The Peak Of Sanity - 2

Insanity & Intelligence are different issues

In the first post of this series, we focused on the more damaging and eventually fatal dementia emerging within the USA.

In this episode we are going to focus on "lighter", yet more widespread dementia that, while not physically fatal to individuals, can indeed be fatal to an entire civilization.

Remember that the observance of a national dementia only arises when it is institutionalized, after it becomes part of the national behavioral characteristics, the national fabric, like propaganda-deceit, which, in the USA we affectionately call "spin" (maybe because spinning some one around and around makes them dizzy?).

Let's pause further to remember that dementia is "degree based", beginning from the mildest forms & degrees, then going all the way to the wildest and most fatal forms & degrees such as the 100% fatal Alzheimer’s we talked about in the first post of this series.

In this post the foundation for identifying the national dementias to be focused on is the failure to consider the future in sufficient degree.

Only by having a grasp of the future can we judge our mastery of the present, at least in terms of how we are preparing for the future in the present.

I like to read history and palaeontology, but I don't get into those disciplines to find out where we are going as a civilization, or as a planet.

In this post even though we will do some background checking by referring to a scientific paper entitled "Biological Determinism / Fatalism: Are They Extreme Cases of Inference in Evolutionary Psychology?", we are not considering that paper as a way to look backward, as if that would tell us what is ahead.

One of the problems I have with some of the fundamentals of our institutionalized educational practices that teach science is that they are often too retro.

So much of some of the areas of science seem to be an exercise of driving while looking in the rear view mirror, rather than looking out the wind shield to see what is ahead.

Much of the rationale for this is the overblown notion "we can't know the future", so scientists tend to argue about the past with religionists (evolution vs. creationism); but guess what geniuses, we can not go back in time, we can only go into the future because "time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future" as the song lyrics remind us.

We need to learn and focus on the science that reveals the future to us, then use it to take us into the future in a manner that is fitting to that future.

Who the hell thinks science is going to take us millions of years into the past, a thousand years into the past, or even a year into the past?

That is why Ecocosmology Blog and the tenets of Ecocosmology were set forth, to assist with a look forward based on solid science, so that we can measure our human nature now, then modify it as needed to comply with the sure to arrive future, because the past is never going to show up, no matter how well we know it.

Here is a quote from the paper that does some focus on that mystical realm we call human nature, in terms of its past and its future:

The major difficulty in breaking human nature down into its most basic elements is that it is an amalgamation of both biological and cultural influences. This problem is conveniently represented in the all-too-familiar nature-nurture debate. In other words, how much of human nature is the result of genetic influences (i.e., genes), and how much is attributable to learned cultural influences; variably known as memes (Dawkins, 1989). sociogenes (Swanson, 1983), or culturgens (Wilson, 1975)?

...

Psychological processors (modules) in the brain are the product of natural selection through environmental pressure to succeed, survive, and reproduce. But the manifestation of the mindware (thoughts) and the overt behaviors that are born from these active and behaving cortical modules, is shaped by the environment.

...

The learned cultural traits that should appear after the human species suffers a major catastrophic blow to its viability may be the replacement of religious teaching with the teaching of environmental and scientific literacy. In light of such threats, social priorities will have to change or we will perish. The integrity of the human species is what hangs in the balance.

(Biological Determinism / Fatalism, emphasis added). If our Sun is what scientists tell us it is (now 'a life sustainer'), and if we know what the Sun will become (an Earth destroyer), then our current civilization's future is the span of time from now until the Sun destroys this planet (unless of course "civilization" destroys civilization first).

Thus, the Dredd Blog definition of national dementia is: any cognitive process that delays, impairs, or destroys the ability of civilization to survive on this planet by harming this planet (during the time we develop space travel technology with which to find another planet to live on when the Sun begins to destroy the planets near it, including the Earth).

In other words, cognition and behavior at odds with the tenets of Ecocosmology are dementia in and of themselves, but more than that, as we spew toxins into our environment and behave in hostile ways, then deeper dementia like Alzheimer’s will be produced (which will further limit our ability to survive by inhabiting this universe properly).

Unfortunately, there is a growing body of evidence (Anomaly Overload: An Evolutionary Theory of Truth) that indicates we have passed the peak of sanity in this civilization, so we may be left with only the hope of a better civilization next time around.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.