A Lack of Humanity Is Endemic in Our Culture

Yesterday, I had two experiences that brought home a major problem of our culture … it’s inhumanity.  We tend to think of this as a corporate problem, for example the stories of insurance companies denying claims or corporations moving forward with toxic products that harm their employees and the environment.  It’s all about money, the bottom line, not about people.

But yesterday, the experience was more “up front and personal.”  When I was at the local supermarket, the deli manager did not look happy.  I usually banter with her so I asked her what was wrong.  She told me that management is not allowing her to take time off to get her brakes fixed.  And they need to get fixed.

The second experience was at a Mexican restaurant I frequent.  I said to the waitress, who is always there and very pleasant, that when I was there the last time neither she nor any of the usual staff was there.  She confided in me that the manager had put her on probation and cut her hours because she had had to take off from work because her son was in the hospital!

What is wrong with people?  This is not a situation where a corporation is dealing with someone who is anonymous, a number, where inhumanity is bad enough.  This is person to person, people who work together every day.  And still, the reaction of management is impersonal, inhumane.  The restaurant isn’t even a corporate setting.  

I’m sure that management’s response would be that they are judged by the numbers they produce.  So they have to be strict.  But this is not about being strict.  If someone has to take time off to get their brakes fixed, this is an emergency or will prevent one.  If a child is taken to the hospital and the mother feels she needs to be there, then don’t punish her.

I assume that both these individuals did not have any personal time left, if they even had any to begin with.  And I’m sure it’s an inconvenience for management to get someone else to cover their hours.  But there’s always someone looking for extra hours.  Or someone to shift around.

I have a suspicion that part of the reason for management’s reaction was that the requests were from hourly staff.  If someone salaried asked for time off for these purposes, my bet is that it would probably have been granted.  In today’s workplace, there is no respect for hourly staff; they are expendable.

The point of this post is that the inhumanity of our culture (see my various posts, for example, “Creating a Safer World for Our Children”) has seeped into all corners, even small, person-to-person settings.  People are infected by the bug of impersonality.  Their addiction to their screens and social media has made them oddly incapable of handling real live interactions; studies have shown this.  I would bet that 40-50 years ago, these two women would not have had this experience.

When Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speaks about the need for more decency in our society, she has hit the nail on its head.  Unfortunately, having people see that need, let alone guiding them to the point where they are able to act on that need, is a lost cause for the mass of people.  They are a total captive of our culture.  The problem is not just Trump, it is our culture.

But as I always say, individuals have the ability to march to a different drummer.  They can build their own world of humanity regardless what is going on around them.  It takes great discipline and faith.  But it is possible.

Watching the Train Wreck, Helpless

These have been years that try men’s souls.  Dysfunction and inhumanity have always been abroad to a greater or lesser extent.  But these last two years under President Trump have been especially difficult.  Yes, come January the Democrats will be in control of the House.  But while that portends some policy changes that will be welcomed, real change is the underlying status quo in politics and our society is not in the offing.

In many of my posts, I have noted with sadness the destruction that man continues to wreak on himself and the environment.  Whether the issue is politics, social injustice, domestic strife, human interactions, the state of international relations, or at the core how man relates to himself, while there is a clear path forward out of the morass that man has created, the forward energy of this train of destruction cannot I fear be stopped.  Indeed, the train is speeding up.  

Most of the world’s leaders and many of its inhabitants, certainly those with a voice, are unwitting advocates of the forces that propel the train forward to its dark destiny.  They have from birth sucked from the nipple of our culture the seven deadly sins … lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy, and pride.  These sins flow from the font of insecurity that is formed almost at birth and hides man’s divinity from himself.  It is a rare man, certainly in Western cultures, that truly loves himself.  

It is the ultimate punishment for man eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and being thrust out of the Garden of Eden, separated from his own divine state.  (See my post, “Our Culture is the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.”)  The way back, to return to the God/Buddha-essence he was born with, lies in renouncing man’s ego-mind, his mind’s judgment of all things, including good and evil.  And that is simply beyond the ken, the imagination, of most men.  (As I’ve written often, this does not mean that man would not discern the problems and dysfunction in the world; he would be very aware, but he would not label or react with emotion.)

In the Bible, when man was lost, God knew that the only way out of the morass was to wipe mankind out.  And so he sent the flood.  But God, or rather the creators of the myth, made the mistake of not wiping man out totally.  Through attachment to His creation, He allowed Noah and his family to survive.  And so all the failings of man were perpetuated into the future.

The evolution of man has turned out to be a most destructive force.  Man has added much that has benefitted and enriched the lives of man, but on balance he has done far more harm than good, both to himself as well as his co-inhabitants of Earth.  As I have written previously, this harm is not as most would say a product of man’s nature, but rather his nurture.  It is a monstrous self-inflicted wound.  

The force that has driven and is driving man to inflict this wound, to create the cancer that consumes him, to act in a way that is not in his self-interest, to separate him from his divine self, is the combined force of our culture (at least Western culture) and our religions (see my post, “The Shame of Religion”).  Even in the East, it is painful to witness the hatred towards the Muslim Rohingya that springs forth from the mouths of Buddhist monks and is condoned by leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi.

There is no doubt in my mind that the only hope for planet Earth lies in the total destruction of man.  The Biblical Day of Judgment could not come soon enough.  If man were wiped out, nature would slowly restore itself.  It has that power.  After millennia, the world would once again be as verdant and alive as it was before the advent of man.  

The fact that I am a Buddhist makes this an especially painful statement to make.  I know and have absolute faith that every person is born with the God/Buddha-essence inside them, as the mystical traditions of the three Abrahamic faiths and Buddhism teach.  I know the process of life experience through which man loses contact with that essence and instead is subject to the emotions, judgments, cravings, and attachments of his ego-mind, and the suffering and frustration that flows from that.  And I know and have faith in the spiritual process that can free man from the control of his ego-mind and restore him to his true self, his heart, his God/Buddha-essence.

But the overwhelming majority of human beings are not aware of these teachings, and even if they were, probably would not subscribe to them.  Because they go against everything we are taught by our culture, everything we believe about ourselves; these teachings are radical.  Even those who do follow the path typically have difficulties because of the constant challenges thrown in their path by the ego-mind’s reactions to life experiences and by our culture.  As we’ve seen, even Buddhist monks can become lost in the grip of ethnic hatred

We just have not been raised to have the necessary fortitude for the spiritual path.  And irony of ironies, true spirituality often does not come with orthodox religious belief; the ultra-orthodox are often intolerant of others and abusive of themselves and their loved ones.  There is no aura of divinity in their actions; just the facade of ritual. 

The evolution of man is an experiment gone awry.  The sooner it ends, the better for man and for our planet.

In the meantime, I live in the present.  I will continue to raise my voice, to work with others to make life better in whatever small way I can.  After all, the present is our only reality; all conjecture as to what the future will bring is just that … conjecture, thought.

An Open Letter to President-elect Trump And the American People

For the next 4 years, you will be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.  All the suffering, all the conflicts, all the madness will come before you in some form or other for your leadership decision as President.  People and nations will look to you to make the right decisions for our country and for the world.  That is an awesome burden.  I am writing this open letter, from a spirit of loving-kindness towards you, your family, and the American people, because I have no other avenue for speaking with you directly.

If there is one thing that is true of life, it is that we all suffer.  Whether rich or poor, whether white or person of color, whether President or average citizen, we all suffer.  Many people think that the rich and powerful don’t suffer because they have so much, “all that one could possibly imagine,” and yet as a spiritual person I know they do.  You know this as well, I’m sure.

Why is it that we all suffer?  And what are the consequences?

We all suffer for two reasons: our basic needs and the world we live in.  When a child is born, he has four basic needs:  food, freedom from pain, warmth/nurturing, and physical security.  These are the four irreducible needs of all human beings.

In particular, a baby’s need for nurturing, for unconditional love, is almost without limit.  Birth, being thrust out of the womb, has to be a scary experience.  When an animal is born, it is typically licked all over by the mother and is always next to the mother’s warmth.  When a baby is born, it is slapped on the behind, washed by a stranger, rolled up in a blanket and given to its mother to be held and fed before being put in a basinet by itself.  So from the moment of its birth, a baby finds that its needs are not met, and so the first seeds of insecurity are sown. 

This pattern continues during the baby’s formative first years.  It’s not that parents don’t love their new child and shower it with attention; it’s that the needs of the baby go beyond what most parents are able to give.  Whether it’s how they were raised, whether it’s the demands of work or home, whether it’s having their own problems to worry about … it’s just the way it is.

And as the baby becomes a young child, proceeds through adolescence, and attains adulthood, the seed of insecurity that formed at birth grows to become a huge tumor inside each of us.  Why?  The tumor grows because it is fed by much of what we experience in life … in the home, in school, at work, and in the media.  We are either told or learn that we are clearly lacking in some way.  Or if we are praised, we know how easy it is to fall from grace, and so the successful often have even greater insecurities than the average person because they have more to lose.

And so we have ended up with a world full of insecure people.  We each compensate for it, mask it in many ways, but the insecurity is still there.  What are the consequences?  In a word, it means that human relations, including the relationships between nations, are fraught with conflict.  

All the fighting, all the abuse, all the hatred, all the discrimination … whether in the home, the country, or the world … is a function of man’s insecurity.  A Buddhist monk once said to me that if someone or something pushes your buttons, what agitates you is a direct expression of someone’s suffering, their insecurity, and your button is a result of your own insecurity.

So how should this knowledge be applied?  How should it impact how we deal with our fellow humans, whether it’s a family member, a colleague, someone with an opposing point of view, or even an enemy?  

First, it means that all persons should be treated with respect.  That’s really all that most people want.

Now, many people would say, “Why should I respect him when he doesn’t show me respect?”  A very understandable question, but one which doesn’t get us anywhere and continues the destructive cycle.   Someone has to start first.  And the bigger, the more powerful a person is, the more it is his responsibility to take the first step.  After showing respect, he or she will usually be rewarded by being shown respect in return. A win-win situation.

What also helps us have respect and compassion for ourselves and all people is the knowledge that we developed into the persons we are because of all the learned experiences of life, much of which is negative.  We were not born this way; and this is not our true self.  To put it in modern techno language, we are programmed the way we are because of the inputs we have received.  That’s why Buddhists and mystics of all religions say that there is no such thing as a bad person, just people who do bad things.

Second, understanding how we came to have certain beliefs and opinions gives us the ability to respect the fact that other people come to their opinions honestly as well.  There is no one right opinion.  That understanding changes the dynamics of human interaction.  For example, I used to be a Type A person.  I was always right and everyone else was wrong.  No more.  As a result, I treat others with respect; my interactions are not combative and are more productive.

Finally, wanting only the best for ourselves, our family, our fellow citizens, and our country, and being aware of the ill will cause by “normal” interactions, we seek to rise above the fray and, looking down from above, act and respond with wisdom rather than emotion.  We know we cannot make good judgments when we are consumed by our emotions and attitudes.   

And we have been so consumed because we are used to taking things very personally.  But we learn not to because we come to know that people’s actions, including our own, are a function of deep-seated insecurities.  It really has nothing to do with us.  And that allows us to rise above the fray and not contribute to conflict. 

And so Mr. President-elect, as you lead this great country for the next four years, I hope that you are able to have compassion for yourself and all others, that you are able to respect everyone’s human dignity and equality, and that for the good of our country you rise above the fray and exercise wisdom.

We Can't Change People, But We Can Control Access to Guns

Why is gun control essential?  Because people are people; many suffer and lash out, some become violent. We can't control people's psychology and what they do or say.  But we can control the availability of weapons that enable them to kill and injure.

The tragedy in Orlando raises many questions, the most basic being whether there is any end or limit to man’s inhumanity to man.  And with this term, I’m not just referring to horrific acts of mass violence such as the Orlando shootings but also the violence that occurs every day, whether randomly inflicted on strangers or directed at someone the perpetrator has a grudge against.  Based on the evidence we see or hear on almost a daily basis, one has to say, no.

Although in posts I have set forth a way to end this epidemic of inhumanity … to make people humane again … it is not a very practical expectation (see “Creating a Safer World for Our Children.”).  No, we must take it as fact that there really is no end or limit to man’s inhumanity to man.

If we can’t stop people from being inhumane, then our only option if we want to end the suffering caused by these acts of inhumanity is to control the tools they use to inflict harm.  (For the purpose of this post, I’m going to limit the discussion to acts of inhumanity that involve physical violence.  The cruel psychological violence that people inflict on each other on a daily basis is also inhumane - see the above referenced post - but that's another matter.)

When we look at the statistics, we see that in the United States guns are the weapon of choice in physically violent acts:  67.7 percent of all murders, 41.3 percent of robberies and 21.2 percent of aggravated assaults were conducted with guns.  Each year more than 30,000 people are killed by firearms in the US (about 1/3 are murders, the rest suicides), compared to less than 200 in Canada and the countries of Europe.

Without any question, if we want to end the suffering caused by all this violence we must get rid of the guns that are so readily available.  But what to do about the opposing claim of gun rights and the newly-Supreme-Court-declared 2nd Amendment individual right to bear arms?

People definitely have the right to guns used for hunting and self-defense.  Until recent times that meant a traditional rifle for hunting and some type of pistol for self-defense.  People were able to hunt very successfully with their rifles … if anything it was more of a pure sport … and people were able to defend themselves.

The newer type of automatic guns and assault weapons that are available, with large capacity clips, have added absolutely nothing to the ability to hunt or to defend oneself.  It may give a hunter a bigger charge to be handling these newer guns, but that’s no reason to make them available given the harm that they can inflict.  And automatic pistols have not been shown to be more effective for self-defense that a regular pistol.  It just gives the person a psychological feeling of greater safety.

So, I would argue that given that we cannot change man’s inhumanity to man, all automatic weapons, whether guns or rifles, should be taken off the general market.  They should only be available to the military, police, and others who need such high-powered weapons in the performance of their responsibilities.

Regular guns and rifles should continue to be available to the general public as they are now, with of course appropriate background checks, etc.  All loopholes should be closed.  No one should be able to by a firearm without the required background check.

I know that one cannot expect to stop gun violence by taking all but regular rifles and pistols off the general market, even with effective background checks.  People can still turn violent and those firearms can still be used to great effect in ways other than hunting and self-defense.  But given the place of guns in American culture … the United States is not England or other countries where gun ownership is rare and traditionally strictly controlled … that’s the most that we can expect our government and people to accommodate for the greater good.

But the fact that gun control measures will not eliminate firearm violence is no argument against taking those steps.  Fewer deaths and injuries, especially from these mass shootings, is better than things continuing unchanged.

The NRA says that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  And while that’s undeniably true … the core problem is the inhumanity of man … it is also true that without automatic weapons fewer people would be killed or suffer grievous injury.