history.  Environmental destruction is far advanced, industrial societies with different core ideologies challenge global supremacy,  the comforting predictions of the enlightenment that an educated free populace will be progressive and “better” are obviously wrong.  No matter whether we adhere to the idea of historic trend and imperative or to the hope that great leaders change the future, neither of us is one of those great leaders.

Rip Van Winkle eventually just decided to have a drink and watch the world go by.  No use starting over and becoming frustrated.  The new world will be for the young and the very young, and to them that environment will be the “normal” _ and they will laugh and cry at what we were and had and did with our lives and the lost fortunes of the Earth before.

Unwilling to Heal

 Lately, we are being told that America is divided and should try to heal.  “Reasonable” folks, especially conservatives and Republicans encourage me to do so.  I find it increasingly impossible.  More than that, I think it is an irresponsible course of action.

I believe in science, enlightenment values, tolerance, and American idealistic patriotism of the fifties.  I worked most of my life, am grateful for our country and culture, admire capitalism, and like to consider myself decently open-minded, well-educated, and aware of my own faults.  Furthermore, I think this is a wonderful peak of world civilization, even though it faces existential threats from climate change, automation, nuclear-armament, and civil strife.  I like to believe there are ways to continue the long climb to paradise.  

The “other side” frightens me.  It appears to be composed of self-victimized losers who apparently cannot find good jobs and blame everyone but themselves.  It is funded by nostalgic fat old people who think their thirtyish drugged children are just having fun down in the family basement where they live and constantly play violent video games while caressing firearms and dreaming of a cleansing apocalypse.  Why should I try to “heal” with such vicious racist louts who have enclosed themselves in a cult mentality that despises me and has no desire to change?

I curse the enablers who have tried to forge that mob into a power base, much as the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie did with the poorest peasantry (to their ultimate chagrin) before 1789.  Some “conservative” cable personalities are demagogic spokespersons who ignore truth and decency to improve ratings.  Some companies mindlessly fund wretched bigoted politicians simply out of habit against possible increased regulation.  Well-meaning intellectuals put up with it all because they consider it free speech. 

Unlike many of my peers, I am worried about the glorification of our military.  That has turned into a pretty good, pretty elitist job, with lots of benefits.  Not least of which is increasingly becoming part of the militarized police departments when soldiers leave the service.  I know we need the armed forces.  I continue to regard them as a necessary evil.  I have never disliked soldiers themselves, but like the founding fathers and Eisenhower, I mistrust the institution.

What can I do?  Life is complicated, but lately lazy people want it simple.  Slogans like “stop the steal,” “black lives matter,” or “lebensraum” are far more effective than well-thought-out four-hundred-page philosophic tomes.  I am afraid the answer is I cannot do much.  But of all my limited available actions, refusing to “heal” with the other side probably remains the most viable.