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 THE AUTHOR HEREBY GRANTS PERMISSION TO FREELY DISTRIBUTE
THIS BOOK IN WHOLE AND WITHOUT MODIFICATION.

LORDS AND LIBERTY

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Mankind..................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2 Humanity..............................................................................................................11
Chapter 3 Eternity..................................................................................................................13
Chapter 4 Mother Earth........................................................................................................20
Chapter 5 Universal Truth.....................................................................................................30
Chapter 6 Infancy..................................................................................................................33
Chapter 7 Hellenization.........................................................................................................45
Chapter 8 Empire...................................................................................................................52
Chapter 9 Rise of the Eastern Sun........................................................................................61
Chapter 10 Crusaders..............................................................................................................65
Chapter 11 Horde of Temujin.................................................................................................70
Chapter 12 Black Death and Renaissance..............................................................................76
Chapter 13 Science and Industry............................................................................................87
Chapter 14 Great War and Rise of the Dark Knight..............................................................92
Chapter 15 War to End All Wars Revisited..........................................................................101
Chapter 16 Cold & Limited Wars..........................................................................................108
Chapter 17 Motivation & the Birth of Gods.........................................................................119
Chapter 18 Evolution of the Gods.........................................................................................124
Chapter 19 Mirage in the Desert ..........................................................................................131
Chapter 20 Enslavement........................................................................................................148
Chapter 21 International Relations......................................................................................157
Chapter 22 Measuring Time..................................................................................................170
Chapter 23 Language............................................................................................................175
Chapter 24 Politics.................................................................................................................184
Chapter 25 Wealth.................................................................................................................198
Chapter 26 Doctors, Lawyers and Money.............................................................................212
Chapter 27 Education............................................................................................................228
Chapter 28 Population and Environment.............................................................................240
Chapter 29 Society.................................................................................................................247
Chapter 30 Summation..........................................................................................................262
Chapter 31 Savage Lord .......................................................................................................269
Chapter 32 True Worth..........................................................................................................281
Chapter 33 Thanks.................................................................................................................292

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 Mankind
Thunderous hoof beats echoed through the great forest. “Faster! Faster!” yelled a cloaked
captain heading the entourage racing along a darkening road: little more than a sunken path
beaten down through eons of travel under a towering canopy. Clods of rich soil and leaf litter
flew high into the air behind charging steeds. Vines of ivy fluttered in spring air caught up in the
rush to judgment, as road was enveloped by ageless forest in the intruders’ wake.
Rocks and dirt tumbled down a steep hill face behind Joshua as he scrambled forward on
his hands, clawing toward the summit. Fingernails dug into the thin soil for extra grip but Joshua
was oblivious to the scraping and tearing of sharp stones. Under threat of death he endured
excruciating pain and fatigue. But, despite Joshua’s desperate breathing and ear-pounding
heartbeat, the muscles in his legs were getting tight. Even terror couldn’t keep exhaustion from
paralyzing his burning calves and thighs.
The charging horses started to flank him and it was becoming quite evident that he
couldn’t beat them to the ridge. Slowing, he turned onto a rock outcrop to his left. Backed into a
corner, it wasn’t a question of if the inquisitors would catch up with him, the question became
what would happen when they did? Anxiety flooded his mind as he hoped for his legs to recover
in the few seconds before the nearest pursuer arrived.
As horse and master ascended near the side of the outcrop, Joshua picked up a fist-size
stone, turned, and hurled it at the aggressor. Startled, the inquisitor ducked his head and the rock
glanced off his left shoulder; it wasn’t a debilitating blow, but it created the opening Joshua
needed to get past the steel of the assailant’s sword. Seizing the opportunity, Joshua leapt off the
boulder and kicked at the rising head of his pursuer.
Falling to the ground, the man dropped his sword and tumbled down the hill. Joshua fell
opposite the horse from the master and slid a number of feet before righting and scrambling to
catch the retreating horse. As he leapt on the back of the sliding brown stallion, Joshua grabbed a
handful of flittering mane and willed the frantic steed reach flat ground to mount an escape
before the relentless mob closed in. Unfortunately, being front heavy and hind strong, the horse
was more adept at ascent, while being relatively slow to descend the steep hill. Hot on his heels,
the officer he had kicked from the stirrups raced down the hill after Joshua and tackled him
before he could reach flatter ground.
Joshua fought with all his might. Kicking and punching, he struggled to free himself and
stay on the steed. But, with arms clamped around Joshua’s waist, the posse member jerked and
twisted until Joshua could no longer stay on the horse. Salvation slipped from his fingertips as he
lost grasp of the long, muscular equine neck.
Elbowing his assailant fiercely on the side of the head, Joshua twisted around to straddle
him and drive his own weight down to the ground. Pressing left knee against soft ribs and
grabbing the round-faced deputy by the hair, Joshua struck with all his might, again and again he
raised his right hand and drove it down about the aggressor’s left eye until his enemy’s deadly
clutch was broken.
But the delay was too great and was to prove costly indeed. Reinforcements arrived. One,
then another, and another piled on, clutching and wrapping and clinging to Joshua; pressing him
to the ground. They squeezed his arms and legs until he couldn’t move. Then a heavy-set
marauder wrapped his arm around Joshua’s neck and began choking him. The warring gang
squeezed and pressed harder, and harder, until Joshua couldn’t roll, or twist, or wriggle, or even
breathe.
Principle waned, and panic gripped Joshua. He couldn’t breathe! The chase robbed him
of oxygen, every fiber of his being burned for air. He tried to bite, to spit; to scream, jerk, kick

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and twist, but nothing was working, he couldn’t break free of the mob; he couldn’t breathe. His
lungs and stomach were on fire. Oh God help me, he thought. Help Me!
His lungs pulled and pulled for air; the spasms uncontrollable. His diaphragm convulsed,
squeezing the churning stomach until vomit spilled into his esophagus. The acid too burned, and
the taste of bitter soiled Joshua’s mouth. But air was all he could think about, the squeezing,
burning, crushing pain in his chest was spreading, he had to have air, it was all that could put the
fire out. How could something taken for granted every moment of every day cause such a
horrible pain in absence?
He only felt the pain, every nerve burned a smoldering death. Air! Air! was his only
thought. At last, looking for it, he could only see black. His eyes were fading. And finally, after
what seemed an eternity, thank God, his mind was going black as well.
Panic for air filling his brain finally drained away as his brain shut down. And his body
followed. Resistance ceased and the fight left his body. Joshua’s limits of mortality were at once
starkly apparent.
The inquisitors relaxed their grip. Letting go of Joshua’s neck, the man that was choking
the life from him, literally destroying Joshua, rolled over and pressed to his feet. All was quiet in
the solemn, ancient forest except the heavy panting of men and horses. Even sunlight was
muffled by the canopy as it trickled through to divide shadow from shadow.
But then, in a life extending instant, a sudden gasp shook Joshua, followed by a cough
projecting vomit on the dark forest leaf litter, then more gasping and more coughing. The
coughing grew regular and Joshua started to regain consciousness. He could feel again, he could
feel the fire all over his body, especially in heaves of the chest. Arterial pulses throbbed in his
head with heartbeats pounding the mind like a hammer striking an anvil.
Despite the horrid, unbearable pain, Joshua yet lived. Was it a miracle? No it was not,
though alive, it was by design, not good fortune or divine interference. His captors didn’t want
him dead, yet. No, it wasn’t their purpose to go around killing just for the sake of killing, for they
stood for something. They represented righteousness in the Lord’s service. Their purpose was to
teach Joshua a lesson, to extract a confession, to be acknowledged and gratified, and finally, they
wanted to make an example of him.
The flamboyant captain of the troop stood and started down the hill. “Get some rope,” he
ordered the stocky man that had been choking Joshua. “Secure the heretic.”
Having received his order, the choker lumbered the rest of the way down the hill to the
waiting horses where he grabbed a rope from one of the saddles and started back up toward
Joshua. Upon arrival, he proceeded to tie Joshua’s hands together behind his back. Then he tied
Joshua’s feet as well, pulling hard on every loop and knot.
With the captive secure, the inquisitors pulled him down the hill on his stomach, head
first. The captain led the party to the bottom of the hill and then out to a small clearing in the tall
woods. There, putting fingers to his cracked lips, he whistled for the horses.
“Tie him to Carlton’s horse,” he ordered.
“The devil’s powerful in this one,” declared a tall, black haired member of the clan with
deep-set, droopy eyes and pock-marked pale skin partially hidden by a thin unkempt beard
hanging like a cobweb. “Shall the demon have chance to kill?” he asked, stepping into the light.
“Suffer the witch not torment God’s people another night,” added the wrinkled, leather-
faced one they called Carlton.
“Every second he’s alive poses a grave risk. Look what harm he has caused Laurentin,”
puffed another of Joshua’s captors, still taxed in his breathing by the struggle of good versus evil.
Forthwith the group looked at the one known as Laurentin, standing a comfortable
distance from the man kneeling in their midst that caused him such considerable fear only

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moments before on the side of the hill. Laurentin’s face and sleeve were blood-smeared, having
wiped the trickle from his nose. And his cheek was swollen, nearly to the point of closing his left
eye.
Rolling the reigns of a large bay between his fingers, the heavy-set officer that had
choked Joshua stroked his free left hand through dirty blonde hair to pull it from his freckled
face. “Dispatch the wicked beast now,” he admonished, stepping forward, “before he summons
additional demons, or departs the body.”
“You fools are the demons,” Joshua managed to reply in his own defense. “You cover the
continent in blood – lusted for in ignorance, while I harm nothing. By what right can you declare
me evil?
“You’re blinded by your own vision. You’re too busy looking at others to recognize your
own evil. Step back now! Step back I ask you, and imagine how you must look in the eyes of
others right now; in the eyes of the Lord.”
“Enough!” rumbled the captain, his long gray hair flipping in the afternoon breeze with
the sudden turn of his head. “I’ve heard enough.” He walked toward Joshua, stopping one pace
distant, and looking down on the defenseless laborer hissed: “With hostility and a wicked tongue
you’ve proven your pact with the devil.
“You’re charged with sins against God and crimes against the King. You show familiarity
with spirits, for you’re known to speak with animals, and to propose their equality with the
children of God – heirs to his kingdom; denying his very image on earth. You deny the workings
of Satan by announcing, in great contradiction of the spirit of heaven, that plague and sickness
are born of their own seeds; not the works of the devil’s familiars. And you stand accused of the
practice of sorcery, afflicting man and crops with disease, as you’ve been seen by credible and
virtuous witnesses to handle corpses and diseased plants in various stages of decay and
affliction.”
Joshua was by this time leaned back in a sitting position with his feet under his hands,
working frantically to loosen the knots of his bindings. He knew that reason was lost to his
captors and that his judgment was passed when first accused. I need time, he thought to himself.
“While these charges may seem legitimate on the surface,” he began, “any vague
appearance of merit therewith is mere illusion, as all have goodly and reasonable explanation. I
am but a servant of God, his office on earth, and servant to the King. I seek knowledge, not to
further Satan’s desire, but to assist mankind, so that more time may be devoted to glorifying the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and doing the work of the Almighty.”
“The Almighty needs no help from you,” charged the captain.
“Nor from you”, Joshua came back.
Continuing on, Joshua began to recite the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that …”
“Enough of this blasphemy you demon!” the gray headed leader ingloriously interrupted.
“Admit your nature and be spared a gruesome and horrifying ordeal. Confess your dealings with
the devil and you’ll receive a quick and honorable death.”
Joshua gripped and pulled at the rope until the nails were pulled back on his middle
fingers. But he looked past the pain to those he held dearest. Anything – he would do anything to
be there for them.
“Death would be a dishonor, sir. The Lord has blessed me with a beautiful wife and
children. Allow me to honor the Lord by preserving and advancing his blessing”
The leader didn’t pretend to entertain Joshua’s plea. “I shan’t be the fool for your trickery,
Devil, your speech is clearly the cunning work of Satan spoken through the mouth of a warlock.”

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Then, pointing to an oak about five hands across at the chest, he added, “Bind his feet to this tree.
We shall force the devil from this body.”
With that Joshua was jerked up on his feet. And his captors were occasioned to notice
that his leg bindings were partially loosed. “Deceit! Deceit!” cried Laurentin. “He speaks lies to
distract us as he attempts to circumvent God’s justice.”
As soon as the escape attempt was known all of the captors clamored for Joshua’s utter
destruction.
“Help!” Joshua screamed into the vast, stoic forest with all his might in utter desperation.
“Help!”
He prayed that somebody, anybody, would hear his plea for help so as to save him, and
save his family and friends the sorrow and hardship of losing him, and save his work in
understanding life and the diseases that afflict the world. Don’t let my love and my work die, he
prayed.
But, his oppressors would accept no variance, and vowed silence for any voices other
than their own. They threw him to the ground by the oak tree. Then the choking man jumped on
Joshua’s back, settling between Joshua’s restrained arms. Slamming his hands down on Joshua’s
head, he bounced it against the ground before reaching his hands around Joshua’s face and
pulling back with force so immense as to make Joshua instantly scream in agony with the feeling
that his neck was surely broken.
While Joshua’s neck was being so terribly wrenched, the man called Laurentin
approached with his knife drawn, having a contemptuous look of revenge about him, and thrust it
at Joshua’s mouth attempting to force it open. Laurentin had snapped from the stress imposed by
a resistant quarry, blood was not to be shed, the body was to remain intact. The knife point,
however, gashed through Joshua’s lower lip, and lodged below his teeth. Having failed thus in
his first attempt to sever the vulnerable captive’s tongue, Laurentin pulled the knife back and
thrust it up under Joshua’s chin back near the throat, all the way to the soft pallet above the
tongue, and then proceeded to rip it side to side to render Joshua dumb in a fit of frenzied rage.
Searing, was the pain from the slicing blade, as it caused blood to squirt from the soft
undermouth, reddening the steel of apathy. Blindness from hands clinched across his eyes,
coupled with the shocking pain in his neck and mouth, overwhelmed Joshua with terror again.
His whole body stiffened, his legs kicked against the restraints, and he loosed all the scream he
could muster with his head cocked back and the weight of a heavy man bearing upon his chest.
Reacting to prevent another such scream of pain and fright, the choking man moved his
thick hands down across Joshua’s mouth and nose, and returned to the cradle position with his
elbows on his knees as he sat on Joshua’s back. The strain on Joshua’s neck caused the gash
under his mouth to gape open, allowing a great amount of blood to flow down his neck and chest,
with much more blood pouring directly onto the stained ground. Still yet, his throat was filling
with blood, further hindering the breath of life. It suddenly flashed through his mind that he was
in hell, in the hands of a vengeful Beelzebub himself. Again his lungs burned, much as his neck
burned under the intense, crushing pressure on the nerves, ligaments and vertebrae.
Without a conscious thought to his action he opened his mouth until he felt something
between his teeth. And suddenly his jaw snapped shut like a trap, with all the grit and determined
force he could manage. Bone splintered and ligament tore in the small finger of the choking
man’s left hand and he immediately leapt up off of Joshua, pulling to free his finger and nearly
tearing it clean from his hand in the process. As it tore from the clinch of Joshua’s teeth only a
few strands of stretched skin attached the dangling appendage to the hand.
A new and greater rage came over the red-faced choking man. “The devil bit me!” he
bellowed. And in throes of fury the wild-eyed monster kicked at Joshua with great savagery, as

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Joshua lay coughing blood and gasping for breath. With feet tied securely to the tree, Joshua
could only shift his body trying to deflect the punishing blows as they came one after another at
his head and abdomen.
“Tie him to the tree,” the leader commanded, having exhausted all patience, “prepare a
fire”.
At once, the quiet, curly-haired one who lacked expression on his plain, pale, hairless
face began to obediently untie the harness he had been fashioning from rope. Other members of
the party fanned out through the deep forest in search of all manner of fuel to burn.
In their agitation, the posse of inquisition had interrupted their plan to tear Joshua’s arms
from their sockets and break scapulas and tear ligaments by harnessing his hands, still bound
together behind his back, to a pair of pulling horses straining to rip him from the anchor that was
the tree that had stood for decades in the rocky soil. No, the time and effort to secure a confession
became unnecessary formality to the mob in their wild state, unaccustomed as they were to
contesting of their authority and always inclined, as they also were, to displaying a tendency of
drama and harsh action. Instead, they moved to the final act in this repugnant, morbid play.
Evidence of what they considered to be the devil’s attack on their group was more than proof
enough to condemn Joshua.
When the harness rope was unraveled and Joshua’s hands were untied, he was stood and
his hands bound around the oak tree. His shirt stained red from the blood of his slashed mouth.
What blood wasn’t draining from the long cut near his throat was pouring over his lower lip and
running down his chin with every labored breath exhaled.
I’m running out of chances, he thought to himself. Though possibly futile, screaming for
help seemed to offer his only hope, faint as it was, that someone would hear him, and, although
even less likely, that someone would be willing and able to help him. He took a few deep breaths,
more painful after being kicked so forcefully in the ribs. Holding back a cough brought on by the
irritation of stomach acid or blood sunk deep in his lungs, he constricted his diaphragm with all
his might and screamed past his severed tongue for as long and hard as he could push the air out.
He screamed not as a coward, but as a man desperate to return to his young son Samuel and
daughter Elizabeth: shining lights in a world of bitter darkness.
Before he could get it all out, he was struck hard on the side of his face by the tall man
with the dimpled complexion, who was holding tightly to Joshua’s left arm. Again Joshua
screamed. And the pock-marked man put his left hand on Joshua’s throat, squeezing the trachea
shut to muffle the cry.
Then the curly-haired man that was missing some teeth in front, passed his rope across
Joshua’s eyes and pulled it hard around the tree, tying a tight knot in back; cinching Joshua’s
head hard against the tree, and causing stars to flitter in his eyes.
Joshua tried to conquer the utter despair of his situation with thoughts of reflection and
wishes for his beautiful, innocent family. I love you Samuel, he told his young son in silence as
the rope man circled round him, drawing him tighter against the unfeeling tree with every pass.
And he thought of his tender daughter, so sweet and pure, I love you Elizabeth. And, I love you
Sarah, he said to his adoring wife. Lord, care for my angels! he prayed. His greatest fear was
coming true. What he prayed to avoid every night was coming true, and despite the perverse
agony he was subjected to, his distress was that he wouldn’t be there to care for, and to laugh and
love and play with his precious family.
As Joshua prayed for his family, the rope man soon had him bound in a deadly,
unbreakable embrace with the tree, having passed twice over Joshua’s throat to quiet any further
cries for help. And the rest of the hunters of men were piling a large assortment of limbs, twigs,
and leaves around Joshua and huge living stake to which he was bound.

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 Too soon the order was given, “Light the fire.” Then the one they called Carlton, with the
weathered, hardened face, removed two flint stones and some dry grass from his travel bag,
walked over to Joshua’s feet, squatted down, and began striking the stones onto dry grass placed
among some brittle leaves. When one of the sparking flakes caused a smolder in the grass,
Carlton blew gently to feed oxygen to the infant flame so that it might grow to consume the
accused heretic fastened tight to what would soon be known in those parts as the burning tree.
With rope pressed tightly across his eyes, Joshua couldn’t see the tiny flame as it fed on
the fuel piled all around him. But he could hear the light cracking and popping of boiling sap in
the burning twigs. Gingerly at first, the wisps of smoke wafted up in a deadly sway around
Joshua, before disappearing in the shadows of the forest air. Then higher and higher the
thickening smoke climbed into the canopy, swirling and blowing amongst the upper branches
after escaping searing, leaping flames dancing all about.
Joshua tried to block the growing monster of hades from his mind and re-live his fondest
memories. Maybe someone would yet come to stop this black atrocity and deliver him from the
netherworld madness. Maybe it was all a horrible nightmare that he would wake from any
moment. Hast thou forsaken me? he asked his lord.
But his mind was not to be separated from the body. The building heat in his legs and
foul gases in his nostrils began to take control of his thoughts. As the flames grew higher and
hotter, and the pain grew ever more intense, and the smoke grew from irritating to choking; terror
and panic began to again spread through his mind like an unchecked poison.
Shortly, he had lost his ability to look to the future or remember the past. As the pain
mounted to unbearable intensity, he lost sight of what was important to him. In frantic fervor,
pain was again all he could see, and survival all he could seek. The fire attacked Joshua's body
with ferocity unknown to most men. Smoke burned his nose, throat and lungs; again robbing him
of precious air. Stop! Stop! Oh stop! his mind cried out as the skin of his feet and legs began to
blister. The hair burned away, as he steadily descended into hell. He strained against the bondage,
shaking to and fro with feverish violence. The constant muffled screaming past the choking rope
was involuntary and beyond his control; being, as it was, but an avenue for pain seeking escape
from the body.
Stronger and hotter the fire grew. It roared through the leaves and branches overhead,
billowing dark smoke high into the dreary sky; demonstrating domination of the condemned
through its absolute destructive power. Joshua was on fire! The pain was unimaginable, as
testified by delirious cries to the heavens. The hair of his head began to burn, along with his
clothes. He shook, and tore back and forth in the burning rope, biting as a crazed beast at his
constraints as he trembled all over. But the rope was thick and still strong, too strong to succumb
to Joshua’s will. It held him to burn. Like an evil embrace, it held him in submission to a
supreme deadly torture; while his attackers mocked his agony.
Joshua sucked in toxic smoke and searing gases trying to get air. The burn on the inside
rivaled the vicious burning of his flesh for pain. Merciless fire was all consuming. Raging flame
was all enveloping, lances of heat shot through his core, boiling blood and igniting his emotions
as well as his tortured body. The searing gases broiled his lungs, it was as though there was no
air; he was breathing fire. And it burned! O’ how it burned! Joshua’s world was ablaze; the fire
was a supreme pain that couldn’t be extinguished. Joshua’s world was reduced to pain, not
literally reduced, as he felt more than he had ever felt before, but it was only incredible,
agonizing pain; all love, all hope, all reason was gone.
Alas, as the violent, violent end drew nigh the war for survival was lost. Fire killed the
parts of the whole one by one. Cells burst from the boiling of life’s fluids. Skin swelled and split
in the heat; exposing fatty oils to ignition. Joshua’s mind, almost dead from heat, poison gas and

9
pain, ceased to think; it could only suffer under complete, unbearable, utter pain. Fire filled his
mind and he couldn’t see past it; not one thought dare even escape complete combustion. The
brain was reduced to a receptor; incapable of reason, unable to contemplate or reflect. His
muscles flexed and strained in defiance, his screams overpowered the roar of the fire.
His life became the fire, and a doomed resistance to the fire… until finally only the fire
remained.
In the end; the agonizing, horrific end; even the resistance and pain died: life was gone.
Joshua was gone. His golden voice was silenced as his body fell limp and continued to burn. All
his knowledge and all of his memories and all his capacity for love and kindness burned away.
As his body was consumed by the fire, so with it the love, hope and dreams of a family drifted
away with the vanishing smoke. And the light of a generation was extinguished.

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 Humanity
As evening wore on, Joshua’s wife Sarah began to worry for her husband. His wasn’t the
custom to be out late unannounced. The children too, grew curious, asking why father was not to
supper.
“Father must have got caught up in something,” Sarah assured the children. “Not to
worry.”
After supper, Sarah busied herself cleaning their two room stone house. Samuel and
Elizabeth occupied themselves outside in the twilight. Elizabeth piloted a great imaginary ship in
front of the house, while Samuel ascended the magnificent central mast. Perched high in the
crow’s nest of the upper branches, Samuel trained keen eyes on the horizon, alert for plundering
marauders and signs of friendly life. Only faint plumes of smoke from the direction of the village
rose to the level of the birds and puffy clouds in the evening sky.
Time passed, and the glow of the western sun faded to black. Sarah came outside to
gather the children for bed. “Any sign of the admiral, Matey?” she called up to Samuel.
“No ma’am,” Samuel replied as he climbed down the tree.
“Come inside,” Mother encouraged. “It’s bedtime.”
Elizabeth toddled forward and wrapped her arms around her mother, looking up with big
doe eyes. “Can’t we wait for father?”
“We’ll see him when we wake up, darling,” Sarah whispered, leaning over and kissing
Elizabeth’s forehead.
Walking back to the house Sarah stopped and looked down the long winding trail to the
village. All was dark in the forest; still, she was compelled to look. As night covered the land,
Sarah led the children inside and tucked them in bed.
After prayers, Sarah moved a lit lamp out to hang beside the door. There she sat to wait
for Joshua.
Crickets and tree frogs called for their mates in the night, capturing Sarah’s attention.
Who else is calling in darkness, she wondered? For many minutes she put faces to the sounds as
fireflies shown briefly bright on occasion only to disappear in the void.
Sarah was near to turning into bed herself when footsteps sounded on the trail coming
nearer to the house. Joshua! Sarah thought. She felt a grand relief that he was home at last.
Quickly she rose and walked to meet him.
“Where have you been?” she asked, causing the still wakeful Samuel to spring from bed
and rush to the door.
“Sarah,” a voice replied.
Sarah stopped in her tracks. She was startled that the shadowy figure walking toward her
wasn’t her husband.
“It’s me, Gene,” the voice came again.
Sarah recognized her neighbor’s voice. His house was on the way to the village. “Hello
Gene.”
“I’ve got bad news,” Gene continued. “Is Joshua here?”
“No, he went to the village this morning. What’s wrong?” Sarah asked, but she grew
lightheaded and didn’t really want to hear the answer.
“I think I’ve found him,” Gene reported. “Somebody’s been murdered on the road to
town.”
Immediately Sarah’s knees buckled and she fell to the ground like a severed vine, with
trembling hands clutched to her face. Her shock and horror was so great that she didn’t notice
Samuel race past, down the trail toward town.

11
 “Father!... Father!...” he cried; tears streaming down his tender face as he charged into the
darkness with his heart on his sleeve. “Father!!!...”
What could cause such injustice? Whatever could justify the ruination of lives in such
horrid fashion? What evil would drive men to torture and slay a fellow earthling, leaving behind
a loving family; destitute and forever tormented by grief and despair? And what was to be gained
by robbing the world of a curious mind and knowledge that might one day help others?
Joshua’s tale is but one representation of mankind’s submission to an idea so powerful
that it defies reason and objectivity. What manner of idea would cause people to choose violence
over peace?
Harmful, even evil, ideas sometimes spread like flames, burning all in their paths and
defying arrest like wildfires. As invasive weeds they root in susceptible minds and thrive in
acrimonious conditions. The life cycle of hurtful ideas only end when the fuel of hatred has been
consumed, when they’re smothered by outside forces, or when they’re choked out by competing
ideas. The worth of any principal is only as good as its effects, and beliefs of mutual benefit are
always challenged by deleterious objectives. Beware the smoldering selfish cause, for it will
ignite a firestorm when conditions allow.

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 Eternity
Looking to the heavens, Sarah asked why, as she searched for answers. The moon was
nowhere in sight, and she stared at the vast black void speckled with stars. She wondered if she
had a purpose, or if she was as a speck of dust blowing in a cold cosmic wind. She begged God
to reveal himself; or, in the alternative, reveal some just cause or meaning for her family. How,
she asked, could God purposefully will harm to the innocent, or ignore their cries for mercy?
Quiet hung in the air, as no response came forth. There, exposed to infinite space with a
cool breeze on her cheek, Sarah changed. After the last tear had fallen she finally came to a
realization, an awakening. Things began to make sense to her, unlike all that she was told in the
past. Sarah’s revelation did, however, run directly contrary to beliefs she held deeply since
childhood. Much of what she believed was, by appearance, all a grand illusion.
There in the empty night shadow emotion died. Lost in the thin air was a capacity to love,
and to fear. Gone was happiness and hope. All that remained, by only a tenuous grip, was
resolve. Resolve that felt like a stone in her stomach; cold, hard and impassionate. The resolve
was there, but it was a force without direction.
For all of the great distance of space she beheld, there was sign of neither Heaven nor
magic. Like all that had come before, she saw only specks of light in a sea of black. Was it the
mystery of the unknown that made room for rampant hypothesis? Or did the mystery of space
demand explanation: even absolute explanations?
As long as mankind has reasoned and questioned the nature of things, people have sought
to understand; or in the least, explain what’s not easily known. And as until recently men could
neither reach out to space nor see details beyond primitive perspective; they were left to theorize
the forms, motions, substance and breadth of the overworld.
Although theories and practices often lacked both understanding and good judgment,
reverence for the sky and celestial bodies is easily understood. For unlike today, our ancestors
weren’t isolated and insulated from their environment. When it rained they were wet, when
bitterly cold winds blew, they shivered and froze; and in times of drought they died of thirst.
Today people view the world through glass windows in cozy houses and cars. It’s more of a
rarity today to hear the rush of wind through branches reaching overhead to the dark sky and feel
the chill in one’s bones; but that was formerly the way, day after day after day.
In a world of marginal survival it’s easy to see why people sought favor and were
captivated by the mystery of the sky. As lord to the subjects, how great the wrath of the fickle
beast has been as it unleashed howling typhoons and roaring tornados, flooding rains, searing
lightning and ground shaking thunder to accompany bitter cold and sweltering heat. But, despite
the thorough immersion, the universe and man’s relationship to it has proven remarkably difficult
to understand.
Though for most aspects of daily lives and survival it hasn’t been necessary to know the
secrets of space, people have systematically studied and observed the sky, notably the night sky,
for thousands of years. It wasn’t necessity, but curiosity and the desire to advance knowledge that
led people to make some of the most basic, yet startling discoveries. Surprisingly, it was knowing
the shape and action of our own world that was one of the most challenging learning
achievements. The reasons that it took so long for people to come to grips with the nature of their
home planet are largely twofold: first, for all but the sailor concerned with falling over the edge,
it didn’t matter if the world were flat and stationary or spherical and moving; secondly, the truth
seems to defy basic observations that things fall down and the ground under people’s feet is
unmoving.
In this case, the truth really is stranger than fiction. When looking around it seems

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obvious that people are standing on stationary ground that, although hilly and uneven, appears to
extend more or less flat until it’s shrouded by haze and the limits of human vision. Also
seemingly apparent is the motion of the sun, moon and stars passing overhead much the same as
the clouds and birds do. In addition, experience has clearly shown that what goes up comes
down, so it appears that something must be holding the celestial objects in the sky overhead. And
furthermore, as the sun goes down beyond the western horizon and rises the next morning above
the east, it’s also logical to believe it to be passing through a world below at night. And because
life giving sun and rain come from above and people place their dead friends and relatives in the
cold, dark ground that occasionally erupts with fiery violence, it’s easy to imagine a sulfurous,
fiery underworld populated with dead people and ruled by demons.
Generation after generation wondered what form of matter held the stars in the sky, be it
aether or crystal globes, and on what occasion the stars fell to earth and died in a blaze of glory.
As mankind yearned to explain those and other matters not understood, various myths evolved to
explain the flat, motionless world, the underworld below, and firmament above.
As the sun is far and away the most important celestial body to earthlings, it’s been the
subject of a great many theories that, although held to be true at times, eventually fell down to
mythological status. One of the ancient religions that attempted to explain the universe developed
in Egypt. The Egyptians believed the sun god Ra crossed the sky in a boat called a barque before
entering the underworld at night to travel back to the east for the next day’s journey. Similarly
Celtic tribes of Europe fashioned models of the sun being pulled across the sky in a horse-drawn
chariot. Both of those beliefs were the result of applying contemporary technology and social
customs to explain the apparent motion of the sun.
Unlike those ideas, other celestial beliefs, deeply rooted in struggle and conquest, were
more reflective of savage ferocity. Take, for example, sun worship by the Aztecs of Mexico.
Aztec priests ritually sacrificed many thousands of people in ceremonies designed to feed the sun
god. Without human blood, it was alleged, the sun god would die, and all earthly life with it, as
happened to the four previous worlds. With knives of chipped obsidian or other stone, priests cut
open the abdomens of the living sacrifices, reached inside the victims and ripped out their still
beating hearts to offer to the sun.
Though the Aztecs knew nothing of the sun’s true fuel source or life cycle, they really
didn’t need to, since their way of life was based on force and terror; which was neither impacting
upon, nor practically affected by the sun’s consistent output. With a savage culture stuck in
primitive barbarism, they created a bloodthirsty god that demanded conquest by a warrior nation.
But that’s been the way of the world when violent force overrules reason. When the Spanish
arrived to conquer Central America, Aztec religion wasn’t slain by truth, but rather was smote by
a competing religion of conflict.
Despite often repressive cultures of learning and fixation on magic, as opposed to
objective observation, there was, in time, occasional, if rare, breakthroughs of discovery that
eventually changed human perception of the world and man’s place in the universe. A
combination of curiosity and quest for privilege kept pushing people to explore and observe. Not
only did they seek the truth for the sake of knowledge, they ever hoped to discover secrets
otherwise unknown, and find their own destiny in cosmic alignments and constellations. If not
for that desire to gain advantage people may have been satisfied with the popular theories. But, in
observing and learning, it became more and more impractical to correlate fantasy and reality. One
by one, implausible foundations of the massive pyramid of ideology crumbled under the weight
of scientific discovery.
Through the ages numerous societies in the Middle East, India, China and elsewhere
contributed to astronomy: the study of the physical universe. Though many of those societies

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were more interested in correlating celestial events with their own lives through religion and
astrology than understanding the true functions of the universe, they nonetheless contributed to a
growing body of celestial knowledge. However, much of the information they gathered through
the ages was of little use at the time because they didn’t yet understand what their observations
revealed about space. More often they contributed to a growing base of data that could be used to
chart celestial motion and track changes in time.
Chinese astronomers noted such memorable events as solar eclipses, meteor showers, and
supernova explosions (which they noted as temporarily visible guest stars), going back as far as
4,000 BC. And by approximately 1,000 BC the Chinese had measured the angular difference
between the equatorial plane and earth’s orbital plane. That difference, called the obliquity of the
ecliptic, is the cause of seasonal variation as the earth orbits the sun, although at the time the
Chinese didn’t necessarily realize the earth orbits the sun. If the equitorial and orbital planes were
the same, the equator would always be oriented toward the sun, so from earth the sun would
appear directly over the equator all year and there would be no annual seasonal variation of
summer and winter, other than imperceptible variance due to the slightly elliptic shape of earth’s
orbit.
Babylon contributed a great deal to early space study. Today the Babylonian sexagesimal
(base 60) number system is still used in time and geometric measurements. That’s the origin of
today’s 60 minute hours and angular degrees, and 60 second minutes. Chaldeans’ of
Mesopotamia also had a strong foundation of mathematics that helped contribute to their
discovery that eclipses recurred in a repeating cycle known as a saros.
By observing and recording star positions over long periods of time, early astronomers
noticed that most stars remained in fixed positions relative to the other stars. However, like the
moon and sun, five stars appeared to move relative to the others, and they came to be called
planets after the Greek term planetai meaning wanderers. That relative motion was recognized as
orbits by Babylonian and Chinese astronomers as early as 750 BC. And by approximately 500 BC
the Babylonian astronomer Naburiannuto was predicting future positions of the sun, moon and
planets.
To understand the significance ancient society associated with objects in the sky, consider
that days were dedicated to the sun, moon and five known planets, resulting in seven day weeks.
One of the most influential of ancient civilizations, the Greeks; and Hellenistic culture in
general; also contributed much to the basic framework of modern astronomy. Considerable
dialect in the learning institutions fostered a more scientific approach involving systematic study
that developed hypotheses to be tested and debated for soundness. Some Greeks surmised that
the sun, moon and stars are spheres formed by a convergence toward the center, what’s known as
gravity today, and some even considered the stars more distant versions of the sun. In more
technical work they also estimated precession and the circumference of the earth.
Earth’s precession involves the slight change in direction of its rotational axis, like the
wobble of a spinning top. And just as the earth spins on it’s axis about once every 24 hours, that
axis of rotation also slowly moves, or wobbles. Slight movement of Polaris, the north star, away
from the north pole, and changes in the maximum and minimum inclination of the sun during
summer and winter solstice over the years indicated earth was wobbling. Modern scholars
estimate the time for our planet to complete one of these cycles, or wobbles, to be about 25,800
years.
Ptolemy devised a solar system model in Hellenistic Egypt in the second century that
could predict the positions of planets in the sky on any given date. It was apparently fairly
accurate even though it was based on the erroneous geocentric (earth centered) theory. Some
Hellenistic thinkers, like counterparts in India, even developed theories of a heliocentric, or sun-

15
centered, planetary system. But the concept of earth and the other planets orbiting the sun didn’t
gain acceptance; partially due to the fact that the theory’s detractors didn’t see the shift in the
alignment of the stars that they expected to see if earth was sweeping around the sun in orbit.
Unfortunately, at the time they didn’t realize that the stars were much too distant to enable them
to detect such minute deviation with the unaided eye.
Though they were 93 million miles short in their estimates, it’s no exaggeration that a lot
of people used to think that the sun barely rose above the peaks of mountains. And even when
astronomers began to understand that the sun and other objects visible in the sky were a lot larger
and farther away than traditionally believed, they still had little idea just how big and how far
away those objects were.
But still, the concept of a stationary earth was the greatest single obstacle to astronomical
understanding. It would take serious proof for people to believe that while standing apparently
still on the face of the earth one was actually traveling at a very high rate of speed. For thousands
of years raged the debate of a moving earth. And even today people are still astonished to find
out how fast they’re traveling. Man’s home planet orbits the sun at the average rate of
approximately 66,615 mph. And because earth spins in addition to flying around the sun in orbit,
a point on the equator is moving approximately 1,040 mph due to planetary rotation alone. That
velocity due to rotation, of course, decreases toward the axis of rotation at the north and south
poles to a negligible amount.
The very concept of their own velocity causes people to doubt and ask how it’s possible
they don’t notice they’re moving so fast. The answer to that question is quite simple. We don’t
notice earth’s velocity, and our own, because they’re the same, and motion is relative. The planet
and everything on it, including the atmosphere around it, is traveling together, so that it all moves
as one.
People are accustomed to thinking of velocity in absolute terms, such as a 55 mph speed
limit. But that speed is actually relative to the surface of the planet on which people are driving,
it doesn’t take into account the velocity of earth itself. That’s fine however, because motion
relative to the local environment is the motion relevant to driving. In fact, all observed motion is
relative, for if there is no point of reference such as the case would be in an infinite void of space,
there can be no observed motion and no way of knowing speed, distance or direction. Since
earth’s motion is smooth and steady, because forces affecting that motion are essentially in
equilibrium, there’s normally no occasion to notice movement relative to the rest of the universe
except the apparent movement of the sun, moon and stars.
After the decline of Hellenistic study, astronomy work continued in Persia and India, as
it had for many generations, adding to mathematical calculations and helping to keep progressive
ideas afloat. Although time and vagueness of reference obscure the exact meaning of ancient
writings, traditions and teachings, enough variety of thought survived the centuries to keep the
fires of advancement and alternative theory stoked. Some of that knowledge was transferred to
Muslim Spain, and some was picked up by traders and travelers to be diffused through Europe
when the arts and sciences finally began to blossom during the period which came to be known
as the Renaissance.
Through the ages revolving earth and heliocentric models sporadically popped up in
scientific circles, only to be rejected by the mainstream. Even the publication of Nicolaus
Copernicus’ On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies in 1543, the year of his death, didn’t convert
the masses to believing in an orbiting earth. Added to people’s natural objection to the idea of
living on a speeding planet was the Roman Catholic Church’s insistence on an unmoving, central
earth.
Pope Alexander VII declared in a Papal Bull that "the Pythagorean doctrine concerning

16
the mobility of the earth and the immobility of the sun is false and altogether incompatible with
divine Scripture" and he went on to say the principles advocated by Copernicus on the position
and movement of the earth were “repugnant to Scripture and to its true and Catholic
interpretation." Well, when the Pope, the man in communication with the all-knowing, all-
powerful God, gives infallible word that the earth is indeed the stationary center of the universe,
around which all else revolves, the case was closed. At least it was for the masses that were
conditioned to believe in gods and popes. But some people weren’t satisfied with myth and
wanted to find the truth of the matter.
When the famous scientist and philosopher Galileo Galilei, the first man to study the sky
with a telescope, championed the Copernican heliocentric model, his work was added to the
Index of Forbidden Books along with the work of Copernicus; and in 1615 he presented himself
to Rome for interrogation by the Inquisition. In 1616 he was ordered not to advocate
Copernicism as truth. But after his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was
published in Florence in 1632 he was again ordered before the inquisition and tried by the Holy
Office in 1633 for heresy; the contradiction of accepted church doctrine. As a result, Galileo, a
man that knew more than all the church officers combined, was made to recant his position and
sentenced to life imprisonment, dying under house arrest in 1642.
Johannes Kepler, a contemporary of Galileo whose product, not surprisingly, was also
banned by the church, explained planetary orbits and the attractive force of the sun in works
published from 1596 to 1619. Kepler’s efforts involving motion and attraction between bodies
influenced the famous English physicist Isaac Newton. Like astronomers before them, Kepler
and Newton applied the most advanced mathematics available to their work and significantly
contributed to the field of mathematics themselves, notably in the field of calculus which Newton
is credited with introducing. Newton helped prove Kepler’s rules of orbital motion and further
described the attractive force between bodies that he called gravity, even demonstrating its
universal effect.
As technological advancements continued to add to man’s ability to see farther and with
more precision, the astronomical community was finally able to apply the concept of parallax to
measure star distance in 1838. After almost two thousand years, the proof of stellar parallax
predicted by heliocentric models was observable with the aid of telescopes. Today, powerful
telescopes bring objects billions of light-years away into focus.
Light reflected from objects all around allows man to distinguish shapes, textures and
colors; but light can tell so much more. When light passes through a prism it spreads into
different color bands like a rainbow. But not all bands of the color spectrum are present. When
light from space is compared with charts produced by the heating of known elements it can be
determined what element produced the sample light. Further study of the light can help identify
the temperature, size, age, distance and even relative motion of the star or other object that
created it.
Considering that visible light is but one source of astronomical information, other
phenomena also provide valuable clues to the workings of the universe. Scientists study many
forms of space born energy, including all the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum from radio
waves to gamma rays, to aid in determining such matters as distance, motion and composition of
celestial bodies. Though all of the astronomical study and effort isn’t without error and contested
theories, what shouldn’t be doubted is the enormous magnitude of the universe.
It’s with good reason people look deep into the night sky and marvel at their own
insignificance. People gaze upon the splendor and vastness of space knowing they’ll never touch
its wonders or travel its reaches. The scale of the universe is so great that this big, beautiful world
with its deep, vast oceans, great deserts, huge ice sheets and majestic mountains is smaller than

17
the persistent cyclonic storm called the great red spot in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and that
disturbance is about half as large as it was a hundred years ago. Jupiter itself is 317 times more
massive than Earth.
As massive as Jupiter is, the sun is the dominant body of its namesake system; containing
more than 99% of the matter in the solar system and being roughly a million times larger than
earth. As a main sequence star, meaning it’s in the long hydrogen fusion stage of its life cycle, it
radiates approximately four million tons of matter into space every second as light and other
energy. Given its awesome mass and prolific radiation, the sun is estimated to be about half way
through a 10 billion year life span, roughly 133 million times as long as the life of a modern
person. Even though some of the stars seen flickering in the night sky are larger than the sun,
they’re but tiny specks of light in the vast, cold, black sea of space.
The sun’s light travels approximately 93 million miles to earth (the distance varies due to
the slightly elliptical orbit) in a little over 8 minutes at about 186,000 miles per second. In little
more than the time it takes the fastest human to run 100 meters light travels almost 2 million
miles. A light-year, the distance light travels through space in a year, is about 5,879,000,000,000
(almost 6 trillion) miles. Even at such astonishing speed the faint light of Proxima Centauri, a red
dwarf and the nearest star to our sun, takes more than four years to reach earth.
Proxima Centauri and the other stars of the constellation Centaurus, and all of the stars
visible to our unaided eyes belong to our local galaxy, the Milky Way, along with hundreds of
billions more stars. The Milky Way is believed to span a distance of 80,000 – 100,000 light-
years. And this massive conglomeration of nebulae, stars and their planetary systems, and a
possible black hole, and various other bodies and matter, is but one of countless such galaxies.
Scientists estimate that the universe thus far observed is 28 billion light-years across. But,
regardless of the accuracy of such measurements, people will always be left asking what’s
beyond? With no limit to space, any exercise to quantify the bodies or distance or scale of space
is an exercise in futility. What is infinite cannot be measured. And, conversely, what can be
measured, like a lifespan, is limited.
For all of the apparent vast, cold, nothingness; space is animated with motion and energy.
Even that which seems void, such as the space between planets, isn’t entirely empty. Certainly,
such space contains passing light and other energy, and possibly matter too faint to detect,
through which gravitational and magnetic forces might act. Some areas of space are occupied by
clouds of matter, similar to clouds of water vapor in the sky.
Like water molecules combining and eventually forming raindrops, matter as fine as gas
and dust accrete, or coalesce, in gigantic debris clouds to form objects of increasing mass. While
the initial attraction may be electrical attraction on a molecular scale, gravitational pull increases
as objects grow larger. As more distant matter and objects are attracted to the growing mass,
gravity squeezes the internal matter, deforming and compacting it, and generating frictional heat
to which may be added heat from meteor impacts. As objects reach the size of large asteroids and
small moons, internal temperatures and pressures can become great enough to plasticize the
aggregate matter into a spherical shape with the appearance of a dwarf planet.
For some of the largest bodies, internal pressure becomes so great that atoms in the
molten core begin to fuse and trigger an expanding nuclear reaction, giving birth to a star – a
great ball of luminous plasma. As stars radiate energy by fusing elements into heavier elements,
they eventually reach a point where they don’t have enough heat and pressure to fuse the newer,
heavier elements. Some of those heavy elements, like iron, are very stable and require much
greater energy to fuse together to form even heavier elements.
When the nuclear fusion reaction fades it’s believed that some stars slowly burn out,
while in more massive stars the force of gravity is believed to overwhelm the declining expansive

18
forces of heat and radiation causing an implosion with accompanying shockwaves so violent they
cause supernova explosions in which star matter into space. Eventually much of the matter that
coalesced from the debris cloud to first form the star is returned to space through radiation or
explosive force to eventually contribute to another object in the circle of cosmic life.
Astronomers and physicists wonder at the incredible forces necessary to manifest such
spectacular phenomena as super nova, quasars and even black holes. Ironically, all the great
bodies and massive objects of the known universe are made of tiny sub-atomic particles too
small to see with even our most advanced technology. And all of the incredible force and energy
produced by the largest, brightest stars, exploding supernova, and colliding galaxies derives from
the same invisible forces of attraction and repulsion of those tiny particles. Though the variety of
sub-atomic particles responsible for phenomenal cosmic power and enormous size may be quite
limited, the variety of the universe is born of differing arrangements of those parts, with every
combination possessing a different quality; much in the same way that different combinations of
a few simple elements gives such phenomenal characteristics to life.
Can the same silent force of gravity that binds objects to earth and holds planets in orbit
grow to such incredible power in immense objects that even light can’t escape? Can such black
holes swallow entire galaxies? And could they concentrate the matter of the universe in one
compact ball of matter so dense earth would be pressed to the size of a pea, or even a grain of
sand? And could that ultramass be triggered to suddenly, somehow, overcome the squeeze of
gravity in a big bang that expands and redistributes matter through the universe?
Those questions make for interesting speculative discussion, the answers to which are far
from being understood. However, as understanding of matter and energy as it relates to sub-
atomic attractions increases, insight will be gained into such fascinating forces as gravity,
electricity and magnetism. Forces are the great mystery of the universe.
Surprisingly, energy, or force, gives matter its form. For, what appears solid actually isn’t;
as even a heavy metal such as lead, a pure element, is made of those tiny particles called atoms.
Atoms themselves are made of smaller particles called neutrons and protons in the nucleus, and
electrons which orbit the nucleus. The atom, therefore, isn’t solid, as there’s space between the
electrons and nucleus and in the orbital area not occupied by the electrons at any one time. The
radius of the electron orbit is said to be about the order of 10,000 times as wide as the nucleus of
an atom. Furthermore, the electrons, protons, and neutrons appear to be comprised of smaller
particles which themselves may not be solid, as they’re too small for current observation.
Maybe one day people will see the smallest particles and be able to determine how much
matter is the illusion of force. If sub-atomic particles are also hollow or partially hollow is it
conceivable that the smallest, seemingly indivisible particle is nothing more than opposing forces
at equilibrium which give the appearance of solid matter? Knowing the answer to such questions
would have dramatic implications, as other knowledge has provided. However, man may never
know the mechanism of invisible forces and scores of other mysteries, and often admitting what
one doesn’t know is more important than what one does know.

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 Mother Earth
Radiometric dating indicates the solar system formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
However, long after a massive debris cloud gradually coalesced into the sun and planets, the
compacting earth was very far from being hospitable to life. As the sun grew in size and energy
output, earth was being pummeled by meteors that added to immense heat from internal friction.
It’s believed that molten lava covered the surface of young earth for many millions of years in the
forming stage.
Eventually the Hades-like surface of the evolving earth cooled and water accumulated on
the surface. Though wind and radiation may have been extreme, and the atmosphere may have
lacked significant oxygen, conditions for life were improving. With abundant elements and water
warmed by the sun, the stage was set for an amazing odyssey of chemical development. The
tremendous variety in the world today illustrates the myriad of possible atomic, molecular,
compound, mixture and environmental combinations that shape elaborate and very different
forms from the same basic building blocks.
A simplified view of atomic structure is represented by a nucleus of protons and neutrons
that’s orbited by electrons. A negative charge of electrons and positive charge of protons is
reportedly responsible for attraction and repulsion among atoms. Hydrogen, the lightest element,
usually consists of one proton orbited by one electron. Occasionally the proton is joined in the
hydrogen nucleus by one or two neutrons, and those isotopes of hydrogen are known as
deuterium and tritium respectively.
And hydrogen, the simplest element is also believed to be the most abundant element in
the universe, just as it’s very abundant on earth, though mostly in the form of compounds with
other elements. While people are familiar with the characteristics of gaseous hydrogen at room
temperature and atmospheric pressure, it can also take the form of metal in low temperature and
high pressure environments, like that believed to exist within the giant gas planet Jupiter, for
example.
The formation of water molecules provide a simple example of how atoms, such as
hydrogen and oxygen, combine to form molecules and release energy at the same time. Two
molecules of hydrogen, consisting of two atoms each, combine with one molecule of oxygen,
also containing two atoms, to form two molecules of water, with each molecule consisting of two
hydrogen atoms attached to one oxygen atom. When hydrogen and oxygen atoms bond they fit
together in less space than they occupied separately, making compact molecules that weigh more
than oxygen or hydrogen, and releasing excess energy from smaller electron orbits as heat. The
liberated energy is actually so significant that the combination of hydrogen and oxygen is used as
rocket fuel.
Going back in history, some societies actually believed that fire was alive. They saw that
fire did work and that it transformed matter; both the matter of its fuel source and substances
affected by the heat energy and smoke it released. They also saw the birth and death of fire as it
sparked to life and when it was extinguished.
At the time it wasn’t understood that what they were witnessing was a chemical reaction;
the rapid oxidation of a fuel substance resulting in heat, light and chemical compounds of
drastically altered property. Oxidation and reduction: common transformations that result in
change of electric charge, affect many kinds of substances, can occur with many substances,
when it occurs to iron the process is known as rust. And in providing our internal energy and
growth the processes are known as respiration and metabolism.
While humans are dependent on free oxygen in the air to combine with fuel molecules
like glucose and amino acids to release energy, some life forms, such as bacteria and yeast utilize

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a less efficient metabolism that, although depending on oxygen containing compounds to break
down, doesn’t require the input of free oxygen. Despite the amazing complexity of modern
animals like humans, and actually owing to that complexity, animals are utterly dependent on a
great number of environmental conditions.
As illustrated by the story of Joshua earlier in this book, people can’t survive for more
than a few minutes without breathing free oxygen – though some exceptional individuals can
hold their breath for more than ten minutes. Man’s persistent reliance on oxygen, a simple gas
essential to some highly complex life functions, demonstrates both man’s basic chemical nature
and the fantastic realities of material animation known as chemistry. Common elements like
oxygen are found in astounding numbers of combinations that give form and substance to the
world.
Carbon, like oxygen, is another element vitally important to life, and it’s believed to
appear in more compounds than any other element on earth, with nearly 10 million combinations.
Carbon containing compounds are so prevalent, and carbon is so versatile, that it’s found in all
known living things, giving rise to the expression “carbon-based life.”
Hydrogen, added to oxygen and carbon combine to form many types of biological
compounds including sugar, cellulose, lignin, chitin, alcohol, fat and ester. Added to those
elements, nitrogen allows formation of alkaloids; and sulfur, combined with hydrogen, oxygen,
carbon and nitrogen can create amino acids and proteins. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and
ribonucleic acid (RNA); the complicated genetic codes for reproducing organisms; consist of
only phosphorous, sulfur, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Together, these compounds
are some of the essential substances of living organisms.
Carbon not only occurs in a huge variety of combinations with other elements, it also
represents how environmental conditions affect substance formation, with pure carbon appearing
in such diverse forms as graphite and diamonds. Graphite conducts electricity and is the soft
gray/black substance used as “lead” in pencils. While diamond, in striking contrast, is brilliantly
clear, doesn’t conduct electricity, and is the hardest known natural substance.
And that dramatic difference is due to the high temperatures and pressures deep
underground that transform the loose mass structure of graphite into a dense cubic structure that
provides both exceptional hardness and the fascinating ability to pass light. Though natural
diamonds are rare and quite expensive relative to graphite and coal, today diamonds are made
much more abundant through synthetic mass production; and some mature star cores are even
thought by some to be solid diamond. In fact, the high quality and abundance of diamonds
produced in modern facilities is causing the mystique of rarity so long prized by the public to
slowly lose its luster.
For all of the elemental potential it possessed, however, young earth was vastly different
than what we’re familiar with today. The planet looked barren, with a lonely quiet, save for the
whistle of wind, splash of water and other elemental noises. For a long time rocks lay plain and
dull, splashed by sterile waters. Earth wasn’t exactly dead however, it was just lifeless. And
there’s a difference; like its neighbors, earth had yet to give birth to life. But it did have amazing
potential. There was tremendous potential for wondrous, new life. In the water and the soil and
the sunlight there was unusual possibility.
Like jigsaw puzzles being pulled together by invisible forces, elements formed various
combinations through internal attractions, with the aid of external stimuli; and as individual
combinations produced or consumed energy at the molecular level they also made possible a
growing range of alternative combinations. And like falling dominoes, particular events triggered
further actions in chain reactions of growing duration. The molecular combinations and actions
occurring constantly inside animate beings work together like cogs in complex machines, each

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contributing their part to overall function and performance of the organism.
Even when chemical combinations and reactions produce large amounts of energy or
perform other substantial resource conversions, they may not produce repeatable or controllable
results. Most action sequences “play out” like a dying fire when necessary combinations of inputs
and circumstances become unbalanced, but certain complex molecular sequences arrange to form
circular action systems that result in consistent sustainable actions or production based on
persistent resource availability.
And those billions of years ago, when earth was still young, with the passage of time,
organic molecules came together in such specific combinations to form replicating sequences.
Eventually, amino acid chains capable of reproducing themselves evolved to form the foundation
of genes: contributing enormously to the growth, development and diversification of life.
What is life anyway? Does life extract minerals from its environment and grow, like a
crystal in a cave? Does it move and do work, like fire and wind? Is the combination of nitrogen
with other elements, in the form of amines, life? How about the combination of amines and
carbon, oxygen and hydrogen that form amino acids: fundamental building blocks of life? Is man
making life forms by making amino acids for industry? And what about long chains of amino
acids called proteins? Are they living?
That question becomes more intriguing when one considers that prions are disease agents
believed to simply be forms of protein that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, a
group of incurable, fatal diseases that include scrapie in sheep and goats, Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease in humans, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad-cow
disease. The fact that the contagious, causative agents of such deadly diseases are considered
forms of protein, gives cause to ponder the definition of life.
It turns out that life is, rightfully, difficult to define. Some common definitions include
criteria such as metabolism, growth, reproduction; and responses to stimuli or adaptation to the
environment, that originates within the organism. Most of what people consider life meets those
criteria. But some simple living organisms don’t. Since viruses are considered neither cellular
nor possessing of internal metabolism, they’re said by many to be merely infectious microscopic
microbes. Some would say viruses are just poisonous organic particles.
But, of course, they’re more than that. They attach to living cells, inject their DNA, and
replicate themselves with the host cell protein; often causing the host cell walls to burst; killing
the cells and releasing the replicated viruses to repeat the cycle of parasitic reproduction and
destruction. Viruses are deadly assassins: responsible for some of the more horrific historical
plagues of humanity that include smallpox, AIDS, SARS, influenza, polio, Ebola, meningitis,
measles, hepatitis, rabies, yellow fever and others. Yet, they consist of little more than DNA or
RNA inside protective coatings with projections capable of penetrating host cells.
And viroids are plant pathogens that are even simpler organisms; consisting of a short
stretch of RNA without the protein coat typical of viruses. So clearly, relatively simple organic
compounds are capable of functions commonly associated with life.
The difficulty people have had in assessing the origin of life results from misconceptions
largely attributable to simplistic mythological perceptions that society has failed, and often
refused, to outgrow. People have traditionally looked for that WOW! moment; a specific place
and time that life appeared. They were conditioned to expect one clear act of creation. But there
is no such moment. There is no step in the long journey from atomic attraction to the complex
life forms of today that can be defined as the beginning of life.
Regardless of the amount of complexity and evolutionary time invested, all life consists
of repeating, controlled chemical reactions. Biological evolution is a long story of chemical
evolution; the slow, random combination of more and more chemical processes resulting in ever

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more complex structures and activities. The development of life forms is gradual, with every
advancement building on previous accomplishment. On earth, life’s been getting more complex
for four billion years and has been steadily influenced by changing environments and
circumstances. There simply is no origin of life to be found in that steady process of molecular
arranging and system growth.
Actually it’s possible, although not necessarily likely, that simple organisms developed
independently over and over again. Because, the simplest processes with the least causation or
input variability are more likely to propagate independently than processes of increasing
complexity and variability for which necessary circumstances become exponentially more rare.
But, while it’s possible that lifelines may well have developed many times, in many places, the
opportunity for different simple life forms to develop independently decreases as necessary
circumstances; in the form of acceptable amounts of resources, environmental conditions and
freedom from competition; diminish.
A simple hypothetical example of life development may aid in understanding how life
can change and diversify through time. This elementary exercise of imagination is in no way
intended to represent the long, true evolution of life, but rather to introduce the basic concept of
growth and adaptation relative to changing environmental conditions.
One could consider an imaginary pond on young earth with abundant elemental resources
dissolved in the water and among rocks in contact with the water. The elemental atoms combine
through natural attractions into various molecular shapes and sizes with different properties.
Some of those molecules are then attracted to each other to form larger molecules. While many
types of molecules reach a state of equilibrium, others continue to combine in long chains.
Eventually many types of molecules are present in the pond and they come in numerous shapes
and sizes with many levels of attraction and repulsion.
Just as energy is released when hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, many such
chemical reactions release energy, while other reactions are dependent on energy input to occur.
Chain reactions of energy release and absorption spread throughout the pond as the animation of
matter continues. Substances are continually being broken down as well as built up. As the
shapes and sizes of molecules, macromolecules, and substances continue to grow, so do possible
combinations and corresponding divisions.
So, there are more types of units to combine and divide, but those possible reactions are
dependent on particular circumstances that constitute a smaller and smaller percentage of the
increasing number of possible variable combinations. Ultimately the chemical activity in the
pond will cease when the established molecular bonds are stronger than electrical attractions or
external stimuli that might otherwise alter molecular structure.
At such a time the pond would be stagnant; inanimate. Unless a source of useable
incoming energy sufficient to overcome established molecular bonds was available. That energy
source could be a matter like sulfur, hydrogen or methane; seeping, leeching or flowing into the
pond. But it would most likely be sunlight. In the hypothetical pond, a steady supply of energy
and abundant matter eventually gives rise to extremely complex macromolecules and reaction
series.
The result of each reaction could provide a number of catalysts: fuel for another reaction,
reproduction through division, additional structure of a unit, destruction of a unit, a mechanism
to start or stop a chain reaction, and so on and so forth. And while the results of some reactions
are necessary to complimentary, or dependent, reactions, they’re also counteractive, or
poisonous, to other animation sequences.
Even with ample energy input, the pond would stagnate if all suitable material were
bound in stable, unchanging structures, or organisms. Those structures must be broken down

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before the constituent matter can be recycled in ongoing building and animation processes. And
all of the matter in the pond represents potential input to a structure compatible with the
properties of the matter. If the pond were dominated by simple doohickeys, their input, or food,
sources may become insufficient to maintain their population and their processes could be
disrupted, or poisoned, by their own waste. In such an environment both the simple doohickey
population and simple doohickey waste represent potential resources.
Therefore if an itsy and a bitsy combined into a whatsit that consumed the waste of
simple doohickeys the whatsit progeny would multiply and flourish. In fact, simple doohickey
waste would be so abundant that whatsits would continue to proliferate until they too outgrew
their food source and declined in numbers themselves before reaching a sustainable level. In
time, with the addition of more complimentary reactions and mutations, organisms like ynots that
consume the waste of whatsits would also flourish.
In fact, ynots might be so compatible with the waste of the whatsits that one ynot might
attach to or otherwise join with a whatsit. If the combined, more complex, whatnot was more
prolific, proficient, efficient, or otherwise advantaged over the whatsits and ynots that it was
descended from, it might utilize more available resources and expand in population, causing
decline of the whatsits and ynots. Surviving whatsits might have to consume a similar but less
favorable food source, and unfortunate ynots may die out altogether because the altered whatsit
waste product won’t support the chemical reactions necessary to ynot life.
The nutritious fluids of large whatnots might even encourage whip-like invisios to bore
into some hapless whatnots and reproduce prodigiously, as they did when accidentally ingested
by bloats that were enveloping tiny wibbles. In fact, if bloats developed a vigorous process of
digestion through their symbiotic relationship with invisios they could envelop the once
dominant simple doohickey.
And a different kind of doohickey, the complex doohickey, armored through a symbiotic
relationship with colony scales, might prove the only pond dweller too formidable for ingestion
by the formidable bloat. With a tough shield the complex doohickey could prove very resilient,
even establishing itself on the pond bank, subject to periodic dry conditions. From there the
complex doohickey might undergo additional adaptations and one day even move to dry land.
Such an imaginary pond illustrates how every chemical action and every organism is
dependent on specific environmental conditions and can develop only where those conditions
exist. How wonderful the true odyssey of life has been, spreading horizontally like vines rooting
in virgin territory, and vertically like trees climbing ever higher. Steady as day passing into night,
life spread around the world, adapting to different conditions and continuing to grow in
complexity, ever building on past accomplishment. Nichiation, the process of populating any
suitable niche in the face of competitive and environmental challenges, has led to abundant life
and proficient usage of available resources.
Tiny microbes too small to see, colonized the vast ocean; or oceans, as continents came
together, broke apart, and migrated around the globe over time. From earth’s youth until now, as
long as there’s been life on earth, microbial life like bacteria has been and will continue to be part
of it. Because simple life has few requirements those requirements are amply satisfied wherever
complicated organisms flourish, even on and inside the more complicated organisms; such as the
bacteria present in human digestive tracts.
However, even as numerous generations of species remain the same, countless factors can
drive some individuals to change. Evolution is continually pushed by internal evodrivers like
gene transfer and usage traits; along with external evodrivers like population expansion, forced
migration, weather change, predation, food competition, and others too numerous to list.
Every passing day of the past 4 billion years has influenced life’s forms. While some

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individuals adapt to powerful evodrivers, the remainder of a species may fail to survive, leaving
no living examples of the original species. Still other times healthy populations of the original
species remain. In some instances no individuals survive and entire species go extinct. Such
modification and disruption scenarios account for the broad array of species alive today and all
those that have passed away.
Because the simplest organisms lack durable hard substances like bones, teeth and shells,
they leave little lasting evidence of their presence. Most soft bodied creatures are easily recycled
and don’t show up in the fossil record. So, little is known about the proliferation of the earliest
microorganisms. But, whatever the sequence and circumstance of growth and development
during earth’s first billion years, fossils indicate simple colony forming, bacteria-like organisms
were present by 3.5 billion years ago.
Even though they may not fossilize well, microbes are as tough as they come. Today
many species of tiny organisms, like strains of bacteria, are so robust they’re called
extremeophiles. Extremeophile microbes live in soil and water under sheets of ice in Antarctica
and Siberia, in pressure and heat hundreds and thousands of feet underground, under the
astounding pressure at the bottom of the pacific ocean, in the corrosive salt environment of brine
lakes, in hot springs and thermal vents where temperatures range as high as 250o F (121o C), and
even in areas with super-high levels of radiation that would quickly kill a person.
And extreme tolerance isn’t the only characteristic that enables hearty life forms to
flourish. When conditions are too harsh some organisms have the ability to go dormant until
conditions improve. Many species of bacteria, for example, are known to turn into spores and
enter a state of suspended animation when conditions are too inhospitable to sustain growth.
Scientists have reported reviving bacteria that had been dormant for many millions of years.
Such reports dramatically illustrate the chemical nature of the animation called life. The
molecular processes of life can come to a standstill, and as long as no processes of decay are able
to act on the organism, the normal life functions can be restored when the organism is once again
exposed to favorable environmental conditions. And the concept of suspended animation leads
many to wonder how others might benefit from similar periods of dormancy.
People are working diligently to develop methods to preserve bodies indefinitely. The
most common method attempted involves removing heat energy from a body, simply freezing a
body, to prevent decay processes, in hopes that the body’s normal molecular processes can be
restored in the future by reintroducing heat to the body. Unfortunately however, because
organisms like humans are so complex, with so many co-dependent functions and so many
manners in which vital processes may be irrecoverably disrupted, the challenge won’t be
overcome anytime soon.
But still, there’s much that can be learned from the simplest creatures. They have been
and continue to be instrumental in the proliferation and continuation of life on earth. Some of the
pioneer life forms such as photosynthesizing cyanobacteria are even believed responsible for
causing dramatic environmental changes when earth was one to two billion years old, including
producing prodigious quantities of oxygen through the process of capturing the energy of
sunlight known as photosynthesis. That major adaptation is believed by some to have
significantly altered the life balance of the planet because many of the organisms that thrived up
to that point in time aren’t believed to have been capable of tolerating free oxygen in the
atmosphere and dissolved in the water.
After the appearance of the first cell-based organisms such as bacteria, simple single-cell
organisms continued to proliferate and develop complex and diverse mechanisms of survival for
about 2 billion years before some evolved into multi-cellular organisms, according to the fossil
record as understood so far. The complexity and time investment in the intracellular foundation

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of complex organisms is so great that life may have grown no larger than a single cell for half the
time it has existed on earth. During that time tissues and structures were developed for growth,
protection, feeding, locomotion, reproduction and other tasks necessary to even larger, more
complex organisms.
Though tiny and simple by people’s customary perspective of reference, single-cell
organisms are marvels of progress. Even tiny organisms such as modern bacteria have DNA
consisting of millions and millions of base pairs of nucleotide molecules. And it’s that kind of
complexity that allows gene sequences to guide the development of a thousand different
enzymes, consisting of various long amino acid combinations, to carry out the bacteria’s growth,
feeding, division and other functions. Even the sophisticated ordering of the 10’s of trillions of
cells in humans, is guided by the 3 billion pairs of nucleotides in DNA that reside in tightly
packed chromosomes within the tiny individual cells.
Even tiny organisms have characteristics of fascinating interest, such as the interesting
variety found in single-cell organisms like euglenids. One reason why they’re so interesting is the
fascinating similarities they share with both plants and animals. Some euglenids feed by
phagocytosis, meaning they extend their cell wall around their food source, in a manner similar
to bacteria, to form a food vacuole where the food is digested. And other euglenids contain
chloroplasts that capture energy directly from sunlight, as plants do.
In fact, many scientists believe that green plants resulted from a symbiotic relationship
between chloroplast containing organisms and phagocytes that enveloped them but didn’t digest
or otherwise fatally harm them. And there’s much more to those unusual euglenids that contain
plant-like chloroplasts; they also have animal-like eyespots that detect light, and primitive
muscles for movement; resembling as such, tiny plants that can wiggle toward sunlight.
By 1,200 million years ago multi-cellular algae was present. Though algae would later
give rise to seaweed; leaves, roots, flowers, seeds and other organ structures characteristic of
vascular plants were a long time from being realized. And within a few hundred million years
later, soft-bodied, worm-like animals began to develop primitive central nervous systems.
Sponges too, developed near the same time period; apparently descended from colony forming
choanoflagellate protists.
Sponges are considered animals even though they lack many of the traits commonly
associated with animals. For example, they don’t have a nervous system or internal organs like
most animals. Also lacking are circulatory and digestive systems, as fuel and waste products
diffuse directly through the walls of individual cells from and to circulating ocean water.
Although sponges reproduce sexually, combining genes of two parents, they also reproduce by
budding and can regenerate missing parts. And their lifestyle also differs significantly from most
animals in that young sponges are mobile in the larval stage, but soon attach to objects where
they remain sedentary for the rest of their lives.
Another evolving marine animal, the jellyfish, had more of the complicated systems
people are accustomed to seeing in animals, such as muscles, a digestive system, and a neural
net. However, unlike many modern animals, the jellies’ digestive systems had only one opening
for both food intake and waste expulsion, and the neural nets weren’t connected to a central
brain. Sponges, primitive worms, and jellyfish were joined by ancient arthropods, the ancestors
of crustaceans, insects and arachnids, that also appear in the fossil record of the period.
Beginning about 542 million years ago species evolution and differentiation accelerated
in what is known as the Cambrian explosion, with a widespread and diverse population
documented in the fossil record. Because the trilobite was relatively large, populous and its shell
fossilized well it’s probably the most well known animal from the time of the Cambrian
explosion. Life was still relatively small and primitive, and earth still looked barren by today’s

26
standards but by the end of the Cambrian explosion all of the major animal body types seen today
had formed.
Worm-like creatures continued to progress, developing hearts and gill-like structures to
compliment their growing central nervous systems. Some of that line sired little fish-like animals
with notochords that would eventually develop into backbones, and those little worm-fish gave
rise to later generations of fish and other vertebrate animals including amphibians, reptiles,
mammals and even birds. Every animal with a backbone alive today, and others like the woolly
mammoth and dinosaurs of years past owe their existence to those little pre-historic worm-fish.
Generations of fish continued to diversify, as plants, descended from green algae, moved
onto land, along with fungi. And finally, after billions of years of watery evolution, the first
animals to move onto land appear to have been arthropods like millipedes. Today the vast
majority of animal species, about 90% of the total, including crustaceans, arachnids and insects,
are members of the arthropod family, those possessors of jointed exoskeletons. And so, with the
expansion of plants and then arthropods, colonization of the great land frontier, so bleak and
barren, so sun-baked and windswept to that point, was underway en masse only less than 500
million years ago. The nichiation of land settlement had begun.
Subsequently, under the shimmering surface of seas and inland waters, generations of fish
and other marine animals continued to spread out, seeking their own place in the world. While
the ancestors of squids and swordfish prowled the open oceans, man’s ancestors were living on
the fringe, exploring the boundary between water and land. Pushing along the shallows with
paired fins and gulping air to supplement oxygen-poor waters, the tetrapod ancestors of humanity
and other non-arthropod land animals prepared for a move out of the water, away from predators
and competition, but into a world of harsh extremes.
As tetrapods evolved into amphibians, their stout fins were slowly transformed through
many, many generations into legs; their air sacs developed into lungs, and they moved onto the
land. But they weren’t yet ready to move away from water. It would be up to amphibians’
reptilian descendants to develop amniotic eggs and skin tough enough to tolerate dry conditions
away from water; enabling them to follow plants and arthropods further inland.
With basic cell and body structures well developed, competition in the waters, and vast
lands to populate; rapid and vigorous evolutionary change ensued. Animals adapted to the
proliferating plant life by consuming more vegetation and growing ever larger. The arthropods,
being first to land and also first to take to the air, took advantage of the wide open space and
abundant resources. Change was happening fast, and by 280 million years ago insects were living
large, as exemplified by the mighty Protodonatan dragonfly, with an astonishing 2 foot wingspan.
However, even they pale in comparison to the impressive reptiles that came to dominate the land,
patrolling vast forests of club moss and tree ferns.
By 150 million years ago giant dinosaurs were common. They would grow into the
lumbering, towering, fearsome giants that live on in modern imagination. The ground shook
under the strain of hundred-ton giants that stood above the trees and pushed them aside like so
much tall grass. Hearts filled with terror and creatures great and small fled the scene of mighty
tyrannosaurs gashing beasts as big as elephants with teeth the size of daggers in bites so powerful
they would split today's mighty alligators in half.
In a diverse and contradictory world, while dinosaurs as big as tractor-trailers were
gorging on lush greenery, plants produced the first fragile flowers, ancestors of those brilliantly
vibrant gems of today’s dazzling landscapes. How exquisite it would be to witness the marvelous
ecology of the first slight flowers and the greatest behemoths to ever walk the planet. Of course,
people weren’t there to witness it, but mankind’s reptilian ancestors were, along with other
lesser-known dinosaurs. They may have been minor players at the time, but in the distant future

27
some of the prodigy of those small dinosaurs would have their turn.
Before small, feathered dinosaurs evolved into birds that would touch the sky,
descendants of other small dinosaurs were giving live birth and producing milk to nourish their
young. In the shadow of their earth-shaking relatives, the first mammals were putting on fur and
regulating their body temperatures. Mankind’s roots run deep on mother earth, just as all life
does. Humanity’s small ancestors ran with the giants, and witnessed the flowering of a planet.
Man’s humble ancestors diverged from the ancestors of mice about 75 million years ago.
Shortly thereafter in geologic time, about 65 million years ago, the Cretaceous-Tertiary
extinction occurred. That most famous extinction event, that wiped out the large dinosaurs and
changed the face of life on earth, was one of about seven major extinction events. Though
numerous factors can contribute to mass extinction, many scholars believe the Cretaceous-
Tertiary extinction event was caused by weather changes triggered by a massive asteroid impact.
It was likely fortuitous for man’s ancestors that survived the great dying off that they
were small and could regulate their body temperature, because the impact dust cloud is believed
to have resulted in wintry conditions that would have caused widespread hypothermia, disease
and starvation. Such a sudden, dramatic event, though devastating, would have been similar to,
but more traumatic than, other weather extremes like ice ages that have periodically put a big
freeze on the planet. Over earth’s long life, due to continental drift, variations in solar output, and
changes in earth’s inclination and distance from the sun, all the continents have experienced both
tropical sunshine and polar ice coverage at some point in time.
Whatever the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, the sudden collapse of the
reptile reign created opportunity for mammalian expansion and ascension. Though the
evolutionary process is slow, diversity of size and lifestyle blossomed, and mammals grew to fill
niches formerly occupied by the dinosaurs. While man’s little ancestors were searching trees for
insects and fruit, the ancestor of horses was the size of modern foxes and elephants were smaller
than modern cattle. Even the ancestors of whales and dolphins were still spending time on land.
But what may be even more strange to modern senses is the idea that grasses hadn’t yet evolved;
according to fossil records they didn’t appear until about 35 million years ago. Still later, as the
slow march of time continued, about 30 million years ago, New World monkeys and Old World
primates diverged, perhaps separated by an expanding Atlantic ocean as South America slowly
drifted away from Africa.
The parade of life has continued to give rise to exceptional and interesting specimens
around the world. Today’s variety of plants and animals is as diverse and fascinating as any time
in earth’s history; ranging from tiny colonies of microbes inhabiting deep ocean vents and the
digestive tracts of animals, to the giant redwoods of California blocking the sun as they tower to
heights greater than 370 ft. Regardless of sun or shade, some animals including bats and dolphins
can “see” in total darkness thanks to their extraordinary abilities of echolocation. From polar
bears braving icy arctic winters and giant squid in the cold, dark, pressure of ocean depths, to
cacti flowering in desert sands; plants and animals have steadily spread to cover much of the
planet's surface.
Now animal life is more affected by other animals than by climactic factors; and some
species that have come and gone still provoke awe in imagination. For example, the
Indricothere, a relative of the rhinoceros that lived in Mongolia, was possibly the largest land
mammal to ever live, demonstrating that Mongolia was once a land of abundance. And the
Americas were home to Phorusrhacidae, called the “terror bird,” a massive brute of a predatory
and scavenging bird that stood 8ft tall; and Argentavis magnificens, believed to be the largest
bird to ever fly, with a wingspan of nearly 23 ft. Numerous other impressive creatures lived in
what has only recently been called the New World by man; such as Megatherium americanum, a

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sloth the size of a modern elephant; and Glyptodon, an armadillo-like behemoth that tipped the
scales to the tune of about 1700 pounds.
Of course, the oceans have also seen a lot of variety through the years. It wasn’t all that
long ago that giant sharks called Megalodons, as long as busses, with teeth the size of small
hands, patrolled the oceans. Since that time however, some air breathing mammals, the blue
whales, have grown to dwarf any fish in the sea and all the other animals ever known to have
lived. They're quite a contrast with the odd aquatic mammal that looks like a cross between a
beaver and a duck – the platypus, which is even poisonous, albeit the poison spurs on its back
legs are in a curiously unusual position.
Whether animals are as different as poisonous sea snakes and soaring eagles, or as similar
as chimpanzees and humans – sharing 96% of their DNA; they're all part of this wonderful,
fragile, intricate web of life on earth that is so precious.

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 Universal Truth
In four billion years, the line of descendancy that would became animals has progressed
from random atomic attractions to possessing magnificent abilities to move, gather food, avoid
predators, build shelter, find mates, and interact socially. And all of that activity is directed by
elaborate nervous systems. Those systems typically have specialized nerve centers called brains
that process and record sensory system input and direct action ranging from breathing to
coordinated movement.
Brains consist of some of the most complex matter ever observed. They’re so remarkably
proficient that the tiny brain of a mosquito coordinates all its activities; including finding food,
shelter and a mate; and detecting and avoiding physical threats, such as the swat of a hand, while
stealing a meal. And all of the activities a mosquito engages in is orchestrated by a brain about
the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Today, humans have slightly larger brains than other animals in proportion to body size.
Not coincidentally humans also have greater reasoning ability. It’s not surprising that people
have large brains, after all, man’s intellect allows him to rule the world. Of course, that hasn’t
always been the case. Long ago, there was something that triggered unusual mental development
in man’s ancestors, and people have long wondered what that impetus was. Was it something in
the water, was it stone tool usage, or was it a spontaneous genetic mutation? The answers to
those questions are no, no and no. Many have suggested that tool usage required additional
thought, spurring increased brain activity and growth. And that’s partially correct, but not in the
manner of tool most suspect.
Together with close relatives like chimpanzees, humans have throat and mouth structures
that allow a broad range of vocalization. That wide vocal range allows for a very large range of
vocal communication. After separating from their primate cousins, man’s ancestors developed
progressively more elaborate vocal communication. Now, mankind was by no means the first to
communicate. Language such as the song of a bird, the deep bellow of a bullfrog, chirps of
crickets, and calls of whippoorwills proclaim rich, varied life all around.
Animals the world over have long communicated by using visual, aural, chemical and
physical language. Honeybees are even said to use a complicated form of dance to communicate
within their complex society. And in the vast, open oceans, songs of whales can be heard for
miles as they talk, or sing, to each other. Like birds, people don’t know what whales are saying;
if they’re communicating detailed information or just rudimentary identification and emotion.
But some animal language, like the warning growl of a dog, while not communicating a great
deal of information, is so clear it’s unmistakable.
Today people communicate with many animals, though mostly with companion animals.
Seeing-eye dogs are but one example of animals that understand some of what people say to
them, and they, in turn, can communicate warnings of danger and other useful information back
to people. It’s childishly simple for humans not to readily realize the degree of meaningful
communication in the broader animal world. Collectively, however, humans have raised the art
of communication to a higher level.
And, as with many advancing skills, language greatly expanded man’s capabilities. But it
also required much more mental processing and thus spurred physical evolution in the form of
increased brain size. Not only does language require significant mental effort to use, language is
the switch that turned the brain “on,” it was the impetus of higher thinking. Language is nothing
less than the key to reason and the very form of complex thought.
That may sound like an incredible assertion, but it’s true; without language mankind
would have very little reasoning ability. To understand a mind without human language is to

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understand the mind of an infant or another animal. Human thought is actually represented by
internal verbalization. People think by talking to themselves. They each ask themselves why and
how, and then answer the question in their minds. Language enables another layer of mental
activity beyond emotion, monitoring and acting. It would be fascinating to observe a real-life
Tarzan; someone that grew up without contact with other humans. If for no other reason than to
gauge how much reasoning capacity is now genetically imbedded in the human mind and how
much results from learning with language.
From before birth human brains are processing electrical impulses into memory. That is,
nerve connections are formed in the brain that correspond with specific sensory inputs. People
learn through memorization and mimicry. Language is so ingrained in personal development that
it actually forms the thought process. How long can one go without talking to one’s self? A
reader might repeat that question, taking time for the words to impart meaning. Can one think
about something without talking to himself, solve a problem without verbalizing it internally, or
perform any manner of reasoning without saying a word in his mind? Upon examination, it
becomes apparent that human intellect is synonymous with language. It’s clear that sophisticated
thoughts are internal verbalizations. Without language, people couldn’t solve complex problems,
nor collaborate with others to share knowledge and overcome even greater challenges.
Early humans weren’t first to communicate, they weren’t the first to develop a verbal
language, but by advancing it to the point of deliberate reason they set themselves apart. It wasn’t
the use of physical tools that distinguished humanity; it wasn’t by-pedalism or opposable thumbs
that gave rise to the kingdom of man. Language is the difference between humanity and our
fellow earthlings. Language is the source of man’s prosperity, man’s power, and man’s glory.
Mankind didn’t ascend to the throne by using a simple stone tool like an otter cracking a shell.
To point, a spider’s web is much more exquisite and sophisticated than an early human tool such
as a club or hammering stone. What man invented was the inventor’s tool, it was the creator’s
vision, even the lord’s law. With language, man had a tool that could create other tools, like a
flowering vine bearing fruit and reproducing, growing ever larger. With language man has
conveyed the most powerful tool of all, the object that both enslaves and liberates people to this
day, the idea.
Man’s ability to unite a nation abodes in the realm of the power of language. So too does
the ability to add to the sum of knowledge. Individuals share and combine their knowledge with
language. And generation after generation leaves an ever-growing foundation of knowledge for
the future to build on. Idea upon idea has been added to man’s pyramid of knowledge; layer by
layer, day by day, and year after year. The process of making fire is a power of language. As is
the roll of the wheel, the turn of the plow, the strike of the hammer, the temper of steel, the flight
of rockets, the splicing of genes, and even the abominable power to destroy much of life on earth.
Like the first bird soaring on the wind, or the first tetrapod climbing onto land, humanity
may be first to reason with language but will be joined by others. Time permitting, others will
understand as we do. Time permitting, they will. But that precipitates a big question: how long
life can continue to advance. Man’s greed and hostility threaten to undo hundreds of millions of
years of development. Of course, possessing language doesn’t guarantee equality, but possessing
language would allow the transmission of knowledge that could give rise to equality. However,
like any tool, language can be used for good and it can be used for harm. What gave man
dominion over the earth has enabled people to rule with a wicked hand. Sadly, man has been a
very unjust lord. Woe to the rest of life on earth that man was first to master technology.
Even with advanced language and reasoning abilities, humanity’s nervous system is very
similar to those of the rest of the animal kingdom. And one of the primary functions of any
nervous system is the sensing of injury to the body. Other animals feel pain as people do;

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unfortunately, they too often feel much, much more pain. In everybody from worms to whales,
and from elephants to ants, pain hurts. Regardless of species, everyone has universal needs; with
the same basic health requirements. Everyone needs sustenance and freedom from injury and
sickness. And beyond basic health, everybody needs freedom to move, freedom to make
decisions, freedom to choose their own course and actions. If those needs are satisfied anyone
may feel content and, if fortunate, happy.
Often lost in man’s continual pursuit of selfish desire are little jewels of wisdom set forth
through the ages. Probably the most famous noble rule of conduct is the Golden Rule – Do Unto
Others as You Would Have Others Do Unto You. There’s no mystery to its meaning, for there’s
self-evident truth that all animals share universal feelings. In its simplicity it represents a grace
and genius for the ages. With thorough application of that one simple concept the world would
be a beautiful, peaceful place. Put simply, the highest condition of all life is happiness; the lowest
is pain; and there is no greater act than kindness. In fact, the ultimate state of life as a whole is
Health and Happiness for All. And these universal truths of life and universal rules apply to all
sentient beings:
Universal Truths
Pleasure is good.
Pain is bad.
Joy is the meaning of life.
Worth is one’s effect on others.
Life and justice is individual.
Understanding is intelligence.
Generosity is strength.
Self-concern is weakness.
Ultimate evolution is growing beyond the self.
Universal Rules of Life
Harm nothing but to prevent it from harming others.
Be nice, kind and generous.
Allow that which is desired and does not harm others.
Share the perspectives of others.
Consider the effect of every action.
Advance Health and Happiness for All.

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 Infancy
Comparisons between the leg and pelvic bones of humans and near relatives such as
chimpanzees and gorillas illustrate how human skeletons evolved to accommodate upright
walking. Paleontologists have found those skeletal traits in African fossils dating as far back as
five million years. Archaeologists also report human ancestors using stone tools as long as two
million years ago and using fire as long as one million years ago. And graves indicating people
were apparently deliberately burying their dead date back at least hundreds of thousands of years.
Clearly, fire use and ritual burial indicate a high level of reasoning dating back hundreds; perhaps
even millions of years. And even vanity has a very long tradition, which shouldn’t be surprising
when one considers the plumage display of a peacock. The find of shells with holes drilled in
them suggest that humans were adorning themselves with jewelry as long as 100 thousand years
ago.
Right along with language and reasoning, human curiosity and imagination were also
maturing. Like young children, ancient people became aware of their surroundings and began to
question circumstances and the nature of things. At the dawning of their rationality, humans
found themselves born into an already mature world. They had no way of knowing all that had
come before. They knew not what lay over the horizon or what the future might hold. The world
was full of phenomena they didn’t understand; phenomena that begged explanation. And how
could so many questions be left unanswered?
Early humans questioned the reason for rain, and the cause of lightning and thunder. They
wondered at the nature of air, how it could be invisible yet vital to life itself, and how it could
even be dangerously powerful at times. People observed the raging battles between fire and
water, curious whence each derived its special power. They marveled at the explosive force of
volcanoes unleashing the destructive might of the underworld; and they were captivated by even
less exotic occurrences like the eerie thrill of strange sounds in the night. But more than
wondering how, people wondered why; being absolutely fascinated by mysterious motives that
might be at the root of all that was manifest around them.
Suspense of that which stalked them from the sinister black shadows held their attention.
Fierce monsters lurked behind their backs and ducked around corners, growing more gruesome
and frightening with the passage of time. And people were always justifiably scared of that
perpetual stalker, the inevitable, grim, lonesome fate called death. The inglorious, rotting end;
that thief of futures and robber of memories sent shivers down spines and raised hackles with
frustration. Ancient people sought answers to the unanswerable; seeking power over the reaper.
Just as it’s still felt today, something must be done, they thought, to live forever. And logically,
they also sought profit where there was pain, abundance where there was shortage, advantage
where there was challenge, and reward without effort. Amidst the hope and anxiety, a powerful
force was evolving inside people; the potent magic of imagination.
Men applied their creative process to finding those answers that couldn’t be found;
explaining such things as aging and disease. Through the power of wishful thinking they hoped
to combat ailments like blindness in old age that stole away sight and left victims mere shells of
their former selves. And they were desperate to understand mysterious, invisible diseases that
crippled and caused excruciating pain. But, of course, death was the most unfair of all. It stole all
that they had built, all that they had worked for; wiping away a lifetime as though it never even
happened, as though every hard earned moment was for naught. It imposed a terrible fear; and
dread, and grief of mourning.
Lacking even a basic understanding of the physical processes of nature and life, people
turned to their imaginations for salvation. Imagination and their own experience were the

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weapons with which they tried to fight uncertainty and the cause of those mysterious things that
caused them pain. The despair and desire to overcome misfortune and death were so great that
mankind was vulnerable to false hope and unfounded speculations of anyone claiming special
knowledge. Predictably, they drew on the experience of their own lives and social interactions to
put a human face, or at the least, a human conscious on the mysteries around them. In fantasy,
they imagined things out to get them; they believed themselves to be the target of willful harm
during bad times, the recipient of intentional blessings during good, and always the center of the
universe. Natural processes were distorted into supernatural phenomena.
Eventually, everything that they weren’t smart enough to understand became the work of
magical beings to many. And people even came to see a spirit or god behind every event and
action, even those that were already understood. Men became obsessed with placating their
invented gods to curry favor and avoid vengeful wrath. Most regrettably, their weakness for false
hope drive them toward tyranny, hostility and villainy; and completely away from objective
inquiry.
It’s believed that modern humans, Homo sapiens, having long been heavily carnivorous,
migrated out of Africa into Europe and Asia a mere 100 thousand years ago where they’re
reported to have lived beside Neanderthals, closely related hominids having descended from
Homo erectus. Homo erectus is thought by some to have migrated out of Africa to Eurasia more
than a million years before Homo sapiens. But since the Homo sapien migration into Europe and
Asia the Neanderthals and many large species of Eurasian mammals have died out. From Asia
humans migrated to Australia about 50 thousand years ago and into the Americas between 30 and
15 thousand years ago according to varying sources.
In that process, human migration seemed to be a harbinger of extinction, as many species
died out after the arrival of humans. Those close relatives of the elephant, the American
mastodon and woolly mammoth, were hunted by humans. Other North American animals that
reportedly disappeared after human arrival included a camel, a horse, the giant short-faced bear,
the giant capybara, two giant armadillo relatives, a llama, a moose, a bison, a cheetah and the
sabertooth cat. Could it be that Homo sapiens hunted their near-relatives the Neanderthals into
extinction? Were they one of the most potent killing forces the world had ever seen? Or were
there other explanations for numerous animal extinctions? Perhaps the Neanderthals inter-bred
with Homo sapiens, or maybe they weren’t a separate species as has been claimed, or perhaps
they succumbed to another killer, such as disease.
Whatever their role, humans continued to migrate after their prey until finally beginning
to settle down in permanent or quasi-permanent villages about 10,000 years ago around the
Fertile Crescent, in the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa near the Mediterranean Sea and
Persian Gulf. The domestication of animals and grain crops helped liberate people from perpetual
travel in search of food. Even though crop failure and other factors such as disease outbreaks and
weather extremes repeatedly displaced settled populations, the trend of continual habitation
persisted. With less time spent traveling, hunting and seeking shelter, people were able to devote
more time to improving their farming practices and standards of living. Permanent villages
attracted more and more people, allowing them to share knowledge and collaborate on work
projects. Famine was far from defeated, but storage of grain and keeping of animals allowed for a
more consistent food supply, so time that would otherwise be concerned with securing the next
meal could be applied to other tasks.
Over the next few thousand years the future was really starting to take shape. Time
savings and production multiplying factors, along with the growing pyramid of human
knowledge, and new thought foci helped people of the permanent settlements to drastically
increase the rate of invention. By 7,000 BC people were beginning to work copper ore in Anatolia.

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And by 6,000 BC the pottery and wool textile trades were being practiced in Catalhoyuk in what is
today Turkey. Catalhoyuk was a large, advanced village for it’s time, with decorations such as
murals and bull horns adorning walls that might not seem out of place in some modern homes.
The architecture did have at least one feature that seems odd to today’s sensibilities, that is, most
of the single-room dwellings had no windows or doors. They were earthen structures constructed
abutting one another, and the only passageway was a hole in the ceiling accessed via a ladder.
Obviously there were no streets or yards between such dwellings, and the roofs served the
purpose of streets in many instances.
It was an unfortunate truth then, as it is now, that success breeds envy and invites attack.
Jericho, the most famous of the early towns, and argued by some to be the oldest continuously
populated town in the world, was walled for protection from invaders, as were many
contemporary cities. For almost as long as people have been building cities, they’ve been
building walls as protection from invasion. On a more positive note, however, agricultural
settlements were established in the river valleys of what is today Egypt and Iraq by 5,000 BC with
crops even being irrigated to increase yield and stabilize the food supply. Life was showing signs
of relaxed normalcy, with archeologists in Egypt having found decorated pottery and other house
wares of the period. And by the 5th millennium (5,000 – 4,000) BC the march of progress was
picking up speed with the period witnessing many significant inventions including bronze
casting; and introduction of the plow, the wheel and the sail, and even more importantly,
improvement of language with the introduction of writing systems in Sumer and Egypt. The
Sumerians even developed printing cylinders used to mass produce impressions in clay tablets.
Toward the end of the millennium a ruler sometimes referred to as King Menes overran
his competitors and united Egypt. Somewhat owing to isolation by water, hills and desert Egypt
forms a logical political unit around the lower Nile Valley, and with a few notable interruptions
Egypt was governed from that point forward as a unified nation for about 3,000 years. Today
ancient Egypt lives on in memory as the richest, most lavish, and most interesting civilization of
the time, and perhaps of all time. Kings were absolute rulers of Egypt and eventually came to be
known as pharaohs. And that position was usually inherited, though lines of inheritance were
frequently broken. Successions of kings of the same family were known as dynasties. One of
those kings, the last ruler of the Sixth Dynasty, Pepi II, is reported to have reigned longer than
any other monarch in history, 94 years, from the age of 6 to his death at the age of 100. Egyptian
kings were revered as living gods and commanded enormous allegiance from their subjects;
collecting vast royal treasuries, and having elaborate public works constructed in their honor.
Some of those astounding construction projects are considered among the most significant of all
time, including such magnificent works as the Great Sphinx and pyramid complex at Giza.
Not every large construction project was an astounding success, however. About the time
of pyramid construction on the Giza Plateau, the Egyptians built the world’s first large man-made
dam, across the Wadi Al-Garawi river. But, the dam was made of rubble overlain with stone, and
the middle of the dam was quickly washed away, as it wasn’t protected from the tremendous
erosive force of the flowing water. Khufu’s Great Pyramid, on the other hand, completed about
2560 BC, is truly a building marvel, massive, precise and enduring. It remains one of the great
construction feats of all time, and along with similar Egyptian work, was unparalleled at the time,
predating the less impressive Coliseum in Rome by 2500 years.
Each side of the square stone base is about 755 ft. long, and the massive stone structure
currently stands about 455 ft. tall. The pyramid was a little wider before the outer casing stone,
that had previously been loosened by an earthquake, was removed to be used in other
construction projects in the 14th century CE. The pyramid would have also been about 25 ft taller
when the enormous capstone, which is also now missing, was in place. Either way, with or

35
without a capstone, the pyramid was the tallest building in the world for about 4,000 years,
though the equally impressive nearby Pyramid of Khafre is slightly higher owing to the fact it
resides on higher ground.
Being enormous tomb monuments, as they were, the Great Pyramids are but a few
examples of pre-occupation with death and religion in Egyptian culture. They were not, after all,
great houses for this life, as would be more practical, instead they were created as houses for an
afterlife that never came. Art and public monuments predominately reflected religious purpose.
Prior to written history, Egyptians buried their dead in fetal positions facing west where the sun
traveled to the land of the dead after passing the land of the living, thought little else is known
about religious beliefs prior to the advent of writing.
Over the centuries people of a united Egypt developed a large group of deities with a
great variety of traditions. Gods were invented in different towns and cities independently, and
evolved to suit the particular hierarchies and needs of the different areas they were introduced.
Obviously, as father of the country and living divinity, the roles of the gods as established by the
king, or pharaoh, took precedence, but didn’t entirely replace local perceptions. Furthermore,
perceptions varied greatly from king to king, and were heavily influenced by the balance of
powers among the cities.
At least four creator gods, and likely many more, flourished in Egypt through the ages;
Amon-Ra, Atum, Khnum, and Ptah. Amon-Ra was himself a compilation of the fertility god, or
god of invisible power, Amon, with the sun god Ra. In addition there were many creation stories
including a god-bearing lotus and a divine egg from which the gods descended. In total there
were too many combinations of gods and their roles and relations to keep track of, but one of the
most important gods was Osiris. One tradition related how Osiris was killed by his brother Seth.
When his loving wife Isis found him, she beseeched other gods to bring him back to life. When
the other gods did intervene Osiris was resurrected, becoming the important and powerful god of
afterlife in the process.
Something believed to be essential to the afterlife was the traditional preservation of the
body through mummification. And the practice of placing worldly goods with the bodies of the
deceased apparently predated written records. Those worldly goods might include anything
believed to help the dead in the afterlife, ranging from treasure to more practical items like
cookware and furniture. The practice of placing treasures with the bodies of dead kings lead to
the risky but potentially lucrative business of grave-robbing, but well concealed tombs and tomb
entrances also made possible the recovery of fantastic archeological treasures in modern times
like that of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
After the Old Kingdom, Egypt entered a state of decline known as the First Intermediate
Period from 2200 – 2060 BC. It was Mentuhotep, king of Thebes, that reunited Egypt in 2060 BC,
thus beginning the Middle Kingdom; a period of stability often referred to as the “golden age” by
later Egyptians. During this time Egypt also flexed a little muscle outside its borders by annexing
Lower Nubia to the south, and marching northeast through Palestine and into Syria, bringing
them into closer contact with the prosperous culture of Mesopotamia.
About the time of great pyramid building in Egypt, Uruk, in what is now Iraq, was ruled
by king Gilgamesh (27th century BC). Gilgamesh is a name best known from the later Sumerian
tale the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the story, Gilgamesh faced challenges from the gods with his
friend Enkidu, a former god-turned-man, similar to the later Greek Heracles (Hercules). One
challenge for Gilgamesh was a great flood. The flood story in Gilgamesh was, however, a copy
of an even earlier flood story in the Epic of Atrahasis.
The Gilgamesh author or authors, or oral storytellers as the case may have been, copied
the Atrahasis flood story verbatim with some minor exceptions inserted for dramatic affect. The

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earlier story was that of a devastating river flood, a common concern on the Mesopotamian flood
plain where sudden mountain snow melt brought surging floods with little warning. But the
Gilgamesh author sought to awe his audience by changing the river flood into an incredible flood
of the whole world. In so doing he demonstrated how elaborate myths evolve, growing more bold
and unusual with the passage of time. The Epic of Atrahasis explained the birth, or creation, of
the gods and the creation of humans to aid the gods. In a now familiar story later passed down by
numerous Mesopotamian cultures, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the gods became dissatisfied
with the humans they created and cursed them with plagues; finally bringing about a great flood
to punish the humans.
Uruk was a local kingdom along the Euphrates river in an area that was actually only later
called Mesopotamia by the Greeks, meaning land between the rivers. The Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, like the Nile in Egypt, provided water and fertile ground in an arid land, so permanent
settlement in Mesopotamia was concentrated near the rivers. Mesopotamian agriculture came to
rely on irrigation, which required the cooperation of large groups of people to dig canals and
manage the flow of water. By 3,000 BC a society known as the Sumerians had established a
number of walled cities, including Ur, Uruk, Umma, Lagash and Eridu. The cities and
surrounding territory that comprised Sumerian city-states occasionally waged war with each
other but remained largely independent for centuries until Lugalzaggisi, the king of Umma,
conquered his rivals and unified Sumer.
Lugalzaggisi’s military success was ended in the 23rd or 24th century BC, however, by
Sargon of Akkad. The Akkadians were Semitic-speaking people that lived just north of Sumer.
Sargon expanded on Lugalzaggisi’s success and came to rule all of Mesopotamia and much of
present day Syria toward the Mediterranean Sea. A tale of Sargon’s birth will sound familiar to
those acquainted with the story of Moses in the Bible, as Sargon was also said to have been
placed in a basket and set adrift in a river for adoption.
After the Akkadian Empire that Sargon founded fell after little more than a century,
Nammu of Ur consolidated control of a large part of Mesopotamia. The dynasty he established
developed some of the first broad codes of laws. Those law systems were copied and modified
through the ages, even as rulers and dynasties came and went. The most famous of that series of
law codes was that of Hammurabi, a Babylonian king that inherited a kingdom of a handful of
cities in the 18th century BC. Hammurabi began a series of conquests, perhaps spurred by invasion
from the kingdom of Elam located east of Mesopotamia, just inside present day Iran.
Hammurabi’s considerable military and political victories expanded his Babylonian empire to
near the extent of Sargon’s Akkadian empire.
Like most early civilization, all of Mesopotamia was dominated by religion. Ignorance in
the ways of the world begat institutions of superstition. Priests were very influential in society,
and placation of the many gods was a large part of everyday life. And not quite the same, but
similar to Egyptian belief, kings were professed to derive their authority from the gods and were
representatives of the gods on earth. As in Egypt, various gods held sway from city to city and
ruler to ruler. Hammurabi, like others before him, tore down some gods and elevated others. In
particular, he retired En-Lil and replaced him with his son Marduk, the favored king of Babylon,
tearing down a temple to En-Lil and dispatching his priests in the process. By expanding
Marduk’s domain, Babylon became the religious center of the empire.
One reason why the world remembers Hammurabi’s now famous legal code, is because it
was written in stone. It was carved into a large beautiful polished stone called a stele. Being
written in stone for prominent display lent a sense of consistency and certainty to the law.
However, while having laws written in stone did discourage arbitrary rulings and punishments to
some degree, there was seeming contradiction among some of the laws and not surprisingly,

37
many were unjustly harsh. As for his part, Hammurabi believed all of the praise and exaltation
that was heaped upon him. A fascinating trait of human psychology is the tendency to feel
special, like the chosen one, whether a person’s status is king or servant. People have a penchant
for believing that they’re here for a higher purpose and that they’ll certainly bear witness to
unprecedented achievement, such as the final triumph of good over evil. That inherent bias and
inability to understand another’s perceptions is a standard handicap of the human race. Individual
comprehension and appreciation of the truth is severely limited in individual perception.
Those lacking the maturity and wisdom to extract their emotions from decision making
and look at the larger picture as uninterested observers are prone to delusion. Every man, from
the mightiest king to the most humble slave, is apt to believe what he’s told, because that forms a
large part of the experience which shapes his beliefs. The top of his code stele shows Hammurabi
receiving the laws from the sun god Shamash. The inscribed preface to the laws states that he
was chosen by the gods and called by Anu and Bel to bring about the rule of righteousness in the
land, and sent by Marduk to rule over the land. Fulfiller of the prediction of Hallab; mighty son
of Sin-muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays
shed light over the land of Sumer and Akkad; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world;
Beloved of Ninni, was he. The preface, as well as the epilogue, is a lengthy tribute to
Hammurabi’s great deeds, wisdom and close relationship with the gods.
Sumerian and later Mesopotamian cultures, exposed, as all early civilizations were, to
extremes of weather such as droughts, floods and sandstorms, were obsessed with learning the
intentions of their gods through divination. Killing animals such as sheep and examining their
organs was one method employed to see the future, other seeings, such as deciphering patterns of
smoke or oil in water, were less violent. Dream interpretation was another way to gain mystical
insight. The crowning achievement of the divining arts however, measured by continued
popularity, would have to be astrology. Horoscopes based on heavenly influence, as determined
by star positions, are still widely used even today, even if faith of efficacy has largely diminished.
Divine judgment was employed by the second of Hammurabi’s laws, along with the
deterrent effect of severe consequence. Clearly advantage with this law would be with strong
swimmers, as it reads:
If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the
river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that
the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put
to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to
his accuser.
The 247 laws on the stele give valuable insight into the priorities of Babylonia almost
4,000 years ago. Orderly society was much more valued than individual lives, as indicated by the
exhaustive list of capital crimes. Stealing and receiving stolen or lost property; buying from a son
or slave of another man without witness or contract; harboring a runaway slave; owning a tavern
in which conspirators met but weren’t delivered to the court; improperly constructing a house
which falls in and kills the owner; stealing the minor son of another; not paying a mercenary that
took one’s place in the army; and convincing a barber to cut the sign of a slave on a slave not to
be sold were all acts for which the prescribed punishment was death. Another deadly
transgression for certain persons was nothing more than entering a tavern. If a “sister of god”
opened or entered a tavern, she was to be burned.
Even being the son or daughter of one who transgressed the law could result in capital
punishment. If a poorly constructed house caused the death of the owner’s son, it wasn’t the
builder who was to be put to death, but his son. Similarly, if a free-born woman was struck and
killed, the daughter of the person that struck her was to be executed. And if a free-born prisoner

38
of debt died from maltreatment, the son of the merchant was to be killed. Of course, the
adolescent mind is pre-occupied with sex, and adultery was just one of multiple sex-related
capital sex offenses. If a man’s wife was surprised with another man, both were to be tied and
thrown into the water. But in that case the husband could pardon his wife, and if the man was one
of the king’s slaves the king could pardon the slave. While adulterers were being drowned in the
river however, incestial relations were punishable by burning.
Even as harsh as archaic law was, it was equally discriminatory. Women were purchased
as wives from their fathers and had little right to hold property; even being treated as property
themselves, commonly being sold into slavery to satisfy a debt. But more discriminatory than
laws of gender were those of class. A classic law declared that whosoever put out another man’s
eye, his eye was also to be put out. However, if the injured party was a freed man, i.e. former
slave, the punishment was one gold mina. And if the injured party was a slave of another man,
the penalty was one-half the slave’s value.
Other trades people, in addition to homebuilders, were also held to high, even
unreasonable, standards. Barbers convicted of cutting the sign of a slave on slaves not to be sold,
without the masters’ consent would have their hands cut off. Physicians, also, were subject to
having their hands hewn off for accidental death or eye loss during surgery. And for their part,
children were expected to treat their elders with respect, as consequences were very high should
they forget their place. Life might continue for a boy that struck his father, but it would be a hard
life; one of contempt, regret, and despair. For, if he didn’t succumb to the infection and shock of
having his hands cut off for striking his father, who was certainly free to strike him, he’d be
forever disadvantaged and challenged to the point of regretting his own birth.
The sons of paramours or prostitutes received even more unwanted attention in the code.
Should one deny his adoptive father or mother by saying “you are not my father or you are not
my mother,” his tongue was to be cut out. And should the son of a paramour or prostitute desire
his father’s house, and desert his adoptive father and adoptive mother, and go to his father’s
house, then should his eye be put out.
Although the punishments were often severe, the code did afford some protections for
victims and for the accused. Defendants were allowed to call witnesses on their behalf. And
Judges shown to be in error in a written judgment, were to pay twelve times the fine ordered in
the case, and forbidden to judge in the future. In cases where robbers weren’t caught, he who was
robbed could claim under oath how much was lost and the community would compensate for the
stolen goods. There were similar instances of community insurance for losses of similar nature.
All of which provided significant incentive for the community to maintain order and harmony.
Such a wealth of written, or even oral, tradition has been lost from the prosperous
civilization that once inhabited the island of Crete near Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. The lost
culture is referred to today as Minoan from the legendary king Minos of later Greek literature.
The Minoans were non-Greek speaking people that settled on Crete as early as 2,000 BC. Theirs
was a prosperous culture with considerable wealth that was apparently the result of extensive
trading activities. Minoans constructed elaborate palaces replete with bathrooms. But the
Minoans disappeared from history about 1450 BC for unknown reasons, though one possible
cause would be conquest by the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece.
Indo-Europeans had settled in Greece by 2,000 BC and the culture of the Mycenaean
Greeks flourished from about 1600 to 1100 BC. The mountainous terrain of Greece contributed to
growth of isolated cities, though the Greek city-states, or poleis, may have organized themselves
into confederacies at times to provide for common defense and other shared objectives. One of
the more powerful cities of ancient Greece, and the namesake of the Mycenaean period was
Mycenae, located on the southern peninsula of Peloponnesus. Trade and military conquest helped

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bring wealth to the Mycenaeans, trading throughout the Mediterranean. They also conquered
foreign lands and brought back slaves from overseas. But it’s unknown how much fact, if any,
may have been buried in the later celebrated story by the famous writer Homer of the capture of
Troy in Asia Minor by the Greeks under King Agamemnon. Equally mysterious is the cause of
Mycenaean decline, as the writings and public works of affluence faded away with the start of
what’s been called the Greek Dark Ages.
Back in Egypt, the Middle Kingdom fell into disarray. Near the beginning of the 18th
century BC a group of Semitic-speaking people called the Hyksos migrated into the Nile delta.
They brought with them new technology such as composite bows believed to have originated as
far away as Central Asia, the horse drawn chariot, heavy swords, and bronze working skills. The
Hyksos came to dominate Egypt with their superior technology, but after the Egyptians absorbed
that technology they used their superior numbers to defeat and expel the Hyksos. It was Ahmose
I that reunited Egypt and established the New Kingdom that lasted from 1575 to 1086 BC. Unlike
the earliest Egyptian dynasties that concentrated on public works inside Egypt, some New
Kingdom pharaohs put a lot of effort into conquest and expansion. Thutmose III (1480 – 1450
BC) campaigned abroad repeatedly, invading Libya to the west and going as far northeast as the
Euphrates river, placing Palestine and Syria under Egyptian control.
On the religious front, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV tried to impose monotheism on Egypt by
closing temples of other gods and announcing the sun god Aton as the only god. Amenhotep IV
even took the name Akhenaton, meaning it is well with Aton. But after his death in 1347 BC the
monopoly of Aton also passed away, as the other gods were restored by Akhenaton’s apparent
young successor Tutankhamen, known as the boy-king Tut. Egyptians believed in divine order
through the goddess Maat who was known for truth, justice and harmony. Part of that divine
order, of course, was the earthly hierarchy of pharaoh, priests, nobles, commoners and slaves.
This was a classic case of using hope for eternal life and fear of a supernatural wrath to help
conform the masses to a pyramid social caste system where few reaped the rewards of the labor
of the masses. Egyptians were however, unusual in the amount of equality demonstrated between
the sexes; unlike many contemporary and subsequent cultures, women were treated as near
equals to men. With one female, Hatshepsut, even becoming pharaoh.
While Amenhotep IV was pre-occupied raising the status of Aton throughout Egypt,
Palestine and Syria were being rested away by the Hittites. The Hittites were Indo-European
speakers that are first known from archeological evidence from Asia Minor (modern Turkey)
dating to around 1750 BC. The Hittites, under Suppiluliumas (1380-1340) had defeated the
Hurrians, who peaked about 1500 BC as the kingdom of Mitanni on the upper Euphrates that
controlled Syria. They used their advanced iron armament to fight the Egyptians and gain
Palestine as well as Syria before signing a nonaggression treaty with pharaoh Ramses II. Just a
century and a half later a people of unknown origin called the Sea People attacked the Hittites
and the Egyptians. Although Egypt managed to hold the Sea People off, the Hittites were toppled
by the mysterious invaders. Little is known about who the Sea People were, where they came
from, or even where they went, but some scholars believe the Philistines that settled along the
Palestinian coast were descended from the Sea People.
Another group that came to inhabit Palestine was a Semitic-speaking tribal group that
migrated from Mesopotamia known as the Hebrews. Being nomads, they moved often in search
of suitable pasture for their herds. While many people were settling in permanent locations,
becoming associated with the land they occupied and building material wealth, the Hebrews were
drifting about the countryside in search of grazing land. They looked with envy on fertile lands
already occupied, and longed for a place of abundance they could call their own. The most
valuable belongings they had were their traditions and identity.

40
 But they weren’t in Palestine long before they were on the move again in search of green
pasture. Drought drove them south into Egypt, where, according to tradition, they were well
received. But in time the Hebrews fell under the pharaoh’s yoke as slaves. And when, after some
generations, they regained their freedom, they slowly made their way through the Sinai looking
for a land of their own, not finding it until they again reached Palestine, the land their elders
spoke of. Once back in Palestine, they fell into conflict with the Philistines, who may have also
been under pressure from the Phoenicians that lived up the coast of the Mediterranean north of
the Philistines. The Phoenician cities of Byblos, Tyre and Sidon had also been sacked by the Sea
People that attacked the Hittites and Egyptians. But after rebuilding, with the Hittites diminished,
the Phoenicians expanded their prolific trading activities. They were able to continue exploiting
the famous cedars of Lebanon to trade, construct buildings and make the ships that carried them
all over the Mediterranean, and as far as the west coast of Africa, and Britain to the north.
The Phoenicians didn’t just trade with foreign populations, they also colonized their vast
trading network, establishing cities in Spain, Sicily and Sardinia. It was Phoenicians that
established the city of Carthage in Africa, which would grow to be the center of an empire of its
own one day. The Phoenician home port cities were very important centers of trade, due in no
small part to their location as gates from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia and beyond, toward
the orient. The port city of Byblos came to trade in so much Egyptian papyrus that biblos
eventually became the Greek word for book.
But the Phoenicians left a greater legacy than their trading and their colonial cities, they
developed an alphabet of letters that represented sounds instead of objects or actions like
pictographic symbols. The strength of pictographs is also their weakness. Pictographs become
easier to recognize and less mistakable as more detail is added to them, but that detail comes at
the price of time and labor. Perhaps more importantly, there are far too many words to represent
with individual symbols. There are nearly a million words spoken in the English language, many
of them borrowed from other languages, and many different forms of the same words of course,
but who would want to represent all of those words with different individual pictographs?
Because human languages are primarily verbal, it made sense to represent the sounds of
language. The Phoenicians used twenty-two letters to represent the sounds of their words.
English users received a modified twenty-six letter version of that alphabet via the Greeks and
then Romans. By comparison, the Mandarin Chinese writing system uses about six thousand
symbols. To overcome the cumbersome nature of the pictographic script, a phonetic alphabet
known as pinyin has been developed to teach pronunciation to Chinese children and as a means
of writing the language using a computer keyboard.
The Hebrews, who used a writing system similar to Phoenician, were governed by elders
known as judges while fighting the Philistines prior to Saul becoming king in 1020 BC. After
being defeated in battle by the Philistines, Saul is said to have committed suicide by falling on
his sword. Under the rule of one of Saul’s former lieutenants, David (c.1000-971 BC), the
Hebrews were able to defeat the Philistines. In the process, they conquered the city of Jerusalem,
which had been settled long before the Hebrews inhabited it, and established it as their capitol.
David’s son Solomon reigned from 971 to 931 BC. He oversaw trade expansion and a building
boom. But after Solomon’s death tribal conflict separated the young nation in two. Ten tribes
formed Israel in the north, with their capitol at Samaria. And the two remaining tribes formed
Judah in the south; retaining Jerusalem as their capitol.
The kingdoms co-existed for two centuries; much longer than they were together as a
unified, sovereign nation; before the circular life cycle of empire swept them up again. The
kingdom of Assyria, another Semitic group with its capitol at Nineveh on the upper Tigris river
loomed ever larger on the horizon. Since its founding in 1360 BC, Assyria had, at different times,

41
been a part of the Akkadian, Babylonian and Hurrian empires.
The Assyrians gained their independence when the Hittites destroyed the Hurrian
kingdom of Mitanni. And they didn’t take long to assert their freedom by building their own
empire at their neighbors’ expense. Assyrians were brutal warriors that inflicted terrible carnage
on their defeated foes. They, at times, exemplified the dark, loathsome side of man. One of their
kings, Ashurnasirpal, described burning enemy prisoners; cutting off their hands, noses, and ears;
gouging out their eyes; and even burning the young vanquished civilians to death. His evil was so
great that he seemed to take pleasure in flaying rebels and spreading their freshly peeled skins on
the walls.
Well beyond merely having a reputation as savage fighters, the Assyrian military was
highly organized and flexible. The army included a pioneer corps that performed advanced
operations, facilitating army movement by building roads and bridges. Other innovative military
assets were interpreters and a network of intelligence officers. Theirs was also a very well
equipped army; being one of the first armies equipped with iron weapons that were stronger than
the bronze weapons common at the time; and heavy siege engines for overcoming city defenses.
Complimenting such breadth of function, was clever generalship that made the army very
flexible: capable of fighting guerilla warfare, large battles and laying siege to cities. Their
organization also extended to logistics, as they maintained strategic bases to control subject lands
and react to threats with speed and power.
Other aspects of the government were also organized and efficient like the military.
Assyria maintained a large system of roads throughout the empire and even had a network of
postal stops serviced by a relay of horsemen. Conquered peoples were exiled to various parts of
the empire to supply labor and prevent organized revolt. That movement of citizens to different
parts of the empire combined with relocation of soldiers to bases near the frontiers to help spread
the culture that the Assyrians adopted from Mesopotamia. In Assyrian culture the kings had
absolute power, but were officially regarded as vice rulers to the god Ashur. The kings were also
elite, with access to them being extremely limited.
Certainly they weren’t without weaknesses however, these included relying on
astrological omens to direct military campaigns and other government affairs. Not surprisingly,
conquest and exploitation was attributed to the will of Ashur. That campaign of conquest brought
them into conflict with the Hebrews in the 8th century BC when Assyria attacked Israel and
threatened neighboring states. By 722 BC they had destroyed the Israeli capitol of Samaria and
scattered the ten northern Hebrew tribes. Some of the Israelis took refuge in Judah, but many of
the rest were dispersed and those that remained were absorbed in Assyrian society, and the nation
of Israel disappeared.
In 753, not long before the ten tribes of Israel were lost to history, tradition has it that to
the Northwest, across the Mediterranean, a small town named Rome was founded near the
southern edge of Etruria on hills overlooking the Tiber river in what would later become Italy.
An old Roman tradition holds that the town was founded by twins, Remus and Romulus,
orphaned as infants and nursed by a she-wolf. Such was the fanciful imagination of early
civilization. And while Rome was still a small village, the southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah
was forced to pay tribute to Assyria, but Assyria declined before the Hebrews of Judah were
assimilated as well. Then, in 612 BC the Chaldeans of Mesopotamia joined with the Medes of
what is now Iran to overrun the Assyrian capital of Nineveh.
Nebuchadnezzar II (605 – 562 BC), of Biblical renown, son of the Chaldean king
Nabopolassar that helped conquer Nineveh and established a new Babylonian monarchy, was the
ruler that finally defeated Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar also defeated Egypt, and destroyed Jerusalem
in 586 BC; taking control of Palestine and Syria. When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the capitol of

42
Judah, he forcibly relocated many of the Hebrew citizens of Judah, known as Jews, to work in
Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt a grand Babylon, with Marduk still the ruling deity.
With the wealth of irrigated agriculture, bustling industry based on abundant cheap labor
and control of important trade routes, the ruler of Babylon spent lavishly. Most famous of
Babylon’s building projects of the period were the famous Hanging Gardens, terraced in such a
manner they were said to appear floating like clouds of vivid colors. After Nebuchadnezzar’s
passing, a successor king, Nabonidus, tried to replace Marduk as the supreme god with the moon
god Sin.
But the Chaldean kingdom came to an end in 539 BC when the Indo-European speaking
Persians from Iran, led by one of the most revered leaders of all time, Cyrus the Great, marched
on Babylon and took control of the city with little resistance. Cyrus showed restraint in
occupying the city and the Babylonians were said not to resent the change of leadership due to
their contempt of Nabonidus. As part of his policy of diplomacy, Cyrus even restored the god
Marduk to prominence. Significantly in history, Cyrus also ended the Babylonian captivity of the
Jewish people by letting them return to Judah; going so far as allowing them to take some of the
sacred items Nebuchadnezzar had seized when he sacked Jerusalem, for use in rebuilding
Jerusalem.
Cyrus, who ruled Persia from 559 – 530 BC had overthrown the Medes, located north of
Persia, in 559 BC after about one hundred years of Mede rule. The Medes had already absorbed
much of the culture of the Persians when they controlled the Persians, so there was little
adjustment necessary when the Persians ascended to power. But with Media defeated, king
Croesus of Lydia in Asia Minor sought to retake some territory the Medes had taken from Lydia.
Cyrus marched an army west to engage the Lydians, and after defeating king Croesus, the
Persians took control of the Lydian capitol of Sardis in 547 BC. But, they weren’t finished yet,
Persia next assumed control of all Asia Minor, by defeating the Greek colonial cities of the
Ionian coast. Then Cyrus expanded his territory eastward through the remainder of Iran and into
India, before capturing the Chaldean empire of Mesopotamia.
What made Cyrus unusual among conquerors was that though he continued to conquer
more territory, he was tolerant of the traditions of the new provinces. And he was wise in
appealing to the customs of the various cultures, aligning himself with their leaders, priests and
gods, even encouraging the rebuilding of their temples. In that manner he came to be known as a
respectful, merciful ruler. In time the Jews, Babylonians and Medes were all said to have revered
him as a father figure and legitimate ruler of their people. In Babylon, Cyrus was recognized as
the one chosen by Marduk to restore the order corrupted by king Nabonidus and lead as a
righteous ruler. Jewish praise for Cyrus, the man Babylonians hailed as a divine king, can be
found in the Bible where Cyrus was recorded as having been anointed and led in military
conquest by the god of the Jews: later to become the god of Christians and Muslims. All told,
many religions flourished in the new Persian empire, from Ahura Mazda of Iran to Zeus of Ionia.
The spreading Persian empire also fostered increased cultural and trade exchange in a
flowering of thought and goods. But, quite probably the best of Cyrus and Persia’s contributions
to society, then and now, was a public stand against slavery, or forced labor. Cyrus and future
Persian kings not only ended forced labor in vast regions, they paid people to work building new
public monuments and palaces. Though Cyrus was said to strive for a peaceful society, war was
still a way of life in human civilization and Cyrus never ceased trying to expand his empire, or,
as has been speculated by some, to defend the borders of the flourishing empire. In 530 BC he met
a typical end for a king, or any army member of the day, when he was killed in a battle with the
mysterious Massagetae nomads to the north or northeast of Persia.
Little is known about the Massagetae, our only account comes by way of the later Greek

43
historian Herodotus. And his information was derived from Persian or other sources that may
have been fragmentary and speculative at best. For their part, the Massagetae left no known
literary traditions themselves. Herodotus wrote that the Massagetae were herdsmen that didn’t
practice agriculture and worshipped a sun god. In the future the drama of clashes with nomadic
horsemen would play out over and over again in Europe and Asia. The Massagetae were claimed
to have sacrificed horses, on which they were heavily dependent, to their sun god; and even to
have sacrificed old men and feasted on their grisly flesh. It’s been said that practice was a more
glorious way to die than to slowly succumb to the afflictions of old age.
As recorded history is often corrupted by exaggerated oral traditions, mistaken beliefs,
and biased perceptions of those telling the stories, it’s hard to know how much truth the account
by Herodotus may contain. According to his tradition, Spargapises was killed in an earlier battle,
and his mother, Tomyri, queen of the Massagetae, had the head of the slain Cyrus placed in a
skin filled with blood. Upon which she announced the fulfillment of her promise to give Cyrus
his fill of blood for his incursion of their land and killing of her son.
Even without Cyrus, however, Persia continued to expand. Cyrus’ son Cambyses invaded
Egypt and took the title of Pharaoh in 525 BC. But after the death of Cambyses, the common curse
of ascension led to a struggle for power and civil war. Following the death of two of Cyrus’ sons,
Darius emerged as the new king in 521 BC and would reign until 486 BC. Under Darius the empire
was extended to the Indus river in the east and Thrace and Macedon in southern Europe. At its
height, the Persian Empire was the largest and most diverse the world had ever known. Before
the age of Greek and Roman empire, the Persians greatly expanded and improved infrastructure
in the vast domain under their control. Showing good foresight, Darius even had a canal built
connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean via the Nile river, thus enabling ships to shortcut
Africa as they sailed from Persia to the Mediterranean.
Personally, Darius appears to have been monotheistic, believing in the Zoroastrian god
Ahura Mazda, but, like Cyrus and Cambyses before him, he was tolerant of other religions and
also successfully courted the favor of religious leaders. But, empire is a fragile balance, and
Darius had to suppress numerous revolts throughout his domain. Still, it seemed that he had the
world by the tail, that is, until history took another detour and the Greeks on the Ionian coast of
Asia Minor rose in revolt in 499 BC. Aided by mainland Greeks, they invaded Lydia and burned
the capitol of Sardis. Unexpectedly, retaliation toward the Greeks would not end well for Darius
and the Persians, for the Greeks had been experiencing a cultural awakening and had made large
advances in technology and strategy since the Persian Empire had reached Macedon.

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 Hellenization
The epoch after the decline of the Mycenaean Greeks known as the Greek Dark Age gave
way to renewed prosperity and flourishing of Greek culture. Part of that social awakening
involved the first Olympic Games, which were held in 776 BC. Also in the 8th century BC the
Greeks did something that would have a more profound effect on world history when they
adopted the Phoenician alphabet, replacing their own Linear B script.
Two of the more popular symbols of the end of the Greek Dark Age are the epic poems
Iliad and Odyssey attributed to the father of Greek literature, Homer. Those great literary works
were reported to be based in part on actual events, but whether they were is a matter of debate.
Debate notwithstanding, however, as stories believed to represent an era of virtue, personal
devotion and triumph, they served to inspire and somewhat model future generations of Greeks.
As the earliest surviving Greek literature, little is known about the origins of both poems,
and it’s been speculated that they were oral traditions that had been passed down through
generations before ever being written down, and some have also suggested that numerous authors
contributed to the work. While there’s no compelling evidence to lead to such conclusions, there
is reason to note widespread social interaction and cultural diffusion, as Odyssey bears a number
of parallels to the Mesopotamian adventures of Gilgamesh who also visited the land of the dead
on his journey to the end of the earth.
As it was for almost all ancient peoples, life was often a violent struggle for the Greeks.
Sometime around 740 BC the Greek city-state of Sparta invaded Messeni, taking control of the
land and forcing the local population to work the land as serfs allowed to keep only a portion of
their harvest. Land was becoming increasingly more valuable on the small Greek peninsula due
to overcrowding of a growing population. Accordingly, many Greeks began to move to trading
posts and colonies much as the Phoenicians had done before them.
As a consequence, Greek expansion resulted in the founding of many new cities around
the Mediterranean. Some notable Greek settlements include Byzantium at the mouth of the Black
Sea, Syracuse on the island of Sicily, Naples in Italy, Marseilles in France, and other cities in
locations including modern Spain and Africa. Founding of the Greek colony of Cumae in Italy
may have pre-dated the founding of Rome. In later times central Italians referred to southern Italy
as Magna Graecia, or Great Greece.
Trade wealth and slave labor helped allow for the employment of some Greeks in
increasingly specialized vocations. Military service became the chosen vocation of war-obsessed
Sparta. There, civilization revolved around military training, with boys leaving home to live in
military schools at the age of seven and enrolling in the military at the age of twenty. Spartan
men lived in military camps until the age of thirty when they were allowed to live in their own
homes, though they continued to serve in the military until the age of 60. It seems a shameful
waste of life to be engaged in military pursuits from the age of seven to 60, but that was the
culture for people that lacked the good sense to live in peace.
Athens also became a powerful city, but it was much more involved in leisurely and
scholarly pursuits. In its golden age, Athens came to be the world center of arts and science.
Freedom of thought and expression fostered personal growth far beyond the usual mind-numbing
supplication of gods and kings. Wisdom and enlightenment made modest gains as people moved
away from blind obedience. Painting, sculpture, literature, and theatre all flourished in Athens.
So too did philosophy and science. It was in Greece that a distinction was made between
philosophy and science, with science beginning to be bolstered by proof of theory through
reproducible experiments. And it was probably in Greece where critical peer review became
widespread through published findings and institutes of learning.

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 One of the more famous philosopher/scientists was Pythagoras who was born on the
island of Samos in the 6th century BC and later moved to Croton in southern Italy. Though he did
believe that the order and action of the universe was derived from mathematical truths, he may or
may not have contributed to the invention of the Pythagorean Theorem, a mathematical formula
for length relationships among sides of right triangles that was named in his honor. Knowledge
of the three-four-five length ratio of right triangles was known to early Indian, Chinese,
Mesopotamian and Egyptian mathematicians, in many instances well before Pythagoras’ time.
Pythagoras is an interesting historical figure because he represents some of the diverse
character of the ancient world. His temperament was one of harmony. At his monastic style
school he taught peace and respect for others. While philosophers were seeking the origin and
meaning of life, the ways of the universe and man’s place in the world, Pythagoras also
contemplated the cost of another life. And he realized the cost was everything to the dying. At
the Pythagorean school all of the full-time students were vegetarian. Pythagoras also admitted
females into his school and viewed men and women as equals. He wasn’t the first to be
considerate and recognize the equality of life, but his views were definitely contrary to popular
opinion in the chaotic world of violence where right was determined on the basis of fighting
might.
Another important Greek is perhaps the most famous name in medicine, a very important
figure in the development of early medicine, the venerable Hippocrates II of Kos (c.460 – 370
BC). He was in many ways a primitive physician, as he based much of his medicine on the false
theory that health or sickness was determined by the balance of four fluids; yellow bile, black
bile, blood and phlegm; within the body.
And though he didn’t have the anatomical and physiological knowledge of modern
medicine, he did further the scientific study of medicine. He was insightful and courageous
enough to proclaim that illness and disease were not the punishment of gods, but rather the result
of natural causes. Concerning the true cause of disease he wrote, “…Men regard its nature and
cause as divine from ignorance and wonder...” Hippocrates helped direct effort to finding the true
physical cause and effective treatment of disease and away from further investment in fantasy. To
that end he set an example that’s still followed to this day. In everyday work he advanced
professional standards of care and conduct, and even pioneered certain types of surgery.
But perhaps his greatest professional contribution was a commitment of thorough
monitoring and documentation in studying every case so that future patients would benefit from
the experience and lessons learned. Certainly today medicine is in greater need than ever of a
central database for the collection and analysis of patient history information. Common statistical
analysis can identify correlations between any number of contributing risk factors and their
impact on health. If auto body repairmen have a higher tendency to develop some type of cancer,
or if toothpaste swallowers are prone to stomach problems, or if joggers and vegetarians suffer
lower incidences of arterial blockage, or if antibiotics trigger hyperglycemia, or if breast-feeding
reduces the incidence of illness, or if cell phone users develop brain tumors, or if spinach eaters
suffer a lower incidence of influenza; those relationships may be readily recognized through
simple statistical lifestyle analysis.
Of course, 2,500 years ago the well-being of others wasn’t a high consideration for most
people. But they did want better treatment for themselves. So, in 509 BC the last of the Seven
Kings of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown, and Romans established a
republican form of government. That almost coincides with the beginning of the period some call
Classical Greece, about 508 BC when the tyrant Hippias was expelled and a republican
government was also formed in Athens. Shortly thereafter Athens was involved with the Ionian
rebellion, in which Athens gave some assistance to Ionia against Persia in 499 BC. By 494 BC the

46
Persians had suppressed the rebellion and brought Ionia back under Persian control.
Had Darius and the Persians stopped with suppressing the rebellion, history may have
been very different. But, in 492 BC the Persians set off under General Mardonius to put the
Greeks in their place. However, while the Persian army had some success in Thrace, the navy
sustained heavy damage from a storm and the expedition turned back. Displeased with his son-
in-law Mardonius over the setback, Darius had him replaced, and an amphibious assault was
launched under the combined command of Datis and Artaphernes in 490 BC. Despite a long
history of military success, favorable numbers, and a previous victory at the Greek city of Eritrea,
the Persian expedition was defeated by the Greeks at Marathon, source of many inspirational
stories, including the mythical run of Phiedippides.
Darius was disappointed, to say the least, that the mightiest empire the world had ever
known was defeated by a few Greek cities. He prepared for a third expedition to settle the matter,
but before that could be accomplished a revolt broke out in Egypt, and Darius died in 486 BC. The
Persians were unsure what to do next. Many among them thought it wasn’t worth the risk to
invade Greece again, and of course, there were others who thought that Greece should be
eliminated as a threat to Persia’s western border, and there were also those who desired to
conquer the territory of Greece as they had Thrace and Macedonia.
King Darius was succeeded by Xerxes, who, Greek historian Herodotus tells, was
convinced by Mardonius to prepare a massive expeditionary force and move against Greece in
480 BC. At about the same time, the Greeks were busy fighting the Etruscans of Italy, who they
defeated in a naval battle near Cumae. After losing control of Rome in 509 BC and then being
defeated by the Greeks in 480 BC, the Etruscans continued to decline in influence. During the
next hundred years however, Rome grew in power through battles with neighboring cities in
Italy, until the Gauls moved down from northern Italy and sacked the city in 387 BC.
Back in Greece, the Persians were met in 480 BC at Thermopylae by a small Greek force
led by king Leonidas: portrayed in the movie 300. The Greeks made an inspiring stand at the pass
of Thermopylae where the flanks of their tiny force were protected from the overwhelming odds
of the Persian force. Site selection was the first Greek advantage, superior weaponry was the
second. Heavily armed hoplites were the core of the Greek infantry. The hoplites joined in tightly
packed formations called phalanxes with their bronze shields overlapping and long spears
projecting forward.
Success of the phalanx formation and of battles in general depended on the third Greek
advantage at Thermopylae, discipline. The outnumbered Greeks maintained their discipline and
battled bravely at Thermopylae. The wicker shields of the Persians were no match for the heavy
Greek weaponry, and wave after Persian wave fell at the blades of the Greeks. But at
Thermopylae, the numbers were too unbalanced for the Greeks to hold out and those that didn’t
retreat were cut down to the last man. However their bravery is credited with buying enough time
for the Athenian navy to prepare for engagement. The Greeks were victorious at the naval battle
of Salamis, but not before the Persians sacked Athens.
With his navy defeated Xerxes returned home with some of his army, leaving the rest to
carry on in Greece without him. In hindsight, it appears to have been unwise to leave part of the
army behind. The following year the Greeks; encouraged by Alexander of Macedon, who
claimed Greek heritage; gathered their forces and killed Mardonius, defeating his forces at
Plataea. And then the Greeks defeated the Persian navy at Mycale. The Greeks then went on the
offensive, aided by Alexander’s Macedonian forces, through Thrace, the Hellespont, Asia Minor
and even into Egypt. But old rivals Sparta and Athens couldn’t get past their animosity for each
other. With Sparta’s Peloponnesian League and Athens’ Delian League fighting each other,
Persia defeated Athens in Egypt resulting in the two antagonists signing a peace treaty.

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 Sparta and Athens, along with their respective allies, continued to war with each other off
and on through the rest of the 5th century BC. By that time another lethal weapon may have been
added to the Greek arsenal, the crossbow, or at least large variants of the crossbow. The
Peloponnesian Wars finally ended with the defeat of Athens in 404 BC. It’s a pity to think what
they may have achieved had they been able to live in peace. Would they have constructed more
marvels like the Parthenon at the Acropolis of Athens? Would they have produced more
magnificent statues like the chariot team at Delphi commemorated for a victory in the Pythian
Games? Or would they have made greater strides in the other arts and sciences?
Today, ancient Greek sporting competitions are remembered by the Olympic games. But
the games at Olympia were only one of four ancient games, also held on a rotating basis at the
cities of Nemea, Corinth and Delphi. The city of Olympia wasn’t to be confused with Mt.
Olympus of course, the home of the Greek gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite
were part of rich religious lore. And like the democratic and republican governments at times
implemented by the Greek city-states, Greek religion was inclusive. It was meant to be practiced
by the masses, not just elite priests shrouded in mystery.
But still the gods couldn’t quell the differences between the city-states, or poleis, and
while Sparta, Athens, Thebes and other poleis warred among themselves, Macedon, to the north,
was beginning to come into its own. There was often bad blood between the Macedonians and
Greeks, considering that some Greek poleis had previously imported a lot of slaves from
Macedonia, and Macedonia had at times attacked Greek settlements and sided with the Persians
in Greco-Persian wars. But, also in-fighting among the Greeks involved Macedonia in Greek
affairs when Greek cities requested Macedonian assistance on numerous occasions.
Macedonia was largely populated by Dorians who were related to the Dorians that are
believed to have moved south into Greece about the time of the decline of the Mycenaean period.
The Macedonian leader Philip II came to power in 359 BC. He extended the borders of Macedonia
by defeating the neighboring Illyrians and Thracians. But he also spent three years as a prisoner
in Thebes.
But in 338 BC Philip gathered his army and marched south into Greece. Athens, Thebes
and some smaller poleis confronted the advancing Macedonians at Chaeronea near Thebes, but
Philip’s powerful, well-disciplined army overran the Athenian allies and laid waste to Thebes,
perhaps as payback for his imprisonment. With his success, Philip then organized Macedonia and
Greek poleis into the Corinthian League. The Greek poleis were allowed to remain self-
governing, but Philip took charge of their foreign affairs. Having united Greece, Philip readied to
invade Persia. But before he could set forth on his grand expedition, Philip was assassinated.
Philip’s son Alexander III was only twenty years old. But he had been well trained by his
father, having already held administrative and military positions. Whatever his qualifications,
certainly Alexander possessed an ambition for conquest equal to that of his father. In 334 BC he
led approximately 37,000 men into the Persian territory of Asia Minor where the aggressive and
disciplined Macedonian army defeated the Persians at the Granicus River. At that time Persia
was ruled by Darius III who called up more troops and met the advancing Macedonians at Issus.
But besides lacking state-of-the-art weaponry, the Persians were fielding a multi-cultural army
manned by subjects from the breadth of the vast and diverse empire that may not have been
possessed of an earnest desire to sacrifice life and limb to maintain the status quo. Whatever the
reason, whether it be superior armament, strategy, or resolve, the Greeks again defeated the
superior numbers of the Persian army at Issus.
Alexander then turned south and took control of the Mediterranean coast of Syria and
Palestine to neutralize the Persian navy. By the time Alexander arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians
weren’t resistant to the change of authority, and submitted to Alexander without a fight.

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Meanwhile, reeling from successive defeats, Darius III sought peace by offering all Persian
territory west of the Euphrates to Alexander. But Alexander wanted more. Alexander wanted to
rule the world, and that included all of Persia, so he continued his quest of world domination. In
331 BC the two armies met for a final decisive battle at Gaugamela. Again the Persian army was
said to outnumber the Macedonians, and again the Persians were soundly defeated. And Darius,
long willing to sacrifice thousands upon thousands of men for the sake of empire, fled the
battlefield.
Alexander and his Macedonian army then marched on the major Persian cities of
Babylon, Susa and Persepolis, laying claim to the spoils of war. But, out of animosity, or to set
an example, or to eliminate a possible threat, Alexander continued to pursue Darius until Darius
was killed by one of his own men and delivered to Alexander, and he was officially declared king
of the largest empire on earth. Still not content, Alexander kept pushing; pushing for more
territory, more wealth, more fear, and more glory. By 327 BC he was waging war in India as
commander of a weary army under difficult conditions. He pressed on past the Indus River,
determined to conquer all, determined to be king of the world. But resolve enough to power an
army he couldn’t find when his men finally refused to carry on. The army of mighty Alexander
that swept through Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Iran had enough; having quit after seven long
years of attrition.
Finding himself heading an army without fight, Alexander decided to return to Babylon.
Like his father before him, before he could replenish his army for another conquest, he died, at
the age of thirty-three in 323 BC. One wonders how satisfying a life centered around war can be.
What’s gained by all the suffering and death, when even the victor dies not having experienced
the beauty of peace and warmth of friendship, or even decadence of luxury? Right or wrong,
Alexander was an able military leader. He led an army shaped by his father, and those who
shaped his father, to conquer an enemy that the Greeks had previously defeated, assume the titles
of his defeated enemy, and rule roughly the same territory as the Persian Empire he succeeded.
For that, Alexander is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Alexander’s true legacy,
however, was the Hellenizing, or spreading of Greek culture, through the Near East. Though it
may be disputed whether Greek culture was an improvement over Persian culture, the success of
the Greek army shaped history by replacing Persian influence with that of Greece.
In the wake of Alexander’s army, cities were established for the administration of empire.
Greeks migrated to cities all over the empire, especially near the Mediterranean, to manage
important affairs of business and government. Those cities were cultural melting pots that
welcomed diverse habits and opinions and built on the rich culture that flourished in Classical
Greece. There were many cities, old and new that brought great minds and traditions together,
where good ideas and advancement of the arts and sciences could flourish.
Men that contributed significantly to arts and science hailed from Greece and all around
the Mediterranean. Aristarchus of Samos (310 – 230 BC) placed the planets in order orbiting the
central sun and calculated the ratio of earth’s circumference and the distance to the moon, almost
two thousand years before the rest of the world would share his opinion. Archimedes of Syracuse
(287 – 212 BC), killed by a Roman soldier during the Siege of Syracuse on the island of Sicily, is
famous for mechanical invention. He introduced numerous inventive designs, including the
Archimedes screw, though similar screw-type pumps may have been used for irrigation in
Babylonia a millennium before Archimedes time. His greater contribution was probably in the
field of mathematics where he defined many area and volumetric relationships between different
shapes, introduced infinitesimal mathematics, and defined relationships in mechanics and
hydrostatics.
The second century BC astronomer, geographer and mathematician, Hipparchus is

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believed to have been born in Asia Minor and later moved to the island of Rhodes. He played an
important role in helping to preserve significant Babylonian contributions to astronomy and
math, incorporating information from a long tradition of Babylonian celestial observation into his
work, and introducing their custom of dividing circles into 360 parts called degrees. Among his
accomplishments, Hipparchus made a celestial globe, discovered the precession of the equinoxes,
developed models of the motion of the sun and moon, compiled a trigonometric table, and
invented the very important astrolabe, used for predicting celestial positions, and determining
such things as the observer’s location or time of day, which would be crucial to open ocean
travel.
A man named Geminus was another clever inventor that inhabited Rhodes. In 1902 a
historic scientific archeological discovery was made when the Antikythera Mechanism was found
in the remains of a shipwreck near the island of Antikythera. It’s believed to have been a
complex machine in which thirty or more gears drove the sun and moon and perhaps planets in
differential motions relative to each other so that they created a predictive calendar showing
celestial positions for past or future dates. It’s believed to have been made on the island of
Rhodes, which was famous for mechanical engineering, in the first or second century BC. The
complexity and precise interaction of small parts of the mechanism wouldn’t be equaled until the
18th century when European clockmakers began applying similar techniques. Geminus is thought
by some to have created the masterpiece, but no evidence has thus far been found to determine
the maker’s identity with any certainty.
As knowledge continued to grow, the new city of Alexandria in Egypt emerged as
perhaps the most prolific and dynamic city of the Hellenized world, rivaling Athens as a center of
learning and discovery. Medicine was but one of many fields of leading study pursued in
Alexandria. Doctors would finally routinely dissect dead people in Alexandria to gain insight
into human anatomy. Some even went so far as to cut open living prisoners to get a better
understanding of organ function. Alexandria was also home to the world renowned Musaeum, or
Temple of the Muses, which included the Library of Alexandria, that grew to be the largest of the
ancient world, where scientists and thinkers were drawn from all over to learn and exchange
ideas, while developing their own identities and theories. And other such temples of knowledge
were erected throughout the Hellenized Mediterranean.
Hero was just one of Alexandria’s famous inventors who lived from 10 to 70 CE, he was
an accomplished mechanical engineer, though much of his practical work was for production of
the theater. His works and designs included the first known wind powered device, a wind driven
organ; and a crude early version of a vending machine that would dispense holy water when a
coin was deposited. But his most famous invention also represented a lost opportunity. That
invention was the steam engine. As designed by Hero it was merely a novelty invention. With
more effort it could have ushered in the steam age a millenium and a half ahead of its time.
The 2nd librarian of Alexandria was Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 – 194 BC), who
calculated the circumference of the earth using the angle of inclination of the sun at two points of
approximate distance on the face of the planet. Measuring the difference in inclination of the sun
as 1/50th of a circle, he was able to multiply the approximate distance between the Egyptian
towns of Syene and Alexandria by fifty to approximate the polar circumference of earth. He also
measured the inclination of the ecliptic, that is the angular distance between the tilt of the planet
and the plane of it’s orbit around the sun. The enterprising Eratosthenes also invented an
armillary sphere that positioned the celestial bodies in a model of the sky around the earth. He’s
also credited with inventing an algorithm for the systematic identification of prime numbers, in
addition to his work in cartography and other fields.
But even the insightful work of Eratosthenes didn’t influence the perceptions and work of

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future generations like that of the previous mainland Greek Aristotle (384 – 322 BC). Aristotle
was the most famous student of Plato’s Academy in Athens. And Plato was the most famous
student of Socrates. The three of them may well be the most influential academians of western
civilization, and the world. Aristotle’s most famous student was no academian however, that
would have to be Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored at the request of Alexander’s
father Philip II, King of Macedon. Some time after returning to Athens from Macedon, Aristotle
established his own school, the Lyceum.
Aristotle’s encyclopedic collection of works is considered unsurpassed in depth and
breadth of coverage. His works were so varied and his influence, and that of his school, was so
great that his positions were accepted almost without question. Exposure to a broad range of
studies, coupled with efforts to set all of that knowledge in his own words, earned his product a
legacy of being “the” reference source for the next two thousand years. It didn’t matter that many
of his ascertains were incorrect, Aristotle’s reputation overshadowed the shortcomings of his
specific contributions. After all, truth doesn’t triumph of its own accord, it’s motive and
circumstance that give cause to act; and a lot of people through the ages found knowledge
affirming their existing notions in Aristotles work.
Nonetheless, Aristotle provided new insight in some areas and showed people different
ways of looking at things. He’s credited with describing a system of philosophy concerned with
relationships of cause, act, and effect. But, he also contradicted many important discoveries and
furthered some errors and superstitous methods. He denied the claim of Democritus that the
visible Milky Way was comprised of stars, and denied that stars were similar to the sun. He held
that the earth was the center of the universe and that earth, water, air, fire and aether comprised
all the elements that constituted different forms of matter. Additionally, he asserted that reason
and perception were products of the heart, not the brain.
But, worst of all, was his premise that that everything happened for a reason, that every
action was the result of a master plan, and that every being had a pre-determined role and reason
for being. In his hierarchichal view of substance and species, slaves were meant to serve masters,
that’s what they were born for. Though his discourse on the causes and results of action was an
exercise in astute observations, Aristotle far surpassed observation and objective reason by
interjecting fantasy into his teachings. Like his primitive ancestors that were questioning the
cause of life and death, and fortune and tragedy, he was still seeing spirits in every object and as
causing every action.
Others held alternate views, of course; standing out like beacons of reason in a confused,
chaotic world. Epicurus, born in Samos in 341 BC, studied and taught in Athens; making use of
the truths that he could see and feel while maintaining objectivity; and resisting temptation to
invent what wasn’t there. Defying convention, he even managed to state the blatantly obvious
truths that others rejected in favor of fantasy: professing that the measure of good and evil was
pleasure and pain, and that happiness was the pinnacle of life. Epicurus even went so far as to say
the universe was neither designed nor created, and that there was no evidence of immortality of
the soul. By offering only the plain honest truth, Epicureanism offered at least some small
alternative to the rampant fantasy and sensationalism of popular opinion and organized dogma.
But the world wasn’t quite ready to accept reality, and harmful ideas would continue as the status
quo.

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 Empire
After the death of Alexander, Macedonian leaders could have chosen to share in the
wealth, prosperity and stability of the unified empire. They could have chosen part of all of the
riches, but instead they chose to struggle for all of a part, splitting the infant empire into pieces in
the quest for personal fame and fortune. The empire that Alexander largely acquired from the
Persians was divided into four separate kingdoms; with the Antigonids ruling Macedon and
central Greece, the Attalids taking control of Anatolia, the Ptolemies establishing a new
pharaohship in Egypt, and the lands from Syria eastward belonged to the Seleucids; setting the
stage for future wars. But even through the periodic territorial conflict, the common Greek
language and culture enabled the creative processes to flourish. Like the city of Alexandria,
Pergamum in Anatolia (Asia Minor) was another center of great intellectual achievement.
But, as Greece was setting new standards in academia and the arts, arguing about the
purpose of life, and setting forth on world conquest, the city overlooking the Tiber in Italy was
growing. In 340 BC some communities of Latium rose up against Rome out of resentment over its
increasing power and aggressive actions. But when Rome prevailed in that conflict, it forced the
members of the Latium alliance to pledge their military assistance to Rome. Through similar
small wars of control and expansion, Rome managed to consolidate all but the very north of Italy
by 264 BC.
Across the Mediterranean, the North African city of Carthage had prospered and grown
into a regional power since being colonized by Phoenicians from Tyre in 800 BC. In 264 BC
internal fighting on the island of Sicily brought Rome and Carthage into conflict. That war, the
First Punic War, drug on until 241 BC and ended with Roman victory and the addition of Sicily to
its growing empire. Three years later Rome also seized the islands of Sardinia & Corsica, to the
great dismay of Carthage. Following the First Punic War, Carthage and Rome agreed to maintain
separate spheres of influence in Spain; but after the Spanish city of Saguntum allied with Rome
and revolted against Carthage, the invasion of Saguntum by Carthage prompted Rome to again
declare war on Carthage. And in the Second Punic War, that dragged on from 218 to 201 BC, the
Carthaginian general Hannibal famously marched an army, including elephants, through Spain
and Gaul, and over the Alps into Italy where he repeatedly routed the Romans.
Things were looking bad for Rome while Hannibal was having his way in the Italian
countryside. But, lacking the equipment and/or strategy to overcome the city defenses of Rome
itself, Hannibal didn’t lay siege to the city. At the brink of destruction, Rome ordered its army in
Spain to advance on Carthage. That move proved to be a turning point in the war, because when
the Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio, or Scipio Africanus as he would later be called,
fought its way to Africa and threatened Carthage, Hannibal and his army were recalled. Once
back in Africa, Hannibal’s fortunes were reversed and he was defeated by Scipio: costing
Carthage the Second Punic War, and their interest in Spain, which was added to the empire as
another Roman province.
In 200 BC Rome joined with the Greek Achaean and Aetolian leagues against Carthage’s
former ally Macedon. Soon after the fall of Macedon however, the victorious Greeks came to
realize that they had invited more trouble than help when getting involved with Rome. The
combined might of Alexander’s empire would have provided formidable protection from
invasion, but Greece by itself was vulnerable. In an effort to counter the growing Roman threat,
the Aetolian League then allied itself with the Seleucids of Antiochus III.
Meanwhile, Rome had its own partnerships. And not wanting to sit by and wait for
Hellenistic alliances to strengthen, Rome started the Syrian war in 192 BC. And that war went
Rome’s way as well, with Antiochus being forced to hand over his territory in Asia Minor to

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Rome’s ally Pergamum. But even then the Greeks and Macedonians couldn’t overcome their
differences. Again they fought with one another, and again Rome stepped in and defeated
Macedon. This time, however, Rome looted the Macedonian treasury and split the country into
four republics. But the Macedonians and Greeks were a persistent bunch and within twenty years
some of the Greeks aided the Macedonians in revolt. To that, Rome responded by crushing the
resistance, destroying the Greek city of Corinth and annexing Macedon as a province.
By then Rome’s military was getting well practiced, and Rome defeated Carthage for the
final time; leveling Carthage the same year as Corinth, 146 BC. The carnage was so bad that
Scipio Aemilianus, the Roman commander in Carthage, was said to have wept at the brutal
destruction of the once glorious city. With that final conflict, the territories of Carthage were
added to the Roman Empire.
All of that military activity gained control of the Mediterranean for Rome while Rome
was a republic. Since the last king was expelled in 509 BC Rome had been governed by groups of
politicians. At first governance was the privilege of only the wealthiest and most powerful
Romans, called the patricians. For more that two hundred years the less affluent Romans, called
the plebeians, lobbied and negotiated for political equality. And slowly, concession by
concession, they gained more equitable balance. Fed up with abuse at the hands of the patricians,
the plebeians leveraged their population advantage by withdrawing from the state in 494 BC.
What could easily have resulted in civil war, instead resulted in a patrician compromise whereby
they allowed plebeians some protection from arrests by patrician magistrates. By 471 BC the
plebeians were also granted their own council to pass laws binding on plebeians but not
patricians. And twenty years later came general publication of the laws, allowing the common
people to become familiar with the laws to which they were subject.
Political class distinctions among male citizens continued to erode, and in 445 BC
plebeians were finally allowed to marry patricians. One major factor in the minimization of class
disparity was the commonalities that already existed among plebeians and patricians. Class title
was inherited, wealth alone didn’t make a patrician, they were descended from Rome’s early
senators. So, even some of the rich were plebeian; giving them, as a class, considerable
bargaining power. Plebeians were allowed appointment as consul, the heads of government, in
367 BC, and in 342 BC it became mandatory that at least one consul be from the plebeian class.
The other major institution of control, state religion, resisted even longer. It wasn’t until
300 BC that plebeians were allowed to hold high priest positions. And finally, laws passed by the
plebeian council became binding on all Romans in 287 BC. But rather than remove political class
distinctions altogether, Rome continued to discriminate by maintaining a complex, inefficient
system of assemblies to direct the functions of government. And sadly, because Rome was to be
the last great classic western empires, it’s influence on future governments can still be seen today
in such forms at the British House of Lords and House of Commons (a ridiculously bloated
system of about 1,400 legislators), and the American Senate and House of Representatives.
But as Rome’s empire grew, so did the vile tactics and disdain among politicians. The
politicians fought among themselves and put more and more space between their selfish desires
and the good of not only foreigners and slaves, but also fellow citizens. The deplorable politics
led to revolt by the Italian people from 90 to 88 BC. And it was only after that revolt, more than
400 years after the establishment of a republican form of government, that free Italians ultimately
received citizenship. However, fairness and equality still wasn’t to be expected in a slave-holding
society that treated women and non-citizens like second-class people. With increased citizenship
or not, selfish desire, personal differences and secret alliances continued to tear at the unity of the
republic. As politicians and military leaders vied for power, the republic was plunged into a
series of civil wars.

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 Lucius Cornelius Sulla emerged from the first civil war as dictator of Rome. But Sulla
stood by his word and, after making reforms and killing off some of his competition, restored the
republic. Still, the politicians and military leaders were too greedy and power hungry to cooperate
for common good. Often, the military had ultimate political power, and was led by consuls who
were commissioned by the senate. The consuls were generally wealthy, powerful men, often
senators, who stood to receive immense fame and fortune at the head of an army. Military victory
brought consuls fame, and many kinds of plunder brought them riches, including amassing
personal fortunes by selling prisoners of war as slaves.
Three men that leveraged their influence to gain consul appointments were Marcus
Licinius Crassus; Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, better known as Pompey; and Julius Caesar. But
that coalition of consuls, that came to be known as the First Triumvirate, was growing powerful
beyond control, and envious of one another at the same time. After Crassus died in combat in 53
BC, Pompey’s political maneuvering in Rome caused Caesar to bring his army down from Gaul
into Italy, setting up a battle with the forces of Pompey. Caesar’s army defeated Pompey at
Pharsulus in 48 BC, and Caesar assumed control as dictator in 47 BC. And three years later that
honor was bestowed for life. Few knew his reign would be so short however, in that same year he
was assassinated by members of the senate.
Caesar’s murder led to the Second Triumvirate, formed by Caesar’s grandnephew
Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus. Out-maneuvering Lepidus, Octavian and Antony
divided the empire between them with Octavian in the west and Antony in the east. Additional
power grabbing resulted in their respective armies and navies meeting at Actium in Greece in 31
BC. In that battle Octavian’s forces won a decisive victory and Antony fled with the Egyptian
Queen Cleopatra VII back to Egypt. But they where pursued by Octavian’s men, and committed
suicide the following year.
With Mark Antony disposed of, Octavian stood, at thirty two years old, as undisputed
head of the empire that spanned the Mediterranean. One of the lands under Octavian’s control
was the less desirable territory of Palestine. Away from the coast, Palestine was still a hard land
of marginal fertility between wealthier, more powerful territories. Many times Palestine changed
hands among rulers of Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia. Many of the residents went
with the flow and adapted, sometimes grudgingly, to changes of rule. But the Hebrews, or Jews,
of Judah were too stubborn and bound to custom to know what was best for them. They were in a
trap of their own design that prevented them from conforming.
Hebrews were hardened by a history of difficulty and meager existence; caught in a self
propagating pattern of trials and punishments. From the time their ancestors wandered the thin
grasslands of the Arabian Peninsula, generation after generation of their kind was tested. The
hardship, resentment and envy they felt was projected into their religion. Through time, their
religious tradition grew monotheistic, and became more guarded, jealous and demanding. In their
struggles they sought a powerful god that would smite their enemies and deliver them into
paradise, and that god helped them to conquer the second-rate land of Canaan. Their favored
local god defeated other traditions and assumed control of their universe.
But the difficulties allowed by their god to afflict his chosen people were seen as
indications of his displeasure with them. According to hard-line prophets his displeasure often
stemmed from their breach of contract through transgression of his primary commandments. Like
a jealous husband, he bade them to recognize no god other than himself. And he required praise
in the form of sacred ritual and animal sacrifice, the blood of which symbolized the bond
between man and god. Men had long courted the favor of their imaginary gods, but somehow the
Hebrews managed to create the myth that failure to abide by the laws of their god would result in
eternal damnation in the fires of hell, along with other unsavory bewailments.

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 Faced with such dire consequences, the Jews left themselves no choice. They would
rather perish by the sword of man than suffer unbearable pain forever. They had invented a near-
perfect threat. What would a man not do to avoid spending the never-ending age, the time
without measure, the infinite period, all of eternity; in unbearable torment? So those ignorant
little men did die by the sword when their god was threatened. In fitting irony, when the very
entity they invented to deliver them from hardship was under attack, it was the Jewish people that
suffered death and enslavement to protect what they claimed to be the all-powerful god.
And by insisting that all gods other than their god were abominations, claiming they were
the chosen people of the only god and refusing to assimilate, the Hebrews only assured conflict
and oppression. Suffering the difficulties of their own false doctrine, they grew to rely on that
fantasy more and more, desperately hoping for a king delivered by their god that would deliver
on his promises of dominance and prosperity. Jewish tradition demanded a great leader
descended from Kings David and Solomon that would defeat their enemies and unite the entire
world under Jewish authority, with worldwide control centered in a new Jewish temple in
Jerusalem. In response to the fanciful prophecies, Jewish culture was gripped by feverish
anticipation of the leader that would raise them above the world of servitude and strife that
shaped their existence.
Within every generation a multitude of people would come and go proclaiming to be the
Jewish messiah. But the rise of each and every messiah claimant invariably ended in death. And
so it did for Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus neither embodied the messianic ideals of the Jewish
prophets nor did he sufficiently rebuke those expectations to lay any legitimate claim to the title
of messiah that his followers bequeathed on him. And the story of a messianic Jesus would have
ended with his inglorious execution among thieves had it not been for one unfounded claim.
After his death, a small circle of devout followers announced that Jesus had secretly risen
from the dead. However, although he was declared false and condemned to die by his fellow
Jews, Jesus did embody an evolution of Jewish religion that would appeal to many future
generations by putting a kinder face on Jewish belief. In contrast to popular opinion, he rejected
violence and vengeance in favor of peace and compassion. Yet, he remained in the definite
minority. For their part, the majority of Jews cast their lot with the bitter and confrontational
teachings that had been set in writing. Ironically many future Christians would view Jews as
having the blood of Jesus on their hands.
Rome, meanwhile, as the dominant empire, put blood on a lot of people’s hands. Under
the burden of heavy taxation and interference in their religious affairs, the Jews occasionally
revolted against their Roman overlords. One such revolt, the War of 66-70 CE, also known as the
Great Revolt, initially seemed to go well for the Jews, as was often the case when local
populations confronted the local Roman military forces, but fortunes reversed when additional
legions were called in from other parts of the Empire. For the Jews, the war only accomplished
the destruction of Jerusalem and the center of Jewish religious and political life, the temple.
After that war, it took 70 years for the memory to sufficiently pass and messianic fever to
stir up enough confidence for another full-scale revolt, led by Simon ben Kosiba, also called bar
Kokhba, meaning son of star. Bar Kokhba was probably Judaism’s most famous messiah other
than Jesus. And to many Jews of the day, he was the glorious messiah ordained by God to
establish the worldwide empire of Israel. He too had miracles ascribed to him, but unlike Jesus,
bar Kokhba was also a military and government leader. This time, when the Roman
reinforcements came, of which there were many, bar Kokhba took to the hills. The Jews didn’t
just wait behind city walls or gather together for large battles that their god couldn’t win, they
scattered and fought a guerilla-style war.
For four years the Hebrews fought desperately, and the Romans followed them all over

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the countryside, slaughtering those in their path and burning cities and villages to the ground. By
the time the carnage was over, all of Judea lay in ruins and hundreds of thousands of Jews were
dead. Many of those that remained were sold into slavery or taken to the arenas to fight for their
lives as gladiators. Afterwards, the province Iudaea was renamed Palestine and Jerusalem was
called Aelia Capitolina by the Romans. The defeat was so complete that the remaining Jews were
forbidden to teach Mosaic Law, practice their religion, or even enter the renamed town of Aelia
Capitolina. The mass exodus of Jews that fled or were forced out of Judea as a consequence of
the war was one the great Diaspora of the Jewish people from their “promised land” that they had
stolen from the Canaanites centuries earlier.
From an entertainment perspective, gladiatorial contests involving Jewish prisoners of
war were some of the largest in history, involving thousands of combatants. The largest games
are said to be those ordered in Dacia by the Emperor Trajan, the same Marcus Ulpius Nerva
Traianus that conquered Dacia and Mesopotamia and expanded the Roman empire to its greatest
extant in 116. At its height the Empire extended from Britain in the northwest to Mesopotamia in
the east and to Egypt in the south. Every country bordering the Mediterranean was part of the
Roman Empire, and many kingdoms just beyond the Empire’s borders were clients of, or allied
with, Rome.
The earliest Roman gladiator contests may have been funerary games in which slaves
were forced to battle to commemorate the loss of an important person. As Rome’s power grew so
did the gladiator tournaments and other festivals upon which the Romans lavished the spoils of
conquest. The games included animal fights, man-versus-animal fights, staged hunts, man on
man combat and group combat. Even women and dwarfs were caused to fight in the games, with
such contests having special appeal for their rarity. Although contests could involve thousands of
fighters, more commonly gladiators numbered in the tens.
The gruesome spectacle of gladiator fighting was part of Roman life for hundreds and
hundreds of years, and its popularity rose and declined with the favor of emperors. The training
and supply of gladiators became big business, and perhaps due in part to the expense of acquiring
new gladiators, the games often didn’t result in death. The practice even attracted more than
slaves, prisoners of war and criminals. Some gladiators were paid to fight, and others fought for
freedom from debt, slavery and even political freedom, and there were a great many females
among them. By fighting in the games, some won citizenship for their children, and prominent
gladiators even received a considerable degree of fame.
In some instances gladiator slaves were fed and treated better than other slaves when not
fighting. But no matter the perfumed aire of nobility or bravery, the stench of slavery could never
be masked, and along with the wealth derived from the labor of slaves came the inherent
resentment and danger of revolt by those enslaved. Every society that profited from slavery was
also ultimately made poor by the iniquity. Besides the nearly constant revolt of conquered
provinces and client kingdoms, the Roman Empire experienced three major slave revolts,
beginning with slaves led by Eunus and Cleon in Sicily from 135 to 132 BC. And again the
Sicilian slaves revolted in 104 and 103 BC, this time under the leadership of Athenion and
Tryphon. And from 73 to 71 BC a slave and gladiator named Spartacus gained lasting fame by
leading a slave revolt in Italy along with men named Oenomaus and Crixus.
It was a gladiatorial school near Capua from which Spartacus and other gladiators
escaped before fighting off a local militia and eventually making camp at Mount Vesuvius near
Naples. There the renegade slaves were joined by other slaves and together took food and
provisions from the nearby countryside. Rome was so dependent on slaves that defecting slaves
eventually swelled the band of Spartacus to more than 100,000 people. But many of those trying
to escape slavery were women, children and the elderly, compounding the renegade slaves’

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disadvantage of being neither trained nor equipped as an army.
In spite of their tremendous handicaps however, they fought with great valor,
determination and effective strategy. Spartacus defeated legion after legion as they converged on
Italy. But the army of misfits never made it out of Italy. Historical reports give conflicting
accounts of the intentions of the rebel army. Some state that they wanted to flee Italy to Gaul or
Hispania, others say that Spartacus and his followers wished to liberate all the slaves of the
Empire. Whatever the circumstances, they failed to cross the Alps and escape Italy when it
appears they could have done so.
As the politicians of Rome grew more troubled, they ordered a greater force to bear on
Spartacus, assigning eight legions with auxiliaries to Crassus. Initial engagements between the
forces of Spartacus and Crassus had mixed results, but the weight of the Roman army soon had
Spartacus retreating. Crassus pursued Spartacus to the south of Italy where the worn out slave
army was finally crushed when they ran out of room to retreat.
Knowing the brutality of the Romans toward slaves that had no protections before
revolting, most of the slaves died on the battlefield; while those that were captured should have
fought to the death, because Crassus crucified the survivors and left their bodies hanging along
the road from Cupua to Rome to serve as a grisly reminder of the penalty for seeking justice.
Even some that escaped met a grisly end. For, Pompey was also leading an army toward
Spartacus when the rebels were butchered. He came across 5,000 slaves that escaped the battle
with Crassus, killed the lot of them, and claimed credit for ending the war. With their armies
camped outside Rome, and riding a wave of support for putting down the rebellion, Crassus and
Pompey were assigned consulships with Julius Caesar, as earlier mentioned.
Because history is written by the victors, little is known whether any free men fought
alongside the slaves, just trying to do what they knew was right. Any free men conspiring with
the slaves would have only sacrificed their lives and property, along with putting their families in
jeopardy. And that’s the danger of war. Regardless of how little people have, and how just their
cause, they risk everything in armed conflict, and the decision to take a stand against an evil like
slavery demonstrates either courage or foolishness.
Unfortunately, conditions for slaves in the Empire didn’t improve immediately after the
terribly costly uprising. Slave owners could still treat slaves in any manner they chose, up to, and
including, killing them with no consequence. Romans were acutely aware how dangerous it was
to surround themselves with oppressed people. Yet they were indignant to the point of outrage
that a man would take umbrage over deprivation of basic liberties. Historian Tacitus related that
it was the custom to execute all the slaves of the house in which the master was murdered by a
slave. And the horror of that custom was readily apparent when Lucius Pedanius Secundus, a
government official, was killed by one of his slaves. A crowd appealed to the senate to spare the
other slaves of his household. But the senate refused to aid the slaves and all four hundred were
executed in retaliation for the death of their owner. Regardless of how one chooses to view the
accomplishments of any culture, one man and four hundred slaves says a lot about a society.
Over time the values of Rome did evolve marginally in that concern and slaves received
some basic protections. Interestingly those protections weren’t initiated by the politicians of the
republic era; they were instituted under emperor rule. Running contrary to many views of the
value of democracy or republicanism, the gains made by slaves under an emperor demonstrate
that it’s possible for one man to rule more justly than the masses, though the dangers of tyranny
are compounded in monarchical systems.
With the conquest of additional slave-supplying territory, the holdings of the empire
continued to increase, reaching a pinnacle of three and a half million square miles in the second
century. In 212 the emperor Caracalla granted citizenship to every free person of the empire, and

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Roman culture was spread throughout the vast realm; but there were limits. For example, while
Roman was the language of the west, Greek continued to be the principal language of the east,
with many local languages mixed in.
The Roman Empire built a strong infrastructure, like the Greeks and Persians before
them. Their extensive building activities included roads, aqueducts, public buildings and large
private estates, temples to the pantheon of twelve gods, coliseums, bathhouses and even
apartment buildings. Building projects however, like most of the wealth, was concentrated in
Italy and provincial capitols where the tax revenue was funneled. Like slave labor, taxes levied
on the provinces were vital to the growth and maintenance of the empire. And also like slavery,
the iniquity of provincial taxes fostered resentment. While generals and politicians fought for
control, people in far away lands were forced to pay tribute at the point of the sword. And even as
they had to watch their land get plundered and their people impoverished, they were further
insulted by being forced to honor deified emperors. And there’s yet another example of the guy
standing on everyone else’s backs being honored as a living god.
Despite constant calls for reform, there’s little that’s new in politics today. In America,
politicians promise the moon and then give away the farm to buy votes when they get in office,
just as politicians were doing in Rome and other cultures thousands of years ago. While distant
provinces were being squeezed for profit, in Rome and the other wealthy cities, the populace was
being placated by the politicians to retain their power. Emperors and governors spent lavishly on
festivals and bloody games. The poor of Rome even received free meals. Families of outlying
territories were losing their land and being broken apart; sold to slavery or forced to work land
for a share of the profit, and rich people were amusing themselves with gladiator contests. But,
eventually the plundered treasures were squandered, and the welfare of the rich and lazy
burdened the workers beyond sustainability. With parallels to modern America, the excess and
luxury that was Rome finally stretched the resources of the empire that the entitled class fought
over too far.
The third century CE has been called the century of crisis. Internal strife and power
struggles brought the once mighty nation to its knees. As the Roman provinces came of age,
those leaders and aristocrats began to have their own ambitions of empire. The military
monarchy established by African born Lucius Septimius Severus in 193 was followed by about
fifty years of civil war. Had there been any powerful states left to challenge Rome’s supremacy,
the empire may have been conquered and absorbed. And even though there were no nearby
kingdoms of comparable size and strength, the empire came to be assaulted on almost all fronts.
German tribes struck back at the beleaguered empire in the north, but it was in the east that
Valerian became the only Roman Emperor to be captured by a foreign power when he was
defeated at the battle of Edessa by Shapur I, leader of the Sassinid Persians, in 260. Following
Valerian’s death, Postumus, the Governor of Germania Superior and Inferior rebelled and
established the Gallic Empire in Gaul and Hispania, modern France and Spain.
Going back to when Rome was just a small village overlooking the Tiber, Germanic
people are believed to have migrated south from Scandinavia into the center of Europe. The
Germanic tribes pushed south and west almost a thousand years later, some say as a result of
pressure from the Huns of the eastern plains, and came in more direct contact with the Romans.
When the Roman Empire declined under the pressure of internal problems waves of Germanic
invaders swept beyond the Rhine River into Gaul. Goths from the Balkans moved into Asia
Minor and Greece, the Franks moved into Gaul and Hispania, and Alemannians invaded Italy
before Aurelian was able to restore much of the territory from 270 to 275. When Diocletian,
came to power in the year 284, the economy was near collapse and money was almost worthless
spurring him to implement wage freezes and price controls and even hereditary employment of

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the trades. But even though the penalty for breaking price controls was death, people still resisted
selling their products at the set prices in the open market, and black market trading flourished;
with the policy of wage and price control eventually abandoned as a failure.
Diocletian also reorganized the empire into smaller provinces to limit their power and
maintain better control. He even split the empire into East and west, assuming control of the East
in his new capitol at Nicomedia in Bithynia in Asia Minor and granting control of the West to
Maximian. But, even the strong-arm tactics of Diocletian had done little to repair the eroding
strength of the empire and in the fourth century it took the appearance of old age waiting for the
relief of death.
Right on the heels of some of the heaviest persecution of Christians by the Romans, under
Diocletian, his successor Constantine became the first Christian emperor. He claimed status as
ruler of the West when his father, Constantius I died visiting Britain. But others claimed
dominion over the West as well, including Maxentius, son of former emperor Maximian.
Maxentius was in Rome, while Constantine ruled Britain and Gaul for six years. But in 312
Constantine marched his army into Italy, where they defeated forces loyal to Maxentius on
numerous occasions and for the last time at the battle of Milvian Bridge just outside Rome, and
Maxentius is reported to have died in the Tiber river while fleeing the field of battle. The
following year Constantine issued the Edict of Milan authorizing the practice of Christianity.
Constantine defeated Licinius, emperor of the East, in 324 and once again united the Empire.
He chose the site of Byzantium, Greek Byzantion, on the Bosporus as his capital. It was
later renamed Constantinople in his honor, one of many names the city currently known as the
Turkish city of Istanbul has had through history. But after Constantine, the empire was again
divided into East and West. In 391 Emperor Theodosius established Christianity as the official
religion of the empire. Any time that territory was conquered and added to the empire, new
subjects were apt to feel resentment and even revolt if forced to change religion. And similar
revolts resulted from the conversion from the traditional Roman Pantheon to Christianity. After
centuries of forcing one religion upon the populace, the empire pulled the rug out from under
people by switching religions and then outlawing what they’d been trained and forced to do.
Shortly after making Christianity the official state religion Theodosius defeated
Eugenius, the last of the old religious emperors. In so doing, Theodosius reunited the empire for
the last time. After his death it was divided between his sons, Arcadius in the East and Honorius
in the West. And by the time the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, Rome, as head of a great
empire, was dead. Another Germanic tribe, the Vandals, moved all the way through Gaul and
Hispania, across the neck of the Mediterranean to Africa and back across the Mediterranean to
Italy where they too sacked Rome in the year 455.
As the Western Roman Empire was crumbling, in eastern Europe the Huns were
establishing a kingdom of comparable size to the entire Roman Empire. After charging out of the
short grass hills and plains of eastern Europe and running roughshod over the Alani tribe in the
fourth century, the Huns spread fear across Europe. From unknown origins they came to
dominate the continent through the speed of their horses and accuracy of their powerful
composite bows. Unlike many armies of history, in combat they weren’t plagued by obsession of
formality and appearance, and the Hun reputation for ruthless attack was known far and wide.
After conquering the Alani between the Don and Volga rivers in what is now Russia, they moved
west and crossed over the Don to subjugate the Ostrogoths before turning south in 395 to cross
the Caucasus Mountains and raid Armenia and part of Syria.
Later, in 408, they invaded the eastern Roman province of Moesia, in the area of modern
Bulgaria, but were pushed back. When Attila came to power with his brother Bleda, the Huns,
took advantage of internal Roman political turmoil and allied with one of the Roman generals to

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attack the Western Roman Empire. And when the Huns repeatedly plundered and torched parts
of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 440s, their good relations with the Western Roman general
Aetius prevented the East from receiving any support from the West. But in 451 Attila invaded
Gaul, sacking a number of cities as he swept westward, and General Aetius was finally sent to
stop the Hun destruction.
Aetius was successful in persuading some Germanic groups normally hostile to Rome,
the Visigoths of King Theodoric I, and the Franks, to aid in defending Gaul. And when the forces
met at the Battle of Chalons, Attila’s confederacy was defeated. In the centuries since, it’s been
said that the Huns could have been destroyed at Chalons but General Aetius convinced the
Visigoths and Franks to withdraw from the area in order to maintain a power balance among the
kingdoms. Whether Attila’s forces weren’t decimated in the battle because Aetius foolishly
thought the Huns would no longer be a threat to Rome, because he wanted to collect spoils of
war for himself, because he was afraid to press the fight, or because the Roman allies couldn’t
have finished off the Hun army as believed, it was unfortunate for the Romans because Attila
returned to plunder the north of Italy the following year.

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 Rise of the Eastern Sun
Forming part of the border between modern Pakistan and India, the Indus River, like the
Nile in Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, was home to early permanent
settlement. In fact, ties between the ancient civilizations were well established as early as the
third millennium BC when the Harappan culture had significant trade contact with Mesopotamia
through the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. And mud buildings found in the Western Indus Valley
of modern Pakistan dating back to about 7000 BC are among the oldest in the world; part of a
long and rich cultural heritage. But because the ancient script of early Indus Valley civilization
has yet to be translated by modern linguists, relatively little is known about the long Indus Valley
history. Until ancient pictographic script found on artifacts is interpreted, the written history
that’s been so important in understanding the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt will
remain a mystery in the Indus Valley.
Still, it’s apparent that early Indus Valley civilization was advanced for its time, as towns
were typically laid out in rectilinear grid fashion with well-constructed brick buildings and
extensive water and drainage works; as demonstrated in the important Harappan urban centers of
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Not surprisingly, with established trade connections, the Indus
Valley Civilization shared advanced technology with the Fertile Crescent such as agricultural
plowing and metal working. And the old coastal town of Lothal is even believed to have been
home to the first significant boat loading dock in the world, with a nearby storage warehouse
contributing to operational efficiency.
While their social customs and governance is unknown without understandable written
records, a lack of war references and not a great disparity of housing is considered by some to
suggest tendencies of social equality. Regrettably, however advanced or fair Harappan culture
may have been, the childish ambition for war and empire plaguing the world would not have left
them in peace. And invasion may have ultimately brought Harappan civilization to an end. For
whatever reason, still unknown, the urban centers and extensive agriculture seem to have been
abandoned in the second millennium BC. There’s speculation that the Harappan culture was
overran by nomadic Aryan peoples from the west or northwest, creating the Indo-Aryan culture,
based on the apparent spread of the Aryan language that eventually encompassed the Indian
subcontinent. The new language, or at least new writing, can be seen in the period from 1500 to
500 BC known as the Vedic Age in reference to the collections of poems and other writings
known as the Vedas which constitute the oldest known Sanskrit literature and the oldest texts of
Hinduism.
After an apparent disruption, static settlement eventually took root again, and by 1,000 BC
there were at least sixteen different realms across the Indian fertile crescent that includes the
plains of the Ganges river system along with that of the Indus. Many of those states are said to
have been kingdoms ruled by hereditary kings, but others were ruled by elected leaders. By 500
BC the many kingdoms had been consolidated into four: the Vatsa, Avanti, Kosala and Magadha.
Regardless of the number of kingdoms, they depended primarily on agriculture for their
prosperity, aided as it was in the fertile valleys by automated irrigation that included the advent
of the water wheel.
In less practical but equally compelling matters, Hinduism, the popular Indian religion of
the period, was highly complex and dominated by Brahmins (priests) performing secretive
ceremonies. But people began to reject the priestly mysticism and by 800 BC there was a
movement away from the confusing complexity of the different roles and intrigues of the many
gods, and toward the philosophy of an enveloping essence of all that ever was, is, or will be, that
transcends even the gods.

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 That shift away from personalities of the gods to contemplation of life and the
interrelation of all form and function is believed to have influenced the development of the sixth
century BC philosopher Siddhartha Gautama who announced he gained enlightenement in 537 BC
and subsequently gave birth to Buddhism. Through the centuries Buddha has proven very
popular, but one of his contemporaries was equally popular, if not more so than Buddha, during
the period.
Varhaman, was born a prince but gave up worldly possessions and desires, to refine and
teach the concepts of Jain. Known as Mahavira, he preached far around India, with no material
possessions, not even clothes. The naked ascetic attracted a lot more attention to the already
established religion of Jainism, and was reported to have as many as 400,000 followers during
his lifetime 2,500 years ago. From outward appearances, it seems a different sense of life
pervaded India than those cultures to the west. Material wealth and conquest was not stressed as
much in India, as reflected by the nature of the Dharmic religions. War and fighting still
occurred, but a higher level of respect seemed to foster more peace than other places.
Early civilizations flourished in the river valleys of China and other areas of East Asia as
well, with pottery dating to 8,000 BC reported in Korea. At one Chinese site called Jiahu, ancient
people were fashioning flutes and cultivating rice as early as the 7th millennium BC along with the
much more important grain of the time, millet. By the 3rd millennium BC bronze was being
worked in the Xia Dynasty, one of the early long-lived dynasties that have been characteristic of
China’s recorded history.
The Xia Dynasty was succeeded by the Shang along the Yellow River, who ruled from
1600 to 1046 BC. Eventually the Shang would fall to a neighboring ally called the Zhou that was
even recognized by the Shang as the protector of the western frontier before the Zhou king Wen
was imprisoned by the emperor of the Shang, Di Xin. Although he was later released, Wen
demonstrated why Emperor Di Xin had reason to fear his ambition when he attacked the Sin
clan, capturing some Shang territory before his death 1050 BC. Wen’s son Wu completed the
conquest of the Shang Dynasty in 1046 BC. Later, the Zhou extended their territory to include
some of the Yangtze River Valley. The power of the Zhou Dynasty fluctuated through time, but
managed to hang onto power until the third century BC during which time the arts flourished, and
some of the most influential systems of Chinese philosophy were introduced.
One of those philosophers that would have a lasting impact on Chinese culture was
Confucious, who introduced a system of ethics and proper behavior for the good of society which
was taught through repetitive ritual. About the same time that Buddha and Mahavira were
encouraging people to see beyond their desires in India, Confucious was teaching respect and
civil order in China. Though Confucious lived in the sixth century BC, his system of applied
thought wasn’t adopted by an Emperor until long after the decline of the Zhou Dynasty when it
was promulgated by the Han Dynasty that began around the end of the third century BC.
Another important philosophy introduced in China under the Zhou Dynasty was the
system of thought that stressed the three jewels of compassion, moderation, and humility known
as Tao. Many people today are familiar with the Yin and Yang of Taoism, just as people around
the world are familiar with so many first millenium BC doctrines that are very influential in
shaping culture even today. From the scientific and artistic awakening in Greece, to the vision of
singular unity of the universe in India, to the contemplative reverence of China, the first
millenium BC was a time of prolific philosophic offering that ran contrary to much of the
pravelent traditional fantasy. Gone were the demons and ritual of old; replaced by a sense of
practicality and inquisitiveness.
But not everyone got the word. The power of fantasy and selfish desire may have been
tested, but it was far from unseated as the principal human motive. From the eighth century BC

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the Zhou Dynasty fractured and lost power. Other kingdoms arose and battled for control, but
failed to unite until Ying Zheng, king of the Qin, subdued the opposition to unite much of the
homeland of the Han Chinese, signaling the beginning of two thousand years of nearly
continuous imperial rule. Qin Shi Huangdi, as Ying Zheng was known empirically, had little use
for philosophy when he could use force to prevent dissent and develop a robust beuracracy to
govern the vast territory and population under his control. Reverent philosophy was not strong
enough to resist brute force, and Qin outlawed Confucianism and other teachings that might
undermine his control. His crude tactics to snchronize everybody’s opinions with his own
included mass book burnings and executions, including not only political critics, but even their
families put to death to minimize reprisals.
Many of those not sentenced to death for failing to purge history and philosophy of things
displeasing to the state were sent north to construct what’s considered the first Great Wall to
keep out northern invaders. And the emperor used the temporary military service of all men aged
seventeen to sixty to push the Xiongnu toward Mongolia. Besides demonstrating ruthless
political ambition, Qin’s rule is credited with ambitious building projects; standardizing writing,
measurement and currency; and unification of the legal code.
Still, with all the ambition of his government, one odd thing he’s remembered for is the
great lengths to which he went to cheat death. He even ingested concoctions, or serums,
containing mercury, the toxic metal that’s one of only two that are in liquid form at room
temperature. And just like people today, what did he do when the treatments weren’t effective?
He increased the dosage and hastened, instead of delayed, his own demise. Incensed by the
misfortune, and feeling contempt toward the alchemists who advised him, he took revenge by
ordering over 460 scholars buried alive. But still, despite the brutality of his regime, self-
destructive poison therapy and large public projects, he’s probably best known for the large
terracotta army built to guard his lavish tomb and serve him in the afterlife. In that way, he’s
reminiscent of the ancient Egyptians that placed valuable items with the deceased for future use.
In a story of irony, when Qin Shi Huangdi died, his chief eunuch, Zao Gao, manipulated
one of Qin Shi Huangdi’s sons into committing suicide by forging the late emperor’s will. Zao
Gao also had a top military commander and his family executed so that he could set up another
of the late emperor’s sons as his puppet ruler. The irony, of course, is that eunuchs were castrated
so that they couldn’t have children, in an attempt to discourage any notion of seizing the power
of the court to set up a new dynasty. Even so, the Qin Dynasty was very short-lived, only holding
power for fourteen years after unifying the “Warring Nations” in 221 BC. The territories again
broke apart and vied for power within a few years of Qin Shi Huangdi’s death. And it was Liu
Bang, King of the Han, centered around Hanzhong, that emerged triumphant in the ensuing wars
of consolidation, beginning the Han Dynasty in 202 BC. After the dust had settled, the Han
Dynasty garnered a reputation of being less harsh than the Qin, with relaxed social controls,
lower taxes, and a more cooperative government attitude fostering creative thought and
expression for which the Han Dynasty is well known.
The book Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian detailed Chinese history from
the Xia Dynasty of legend up to the contemporary Emperor Wu who reigned from 141 to 87 BC.
That book and other sources detail how Wu both embraced the teachings of Confucius and
expanded the Han Empire from Korea to Vietnam and west approximately as far as the Tibetan
Plateau with alliances around the Tarim Basin. The country prospered under the Han. So much so
that the Han dynasty ruled for more than 400 years. And the pace of innovation accelerated
during the period, with the invention of paper credited to a court eunuch named Cai Lun (50 –
121 CE).
That invention was soon complemented by woodblock, or woodcut, printing; providing a

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breakthrough in mass production of written media. And stable society also allowed better study
of the natural sciences. For example, Wang Chong of the first century CE is said to be the first to
describe the cycle of water evaporation and precipitation. And the important scientific inventor
Zang Heng, who lived from 78 to 139, accurately surmised that the light of the moon is reflected
sunlight; in addition to his pioneering work in gear systems, invention of a water powered
armillary sphere, and even the first seismometer to measure earthquake activity.
Innovation wasn’t limited to internal development either. The world got a little bit
smaller when Emperor Wu sent delegations to kingdoms to the west and south, encouraging
goodwill and trade. In the process, those missions helped establish a flourishing enterprise in
trade over routes that collectively came to be called the Silk Road: the most famous trade route of
all time. Along with other exchanges, Buddhism is said to have entered China through the Silk
Road in the first century CE from Kush lands around modern Afghanistan.
But, trade caravans are vulnerable to robbers along thousands of miles of trails through
various degrees of wilderness, and trouble can be imported or exported just as readily as peaceful
initiative. Near the end of the first century the Han Dynasty sent a 70,000 man army as far as the
Ukraine, reportedly in pursuit of Xiongnu fighters.
Such endeavors don’t come cheap and in order to support his army Emperor Wu also
privatized vast tracts of territory by selling land. That was a much more fair arrangement than
simply forcing citizens into an army and taking what supplies the army needed from the citizenry,
but he may have mistakenly promoted the divide between rich and poor by taxing farmers at too
high a rate, forcing many to sell to large landholders and then work for a portion of proceeds.
And over the course of many generations, popular discontent increased in response to favorable
treatment for the wealthy. Just as in so many empires before and since, peasant uprisings, aided
by fighting amongst greedy large landholders eventually caused the collapse of the Han Dynasty.

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 Crusaders
Back in Europe, after the fall of Rome, and then the death of Attila, a great battle was
fought for control of Europe between the Germans and Huns. The Germanic tribes united under
Ardaric, king of the Gepids, and Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths, and defeated the various
tribes allied under the Huns at the Battle of Nedao in the old Roman province of Pannonia. And
from there the Huns slowly faded into memory, with their identity lost among the many ethnic
groups that were at one point or another grouped under the heading of Hun. And Europe was
again dominated by local tribes and kingdoms, as was the case before the rise of the Greek and
Roman empires.
In that fragmentary culture Roman traditions mixed with those of the various tribes. The
influence of Roman culture can still be seen in the Roman Catholic Church and the Romance
languages that include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. German and Dutch
were also heavily latinized. The English language evolved from West Germanic mixed with a
touch of Latin and some Celtic, and then North Germanic and finally French after the Celts of
England were invaded by Germanic tribes such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, followed by
Scandinavians and finally the Normans of France. As the parent of the romance languages, Latin
– which included the popularly spoken Vulgar Latin, and the dominant writing of Classic Latin –
remained a popular common language and persists to this day in fields such as science, law and
medicine.
Outside of the often struggling remains of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire; from
the coastal plains, to the mountains and dark forests of the continent, small states battled each
other for supremacy in the power vacuum. As nobody could unite a large stable state, conditions
became more chaotic, levels of thought diminished from long term to immediate concerns. The
period in western Europe would come to be known as the Dark Ages due to stagnation and even
decline of knowledge and infrastructure.
Though it constituted a constraint to learning and social evolution, the spreading religion
of Christianity provided one of the stronger unifying forces in Europe and around the
Mediterranean. In contrast to the Jews who were already chosen by god, the Christians sent forth
missionaries to spread their faith to others. Lacking acceptance by mainstream Judaism following
the death of Jesus, Christians had set out to attract converts wherever they could. Before
Christianity ascended to the throne of the Roman Empire, as a religion it was necessarily
inviting, as contrasted to the monster it would become after gaining the power of the empire.
Even as the western half of the empire crumbled; and though Constantinople maintained a
stronger position as a head of state; Rome managed to hold onto status of primal bishopric in the
Christian Church. As bishop of Rome, the Pope was traditionally seen as the successor of St.
Peter, the man credited in the book of Matthew with founding the Church.
Early Christians such as Peter had no significant authority, or position of power. But by
the time the church in Rome convinced most of the Christian world that it was the true seat of the
faith and that the Pope spoke for God and Jesus, the church was firmly entrenched in formality
and custom. More importantly, Christianity had in many areas reverted to its jealous and
militaristic Jewish roots. Shortly after coming to power the Christians set to work outlawing
other religions and killing off heresy: that being any doctrine not in accord with those of the
universal, or Catholic, church. The religion was getting tough, learning to lash out to defend itself
and making a habit of killing to save. Christian kingdoms found common ground when
threatened by or seeking dominion over those they termed pagans. Through missionary work and
military force, Christianity’s presence continued to grow in Europe.
After the withdrawal of Roman troops, Jute, Frisan, Angle and Saxon tribes migrated to

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England, forcibly pushing the Britons back. Those invaders eventually dominated England
politically. But beginning in 793 Viking raiders from Scandinavia began to raid and colonize
England, culminating in the rule of England, Denmark and Norway by Canute of Denmark in
1016. And after more succession trouble, in 1066 England was conquered by William of
Normandy. Normandy was actually a region of France that had been given to the Vikings under
Rollo in 911. So, although they had adopted French language and customs that they carried with
them to England, the Norman aristocracy was also of Viking descent.
But England wasn’t the only country that came under the rule of Viking descendants. In
their travels from the Black Sea to North America the Vikings colonized numerous territories.
Rurik, for example, established the city of Novgorod in the 850’s and his descendants the Rus
established the Kievan Rus kingdom that gave its name to what is now Russia. But just as pagan
Vikings conquered Christian lands, Christianity made its way into Scandinavia and raids fell off
after the Viking rulers were converted to Christianity.
Christianity had spread in North Africa and western Asia as well as Europe. And both
Judaism and Christianity were popular in the desolate lands of Arabia, not far from their
birthplace, alongside a number of local religions in the seventh century. And it was then, perhaps
more than 1500 years after the beginnings of Judaism and about six hundred years after the life
of Jesus, a merchant from Mecca named Muhammad, who was having trouble making sense of
the world, took some pages from Judaism, called it his own, and slapped the name Islam on it. In
copying those who influenced his development and seeking his own fame, he proclaimed himself
to be the last of an untold number of prophets including those instrumental to the development of
Judaism and Christianity.
Not being well received in Mecca, some of his followers moved to Ethiopia and later
back to the Arabian penisula to the town of Medina not far from Mecca, where Muhammad
joined them. He was a direly bitter man obsessed with killing. After naming his petty, enraged
god Allah, Muhammad set about conquering the world in his name. Muslims were taught to
destroy all unbelievers and Allah would burn them in hell causing pain unimagined on earth. To
insure compliance Muhammad said that those Muslims who didn’t fight for Allah would share
the same fiery punishment as the unbelievers while those who fought for Allah would be
rewarded with paradise.
Soon Muhammad exploited old rivalries and tribal tensions to unite a group to attack
Mecca. Mecca resisted, but Muhammad’s threats of death and horrid damnation and promises of
eternal glory swelled his growing army with new recruits. Mecca capitulated to Muhammad’s
growing power and he replaced their old religious icons with his own. Impassioned by
Muhammad’s lust for conquest, the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula was converted during
his lifetime. By his death in the year 632 his firestorm of contempt and conversion had begun to
spread into Syria, Mesopotamia and Africa. And undeterred by the death of Muhammad, the
jihad obsessed Muslims pushed on to subdue the world as the sword of Allah.
The new Islamic zeal for expansion overwhelmed the tired and incoherent Byzantines and
Persians. At the Battle of Yarmouk the Muslims routed a numerically superior Byzantine army to
gain control of Syria. Byzantine forces consisted of a mixture of Russian, Arab, Armenian and
various other ethnic peoples and their battle tactics were disorganized, timid and characterized by
foolishness. In an act demonstrating lack of wit by employing symbolism at the expense of
fighting ability, forces under the Byzantine General Gregory were reportedly chained together to
demonstrate unity. The effect, of course, was to increase their burden and further reduce the
mobility of an infantry unit that was already slow by nature.
The Arabs of Islam similarly defeated the Persians, most notably in the Battle of al-
Qadisiyyah, and then swept through the Byzantine defences of Egypt. In little more than ten years

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after the death of Muhammad the Muslim conquest had reached as far as Armenia and Turkestan.
They were, however, unsuccessful in their seiges on the Byzantine capitol of Constantinople in
678, and again in 718 when the Byzantines were aided by Bulgarians. In those conflicts the
Byzantine’s made effective use of their newly invented “Greek Fire” against the Umayyad
Muslim navy. And further to the east, the Khazars aligned themselves with the Byzantines and
managed to block the Islamic conquest of Eastern Europe.
By the early part of the eigth century Muslims had pushed west from Egypt, capturing
North Africa and from there they moved north across the Straits of Gibralter and conquered
what’s now Spain. After plundering Spain the Umayyads continued into modern France in the
year 732, crushing the forces of Duke Eudes of Aquitaine at Bordeaux and sacking the city.
Eudes appealed to Charles Martel of the Franks for help and the Christian Franks met the
invading Muslims near the town of Tours. The Muslim army was a superior fighting force to the
Franks, one of the Germanic tribes that had been hastened westward by the movement of the
Huns centuries before.
Hosting a large complement of light cavalry, and heavy cavalry made possible through
the use of stirrups on their horses, the Muslims held a decided advantage over the Franks, who
had still not adopted stirrups for their relatively small cavalry. Had the battle been on open
ground, it surely would have been a rout for the Muslims. But the battle of strategy was won by
the Christians at Tours. Charles Martel knew the weaknesses of his force and he knew how
powerful the Muslim cavalry could be, so he stayed off the main roads and advanced through the
woods to find a defencible position at Tours. There he chose a wooded hilltop in the path of the
advancing enemy that negated the cavalry advantage. And he waited.
The Muslim general, ‘Abd-al-Rahman, could have bypassed the Frankish forces and met
them in battle at another time under more favorable conditions. Perhaps he thought that the
Christians would combine with additional forces if given more time, or perhaps he was confident
in the strength of his army and his god. Whatever the impetus of his reasoning, he made a critical
mistake in choosing to engage Martel and his men where they were camped. ‘Abd-al-Rahman’s
cavalry was neutralized by attacking uphill in the woods and much of the cavalry was lost as they
repeatedly charged against fortified defenses.
The Battle of Tours ended with the Franks victorious and ‘Abd-al-Rahman himself dead.
Though Martel turned back subsequent Umayyad invasions, historically, the Battle of Tours
came to be known as one of the stands that saved Christianity in Europe. And Charles Martel’s
grandson, Charlegmagne, would expand the Carolingian Empire in the early ninth century to
include modern France, western Germany and northern Italy. But, in the mid ninth century the
Carolingian Empire was divided amongst Charlegmagne’s grandsons into what would become
France and the Holy Roman Empire.
By 750 Allah’s armies had lost momentum and began to turn on each other in power
plays, whereby the Abbasids defeated the Umayyads in a Muslim civil war. The Abbasids then
moved the caliphate, the center of Muslim world government, from Damascus to Baghdad. As
western institutes of learning had been reduced to monasteries, Constantinople and Muslim cities
such as Baghdad took over the lead in culture and science in Europe and western Asia. In the
centuries to follow, the Islamic world continued to experience the cycle of empire with
alternating fragmentation, consolidation, and expansion. And by the turn of the millenium,
northwest India was falling under the dominion of Islam.
Not surprisingly, the decline of Christianity at the hands of the Muslims didn’t sit well
with European Christians. The Byzantine Empire continued to battle with Muslims for control of
the Levant: that unimpressive territory in the area of modern Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon
and Syria. To that end the Western European countries decided to aid the Byzantines with some

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Crusades to regain the Holy Land. In 1009 the caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty, al-Hakim bi-Amr
Allah, had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem destroyed. Though it was allowed to
be rebuilt in 1039, visiting pilgrims were occasionally captured and some church officials were
killed, inflaming Christian passions. Thus spurred to action, when Byzantine emperor Alexius I
sought western assistance, Pope Urban II encouraged a holy conquest.
The Crusades began in 1096, but the zeal of the Christians was in no way matched by
their planning and organization. Before a professional army launch, a largely peasant army
numbering perhaps 100,000 people, including women, set off walking to Jerusalem. But before
they could even get to the Holy Land they had to march through many foreign territories.
Unfortunately for them, they brought few provisions and lacked the foresight to make
arrangements to feed their rag-tag army in the lands they had to cross. Though they considered
themselves to be working for all Christians, they were very disappointed by the little aid they
received from the fellow Christians on their route. When hunger caused them to begin taking
what they needed by force they were attacked by Hungarians, Bulgarians and even the Byzantines
whom they were supposedly helping. By the time the amateur force reached Constantinople they
had suffered substantial casualties and even the people of Constantinople were unable or
unwilling to give them much aid.
And still not aligned with a Byzantine or other professional army, the volunteer army
boldly crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor, where they were subsequently slaughtered in great
herds upon contacting the Turks. Some, including their leader, a monk from Ariens named Peter,
managed to escape and rendevous with an army of experienced soldiers that had finally arrived
from Europe. But as bad as their failure was, they weren’t the only group of crusaders that left
western Europe, some were actually attacked and destroyed in central Europe not long after
leaving home. And some stirred up Christians expanded the war against the unbelieving Muslims
to unbelieving Jews in their own countries. As had happened in countries throughout Europe
since the introduction of Christianity, an army of Germans gave Jewish communities the choice
of converting to Christianity or being killed, resulting in the death of thousands of Jews.
Still, a sanctioned army of trained soldiers did depart in 1096. They represented
numerous, mostly French, territories. Unfortunately for them, their desires often transcended
stated cause and they quarreled among themselves and with Alexius of Constantinople. Despite
the heavy internal bickering, harsh desert conditions, and a bout of disease, the Crusaders
achieved great success. They marched down the Levant and captured many cities, including the
traditional first city of Christianity Antioch, and finally the coveted prize, Jerusalem. In between
seiging and slaughtering some of the cities, they defeated numerous Seljuk Turk armies and also
marched south from Jerusalem and defeated a Fatimid army from Egypt as a historical bonus.
But, lacking settlers and resources to defend the territory gained, those Christian states
established by the crusaders would eventually fall to the Muslims again, sparking future
crusades. But subsequent crusades were not nearly so successful, largely because Christian
infighting never subsided. By the time of the Fourth Crusade from 1202-1204, Christian resolve
was so half-hearted that preparation for the crusade was a comedy of errors. Before even sailing
for Egypt as planned, having secured only a third of the roughly 36,000 man army they had
anticipated, the Christians found themselves deeply indebted to Venitian merchant marines with
whom they had previously contracted transportation.
Through the combination of transportation debt and political intrigues, the Fourth
Crusade was diverted from a mission to Egypt and recapturing the Holy Land, to settling old
scores in the growing Latin and Greek schism that led them to sack a number of Greek cities, and
finally Constantinople itself. The principle casualty of the Fourth Crusade was the thin bond of
Christianity that had hitherto tentatively united the eastern and western Christians against the

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similarly dis-joined Muslims.

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 Horde of Temujin
Widespread violence and power-grabbing sparked by peasant revolts against oppressive
landlords spelled the end for the Han Dynasty from the late 2nd to early 3rd centuries, ushering in a
period characterized by instability lasting until the rise of the Tang Dynasty in 618. Founded by
Li Yuan, the Tang Dynasty got off to an inauspicious start however. Li Yuan was a cousin of the
preceeding Sui Emperor Yang, and Li took the title of emperor after directing the appointment of
a child Sui emperor the previous year. But, the questionable dealing continued, and within ten
more years Li Yuan’s son, Li Shimin, killed two of his own brothers and persuaded his father to
abdicate the throne to him.
Despite killing his way to the top and warring to expand his territory, Emperor Taizong,
as Li Shimin was officially known, was a declared Buddhist who had monasteries built to
commemorate battle sites and pray for the fallen of both sides. He also instituted standardized
testing to fill government posts, and made land distribution more equitable than under the old
feudal systems. And once again, stability and liberty, this time under the Tang Dynasty, allowed a
golden age of literature and art to flourish.
Science was significantly advanced as well, with one of the more important inventions
being a clockwork escapement mechanism developed by Yi Xing in 725. More importantly, in
sharp contrast to the modern world of intellectual property rights and trade secrets, Tang
Emperor Gaozong commissioned classification and publication of medicinal substances in the
year 657 to share and expand the knowledge of medicine. And that kind of effective organization
and management extended to many other aspects of life under the Tang Dynasty as well, such as
the publication of a building code to advance public safety and promote best building methods.
Increasing autonomy of regional military governors eventually brought about the decline
of the Tang clan, signaling what has come to be known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
period. But it would take less than a century for China to be united once again under Emperor
Taizu of Song circa 960. During the following three centuries the population of the Song Empire
grew to 100 million people. And to the credit of sufficient organization and freedom, the growing
nation prospered, even after loss of considerable territory in the north, including the capital city
of Bianjing, now Kaifeng, to the Jin Dynasty in the 12th century.
About the same time that the Byzantines were first using Greek Fire, the Song army and
navy was the first to make use of crude bombs, cannons and other fire weapons using the
Chinese invention gunpowder. But peaceful pursuits also advanced under the Song Dynasty,
perhaps most evident in printing when Bi Sheng invented movable type in the eleventh century.
The earlier invention of woodcut printing allowed for mass production, but movable type
allowed rapid textual modification without the burden of carving new printing blocks. Also early
in the second millenium Shen Kuo described the use of a compass and the concept of magnetic
north. And Shen Kuo’s simple compass was complimented by continued development of
elaborate mechanical devices such as Su Song’s astronomical clock tower that used an
escapement mechanism, circular chain drive, and complex differential gearing to represent
complex relational astronomical movements.
But a dark storm brewing in the cold hills and plains of Mongolia would move down and
cast its shadow on the Song Dynasty. It was there a boy was born to a group of nomads with no
grand palaces, no public works worthy of note, and little more than the horses under their seats,
that would earn a reputation as the most accomplished warrior in history. When Genghis Khan
was born in Mongolia in the mid to late twelth century with the name Temujin, the area of his
hometown was under the loose control of the Jin Dynasty of Northern China. The Jin and Turkic
Tatars had combined to defeat Temujin’s great-grandfather Kabul Khan prior to Temujin’s birth.

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And since he was born the eldest son of a tribal leader in a time of persistant tribal fighting,
Temujin’s future direction was very predictable; though the ultimate destiny of his journey would
leave much of the iron age world in a state of shock.
When he was nine he was sent to live with the parents of his arranged future wife, Borte
of the Konkirat tribe, and was to help her family until he reached the marital age of twelve. But
before that time, his father was poisoned by the Tatars and died. When Temujin’s clan wouldn’t
let him assume control because of his youth, his family was left in poverty, having to rely on
their own devices. They were no more than predators, eating mostly small animals for survival.
And at the age of thirteen Temujin killed his half-brother Bekhter over a dispute in dividing some
animals they killed.
Temujin was captured by a rival tribe, the Ta'yichiut, when he was about twenty years of
age, but soon escaped with the aid of a sympathizer. His wife Borte was also kidnapped, by
another tribe, the Merkits, and Temujin was able to rescue her with the help of his blood brother
Jamuqa and some warriors from the Kerait tribe. After Borte’s return she bore him a son, the
timing of which called into question his paternity; and eventually Borte had three more sons.
Though he had other children with other women, Temujin gave to the children of Borte the sole
right of inheritance.
Temujin served a tribal ruler named Toghrul, but in time Temujin’s ambition for power
brought the two into conflict and Temujin defeated Toghrul in a clan war. In the conflict Jamuqa,
Temujin’s former friend and blood brother, had sided with Toghrul, and in defeat went to the
Naimans seeking refuge. It was there with the Naimans that Jamuqa’s own desire for leadership
elevated him through the leadership hierarchy and he eventually led them and other tribes in
battle against Temujin. In 1206 however, after numerous battles, the tribes that were led by
Jamuqa turned on him and handed him over to Temujin. But disloyalty wasn’t something
Temujin was prepared to reward and he had the betraying subordinates executed along with his
childhood friend Jamuqa. Not long therafter Temujin defeated the Merkits and Naimans, and
took the title Genghis Khan as leader of the Mongols.
The first conquest of the Mongols united under Genghis was the Western Xia Dynasty,
which they conquered by 1209. In 1211 they went to war with the Jin Dynasty that had rested
control of Northern China from the Song; capturing the capitol of Janjing, later called Beijing, in
1215. Then Genghis turned his ambitious eyes westward and attacked the Kara-Khitan Kharnate
which extented from approximately modern Mongolia to Lake Balkhash and the border of the
Muslim Khwarezmid Empire near present day Kyrgystan.
Genghis Khan was aided in his efforts by possessing the genius of single-mindedness.
War was his passion, his life; as it was for his commanders and army. They knew neither peace
nor the desire to build prosperity, but rather to take it from others. Their singular commitment
and dedication quite naturally fostered success in war; the lifestyle of their choosing which they
embraced so enthusiastically. As a culture they did little, but what they did, they did well. Before
being indoctrinated into the army, Mongols grew up hunting from their horses. And no animal on
terra firma was safe from the speed of their horses and range of Mongol bows. Tradition tells of
large numbers of Mongols riding their horses in great circles and then bringing their circles
tighter together, driving all the animals before them toward the center, where an orgy of slaughter
ensued. In its time it was the pinnacle of achievement – for the most base activity of human
immaturity.
The lethal archery and equestrian skills they honed from childhood prepared them well to
be hunters of the ultimate prey, their fellow men. For this task they equipped themselves well.
They were an army of horsemen ready to battle armies of infantry, with knowledge accumulated
through years of experience. Each warrior didn’t just have one horse, he brought reserve horses

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to alternate mounts on long rides and replace those that were sure to fall in battle. The Mongol
horse was equipped with stirrups to steady the rider and allow shooting on the run and in any
direction, something long in existence, but still not widely utilized at the time. And the horsemen
were lightly armored to enhance the speed, stamina, and agility of both horse and rider.
As nations in their path learned, the Mongol war machine was well rounded, with few
weaknesses. Their dedication to the cause of war was so great, Mongol spies sometimes spent
years observing the infrastructure and strengths and weaknesses of potential countries of
conquest. Even though most wars were initiated substantially quicker, extensive planning and
preparation was a characteristic of their invasions. Mongol leaders, committed to perfecting the
devastating power of war, were excellent strategists.
Neither pride nor honor encumbered their performance of the most horrific atrocities and
scandalous breaches of trust. They didn’t hesitate to attack and run, and they weren’t above
promising safe haven and then butchering the population of a surrendered city. In their pursuit of
riches the primary Mongol weapon was the composite reflex bow: absolute state of the art in
period weaponry. Mongol bows were compact, powerful and accompanied by different styles of
arrow for different fighting situations. The power of their reflex bows gave them greater range
than their adversaries, and the compact size allowed for versatile usage from the back of a horse.
With superior mobility and range, Mongol manuevers flowed with an organic style providing a
wide range of options for attack and defense.
Mongols could maintain a safe distance from large armies of infantry and attack at will by
utilizing the range of their bows or descending on the enemy and then pulling back. Mongol
armies could hit opposing forces like a hammer, sting them like elusive hornets, or immobilize
them like spiders in a silken web. Their nimble, mobile actions could completely surround
opposing forces before the opposition could manuever to meet the frightening, and confusing
onslaught. But, no encircling manuever was as effective as that volunteered by an enemy charge;
perhaps the most successful Mongol tactic was to pull back the center of the fast moving
formation in feigned retreat. Opponents stretched out in pursuit of the Mongols were left
vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, often from Mongol units kept hidden in reserve. Such pincher
maneuvers often scattered the native forces in disorganized panic, exposing them as easy targets
to the faster horsemen.
Even mounted cavalry units were ill-prepared to compete with the “devil’s horsemen” as
they were called. Horses simply weren’t as commonly used by agrarian societies. Many cavalries
consisted of heavily armed knights or other warriors trained in close combat tactics, but the
heavy armor impeded their agility, and they were woefully lacking in the range and speed of their
offensive weaponry compared to the reflex bows of the mongols. Often times the Mongols
simply shot the horses out from under the opposing cavalry, leaving slow moving men weighed
down by armor easily slain by mobile archers and lancers.
The Mongols had other weaponry besides composite reflex bows of course, such as
lances, swords and battle axes; which they put to fierce use in hand-to-hand combat. And they
even used frightful incendiary devices borrowed from the Chinese, and effective seige
equipment, often designed by prisoners of war and enscripts from vassal kingdoms. But the great
advantage Mongols had over other armies of their time lay in the speed, savagery and
coordination of their war machine.
One nation that felt the fury of the Mongol horde was Khwarezm, covering a vast
territory extending from the Aral and Caspian Seas to the Persian Gulf, in roughly the area of
modern Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. When Genghis Khan assembled a large force and
invaded Khwarezm in 1219 the Mongols swept through the country, destroying its armies and
laying seige to the cities. Looking back now, it’s unclear whether Genghis and his army was

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brutally violent simply because they took joy in great, wanton slaughter, or if it was more a
measure of terror to break enemy will and precipitate mass surrender. The general impression is
that it was a full union of bloodlust and frightful warning.
When the large city of Urgench fell, the Mongols took what slaves they wanted of the
craftsmen, young women and children. And then butchered the rest of the population, told to
number in the hundreds of thousands. Elsewhere, after a weeklong siege, the city of Merv
surrendered to Genghis’ youngest son Tolui under promise of safety for the citizens. But when
the city was secured Tolui broke his promise and ordered all the city’s inhabitants killed. And
again later, at Nishapur, Tolui ordered all the people put to death, along with all the animals as
well.
After thoroughly terrorizing and brutalizing Khwarezm, leaving the survivors shaking in
fear, the Mongols split up, with Genghis Khan leading an army on a path of destruction and
plunder southwest through Pakistan and India before returning to Mongolia. Generals Jebe and
Subutai led another army on a rampage northeast through Georgia and Russia before heading
back to Mongolia. Having stretched Mongol control over western Asia, the reunion in Mongolia
was just long enough to gather together and prepare to invade China again, with the campaign
launced in 1226. And true to form as one of the most vile and horrid native plagues of human
history, the Mongols butchered the inhabitants of the Tangut capitol Ning Hia after a surrender
had been worked out. Then finally in 1227, while ravaging northern China again, Genghis Khan
fell ill and died before he could return home. Legend has it that his escort killed everything in its
path on his final journey back to Mongolia.
Temujin never outgrew the cruel ways he learned as a youth, he only excelled at
perfecting them. Competition consumed him and war was his obsession. His reward for mass
destruction and carnage was recognition as the man who conquered more territory than any other
person in history. The empire he presided over would grow to be the largest non-colonial, the
largest contiguous, and the second largerst empire by area the world has ever known. And he
ruled it all from a tent. His life was spent on the back of a horse violating the universal laws of
health and happiness. And his reward for wanton slaughter was grassland enough for more horses
than he could ever ride, and more slave girls than he could ever bed. As the victims of the
Mongol savagery would attest, there are no words to adequately describe the terrible injustice in
the cost of life and suffering that bought one man and his band of killers a life of indulgence and
infamy.
Upon his death, per his desire, control of his empire passed to his son Ogedei. And the
territories were divided into khanates ruled by lesser khans responsible to the Supreme Khan
Ogedei. His descendants continued to rain havoc on bordering territories and expand the Mongol
empire in decades of more conquest that brought all of China, Tibet and Korea under Mongol
dominion, eventually forming the Yuan Dynasty in China under Genghis’ grandson Kublai Khan.
On the other side of Asia, it was Batu Khan, another grandson of Genghis, who was
largely responsible for subduing Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. He was leading a campaign
in Europe including Poland, Hungary and Austria with the old “dog of war” Subutai when news
of Ogedei’s death reached him and he withdrew his forces to return to Mongolia. In the years
after that kurultai, wherein Mongol leaders elected Guyuk to be the great Khan, Batu finally had
concerns other than conquering Europe. Tensions between Batu and other heirs of Genghis
prevented Batu from completing the planned expansion of the Mongol empire through Europe all
the way to the Atlantic. Were it not for one simple change in individual priority, all of continental
Europe would have quite likely been another part of the Mongol Empire that would have
stretched across Eurasia from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
The rift between Batu’s Golden Horde and the other Khanates continued to grow; to the

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point that Guyuk died planning a campaign against Batu. The threatened invasion didn’t
materialize during Batu’s lifetime, but still the animosity between the Khanates didn’t go away.
When Batu’s brother Berke came to power he had a score to settle with the Il-Khanate of Hulagu.
And that was due in part to the fact that by that time the major rival western religions had
influenced the course of Mongol history. Berke had accepted Islam, and Hulagu, brother of the
contemporary Great Khan Mongke, was married to a Christian.
That was no hindrance to their desires of conquest because Berke was bordered by
Christians in Europe, and Hulagu was subdueing Moslems in the area of Mesopotamia and Asia
Minor. But when Hulagu crushed Baghdad in early 1258 the Muslim Berke was outraged. Even
without Berke’s assistance, the Islamic capital, or caliphate, of Baghdad had been confident in
Allah’s protection of Baghdad, but the Mongol army exposed the danger of that fantasy in
terrifying manner. Hulagu’s army of warriors, from lands of the Mongol Empire near and far,
attacked and then ravaged the city and its inhabitants after they surrendered. They burned
libraries of knowledge collected over centuries, they utterly destroyed buildings and structures of
significance and antiquity; even raping and killing with wicked delight. And likely worst of all in
the eyes of Berke, Hulagu had the supreme earthly leader of Islam, the caliph Al-Musta’sim and
most of his family executed.
After sacking Baghdad, Hulagu went on to conquer Syria and then set his sights on Egypt.
But before descending like a plague on Egypt, word came of Mongke Khan’s death and Hulagu
returned to Mongolia for another kurultai, leaving only a part of his army to move on Egypt. Saif
ad-Din Qutuz however, not wanting to pass on the opportunity to strike at the Mongol’s while
they were at less than full strenth and before they reached Egyptian soil, ordered his Egyptian
army against the remaining Mongol force. The Egyptians were under the generalship of Baibars,
a Mamluk. They were originally a group of slave-soldiers that had generally been captured or
bought in the area of the Caucuses and Russian steppes, and forced to join the army of Islamic
sultans. Baibars was said to be a large man with blond hair that may have been sold into slavery
as a child by the Mongols.
The training and skills of the Mamluk cavalry were similar to those of the Mongols, being
renowned horsemen and archers in their own right. The Egyptian forces numbered about the
same as those of the Mongols, and on the way to confront the Mongols in the Levant they were
allowed safe passage by the usually hostile Christians still holding territory from the Crusades.
Baibars and the Mamluks met the Mongols near Ain Jalut in Palestine and cleverly used some
typically Mongol tactics of retreating and flanking to beat the Mongols at their own brutal game,
handing the feared Mongols a sound defeat. As part of the price of war the Mongol leader
Kitbuqa was captured and executed.
What could have been a great victory for the Egyptian Qutuz was turned into catastrophe
when he was killed by Baibars on the trip home. Baibars then assumed the throne of Egypt and
established a Mamluk dynasty. Upon the return of Hulagu, Baibars might have been humiliated
and executed by the full force of the Il-Khanate army. But the old adversary of empire, internal
strife, reared its head and again altered the course of history. After Hulagu returned to Persia and
readied his army, Berke, still seething over the destruction of the Abassid caliphate, sent Nogai
Khan on a series of raids in Hulagu’s territory. And when Hulagu’s army moved north of the
Caucasus mountains to punish Berke, it was decisively defeated by the Golden Horde. That blood
feud may have saved not only Western Europe, but also the small remnant of the Byzantine
Empire and Egypt from falling under the Mongol yoke.
In the east, when Hulagu’s brother Mongke died, another of his brothers, Arik Boke was
elected Great Khan, but yet another brother, Kublai wanted the title for himself. Kublai and Arik
Boke went to war with each other in 1260 and fought until Arik Boke was captured in 1263. Arik

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Boke was subsequently imprisoned, and died two years later. In victory, Kublai assumed the sole
title of Great Khan, although his influence over the west was minimal at most. He did however
establish the Yuan Dynasty, and complete the total conquest of China in 1279. After Kublai
Khan died the Yuan dynasty was also plagued by power struggles and managed to stand as an
empire for less than another century before falling to the Ming Dynasty in 1368.
Before that happened, the Mongols, of course, wanted to expand there rule from China,
but Japan repelled two mistake plagued Mongol invasions across the Yellow Sea and Straight of
Korea in which much of the Mongol invasion fleet was lost to storms at sea on both occasions.
To the south of China, Vietnam also resisted capitulation. Unable to defeat the Mongols in direct
confrontation, the Vietnamese evacuated their cities and retreated in the face of onslaught. Still,
the Vietnamese were tenacious, at times they employed scorched-earth tactics, they fought
stealthy guerilla warfare, and sought out small battles to their advantage. In three campaigns of
invasion, always with superior battle forces, the Mongols never succeeded in subdueing the
Vietnamese people, and were eventually driven back everytime.

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 Black Death and Renaissance
Transcontinental movement associated with the vast Mongol Empire was soon
accompanied by a frightfully mysterious killer that spread across Asia, Europe and North Africa.
Lurking in shadows, and drifting through valleys and over the countryside in clouds of fog, the
Black Death was one of the worst of the devastating disease outbreaks that had long contributed
to superstituous belief in divine retribution. Plague was so terribly unnerving because in the
popular imagination it was the icy grip of death reaching out to victims from the beyond; with no
natural defense, remedy, or even mercy. But no plague invokes the memory of suffering and
destruction like the Black Death of the fourteenth century that smothered the life from ravaged
communities, and left many cities in ghostly ruins.
As citizens huddled together in fear and gathered at church in large masses to pray, the
killer only grew stronger. And the faster people fled from infested areas, the faster the disease
spread, getting establishing in more and more distant lands. The Black Death wrapped its grisly
arms around its victims and sank piercing fangs into the depths of their being, pulling them to the
grave faster than the ground could be opened to receive their spoiled bodies. Entire families
succumbed to the agony and anguish of boils, blisters and buboes; fever, diarrhea, vomiting,
hemorraging, coughing; and rotting, liquified tissues. Men buried their brothers, mothers buried
their children and all wept until they were hollowed out and numb to the sorrow, as flesh rotted
on the bone and the putrid stench of decay bittered mind and body alike.
Like biblical figures laying their sins on a sacrificial lamb, people searched for a
scapegoat to blame, with ethnic, religious and other minorities becoming the victims of renewed
persecutions. In Europe Jews, lepers, travelers, and homeless people were just some of those
targeted for retribution. Christians used the outbreaks as another occasion to exterminate entire
Jewish communities. And Muslims in the Middle East did likewise to the “unbelievers” that had
not submitted to Allah. Houses were burned, businesses looted, and those minorities that failed
to flee fast enough were in many cases butchered where they stood. The overall negative effects
propagated dark times; society’s mood was bleak. Dismal public character was reflected in works
of the period and the arts that finally once again been making progress were temporarily stifled.
Together with wars and famines, recurrent bouts of plague saw populations decimated
across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Europe, for example has been estimated to have lost
nearly half of its population during the 1300s. The effects of civil dissatisfaction, labor shortages
and property re-distribution transformed the political landscape in many countries. And for the
time being, the consumptive pattern of population growth was held in check, not by an all-
powerful god or insightful planning, but by tiny organisms of archaic origin. Even after humans
dominated all the great beasts of the fields, and more often than not, each other; they were still
subject to annihilation from organisms too small to see. But all was not lost. All was lost for
many, that’s true, but the survivors forged ahead. Disease, famine and warfare continued to recur,
but the veil of gloom and despair slowly lifted.
The fifteenth century saw the rise of the Ottoman Empire, beginning in Anatolia. And in
1453 the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, about a thousand years after the fall of Rome,
finally marking the end of the Byzantine era and the demise of the last of the Roman Empire,
even though much of what is now Germany was at that time being called the Holy Roman
Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was in fact, not Roman, but a confederation of German
territories that elected kings that were in turn crowned as emperors by the Pope. The term Holy
Roman Empire is first known to have been applied to the federation of largely German states
about 454 years after Charlemagne, king of the Franks, was crowned Imperator Augustus on
December 25, 800.

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 As the Eastern Roman Empire declined, the exodus of intellectuals from Constantinople
and other Byzantine cities and their resettlement in Western Europe, particularly Italy, helped add
to the blossoming artistic expression known as the Rennaisance. Prior to that the art and science
of the Hellenized world that survived in the Roman Empire was all but killed off as Christianity
and Islam worked to virtually strangle art and knowledge to the point it nearly withered to
naught. The Byzantines did support some fine architecture, art and science, but were too
weakened and pre-occupied by Muslim hostilities during much of their history to make large
contributions to its historical development.
Intellectual progress is dependent not only on a stable society that’s strong enough to
devote time to non-essential work, but also on prevalent culture and interest. A well known
example of the different priorities given to intellectual works by similar societies can be seen in
the cities of Sparta and Athens in classical Greece. Theater, sculpture, mathematics, philosophy,
biology and other intellectual pursuits thrived in Athens as they didn’t in Sparta because the
Spartans obsessed with warfare, to the detriment of more benign creativity.
But finally, the necessary combination of stability, aptitude and interest came together
again in Italy to breathe new life into society that had been suffocating under the blanket of the
Dark Ages. Fifteenth century Italy captured some of the spirit of Athens from two thousand years
before, and one of the cities at the heart of the Rennaissance was Florence, under the patronage
of the Medici family. Trade and banking had brought great wealth to the Medicis and they
ascended to powerful political offices that included the papacies of Leo X, Clement VII, and Leo
XI. The famous scientist Galileo was only one of many notable scholars and artists that received
assistance from the Medicis, and he in fact tutored a number of the Medici children; even naming
the four largest moons of Jupiter in their honor: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
If any city can be called the jewel of the Rennaissance crown it may be Florence.
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Donatello and Rapheal were just some of
the artists who worked in Florence, and still today many of their beautiful works can still be seen
in the city. The genius of Leonardo and brilliance of Michelangelo have yet to be eclipsed, and
even from their own times they were regarded as masters of their crafts. Though Leonardo’s
works of art such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, with its intimate portrayal of emotion,
are proclaimed as some of the great masterpieces of all time, they were complimented by his
works in other fields such as anatomy and design; ultimately gaining him recognition as one of
the leading minds of all time. And for five hundred years, the gentle yet powerful grace of
Michelangelo’s sculpture and painting has remained the pinnacle of artistic expression. The
genius these men exhibited was extraordinary, but it was also a reflection of the extraordinary
circumstances that was Florence during the Rennaissance.
Even in the midst of beauty, however, ugliness can be found lurking, and the fine efforts
of great artists weren’t unopposed. A fire-brand priest by the name of Savonarola preached that
old, tired fallacy that the end time was at hand, and he insisted that works of art and literature not
in keeping with the strict, repressive long-standing dogma were of an evil nature. Savonarola
would have kept the world in the Dark Ages had it been up to him; a world in which pleasure
was loathed and fear exalted, as it is in much of the Muslim world still today. After gaining
power in Florence in 1494 he instigated the infamous Bonfire of the Vanities in which many
great works were burned or otherwise destroyed. But justice would have its say, and Savonarola
would get his come-uppence in the end, as his crimes against the pleasures of history were
avenged when he too was burned at the stake on the very site of his book burning bonfire in the
year 1498.
The flowering of the arts would spread from Italy through the rest of Europe along with
the fortune of global trade and empire in coming centuries. But as art was reaching new heights

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in Italy, the fifteenth century was seeing other remarkable accomplishments, including the spread
of printing presses after 1440 following the model of Johannes Gutenburg that revolutionized the
printing industry. Though the printing press was developed centuries earlier in China, the
challenge of assembling the great variety of moveable type necessary to represent the unwieldy
Chinese system of writing proved a great hindrance to prolific Chinese printing, whereas the
small alphabets of Europe were much more easily managed. As it offered tremendous speed and
labor advantages, mechanized printing spread rapidly, and greatly enhanced the literacy of
Europe along with the dissemination of different ideas. But there was still more discovery to
come. To top off the dynamic fifteenth century, just in time to fill the newly popular presses,
came even more exciting news that gripped the imagination of the Old World.
The discovery came after unification of Spain through the marriage of Isabella and
Ferdinand, and the subsequent reconquest of Cordova that set the stage for a larger Spanish
economic and political presence. But like the rest of Europe, Spanish trade was hindered by
Muslim control of important trade routes to India, China and even Africa. At that time Portugal
rivaled Spain for the lead in what would come to be known as the Age of Discovery by laying
claim to newfound islands and establishing trading posts in Africa. And following the early lead
of Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama had rounded the southern tip of Africa for
Portugal and established a sea route to India; with its supplies of highly desireable trade goods.
Portugal’s growing trade netword helped prompt Spain to sponsor a trip of exploration
into the vast unknown western sea when approached by a native Italian promising a shorter sea
route to Asia, even though the Spanish Crown had initially rejected his proposal. Not only did
Spain at first balk on his far-flung plan, Christopher Columbus also asked Portugal, Italy and
England to fund his risky and dramatic voyage but had no immediate takers. And that was
because most royal advisors believed Columbus was underestimating the distance required to sail
west from Europe to Asia. However, while the advisors were correct in their assertion that
Columbus’ estimation of time and distance was overly optimistic, they had no idea what, if
anything might lie beyond the great ocean for Columbus to discover, and he would find it when
his persistence with the Spanish Court eventually paid off.
Convinced that the transoceanic trip to the Orient was suitably short, he set sail under the
Spanish flag in 1492. There were doubters of course, but there were also a lot of people that were
convinced: convinced that the expedition would be lost at sea. It was commonly believed that
such a trip would lead to disaster when the crew exhausted the food and water supplies before
making landfall, but fortunately for Columbus, the Americas lay in his path. And he reached the
islands of the Bahamas just five weeks after re-supplying at the Canary Islands off the northwest
coast of Africa. Then, after triumphantly exploring some Carribbean islands he returned to Spain
and announced an exaggerated discovery of rich islands near China and India.
And even more astonishingly, during all four voyages Columbus made to the New World
he never realized that he reached lands less than half way to Asia; and died still apparently
holding to the belief that he found a short route to India. However, others believed differently,
and shortly after the death of Columbus, Martin Waldseemuller published a world map naming
the new land America in honor of explorer Amerigo Vespucci who, during his own journey,
correctly surmised that the landmass they were exploring was a continent[s] previously unknown
to the Old World.
The voyages of Columbus did more than discover entire continents previously unknown
to much of the world; they set off a rush to colonize and exploit not only the New World, but any
lands with value that weren’t well defended. Of course, land-grabbing conquest wasn’t new;
colonization was just one more way to extend empire, and colonization by sea went back as far
as ancient empires and traders like the Phoenicians staking claims in the Meditterranean and

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elsewhere. And perhaps the most famous raiders and colonizers were the Norse Vikings that
established settlements on distant lands by sea centuries earlier. But the growing priority of
commerce, and competition between European powers was changing the focus of expansion,
bringing the whole of the world in reach of ambitious countries with modern merchant marines.
The most important early powers in the Age of Discovery, Spain and Portugal, entered
into a pact to split the world between them with Spain taking the lands west of a line in the
Atlantic and Portugal taking the east. That ostensibly gave Spain control of much of the
Americas and Portugal control of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. In 1519 a Spanish
expedition, led by Ferdinand Magellan until his death, circumnavigated the world. His ships
rounded the southern tip of South America and sailed across the vast Pacific. The search for fame
and fortune was costly however, as Magellean himself was killed in the Philippines in a conflict
with natives, and only one of his original five ships was able to complete the journey back to
Spain. But despite the challenges, as exitement built, Spain and Portugal were joined by other
European powers, principally England, the Netherlands, and France, in the race to build empire
through the acquisition of overseas territory. At the height of Europe’s world dominance, the
European powers would eventually come to exchange occupied territories like trading cards in
war resolutions and economic negotiations.
Spain’s conquest and subjugation of the New World is legendary; spreading across the
Caribbean, Central America, South America and North America like the plague of Old World
diseases they brought with them. The native peoples of the Americas were devastated in a
manner similar to the way the Black Death had ravaged Europe and Asia. The Spanish conquered
the Aztecs and Incas and even explored North America in their lust for gold. The fabled city of
gold, or El Dorado, was never found, but precious metals were taken from the natives by the
shipful and transported across the Atlantic to the Spanish treasury, financing additional
expeditions to extract the wealth of occupied lands.
Setting an ominous tone for New World inhabitants, Columbus himself reported how
agreeable and easily defeated the natives of the islands he first visited were and that in the name
of none other than the Holy Trinity as many of their number could be taken for slavery as could
be sold. And under the auspices of God and country, many slaves were initially taken from the
New World as slaves, but as large plantations prospered the trend soon reversed and slaves
flowed in from nearby territories. And finally, after the decimation of local populations through
warfare and disease, slaves were brought in from the Old World by Spain and other Imperial
powers to provide the intense labor necessary for high production agriculture.
It was Portugal, in particular, that established a higly profitable and volumnous slave
trade. Even before Columbus’ voyages to the New World, Portugal had opened a slave market in
the town of Lagos in 1444 to import African slaves for sale in Europe. Aided by tribal rivalry,
wherein warlords raided neighboring tribes to capture slaves to sell, Europeans trafficked in
African slaves for hundreds of years following Portugal’s example. And such modernly
objectionable behavior was even reinforced by some Popes through papal bulls which
encouraged the subjugation into perpetual slavery of those who didn’t believe in Christ, although
little mention was made of freeing the converts to Christianity and their descendants.
The technological divide between Old World and New was so great that Spain’s conquest
of the Americas was accomplished with relatively few soldiers. But it was not advanced
weaponry alone that aided Spanish conquest. In the process, Spanish cavalry even reintroduced
the horse to its native land, whence they migrated to Asia, Europe and Africa. But horses, along
with camels, eventually died off in the Western Hemisphere. And the Spanish cavalry, wearing
steel armor, carrying steel weaponry, and riding their large horses was an intimidating sight to the
Americans. Swords, lances, crossbows, artillery, firearms, and even attack dogs offered the

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Spanish a lopsided advantage over natives that were often equipped with little more than wood
clubs and spears.
Like most of the world, the lands the Spanish invaded was often populated by tribes
hostile to one another, and equally frequently ruled by brutal overlords. For example, the Aztec
Empire was still relatively young and actively seeking to extend its range by subduing
surrounding tribes. Many of the Aztec’s captives were sacrificed to their bloodthirsty sun god in
horrific rituals. So the Spanish had little trouble recruiting additional fighters to challenge the
existing rulers. Another great Spanish advantage was their treacherous cunning. Often they rode
right into the center of local power under peaceful pretenses, only to capture the ruler and
demand capitulation. In the case of the Inca conquest, Francisco Pizzaro captured Atahualpa and
demanded a large ransom. But, after receiving the ransom of gold and silver, Pizzaro refused to
release the Inca leader, and later had Atahualpa executed to deprive the natives of a leader that
might challenge their control.
Back in the Old World members of the Habsburg family ruled most of Western Europe at
one time or another. After the Spanish Habsburg, Philip II, took the Crown of Portugal in 1581
the old division of the world into a Spanish Western Hemisphere and a Portugese Eastern
Hemisphere was largely ignored. The whole world of sea trade now belonged to Spain. Spain’s
influence was exercised around the world from the Americas to Asia and the Pacific Isles. The
wealth and power the worldwide empire brought to Spain emboldened the Monarchy’s pride.
The rulers of Spain held themselves in higher and higher esteem. Natives of the colonies were
reduced to slavery for the glory of Spain, while Jews and Muslims were forcibly expelled from
Spain itself. And the jewel of the crown’s domestic dominance came in the form of the Spanish
Inquisition which was initiated to hunt down and exterminate any remaining threats to the crown
and the Christian faith.
However, as Spanish power and pride multiplied, Spain entered into conflict with other
European powers. When Charles V divided his Empire largely into Spain and the Holy Roman
Empire, holdings in the Netherlands went to Philip II of Spain. But troubles with Spanish rule in
the Netherlands fueled by a Christian divide between Catholics and Protestants resulted in a
Dutch revolt. After England joined the ensuing Eighty Years War in support of the Dutch it
defeated the vaunted Spanish Armada in a surprising historical military upset. And France too,
fought against Spain over the Southern Netherlands that would eventually become Belgium,
Luxembourg and part of France, helping to further even the political and economic playing field,
opening up more colonial opportunities for other European powers.
Not all trade and commerce was aimed at world domination, of course. In the 1590s the
first Dutch commercial tulips were cultivated from stock imported from the Ottoman Empire,
establishing a trade for which they’re still famous to this day. The Dutch were already successful
maritime traders, and following their independence from Spain they too established a great
trading empire, with Amsterdam becoming one of the wealthiest and most capitalistic cities of
the world. Many trade networks and much exploration had long been financed by private
financiers, but the Netherlands was home to the first full-time stock exchanges where individuals
could gather to invest in commercial enterprises.
At the time many stock exchanges were still secondary to other business concerns, with a
lot of early stock exchanges being located in pubs or other popular meeting places. It may be
worth noting that the Dutch stock market experience had a large influence in London; and later
New York, or New Amsterdam as it was called by the Dutch prior to British control of the town,
where Wall Street took its name from the old wall protecting New Amsterdam’s northern
boundary. The wall itself was removed by the British in 1699, well before the New York Stock &
Exchange Board, later renamed the New York Stock Exchange, was founded in 1792; more than

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150 years after a Dutch stock market crisis that brough economic ruin to many investors,
triggered by over speculation in none other than the tulip trade.
The Dutch took control of some Portugese colonies and established others all around the
world, in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific Islands. Some Dutch colonies were organized
and administered by private enterprise; foremost of which was the Dutch East India Company
chartered by the States-General of the Netherlands in 1602. Dutch development priority was
given to the Pacific Islands and the Far East. Trading centers and supply posts were established
in Africa, and modern Iran, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Taiwan. As
Netherland prosperity continued in the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company grew
to be the wealthiest private enterprise the world had ever known.
Denmark also established a strong trade with Japan, an island nation steeped in history
and tradition. Having a relatively small land area, permanent settlement was established early in
Japan. The Japanese were living in wooden houses more than ten thousand years ago. But
Japanese influence wasn’t felt much outside of Japan. In the seventeenth century, in reaction to
concerns over imperialistic intentions by Europeans, Japan isolated itself by implementing heavy
restrictions of trade and foreign travel. The only countries with which Japan would allow trade
were Denmark and China. And after the Dutch suffered multiple losses in wars with other
European powers, the trading port at Japan was one of the few foreign assets the Netherlands had
left.
After about two centuries, Japan’s self-imposed isolation was disrupted by a show of
force by the United States navy under Commodore Perry. In 1853 he sailed into the harbor at
Edo, present day Tokyo, with four ships of war and demanded Japan open up trade with the
West. The ironclad warships were unlike any the Japanese had seen and they were duly
impressed. The following year Perry returned with seven ships and signed the Convention of
Kanagawa opening Japan to U.S. trade. Following that trade coupby the U.S.; Russia, France,
and Great Britain convinced Japan to sign similar trade treaties, putting Imperial Japan in an
uncomfortable position of being influenced by foreign powers.
Though relatively quiet, the French also had colonial ambitions, being early explorers and
settlers of North America. In a fruitless attempt to find a water passage to Asia, they were sailing
along the Atlantic coast of North America by 1524. Though not finding the hoped-for northwest
passage, they did establish their first settlement in North America in Canada along the St.
Lawrence River at the site of what is now Cap-Rouge, Quebec in 1541. However the French
suffered a setback when weather, disease and hostility of the natives combined to scrap that first
attempt at colonization. France’s second attempt was near the mouth of the St. Johns River in
modern northeast Florida in the year 1564. That colony, Fort Caroline, was threatened by a
Spanish colony established the following year called St. Augustine. But before the French could
successfully drive the Spanish away, the Spanish marched on Fort Caroline, killed many of the
settlers and sacked the fort. St. Augustine would go on to become the oldest continually
inhabited European city in the United States, and France gave up attempting to colonize the
Atlantic Seaboard.
Future French colonies were essentially fur trading posts that required few settlers and
relied on good relations with local Indian tribes for trade and security, and they were
concentrated along major waterways from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and the
Mississippi River system. Some of the notable cities that grew from those trading posts include
Quebec, Montreal, Detroit and St. Louis. The French colony of Louisiana, however, and
establishment of Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile were efforts at colonization
based on much more generalized trade and agriculture. Like the other European colonial powers
France also settled areas of the Caribbean and South America. But after a rare successful slave

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rebellion Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804, becoming one of the first
independent Caribbean nations. But not all French colonial efforts came to naught, by contrast,
French Guiana north of Brazil in South America is still a part of France to this day. French
Guiana is proportionately represented in French government and holds the distinction of
constituting the largest landmass of the European Union outside of Europe.
One of the Johnny-come-lately’s, England got serious about the race for colonial profit
about a hundred years behind Spain, about the same time that one William Shakespeare was
setting new heights of literature in his productions for the English theater. Prior to the
development of electronics and recording instruments of the twentieth century, live theater and
later forms such as opera, were principal means of public entertainment. And Shakespeare’s
prodigous talents transcended his work as an actor and producer of plays, to that of the World’s
most reknowned author, with mastery and innovation of a rapidly evolving language, and rich
portrayal of mood and character. But like the great painters of the Renaissance, he didn’t display
singular genius born only of internal inspiration. He was made better by his contemporaries like
the Spaniards Lope de Vega who penned as many as 1500 plays, and the author of Don Quixote,
Miguel de Cervantes.
In contrast to the creative beauty of the arts, early English forays into world trade in the
age of discovery consisted to a considerable extent on the ugly business of pirating Spanish and
Portugese treasure and trading ships, which, of course, were generally themselves laden with ill-
gotten goods. Today, many Americans associate European settlement of North America with the
British, but by the year 1600 little had become of England’s 1583 claim on the island of
Newfoundland off the coast of modern Canada. It was in a charter of 1600 that England granted
special trade authorities to the British East India Company to carry out trade with Asia. And it
was that charter granting exclusive rights to a private trade enterprize that would play a very
instrumental role in forging what would become the mighty British Empire for the little island
nation that had been overran by Germans, Romans, Norsemen and even Frenchmen with Norse
ancestry.
England had slightly different ambitions for North America, but first England concerned
itself with conquering and colonizing neighboring Ireland before colonizing the New World.
After defeating Ireland in the Nine Years War ending in 1603, the English confiscated Irish lands
and colonized them with English citizens to farm as plantations of England. And it was that
model of agrarian colonization that the English followed in establishing colonies along the
Atlantic seaboard of North America.
In 1607 the colony of Jamestown was founded in what is now Virginia in the United
States. Other colonies followed along the East Coast and some Carribbean islands; alongside
Dutch and French colonies. After fighting together in the largely religious war between Christian
factions known as the Thirty Years War that ended in 1648, the English and Dutch soon turned
on each other when England ordered all goods from its American colonies to be transported only
on English ships. For years England had been growing envious of the Netherlands’ trade wealth,
and after the Dutch seized much of Portugal’s colonial empire following the Thirty Years War,
England was looking to compete more favorably with the Dutch for the lucrative shipping
business.
Still, the Netherlands had the preeminent navy in the world for a good part of the
seventeenth century and repeatedly beat back English attacks and invasion attempts. Actually,
it’s one of the great twists of political irony that in amongst the Anglo-Dutch wars the Dutch
were successful in having William III of Orange, a nobleman of the Dutch Republic, installed on
the throne of England in 1688. However, William by no means had free reign over English
affairs, his wife Mary wielded considerable influence as daughter of the previous king, James II,

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and Parliament restricted his authority. In the same year William took the throne, Parliament
passed a Bill of Rights to that effect. The articles of that Bill of Rights included the right of
subjects to petition the king, the right of Protestants to bear arms, the right to free elections, the
right to freedom of speech in parliament, protection against excessive bail or fines and cruel and
unusual punishments, and freedom from fines and forfeitures before conviction.
Catastrophically to the Dutch, William didn’t use his influence in England to Dutch
advantage, but rather used his influence in the Netherlands to dictate terms favorable to the
English. The English declared that all naval actions would be under their control and the Dutch
Navy would be limited in strength to no more than sixty percent of that of the English Navy. In
following years merchants flocked from the Netherlands to London to take advantage of the
favorable trade conditions, and England profited greatly while the Netherlands were largely
neglected. The Netherlands rose up to challenge England in the fourth Anglo-Dutch war about
one hundred years later in the wake of the American Revolution but by then the Dutch were so
seriously lacking in naval strength that they were decisively defeated. And later defeat at the
hands of France virtually ended the Dutch bid to be a major power.
Back in North America, the agriculture based British Colonies were establishing
themselves as full-scale societies, and settlers in the British colonies far outnumbered the settlers
of New France. As part of an ongoing battle for supremacy between Britain and France, the
British, and their American colonies defeated the French and their Indian allies in the French-
Indian Wars, which was part of the greater Seven Years War between France and Great Britain,
which in turn is considered part of the Second Hundred Years War. The Treaty of Paris of 1763
gave control of New France in Canada and east of the Mississippi River in what would become
the United States to the British. Spain’s claim to Florida was also ceded to Great Britain for its
part in the conflict. To compensate Spain, France ceded New France west of the Mississippi, the
area that would be known as the Louisiana Territory, to Spain. However, much of the British
expense of the war was passed along to the colonies in the form of taxes, a policy that would not
sit well with the increasingly independent American colonists.
Colonial wars similar to the French-Indian Wars raged around the world with territories
changing hands many times over. But in 1775, thirteen British colonies in America took up arms
against imperial rule in a revolution that was heard around the world. The colonies took
advantage of the nearly constant warfare the British were engaged in, to seek foreign support and
challenge the British to fight a war across the Atlantic on America’s home turf. Some British
forces were already stationed in America and the British military had a decided advantage in
experience and armament, but they did, as the colonists predicted, have difficulty raising and
supporting enough ground forces to subdue such a large land area as the colonies represented.
The war was small by some standards, as the British only managed about 100,000 troops,
with only a small portion being British regulars and the rest made up of local loyalists, German
mercenaries and Native American recruits promised their own autonomy. Yet, despite Britain’s
disadvantages, the colonists were unable to mass forces sufficient to overwhelm the British
through mere numerical superiority. Part of the reason why the Americans didn’t mass all
available force against the British is because the British initially controlled the seas and were thus
highly mobile, if the Americans brought all force to bear in one area, the British could evacuate
and move to attack an undefended city. Another reason why the Americans didn’t overwhelm the
British is because the Americans still had very limited means to manufacture their own
armament, so they faced serious supply problems of their own. And a third reason was just a lack
of concentrated effort, with insufficient logistical support and reluctance of militiamen to leave
their homes for long periods of time.
Still, things went well initially for the inexperienced militiamen. In their first significant

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engagement at Concord, Massachusetts the Americans routed a small British force and then laid
siege to the British at Boston. But in New York City the tables were turned and it was the
Americans under George Washington that were routed. After the retreat from New York in 1776
Washington snuck back to the British winter positions and scored a few small victories to prop
up the revolutionary spirit. That hard winter was followed in 1777 with victories being split when
the Americans captured a Royal Army at Saratoga, and the British captured the city of
Philadelphia.
But it was after the American victory at Saratoga that France entered the war on the side
of the Americans. France was later joined by Spain and the Netherlands in confronting Britain,
though they all had supported the Americans in subtle fashion from the beginning of the revolt
because of resentment toward growing British dominance of commerce and global affairs. Spain,
of course, didn’t so much wish success for the Americans as they wished misfortune for the
British, because successful revolution could inspire great trouble for Spain in its own colonies.
Spain was however, bound by treaty to aid the French against England.
For Britain the war spread around the world and the goal of retaining colonial control of
the thirteen rebellious colonies wasn’t worth the cost. Unable to concentrate its forces on
America, the British muddled along with the forces they had. Beginning in 1778 they moved
their army south via ships. There the British had success in Georgia, South Carolina and North
Carolina, but when they were pinned down at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781 by the converging
armies of the Americans, they were cut off from retreat by a French naval victory in Chesapeake
Bay that prevented the Royal Navy from evacuating General Cornwallis and his men. Thus
surrounded, without hope of reinforcements, Cornwallis surrendered his army in October, 1781.
It took another two years for the combatants to sign a peace treaty, during which time the
war dragged on in various theaters around the world, principally between the French and English
at sea. In the end Britain was forced to give up the rebellious colonies and make some other
minor concessions. Casualties from fighting in America were relatively light, with about an equal
number of casualties from exposure and disease. But like most wars it was an expensive exercise
in futility for the European participants. Britain racked up a heavy debt just to lose some territory.
The Netherlands were subsequently defeated by the English in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and
the huge debt France faced exacerbated internal discontent that helped lead to France’s own civil
war within ten years.
One of the principal beneficiaries of internal French turmoil was a general named
Napoleon Bonaparte. An ethnic Italian born on the island of Corsica, he entered military school
at the age of nine. During the ten year French Revolution from 1789 to 1799, Napoleon had
uncommon military success in France, Italy, Austria and Egypt. In 1799, with his army stuck in
Egypt for lack of Naval support after the British, under Horatio Nelson, destroyed many French
ships at the Battle of the Nile, Napoleon was recalled to Paris. The governing body was under
attack again and Napoleon was approached by Seiyes, a member of the governing Directory, to
implement a military overthrow. Napoleon did act to dismiss the government, but he seized the
initiative from Seiyes and got himself appointed First Consul, two years later he was declared
First Consul for life.
During his time as First Consul Napoleon was instrumental in reforming the legal and
civil systems. To the delight of the expanding United States, in 1800 he entered a secret treaty
with Spain transferring control of the Louisiana Territory in America to France. Following the
successful slave revolt in Haiti in 1803, and facing imminent war with Britain, Napoleon agreed
to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States for fifteen million dollars; about three cents an
acre. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. But, Napoleon and the
French could use the money and in 1804 Napoleon had himself crowned Emperor. In that same

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year Austria and Russia joined Britain in opposing France and in 1805 Napoleon led the Grand
Armee to victory over Austria and Russia. That success was tempered however, when the British
assured control of the seas by defeating the French and Spanish Navies at the Battle of Trafalgar.
When another coalition formed to challenge France, Napoleon defeated Prussia and Russia,
giving France control of additional German states and part of Poland.
Despite great military achievement, Napoleon fell into that age-old trap of greed that
disguises one’s own limits and an insatiable Napoleon ordered the invasion of Spain. After a
failed start, Napoleon took personal control of the invasion and subdued much of Spain before
Austria again broke allegiance with France and Napoleon returned to France. Though the French
were able to defeat Austria again, the combined forces of the Spanish, Portugese and British were
able to regain control of Spain. While French forces were still engaged in Spain, Russia massed
troops at the Polish border in preperation to retake Poland from France. Hearing of that,
Napoleon raised more troops, and led an army estimated at half a million strong against Russia.
In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia where he would finally discover the limits of himself
and the Grand Armee. It wasn’t for lack of power and battle ability that Napoleon tasted bitter
disappointment because the Russians offered little resistance, instead employing a “scorched
earth” tactic of retreat under the relentless onslaught of the French. It was deep within Russia,
near Moscow, that the Russian Army finally made a stand. French forces may have sustained less
casualties than the Russian Army, but the engagement was not a decisive victory. Following the
battle, the Russians abandoned Moscow and burned it as well. Napoleon had expected surrender
when he captured Moscow, but when the Russians made it clear that they would continue to
retreat and burn their own country in an attempt to starve the invading French, Napoleon decided
to cut his losses and withdraw from the Russian campaign, proving the old adage of loss in
victory.
With news of Napoleon’s failure in Russia, more countries were encouraged to oppose
his ambitions of conquering the continent. Prussia, Russia, Britain, Spain and Portugal all stood
against the French. And after Napoleon defeated the allied forces, Sweden and Austria also allied
against France. Eventually the combined allied forces were too much for even Napoleon to
withstand and the French were driven back. In 1814 Paris was occupied and Napoleon was sent
into exile on the island of Elba. But, in less than a year he escaped Elba and returned to France,
only to raise another army and be defeated again by allied forces at Waterloo in Belgium. After
Waterloo, Napoleon was banished to Saint Helena where he died in 1821.
Napoleon’s disastrous campaign into Russia that, while not being defeated in major
battle, cost so many men and so much of his Grand Armee in the face of Russia’s scorched earth
tactics, underlined the power of the collossus that was Russia. Russia had become a significant
power in Europe under the rule of Peter the Great a century before Napoleon came to power in
France. From the time Peter took the Russian throne in 1689 until his death in 1725, Peter, like
Napolean, reformed his government, and was obsessed with expanding his empire. Peter
modeled his reforms after European customs to his west. He forbade the wearing of beards and
long coats and relaxed the restrictions on women, allowing them to participate in social functions
and ordering the removal of the oppressive veils that covered their faces.
Peter’s legacy was military expansion. Drawing on the vast resources of the huge Russian
territory, and imposing heavy taxes and long military enlistments on the Russian people, he
oversaw development of a huge, modernized military. The primary target of his expansionist
ambition was the Baltic coast controlled by Sweden. With an empire that already stretched to the
Pacific coast north of China, Peter concentrated his efforts against Sweden and even allied
Russia with Poland and Denmark to that end. But their first effort failed as young King Charles
XII of Sweden routed the combined forces allied against him in 1700. Eventually however, the

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numerical superiority of the Danes, Poles and Rus, combined with scorched earth retreating
tactics by Russia to wear down Charles XII and the Swedes, and Russian forces were able to take
control of the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea.
Russia’s gain also momentarily benefitted the British as war weakened some of its
continental rivals. Althought the loss of the fledling United States, made official in 1783,
diminished the British Empire, it was by no means crippled. For more than a hundred years the
British East India Company grew and prospered through diplomacy and profitable trade, even
being well received by the Muhgal rulers of India. And as the Muhgal Empire declined, the
Company took the opportunity to expand. Raising a private army, the Company defeated an army
of Bengal in 1757 and installed a virtual puppet government. Over the next hundred years the
Company extended control over most of India, dominating the highly profitable sub-continent
and considerable China trade, and bringing a huge population into the British fold.
A rebellion centered in Bengal in 1857 was put down in short order, but by that time the
Indian trade was such a large part of the British economy that Great Britain decided to dissolve
the private company after two-and-a-half centuries and administer India, including modern
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar under direct government rule. And through war, trade and
colonization, at it’s height the British Empire surpassed that of the Mongols as the largest unified
empire ever known, incorporating areas around the world from Canada, to Africa, the Middle
East, India, Australia and beyond.

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 Science and Industry
As the culture of the renaissance and age of discovery inspired brilliance and innovation,
the spirit of achievement broke through rigid confines of conformity and pushed a wave of
creativity across Europe. One of those riding the wave of creativity was a student and later
teacher at Trinity College in Cambridge, England named Isaac Newton. He helped to organize,
and added to the growing body of knowledge that was the scientific revolution; building on the
foundation of the philosopher Descartes, astronomers Gallileo, Kepler and Copernicus, and
mathematicians John Wallis, Isaac Barrow, Eudoxus, Aryabhata, Ibn al-Hatham and Sharaf al-
Din al-Tusi to name only a scant few.
Regarded as the most important work of one of the most influential scientists of all time,
Newton’s Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy (Principia), was published in 1687.
His contributions include pioneering work in optics where he demonstrated the color components
in light through refraction and invented a reflective telescope based on mirrors to focus light
without the refraction abberation common to lens focusing. And though he was instrumental in
applying calculus to matters of physics, his fame derives from the introduction of the concept of
gravity and his laws of inertia, acceleration and reaction that helped shape the future of physics
and mechanics.
It was the work of men like Newton that helped planets and other celestial bodies escape
the archaic confines of clear, glass-like spheres popular with Aristotle, and move through the vast
universe thethered only by the touchless, invisible bonds of gravity. Principia also gave some
valuable advice to any of those seeking the truth, by sharing some of Newton’s principles of
reason. To prevent errors born of man’s recognized tendency to invent undue cause of questioned
effect Newton penned the following four rules of philosophy:
• We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to
explain their appearances.
• Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.
• The qualities of bodies, which admit neither intensification nor remission of degrees, and
which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be
esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever.
• In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions inferred by general induction
from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses
that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be
made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.
Without such objective approaches to reason the 18th century surely wouldn’t be called
the Age of Enlightenment. German philosopher Immanuel Kant echoed the sentiment of those
resisting the old bully pulpit when he challenged, “Dare to Know!: Have the courage to use your
own intelligence!” And at the end of the preceding century John Locke published his Essay
Concerning Human Understanding wherein he influenced future Enlightenment thinkers by
stressing the importance of experience and environment on shaping peoples attitudes and
understandings. Nowhere was the impact of experience better demonstrated than in the accounts
written by adventurers, merchants and missionaries that traveled the world and reported on the
myriad of customs and traditions of distant cultures, causing readers to question the benefit, truth
and even necessity of their own rituals and convictions.
But tragically, mankind was so consumed by it’s own ignorance that enlightenment
writers were forced to use a number of ploys to circumvent censorship such as overtly praising
what they intended to criticize, publishing under pseudonyms, setting lessons in the form of
dialogues among characters in a story, and criticizing customs of other lands that resembled

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undesirable customs at home. Society was in such a rut of selfishness that two critical themes of
the Enlightenment involved toleration and equality.
There was beauty in generous thought that was accompanied by equally beautiful music,
brought to life by such legends as Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. And the
flowering of knowledge, art, and discovery was soon followed by major advancements in
industry, with Britain being the principal seat of the industrial revolution in the late 1700s and
early 1800s. It may have been no small coincidence that industry prospered in eighteenth century
England along with a great rise of periodicals and newspapers that aided in the dissemination of
news and information contributing to intellectual collaboration.
At that time one of the basic economic staples behind food was clothing. And it was in
the textile industry that mechanization made great early strides, with some of the first machine
production powered by water wheels and animals, but as textile machinery became more
complex and efficient so did the engines that powered them. Some of the first practical steam
engines saw early action pumping water out of coal mines, but after improvements by James
Watts and fellow inventors, the steam engine became wildly popular in powering the emerging
textile factories and other stationary applications like grain grinding.
Increased demand meant massive increases in the quantity and quality of iron production
and machining in the eighteenth century that contributed to the dominance of the steam engine in
transportation. Those steam engines drove giant locomotives and steamships that supplied
factories with raw materials and delivered finished goods to markets around Britain and around
the world, in addition to driving increased production by powering manufacturing processes.
Rapid increases in mechanization, power generation, chemical production, machining and
metallurgy were complemented by Britain’s dominance of the seas to allow nineteenth century
Britain and its still expanding overseas empire to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the
world in wealth and power. Some of that British wealth and ingenuity was proudly presented by
Queen Victoria in the first modern world fair, the Great Exhibition of 1851. And many other
countries joined Britain in contributing to the 100,000 exhibits of the latest products and
technologies under nineteen acres of glass and iron of the Crystal Palace display hall. The public
enthusiasm for profitable industry and satisfaction of achievement may have been summed up by
Victoria’s husband Prince Albert when he lauded man’s fulfillment of the sacred mission of
conquering nature for his use.
On the foreign front Britain’s colonial dominance and growing empire was maintained
the only way society knew to maintain control: by armed conflict. Britain’s control of India and
aggressive trade development brought it into conflict with China in the Opium Wars from 1839
to 1842 and from 1856 to 1860. With victory, the British gained control of Hong Kong as a
trading port, and favorable trade accomodations to counter the large trade imbalance that existed
before the wars, as the Chinese maintained a self-sufficiency that contrasted starkly with steady
demand in Britain for Chinese products and materials.
After the Americas, Australia, Atlantic and Pacific island groups, and much of Asia was
under the control of the European colonial powers, they partitioned Africa near the end of the
nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Britain connected its share of Africa with the
rest of the Empire with an amazing telegraph system that extended from Europe to Africa, to
Asia, south to Australia, across the Pacific to Canada and across the Atlantic to Ireland.
The world’s growing telegraph network was kept busy by the accelerated march of
discovery and technological innovation during the nineteenth century. One of the very important
developments was promotion of the germ theory by French chemist Louis Pasteur that truly
revolutionized sanitation and healthy practices in food preparation and the field of medicine. His
process of sterilizing substances by applying enough heat to kill microorganisms became known

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as pasteurization and is the basis of preservation in much of the canned and bottled foods
consumed today.
Human civilization was drastically changed when, for the first time in history, Pasteur’s
germ theory led to the general acceptance that many horrific diseases were the result of invasions
of pathogenic microorganisms too small to see with the naked eye. Society was able to benefit
from better hygenic practices in healthcare that greatly reduced the occurrence of deadly
infections known as “hospital gangrene.” And perhaps even more importantly, Pasteur’s work led
to a preventative vaccine for rabies and helped lay the foundation for development of future
immunizations against the world’s most deadly diseases. Together with the popularization of
ether and chloroform anesthesia in the 1840s, microbiology finally ushered in the modern age of
medicine.
But the French were busy with more than microscopic projects in the 19th century. In
1869 they finished the monumental Suez canal that recalled the engineering ambition of Darius
of Persia that enabled maritime travelers between Europe and the pacific to bypass the large
African continent. And in attempting to duplicate their success the French also undertook to link
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by building a canal through Panama. But unfortunately, their
efforts in Panama were fatally compromised by malaria and yellow fever that claimed more than
twenty thousand lives. Ironically, it was the work of men like Pasteur that eanbled Americans to
correctly surmise that mosquitos were responsible for transmitting deadly tropical diseases, and
in 1914 America completed the massive project began by the French decades before.
Science was still picking up speed in the 19th century when Russian Dmitriy Mendeleyev
classified the known elements by their atomic weights and contributed to the grouping of
elements into periods of substances with similar properties in the 1860s. And also that decade the
world lost one of the preeminent experimental scientists of all time when the Briton Michael
Faraday passed away in 1867. Thanks to Faraday’s pioneering breakthroughs in chemistry, and
contributions to the electrical age through his work with motors, generators and electromagnetic
theory, he was awarded a professorship for life at the Royal Institution of Great Britain;
demonstrating that high accomplishment isn’t necessarily correlated with formal education, of
which Faraday had very little.
But, there was still a running battle between fallacy and fact being waged between
religious prosyletizers and scientists. Early in the century, in 1809, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck had presented a theory of evolution in which he postulated that plants and animals
differed based on different environmental conditions shaping their development. It wasn’t until
fifty years later however, that Englishman Charles Darwin, a naturalist that had been trained in
theology, shook man’s world to its foundation when he presented the evolution of species.
The evolution of species seemed to make a lot of sense to people – until the public
actually considered how that concept related to them. It wasn’t until Darwin published a book in
1872 discussing the evolution of men and apes from common ancestors that the general public
woke up and considered the application of evolution to humanity. The idea that people might in
any way be equal to or have common ties with their fellow earthlings was repugnant to the self-
rihteous and narrow minded masses, and great slanders were directed at Darwin for trying to
associate mankind with the lowly apes. But, the true savages weren’t apes or monkeys, of course,
but it was those assailing Darwin’s character for presenting the brilliant, honest truth. Never did
they stop to consider how mankind’s progress to this point gives hope for greater understanding
and accomplishment in the future.
Even the basic contradictions inherent in the variety of humanity having descended from
Adam and Eve and later Noah’s family in just a few thousand years was lost on the masses, as
they were quite content believing what they wanted to believe without the burden of reason. Still

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today people refuse to embrace reality, and deception rages on amongst the ignorant; who slap
each other on the back and praise one another for jobs well done. The Abrahamic tradition to
which Jews, Christians and Muslims cling gives dates for the age of the world of less than ten
thousand years. Yet many are too blind to see the evolution implied by that very tradition when
considering racial diversity among the people of the world. Even the arrogance employed by
many Europeans arguing the savage (non-white) races were a blend of man and beast was an
erroneous affirmation of evolution, which they vehemently opposed.
Widespread ignorance also led to war when England’s most famous former colony was
torn apart by civil war because of the blatantly evil institutionalized injustice of slavery. When
Abraham Lincoln won the election for President of the United States in 1860 despite not being
on the ballot in nine Southern states, the spark was set to the smoldering, contentious issue of
slavery. But Lincoln’s opposition to slavery was mild compared to many abolitionists and other
Republican candidates for president. There were even some brave people that refused to sit by
while politicians debated the legality of imprisoning, beating and terrorizing people in perpetual
forced labor. With every passing day people were being abused for the little gain of greedy men.
John Brown’s raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in 1859 was the last major
attempt to physically free the slaves prior to the Civil War. The largest was led by Charles
Deslandes in 1811 in Louisiana when a group of as many as five hundred slaves were recaptured
near the small town of Destrehan upstream of New Orleans. Sixty six slaves died in battle and
Deslandes and twenty of his followers were executed and decapitated. The heads of the executed
slaves were placed on poles along the river road as a warning to others. Many other slaves that
dared to seek freedom were burned or otherwise brutally murdered during the centuries of slavery
in America. And their mutilated bodies were often hung for public display to terrorize any other
would-be runaways and rebels.
The debate over slavery had resonated across America for about a century prior to the
American Civil War. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were among the leaders of the
American Revolution that spoke out against the evils of slavery. Yet the oppression continued.
Debates raged through the halls of congress, and states like Kansas were bloodied by the contests
between opposing factions over the admission of new states as slave or free states. The general
disgust with slavery grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with both sides of the issue
becoming more entrenched in their positions. In 1861 the Russian monarch Alexander II freed
Russian serfs, leaving America as the last great bastion of slavery.
After Lincoln was elected president, South Carolina renounced the Constitution and
seceeded from the United States. South Carolina was soon followed by other slave states, and a
war of secession began in 1861. Still, President Lincoln was so unenthused about equal rights he
didn’t announce the freedom of Union blacks until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and
that act appears to be motivated in part by the need for a boost in the war effort. Actually,
Lincoln had previously stated that he didn’t intend the negro to be elevated to voting rights and
equality with white men. Nevertheless, after the deaths of thousands and thousands of soldiers
fighting for liberation in the deadliest American war, slavery was finally outlawed. It’s often
forgotten that the American civil war largely marked the end of the barbaric practice of
enslavement that had oppressed every ethnic group in the world at some time in history. Since
before the time of Egypt and Sumer, no group of people have been spared the yoke of slavery at
the feet of conquerers, savages and even traders.
Even with the denouncement of slavery however, the Industrial Revolution contributed to
the separation of the haves and have-nots. Never before did such a gap in technology and
productivity exist as between those countries at the forefront of technology and those left behind.
Many areas of the world still relied on meager agrarian economies. Britain’s European rivals,

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especially Germany, eventually lessened the industrial gap. But the mammoth countries of Russia
and the United States were beginning to loom large on global considerations. As Britain was
forming a widespread conglomeration of territories populated by diverse peoples, America had
taken some of Spain’s island colonies and forged westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
And Russia had extended its borders to the Baltic and Black Seas and eastward all the
way to the Pacific Ocean. The industrial revolution had tilted world demand from labor to
resources. While the large populations in Europe and Asia were heavy burdens on available
resources, leading the Europeans to push into Africa for raw materials; America and Russia had
enormous reserves of resources in their own backyards just waiting to be exploited. But before
Russia could ramp up a world-class economy, it’s global aspirations drew it into a long contest
of influence in Central Asia with Britain which came to be called the Great Game.
The build up of modern European militaries had left the Ottoman Empire at a
disadvantage, and Russia wanted to extend its territory into that controlled by the Ottoman
Empire. But others weren’t content to see Russia expand its formidable territory even further,
and in the 1850s Britain, or the United Kingdom as it was known, joined with France, Sardinia
and the Ottoman Empire in war to halt a Russian invasion of Ottoman territory. But in the late
1870s Russia did manage to successfully annex territory from the Ottoman Empire in what came
to be known as the Russo-Turkish War.
Britain and Russia continued to feel the other was a threat to their interests and order, but
it was the British that grew more concerned every time Russia expanded it’s territorial holdings,
especially toward India, the Jewel of Britain’s Imperial Crown. The 1800s saw Russia expand in
Central Asia up to the border of and even into Afghanistan. As a result, Britain invaded
Afghanistan twice, at high cost, in an attempt to maintain British influence and keep a buffer
against Russian encroachment. Undaunted, Russia extended its control into Northern Iran; and
the two powers lobbied and threatened the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Tibet until a growing
German influence in East Asia gave them both pause to reconsider their priorities.

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 Great War and Rise of the Dark Knight
In 1870 Italy was united by Victor Emmanuel II. Shortly thereafter, following the Franco-
Prussian War, William I and his Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck united the northen German
states under Prussia, one of the states of the former Holy Roman Empire; and William declared
his nation the German Empire. Before defeating France in 1870 Bismarck had already led Prussia
to defeat Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 to establish Prussia as the leading power
among the German states. Austria’s loss of territory to Prussia and Italy left the rule of the
Habsburgs weakened in a kingdom comprised of many competing ethnic groups. Soon Magyer
nationalism in Hungary caused the kingdom to be split into two distinct states, Austria and
Hungary, each with their own governments but both still ruled by Francis Joseph, Emperor of
Austria and King of Hungary. While Hungary was in turmoil, industrialization proliferated in
Germany under William and toward the end of the nineteenth century Germany even overtook
Britain as Europe’s foremost industrial power.
Meanwhile, being intimidated by what came to be known as gunboat diplomacy by the
U.S. in the 1850s and thus spurred by outside forces, Japan also embraced a course of aggressive
development in the latter stages of the nineteenth century. Under the rule of Mutsuhito, also
known as Emperor Meiji, Shinto was declared the official religion and as emperor Meiji was
revered as semi-divine, and he also took direct control of the Imperial Army and Navy. The
Japanese modeled their modernized navy after, and received training assistance from the British
Royal Navy; with the majority of their primary warships built in Britain and France. And the
Imperial Japanese Army was modeled after the French and then the Prussian, or German, Army,
receiving military advisors from both countries.
The work produced remarkable results, and by the 1890s Japan had a modern army and
navy and decided to seize the opportunity to rest control of Korea from China, beginning the
First Sino-Japanese war in 1894. And the Europeans certainly weren’t above playing one side
against the other in such regional conflicts. Though Britain had assisted the modernization of
Japan’s navy, at the outbreak of the war a British merchant ship was in the employ of China,
transporting troops, and it was the forcible interception of that ship by the Japanese that almost
set off hostilities between Britain and Japan. In addition, China was also receiving military
advice from Germany, much as Japan had previously. Nonetheless, after a series of Japanese
victories the war ended quickly and China was forced to make concessions to Japan including
handing over possession of the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
Originally China ceded the Liaodong Peninsula, situated between mainland China and the
Korean Peninsula, to Japan as well, but that conflicted with Russia’s interests in Manchuria.
Russia desperately wanted a year round port on the Pacific that the shelter of the Yellow Sea
could provide. So Russia persuaded Germany and France to apply pressure, convincing Japan to
release the land in exchange for a greater indemnity payment. Japan conceded, but was concerned
with expanding Russian presence in the area, and after another decade of strengthening its
military, Japan was ready to confront Russia, who in the meantime had heavily fortified Port
Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula. The resulting Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 ended in a
humiliating defeat for Russia, and a stark notice to the West that Japan had come of age.
But Japan’s victory had significant impact in Europe as well. Britain, for one, also long
concerned by Russian expansion, was not upset to see that expansion halted. And perhaps more
importantly, Germany was emboldened by the weakness of France’s ally Russia, making
Germany a little less reserved about engaging in regional hostilities of its own. And in Japan,
after centuries of isolation, military success was accompanied by emphatic loyalty. When
Emperor Meiji died in 1912, his valued general, Maresuke Nogi, along with the general’s wife,

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followed their leader in death by committing suicide.
The political scene in Europe was tense as usual, but Europe was also still experiencing
rapid technological advancement, driven by creative freedom and can-do attitudes. In the 1890s
Germany’s educational system was setting an example that many would be better to follow
today. German technical high schools were awarding doctorate degrees and some large
companies opened their own schools for internal training. By the 1880s men like Karl Benz were
producing practical automobiles, although less practical self-propelled vehicles had been around
a long while, including the awkward steam powered fardiers built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot
more than a century before, and the early 19th century vehicles of François Isaac de Rivaz, the
Swiss inventor of the internal combustion engine. Also in Germany, Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin had built on the work of David Schwarz and produced a number of rigid, flying airships
near the beginning of the twentieth century. And after the Wright Brothers’ successful flight at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903 those floaters were joined in the skies by airplanes.
While technology was making possible dramatic lifestyle changes, it was also increasing
the possible devastation of war. Despite efforts by some of the most powerful military empires of
history including the Romans, Huns and Mongols, Europe has never been unified under a single
authority. But, while Europe has remained too much for one man or government to conquer,
many, like Napoleon, have tried, and the assorted tribes and kingdoms have a strong history of
fighting amongst themselves. Of course, in that respect they’re in accord with historical
humanity.
To attempt to trace back through reprisals and conquests to the original offense between
grievous or warring nations is merely an exercise in futility. And that’s true with World War One
as well. Each cause of the war seems to have a previous cause, and one before that, and so on.
Though it’s been said that Europe was a powder-keg just waiting to be set off prior to World War
One; the prevailing ethnic tensions, international distrust and territorial ambitions were far from
new to the political scene. What was new however, was the speed of communication around the
world, the speed with which nations could mobilize and join in distant hostilities, and the
destructive force capable of being brought to bear on enemy combatants and bystanders alike.
Whatever the political environment, the immediate cause of the war was the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by a Bosnian Serb student
named Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Bosnia was one of many territories that had been
alternately occupied by the Austrians and Ottomans over the centuries in their competing
struggles for empire, so there was an inherent danger of people accustomed to war and hostility.
But during the first part of the 20th century, there was also a strong liberation movement amongst
southern Slavic people seeking independence. Princip was influenced by that independence
sentiment and conspired with a like-minded group to assassinate Ferdinand during a visit to
Sarejevo.
The plan to assassinate the Archduke didn’t go as planned however, the initial grenade
attack on Ferdinand’s motorcade missed his car but injured a number of onlookers. It was only
through the compassion of the Archduke’s wife Sophie, that Ferdinand would be exposed to a
follow-up attempt on his life after Sophie suggested they go to the hospital to visit with those
injured in the grenade attack. It was in that effort that Princip unexpectedly met up with
Ferdinand’s car and shot Ferdinand and his wife, killing them both. While tragic in the eyes of
many, it was a fitting end for a man that had earned a reputation as an avid hunter. But, of course,
to his family it was the highest of crimes.
At that time Austria-Hungary and the Balkan states were a mixing bowl of ethnic groups
where tensions and nationalist feelings ran high. The ethnic discord also influenced other young
people besides Gavrilo Princip, like an Austrian-born German named Adolf Hitler who was

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repelled by the conglomeration of races in Vienna, the Austrian capitol. In his later political
thesis Mein Kampf Hitler wrote “The longer I lived in this city, the more my hatred grew for the
foreign mixture of peoples which had begun to corrode this old site of German culture.” As
Gavrilo Princip had been influenced by outspoken Slavic nationalists, so too Hitler was
influenced by extremist German culture in his youth, as many in Austria were. The long standing
tensions of competing factions left many Austrians frustrated and eager to settle matters.
It was in that context that Austria-Hungary placed unreasonable demands on Serbia over
the killing of the Archduke: an incident that Serbia also declared to be criminal and unfortunate.
When Austria-Hungary failed to receive the kind of concessions demanded of Serbia they
declared war. But things were more complicated than that, in the complex web of nationalities
and allegiances many secret and not-so-secret alliances had been forged. Russia came to the aid
of Serbia, motivated by a Slavic bond, competition with Austria and a continuing desire for
territory bordering the Black Sea that would give Russia convenient year-round access to the
Meditteranean and Atlantic. Germany was strongly allied with Austria, France was allied with
Russia to oppose its traditional enemy Germany, and the Ottomans, eager to expand in the
Balkans, had a secret alliance with Germany.
In rapid succession, almost without realizing the consequences, the countries of Europe
declared war and advanced on each other. Germany’s advance through Belgium toward Paris
drew the United Kingdom into the war, including British Commonwealths such as Canada and
Australia. Italy decided against honoring its alliance with the Central powers of Austria and
Germany and sided with the Entente allies instead. And, bouyied by initial military success,
Austria and Germany convinced Bulgaria to join in the attack of Serbia. But, Austria’s August
invasion was thrown back by Serbia, though Germany’s simultaneous advance against Belgium
and France was much more successful.
Russia’s defense of Slavdom, and quest for German-controlled territory, came in the form
of offensives against the Austrians in Galicia and the Germans in East Prussia. Like Serbia,
Russia was successful in its war with Austria, but the northern campaign against Germany was
another matter as the Germans rebuffed the Russian advance. The war on the Western Front
between Germany, France and the United Kingdom quickly degenerated into trench warfare and
bloody stalemate, with nobody having a good offensive strategy for overcoming the firepower of
entrenched artillery and machine guns. Even European colonies were heavily involved in the
fighting, and German territories in the Pacific were seized by the Entente powers within the first
year.
While America maintained formal neutrality, British and French control of the oceans,
along with a growing disdain of Germany, helped ensure the Allies, as the nations of the Entente
alliance were known, benefit of American supplies. Still, with no overwhelming advantage, the
war settled into a war of attrition. In 1915 the Germans transferred some of their emphasis from
the stagnant Western Front to renewed offensive against Russia in the east. The Germans pushed
the Russians back, but eventually stalled and found themselves spread out over a long distance
fighting a war with two main fronts when Romania joined the Allies in 1916. However, the
German offensive against Russia did produce a favorable result for Germany, as destruction and
hardship caused by the fierce fighting on Russian land demoralized the citizens of Russia and
lead to an overthrow of Tsarist rule in 1917. Within months the ruthless and opportunistic radical
Bolshevics gained power in Russia and signed a peace treaty with the central powers, ceding
much territory to Germany and leaving Germany secure on its eastern flank.
The Russian armistice freed many German troops on the Eastern Front to transfer to the
West, but Germany did leave the Eighth Army in Russia to prevent Russian military resurgence.
That German victory was countered, however, by political bungling when Germans attacked

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America’s east coast and maritime shipping, and a German telegraph called for Mexico and
Japan to declare war on America. Together, those provocations combined to convince America to
declare war against Germany in 1917 and helped seal Germany’s demise. But before the
Americans could make a decisive impact Germany did meet with additional success. In 1918 the
Central Powers refined their strategy and concentrated efforts on selected targets to break
communications and resistance before attacking the bulk of the Allied forces. With renewed
vigor German forces pushed the Allies back to within striking distance of Paris with their big
railroad canons, and the Germans were feeling confident of impending victory.
On that occasion, when Paris was threatened with occupation, Australian reinforcements
were instrumental in stopping the German advance and the Western Front was once again locked
in stalemate, until the Allies made their first significant progress of the war on the Western Front.
Led by recently designed tanks and backed by an influx of up to ten thousand U.S. soldiers each
day, the allies began a strategy of driving wedges through enemy lines and outflanking their
opponents. And as the strength disparity continued to grow the Allies finally slammed headlong
into the enemy line and pushed the Germans back.
Although supply line deficiencies halted the progress on many of the Allied offensives;
still, the Germans were unable to recover because the Allied naval blockade had limited their
production capacity and Allied reinforcements continued to pour in. Leg by leg, the Central
Powers collapsed. Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary and finally Germany
surrendered; signing an armistace on November 11, 1918. But, failure in war spurred internal
strife in Germany and the German surrender came on the heels of an internal revolution that
created the Weimar Republic when Kaiser Willhelm II fled to the Netherlands.
German land, however, hadn’t suffered the brunt of the fighting as France and Belgium
had suffered. And surrender came before the destruction of Germany, without the despair, regret
and humiliation of utter defeat. The German fighting spirit had been subdued, but it hadn’t been
crushed. The result of the war was a terrific loss of life, devisive treaties and little more.
Nobody emerged better from the fighting, many of those that returned were crippled from
injury, and many didn’t return at all. Approximately ten million soldiers were killed; twice as
many wounded; and millions more missing. Famine and destruction were widespread with cities
destroyed and hundreds of miles of fine land along battle fronts blasted into wasteland. Adding to
people’s woes was a bout of influenza called the Spanish Flu that spread around the world
following the war; estimated to have killed fifty million people, it was more deadly for humans
than the Great War itself, although the impact on other life was decidedly less significant than
modern warfare.
The political landscape following the war was significantly altered by the fall of some
national identities, the general loss of territory by the Central Powers and the rise of newly
independent states, especially in the area of the Balkans. The monarchies of Germany, Austria-
Hungary, Russia and the Ottomans were all toppled and lands were repartitioned. Britain’s
colossol empire was theoretically added to by the League of Nations mandate that assigned
control of the Palestine and Iraq to the United Kingdom. But by that point the British Empire was
not an empire in the sense of the Roman or Mongol Empires, as many British territories such as
Canada and Australia were already self-governing dominions.
American president Woodrow Wilson championed the creation of nations comprised of
people of similar culture and aspirations, maintaining small armies, and protected by the League
of Nations. He thought no people should be forced to live under a sovereignty not of their
choosing. But despite Wilson’s call for conciliation and friendship, the victorious Allies,
appalled by their terrible war losses demanded compensation from the defeated Central Powers,
and the Central Powers were still too proud to follow through with concessions granted in the

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peace treaties.
The war devastated European economies and France insisted that Germany make
reparations. But when the weakened German economy failed to meet those obligations France
commited its army to occupy German industrial territory, only costing France more money and
fueling German resentment. While the Germans were indignant, America was still trying to sow
harmony through financial aid. In unproductive circular fashion Britain paid back some of the
massive debt in wartime loans it received from America with damage reparations from Germany
which was receiving financial aid from the United States. The damage was so great and the debt
so staggering that many of the loans and reparations were never repaid. For its part, Germany
didn’t see itself as having been unduly aggressive and would come to vehemently resent
sanctions imposed as a result of the war. And topping things off, when the speculative bubble of
the New York Stock Exchange burst in 1929, economies around the world went from bad to
worse.
Russia descended into civil war following the Bolshevik power grab and agreement with
Germany. While the Bolshevik communists publicly stated that they stood for equality and
democractic value, in reality they were ruthless, greedy and suspicious of nearly everyone. In the
late teens and early twenties the communists fought private wars of terror against influential
people and dissidents with secret police, and they fought a full-scale war against the White
Armies and others that rose up against their radical policies.
Despite the professed democracy of their socialist party, the Bolsheviks under Vladimir
Ulianov, or V.I. Lenin, ruled with totalitarian repression from the beginning. They were too
power hungry to compromise with even other socialst parties. Under Lenin and Leon Trotsky the
Bolsheviks came out victorious in the war for control. But their massive seizures of private
property led to economic disaster and widespread hunger, prompting the Red Communists to
allow peasants to keep a small parcel of property to grow their own food. The turmoil and
restructuring caused living standards to fall well below those of pre-war levels under the Tsar.
But when the Russian people thought matters couldn’t get much worse, Lenin died in 1924 and
the former bank robber Joseph Stalin murdered his way to control of the party.
Stalin assumed dictatorial powers on a scale rivaling the biggest tyrants of history. His
reign of terror lasting approximately thirty years was summarized by his successor Nikita
Krushchev who ended the forced-labor camps and reversed Stalinist censorship. Kruschev, who
was intimidating in his own right, said that Stalin practiced brutal violence toward everything
that opposed him or was contrary to his concepts. Stalin abused his power with mas repressions,
terror, annihilation and executions without trial. And to make matters worse, his gross
mismanagement of the economy resulted in the death of up to five million people from starvation
in the 1930’s.
Stalin’s dictatorial style was similar to that of one Benito Mussolini of Italy, though
Mussolini waffled wildly in his ideology. He went from being a pacifist socialist opposing war to
a violent attacker of socialists and communists that fervently promoted war when he thought he
might stand to benefit. In 1922, under threat of force, King Victor Emmanuel III made Mussolini
prime minister of Italy. It was hoped by some that Mussolini could counter the growing power of
radical communism. But when the fascists of Mussolini gained power people soon learned that
fascists could be just as ruthless as radical communists as they maintained control through the
terrorism of their “Blackshirt” squadristi and censorship of the press.
As prime minister, Mussolini revised the laws to give himself athoritarian powers. In time
he took more and more contol of the government and citizens of Italy, putting private business
under state control and taking personal direction of the underperforming economy, while
overseeing a massive propaganda campaign to mold public opinion. He even made his bias

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towards women felt publicly by discouraging their employment, describing working women as
forming an independence and physical and moral habits contrary to child bearing. Instead, he
recommended they stay home and raise large families. When his control was secure he set upon a
campaign of conquest in his ambition to return the Meditterranean to the sea of Italy as it was
under the Roman Empire. As part of that territorial quest the Italians under Mussolini slaughtered
and impaled inhabitants of Ethiopia while attempting to take over Africa.
But a dark star was rising in Germany that would overshadow the atrocities of Mussolini
and Stalin. Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in prison after a failed attempt to overthrow the
German government in 1923. Before he ever grasped significant political power his racial hatred
and inflated since of self worth was published for all the world to see, yet nobody stopped him. In
one of Mussolini’s common about-faces he referred to Hitler as a buffoon before Hitler’s
growing power convinced Mussolini to seek alliance with Him. And eventually, due to his own
ineptitude, Mussolini became Hitler’s junior sidekick and southern puppet.
As a simple-minded youth Hitler had become convinced that those people not acting or
looking as he did were inferior, and he committed the rest of his life toward furthering his race
war. Though of average intelligence, Hitler was remarkably successful in his singular pursuit of
racial warfare, and displayed considerable insight into popular thought. In Mein Kampf he wrote,
“…the political opinion of the masses represents nothing but the final result of an incredibly
tenacious and thorough manipulation of their mind and soul.”
As a staunch proponent of the power of speech, he enjoyed brilliant success in perturbing
huge mobs into frenzied action with effluent theatrical speech. But as a youth he didn’t stand out
as a future leader. He moved a number of times as a child, failed the sixth grade, dropped out of
high school and then failed to gain admittance to art school on two separate occasions. Lacking
direction, Hitler lived on a meager welfare subsidy as an adolescent, due to the death of his
father, but after his mother died his portion of the government pension went to his sister. At
about the age of twenty he even spent some time in a homeless shelter, yet he never seemed
thankful for the generosity of others.
After moving to Vienna as a teenager, with responsibility only for himself, and lacking
more important concerns, he noticed people of peculiar attire and appearance. With nationalist
propaganda fouling his mind he questioned whether the Jews that looked so peculiar to him were
even Germans. To further research the subject he purchased anti-Semitic pamphlets and set about
contemplating the presence of those foreigners among the Germans. Hitler came to hate
foreigners of all shapes and sizes: Slavs, Magyars, Mongols, Negroids and the rest were enemies
of the German state. Hitler felt compelled to free German people from the internal Slav enemy.
But he held a special hatred for Jews; in them he found a scapegoat for all of Germany’s
problems. In his dim wit he began to see Jews everywhere, like the religious see demons, he saw
them behind every bad action, and particularly behind every failing of the mother land from
economic depression to defeat in the Great War.
To Hitler, Aryans were the only representative of the founders of culture. They were the
creators and custodians of civilization and they had the pure blood with the likeness of the lord,
while others were a mixture of man and ape. Strangely, Hitler’s arrogance and bitter hatred for
the Jewish people was reminiscent of the Jewish claim of being god’s chosen people. And it was
quite paradoxical that Hitler was raised a Catholic Christian, and even though Jews are blamed
for killing Jesus, Hitler completely lost sight of the fact that Jesus was Jewish. Hitler worshipped
the Jew named Jesus as God incarnate, and yet maintained the astounding ignorance to proclaim
Jews were part beast and only within Aryans flowed the pure blood of God. Like white
supremacists today, who have no idea of the original meaning of the term Aryan, Hitler and other
Jew-haters had no legitimate claim to call themselves Christian.

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 Hitler stated the paramount purpose of the state was to preserve and improve the race.
The stronger must dominate and not bleed with weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness, he
concluded. Every mingling of Aryan blood wth that of lower peoples resulted in physical and
intellectual regression and progressing sickness that was a sin against the will of the eternal
creator. To him, the most humane act of mankind was to prevent defective people from
propagating equally defective offspring. Not wanting to limit himself, Hitler labeled communists
as Jews which gave him all the more reason to fulfill his long-held ambition of annexing Russian
lands and enslaving the inhabitants to serve their German overlords.
Only war and violence gave meaning to Hitler’s pathetic life. He condemned peaceful
coexistence as a mockery of nature and praised armed conflict as the catalyst to strengthen men,
though he never distinguished himself as a physically strong person, preferring others do his
fighting for him. “Those who don’t want to fight in this world of eternal struggles don’t deserve
to live,” he wrote. In Mein Kampf he proclaimed that when World War One was apparent he fell
down on his knees and thanked heaven from an overflowing heart for granting him the good
fortune to live at that time. As a warmonger, he believed right lies in strength alone and obsessed
with schemes of killing others en masse so that his kind could rule supreme for a thousand years.
How could a vile, contemptuous monster like Adolf Hitler lead an industrialized country
with millions of educated people? The reaction of the German population to the passion of his
conviction illustrates the true lack of human reason, and the power of ideas and example. The
human mind possesses surprisingly little creativity, as it consists of neurons that store memories
as series of electrical impulses from the senses. People have an inherent difficulty envisioning
things they haven’t seen before. Even though people may piece together many familiar objects to
compose a new scene in their minds, they have difficulty creating something new. For example,
it’s hard to imagine a new color: one not seen before. And man’s behavior is learned through
imitation; as brain function is largely reactionary, being easily directed by current events and
influences. Hitler’s evil kept the focus of those around him on matters of evil, and masses
flocked to his intense message like sheep to a shepherd.
And that was the simple genius of the short-sighted man responsible for the largest mass
murder in human history. The noble wolf, a historical meaning of Adolf in German, used the
post-war melancholy, political turmoil and economic depression to prey upon people’s fear and
incite their anger. By introducing scapegoats for fear and failure he directed the pent-up anxiety
of the country, which he sought to keep in a continually state of agitation, against his imagined
enemies. Hitler knew how to appeal to people’s most base emotions and promised them a grand
liberation from all of their fears, pains and hardships, just as any good preacher or politician
would do.
Hitler’s promises were little more than a series of lies to anyone who would listen. Yet,
his ambition knew no bounds. He got himself assigned to headquarters in World War I, and after
the war he served as a police spy and infiltrated the German Workers’ Party. But he was so
impressed with the group’s hatemongering that he ended up joining them and later tried to take
credit for forming the group. Once in the Party, Hitler’s unbridled enthusiasm and terroristic use
of force allowed him to seize power. In control of the Party; which he renamed the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) to broaden appeal; and he set about perfecting his
already formidable oratory skills. As someone unhindered by truth, decency or caution, and
absolutely certain of his own infallability the man called Furer, or leader, stirred great emotion in
the masses with his tirades and propaganda, and his poisonous doctrine spread like a virus
through the population weakened by poverty, rivalry and suspicion.
German acceptance of the Nazis was aided by the variety of factions competing for power
in Germany; as the Nazis capitalized by being equal opportunity haters, blaming everybody but

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themselves for the poor state of the country. Around Munich, Hitler’s Nazis gained support, and
inspired by Mussolini’s March on Rome, he decided to march on Berlin to seize power.
However, he vastly overestimating the power and influence of his party at the time, and Hitler’s
attempt at seizing power ended where it began, at the Bavarian War Ministry in Munich. After a
small battle in which some of the Nazis were killed, Hitler was arrested and convicted of treason.
Although dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini wouldn’t hesitate to have opponents,
especially violent opponents, killed, Hitler was sentenced to a mere five years in prison. And it
was there that he dictated his autobiographical rant Mein Kampf to his assistant, Rudolf Hess.
But after serving just nine months of his sentence, barely enough time to finish his
memoir, Hitler was released from prison in a general amnesty of political prisoners. And upon
returning to the public, he resumed his quest for power. The failed armed revolution convinced
Hitler to concentrate on winning elections instead of seizing power by force, and to appeal to a
broader audience Nazis subsequently toned down some of the rhetoric, putting a less monstrous
face on the hate of their black hearts.
The fact that Germany was a republic at the time allowed Hitler to continue campaigning
for Nazi supremacy and concentrate his Stumubteilung (SA) milita activities against unarmed
opponents. Hitler’s doctrine of resentment resonated with frustrated people. The Nazis fed a
perpetuating cycle of discord. They thrived on crisis, suspicion, division and fear. The worse the
political climate became, the more the Nazis flourished. SA storm troopers attacked opposing
parties and engaged in street battles with Social Democrats and Communists. Practicing fanatical
stamina, they won elections and gained political power, aided by the atrocities of Russian
communism, the disasterous economy of the great depression and the anxiety caused by their
own terror and propaganda. In desperate times Hitler increasingly became the desperate measure
people looked to.
Being as opportunistic as he was persistent, Hitler broke into the upper eschelon of
government when German president Hindenburg named him Chancellor in 1933. For the
Germans it was a mistake, Hindenburg thought he could silence, or absorb, Hitler and the Nazis
by assigning Hitler to a high government position. But instead of cooperating as he promised,
Hitler soon took control of the government. Fellow Nazi Hermann Goring, as interior minister,
used his position as head of police in the state of Prussia to fill the police ranks with Nazis and
establish an auxiliary force of SA members. And as the Reichstag was still paralyzed by
legislative deadlock brought about by rampant factionalism, Hindenburg dissolved it yet again.
When Hindenburg was alarmed by growing unrest, he even suspended basic legal rights
including freedom from unlawful detention on February 28, 1933.
That left Nazi police and SA militias free to arrest opposition members with impunity; all
this and Hitler wasn’t even in control yet. Still, the Nazis knew how to play politics. In coming
weeks they convinced the Catholic Center Party to waive constitutioanl provisions and cede
legislative control to Hitler’s cabinet in exchange for gaurantees of the Church’s position.
Bowing to SA intimidation and hollow promises, the German Reichstag passed the Enabling Act
which gave lawmaking power to the cabinet. As simple as that, Hitler outlawed competing
political parties.
While the naive were still under the impression German politics was just an ugly game,
for Hitler it was war. In the 1934 Night of the Long Knives massacre, Hitler consolidated power
by having more than eighty critics and SA members of questionable loyalty murdered by his
Schutzstaffel (SS) and the SS secret police unit known as the Gestapo. By murdering Ernst Rohm
and other SA leaders, Hitler tightened his grip on the SA and eased tension with clueless army
leaders who detested the SA’s murderous and terroristic ways, but failed to understand who
really orchestrated the rampant violence. Had Rohm caught wind of the plot, the country may

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well have spent its hostilities in civil war, as the SA had grown to three million members by 1934
and the army was restricted by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand men. As it was,
Hitler and his supporters justified the vast murder spree of many unrelated people by claiming to
have uncovered a plot; in evil irony, a plot alleged to be similar to the one they had just carried
out. Those people that weren’t murdered, but still considered possible threats to the Nazis, were
soon imprisoned indefinitely.
The drums of war could be heard across distraught and desperate Germany in the 1930’s
and after the Night of the Long Knives murder rampage, there would be no more public
opposition to Hitler’s venomous autocratic rule. When the powers of President Hindenburg were
transferred to Hitler upon his death in August of 1934, the political conquest of Germany was
complete. While the world waited to come to terms with the consequences of his victory, from
that time forward, true to his hate, Hitler set about a systematic oppression of Jews and other
minorities like traveling Roma, also known as Gypsies, that would evolve into a full-scale
exercise of extermination.
Despite the nature of his barbaric atrocities, childish arrogance and self-confidence,
Hitler’s deception and cunning continued in his foreign policy. Early in his totalitarian rule, one
or a combination of the major powers could have silenced the growing German threat. But when
Hitler began to re-arm Germany other nations were consumed with their own problems such as
economic crises, and had learned enough from the First World War to know they didn’t want
another war. Across the Atlantic the United States had withdrawn into isolationism again, and
the United Kingdom also wanted to avoid continental politics; while France’s terrible losses in
war and the high cost of occupying Germany left little public support for another conflict.
When Hitler sensed the reluctance to challenge his march to empire he re-armed Germany
and nobody stepped forward to stop him. Even when he annexed Austria, the Sudetenland, and
then the rest of Czechoslovakia he promised it would be his last expansion and other nations
would rather take him at his word than confront the increasing menace. And Russia’s Stalin, a
dictator with his own ambitions of conquest, even schemed with Hitler: entering into a pact of
assistance and a plan to partition Poland between Germany and Russia. But Hitler was not to be
trusted, and he had another scheme for the Slavic Rus. In his eyes the stage was set for Aryan
world domination.

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 War to End All Wars Revisited
With France and Britain too afraid to stop him and Russia secretly plotting alongside,
Hitler felt a reassuring confidence that led to the fateful autumn day of September 1, 1939, when
Germany invaded Poland. Only then, as the Poles crumbled under a vicious Blitzkrieg onslaught,
did France, Great Britain and it’s Commonwealth Dominions declare war on Germany. France
and Britain had pledged mutual assistance with Poland, but they did little to stop the Germans as
they marched across Poland; and within a week the powerful German Army, led by it’s
mechanized Panzer divisions had reached Warsaw. To make matters worse for Poland, Russia
invaded from the east on September 17 and Poland was conquered in about a month.
Even as Hitler turned his attention, and mighty war machine, north and invaded Denmark
and Norway, France and Britain were still hesitant. But the plan was becoming clear to even the
most simple political observer. Hitler was trying to eliminate the weakest of his targets to isolate
better defended nations. All of Europe was on alert, but Germany’s unprecedented military
buildup left others at a disadvantage; and having met little resistance and having been nearly free
to plunder at will, German confidence was soaring and Hitler finally launched a massive attack
on Belgium, the Netherlands and France on May 10, 1940. Europe, and soon the world, was
plunged into the deadly sequel to the Great War.
Prior to the invasion of France much of the rest of the world was beginning to take the
threat seriously, and in the United Kingdom Winston Churchill succeeded the man called the
Prince of Appeasement, Neville Chamberlain, as Prime Minister; employing bulldog tenacity to
transform Great Britain into a formidable fighting force. Still, unlike the stalled invasion that led
to trench warfare in the First World War, French and English forces couldn’t stop the Germans in
their drive to the west; with the British Army and part of the French Army being driven back
against the sea where they had to be evacuated from Dunkirk, losing massive amounts of much
needed heavy equipment.
The German assault was relentless; and revolutionary, like the Mongols of centuries
before. Blitzkrieg, as the devastating combination of speed and power came to be known, made
the German army faster, stronger, and better coordinated than any of the armies they met in
battle. Like the Poles and Danes and others before them, the French and British were caught flat-
footed by the savage speed of the invading army slamming into their disarrayed defenses, and as
the German onslaught continued to tear across the countryside, France surrendered on June 22.
In a matter of month’s Hitler had conquered much of continental Europe. But was he
satisfied? Could a man that woke each morning dreaming of building a German empire, and was
still obsessing with Aryan world domination when he went to sleep, be satisfied? Could Hitler
ever be satisfied? No, there would always be another target, there would always be another
impediment to his new world order, there would always be a fight to define the true essence of
his character. Antagonism, hatred and violence was what Hitler knew and what drove him to
push on. And his next conquest lay across the English channel, protected by a few miles of
ocean. To subdue the island nation that had assembled the largest empire the world has ever seen,
Hitler depended on softening up British defenses through the air. But his Luftwaffe air force was
tracked by improved British radar and defeated in the critically important air campaign known as
the Battle for Britain.
And though they were the last western European power to seriously challenge Hitler’s
ambition of empire, the British were not completely alone. They were receiving assistance from
past and present members of their world empire such as Canada, Australia and India. Though the
Royal Navy was stretched thin trying to cut-off German supply lines and keep the Nazis from
crossing the Channel, the United States was also willing to help, for a price. That price included

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handing over some foreign military bases to the U.S., providing more global reach for the
emerging world power from the Western Hemisphere, in exchange for fifty destroyers.
Meanwhile, by the summer of 1940 the theater of war had spread around the Meditteraenean and
Hitler’s duplicit partner Mussolini led Italy to some initial success before being beaten back and
having to rely on German reinforcements to regain control of the area.
But those German reinforcements would be needed elsewhere. The blind arrogance and
immaturity that continually pushed Hitler to fight caused him to make a decision that may well
have sealed his fate, even as he was getting a taste of defeat with the Battle of Britain setback.
Despite having his hands full in the west, Hitler turned on his co-conspirator Stalin; biting off
more than even he could chew in the process. And as if fighting much of Europe weren’t already
too much trouble, after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Hitler invited
further punishment by declaring war on the United States. Undoubtedly, the success of Japan’s
surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii gave Hitler more confidence in Japanese victory,
but he most certainly underestimated the resources at America’s disposal, much as he
underestimated the resilience of the vast Russian territories.
Hitler believed Russia was especially vulnerable due to internal stresses under the iron
fist of Stalin. But vulnerable or not, Hitler had long planned to invade Russia because he believed
they just couldn’t stand up to his super-race of Germans. Ironically however, instead of being the
wedge that split Russia apart, Hitler’s attack helped to unify Russia under the tyrannical Stalin,
who from 1936 to 1938 had ordered mass executions of those he thought might oppose his
fanatical regime, in a campaign known as the Great Purge. Hundreds of thousands had been
executed or died in labor camps, including many military leaders, and altogether tens of
thousands of military personnel.
The vast majority of the Stalin’s Great Purge victims didn’t receive trials, although Stalin
did stage some show trials of the most publicly visible victims. But show trials aimed at
justifying murder was all they’re reported to have been, as the defendents were tortured and
threatened that their families would also be tortured and executed if the accused didn’t confess.
After receiving the false confessions to justify the murderous rampage, Stalin went back on his
word and had the families of the accused executed as well to limit the possibility of reprisal. And
as if to reinforce his image as an egotistical self-serving monster Stalin even had all of the old
Bolshevik leadership from Lenin’s time executed, all excepting himself, of course.
Hitler said that once the front door to the house of Russia was kicked in the rest of the
rotten structure would come crashing down. How could it not? Hitler wondered, consumed as it
was with the dreaded plague of communism. His invasion of Russia was launched on June 22,
1941 and, true to Hitler’s prediction, met with tremendous early success. The superior equipment
and strategy of the German forces allowed them to smash through Russian defenses and quickly
encircle entire Russian armies that were either captured or destroyed on the field.
The battles of the Eastern Front of WWII were the most massive military land
engagements in history, fought by hundreds and even thousands of tanks and aircraft on either
side. The destruction, casualties, and number of prisoners of war was astounding. Within months
the Germans had destroyed most of the Russian Army, taken more than a million prisoners, and
Moscow and Leningrad were threatened with emminent capture. But while the Central German
Army Group was rolling toward Moscow, Hitler intervened and diverted some of the central tank
divisions north and south just as it looked like Moscow would fall.
The diversion by Hitler gave Russian reinforcements from the east time to reach Moscow.
And in classic fashion, weather again appeared to be one of Russia’s best weapons, as the
Germans ran out of time and found themselves trapped in a bitter Russian winter that brutalized
both the Russians in the beseiged cities of Leningrad and Moscow and the isolated German

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invaders. By December the Germans were fifteen miles from the Kremlin in Moscow before a
Russian counterattack drove them back.
Following the stall of German momentum the war in the east continued to rage for three
more years, as the deadliest theater of combat in human history with the German Wehrmacht and
Soviet Red Army exchanging offensives and repeatedly encircling and anhililating opposing
units. In that war of attrition, after having nearly collapsed in the early months, it was the Soviets
that eventually turned the tide and gained a lasting advantage as German armament production
and personnel couldn’t keep pace with the massive losses abroad, damage from Allied bombing
raids at home, and shortages of oil and other fital foreign materials. Withered by continual
fighting, bad weather and logistical shortfalls, the Germans eventually could no longer stand up
to the increased Russian resistance, and in 1943 the Soviets began a steady drive toward the Nazi
homeland.
Even as the Germans and Russians hammered away at one another, serious political
questions remained for the other Allies. After Russia had conspired with Germany and invaded
Poland, and knowing how oppressive Stalin’s Communism was, perhaps the Allies should have
let Russia fight Germany alone on the Eastern Front. It’s obvious Stalin didn’t want to help the
Allies, and it was advantageous for the other Allies to let Germany and Russia wear each other
out, because Stalin couldn’t be trusted and it gave the Allies in the west time to regroup. But,
unifying opposition against the common German enemy, and not wanting Russia, with its vast
resources, to fall into German hands, or into another alliance with Germany, Britain and the
United States did help Russia with supplies, and Britain fought alongside Russia near its southern
border.
In conjunction with Germany’s mounting losses and fading fortunes in the east, Allied air
attacks were softening Germany for a massive seaborn invasion much as Hitler had expected to
do when he initiated the Battle of Britain. Allied forces finally landed on the beaches of
Normandy in northern France on what’s remembered as D-Day: June 6, 1944. The two million
man Allied invasion force in the west pushed its way across France and into Germany as the
Soviets launched Operation Bagration in the east with two and a half million men and six
thousand tanks,. After almost a year of heavy fighting, the Allies in the west met up with the
advancing Russians at the Elbe River in April of 1945. And having learned of the humiliating
death of Mussolini at the hands of captors, Hitler was too cowardly to face his enemies;
committing suicide on April 30, 1945 as the Soviets were taking control of Berlin. Hitler’s war in
Europe essentially died with him, though the war in the Pacific between the Allies and Japan
would drag on for months longer.
Altogether, World War II eclipsed World War I as the deadliest war in history, with sixty
million people believed killed in all combat theaters including Asia. Of the sixty million killed
only about a third of those were reported to be military personnel killed in combat, the remaining
forty million people were civilians or military personnel that died of accident, disease, or
mistreatment. Massive numbers of prisoners from the Eastern Front were forced into slave labor
for the Nazis, and in Russian Gulags. Both Germany and Russia enslaved huge populations from
opposing and contested territories. Millions died from starvation, disease, beatings, executions
and exhaustion in the horror of captivity.
All told, about three million Russian prisoners of war died in German captivity, and six
million Jews were exterminated in Hitler’s campaign for racial purity. Hitler’s wars first started
with control of Germany and then spread to the rest of Europe, and he first stripped Jews and
other minorities of property and rights and deported them. When he invaded Poland he had them
rounded up into ghettos. Often times the invading Germans rounded up all the Jews in captured
villages and shot them near open pits or trenches that had been dug as defensive works.

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 While the German military was waging conventional war on nations, Hitler’s SS was
waging a race war, following the army and systematically locating and exterminating Jews and
other minorities. But, still not satisfied by the massive carnage they were inflicting, Hitler and his
henchmen created large deathcamps that were designed much as modern slaughterhouses to
maximize throughput. Victims were shipped in by the truck and train loads just as cattle are to be
executed and disposed of. The extermination camp at Auschwitz alone was capable of killing as
many as ten thousand people per day. Altogether, Nazi deathcamps killed an estimated twelve
million people. About half of the victims were Jewish and the rest were Poles, political or
military prisoners, and other minorities such as Gypsies, gays, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The extermination camps were almost exclusively in occupied Poland which was multi-
ethnic and had Europe’s largest Jewish population prior to Hitler’s War. Though Jews had faced
death and oppression in Eastern Europe on numerous occasions in the past, they had been
forcibly evicted from many Western European countries like England long before the twentieth
century. As deathcamp victims left the trains that carried them to their doom they were separated
between those that looked like they could be useful for forced labor and others. The others,
largely young children, their parents, especially mothers, and the elderly were often herded over
to the gas chambers where they were told to strip down for a disinfecting shower.
While entering the deadly chambers people often realized they weren’t showers, but death
traps, and the Nazis beat them and forced them inside before locking the heavy doors behind
them. The screams and cries for help from children and grandparents alike would last a few
minutes as the poison gas poured into the room. After the herds of people choked on the
suffocating poison, the warm corpses were carried out of the gas chambers where ‘barbers’ cut
the longer hair of the females for use as mattress stuffing or cloth, and ‘dentists’ hammered gold
fillings from the heads of the recently deceased.
Gas chambers were the pinnacle of Nazi controlled extermination techniques, as they
employed many methods of mass murder, from shooting and hanging to burying alive and killing
in the gas chambers. The gas chambers were so brutally efficient that the crematories often
couldn’t keep up, and disposal of the bodies was always a challenge. The horrid duty of
encouraging cooperation in undressing and entering the death chambers and disposing the bodies
was often left up to other death camp inmates. Those inmates were so broken down by beatings,
exhaustion, fear and grief that they lost what decency and conviction they had. Even when they
saw acqaintances and family members they felt to helpless or cowardly to intervene. One man
even continued on as if nothing were the bother even as he happened upon his own wife’s body
as he carried victims from the gas chamber to a burn pit.
Those kept as slaves were savagely beaten and starved so that they could offer no
resistance. Those that survived as Nazi slaves were so frail and degraded they looked like ghosts.
Young women were raped with impunity and then sent to the gas chamber or worked and starved
to death. Many Jews were even tortured and killed in Nazi experiments like those conducted in
laboratories today. Josef Mengele, known as the Angel of Death, had a particular fondness for
dwarfs and twins in his savage experiments. Mengele shared Hitler’s delusion of Aryan racial
superiority and treated his victims as nothing more than material for experimentation.
While at Auschwitz Mengele injected chemicals into the eyes of children in hopes of
changing their eye color, he also performed amputations and exploratory surgeries, even killing
victims for the sole purpose of dissection. Friends and relatives wept for the agony and horror of
their loved ones, but that didn’t lesson the pain of the victims, whether represented by voices
crying out for the madness to stop or not. Since those atrocities came to light many have
wondered what kind of monsters are cabable of torturing their fellow creatures as a course of
habit? And what kind of society would allow it? Though others have steadfastly maintained a

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justification for the powerful to brutalize the weak.
Pain and violence is the consort of war, and vicious atrocities were also being carried out
in Asia. Japan was one of the rising powers that jumped into the First World War to claim some
of Germany’s territory in the Pacific. After what many called the war to end all wars, Hirohito,
son of Emperor Yoshihito, visited Europe in 1921. It was the first such visit for a member of the
Japanese monarchy. The structured formality of life in the imperial court had so pervaded
Hirohito’s life that he was taken aback by the friendly and unpretentious greeting he received in
Europe, moving him to write to his brother Chichibu that he discovered freeedom for the first
time in England.
But, like Germany, ambitions of empire consumed the government and military leaders of
Japan and they too relied heavily on foreign plunder and forced labor for their productive wealth.
Taiwan and Korea had been occupied by the Japanese since 1895 and 1910 respectively and
Manchuria was added to Japan’s growing empire in 1931. To further guard its gains, Japan
signed treaties with Germany and Italy in 1936 and 1937. Not coincidentally Japan invaded
China to begin the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to get at the vast resources of China that
held a powerful attraction for Japanese elite. There again, brutality was a trademark of
profiteering through occupation as great numbers of Chinese were forced into servitude and the
Japanese response to Chinese resistance was described by a Japanese official as “kill all, burn all,
and destroy all.”
As a result of publicized incidents such as the Nanking Massacre where civilians
estimated in the hundreds of thousands were executed, worldwide public sentiment was turned
heavily against Japan. In the run-up to the Second World War the Japanese also had another
encounter with Russian troops, but the Japanese invasion of Mongolia in 1939 was repelled by
the Soviets. Japan’s invasion of French Indochina, roughly modern Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Laos in 1940, along with Japan’s alliance with Germany and Italy and the overtly offensive
nature of its military actions caused the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the
Netherlands to place a trade embargo on Japan and freeze its assets.
The decision to go to war with the United States wasn’t easy for Japan, as some Japanese
officials did realize that the prospect of winning such a war was remote. The industrial capacity
and wealth of resources of the United States seemed a huge advantage to overcome. But, then
again, Japan had very strong industrial production of its own and was acquiring material
resources from throughout the Pacific Rim. That gave Japanese confidence that combined with
the influence of the trade embargo, hard-line insistence backed by religious conviction, and
previous success against China and Russia with their comparable material resources, to lead to
the bombing of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941. In a bold and well-conceived move
the Japanese bypassed American positions in the Phillipines and struck straight at the heart of the
Pacific Fleet, catching the U.S. fleet off guard. Almost simultaneously Japan attacked colonial
holdings such as Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Wake Island.
But the success of Japan’s initial assaults, not being nearly substantial enough to break
America’s will or cripple the navy, virtually gauranteed a bloody, protracted affair. And while
Japan busied itself subduing and occupying vast areas of Asia and Pacific Islands, America
prepared to respond. After a costly defense of the New Guinea port of Moresby and some mostly
psychological air raids of Tokyo, that response was delivered at Midway on June 5, 1942. Unlike
previous maritime engagements, Pacific naval battles of the Second World War were dominated
by aircraft carriers, of which Japan lost four to America’s one at Midway. And just that quickly
the initial Japanese advantage was beginning to dissappear. In the course of successive naval
engagements and marine landings the U.S. pushed the Japanese back toward home setting up
another large sea battle near the Marianas Islands on June 19 and 20, 1944 where the U.S. scored

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a very lop-sided victory; destroying 600 Japanese aircraft and three carriers.
In late October the United States and Australia brought forces to bear on the Phillipine
island of Leyte where Japan tried one last stand to stop the advancing Allies in a battle in which
the Allies had clear numerical superiority, as Japan was unable to replenish its mounting losses.
In a series of engagements constituting the largest modern naval battle, the Imperial Navy was
further reduced in a crushing defeat. In the process of routing the Japanese, the members of light
ship group “Taffy 3,” mistakenly cut off from carrier or even battleship protection, displayed
tremendous courage in confronting a much larger and more powerful Japanese group that
included the largest battleship ever built, the Yamato. Confusing the enemy with unusually
aggressive behavior for such a light contingent, behavior that had the appearance of baiting a
non-existent trap, and causing extensive losses with their bold actions, Taffy 3 repulsed the
charge of the formidable Imperial battlegroup, and earned a Presidential Unit Citation for their
actions.
By April of 1945, after Allied ground units retook the Phillipines, Japanese desperation
was beginning to show and remnants of the Imperial Navy, including the mighty, but ineffective,
Yamato, were flung at the Allied Forces fighting for control of Okinawa in what has been called
a suicide mission. With no effective aircraft cover, the Japanese ships were easy targets for
Allied bombers; the days of the battleship had passed. The desparation of the Japanese military
was also illustrated by death-before-surrender ground fighting, and kamikaze air strikes in which
pilots underwent ceremonial proceedings before taking-off in planes lacking sufficient fuel to
return from their target objectives. The outcome of the war was becoming obvious, but the
dogged determination of the Japanese was sure to make the remainder of the war very costly. To
compound the troubles for Japan, Russia, after the suicide of Hitler and cessation of hostilities in
Europe, was speeding toward Japan. The battle proven Red Army was tearing through the
Imperial Army in Manchuria, racing to claim as much territory as possible before the apparently
emminent Japanese surrender.
Faced with a great many more casualties on both sides, President Truman ordered the use
of the most devastating weapon the world had ever seen, and few knew existed, the atomic
bomb. On August 6, 1945 a single atomic bomb destroyed much of the Japanese city of
Hiroshima, but still the Japanese didn’t surrender. So, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb
was dropped, this time on the city of Nagasaki; prompting high ranking Japanese officials to
meet on August 10th and finally decided to surrender, after the death of about three million of
their countrymen in two bomb strikes; though even then the decision to surrender was bitterly
contested. And Hirohito, also known as Emperor Showa, announced the surrender in a radio
address on August 15, but not soon enough to prevent Russian troops from entering Korea,
laying the stage for the partitioning of Korea that would again lead to war in just a few years.
In order to maintain stability in Japan and insure the U.S. was working with a respected
figurhead that they could reach agreement with, General MacArthur, who would later encourage
the use of nuclear weapons and invasion of China in the Korean War, protected Emperor
Hirohito from trials of war crimes. But other Japanese would pay for their barbarity. Japanese
soldiers committed numerous atrocities before and during the Second World War. It’s worth
noting that the number of Chinese killed in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II was
surpassed only by those of Russia. After the war approximately 5,700 Japanese were tried for war
crimes and 920 of those were put to death. But, interestinly, in drafting a new constitution for
Japan, U.S. authorities allowed for a symbolic monarchy to provide the Japanese with a sense of
cohesiveness and continuity. That controversial decision resulted in Hirohito, a man despised as
the leader of a band of butchers by hundreds of millions, becoming one of the longest ruling
monarchs in history. Prior to becoming emperor he ruled as regent for his father beginning in

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1921, and assuming the title of emperor upon the death of his father in 1926, he didn’t step down
until his own death in 1989.
Japan, of course, lost the territories it had gained in war and was occupied by the United
States until 1952. Though humiliating and somewhat frustrating, occupation allowed countries
like West Germany and Japan to reassess their goals and methods of achieving them, even
pausing to evaluate age-old traditions and customs. With refocused energy and some recovery aid
Japan and West Germany rebuilt there economies. Today the size of the Japanese and re-unified
German economies are the largest in the world behind only the United States.

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 Cold & Limited Wars
While Japan’s path to recovery from the devastation of World War II under the
occupation of the United States was pretty straightforward, German recovery was very much
complicated by the concerns of victorious nations that distrusted one another and sought to gain
strategic advantages for themselves. Prior to the war Stalin had earned a reputation as a brutal
dictator, and that demeanor was unchanged by the suffering of war and even near defeat. Like
Hitler, Stalin felt a sense of invincibility for having won Russia for himself and then defeating
the axis powers. Having built a huge war industry, and being hardened by the ferocity of warfare,
the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as a formidable power. And, again like Hitler,
Stalin was also handicapped by a fighting mentality. Even after fighting the White Army for
control of Russia, and the Japanese, and the Germans that almost defeated him, Stalin was still
fighting an ideological war with capitalism, both at home and abroad.
Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, but arrogantly assumed the name
Joseph Stalin, meaning man of steel. As a dictator Stalin was responsible to no one, and had
complete control of the media. While the western republics were responsible to and at least
superficially considerate of their constituents, Stalin was perceived to be much less sensitive
about sending millions to their deaths and inviting another calamity for the citizens of the Soviet
Union. So, he posed a grave threat in the mind of western countries as a man not afraid to start
yet another World War.
Stalin is also reported to have learned through his extensive spy network that the U.S.
hadn’t been building more atomic bombs since their use against Japan. So, it came to be that
Stalin forced his will on the victorious Allies in much the same manner as Hitler had in the run-
up to the Second World War. To reduce the threat of Germany making yet another attempt at
world domination, the country was partitioned among the Allies with Russia taking control of
East Germany.
Stalin also extended Soviet influence and control over many of the countries of Eastern
Europe. He used military force to establish puppet regimes in the countries that came to be
considered the Communist Bloc. Unlike America which committed thirteen billion dollars to
European recovery and integration through the Marshall Plan, the Soviets were seeking to recoup
their losses. In addition to monetary and supply reparations Stalin demanded from Finland, East
Germany, Hungary, and Romania; he had 380 factories removed from West Berlin before
transferring control to the U.S., U.K. and France. And he even had a couple hundred more
factories dismantled from East Germany and moved to the Soviet Union.
Exerting his control of the Communist Bloc countries, Stalin severed ties with the west.
He foresaw a communist world, and his desire for Soviet control of a unified Germany that he
could essentially enslave for war reparations conflicted with the French, British and American
design for a prosperous Germany that didn’t feel oppressed and frustrated, and was thereby less
prone to lash out again. When Stalin didn’t get his way, he went so far as blockading West Berlin
from the other Allies, precipitating the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49 that kept the people of West
Berlin supplied, at great expense to the western Allies. And it was that sort of reckless action by
Stalin the dictator that dashed hopes for good superpower relations within just a few years of the
bloodiest war the world had ever seen.
Stalin used the Red Army and secret police forces to crush dissatisfaction and revolts in
Communist Bloc countries in order to maintain communist rule. Clearly, the failure of Stalin’s
oppressive policies was made plainly obvious by the act of fencing in the population and
shooting those trying to flee to the west; as it’s hard to argue that people were being shot for their
own good, or fleeing communist rule because they liked it. Yet Stalin succeeded in enveloping

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Eastern Europe in an Iron Curtain.
To counter the communist threat, western nations, frustrated and concerned by Stalin’s
aggressive nature and dictatorial power, formed a military alliance known as the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and the Communist Bloc countries pledged mutual defense
in the Warsaw Pact of 1955. Though western republics opposed the spread of oppressive
communism, Stalin embarked on campaigns of expansion; supporting and encouraging

communist regimes to seize power and invade neighboring sovereign states. However, the
communist aggression was partially provoked by European colonialism that endured beyond the
Second World War. For instance, while most of the remaining British colonies were gaining
independence, Vietnam was fighting to overthrow French rule.

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 Against a backdrop of hundreds of years of colonial rule around the world, persistent
campaigns of conquest, and ideological differences between communism and capitalism, the
Korean Peninsula had been partitioned by the Soviets and Americans at the 38th parallel at the
end of World War II; with the stated goal of uniting under a common government in four years.
But the communists and American leaning democratic factions became so entrenched in the
North and South respectively that the peninsula was divided even after the official Soviet and
American withdrawal.
Harboring secret plans to secure all of Korea as a Soviet ally, on June 25, 1950
communist North Korean forces, led by former Soviet soldier Kim Il-Sung and backed by Stalin,
invaded pro-American South Korea, quickly overwhelming the South Koreans and pushing south
to occupy Seoul within just three days. The country would have quickly been unified under the
communist north had the United Nations not issued a resolution on June 27 in support of South
Korea. As a result, sixteen nations, led by the United States with troops stationed in nearby
Japan, came to the aid of South Korea.
But the U.S. was timid, as President Truman was scared of further Chinese and Soviet
involvement. The man who ended World War II by ordering the use of atomic bombs against
Japan, reacted tentatively, overuling General Douglas MacArthur’s desire for airstrikes against
North Korea. Instead the U.S. landed a ground force that was quickly defeated, with General
William Dean captured by the North. The Americans and South Koreans were driven back to the
southern port city of Pusan, very near collapse, followed closely by North Koreans executing
South Korean government workers and American sypathizers.
The half-hearted war effort quickly turned into a crisis, and over the next few months,
U.N. (essentially U.S. and Repuplic of Korea (ROK)) ground forces were assisted by heavy
American air and naval support while they waited for reinforcements to arrive. Finally, in
September, U.N. forces counterattacked and drove the Communists back into North Korea where
they were joined by the Chinese Army, with Soviet MIG fighter air support.
Under the barrage of waves of Chinese troops the U.N. forces raced back in retreat yet
again, and kept giving ground until they were once more at the southern end of the peninsula,
before regrouping in 1951 and liberating the devastated South Korean capitol of Seoul for a
second time. In coming months the tide of battle see-sawed, but the U.S. was still concerned with
broadening the war and U.N. forces stopped just north of the 38th parallel and dug in, content to
return the Korean peninsula to the tense status quo as a divided state that existed prior to the
beginning of the conflict. The remainder of the war was relatively uneventful, but it lingered on
like a bad rash, with fighting continuing in a near stalemate for two more years before an
armistice was finally signed.
Since that armistice was signed in 1953, the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) has
consistently been among the most heavily fortified regions in the world. For decades ill-will,
mistrust and antagonism has continued to make life all the poorer without just cause, and
indicative of the failure which is North Korean communism, similar to the failure of communism
in East Germany, the North instituted a policy to shoot anybody attempting to flee the wretched
living conditions of constant repression and gloom by defecting to the South across the DMZ.
Equally alarming, beginning in 1974, four tunnels were discovered that the Communists
constructed under the DMZ as future avenues of invasion, in case they decided to invade the
South again with their million man standing army. When the tunnels were discovered the North
Koreans claimed they were coal mines, although they were excavated through igneous rock that
the Communists painted black. Today the DMZ still remains as one of the last holdouts of the
Cold War, guarded by nearly a million men and laced with mine fields; though that embarassing
display of human contempt does show signs of fading.

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 Shortly after the U.S. pulled out of Korea, the French finally pulled out of their former
colony that included Vietnam. With the U.S. supporting a republican government in the south
and the Soviet Union and China supporting a communist government in the north, the Vietnam
War in many ways mirrored the Korean War. North and South Korean forces even participated
on opposite sides of the Vietnam War. For the United States it was another limited and
undeclared war against Soviet and Chinese sponsored communism.
But there were significant differences between the partitioning of Korea and that of
Vietnam into communist and capitalist camps, and certainly all was not as it seemed in America.
The antagonism fomented by men like Senator Joseph McCarthy overshadowed many important
facts. During the Second World War, in 1941, the Viet Minh, or more formally the League for
the Independence of Vietnam, was formed and Ho Chi Minh assumed leadership. Ho Chi Minh
had long been working political channels to achieve the very reasonable goal of Vietnamese
independence from French control. It was that long-term control by a foreign power that was at
the heart of discord in Vietnam.
Citing the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Ho accepted authority of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in 1945 from the wartime emperor Bao Dai. Ho was friendly with
American soldiers already in Vietnam and is reported to have welcomed American forces; asking
for recognition and good relations with the United States. But the United States declined to
acknowledge Ho’s government in order to appease the French who wanted to maintain Vietnam
as a French state; with that decision also reflecting America’s exaggerated fear of communism.
It’s interesting to consider how moderate and stable Ho’s government might have been had the
United States, with President Truman still in office, fully supported the basic democratic
principle of freedom of the Vietnamese people from foreign rule.
Instead of cooperating with the DRV however, the United States supported the French in
opposing the DRV and maintaining a presence where they were largely unwanted. At the
Potsdam Conference in 1945 the Allies decided that Vietnam would be occupied by China and
Britain, as China wasn’t yet a communist country. But shortly after asserting control, the Chinese
and British ceded their interest in Vietnam to France. The French did meet with Ho and the DRV
to form a government, but those negotiations broke down because France insisted on Vietnam
being a part of the French Union, which was a copy of the British Commonwealth. After Ho
rejected the concept of Vietnam remaining part of the French Empire, the French invaded the
North. Ho sent pleas for assistance to President Truman, but those pleas were ignored and Ho
was forced into the mountains where he began an insurgency.
When communists under Chairman Mao Zedong seized control of China, they sent aid to
the DRV. By 1954 the French were out, having at least enough sense to cut their losses and
having led the U.S. to oppose North Vietnam and establish a pro-American government in the
South. With French withdrawal, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were finally granted independence
after about ten years of unneccesary fighting. But by that time the U.S. was hard set against any
communist government that might be aligned with Stalin’s Russia, or even China. Ironically,
Vietnam would actually have been a good buffer against Chinese expansion considering age-old
Vietnamese resentment over a thousand years of Chinese rule. But America’s vision had been
corrupted by the Cold War, Korean Conflict, and alarmist politicians like McCarthy. By 1954 the
U.S. was so deep into the war in Vietnam that it was alleged to be financing eighty percent of
French/American involvement in Vietnam.
In self-defeating ignorance, America encouraged strong-arm tactics and a rigged election
in the South to maintain an American puppet regime; trampling the spirit of democracy in a rush
to prevent the spread of communism. As the rift between North and South grew the North fueled
a vast terroristic insurgency in the South in which all manner of authority and symbolic figures

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including village chiefs, government officials, teachers and others were murdered. They supplied
that vast insurgency network known in the South as the Viet Cong, via the Ho Chi Minh trail;
eventually helping to establish the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF).
With the widespread support the NLF had in South Vietnam, the die was cast; the
struggle would be internal, and the South Vietnamese government under Ngo Dinh Diem was
not, and would not be, up to the task. John Kennedy made the mistake of escalating American
involvement in the early sixties after a reconissance trip by Lyndon Johnson. He increased the
number of military advisors in South Vietnam, on top of the supplies America was already
pouring into the country.
Advisors warned Kennedy that America would meet the same end as the French and that
it would long be a heavy financial and emotional burden, but he lacked the experience to
recognise any viable alternative to the standing U.S. doctrine of blindly opposing the spread of
communism at all cost. To make matters worse, some members of the U.S. government actively
encouraged a coup of the sometimes difficult, and largely incompetent South Korean leader Ngo
Dinh Diem and his brother in charge of the hated secret police. But their executions in late 1963
seemed to add to the turmoil; and within three weeks, Kennedy had also been assassinated.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, the U.S. military actively engaged the North in
1964. In Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis Lemay’s words, the U.S. was going to bomb the
Communists back into the stone age. That optimism proved unfounded however, and contrary to
what military and political figureheads would say in the following years, America’s experience in
Vietnam was the result of poor judgement and poor diplomacy; resulting in almost unmitigated
disaster. President Johnson and General Westmoreland were responsible for supervising one of
the poorest war efforts in American history and consistently lied to the American people to cover
up that fact. America tried to fight a war against the Soviet Union and China by dropping bombs,
napalm, and agent orange on an enemy that often couldn’t be seen hiding amongst the native
population and in dense jungle terrain.
On May 16, 1968 the frustration of fighting against guerilla insurgents that attacked and
then blended back into the population was evidenced by the My Lai massacre in which American
forces attempted to annihilate an entire village by killing every person and animal and burning
the houses and outbuildings. Nearly four hundred people, including many elderly and children,
were executed, with some having been raped and tortured prior to being killed. News of such
atrocity, added to growing resentment over those against the war being forced to serve through
the draft, and the 1969 invasion of Cambodia, fueled increasingly vocal anti-war protests in
America. On May 4, 1970 the tensions between protestors and domestic authorities came to a
head at Kent State University in Ohio when National Gaurdsmen shot and killed four civilians
and wounded nine others.
Shortly after John Kennedy had committed the U.S. to the war he was looking for a way
to get out of it with honor, as was his bumbling replacement, Lyndon Johnson. And Johnson’s
successor, Richard Nixon, campaigned by saying he would achieve peace with honor. But there
was little honor in the manner in which the conflict dragged on until the withdrawal of American
forces in 1973, precipitating the utter defeat of the South and the fall of Saigon in 1975; with
Saigon being soon thereafter renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the victorious communists.
Neighboring Cambodia, which had long fought alongside the Vietnamese for
independence from France, was also plagued by civil war. There again American and communist
influences were pitted against each other. Backed by North Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge enjoyed
large rural support, contributed to in-part by resentment over heavy U.S. bombing; and they also
emerged triumphant in 1975. The Khmer Rouge regime subsequently became one of the worst
examples of governing authority in modern times. Pol Pot and the rest of the Khmer Rouge

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leadership is known around the world almost exclusively as the murderous savages responsible
for the Killing Fields, subject of a film by the same name. Pot and his fellow villains purged
Cambodia of independent thought as they transformed the country into an archaic society.
The Khmer Rouge was handicapped by a lack of intelligent thought. Almost immediately
they banned travel, closed borders and isolated the country to maximize control and minimize
news of their atrocities. In their reign of terror they killed anybody believed to have a reason to
resist them. They killed Vietnamese, Chinese and other ethnic minorities. They tortured and
executed educated people, people with possible ties to the previous government or foreign
influences, professionals, homosexuals, wealthy people, religious people and anybody else that
stood apart from the crowd. Factories, telephone and postal sytems, even schools and hospitals
were closed and modern medicine was rejected in favor of folk remedies.
The cities were emptied and families separated as the population was relocated to farm
labor camps. Private property, finance and religion was outlawed and infrastructure deteriorated.
The country was a land of peasants that couldn’t provide for themselves, yet in exchange for
weapons to suppress the people, the Khmer Rouge traded rice to China while many of their
countrymen starved. Still, there was also a shortage of arms and many of the victims of the
killing fields were hacked, and bludgeoned with clubs, picks and other hand tools to save bullets.
Even if the Khmer Rouge could maintain control of the terrorized population,
economically the country couldn’t maintain a powerful military. So it happened, that in a world
of surprises, it was Vietnam that responded to the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and aggression
toward Vietnam by invading Cambodia and driving the Khmer Rouge out of power.
Unfortunately, few of those responsible for the mass murders and genocide totaling an estimated
1.7 million deaths ever faced trial, as they retreated to the jungles where they continued guerilla
warfare for another twenty years. The new Cambodian government, wearied by continued
fighting, was too fearful and tarnished to press the issue of bringing the Khmer Rouge leaders to
justice.
Pol Pot died in 1998, never having to answer for his crimes. But, pressure and financing
from the United Nations finally convinced the Cambodian government, led by former Khmer
Rouge soldier, Prime Minister Hun Sen, to participate in a Tribunal to bring former heads of the
Khmer Rouge to justice for their roles in crimes against humanity. Former military chief Ta Mok
died in government detention in 2006. In 2007 Pol Pot’s second in command, general secretary
and Brother Number Two as he was known, Nuon Chea was arrested by the tribunal; joining the
first man to be detained, fellow accused Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch who
headed the former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison.
United States participation in the Korean and Vietnam Wars was termed police actions
because in both cases the sitting President bypassed the intent of the Constitution which reserves
the authority to declare war for congress. During the tension of the Cold War, the Superpowers
preferred to fight their ideological battles in Third World backyards because the disagreements
weren’t significant enough to risk destruction in their own homelands. As a result, Korea and
Vietnam were devastated and superpower economies were severly strained, yet at no point was
the tension of the Cold War higher after the Russian blockade of Berlin of 1948-49 than during
the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The previous year at the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro and the
Cubans easily defeated a contingent of invaders trained by the United States Central Intelligence
Agency that were intent on removing Castro from power. And it was shortly after the Bay of Pigs
invasion was put down that Nikita Kruschev ordered the start of construction of the Berlin Wall.
After the Second World War the United States failed to take advantage of it’s
technological superiority; letting Stalin dictate too many terms and exercise too much power. But
that advantage was essentially lost in 1949 when the Soviets developed their first nuclear weapon

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based on stolen U.S. technology. Since then both camps of the Cold War were rightly fearful of
the devastation of nuclear warfare. And through the years, effort that should have been applied to
bridging differences were directed toward developing ever more powerful bombs and delivery
systems to fly them faster and carry them farther.
Not long before the Cuban Missile Crisis, on October 30, 1961 the Soviets detonated the
largest atomic bomb of all time. The gigantic Tsar Bomba had the power of fifty million tons of
TNT and shook the earth with a force measuring over 5 on the Richter scale used to determine
the magnitude of earthquakes. When Stalin’s successor Nikita Kruschev mentioned a 100
megaton bomb, twice as powerful as the Tsar Bomba, in a speech to the Soviet Parliament, U.S.
officials were even more on edge because they had no way to confirm such a bomb was just part
of a fictitious bluff.
The following year, on October 14, 1962 a U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba photographed
construction of Soviet missile silos capable of launching nuclear warheads well into the U.S.
Unbeknownst to the general American public, those missile silos were ordered constructed by
Kruschev very much in response to the U.S. stationing nuclear missiles near the Soviet border in
Turkey, a member of NATO. However, the Soviets had repeatedly denied preparing to introduce
such offensive weapons into Cuba only recently before the silo sites were discovered by
America. President Kennedy and his staff were understandably alarmed by the buildup of
considerable nuclear strike capacity just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, though Soviet
submarines representing similar offensive capabilities were arguably much more dangerous
because they could strike from any oceanic coast without warning, just as American submarines
constituted a very real threat to Russia.
Kennedy and Kruschev engaged in a public war of words; and in private negotiations
through telegraph and associates. The U.S. military and diplomatic leadership worked feverishly
in the following days to neutralize the threat of missiles on Cuban soil. The U.S. military quickly
mobilized air, army and naval forces for battle with Cuba. Plans considered by the Executive
Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) included bombing strategic Cuban
installations, invading Cuba, and implementing a naval blockade. Some military advisors felt that
a rapid forceful military response was the only practical solution, but Kennedy was aware that
nothing happening in Cuba would be isolated and that Kruschev would react to hostilities in
Cuba by using force in Europe to take control of West Berlin, or worse.
Though it could be considered an act of war, Kennedy decided to blockade Cuba, but he
called it a quarantine and received the permission of the Organization of American States to
strengthen a claim of legality. On October 22, six days after seeing the spy plane photos,
Kennedy announced the discovery in an address to the nation in which he also announced the
quarantine of Cuba. Tensions quickly escalated even further and the U.S. military was placed on
readiness level DefCon 3. Kruschev claimed the blockade was illegal and ordered Soviet ships to
ignore it. Of nineteen ships destined for Cuba, sixteen reversed course, the tanker Bucharest
proceded through without being intercepted and two ships Gagarin and Komiles continued
toward Cuba under submarine escort. Tensions were very high as the USS Essix naval group
approached the Gagarin and Komiles, but both sides breathed a little sigh of relief when the
Soviet ships and their submarine escort stopped short of challenging the U.S. Navy warships.
But the future of world relations was uncertain and on October 24th, in the midst of Soviet
threats to attack the ships of the blockade, and as progress on the readiness of the Cuban launch
sites continued, the U.S. Strategic Air Command was elevated to DefCon 2. Kruschev’s first
response for Kennedy’s demand to withdraw the missiles from Cuba was to demand that the U.S.
not interfere with Cuban politics, something the U.S. was still actively involved in after the Bay
of Pigs Invasion. Americans were uneasy, but unaware on October 25th that Kennedy authorized

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loading of nuclear weapons onto planes readied to fly against Russia.
The following day Kennedy told his advisors that he believed an invasion of Cuba was
inevitable, but he was going to try the diplomatic course a while longer in hopes of success.
Meanwhile, Castro, a brazen man always prone to dramatic extreme with minimal diplomatic
consideration, was convinced an attack was eminent and requesting Kruschev to attack the U.S.
in a preemptive strike. That same day a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba and it looked as
though the conflict was about to come to a head, as Kennedy had previously determined an act
such as the downing of the spy plane would lead him to order an attack. But as American and
Russian citizens went about their daily routines unaware of the proximaty of imminent nuclear
destruction, as push came to shove, Kennedy backed off from pulling the trigger and gave the
process of reconciliation a little more time.
As Kennedy was readying a proposal in response to Kruschev’s first demand letter
seeking a guarantee of Cuban security, Kruschev’s second letter arrived. In the second letter he
demanded the U.S. withdraw the nuclear missiles in Turkey. That presented a problem for the
U.S. because as a member of NATO, Turkey wanted the missiles there to deter Soviet
aggression. If Kennedy agreed to the pullout it might seem to the other NATO countries that
America was selling out Europe to further its interests closer to home, or that the U.S. couldn’t
be counted on to stand up to the Soviets. On October 28th, the CIA advised that all the Cuban
launch sites were operational.
But that very day, with mounting awareness of consequences quickly outpacing
anticipated gains, the two sides came to an understanding. Kennedy was praised as a vigilant
hero when he publicly agreed not to invade Cuba in exchange for removal of the missiles. But
privately, Kennedy also agreed to remove American missiles from Turkey, just as Kruschev had
demanded. But by witholding the information concerning missiles in Turkey from public
discussion, Kennedy appeared to have won the battle, and Kruschev appeared weaker in the eyes
of those not in the know; perhaps contributing to an over-confidence when Kennedy decided to
commit to war in Vietnam, and to the future ouster of Nikita Kruschev by his hard-line Politburo
rival Leonid Brezhnev. What both sides were apparently left with was a reassurance that they’d
rather fight from a distance in third-world countries than face their own nuclear ruin. And the
intrigue of international political posturing played on.
The Soviets and Americans continued to scheme and plot against each other for world
domination. What was labeled a battle of ideology between democracy and communism had
seemingly more to do with strategic competitive positioning than social debate. In 1979,
contemporaneously with the Iranian revolution and Iran-Iraq war, Muslims revolted against the
communist government of Afghanistan. Christians and Muslims had warred to eliminate each
other nearly since Islam’s militant birth. But in what had traditionally been a mortal enemy bent
on the destruction of non-Muslims, the CIA saw a potential ally against the spread of enemy
number one, Russian communism. And the CIA supported the attempt of Islamic fundamentalists
to take control of Afghanistan. Over the next nine years, with support streaming in from Western
nations, the Soviets fought a long, frustrating, costly war with the Islamic Jihadists for control of
territory that hardly seems worth fighting for to many.
Like the regret felt for supporting Saddam Hussein in Iraq, America would one day come
to seriously regret supporting the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan. But at the time the United States
was in a detrimental trap of forging unhealthy alliances and creating new enemies by insisting on
using every opportunity to oppose an old enemy. While the U.S. would have been better served
to stay far away from the politics of Iraq and Afghanistan, it offered opportunity to oppose the
Soviets and the radicals of Iran who opposed the United States because of previous American
involvement in their internal affairs. In a hostile world, anonymity can be a beautiful thing.

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Nonetheless, when the U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan, U.S. officials acknowledged their intent to
share their costly and humiliating “Vietnam experience” with the Soviets.
And that experience of wasting lives and fortunes in an unpopular war was indeed shared
by the Soviets in Afghanistan. With mounting losses and no end in sight, when Mikhail
Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist party in 1985 he was looking for a way
to withdraw with dignity, much as the American Presidents had tried to save face in Vietnam.
And like America, the Soviets were slow to leave, but they did withdraw by 1989, leaving the
country to civil war which the Mujahadeen won in 1992. It’s easy to see how U.S. officials could
predict the Soviet difficulties in Afghanistan after America’s trouble with guerilla fighters in
Vietnam. But it remains a mystery to many how President George W. Bush would fail to
comprehend the challenges involved in occupying an unfriendly country where it’s difficult to
distinguish friend from foe. Those challenges were not wasted on Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev
however, and he would make possibly the greatest contribution to world peace in the second half
of the 20th century.
Before that could occur however, withdrawal from Afghanistan was only one event in a
rapidly changing Soviet Union. Premier Gorbachev, or Gorby as he was affectionately called, had
been dissappointed by Soviet policies when he was growing up and when he was working his
way to the top of the Communist Party. The brutality of Stalin and harsh realities of World War
II made lasting impressions on the young Gorbachev as a youth in Stavropol. He was born in
1931 during the midst of Stalin’s manmade famine, and his grandfather was sentenced to nine
years in a labor camp for setting aside grain for his family when Stalin was taking so much food
from the peasants that they were themselves going hungry. Faced with the restrictions on
peasants bound to work the communal farms, Gorbachev wondered of the difference between
communist policies and the oppression of serfdom of generations past.
Gorbachev was determined to make a difference, and his intelligence and a strong work
ethic earned him the Order of the Red Banner of Labor when he was 16, and later enrollment in
Moscow University where he began studying law in 1950, three years before the death of the
tyrannical Stalin. After graduation, Gorbachev immersed himself in work at the Communist
Party back at Stavropol and rose rapidly through the local Party ranks. In 1970 he was appointed
as the provincial party chief, where he displayed excellent organizational and leadership skills
that involved the people more in the decisions that affected them and improved general living
conditions. By that time his star was rising quickly, and the following year he was appointed to
the powerful Central Committee which elected and oversaw the elite Politburo. In 1979 he was
appointed to the Politburo as a candidate member and received full membership in that most
important governing body the following year.
Once in the Politburo, Gorbachev’s interests were advanced through his fortunate
circumstancial association with Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and future General Secretary
who also happened to be from Stavropol. After the death of Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko
was elected General Secretary, leader of the Soviet Union, and Gorbachev was made second
secretary. But Chernenko’s health was not good, and when he died Gorbachev was elected
General Secretary of the Communist Party by the Central Committee, receiving just one vote
more than hard liner Grigory Romanov. That one vote was instrumental in changing the face and
nature of world politics.
Gorbachev had long believed the secrecy and oppressive policies of the Communist Party
had been unjust and unnecesary. But until he rose through the ranks there were definite limits to
what he could accomplish and what reforms he could effect. From the time of revolution in 1917,
party policy was fixed at the top and forced on those below. To dissent too strongly or too soon
would have resulted in trouble for Gorbachev and he could have found himself exiled to a labor

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camp in Siberia, or worse. So he waited. He implemented reform as he could, and he networked
and sought leadership opprtunities and played the games of politics. His work in the Central
Committee and Politburo also allowed him unusual opportunities for a Russian to visit Western
countries like Belgium, Canada and the United Kingdom. When he was elected as the leader of
the Soviet Union at age 54, as the first General Secretary born after the revolution he was ready
for change.
But still, his control was not absolute, and he had to overcome the opposition of many
hard-line conservatives that had little consideration for the will of the masses. Many of the Party
leaders had grown accustomed to their elevated lifestyles in a society that was supposed to have
no class distinction. So Gorbachev campaigned for change as he introduced reform programs in
1986 and beyond. His original reforms were aimed at fixing the sluggish economy where people
didn’t feel the need to be creative or embrace their work. Knowing that the people wanted change
as he did, he realized, if informed, the masses would rally to their common cause and revitalize
the nation. Some of his proposals came to be referred to as glasnost, or opening up, and in the
spirit of fresh beginnings, in December of 1986 Gorbachev invited the exiled intellectual Andrei
Sakharov to return to Moscow.
Economic reforms included allowing limited private enterprise and market economy,
giving some freedom to the people to decide what they wanted to do and allowing demand to
more directly drive supply. Asset allocation had long been a problem inherent to communism
because supply decisions had traditionally been made by central planners who decided what to
make, how much to produce and how much products cost. But more importantly, glasnost
legislation promoted personal liberties such as increased freedom of speech, an absolute
cornerstone of any just democracy. Gorbachev also released many political prisoners and
dissidents, encouraged foreign cooperation and even foreign investment. He restructured the
government and promoted democracy by removing the stranglehold of the Communist Party on
government offices and forming new bodies such as the Congress of People’s Deputies, who’s
meetings were televised to reduce corruption and encourage greater public participation.
Within just a few years the movement for self determination had so much momentum it
exceeded even Gorbachev’s expectations, and to some extent even his control. Given the
opportunity, the idea of freedom ran its own course. By 1989, as the withdrawl of troops from
Afghanistan was coming to completion, historic democratic elections swept many Communists
from office. And the fires of democracy and independence that had long been surpressed began
to race through the Soviet satellite nations, those countries essentially annexed by Stalin
following World War II. The mood was electric, in that same year of Afghan exodus and
democratic elections Gorbachev let the citizens of Berlin “Tear down this wall!” as American
President Ronald Reagan, whom Gorbachev had forged a good relationship with, had stood in
front of and publicly challenged Gorbachev to do two years before.
Many had long hoped for such a day, but almost nobody foresaw such a dramatic and
sweeping liberalization and freeing of the Soviet Union just a few short years after Gorbachev
came to power. When the freedoms of democracy and speech ran there logical course in the
states of Russian minority, many of which had been harshly oppressed by Stalin, Gorbachev let
the people’s will decide. The democracy and freedoms he introduced were a total reversal of the
old communism that crushed numerous independence movements and revolts with the force of
the Red Army, and executed dissidents throughout the Communist Bloc in previous decades.
In the end, the forces of liberty, and of competing factions, overtook Gorbachev
politically. He had hoped for an orderly transformation to democracy while maintaining the
Communist Party as an influential member of the new democracy, and the continued union of the
Soviet Socialist Republics. But, the clash between reformists and conservatives pulled at the

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controls of government, and the Soviet Union, built into a Superpower and a brutal dictatorship
by Joseph Stalin, was dissolved at the end of 1991. Though it didn’t go quite as well as he had
hoped, Gorby delivered freedom to hundreds of millions of people in the Communist Bloc, and
relieved fears of nuclear armaggedon around the world. Thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev, people of
the Soviet Union and western nations that grew up under the very real threat of nuclear
annihilation were finally able to sleep better at night.

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 Motivation & the Birth of Gods
Mikhail Gorbachev and Joseph Stalin are both important historical figures that had huge
impacts on civilization. But their legacies vary dramatically: one was selfish, combative and
brutal, the other was giving, inviting and peaceable. They represent the diversity of history that’s
been shaped by peace and kindness, and by war and cruelty. Why is human behavior so
inconsistent? Why do people with the same universal needs vary so wildly in their temperment,
and not recognize the same universal needs of others?
To understand human behavior requires broader perspective; more profound insight than
the simple concept that all is planned and proceding according to some given purpose. That’s not
the reality of life. Life is driven by desire, not by design. Humanity is an amalgem of animated
form and motivating idea. To understand any action; whether it be conscious behavior or
otherwise, its cause must be determined. The mental impetus behind the great variety of
voluntary human efforts is called motivation. Every utterance and action has a motive; every
effect has a cause. It’s the essence of motivating desire that determines how people feel, think
and act. And it happens all too often that people invite adversity by accepting the results of
actions without taking into consideration the true motives behind them.
As far as motivations go, there are many types, some of which correspond to differing
levels of thought. Immediacy is the concept of time and distance considerations in the thought
process. The most basic motivation is survival, as the dead neither need nor want. Immediate
threats to health and safety receive top response priority. Only after safety is secured can
attention be practically turned to matters of physical desire and comfort, such as routine matters
of housing and food acquisition. Beyond survival and physical needs people engage in short-term
goals such as advancing their career and establishing a competitive advantage. Eventually, given
the right opportunity, people set about long-term planning. Today that planning might be for
retirement, saving for education, or perfecting a craft, but it might also include historical
achievements, or contriving political or economic conquest. And a few thoughtful people at the
top of the Immediacy Pyramid will choose their actions based on multi-generational, or legacy
considerations they hope will have effect well beyond their own time and place.
Beyond classifying the timeliness of consideration, it’s also very important to understand
the distinction among subjects of concern. The term Family Circle can descibe the breath of
individuals whose well-being is favorably considered in one’s thought process. As with
immediacy, there’s a wide range of concern people display for the health and happiness of others
that truly defines the character of the individual. The most primitive of our kind haven’t at all
grown beyond themselves, and care little, if any, about others; and of just slightly higher worth
are those that care about friends and family. Above them are people that consider effects to broad
groups such as a race, species or political subdivisions. Other people may champion some
species, like horses and dogs, while not considering others, such and cows and pigs. And
unfortunately it’s a rare person that cares about Health and Happiness for All. It’s that simple
missing element of equal concern for others that accounts for the crime, violence and iniquity in
civilization.
The third category of character distinction can be labeled Disposition. This category goes
beyond time and subject to better describe one’s attitude toward others. In determining effect,
family circle is crucial to establishing justness, and immediacy influences the scale of action. But
the degree of depravity or magnanimity is often defined by the disposition of the actor. The worst
character is so merciless and vile as to be labeled cruel. Less abusive savages are considered
hostile, while indifferent people are neither friend nor foe. And better mannered people rise to the
level of caring or even loving.

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 History, however, notes actions of grand scale as determined by immediacy, whether the
goals or methods were just or not. One of history’s most noted characters is Adolf Hitler, who
achieved lasting infamy by combining level five legacy ambitions of immediacy with level three
family consideration and a lowly level one disposition. In his lust for world dominance and
gratification he ordered the mass murder of gays, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people,
Jews and Poles. Did Hitler choose to be utterly evil? Did he even know that he was utterly evil?
Surprisingly, his perception of reality, and right and wrong was not all that far removed from
broader society. The basis of his reasoning was as old as life itself; and as for the justifications he
used to excuse his actions are no more than excuses man’s been working on for many thousands
of years if not longer.
Hitler’s primary motivation was one that’s common to everyone, a tendency people are
born with and can never be fully free of. When he looked at others Hitler saw differences instead
of commonalities. Quite simply, Hitler was selfish; putting his petty desires above the lives of
others. Wanting more land for his kind, he determined to enslave the Slavic people east of
Germany and take their lands. And his passion to advance ethnic Germans, what he believed to
be “his kind,” led to his attempted extermination of the most visible minority influence and
population living among the ethnic Germans, the Jewish people. All of his evil ambitions were
nothing more than the manifestation of a base selfish desire.
The very worth of people is determined by how well they rise above selfish desire, as
reflected by their impact on others. Every purposeful evil of the world today; be it stealing or
homicide, assault or simple insult; is the result of selfishness: the true root of all evil and
deliberate iniquity; the desire to put one’s self before, seek leverege over, and take advantage of
others. Selfishness plagues personal relationships, business and society. And it’s an inborn
instinct as basic as any human emotion or behavior, though it must be overcome to achieve
personal growth and mutual benefit.
Not only perspective, but even justice is individual because the ability to experience
pleasure or pain; the ability to feel emotion or contemplate reason; are products of advanced
nervous system development. And due to the simple fact that nervous systmes aren’t shared
among individuals, people haven’t the ability to see, hear, feel and think the sights, sounds,
sensations and thoughts of others. By that limitation people and other animals are alone in their
unique experiences; in their individual perceptions. Likewise, desires are similarly unique to
individuals. But people can grow in goodness by seeking to understand and share the experiences
and desires of others. Even though people may understand the benefits of cooperation and
common generosity, they are handicapped by singular perspective and challenged to overcome it
and grow beyond their selves.

Perception is most certainly not absolute in its restriction. People can see the pain of
others, they can see the commonalities of all life, but selfishness has been compounded and
furthered through the power of ignoble people spreading selfish ideas; some of which predate
civilization. To advance his desires at the expense of the needs and desires of others Hitler used
many of the same basic justifications still used today; excuses founded on a common belief in the
superiority of one’s self. The reason for that is very simple: self-preservation and self-
advancement was common to individuals well before any form of consciousness, which in-turn
predates any form of consideration.
Starting from nothing more than increasingly complex molecular interactions that
provided a basis of on-going animation and development, all of the knowledge and belief that
people have ever gained, going back to reptilian ancestors and beyond, had to first be learned
through observation, trial and error, and reason. In addition, individuals had to learn the same

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things many times over before ever developing the communication skills necessary to effectively
share knowledge and ideas.
The most primitive learning results from simple external stimuli. Examples of which are
pain, fear and the example of others. It took a very, very long time, but eventually archaic people
developed enough mental capacity to actually question the cause of actions and the nature of their
environment; instead of simply reacting to stimuli.
Reasoning is synonymous with an internal motivation to learn, or figure things out. But,
as an individual, early man’s perceptions were his own and so his interest was for himself. As an
individual he could be oblivious to others. The first result of that singular perception that comes
to mind is a lack of consideration and compassion for others. But there’s another important
legacy of that self-absorption which still burdens society. To understand modern motivation it
must be remembered that because he lived in an egocentric world early man didn’t just wonder
why things happened; he wondered why things happened to him.
Coupled with his limited perception, early man had little experience, and very basic
motivations. The quest for survival and fear of numerous serious health risks were still primary
among his interests. He saw lightning but didn’t know why it might strike him. He saw fire but
didn’t know why it might burn him. He saw rain and wondered why it might flood his home and
why it might then abandon him for months at a time; whilst another man might see no rain at all
and wonder why the river rose up against him without warning.
Whatever the phenomena, whether it be exploding mountains blasting smoke, ash and
rocks into the sky or an angry earth rumbling in displeasure as it opened and swallowed villages
whole; when observation failed to answer his questions, early man was left to draw on his own
experience, and project his personality into the subject of his curiosity. That practice of
projection; of assigning one’s own values and opinions to things and events of mystery, has been
instrumental in shaping history through man’s collective perception of reality. Because early man
might strike at someone in anger, he believed an angry sky might strike at him with lightning.
And because he related pain and hurtfulness with vengeance, he projected vengeful motive onto
dangerous natural phenomena, that were, in reality, totally void of consciousness.
In time, ancient man projected his personality into more than actions, but into objects as
well. And his fanciful spirits were growing more complex and powerful. Before he knew what
was happening, he was imagining spirits everywhere he looked, though they could be neither
seen nor heard. Supernatural agents ranged from spirits in objects that imbued special
characteristics in matter, to ultimate realities pervading the entire universe; and from competing
tribal gods to ultimate gods with neither beginning nor end and no limit to their power. In
fanciful attempts to explain the unknown, man gave birth to gods and created that odd unreality
to which they belong: religion.
And those simple, fragile gods; subject to the slight and whim of their creators and those
who doubted them, whereby many were consigned to perpetual oblivion; slowly grew in
importance. They began to take over the lives of men, growing stronger than men; stronger than
any man; strong enough to command armies and consume nations. Those little spirits that
flittered about the shadows of the unknown grew to become the powerful ideas that motivate and
subjugate mankind.
But superstition born of ancient man can be recognized and neutralized by his
descendants. Of man’s unreasonable, illogical creations, the sixteenth century philosopher
Michel de Montaigne remarked, “Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he
will be making gods by the dozens.” And the 19th century philosopher, Freidrich Nietzsche,
observed that “All religions bear traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual
immaturity of the human race.”

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 And quite simply, that was the basis for religion; invented as a crutch for minds unable to
come to grips with reality. Had people stopped at trying to explain what could be observed, and
limited themselves to actual experience without resorting to fantasy, they would have been able
to correct their own errors much sooner. But, their curiosity wasn’t limited to events they could
see, it extended to matters of pure speculation. The death of loved ones grieved our ancestors, it
set their hearts heavy and incessantly burned their minds with mourning. As people grew more
inquisitive they contemplated the end of life; even coming to obsess over their own certain
deaths.
Could anything be done to counter the inevitable finality of death? The question tore at
peoples emotions like wolves on a carcass; it haunted them like a grim reaper, stalking their
every move, lurking in the shadows, just waiting for one unsuspecting moment of weakness. The
loss of children, parents, friends, brothers and sisters was too much to bear. Death seemed so
cruel and so unfair that people simply resorted to fantasy and ignored reality to alleviate their fear
and frustration. Looking back at primitive man’s reaction to fear of the unknown, it’s easy to see
why Thomas Edison declared “religion is all bunk, born of our desire to go on living.” The loss
of everything people worked a lifetime to accomplish, and every memory and bond among
friends, was so disheartening, so frightful, that simple man, in weakness, couldn’t resist grasping
at any contrivance of eternal life. That’s why Karl Marx stated that religion was the opium of the
people and Sigmund Freud compared it to a childhood neurosis.
The tragedy of entrenched ideology was already set in motion. Children were hostage to
the perspectives and beliefs of their parents. Premature conviction, the acceptance of doctrine
that could not be observed, prevented people from continuing to search for the truth. Worse yet,
people began to make decisions justified by their own fantasies. By convincing themselves of
their own truth, ancient people set humanity on a difficult path where error would be
compounded by zeal. When people became entrenched in their beliefs they sought to impose
them on others. And as truth was lost, hatred was passed down through generations; with
erroneous, even evil practices being demanded, disseminated and defended by all available
means. Ancient zealots left future generations with archaic rules, invocations to errant and
rampant violence, and a belief that justice was on their side and that god would right the wrongs
of this world.
Before ancient people left written records, they’d compounded their errors many times
over. Not content to just invent gods, people were concocting intricate relationships in the spirit
world and elaborate rituals to appease their evermore peculiar gods; the gods that didn’t seem to
be responding to their pleas. How can it be that any thinking being might cry out in a vacuum and
expect an answer from nothing? What’s worse, their fantasies of gods and demons fighting over
mankind were the subject of the bulk of early writing. In the history of the world there’s never
been a fraud like religion. Is it any wonder at all that people would be easy targets of hucksters,
charlatans, and frauds; when they so enthusiastically bought into an empty promise of eternal
glory? If any man wants something enough, can he not be convinced he shall have it?
Devilish absurdities were set in stone by devout followers that took what they were told
to heart like they had seen it for themselves and then passed it to others with similar fearful
earnestness. The 19th century American speaker Robert G. Ingersoll characterized the passing of
ideas between generations. He said, “For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs
of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we
were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.” Unfortunately, people were
reluctant to try to learn what they thought they already knew, and in efforts to maintain their own
position and perspective they even campaigned violently to prevent others from seeking truth.
Ideas of gods and supernatural phenomena were more powerful than the simple minds

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they controlled. Priests were appointed to specialize in supplicating the gods. Those priests
became early examples of “experts” with a biased interest in propagating their own position.
Priests’ livelihoods, even their lives in many instances, were dependent on the religious
conviction of the kings they served. Should the rulers of the land lose faith in the effectiveness of
priests, then the priests were of little use and might as well themselves be sacrificed.
Unbeknownst to the common follower, seeking his own salvation, religious leaders had
deeply vested mortal interest in multiplying the complexity and mystery of their craft. The more
demanding and elusive the gods became, the more the services of the priests were needed. And
by shaping gods into jealous, vengeful monsters, the priests gained a defense against
expectations. They could then absolve themselves of failure by casting blame on the rulers and
citizens for not satisfying the excessive requirements of fickle gods.
As people consumed with controlling matters they couldn’t even influence, religious
leaders were captives of the gods of imagination, they were absorbed by the desperate culture,
and hadn’t the wherewithal to distance themselves from their own fantasy. It was those experts
and fervent devotees that couldn’t see the light for the shadows, the forest for the trees, the truth
for the castle in the sky.
In their selfish desires they even resorted to murdering their fellow earthlings in
ridiculous exercises of futility designed to buy the favor of their imaginary lords. And people
were so disturbed and delusional that fathers sacrificed their own children. Those were not
rational people possessing refined character, capable of high thought, and privy to divine
inspiration. They were savages that couldn’t rise above superstition to free themselves of
destructive dogma. Is it not concerning that humanity could be so base to believe in such
nonsense? And is it not more concerning to realize the great tenacity with which the error persists
to this day?

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 Evolution of the Gods
Many gods flourished in ancient Egypt, with different communities adopting their own
particular champion. Egyptian gods commonly had bodies of animal form that represented prized
natural traits, like the flight of a falcon, the power of a ram, the potency of a cobra, even the
practical work ethic of a scarab, or dung beetle.
Those Egyptian gods merged into a growing pantheon as their communities coalesced
into larger and larger kingdoms, until all of Egypt was united. Some gods were combined, as
when Amon and Ra were joined to form Amon-Ra, and other gods were assigned to different
duties such as Set, the chief deity of Upper Egypt, assuming the position of god of the night,
being inferior to Horus the sun god who was the primary deity of the conquering king of Lower
Egypt. Horus the falcon was only one of the sun gods over the years, others included Ra with
human form, Kheprer the winged beetle as the rising sun and many others.
As products of men, religions are merely reflections of people's concerns and ambitions.
The purposes to which people applied their mystical inventions varied with individual
perspectives. During the Pyramid Age the powerful and revered pharaohs, actual men like their
subjects, were considered to be sons of Ra. They were thought to be the earthly representatives of
the mightiest of the gods. In time, the sun god was even considered to act through the pharaohs in
producing offspring, and children of pharaohs were gods in their own right, with the intrigue of
their lives reflected in the religions they shaped. In lust of power, brothers turned on each other
and children sought vengeance.
That was the case with brothers Set and Osiris. Osiris had married Isis, his sister by
tradition. And having come to envy Osiris, Set plotted to destroy him; luring Osiris into an
ambush and murdering him. Osiris was placed in a coffin and put adrift in the Nile whence he
was washed to sea. Some time after the grieving Isis recovered the body of her beloved Osiris,
Set again found his body and this time dismembered it and scattered the pieces throughout Egypt.
When Isis located the parts of Osiris she buried them where they lay, as a farmer might plant his
crop. It wasn’t until Osiris’ secret son Horus was grown that Osiris’ death could be avenged.
After Horus defeated his uncle Set in an epic battle and delivered Set to his mother, he sought the
aid of Thoth, the god of wisdom, and revived his father with the gift of his own eye lost in his
battle with Set.
Symbolically, the eye of the sun god Horus had revived the “grains” of Osiris in the soil,
just as the sun gives rise to the crops. That’s but one example of the concerns of Egypt that the
gods were fashioned to address. Of course, peoples’ primary concern was the extension of life
beyond death. For that they invented elaborate rituals to ensure safe passage to the “other side”
and prosperity when they arrived. Among the treasures and miniature models of vessels and
servants laid away with the deceased, could often be found the Book of the Dead, meant to
secure eternal prosperity. The Book of the Dead contained many spells and incantations to
acquire blessings of the afterlife and served as a general guide to the deceased for getting the
most from their new land.
Myths of encyclopedic complexity evolved to describe the perils of reaching the last land;
gaining the ferryman’s assistance, negotiating wilderness, getting beyond hostile animals and
unlocking secret passages. Of course the religion continued to evolve, and the characteristics and
location of paradise itself changed with the times. As mankind’s range and travels increased, the
gods and heaven retreated farther and farther into the unknown. For Egyptians, paradise could
variously be found at the end of the world near the mountains in the west where the setting sun
met the stars of the underworld, across the great sea, or even in the Nile of the sky, the Milky
Way. Once there, the rich were assured a life of plenty and leisure in a fertile land covered with

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great crops worked by their slaves.
In order to achieve such lasting bliss, the deceased had to show his worth by announcing
to judges that he had done no evil. He would profess not to have: done those things the god
abominates, allowed one to hunger, caused one to weep, murdered, caused a man misery, taken
food or offerings from the temple, committed adultery, stolen, dammed running water, or
committed similar evils. Should the man’s heart be proven lighter than an ostrich feather on the
scales of jackel-headed Anubis, he would gain entry into the blessed fields of Osiris. But should
the man’s heart be shown to outweigh the ostrich feather, his soul might be cast into a fiery hell
or be eaten by the Devouress, a combination creature with the jaws of a crocodile on the
forequarters of a lion and rear of a hippopotamus.
Egypt’s long history allowed plenty of time to consider an after-life. For many hundreds
of years after Egypt was united the land was virtually free from foreign invasion. The stability of
the government, and the regularity of Nile flooding that provided fertility and water to the land to
supply a steady food source, allowed the Egyptians to concentrate on great building projects such
as grand temples, palaces, and the Pyramids. Religion in ancient Egypt lived long, prospered, and
subsequently addressed many subjects. It showed especially high reverence for the lords of the
land, the pharaohs, and the life-giving sun and Nile River.
But what was lacking relative to many ancient religions was an obsession with warfare
and conquest. The pharaoh’s were heads of state and religion; they were interested in prosperity
and stability. They weren’t interested in stirring the citizens with stories of oppression and
apocalyptic prophecies of cataclysmic wars marking the end of the world and establishment of a
new order. Frustration and discord was contrary to the interests of not only the pharaohs and
ruling families, but also to those of the influential priestly class.
Egypt’s most immediate contemporary, Mesopotamia, had a similar history of religious
development wherein the gods of tribes and small communities were brought together as cities
grew and states merged. And, like Egypt, the result was an exceptional variety of myths; with the
Gilgamesh flood epic being one of a long line that reflected Mesopotamians’ concern over the
unpredictability of river flooding. After being warned by the god Ea of a catastrophic flood that
the gods were going to unleash on the people, Utnapishtim built an ark 140 cubits tall, with sides
120 cubits high to hold the future of life on earth. The story is picked up with the end of the rain
below:
When the seventh day drew nigh, the tempest ceased; the deluge,
Which had fought like an army, ended.
Then rested the sea, the storm fell asleep, the flood ceased.
I looked upon the sea, while I sent forth my wail.
All mankind was turned to clay.
Like a swamp the field lay before me.
I opened the window and the light fell upon my face,
I bowed, I sat down, I wept,
And over my face ran my tears.
I looked upon the world, all was sea.
After twelve days (?) the land emerged.
To the land of Nisir the ship made its way,
The mount of Nisir held it fast, that it moved not …
I sent forth a dove and let her go.
The dove flew to and fro,
But there was no resting place and she returned.
I sent forth a swallow and let her go,
The swallow flew to and fro,

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 But there was no resting place and she returned.
I sent forth a raven and let her go,
The raven flew away, she saw the abatement of the waters,
She drew near, she waded, she croaked, and came not back.
Then I sent everything forth to the four quarters of heaven, I offered sacrifice,
I made a libation upon the mountain’s peak.
The general trend of religion was from spirits in animal form in rural societies to more
humanized gods as civilizations developed and people moved into urban areas. In most areas
writing lagged so far behind religious development that the earliest deities had been largely
humanized by the time their customs were recorded. By the time of the early Greek poet Homer
(circa 8th century B.C.), the gods of the Greek pantheon were a fully humanized amalgamation of
gods from early societies like the Minoans and Pelasgians, with those of Indo-European migrants
from the north, of which the Dorians were among the last. Among others, the Indo-Europeans
brought with them their chief god, Zeus, who was also known as Dyaus Pitar by other Indo-
Europeans and Jupiter when they introduced him to the Romans. Zeus also became king of all the
Greek gods and married the local goddess Hera.
By that time the Greek gods were becoming highly idealized with super-human beauty to
go along with their super powers and generalized job functions. They had also been largely
gathered together at Mount Olympus from amid the Hellenic people. Zeus and Hera were joined
on Mount Olympus by Zeus' brothers, Hades, lord of the underworld, and Poseidon, master of the
seas; his parents, Chronos and Rhea (Zeus’ sister Demeter wasn’t at Mount Olympus); Zeus and
Hera's children, Hephaestus, god of forge and fire, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the archer
Appollo who had the power to hurt or heal, their nature daughter Artemis, and the warrior Ares;
Zeus’ daughter with Dione the goddess of love Aphrodite, the mystical Dionysus, son of Zeus
and mortal Semele, and Hermes, the messenger, son of Zeus and Maia.
Apollo found some fame as the source of wisdom delivered to the famous oracle at
Delphi, consultant to Greeks for centuries before momentous decisions. Try as they might
however, people could never invent gods that knew any more than they did. To get around that
failure of religion the Greek oracles, or fortune tellers, uttered nonsensical ramblings, or spoke in
tongues as the Jews and Christians would say, that required interpretation. To this day failed
interpretation is the crutch upon which religions stand in the face of their own obvious
falsehoods and contradictions.
But even the wisdom of Apollo and the strength of Zeus couldn’t stand firm in the face of
enlightenment that marked the high point of Greek thought. As Greek intelligence and objectivity
had grown through the centuries, the gods lost their air of mystery by being domesticated; they
were subjected to limited roles and their capabilities more precisely defined. Indicative of the
gods decline was the slight by Diagoras of Melos when he was said to have thrown a wooden
image of a god into a fire in the 5th century BC, and remarked that the deity should perform
another miracle by saving itself. But still, Diagoras was in the minority and was forced to flee
Athens with a bounty on his head. A contemporary of Diagoras, Greek philosopher Anaxagoras
was also persecuted for opposing the absurd fantasies of religion.
Imaginative exercises of recitation and literature were instrumental in transforming feared
gods into interesting and even entertaining characters. Playwrights were instrumental in exposing
fantasy as such by producing adventures of god heroes such as Achilles, Dionysus, Zeus and
Heracles (Hercules). Theater helped bring the gods out of the sacred temples and into popular
public imagination. The fantasy of religion was running its natural course. It was losing appeal in
the light of creative license, free discussion, and philosophy that was growing more concerned
with factual representation. As Greek civilization set new standards in thought and practice,

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religion held on, but its power declined as more people rose above the fantasy.
Religion in Rome, though different, ran a similar course. Even while Roman military
power dominated the Mediterranean, people of the region remained Hellenized. Well before
Rome flexed its military muscle, early Roman religion had a strong resemblance to magic. The
many spirits that were honored in a multitude of ceremonies and festivals were bound to perform
as directed by very particular ritual, similar to the Brahmin influence in Hinduism. But, the
practical attitude of Romans clearly showed in their religion. Ceremony was approached as a
demanding contract between god and person. If the ceremony didn’t result in the desired outcome
it was either because the ritual was not performed with meticulous exactness by the supplicant, or
the god failed in its duty. In the latter case, people often found another god to worship.
Other influences, particularly Greek gods and traditions made their way into Roman
religion as the Empire expanded. Much godly immigration was the result of the Sibylline Books,
a collection of Greek oracles, or divine advice, that came to be consulted by priests at the
influential Capitoline temple for important decisions. Of course, since the books were of Greek
origin and the advice therein referenced many Greek gods, corresponding Greek temples were
constructed in Roman territory.
In the latter stages of empire, Roman religion was largely shallow formality and even the
city of Rome and Roman Emperors were deified. The symbolic religion, though still ritually
practiced, was largely pushed aside by real-world practicality. Lucius Annaeus Seneca the
Younger concluded in the 1st century that: “Religion is regarded by the common people as true,
by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
Regardless of the state of Roman religion, the enduring influence of the Empire would
help shape the future of western religion. One institution dating from pre-republic Rome that
would later influence the formation of the Catholic Church was the College of Pontiffs of which
the Pontifex Maximus was the chief priest. Later, Roman emperors held the title of Pontifex
Maximus, until Emperor Gratian bestowed the title on Siricius, the bishop of Rome, in the year
382. Thus, the head of the official state religion which became the Catholic Church continues to
be based in Rome. Modern popes are titled by the variant Pontifex Summus and elected by the
similarly named College of Cardinals.
In the evolution of religion, old religions often give way to newer traditions, similar to the
manner in which Christianity replaced the Roman pantheon. More religions have died out than
could be named today. As older religions faded away the religion of the Indus River Valley of
Northwest India, Hinduism, was left as possibly the oldest distinct religion still widely practiced
today. Certainly, its archeological record, while pre-dating known Jewish works, doesn’t rival
extinct ancient Egyptian and Sumerian beliefs. But belief in Karma; which may be generally
taken to mean one’s experiences in this or future lives is the just result of one’s previous action
or behavior; and belief in reincarnation, may date to more than two millennia B.C.
While Indian writing lagged behind that of the Fertile Crescent, the oldest known texts
that form the written foundation for Hinduism date from more than one millennium B.C. Those
Vedas included mantras that were chanted over and over to instill focus on a particular subject,
along with other writing styles that covered topics such as philosophy and performance of rituals
and sacrifices.
The vast collections of texts may not have been considered divinely inspired by their
authors or those that compiled them, but through time they became regarded as such. The eclectic
nature of the Vedic collections reflects an openness of Hinduism. That lack of rigid control and
limits allowed Hinduism to exceed other current religions in variety. Without progressive
suppression of independent thought, characteristic of the Abrahamic religions, Hindus added
their interpretations and perspectives to the embracing faith.

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 Gods and spirits are plentiful in the Hindu world, with Indra early being chief among
them. Other popular gods include Brahma the Creator, Shiva the Destroyer, and Vishnu the
Preserver. Vishnu has even appeared in nine earthly incarnations, known as avatars, which have
come to be regarded as gods in their own rights. Some of the well known avatars include Rama,
the righteous; Krishna, the adorable; Ganesha, the elephant headed; Hanuman, the monkey god;
and Yama, the god of the dead. Kalkin, the tenth avatar of Vishnu, is supposed to usher forth the
end of the world.
As a tolerant religion, Hinduism absorbed local customs as it spread and also evolved
separately in remote areas, growing immensely complex. Hindus may worship one god or a
hundred, or even no god, but a unifying essence that provides consciousness to matter. Self
interest presented itself in Hinduism as the rising power of priests known as Brahmins. It came to
be held by many Hindus that the gods were controlled by rituals, and as leaders and experts of
rituals, the Brahmins were in control. In addition, the old brutality and injustice of animal
sacrifice, and the restrictive nature of the maturing class system supported by Hinduism, led
some of the more advanced Indian people to reject it.
An Indian religion offering greater equality and compassion was Jainism. Jains don’t
believe in a god, but rather the spirit in all life. The 6th century BC Indian prince, Nataputta
Vardhamana came to be regarded as Mahavira, or hero. He’s the man that denounced material
goods and other desires, and walked around India naked preaching the way of peace and nirvana.
With selfless objectivity he promoted the equality of males and females. Yet, by far his greatest
attribute and contribution to the world was promotion of the practice of ahimsa, or non-injury to
any living creature.
Mahavira placed great effort toward preventing harm to sentient beings by actively
encouraging people to not only stop willfully killing and hurting their fellow earthlings but also
to take great care not to hurt others by accident. He personally carried a whisk broom to clear his
path of insects that might otherwise be injured by his passing, or presence. Jainism doesn’t offer
a creation myth or stories of a world ending war, and there’s no jealous god demanding war on
unbelievers. Nor did Jainism ever gain a huge following based on conquest and subjugation of
native populations. And Jainism isn’t the state religion of powerful warring nations.
While all religions may be in error, they’re far from equally erroneous or harmful. A large
inherent family circle and loving disposition allows some to stand as wise giants among petty
children. The kindness of Mahavira’s Jainism, and its inspiration to grow beyond the self
elevates it among the greatest of the known religions.
But Mahavira wasn’t the only Indian prince to lead a religious movement in the 6th
century BC. The prince from the area of modern Nepal named Siddhartha Gautama, is widely
known today as the Buddha, or enlightened one. Like Mahavira, he chose an ascetic lifestyle,
shunning pleasure. But then Buddha realized that a life of moderation was more sensible, and
morally productive, than purposefully denying oneself pleasure. Gautama Buddha’s style was
more akin to a philosopher of contemporary Greece than the fire-brand prophets commonly
associated with modern Western religions. He offered his vision of reaching enlightenment to
those who cared to hear it. His was not a campaign to recruit the world or compete with the
jealous gods for subjects. He offered simple Precepts to live a better life that were similar to what
Mahavira had espoused the previous generation. Those Precepts included:
1. To refrain from taking life.

2. To refrain from taking that which is not given.

3. To refrain from sensual misconduct.

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 4. To refrain from lying. And,

5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

Hindu authors retaliated against Buddha by naming him the ninth avatar of Vishnu;
claiming that he was leading the evil toward their punishment. But, having considerable freedom
to choose their own priorities, Hindu worshippers incorporated some of the teachings of
Mahavira and Buddha into their own doctrine. Some Hindus adopted a policy of moderation and
detachment in the way of The Buddha.
And many Hindus were also so impressed by Mahavira’s example of compassion that
ahimsa and vegetarianism became widespread in Hinduism. Fortunately for eastern civilization,
Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are open and welcoming, with adherents freely partaking of
each. One latter day popular historical figure strongly influenced by Jainism and Hinduism is
Mahatma Gandhi, the man called the Father of India for his peaceful approach to securing
independence from British colonial rule for India, and before that, seeking racial equality in
South Africa.
The 6th century BC was notable for developments in Indian philosophy, but there was yet
another celebrated teacher from the 6th century BC named Confucius. Confucius was a
government administrator in China who’s revered as the founder of a major religion, but he may
be more accurately described as a philosopher, or even an organizer and motivator. By his own
admission, he didn’t develop a great deal of doctrine or philosophy. In fact, the simple premise of
being a proper gentleman was at the heart of Confucian philosophy. He lived in a land of
ancestor veneration, and reasoned that people should live by li as the ancestors had. Li is
synonymous with good manners, proper behavior and courtesy. According to Confucius, if li, the
cosmic harmony, could be achieved between men, earth and heaven, Tao, the will of heaven,
would be in place.
Confucius was practical in nature, with order in society being one of his top priorities.
His professional career involved advising feudal governors, and he willingly embraced the feudal
system. Proper respect with regard to one’s place in society dictated his teaching. His Five Great
Relationships were: kindness in the father, filial piety in the son; gentility in the eldest brother,
humility and respect in the younger; righteous behavior in the husband, obedience in the wife;
humane consideration in elders, deference in juniors; and benevolence in rulers, loyalty in
ministers and subjects.
When asked what of repaying evil with kindness? Confucius replied, “Then what are you
going to repay kindness with? … Repay kindness with kindness, but repay evil with justice.” But
unlike many modern advocates and politicians he didn’t believe a well-ordered state could be
legislated into existence. Instead, he was a proponent of the Golden Rule, “What you do not want
done to yourself, do not do to others,” he said.
While Confucius helped shape Chinese culture for thousands of years to come, a man
named Zoroaster was instrumental in forming thought in the west. Zoroaster lived in an area,
some believe modern Iran, influenced by the same ancient Aryans that provided much of the
basis for early Hinduism. And though he is not well-known today, his teachings, as set forth in
the Zoroastrian religion, are familiar to many followers of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.
Western religion today is dominated by one god opposed by one evil rival. But before
Zoroaster’s time, popular religion was dominated by multiple gods engaged in complex
relationships. Tradition holds that he had been tempted by the evil spirit to renounce the supreme
god. But Zoroaster triumphed over that temptation, just as the supreme god, Ahura Mazda with
his accompanying angels would eventually triumph over his brother Angra Manyu and his forces

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of evil to establish paradise where the righteous people, living and dead, would be reunited.
It wasn’t the triumph of Ahura Mazda over Angra Manyu that spread Zoroastrianism.
Rather, the conquest of the Fertile Crescent by Cyrus the Great, King of the Persian Empire,
centered in what is now Iran, would help spread the concept of one god, ultimate in presence and
power, opposed by one great essence of evil.

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 Mirage in the Desert
The interior of Canaan, less productive than Mesopotamia to the northeast and the Nile
floodplain in Egypt to the southwest, remained primarily pastoral as powerful civilizations grew
up around it. The area was subject to repeated foreign domination in the second millennia BC.
Prior to 1,000 BC the Phoenicians and Philistines maintained prosperous settlements along the
fertile strip of land bordering the Mediterranean coast in what is the State of Israel today. But the
more arid and rugged interior was sparsely populated, with towns like Jericho, near the small
fertile delta where the Jordan River emptied into the Dead Sea, being uncommon amongst
predominant rocky hills and desert.
It was near the beginning of the first millennia before the common era, legend says, some
tribes of the rough interior, calling themselves Hebrews elected a king named Saul. Prior to the
elevation of Saul, the Hebrew tribes, which shared the common parent Canaanite language with
the other tribes of Canaan, were ruled by a group of elders known as judges.
Under Saul the Hebrews set about conquering the lands of their immediate neighbors.
And after his passing, his successor David brought much of the interior of Canaan under the
control of the Hebrews along with parts of the coastal area between better defended Philistine
and Phoenician communities. And David made the captured town of Jerusalem between the Dead
Sea and the Mediterranean his capital. Still yet, his kingdom was small, comparable in size to the
Italian island of Sicily; and it was insignificant as a regional power.
Making matters worse, the kingdom that David passed to his son Solomon wasn’t to last.
After Solomon’s death, the ten Hebrew tribes of the more prosperous North refused allegiance to
his son Rehoboam, and the nation was split into Israel in the North with its capital at Samaria and
the two tribes of Judah in the arid South, keeping their capital in Jerusalem. Thus there came into
being two separate Hebrew nations, the Jews of Judah and Israelites to their north.
Not all is as it seems in the Bible and Tanakh. In the 8th century BC Judah and Israel often
opposed one another, and Judah was alternating between alliances with Egypt and Assyria. Many
instances of biblical slander against the Israelites was not self-criticism by the Israelites as
popularly perceived, but rather they were directed at Israel from leaders of bitter, impoverished
Judah. In fact, the Christian and Jewish bibles are full of threats to all of Judah’s neighbors as the
poor Hebrew tribes alternately attempt to conquer territory, assert their independence, keep their
independence, and long for independence.
Israel and Judah remained separate until King Sargon of Assyria, with the assistance of
Judah, conquered Israel in 722 BC. In order to maintain control and prevent rebellion, King
Sargon scattered many Israelis throughout the Assyrian Empire and settled Assyrians in their
place. Those that remained in Israel were assimilated into the Assyrian culture and the Nation of
Israel disappeared from the face of the earth. The Hebrews of Judah, masters of little more than
the Negev desert, and most often subjects of the regional powers, were bitterly disappointed in
their own circumstances.
Bitter as they may have been however, the land that seemed like the armpit of the world
to some, was the center of the universe to them. They longed for greatness, yet their people lived
in tents and herded goats. Their utter anguish and frustration would show itself in Jewish culture;
with insecurities and savagery ever near in sacred writings that they would rely on as the basis of
their quest for self advancement.
Even so, the Hebrews shared many of their religious beliefs with their neighbors, picking
from among the wealth of traditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The lunar calendar that Jews
still cling to is the old Babylonian calendar that was in-turn derived from the Sumerian calendar,
and the months of the Jewish calendar are even named after Babylonian gods.

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 Jewish stories that later became the Jewish bible, the Tanakh, and the Christian Old
Testament relate that King Saul humbly consulted the witch of Endor to conjure the ghost of the
recently deceased prophet Samuel. Saul, David and many other Biblical figures consulted
magical objects, sought omens and cast lots to determine the will of their god. And it was also a
common belief in the area that the god YHWH (Yahweh), alternatively known by the names El
Shaddai (God of the Mountain), Jehovah, Adonai, Elohim, and others, was married to Asherah,
the equivalent of the Mesopotamian goddess, Ishtar. Solomon, who built the Temple in
Jerusalem, was also reported in First Kings 11:5 to have “…went after Ashtoreth the goddess of
the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites” in addition to building
altars for the gods Chemosh and Molech.
However, the wholesale borrowing of foreign religious traditions posed challenges that
early Jewish writers, wanting so desperately to set themselves above fellow men, couldn’t
overcome. They went about trying to weave a variety of borrowed concepts into a compelling
history entitling them to advantage and blessing. Yet they never reached a consensus on
something as basic as eternal life, or even an afterlife. In their world of fantasy, their god, all-
powerful like Ahura Mazda, brought forth earth and sky from the ocean, as did the gods of Egypt
and Sumer. The lords of Jewish thought, even included a genealogy in their sacred books to
allow Jews to track their birthright from God, so that the people of Israel might be “above all
nations that are upon the earth” as stated in Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 12 (14:12).
According to Jewish authority, God created heaven and earth in 3,760 BC.
There were those in ancient times that believed outer space to be constituted of water and
on occasion the firmament of heaven would open to allow some water to rain down on earth.
Today we know it’s not true, but it made since in those days because people could see the rain
fall down, but they never saw it go back up into the sky. That primitive belief is represented in
the book Genesis where, “God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it
divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And
God called the firmament Heaven.”
By the time the Jews returned from exile in Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar banished
them and smashed Jerusalem in the sixth century BC, they were anxious to share the wrath of their
God by incorporating the Gilgamesh Flood Epic into their sacred writings as the story of Noah
and his ark. And as the early zealots wrote and re-wrote their books they were able to make
stories more fantastic. One such example was the story of a champion of David’s army, Elhanen,
slaying the warrior chosen to represent the Philistines; it was transformed over time to become
the story of a young David using a mere sling to slay the fearsome giant warrior Goliath, who
stood nine feet tall and carried a spear so large its iron tip weighed fifteen pounds.
As told in First Samuel, Saul’s army had cowered for forty days before the Philistine
giant as he repeatedly challenged them to fight, but the Israelites, lined up for battle, fled from his
path. According to the Jewish myth, David was just a small shepherd who happened upon Saul’s
army that was paralyzed with fear. To add even more awe to his story the author had David
smiting both a bear and a lion who had unexplainably partnered to abduct a lamb from his
father’s flock not long before David’s encounter with the mighty giant.
Goliath was just one of numerous instances when Jewish writers injected giants of
popular myth. Well before Christians imagined a divine conception for Jesus, the authors of
Genesis, in chapter six, verse four stated the children of gods and human women roamed the
earth as giants: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of
God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty
men which were of old, men of renown.” That mixing of gods and humans that was so common

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in Egyptian, Greek, Mesopotamian and unnumbered other myths, helped explain why the Bible
includes a lengthy list of men that lived in excess of nine hundred years.
While popular myths contributed much colorful fantasy to add excitement and build
interest in Jewish writing, they also added to the confusion and contradictions present in the
works. David’s introduction to Saul before he lodges a stone in Goliath’s head was accompanied
by another first meeting between the two described in the Bible. The other version involved a
young David brought in to play music to make Saul feel better. In that story David did such a fine
job that Saul had him stay on as a personal arms bearer.
In a similar ilk there were two versions for Saul’s death, wherein he committed suicide by
falling on his own sword in the one and was slain by an Amalekite just a few versus later.
Hebrew authors didn’t even make it far in Genesis, the first book of the Tanakh and Bible, before
contradicting themselves. In Genesis it’s written that God created day and night on the fourth
day; curiously, there’s no mention of how it came to be the fourth day before day and night were
even created, that might explain why reference to creation of day and night was also included as
an activity of the first day.
The writers worked independently through the ages and all had their own experiences and
reasons for writing. Contradictions were so abundant that it appears some authors purposefully
rebuffed others. The evolution of God can be seen in the pages of scripture. The Jewish God
would later be considered all-knowing, but in Genesis, he asks Adam and Eve where they are
when they are hiding from him in the Garden of Eden. And in Hosea, Israel had made princes
and God knew it not.
Even the debate between having one god or many was long in settling and Bible editors
failed to remove all of the references to other gods. Long before Christian churches were torn by
schisms over the nature of the Father, Word, Son and Holy Ghost; the concepts of which are
strikingly similar to Zoroastrian and Hindu traditions; Jews were arguing about the singularity of
god. In Genesis God is repeatedly referred to in the plural, and in the following book, Exodus,
the Jewish God executes judgment against the gods of Egypt and is acknowledged as greater than
all other gods.
Deuteronomy 10:17 states: “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords.”
Psalms 97 goes on to say that he is exalted far above all gods and ye gods worship him. Clearly,
the Hebrews knew their god was one of many. Gods were plentiful in those days, and the
Hebrews didn’t question the abundance of other gods, they only concerned with how their god
could raise them above other tribes and nations. It wasn’t until generations were born and lived
knowing of only the one Hebrew God, that the concept of him being the only god began to take
firm root among the Hebrews and through them with later Christians and Muslims.
Time and time again the Jewish authors portrayed their god triumphing over other gods.
What made him special wasn’t that he was the only god, but he was their god. He was the god of
the Twelve Tribes and would deliver the world unto them. Judaism wasn’t meant to be a
universal religion. The authors of ancient Israel weren’t creating a religion for all people, and
certainly not for all life, they were seeking advantage for themselves by creating a god of Israel.
Even Jesus was quoted in Matthew 15 as saying he was sent only to the lost sheep of the
House of Israel. Just as people are shaped by their environment, so to were the gods. They were
invented for specific purposes by people with certain motivations. And the god of the Hebrews
that grew up while the Hebrews were trying to establish their own nation was invented to help his
chosen people slay and smite their enemies. Still today, that warrior god of David and
Constantine lives on among Islamic Fundamentalists.
Like many contemporary religions, the Hebrew religion was dominated by secretive
priests and prophets that kept the people of Israel and Judah from questioning why they never

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saw their god, by issuing stern warnings of terrible punishments he would execute upon them
should they try to learn his true nature. Certain death awaited any that should come to close to
god. Even to say his name was a deadly offense, which is why you see many Jewish references to
this day that abbreviate whatever name they use for their G-d. For looking upon the Ark of the
Covenant Yahweh killed over fifty thousand men of Bethshemesh as related in First Samuel
6:19, “and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great
slaughter."
More outlandishly, people and even animals were to be put to death for even touching the
mountain upon which God dwelt in the early days, before others conquered the mountain and
authors moved God to heaven. In keeping with the great secrecy that shielded gods from
questioning, early Hebrew authors even refused to disclose a name for their god, referring to him
as the one who shall not be named, though later authors thought it more practical to assign names
to their deity.
As the Israelites fought with their neighbors for supremacy and identity, they made their
god violently jealous to win and hold converts, and steal the rank and file of other gods. In
Zephaniah 3:8 God said “…all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” Their
god was also made to say in Ezekiel, chapter six, verses 4&5: “And your altars shall be desolate,
and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I
will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your
bones round about your altars.”
Having only a meager literary tradition, authors of Jewish scripture elevated the art of
hateful expression to unknown heights. Unfortunately, the god of the Jews and later Christians,
Muslims, and a few more religions, was exceedingly evil. Before Saul and David went to war
against each other, David sought to marry Saul’s daughter Michal. The price Saul set for his
daughter was the foreskins of 100 Philistine penises. But David was a much greater killer than
that. “Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred
men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might
be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.”—1 Samuel 18:27
David would gain fame for much greater slaughters, but well prior to David, the Jewish
God had warred against the Egyptians, smiting the firstborn of the people and all the beasts of the
field, and killing all the cattle in Egypt, and smiting all the men and beasts in the field with
stones of hail. Psalms 136:10 reads “To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy
endureth for ever.” “For his mercy endureth for ever,” says the ancient Psalm. It’s true that some
people have neither concept of the purpose of life, nor redeeming quality. Like too much of
humanity, many of those who conspired on the Bible knew not the value of promoting a world of
peace and pleasure, but rather obsessed and raved of violence, great slaughter and suffering. They
succeeded in inventing a cruel and wrathful egomaniac, who’s persona would contribute to
nearly as much iniquity and devastation as they falsely gave him credit for.
In Deuteronomy 7 in furtherance of the Israelites’ conquest of their “promised land” as
God’s chosen people, and in furtherance of their god’s war it was said:
"When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,
and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites,
and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater
and mightier than thou;
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and
utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his
son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so

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 will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.”
And so it was written that the people wantonly butchered as the jealous god commanded
them, as described in First Samuel 27:8-9: "And David and his men went up, and invaded the
Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites ... And David smote the land, and left neither
man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and
the apparel. And David saved neither man nor woman alive"
Still, prior to David, God fought alongside Joshua, after the passing of Moses, to conquer
the promised land they were invading, that stretched from Lebanon even unto the great river, the
river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the
sun. In Deuteronomy 20:16-17 it was written: “But of the cities of these people, which the LORD
thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou
shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee…”
The Hebrew authors went on to describe great slaughter of every kingdom and every city
except the Hivites and Gibeonites. In all the rest, Joshua utterly destroyed all that breathed, the
men and women, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And the
Israelites kept the valuables for themselves, and burned certain cities to the ground. Similar
slaughter is listed in Deuteronomy, chapter two. In that accounting the Israelites took all the
cities of Heshbon and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones; leaving none
remaining.
The god of the Hebrews continued to battle with humanity: “Moreover all these curses
shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because
thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his
statutes which he commanded thee,” Deuteronomy 28:45. Another account of sensational
suffering illustrating a woman’s depravity after being afflicted by God’s famine is told in Second
Kings 6:29: “So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy
son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.” And the theme was repeated in
Deuteronomy 28:56-57 where it was written the delicate woman would eat the young one that
cometh out from between her feet and the children that she bore. Again and again the religious
fanatics that the world flocks to for guidance wrote that their God would cause father to eat son,
son to eat father and women to eat their children.
In the book of Joshua, Saul killed all the men, women, children, and animals in the city of
Nob. And in First Samuel 15 Saul utterly destroyed all the living things of Amalek except Agag
the king and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, lambs and all that was good. And after all the
utter destruction, God was still disappointed that he had set Saul up as king of his evil empire
because Saul had spared some lives in Amalek. But the conditioning of unquestioned obedience
so pervades society that the wisdom in gruesome tales of shameless violence simply isn’t
questioned by the masses In Letters from the Earth Mark Twain asserted that the Bible, in
describing God, is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere, and that
God is a malign thug.
As children with immature minds, or someone who is semi-conscious or whose mental
faculties are impaired, primitive people convinced themselves of a need to sacrifice to the gods
of their imaginations. Such people were true slaves to themselves; failing to realize their own
fallacy or rise above the self for any purpose. And the god of Judaism could display no other
quality than the depravity of his creators.
Throughout the Old Testament it was written that the smell of the smoke of burning
victims was as sweet savor unto the Lord. Most any act or occasion was deserving of slitting
some innocent animal’s throat with a knife, sprinkling or smearing its blood around, and burning

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it for the Lord. Great volumes of Jewish literature were devoted to torturing their fellow
earthlings to earn blessings and absolve themselves of sins against their imaginary God. So lost
were the believers in their own confusion that they didn’t understand the danger of believing
their own fallacy.
Priests, in their constant striving to dominate all aspects of Jewish life, assigned animal
sacrifices for just about everything they could think of. They maintained a continual burnt
offering of two lambs every day and to that they added sacrifices for the new year, the new
month, the seventh day, the planting, the harvest, in times of conquest, in times of defeat, in
times of sin, in times of celebration, in times of feast, in times of famine, and so on and so on. To
make the obsession complete, they designated sacrifices for normal bodily functions. Leviticus
15 states: “And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put
apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even… And on the
eighth day she shall take unto her two turtle[dove]s, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto
the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And the priest shall offer the one for
a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her
before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.
Taking pause for one moment to ponder the motivation of such malignant writing, it’s
easy to see how absurd Jewish, Christian and Islamic writings are. But still today many people
are too weak to break free of such ancient barbarity. Though many know how evil it is, they
refuse to renounce the cruelty. In time, society at large rose above animal sacrifices, but there are
still a few that persist in the ways of evil ignorance. A great number of Jews use the excuse of the
Temple being destroyed by the Romans to resist sacrificing animals to that old wrathful mythical
being. It’s in that way fortunate that there will never be a messiah to rebuild the Temple and
deliver the world unto the Jews and Yahweh.
But the delirious creators of Jewish practices didn’t stop at sacrificing animals. After
conquering their neighbors and annihilating cities, human sacrifice was quite common according
to the Jewish and Christian bibles. The bibles say that the Israelites sacrificed people, as well as
the followers of Baal and other contemporaries. There are many instances of the earliest Hebrews
burning their firstborns, which they called passing through fire, for their Lord. In time many such
references were toned down, but there are a few examples that remained as symbols of devotion
to a primitive god.
The most famous example was Abraham, the legendary father of Judaism, Christianity
and Islam. People of reason and refinement are put off by the story of a man who was so selfish
he was willing to kill his firstborn son in order to gain favor for himself. That’s the paradox of
sacrifice, the true sacrifice was demanded of some innocent third party while the one offering the
sacrifice was motivated by personal gain. In generosity God allowed Abraham to kill a goat
instead of his son. But primitive people made Abraham out to be a brave and great man, when he
was in fact a weak minded coward.
The Book of Judges relates a story of Jephthah in chapter 11. Jephthah asked the king of
the children of Ammon why he would not possess only that which his god Chemosh had given
him to possess. But the king of Ammon kept a desire for the land of Israel. As Jephthah prepared
to make war against the Ammonites, he sought the favor of his god:
“ … Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and
Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto
the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without
fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh
forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon,
shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

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 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them and the Lord
delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer even till thou come to Minnith,
even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the
children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to
meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither a
son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas,
my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have
opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.
And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me
according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken
vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her
father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon
the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her
companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of
two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he
had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, That the daughters of Israel
went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year…”

Child sacrifice may not be all that surprising considering the selfish nature of the Middle
East two to three thousand years ago. Children were not valued much beyond the value of their
labor. The Book of Leviticus states “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall
surely be put to death.” But surely daughters were of much less worth than sons. Girls received
so little recognition that Jephthah’s daughter, murdered for the sake of Israelite military conquest,
wasn’t even referenced by name. Boys received the inheritance of their fathers’ estates, not girls.
Girls were actually treated as property to be bought from fathers by husbands.
A man was traveling home with a servant and concubine, or mistress, for whom he had
just recently paid her father. When it drew late, they sought a house to stay for the night and
found an old man kind enough to take them in. The story from the Book of Judges, chapter 19,
continues as follows:
“…Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons
of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house,
the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And
the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay,
I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.
Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and
humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile
a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her
forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the
day began to spring, they let her go.
Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's
house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the
doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen
down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold.
And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her
up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. And when he was come into his
house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones,
into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel...”
That story is a near copy of one about Lot in the Book of Genesis, chapter 19, where he
also responds to men of the city gathered around his house by saying, “Behold now, I have two

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daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to
them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the
shadow of my roof.”
Females were indeed treated as property in the Bible. Solomon alone had seven hundred
wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines according to the First Book of Kings chapter 11,
verse 3. And men guarded over their women with cruel and bitter jealousy; no better than rutting
baboons fighting over a harem that would kill the children to accelerate heat in the females. Such
savages had an absurd obsession with virginity, and it’s a clear parallel of jealousy, insecurity
and rage among God and man in Judaism. In the Book of Numbers the Israelites killed all of the
Midianites except for the female virgins which they kept for themselves. And in Leviticus 21:9
it’s said “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she
profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.”
The punishment listed in Deuteronomy 22:13-21 for girls who weren’t virgins at the time
of their wedding was death by stoning:
“If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, And give occasions of speech
against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to
her, I found her not a maid:
Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the
damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's father shall say unto
the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; And, lo, he hath given
occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the
tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; And they shall amerce
him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath
brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her
away all his days.
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then
they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall
stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in
her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.”
Losing one’s virginity was by no means the only occasion involving sex that was
punishable by death among the Hebrews that were so fascinated with fornication. Chapter twenty
in the book of Leviticus tells us that he that giveth his seed unto Molech shall be stoned to death,
and any who go whoring after familiar spirits and wizards God will cut off from his people.
Should any man have sex with another man’s wife, he and the wife shall be put to death. For any
man that lieth with his father’s wife, both of them shall surely be put to death. And if a man lie
with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. If a man also lie with
mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall
surely be put to death. And if a man take a wife and her mother they shall be burnt with fire. And
if a man or woman lie with a beast, the man or woman and the beast shall surely be put to death.
What the Hebrews considered sacred literature was an immense assemblage of diverse
writings from internal and external sources collected and edited over many centuries. The more
voluminous their collection became, the more difficulty they had trying to unify it. The result is
an incoherent jumble of fanatical utterings. To try to impart a sense of unity and order, and just as
importantly to convince others of Jewish authority, writers and editors assembled unrelated
passages together in books attributed to “prophets” of centuries past.
Hardly a hero was invented that wasn’t blackened by the acid tongues of the priests,
prophets and other zealots, surrounded as they were, one by another. Elisha, the authors said,
performed many miracles, including parting waters, and raising up the dead. Coming nigh the

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time of his very ascension to heaven having never suffered death, for being such a good servant
of the Lord, he took vengeance on children for mocking him. As was stated in Second Kings
2:23-24: “And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there
came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald
head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the
name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two
children of them.”
It’s important to remember the individuals responsible for shaping culture and the
motivations for their actions. The influence of those individuals, often conflicting with one
another, varied widely. Representative of vile Jewish writers was the foreboding prophet called
Ezekiel. Although the Book of Ezekiel was later modified, with material added, the principal
figure was among those relocated to Chaldea by Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian Exile. Life
was punishment to Ezekiel, he was unaware of pleasure; consumed by blind religious fervor and
very much dependent on and captive of the jealous god. To maintain the secrecy necessary to
preventing his audience from learning of his deception, he preached that the Lord not allow him
to speak but when inspired to do so.
As a priest; and as many believe the son of a priest; who depended on the success of his
religion, he was without rational contemplation and fervent in the extreme. One should
understand what was expected of him and what he was brought up to expect of himself. As a
priest exiled to Babylon, uneducated people looked to him for explanation of their misfortune. To
that end he cast great vehement blame, but thought naught to objectively consider the true
circumstances of their exile. In his own time, he was widely heard, but largely ignored due to the
attacking nature of his discourse. His fanaticism led to miracles being credited to him. It was
written that he revived the dead and was with the three Hebrews that were forced in the fiery
furnace by Nebuchadnezzar but remained unharmed.
Ezekiel’s real contribution to the world was the sense of rage, frustration and
vengefulness that permeated his preaching. The Book of Ezekiel railed against many parties that
people could believe responsible for the troubles of Judah, such as women weeping for Tammuz,
the shepherd god called Dumuzi by the Sumerians, at the door to the Temple in Jerusalem,
where, in his simple mind, the true god resided. In God’s own house, he concerned, his people
were committing blaspheme against him. To prevail in his war of religion, the debased Ezekiel
loosed the wrath of his tongue.
The famous scientist Albert Einstein didn’t believe in God, yet he had more creative
inspiration than a dozen Jewish “prophets.” He said God was a reflection of human frailty. “If
people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward,” he noted, “then we
are a sorry lot indeed.”
As punishment to Jerusalem for not strictly following his absurd laws, in Ezekiel chapter
five God said “Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat
their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter
into all the winds.” Ezekiel’s God continues by saying he “shall be a reproach and a taunt, an
instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute
judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.”
Ezekiel’s obsession with angry violence continued to color the words he put in God’s
mouth, “A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be
consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I
will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall mine
anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and
they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in

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them.”
In chapter six Ezekiel’s jealous god declares: “And your altars shall be desolate, and your
images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the
dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round
about your altars.” By the great evils that he wroughts will His people know he is Lord. The
Lord’s vengeance continues in chapter seven: “Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee,
and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will
recompense thee for all thine abominations.” But Ezekiel’s shallow god won’t know mercy,
“And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon
thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.”
The ignorance and symbolism of Ezekiel is epitomized in chapter 23 in which Samaria
and Jerusalem, the capitols of Israel and Judah, are labeled as the whores Aholah and Aholibah:
“And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth:
there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity… And Aholah
played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her
neighbours, Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men,
horsemen riding upon horses. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that
were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled
herself. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her,
and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her…
And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than
she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She doted upon the Assyrians
her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of
them desirable young men… And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they
defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated
from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was
alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her
whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot
in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and
whose issue is like the issue of horses…
And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall
take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy
sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire… Thou shalt be filled with
drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister
Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and
pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.”
So it was that the god of the Jews, caught up in jealousy and rage and sexual infatuation
and feuds with neighboring gods. The Hebrews failed to consider the larger picture, they didn’t
concern with how they might live in peace with the people of the world. They instead asked their
god to raise them above their enemies, all of the other people of the world: those not chosen by
god. The priests purposefully rejected others.
And, as in most selfish societies, the priesthood passed by right of paternal lineage, yet
even they faced discrimination: “For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not
approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man
that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his
eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed
of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a
blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.”

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 When one considers how intolerant, discriminatory and hateful the Abrahamic religions
are, it’s no wonder that society reflects the same poor character. It’s surprising how
discriminatory the Hebrews were considering how insignificant their position among nations
was. Nonetheless, those who couldn’t establish their paternal Hebrew lineage were not welcome
among God’s people, as demonstrated in this passage from the Book of Numbers, “A bastard
shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation.”
Numbers also tells a story of Aaron’s grandson Phinehas and his male descendants being
rewarded with a covenant of peace and everlasting priesthood after Phinehas slew a couple of
mixed heritage. “And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a
Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children
of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the
congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent,
and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly.”
Unfortunately, even the aloofness and self-imposed isolation of the Jews didn’t contain
the poison which was Judaism. Judaism’s illegitimate spawn, Christianity and Islam, the largest
of the religions that trace their heritage to Abraham, would spread Yahweh’s hate around the
world. Because of their insistence upon their own superiority and stubborn refusal to assimilate
in common culture, the Jews fervently hoped for another king like David to better their lot. They
chose to rely on divine fantasy instead of cooperating and prospering by their labor. And their
delirious hope became so great that it turned into confidence that an anointed one, a messiah,
would lead them to greatness. For 2500 years every generation of Jews, and later Christians and
Muslims have expected the messiah that zealous prophets had predicted to deliver the world to
God’s people in their lifetime.
And every generation produces a number of dim-witted people that get swept up in the
fantasy, and claim to be messiahs, just as countless people claim to see ghosts, dream visions,
and receive messages from their imaginary gods. And that goes to illustrate the fact there’s
nothing in a brain that causes it to automatically consider the truthfulness or totality of any action
or statement. The mind is generally still too dependent on experience and example for substance.
Where experience and example are adequate one may make wise decisions; but where they’re
lacking, too often people don’t know right from wrong or even real from make-believe.
Most self-absorbed people that thought they were the fulfillment of prophecy were
dismissed as the crack-pots they were and their names long forgotten by history. Still, the label
was enthusiastically applied to many. It’s not just a matter of personality that promotes the
allegorical crowning of a messiah, the proclamation of a new savior requires a combination of
personal charisma in the individual and corruption of the multitude by a controlling messianic
idea. Where the idea is powerful enough, a messiah will be proclaimed; where people aren’t
familiar with, or aren’t weak enough to succumb to the idea, no messiah can rise.
Just to show how eager people are to declare the anointed one, Cyrus the Great was
labeled a Jewish messiah for liberating them from Babylonian captivity and allowing them to
rebuild their temple. But Cyrus the Great was great compared to many so-called messiahs; even
Adolf Hitler was believed infallible by many impressionable Germans in the 1930’s when he
proclaimed that he was put on earth to finish what Jesus had started.
Thousands of years have failed to silence messianic fervor, and even today messiahs are
abundant. People remember David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians that died in a
government raid on their compound in 1993 in which another 74 Branch Davidians were killed.
Koresh followed the familiar pattern of somebody dumb enough to believe that he was the
subject of the mythology of his local culture. Growing up, he was a lonely boy who sought

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acceptance and acclaim.
His search for a place in the sun led him to join the Branch Davidians, a splinter group of
a splinter group of the Seventh Day Adventists, but his ambition brought him into conflict with
other members of the group and he was forced out. Years later he returned with armed followers,
but was arrested while fighting for control of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX. It
wasn’t until the Waco group’s leader George Roden was convicted of murder, and the compound
property was auctioned for taxes, that Koresh and his followers were able to raise enough money
to buy the property and set Koresh up as leader. Koresh’s fatalistic impressionism was apparent
when h later referred to the compound commonly called Mount Carmel, as Ranch Apocalypse.
Certainly not all was as it seemed with Koresh, he grew up as Vernon Howell and took
the name David Koresh in reference to Kings David of Israel and Cyrus of Persia; explaining that
Koresh was the Hebrew term for Cyrus the Great. The idea of being a prophet was very appealing
to Howell, and after proclaiming himself as such and announcing his “visions,” he even went so
far as to proclaim himself as the son of God, and finally as God on earth.
The writing was on the wall, or, more precisely, in the book; as Howell was familiar with
the prophetic legends of a coming warrior-king. And as such, he was especially attracted to the
concept of leading his forces in a world-ending war that would establish his long reign on earth.
But Howell definitely had a physical side as well as a spiritual side, and he was also very
attracted to the polygamy of men like Solomon. And so, as god of the desperate people that lived
with him, he dissolved their marriages and took the women for himself, fathering a dozen
children by girls as young as twelve years old.
Typical of religious fanatics, Howell thought he saw just what he wanted to see;
somehow lowering the status of a god to suit his circumstances. He had no extraordinary
abilities, and wasn’t powerful, popular or even prosperous; but he still managed to convince
himself that he was a god. It’s easy to say that his followers also thought that he was god
returned, and apparently they did. But, they were generally there for lack of having anywhere
better to go when they arrived.
Believing as he did, that he was responsible for carrying the faith of God through
Armageddon, it was foreseeable that he would seek out the “final war.” And in his mind when
the government raided Ranch Apocalypse, it had begun. But, what was also foreseeable was that
Vernon Howell, or David Koresh, or whatever he wanted to call himself, would fail in his quest
for eternal glory; just as every other “messiah” has and always will.
It’s no surprise that he died in a miserable fiery failure. But what is surprising, is the
overlooked similarity he had to Jesus. That is, some people continued to believe he was a
messiah, just as followers of Jesus had, and they have since looked forward to his triumphant
return. Various dates given for that shocking return from the grave have, however, come and
passed while Howell’s corpse continues to shrivel in the ground of Tyler, Texas.
Of course, the public majority looks upon followers of David Koresh as rubes caught up
in pure fantasy. And they are, but so too are the multitudes that constitute the majority. Sadly,
there is not much difference between the two groups, except that the false hope of one has been
dead for about two thousand years longer than the other. But when one just steps back and
objectively considers the circumstances that motivate people to attach their hope to any promise
of salvation, it’s really not surprising to see a lingering acceptance and following of any man
called messiah, regardless of how unrealistic such expectations are. Through proximity and
reinforcement, almost any idea can gain acceptance in the minds of those lacking sufficient
example or experience; just as children see people in televisions, when they really see only
images.
A much more popular modern day messiah is the founder of the Growing in Grace

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Ministry, Dr. José Luis de Jesús Miranda. Today he maintains a wealthy lifestyle near Miami
Florida, flaunting expensive cars, a beautiful house, and gold and diamond jewelry, financed by
his mostly Hispanic followers in Latin America and the United States who contribute millions of
dollars to his ministry. Born in Puerto Rico in 1946, Miranda grew up poor, and claims to have
received a “vision” in 1973 in which the spirit of Jesus integrated with him. Of course, that
“vision” came after Miranda battled a heroin addiction and spent time in prison for drug and theft
violations.
At his public appearances frenzied people shout out Lord! Lord! and push to be near him
as he tells them what they want to hear. Miranda is not cast in the typical preachers mold
however; through live appearances, radio and television programs he proclaims that there is no
hell or sin or devil. He teaches that people may do anything they want, including murder and
theft, for there is no sin and by only believing in him people will have eternal life in paradise. In
that respect he partly mirrors a quote attributed to the Protestant reformer Martin Luther in a
letter to Philip Melanchthon in 1521, “... It is sufficient that we recognize through the wealth of
God's glory the lamb who bears the sins of the world; from this sin does not sever us, even if
thousands, thousands of times in one day we should fornicate or murder."
Miranda’s fantasy has apparently grown with his success. It’s reported that when he
founded Growing in Grace in the 1980’s he preached as a mere mortal. But in time he announced
that he was a reincarnation of the apostle Paul, and later he announced that he’s Jesus Christ
returned. Still more recently he’s announced himself as the antichrist and acquired a tattoo of 666
to represent that he replaces Jesus of Nazareth.
But, many of his followers simply refer to him as God, as he often does himself.
Believers, it’s supposed, can throw out their crucifixes and Bibles and other remnants of the
Christianity that he claims to supersede. Reports state that he even goes so far as saying that he is
greater than Jesus of Nazareth because he’s a better teacher than Jesus of Nazareth, he’ll lead the
largest government the world has ever known, and he’ll never die. It’s in that tone his ministry is
referred to as God’s government on earth, but he most certainly will die one day, just as all those
who sing his praises and squander their money to support his lavish lifestyle.
Sun Myung Moon is another contemporary Christian that laid claim as the messiah. Born
in Korea as Moon Yong-myung, he assumed the name Sun Myung Moon, which has been
translated as “the word made clear,” to represent his role as a prophet. Moon too, has professed
having visions, and chartered the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
Christianity in Seoul, commonly called the Unification Church but later renamed the Family
Federation for World Peace and Unification, in 1954. One of the successful business enterprises
Moon has parlayed from donations of worshippers was involved in munitions production in
South Korea. And Moon spent time in a U.S. federal prison in the early 1980’s for conspiracy
and filing false income tax returns. Apparently the anointed one shouldn’t be expected to pay
taxes.
For all of his shortcomings, Moon is regarded by adherents to his faith as the Returning
Lord, Savior, Messiah and True Father of heaven and earth. And Reverend Moon, as he’s often
referred in America, has also exercised considerable political influence; partly by way of his
newspaper, the Washington Times: not to be confused with the larger and older Washington
Post. With additional influence having been conveyed through the millions of dollars his
organizations have contributed to politicians. Moon’s political influenced was evidenced by
former U.S. President George H. W. Bush’s engagement in a speaking tour on behalf of Moon’s
Women’s Federation for World Peace. And in 2004 Moon was even ceremoniously crowned in
Washington, D.C. by a United States congressman.
And those like Moon and Miranda are just a tiny sampling of the scores of people running

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around today saying they’re the son of god, prophets reincarnated and god on earth. For example,
besides just generally being a hotbed of fervent, militant hatred, the Middle East today is overrun
with junior warlords recruiting impoverished youths of limited intelligence to fight for them by
claiming they’re returned caliphs and prophets. One such terrorist was Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim,
supposed leader of the Iraqi cult Soldiers of Heaven, who excited fervent Muslims by claiming to
be a reincarnation of the Shia Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib. However, his reputation as a messiah
took a pretty big hit when he was killed in a battle near Najaf, Iraq in 2007.
The religious fervor pervading the Middle East today isn’t all that different from the
Jewish fanaticism under Roman Occupation two thousand years ago. Of course, there were
moderate, amicable Jews, that’s one reason why the Tanakh is full of threats and accusations
against Israel by the rabid biblical authors. Besides the usual conflicts of self interests, competing
sects such as the Essenes, Sadducees and Pharisees couldn’t agree on basic concepts such as the
existence of angels and an afterlife. Nazareans, in fact, are reported to have been opposed to
slavery and harming animals. But peaceable people are rarely noted in history, being
overshadowed by the perverse and warlike.
The Jews formed an independent state under the Maccabees and what would be called the
Hasmonean Kingdom following the Maccabee Revolt that began in 167 BC. In the tradition of
Judaism and the majority of political enterprises, the kingdom was expanded by conquest of
neighboring territories and forced conversion to Judaism. But the Jews under the Hasmonean
Kingdom were highly divided by ideological differences and power struggles that led to civil
wars.
To suggest the Hasmonean Kingdom was unified would be akin to ignoring enmity
similar to that between Jews and Palestinians today. Life in the Jewish state was so bad after
more than one hundred years of independence that many citizens of Judea welcomed Roman rule
when Pompey intervened in one of the Jewish civil wars by marching an army down the Levant
and establishing Rome as the supreme authority in the land. While self governed, they fought
amongst themselves, and while subject to neighboring powers they still fought amongst
themselves. But the Jewish people continued to long for the promised messiah to deliver them
from the difficulties of reality.
The New Testament of the Christian Bible referenced numerous men proclaimed to be
messiahs, though the theme of Christianity is the proclamation of the most famous Jewish
messiah, Jesus. In the Book of Acts, chapter five, a famous Jewish lawyer named Gamaliel,
speaking on behalf of some followers of Jesus, “said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to
yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. For before these days rose up Theudas,
boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined
themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to
naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much
people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.”
Judas of Galilee was credited by the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus with being a
founder of the Zealots, another faction of Judaism. In the year 6 CE, Judas led an unsuccessful
revolt against the Romans, joining the list of other Jewish revolutionary leaders of the period
including a slave named Simon, Athronges, Menahem ben Judah and the culmination of Jewish
military messiahs, Simon bar Kokhba, who led the last disastrous major Jewish rebellion against
Rome. It might seem that the Jewish people would have grown weary of investing their hopes in
failed messiahs, but such was the blind conditioning and desperation of Judaism in the time of
Jesus. Even the recruiter of Jesus, the prophet John the Baptist, was considered a messiah; until
he was executed.
As a Jewish messiah, Jesus didn’t rebuild the temple, nor did he lead the Jews in military

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or governing matters. He was another in a long list of failures. But, if his story could be made
appealing to a broader world audience, his legacy might live on. Legend of the controversial
preacher Jesus would have died along with him had it not been for some creative invention of
some of his followers, most notable among them being Paul from Tarsus.
Paul was a man that hadn’t met Jesus and admitted to gaining his intimate knowledge of
the divine through “visions” and contact with the apostles. It was Paul who was said to have
convinced the apostles to teach their religion to Gentiles after the death of Jesus. And Paul was
influential in spreading the religion around the Mediterranean and establishing churches during
his missionary trips. He was also the foremost contributor of the New Testament of the Bible.
Tarsus was a city on the heavily Hellenized coast of Asia Minor where a man like Paul
could incorporate the Jewish devotion to one god with Greek philosophy and culture into the
icon that was Jesus. Paul’s Jesus followed in the tradition of the Greek god Dionysus who was
very popular in so-called mystery religions of the time. Partaking of bread and wine was
popularly associated with Dionysus, who was also the son of god. As the son of Zeus and the
mortal Semele, Dionysus was dear to many in the Hellenized world because people could relate
to a god that shared their human heritage.
The story of Jesus bears a resemblance to that of Dionysus, but it’s even more strikingly
similar to that of Apollonius of Tyana, another town in Asia Minor. Apollonius lived during the
time of Paul and Jesus and was said to have been educated in Paul’s hometown of Tarsus. Like
Jesus and many other conjurers among the superstitious primitive people, Apollonius was a
miracle worker who was claimed to have revived the dead. He too was a healer and prophet who
cast out devils. But, the similarity didn’t end there, Jesus and Apollonius both also shared the
common divine fate of resurrection after death.
But unlike so many western deities, Apollonius rose to a much higher level; as a
vegetarian who spoke out against eating and wearing his fellow earthlings. What Apollonius and
Jesus truly shared above all else were pseudo biographical authors that felt free to partake of the
riches of oral and written fantasies to embellish the accounts of their lives. Christian authors
borrowed the circumstances of the birth of Moses and applied them to the story of the birth of
Jesus. Both babies were hidden in Egypt to escape the execution of infants ordered by monarchs
in reaction to prophecies of their births.
And, holding to Jewish tradition Jesus was tested for 40 days shortly after being
introduced in the Christian New Testament. Like Jesus, Elijah had also gone 40 days without
eating. Forty was a popular number for the Jews, as it rained for 40 days and 40 nights during the
worldwide flood, Moses was on the mountain with God 40 days, Moses was on the mountain
another 40 days, Israelite spies explored the promised land for 40 days and the people of Israel
subsequently had to wander the desert for 40 years, Goliath taunted the Israelites for 40 days
before little David stuck a rock in his head, Nineveh was given 40 days to reform, and Jesus even
appeared to his followers 40 days after his crucifixion.
Virgin births and the union of god and mortal to produce offspring was another common
element of popular mythology. The legendary founder of Rome, Romulus, and his brother Remus
were born to a virgin mother and the god Mars. Under threat of death, they were abandoned to
the river Tiber, but they were saved from exposure and predators by a she-wolf who suckled
them as her own. Many years later, after founding the city of Rome, Romulus died and appeared
to his friend Proculus on a road three days after his death, then he was raised to heaven by his
father Mars.
In answering a question from Proculus, Romulus said “It pleased the gods, O Proculus
that we, who came from them, should remain so long a time amongst men as we did; and, having
built a city to be the greatest in the world for empire and glory, should again return to heaven.

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But farewell; and tell the Romans, that, by the exercise of temperance and fortitude, they shall
attain the height of human power; we will be to you the propitious god Quirinus."
Just a few of the many historical figures born to virgins include Perseus, born when
Jupiter visited the virgin Danaë as a shower of gold; Attis, conceived by his mother from a
pomegranate nourished with the blood of Agdestris; Horus, son of Isis; Mercury, son of Maia;
and Krishna, son of Devaka. The theme was even found in the Americas, for instance the Aztec
god Huitzilopochtli was born to the virgin Catlicus. Legend even arose of Genghis Khan’s virgin
mother fertilized when bathed in a great light.
As it was shown with the advent of giants on earth, the Jewish Tanakh also referred to
gods getting women pregnant, such as the sons of God coming into the daughters of men, and the
Lord doing unto Sarah as he had spoken and Sarah conceiving a son. And the hero Samson was
fathered by an angel as well. It turned out that throughout superstitious society, so powerful was
the urge to invent fantasies that people even claimed Buddha was a god born through an opening
in his mother’s side even though he made it clear to people in his lifetime that he wasn’t a god
and shouldn’t be considered as such. Still yet, many people worship him today, failing to realize
he was just another popular philosopher that died about 2,500 years ago.
Those people that so desperately wanted a savior they claimed superhuman attributes for
Jesus failed to escape the jealousy of their Jewish god. So it was that they not only retained
Yahweh’s message of hate and racism, but some Christian writers and editors added a little more
to it. Luke 19:27 says: "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither, and slay them before me." And the Second Book of Thessalonians states in chapter
1, versus 8&9: “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;”
However, by and large, the early Christian message was much more welcoming than the
Judaism it was founded on. Besides offering people salvation as simple as believing in Jesus,
Christianity tried to make God into a nicer entity by creating a large function for Satan, also
known as Lucifer, Beelzebub and the Devil. Satan wasn’t prominent in Judaism because he
wasn’t a necessary compliment to their already evil god. The Tanakh, and Old Testament,
describe God punishing unbelievers with what seemed everything the priests and prophets could
imagine, from dragons to brimstone, from floods to infanticide, from hornets to thunderbolts,
from cannibalism to open sores, and even by smearing poop on their faces.
Some Jews saw the fulfillment of the messiah in Jesus, while most did not, especially
when he didn’t return as his followers so often predicted, as in 1 John 2:18: “Little children, it is
the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many
antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” And every generation has been proclaiming
the last days are at hand, for the past 2,000 years. Yet, despite the reluctance of most Jews to
acknowledge Jesus as divine, for a short time Judaism and Christianity existed side by side.
But jealousy and contempt eventually won out, and as their scriptures denounced
unbelievers and heretics as evil people deserving of death, they set against each other; with Jews
driving away Christians and Christians blaming Jews for the killing of their namesake hero. As
the majority Jews turned on the minority Christians, the minority Christians recruited among the
Gentiles, or simply the non-Jews. Christianity eventually grew from a persecuted minority; where
myths such as Daniel remaining unharmed in the lions’ den; and Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego in the burning fiery furnace didn’t carry much weight; to the dominant religion of the
Roman Empire, and itself, a major source of persecution.
But after the Roman Empire declined, another aberration of Judaism came to challenge
both Judaism and Christianity. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, was the son of a priest.

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Though his father wasn’t Jewish, Muhammad adopted the precepts of Judaism, and dictated an
abbreviated version of Judaism to an assistant that wrote it down as the foundation of Islam.
Though, perhaps due to his own illiteracy, his version of a holy book, the Quran, is a hopelessly
repetitive way of basically saying submit to Allah or burn in hell.
The Quran is essentially Judaism with much of the Jewish history removed. Like the Jews
he learned from, he rejected that Jesus was part of or equal to Allah (Yahweh or the nameless
one), but he did expand Allah’s mission to all of humanity as the Christians had, and he accepted
Jesus as a prophet. As for the rest, there’s hardly a difference between Judaism and Islam, from
holy scripture right on through the volumes of supplementary commentary and interpretation that
has the effect of law to many sects.
Many Muslims, particularly those called militant or extremist, are hung up on the hatred,
jealousy and violence of the Quran. And largely due to their shameful example, much of the
world knows Islam as the most vile and contemptible of the major religions. And while the
Quran is laced with hatred, it’s a typical Abrahamic religion, as the good mixed amongst the evil
was transferred directly from Judaism to Christianity and Islam.

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 Enslavement
And so, it came to be that people of Western Civilization found in the variants of Judaism
all the evil justifications and discriminatory doctrine they sought to aid in enforcing their will
upon others. Beyond justification, the Abrahamic traditions even inspired evils among future
generations, with Jews, Christians and Muslims seeking to destroy each other and everyone else
that didn’t share their allegiance. Jonathan Swift was prompted by religious intolerance to write:
“We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough religion to make us love one
another.”
There should surely be little wonder at the hateful state of past and present affairs. The
Jewish Tanakh is overflowing with tales of great slaughter, threats of grave evils, social
domination, hatred, and calls to violence. And from it sprang Christianity and Islam. Hate and
violence born of religion isn’t the root of all evil, but it is very much an important accomplice; a
very useful tool for those so inclined to malevolence. And that instrument of discord and deceit is
aided in its course by the human desire for self aggrandizement that fully embraces the argument
of competition. Though people say they stand for principle, often they’re actually projecting
themselves into ideas and then undertaking their own defense.
After separating from Judaism, the dominant group of Christians, the Roman Catholics,
set about unifying their control of Christianity. They suppressed Gnostics, Arians, Adoptionists
and others that tried to make sense of the conflicting Christian myths. Some of those splinter
groups could easily see the evil nature of the Jewish God, Yahweh, of the Old Testament, and
they postulated that the god called Yahweh was the evil creator god, and the New Testament god
was the pure god of love.
That concept wasn’t widely accepted, but Christianity as a whole may have been better
served to adopt the belief of Marcion of Sinope. Marcion rejected Jewish scripture and the evils
that came with it. He also discarded most of the writings that would be adopted as the New
Testament by other Christian groups, choosing to minimize the extraneous material and
concentrate on a positive message; in a manner reminiscent of the message of Matthew 7:12: “So
in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and
the Prophets.”
Unlike Gnostics, for instance, who could attain salvation individually, the Roman
Catholic Church convinced people that no one could attain heaven but through the Church. Such
a ploy was no more than an instrument to grab power by controlling the populace, but it’s success
has been proven for thousands of years of recorded history. And with the aid of terroristic force
Christianity, and its sister faith Islam, were wildly successful.
At the Christian Council of Elvira in 306 marriage and social interaction with Jews was
prohibited. At the time, the Catholic Church didn’t have the power to physically punish people,
having to rely instead on withholding communion, preventing sinners from receiving salvation.
Communion was essential to salvation according to the Church, and one group singled out for
punishment was Women that left their husbands without acceptable cause and joined another
man; they couldn’t receive communion even when death approached. Parents and other
Christians who sold their own bodies were also barred from receiving communion even at death.
In fact, to engage in any of numerous sexual activities, or leave a husband under all but a few
circumstances also warranted the eternal death penalty; which, though not at all real, was very
frightening to believers in that sort of thing. In addition, Christian girls were prevented from
marrying pagans, Jews or heretics; yet for all the strictness, slavery was still sanctioned.
Slavery was one of the more heinous practices that persisted into modern time. Like an
evil time capsule, customs recorded in sacred writings were locked in place by tradition; able to

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withstand even the highest moral arguments. And as has been the case with so many evils, many
of those repugnant souls that sought profit through slavery readily pointed to biblical heroes
doing the same.
Mankind had lowered itself to inventing gods, no longer to explain the unknown, but to
justify the most abominable practices. Prior to the Civil War, United States senators argued that
slavery was destined by God, and no man had a right to separate what God hath joined. Such
sentiment resounded with the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis,
who proclaimed slavery to be established by decree of Almighty God and sanctioned in the
Bible. Leading the Union forces in the fight against the slave states was Abraham Lincoln, who
stated he could never assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.
Even a conquering king could see the evil of slavery, as previously mentioned of Cyrus
the Great. Some words of wisdom attributed to a man with control of an Empire the size of
Persia more than two thousand years ago are worth repeating: “…And while I am the monarch, I
will never let anyone take possession of movable and landed properties of the others by force or
without compensation. While I am alive, I prevent unpaid, forced labor. Today, I announce that
everyone is free to choose a religion. People are free to live in all regions and take up a job
provided that they never violate other's rights. No one could be penalized for his or her relatives'
faults. I prevent slavery and my governors and subordinates are obliged to prohibit exchanging
men and women as slaves within their own ruling domains. Such traditions should be
exterminated the world over …”
But the wisdom attributed to Cyrus wasn’t to prevail. Slavery returned to prominence
under the Greeks and successive rulers of the land that was the Persian Empire. Men rule
empires, but ideas rule men, and unfortunately, centuries after Cyrus’ lifetime, leaders of various
Christian denominations included much of the Jewish Tanakh, in the form of a Greek translation
from Alexandria known as the Septuagint for their Old Testament.
And like the Jewish collectors and editors before them, they picked among the multitude
of religious writings popular at the time to set the New Testament which was generally fixed by
the third century, though the various denominations have never been in complete agreement over
which books to include. The result was again a conflicting mix of hate and love, practicality and
mysticism, and fantastic illusions that continued to be called the pure, infallible word of God. As
Mark Twain said in Letters from the Earth: “It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and
some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of
obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.”
Calls for tolerance and moderation were overruled by long term leadership in the Roman
Church. Then, as now, there was considerable debate as to the role of religion; was it to be a free
gift or was it to be a burden forced upon everyone? In 308 a Church scholar named Lactantius,
who opposed rigorous science, nonetheless advocated freedom of choice in Divine Institutes
when he wrote: “If you attempt to defend religion with bloodshed and torture, what you do is not
defense, but desecration and insult. For nothing is so intrinsically a matter of free will as
religion.”
But the culture of the time was one of conflict, and as Christians gained power they
quickly moved to solidify that power by adopting strong methods of suppression. But, to be fair,
it may be accurately stated that the mechanisms of suppression already present in the Roman
Empire were converted to Christianity. However, by the time Theodosius declared Catholic
Christianity to be the official Roman religion in 380, the Empire was falling apart at the seams.
The Visigoths sacked Rome in the year 410, and opportunity existed for Christianity to fill the
growing power vacuum.
Once government favor had been gained, official persecution wasn’t the only means of

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quelling dissent. Near the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th centuries, Christian mobs burned
the famed Library of Alexandria and slayed Hypatia, an early female mathematician and teacher.
At the time, the Library of Alexandria contained the most important collection of cultural and
scientific documents in the world. But the Christian battle against science was just beginning.
Anything not in agreement with the archaic views of the ancient Jews and early Christians that
gave form to Christianity was deemed heretical, and subject to attack. Christian attitude toward
learning and discovery was characterized by Peter Damian, chancellor of Pope Gregory VII, in
the 11th century when he declared all world sciences to be absurdities and fooleries.
Certainly, Christianity has warred against more than science. The battle of Christians and
Jews that culminated in the murder of six million Jews by Hitler and his Nazis, has been ongoing
for almost two millennium. Initial Jewish success in suppressing Christianity was soon offset by
Christian proselytizing outside of the Jewish community. And since the Christianization of the
Roman Empire, the battle has been decidedly one-sided. However, prior to Constantine, both
religions were at times persecuted by Rome.
From the beginning of the second century the two groups had shunned each other as
demonstrated by the prohibitions of the Council of Elvira of 306. Late 4th century Tirades of John
Chrysostom, who would become archbishop of Constantinople, helped to fuel even the Nazi anti-
Semite fire more than 1600 years later. He ranted about the evils of the Jews, claiming they were
lustful, rapacious murderers who killed their children and offered them to the devil. Of course,
Christians shared the same scripture, wherein God commanded men to offer him their firstborn
children, that was the source of such claims which were to be repeated over and over through the
centuries.
About a century after the Visigoth King Reccared of Spain was converted from Aryanism
to Catholicism, the 12th Council of Trent decreed forced conversions of Jews in 681. Five-and-a-
half centuries later, in 1218, the Catholic Church compelled Jews to wear distinctive clothing so
that they were easily identified and marked as outsiders. And in 1482 relations took a turn for the
worse when the Pope authorized inquisitors to prevent the practice of Judaism, Islam and other
strains of religion.
In Spain, Jews and Muslims had to convert or leave, but in time the Jews and Muslims
that had converted to Christianity were still perceived as a potential threat and they too became
targets of the dreaded inquisition, with many hundreds burned at the stake. By 1555 the pope
confined Jews in Rome to a ghetto and restricted Christian and Jewish contact. Throughout
Europe in the second millennium Jews were periodically restricted in their occupations, treated
as a lower class of people, forced into ghettos, attacked by mobs, expelled from cities, and even
expelled from entire countries including England, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal.
But even the ongoing fight against Judaism and Islam couldn’t keep Christians united, as
disputes of theology led to numerous schisms over the years that created the major branches of
Christianity including Nestorian, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic,
Anabaptist, Protestant and Anglican. But, much more importantly, Christian insecurity and
disputes over theology are overshadowed by the ugly Christian institution of inquisition and
related witch hunts.
The cowardly fight of heresy pre-dated Yahweh’s war with Baal; as people have always
sought their own position of dominance, both physically and ideologically. And the persecution
of alleged witches goes back almost as long as people have been believing in spooks, spirits and
demons. Inquisition as a legal institution was popular with Romans in the early days of the
Republic. Anyone suspected of using witchcraft to stunt crops was sacrificed to the goddess of
agriculture Ceres more than 400 years before the birth of Jesus. The Christians accused
Priscillian of Avila of heresy within a few years of becoming the official state religion; and

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following trial and imprisonment he and six of his followers were executed in 385.
“Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.”
[Philosophical Dictionary, 1764] Superstition, born of paganism and adopted by Judaism,
infected the Christian Church from earliest times. “If we believe absurdities, we shall commit
atrocities.” wrote Francois Marie Arouet also known as Voltaire.
Some were murdered by the Church for their beliefs in the first millennium, but
inquisitional executions mushroomed in the second millennium. Beginning in the 12th century,
increased persecution was largely in response to theological disputes with those who were called
Cathars and Waldensians in what is now Southern France and Northern Italy. Pope Innocent III
initiated a crusade against the Cathars of Languedoc which terrorized the region with wholesale
slaughter of Cathar cities. When organized resistance to the power of the Pope was killed off, an
Inquisition was set up to mop up remaining dissenters. Inquisitors roamed from town to town
demanding Cathars to punish, and like modern prosecutors they offered some leniency to accused
Cathars that would cooperate by accusing additional people of being Cathars. In the ensuing
years of terror as many as 200 Cathars were reported murdered in a single burning.
After failing to peacefully restore the Cathars to Papal subjugation, Dominic, who would
later be declared Saint Dominic, founded the Dominican Order. He intended his monastic sect to
be every bit as zealous, ascetic and righteous as any future dissenters; but, he conceded, “In my
country we have a saying. Where words fail, blows will avail …” Afterwards prosecution of
inquisitions was assigned to the Dominican Order. And during the military crusade against the
Cathars, before the massacre of one Languedoc town called Arnaud-Amaury the papal legate in
charge of the crusade, was reported to have quipped the now infamous phrase “Kill them all, the
Lord will recognize his own.”
Peter Waldo was a wealthy merchant in Lyon, France, and the father of the Waldensian
sect. It was his devotion to Christianity that led to persecution by the Catholic Church. Having
been deceived since a child that the Bible was the infallible word of God, Waldo gave away his
wealth and walked about preaching the gospel as the Bible directed. But the Church and Pope
Alexander III forbid him to preach because he wasn’t a member of the Roman Catholic clergy.
Waldo faced a painful, yet simple, decision; he was forced to choose between heeding the calling
of God or the orders of power-lusting men. Because he chose to stand true to his beliefs the
Waldensians were tortured and executed with unrelenting zeal.
The collective mind of Roman Catholics was so infected with superstitious ignorance that
Waldensians were portrayed as witches literally flying around on broomsticks. In fact, the plague
of dullardry that shadowed Europe wasn’t nearly so incapacitating in the latter half of the first
millennium when Church leaders and influential statesmen such as Charlemagne rejected the
notion of witchcraft and the fantasy that the devil was working through humans to wreak havoc
on the world. Ironically, in the first millennium it was heretical to believe in witchcraft.
Proving successful in suppressing Cathars and Waldensians, inquisitions quickly spread
throughout Europe to solidify Catholic control. And in the Colonial Age, inquisition was even
exported to the Americas and Asia, where it ravaged native populations and to some extent
settlers. Catholic inquisition was such a successful institute of political intimidation that it served
as a useful model for future strong armed organizations such as Stalin’s secret police
organizations and the storm troopers of Adolf Hitler. In Spain, in particular, the target of
inquisition gradually evolved from perceived threats to the Church, to threats to the State. The
targeting of political opponents in Spain became apparent, but it should be remembered that the
impetus for the monarchy to establish the inquisition in the beginning was to create a
homogonous political state.
Roman Catholicism was a political machine disguised as religion worthy of the envy of

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the most ambitious of politicians. Only power was respected by the Catholic Church, which even
allied itself with Genghis Khan, and cowered to Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Hitler was
raised a Catholic, but Genghis Khan wasn’t a Christian, though many in his horde were Nestorian
Christians. Surely, Catholics could burn somebody for the pretend crime of witchcraft, but
wouldn’t risk a fall from power by standing up to genocide. Catholics fervently opposed
Nestorius when they ousted him from their ranks, but they lost their antimony toward his later
followers when they were seen as a common link to the great army of the Khan. As for the
Church’s tyranny, it thrived on its own vicious cycle; as Church cruelty increased, more people
sought other teaching, which triggered ever more oppression. The cycle expanded to the point
that the Church was the principal source of fear among the people of Europe.
The perverseness of Christian dogma would eventually be challenged by the one thing
that it feared most and had most successfully suppressed since the burning of the Library of
Alexandria. The prescription for putrid beliefs of religion was rational thought and the truth
associated with it. Intelligence was the principal casualty of the Christian Dark Age.
From the time Greek philosophy and science was suppressed in the Christian realm, until
the time it was re-discovered in the Italian Renaissance, Christianity had succeeded in debasing
reality. Christianity alone held human civilization back for more than a thousand years. “Nothing
can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense,” Voltaire wrote
in the Philosophical Dictionary in the 18th century, adding, “If we believe absurdities, we shall
commit atrocities.” Any blossoming of creativity, learning or artistic expression made the Church
more vulnerable to change, and Church officials were in no mood to let that happen.
Martin Luther was one reformer the Catholic Church was unable to burn to death, though
he was condemned as a heretic and marked for death. But Luther was fortunate to have
something most dissidents did not: the protection by powerful German princes. Luther’s
teachings were quite popular in Germany and other European countries. The principal that first
divided Luther and the Catholic Church was the selling of indulgences by the Church.
Indulgences were purchased in lieu of other temporary punishments for sin. The practice
reinforced the position of the Catholic Church that salvation couldn’t be obtained but through the
Church and gave the impression that forgiveness and salvation were for sale by the Church.
Whatever the impression, the Church wasn’t eager to give up the income of indulgence. Luther
took the common contrary position that salvation came through belief in Jesus, not through the
Church.
Another Catholic dissenter that proved beyond papal control was the English King Henry
VIII. When Henry assumed control of the Church of England after being denied a papal
annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the Roman Catholic Church no longer seemed
so mighty. Others broke free of the Roman Catholic Church, but they didn’t break free of the
evils of the Abrahamic religions. Though enlightenment was spreading, the masses were still
slaves to religious dogma. And their leaders were fighting not for free will, but for their own
version of the evil empire. In fact, the depths of depravity were still being explored, and
Protestant witch hunts would rival Catholic inquisitions for merciless barbarity. Eighteenth
century French author Denis Diderot put it bluntly when he said “Man will never be free until the
last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Christians obsessed about demons and witches; finding witches among men and women;
but some held that women were inherently more vulnerable to vexation. Abrahamic religions
have always institutionally degraded women, for women, it was taught, introduced sin, suffering
and death into this world that was paradise. Wives were created from man to serve man, as man
was created by God to serve him. Women were described as evils from which men were free to
seek pleasure; and their highest use was receiving the seed of men to bear male heirs. The Quran

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states that men who fear desertion by women should admonish them, leave them alone in the
sleeping places and beat them. The Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of Witches, completed
in 1486 by two German inquisitors, was a leading reference to other judges of inquisition, and
held that: “All wickedness, is but little to the wickedness of a woman.”
Superstition took such a hold on the feeble minded Christians that they had completely
reversed from proclaiming people that believed in the existence of witches as heretics, to
proclaiming people as notorious heretics if they denied the existence of witches. The mindset of
those that felt themselves important for torturing people for a living may be partially revealed in
the passages of Malleus Maleficarum.
To wit, women, the evil of nature and inescapable punishment, were more susceptible to
the lures of the devil because women were more carnal than men and therefore more desirous of
copulation with an incubi than men were desirous of fornication with a sucubi. It was noted that
women are imperfect animals that always deceive due to defect in the first woman from the bent
rib of a man. Midwives, in particular, had a bad rap from witch hunters. Witches often
masqueraded as midwives, when they didn’t kill newborn children they blasphemously offered
them to the devil. As soon as the child is born, the midwife, if the mother herself is not a witch,
carries it out of the room on the pretext of warming it, raises it up, and offers it to the Prince of
Devils, that is Lucifer, and to all the devils.
Children of witches and devils were more powerful than other men. This was known
because the mighty men of old mentioned in the Book of Genesis were the stock of angels, and
devils are fallen angels. Devils also knew how to ascertain the virtue in semen, best matching it
between the men they obtained it from and the women best fitted to receive it. And devils knew
what constellation was most favorable for the desired effects. Witches were also said to kill
newborn babies and roast them in ovens so as to use their ashes in potions.
For idiots like inquisition judges, equally powerful magic had to be employed to counter
witchcraft such as carrying blessed salt and herbs in blessed wax worn around the neck.
Techniques such as blind-folding the victim or making her walk into the room backwards were
devised to prevent the accused witch from touching or making eye contact with the judges, and in
that way giving the devil some power over the decision of the judges. And because witches were
so feared, judges weren’t obligated to publish names of accusers. In that manner the accusers
were safe from retribution from witches, especially poor witches, who were alleged to have many
evil accomplices.
A witch may have been led to suppose she would be exiled or receive another mild
punishment for supplying evidence which would lead to conviction of other witches. But she
would afterwards be imprisoned for life on bread and water, or kept for a period of time and then
burned. If the witch could not thus be tricked into confessing, or talked into confessing by
influential treatment, she was to be tortured for up to three days, longer if it was still believed she
might confess. However, before being tortured, she was to be stripped naked and shaved,
ostensibly to look for marks or tools of the devil, but in reality to further break the will of the
accused and humiliate her, so that she might be quivering in fear and discomfort before ever
being tortured by the pious henchmen.
The authors of Malleus Maleficarum noted as example the trial by red-hot iron of
Cunegond, by her husband, the Sainted Emperor Henry, who suspected the virgin Cunegond of
adultery. The Malleus Maleficarum was considered a book of authority on a number of topics it
addressed, such as: the way witches copulate with devils; how devils enter the human body; how
witches make men think their beasts or that their manhood is missing; how witches cause
hailstorms and other calamities and cause lightning to blast men and beasts; and many more
fanciful topics.

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 In the aftermath of Protestant reformation continental Europe was gripped by tension of
heresy concerns of both Catholics and Protestants. The doctrinal tug of war stirred up anxious
suspicions and the witch hunts, or Burning Times, reached a peak in the federation of German
Kingdoms in the 16th century. As the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, said, “Religion is
based mostly on fear… Fear is the parent of cruelty, therefore it is no wonder if religion and
cruelty have gone hand-in-hand.”
Germany was an excellent example of hysteria feeding on itself. Like a frightened child at
a horror movie, when one person started screaming witch, it seems the whole neighborhood did.
But that hysteria wasn’t merely the result of word of mouth, it was fed by sensationalist press.
Sixteenth century Germany provided a market saturated with books and pamphlets on witches,
each trying to out-compete the others by proclaiming more horrific and thrilling deeds of
witchcraft.
Still today people lacking the mental capacity or desire to distinguish right from wrong
are over-abundant. Fools persist in holding meaningful such nonsense as the words of Mark
16:17-18: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” That’s why
people continue dying from snakebites in churches, and gibbering nonsense in Pentecostal
revivals in attempts to demonstrate a participation in the spirit world. But yet, nobody is healing
the sick by laying on of hands.
But delusion is certainly more dangerous than people making fools of themselves and
handling poisonous snakes. Even in the 21st century hundreds and hundreds of people have been
murdered in Africa, India and other areas by men engaged in witch hunts. It’s amazing but true,
some people are still that far out of touch with reality. In 2003 BBC News reported that a man in
India beheaded an acquaintance with a sword as a human sacrifice. The temple priest was
reported to have sacrificed the man in order to secure the assistance of a local goddess in finding
hidden treasure. And the previous year members of the Oraon tribe in eastern India were arrested
for killing five witches. The victims, all women, were accused of being responsible for illnesses
including malaria and diarrhea. Many other suspected witches were burned or hacked to death in
east-central India in 2002.
And in Africa, news reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2001
described the murder of as many as 300 hundred people for suspected witchcraft. The reports
stated that Ugandan troops were required to stop the killing spree because Congolese officials
were hesitant to intervene because witch killings were a part of life in the DRC. Victims were
said to have been beaten into confessing and then hacked with machetes or further bludgeoned
with clubs until dead. One victim was forced to “confess” to killing people and using their blood
to travel around at night at superhuman speed. In order to continue the carnage, victims were
made under torture to accuse other witches before being killed.
But stories of rural Africans and Indians hacking each other to death in morbid sorcery
anxiety is much less publicized than Muslim men hacking women to death for failing to keep
their faces covered. Islam, one of those illegitimate children of the religion of the Jews that Cyrus
freed from Babylon more than two millennia ago, is still a major menace to world society. Islam
today is where Christianity was a few hundred years ago, still clinging to archaic tradition and
obsessed with superstition and ritual.
Most Christians wouldn’t want to admit the similarity of Islam and Christianity, but
they’re remarkably similar; differing more in their modern practice than in their traditional
doctrine. Few realize that Joan of Arc was executed for violating the Catholic dress code of the
day. It’s true that the dress code charge was an excuse for the English to burn the French hero at

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the stake, but the dress code and official charge that led to her execution were real. And most of
those hateful references and barbaric practices the more zealous Muslims have associated with
Islam in public perception is a true reflection of its Jewish roots. People familiar with the the
Bible or Tanakh would notice the remarkable similarity with the Quran and vice-versa.
The Taliban, Hamas, Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups are throwbacks to the
dark ages that demonstrate the danger of the false fantasy that is religion. The members of such
groups are fooled into thinking that they will receive a “mighty reward” from Allah in return for
fighting for him. They’re commonly under the archaic sexist illusion that Jihadists, or Allah’s
warriors, will be delivered to a paradise full of “high bossomed virgins” upon death.
Whatever the chosen fantasy, it’s a testament to how vacant the human mind is at birth
and how it can be polluted with absurdities to see how the majority of the population has been
mislead into a firm belief in mythology. Freidrich Nietzsche, observed that “Faith means not
wanting to know what is true.” When one observes the disturbing events of the world today, two
motivations are clearly present: the first is that original desire for the self, and the second is
devotion to fantasy that supersedes reality. But, despite periods of overwhelming ignorance and
superstitious savagery, some people have stood like beacons in the dread of night to counter the
mental affliction of mankind. The truth of life has always been there in bold reality for those
brave enough to accept it.
In this world of imitation one should remain always mindful of the example he sets for
others. Mentally stifled individuals commonly call for theological schools and governments with
apparent ignorance of the fruits of such endeavors. They need only look closely at the modern
Muslim states and similarities with their own history and “scriptures” to understand the ludicrous
nature of such pleas for submission to religion. Such naïve rhetoric is to be expected in politics,
the grand contest of idiots with high opinions of themselves. Beware the politician relying on
fantasy to guide the course of real world events. In the Contest of Idiots, shun the ones that wrap
themselves in either the flag or retreat into religion to cover their shortcomings. For, theirs is the
weakest position. Appeals to patriotism and religion are the crutches of the weak and hateful,
whereas good policy can stand by itself
It’s a lie of the ne’er-do-wells that the founding fathers of America sought a government
of Christian doctrine. The culture was Christian, but in separation of church and state the wise
sought to protect the nation from religion. Famous statesman, businessman and inventor, Ben
Franklin found Christian dogma unintelligible and avoided Christian assemblies from early in
life.
One of Franklin’s acquaintances, Thomas Paine, who’s pamphlet Common Sense was
instrumental in galvanizing America’s resolve for independence, and the same that is credited
with proposing the name of the United States of America, wrote: “All national institutions of
churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions,
set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Paine went on to write
in The Age of Reason: “Whenever we read ... the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting
vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we
call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to
corrupt and brutalize humankind. And, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest
everything that is cruel.”
Men that were instrumental in declaring independence and drafting the Constitution of
the United States, who later served as presidents, also sought to keep the government free of
religion. The second president, John Adams, said, “This would be the best of all possible worlds,
if there were no religion in it.”
Thomas Jefferson more boldly expressed his view of religion. “Religions are all alike,” he

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said, “founded upon fables and mythologies… I do not find in orthodox Christianity one
redeeming feature.” Continuing, he said: “The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually
the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed
monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed
beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are
always of two classes: fools and hypocrites.” That religion should govern was an obscene thought
to the third president of the United States, as he made abundantly clear, “History I believe
furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks
the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always
avail themselves for their own purpose.”
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble
enterprise.” concluded President James Madison. He went on to say: “During almost fifteen
centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More
or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in
both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”
The other principal institution that fundamentalist Christians are working fervently to
defile is education, insisting that religion should form part of the foundation of all children’s
knowledge. They’re right in the belief that religion should be studied in school. But not the pack
of single perspective lies they advocate. Let the true history of superstitious thought and ritual be
known to all. Expose the fallacies behind the pulpit and the collection plate. What better way to
be done, once and for all, with the greatest deception the world has ever known. For the logical
conclusion was set forth by the American author Ernest Hemingway: “All thinking men are
atheists.”
The truth is, every good person desires a loving higher authority to right injustice, prevent
suffering, and establish eternal paradise. We all wish for a god with the magic to make our
fondest dreams come true and spread happiness beyond anyone’s fondest dreams. But in the
absence of such a mythical figure, we’re left to our own accords, and pursuit of Health and
Happiness For All is the highest ideal.

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 International Relations
Cries of war send shivers down spines like the howls of wolves at the gate. Even so,
despite the horror, loss and suffering inherent in deadly struggle, the delicate blossoms of peace
have traditionally been trampled underfoot by the dogs of war. And still today earth remains a
primitive world of conflict; ruled, as it is, by petty and competitive people; and continually
shaken by ongoing clashes of ideologies and interests.
International relations are tense, as they always have been; with society constantly cursed
by small wars, and the threat of larger wars ever present. And it's with no small regret one finds
that no matter how far back the history pages are flipped the world has never been free of those
that were eager to invade, subject or destroy their neighbors for profit or spite. And just as
importantly today, there’s a vast over-abundance of people willing and eager to spread hate and
horror for the sake of their own greed, or in the name of ridiculous, childish fantasy.
Owing in large part to unreasonable superstition, Iran is a modern example of a failing
society that threatens to disrupt the fragile peace. And, quite simply, that’s because false ideology
controls the land, and men like Sayid Ruhullah Musawi Khomeini, also known as the Grand
Ayatullah Khomeini; the Supreme Leader of the Islamic state until his death in 1989; have used
Stalin style suppression and persecution techniques to force harsh Islamic rule on all the
inhabitants of Iran.
One aspect of Iranian society critical to their control, as it is to many other defective
governments, is control of the press whereby a dark cloud of ignorance is maintained over the
people to hide dissent and the authority’s actions from the inhabitants of Iran, and, to a lesser
extent, the rest of the world. To make matters worse, Iranian children are handicapped by Islamic
schools where they’re systematically taught the narrow-mindedness, discrimination, regression,
and hate of violent religion.
Beyond the shackles and shadows, outside Iran, despite the persistent talk and news
coverage of such a controversial state, not all that much is known about the country’s everyday
workings. There’s a common misconception, for instance, that the Iran's President is the head of
state, in a role similar to that of the President of the United States. However, the Iranian President
is merely an administrator who reports to the Supreme Leader: a man who must be a
distinguished Islamic cleric according to the Iranian constitution. It's that fervent Islamic
Supreme Leader who has overall control of the military, press, police and supreme judicial
authority. He’s the one who dictates policy, supervises the system of government and has the
authority to declare war.
Not surprisingly, challenge to the Supreme Leader and hard-line oppressive Muhammadic
law and policy is hardly possible; as the twelve members of the Guardian Council, six of whom
are appointed by the Supreme Leader and the other six are appointed by men appointed by the
Supreme Leader, must approve any candidate for elected legislative office. Without the Guardian
Council’s approval, no person can hold national office.
Iranian leadership is a nearly constant source of agitation, consumed with a juvenile
hateful, war-obsessed mindset, as though war, not peace, is the ultimate goal of life.
Unfortunately, similar, if lesser, tendencies can be seen in governments and cultures the world
over, including at home. But the eye cast in the mirror is rarely as critical as that cast toward
others.
Still, countries like Iran pose a heightened threat to world security. But why is Iran so
dangerous? Because it’s one of the few countries backwards enough to still be founded on literal
views of archaic scriptural fantasy. And just as the Quran proclaims everyone must submit to
Allah, a stated goal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the establishment of a worldwide Islamic

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government based on its own model.
Not only is Iran’s government intent on conquering the world for their warlord Allah, but
many Iranian Muslims truly believe they cannot co-exist with non-Muslims. In their eyes, all
non-believers must be eradicated, much the same as Hitler believed all Jews must be
exterminated.
Inside Iran, those brave enough to speak out against the tyrannical religious regime have
been executed en masse in an effort to silence truth and decency. And the fact that Iran had a
more modern government prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when Khomeini and his
followers took 50 American Hostages and then succeeded in holding most of them for 444 days,
is indicative of the real danger of declining civilization. That should serve as a stern warning
against the unhindered expansion of harmful false ideas, especially in times of growing Christian
conservatism.
For their part, Iranian religious leaders know how important it is to ingrain the irrational
lies of religious dogma into the minds of children before they can be exposed to the truth of such
matters and before they learn to question authority. Their actions underscore why it’s so
important to allow children to learn the truth of mythology before they’re consumed with it.
Unfortunately the absurdly harmful ignorance characteristic of Islamic law infects not
only Iran, but many nations of the Middle-East, Africa and Asia. For example, in 2007 Islamic
jurists in Saudi Arabia made international news when they sentenced a nineteen year old rape
victim to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was in the company of a man that she
wasn’t related to – even though the man she was with was also beaten by the group of thugs that
raped her.
Thanks to an international outcry, the Saudi government intervened on her behalf. But her
sentence was a relatively benign example of Muslim barbarity, as other victims of Islamic law
are not nearly so fortunate. In fact, many people are brutally stoned to death; with faces
bludgeoned and skulls caved in by rock-hurling mobs; or otherwise executed for nothing more
than having sex, exercising free speech or using drugs in Islamic countries such as Nigeria,
Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And Islamic terror isn’t confined to barren
wastelands, even developed countries that had made progress in escaping the clutches of
religious fanaticism are being increasingly infected by religious zeal that preys on the ignorant
for perpetuation.
Unfortunately, every backwards country with widespread discontent is fertile ground for
the expansion of militant Islamic fundamentalism, and institution of Islamic Law, which still
spreads like a terrible disease in places ranging from Africa to the Philippines. And that religious
intolerance is still playing a major role in regional conflicts and genocides from Africa to the
Balkans. India, the 2nd most populous nation on the planet is constantly harangued by Islamic
terrorists fueled by the poisonous culture of neighboring Pakistan. Acts of religious aggression
and violence dominate world news and wear on the social conscious as a message of hate and
terrorism pervades the globe, with beheadings and bombings assaulting sensibilities and
incensing outrage on a daily basis. Even spurrilous nations support terrorism and rattle their
sabers, threatening to decapitate the mighty serpent of the West.
All the while the blood of developed nations boils with desire to go nuclear and erase
entire slanderous, hate-spewing peoples from the face of the earth. Every time protestors gather
in huge crowds as though they have nothing better to do, and burn effigies and flags, chanting
Death to America! Death to Israel! or death to whoever the target of their putrid vile is; people
clinch their teeth and imagine planting a cruise missile right in the heart of the malfeasant mob.
Yet the toll of antagonism goes uncalculated; every second of frustration; every dollar wasted;
every pain felt; and every life lost is irreplaceably stolen from the pursuit of happiness.

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 How can this be so, is civilization not as a child, growing in consciousness? Do people
not stand to learn from the error of those that came before? Quite frankly, what little wisdom has
been gained historically is all too easily overrun by blind ignorance. As a whole, mankind is
utterly failing to achieve the peace and freedom essential to healthy, happy lives. It’s a truly
terrible tragedy that all the beauty and joy of the world can’t resist the onslaught of brutish
savages.
Of course, the most abhorrent and devastating of wars have all resulted from nothing
more than little notions. Regardless of the complexity of circumstances and veracity of argument,
it’s mere ideas and emotions: those simple perception and attitude shaping thoughts and
concepts: that move the world to misery. But all isn't lost yet, for it’s those same simple feelings
and beliefs that hold the ultimate power to bathe the world not in blood and misery, but in smiles
and laughter.
International relations are not unlike personal relations. And just as there are things to
like and dislike in most people, there’s similarities and differences among all countries. As surely
as some people seem to make a friend of everyone they meet, nations have the opportunity and
potential to put their best side forward and be generally well liked and well received if they so
choose.
The arena of international relations is like a high school prom. There are causes of
celebration, bouts of nervousness and embarrassment, feelings of anxiety, and no shortage of
inflated egos crowing to be heard above the crowd. And on the international dance floor America
should be neither a shut-in that avoids contact with others, or the reckless showman agitating for
attention. Fortunately, Americans are open and outgoing; but unfortunately, American foreign
policy sometimes comes across as confrontational or aggressive.
America’s policy of team building under the 2nd Bush administration has succeeded in
partial unification, but it’s also correspondingly been only partially successful. If carried through
to a global consensus, team building would be an appropriate strategy. But, when mixed with a
little intimidation and divisiveness, what little team building that’s been practiced in recent years
has served to divide parties into competing camps; in much the way nations of the Warsaw Pact
were opposed to the members of NATO during the Cold War.
What is often lost amongst the negotiations and saber-rattling of foreign relations is the
reality that the underlying problems of global relations are less about real conflict than they are
about fear, greed and estrangement. And that’s not just a simple indictment of poor social skills
and irrational perspective, but a perfect example of the inherent dangers and disadvantages of
competition; and the great potential of cooperation. As long as triumphing over others is the
prevailing attitude, there will continue to be strife and a disparity between winners and losers.
But, changing the global political landscape to lessen hostilities and fear requires no more
than a change in mindset. If only the people of the world would come to the realization that peace
is the pinnacle of life, joy and quality of life would be enhanced tremendously. For material
intensive societies filled with people capable of convincing others to buy things they don’t need
at costs they don’t understand, very little energy is directed toward the proliferation of the most
important of commodities; those of peace and cooperation. All too often nations make the
mistake of emphasizing division and dissimilarity; stealing focus away from the greater message
and mutual objectives.
Simple consideration would indicate a statement of condemnation between two countries
that otherwise don’t say boo to one another won’t be well received. In the same spirit it’s
sometimes better to be reconciliatory than right, by shunning pride and having a big piece of
humble pie even when truth is on one’s side. By apologizing for both real and imagined offenses
long-term benefits can greatly outweigh the trivial sense of humility.

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 In addition to good will, a key element of solving international discord is for all nations to
join in forming a common authority. Such a common authority doesn’t have to be a total
integration of government and society, but artificial barriers and divisions of government must be
transcended by a higher authority empowered to establish and preserve peace, provide for fair
and genuine dispute resolution, and promote the cooperation of one people of one world.
A world united in peace, that’s clean, sustainable, free and joyous, is the true goal of
civilization. In a more well governed world people would be free to travel and enjoy the beauty
of nature; where everyone would be safe and welcome wherever they may go; and people would
be treated equally according to their true worth. One united world, with one language, one
currency and one government is the desirable higher state.
In such a world no more troops would be massed on the border between North and South
Korea than are massed on the border of North and South Dakota; a world in which the citizens of
Taiwan, in the shadow of China, would be no more concerned for their sovereignty than the
citizens of Rhode Island. And a world where America and Russia enter into no more of an arms
race than Vermont and New Hampshire.
When the world is finally unified people won’t need fear war or bear the heavy burden of
maintaining armed forces in preparation for war. The idea isn’t novel, but it is long overdue. At
the 1826 Congress of Panama, Simon Bolivar proposed a league of American republics in Latin
America, with a central government and common military. That league never materialized, but a
much larger league, the League of Nations, was formed in the wake of the First World War.
Unfortunately, the League of Nations was a dismal failure because nations, including the
United States, resisted the concept of common accountability, despite the sincere efforts of
people like President Woodrow Wilson. Following the devastation of World War Two another
attempt was made to unify the world, this one was called the United Nations. The United Nations
has proven marginally more effective than the League of Nations. But, the authority invested in
the United Nations is almost negligible, and nations remain above mutual rule.
And it’s the same selfish desire that’s always driven the world’s evil and weakened
society that keeps the United Nations almost powerless. The nations of the world have simply
been too consumed by their own interests to disband their armies and trust the governance of a
collective body. When, and if, nations finally care enough about mutual health and happiness to
join together in a manner similar to the union of states to form nations, the threatening cloud of
war may at last dissipate.
However, common governance is only as good as the principles upon which it stands.
And even the basic design of the United Nations is inherently flawed. A body comprised of
individuals representing not each other or the common good, but only the interests of their
respective countries, is naturally beset by severe bias and selfishness that hinders mutual
assistance.
The proper form and function of government is further addressed in later chapters. But,
it’s imperative to note that government is only the formalization of ideals, and it’s those ideals
that determine the successes and failures of government. Therefore, it’s plain to see that
international authority, just like more localized governments, should be based on high agreed
upon ideals unhindered by selfish desire and offering broad benefit.
So, the first step toward true unity is acceptance of the Universal Rules of Life; with all
laws and agreements serving to promote Health and Happiness for All without the corruption of
self interest. In order for justice to prevail, people must be treated in accord with their effect on
others. And in such endeavors as forming a more perfect union there must be a continual
resistance to any excuse for iniquity and injustice, because although the battle against selfish
greed that violates the Universal Rules may become easier, selfish desire will never be banished

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completely.
Certainly, before conflicts can be resolved, it’s important to understand the causes behind
them. One doesn’t stand much chance of finding peace when he refuses to look for it, or even
welcome it. And in that regard, common political leadership is guilty of egregious incompetence
in dismissing the prospect for peace and understanding by declaring potential adversaries as
unable to seek a greater good, and accepting animosity and war as inevitable. It’s worth repeating
that acceptance of war, however just and relatively necessary, represents failure to maintain
peace.
Some of the more common motivations for hatred and war are a sense of vengeance or
retaliation, simple greed, religion induced ignorance, and frustration. Although ignorance may be
the primary driving force of armed conflict, ignorance doesn’t simply equate with stupidity,
though the two do often go hand-in-hand. Ignorance in this respect refers to a lack of proper
example, consideration and understanding.
Because people mimic those around them, believing as they’ve been taught, children of
an intolerant, hateful culture are very likely to propagate the same hate and intolerance.
Unknowingly adding to their sense of frustration is the repulsive degradation of nature through
generations of greedy waste and overuse. Any child growing up in Palestine, for instance, where
it seems people know of no better thing to do than grow rocks to throw at their neighbors, will be
unlikely to rise above the bitterness of hate and the desire to lash out, unless shown by someone
that there’s so much more to life than fighting.
Consider even the prodigious conqueror Alexander the Great. As the son of the
Macedonian King Philip who conquered Greece, he was born into a culture of fighting and
conquest. Although Alexander would spend his abbreviated adult life fighting for fortune and
fame, he was never able to outgrow the destructive state of conflict into which he was born.
Amazingly, wars are often waged by men with nary a clue as to what they’re fighting for;
as is often the case with bloodfeuds and old score vendettas. Many cases of retaliation go back so
far that people no longer have any idea of the original source of conflict, nor do they even care
anymore. Instead they’re merely consumed with a desire for punishment and vengeance.
And the same old kind of obscure origin applies to racial tensions, as no ethnic group,
regardless of how persecuted they may have been in recent memory, can assert that their
ancestors never persecuted others, because the flaw of self interest and desire to seek advantage
over others has been a constant affliction of humanity. Before Cortez, the Aztecs were sacrificing
their neighbors to their sun god; before Portuguese sailors transported African slaves, the slaves
were kidnapped by warring tribes; before Rome annexed Judah, the Israelites were at war with
each other; and before Japan invaded China in the 20th century, Chinese had invaded Japan under
Kublai Khan in the 13th century.
Though such actions as invasion, enslavement and sacrifice are unjust, there are no races,
nationalities or ethnic groups whose ancestors haven’t wronged others in the past. More
importantly, generally the individuals of today neither suffered nor perpetrated the injustices of
previous generations. So, concerted efforts need to be made to move on and look toward a future
free from the cycle of vengeance.
For, it should also be remembered that payback often costs more than is gained. And two
things are certain in any conflict between people: first, at least one, and often more parties are in
error, and second, all parties have failed to prevent the conflict. Though it’s sometimes necessary
and righteous to enter into war and other violent conflicts, even then all parties have failed to
secure peace.
That’s not to say that all parties are at fault, quite the contrary, some could be perfectly
justified in their actions. But, the loss and suffering of war is always preventable, even though it

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may be beyond the abilities of even the most virtuous parties. Because war isn’t justified when
less harmful means can achieve the same results, the logical directive would be to maximize
mankind’s abilities to prevent war instead of concentrating so much effort on the ability to win
wars.
Good leaders unite and inspire people by setting a good example and establishing proper
tone. And everyone is fortunate that people emulate good behavior as well as bad. Meanwhile,
the most effective unifying factor involves celebrating and promoting common bonds and
aspirations. Leaders and the public often fail to stay focused on the positive relations between
nations and the larger overall picture, being trapped instead by small, divisive debates and
actions.
Suggestions and requests should always be offered from a position of friendship,
strengthening similarities and downplaying differences. The role of adversary should be resisted,
while finding some cause in which to unite. Instead of capitalists and communists uniting against
fascists, Frenchmen and Russians should unite for the greater good; Germans and Chinese should
unite to promote equality and prosperity, and Brazilians and Turks should unite to oppose
injustice, pollution and greed.
And as a country’s leader, an American president for example, the top ambassador of the
people should behave accordingly. The difference between an arrogant and a humble leader has a
considerable impact on how others perceive the people he represents. If a people’s top
ambassador comes off as a dumb, conceited ass, he will accordingly tarnish the image of the
nation as a whole. And the first priority of any nation seeking peace, justice and beauty should be
to stand tall for peace, justice and beauty. One should be the friend he wants others to be; the
champion of the innocent; the protector of the environment; and the embodiment of humility.
First he must see in himself what he desires in others.
After every incident, people vow revenge, and the cycle of violence continues in the
ongoing process of tit-for-tat. Yet that is most definitely a time when people should be asking
why others are upset, or even hate them so. Why aren’t more people considering that there may
be legitimate reasons why others are mad at America? And if there are no legitimate reasons,
then isn’t there at least some misunderstanding that could be resolved?
Whenever there’s disagreement, whether it be mild or vile, contempt should be veiled and
curiosity should be represented. One should ask people why they do what they do, and keep
asking, never telling, until either the folly or prudence of another’s position is revealed.
Alternatively, when agreement seems improbable, pleasantry should serve as a distraction
from disagreement. Certainly, advantage can be made of people’s inherent inability to
concentrate on multiple issues simultaneously. As it’s said that some people can’t walk and chew
gum at the same time, people’s cognitive shortcomings can be turned into an asset by substituting
agreement and happiness for discord.
Moreover, a country is always vulnerable to attack, and it’s better to spend effort building
friendship than wasting money on walls and patrols that can never be completely effective. Oh,
beware the politicians that focus on division and conflict, and pick at old wounds when they’re
better off healed. There’s definitely dangers in campaigners that hide behind insecurity, for
they’re hiding their own incompetence.
As principal representatives, leaders should embody the priorities of their nations. The
leader of a nation desirous of peace and goodwill should always be on a goodwill mission. He
should proceed directly to the United Nations and thank all the nations represented for their
cooperation and their contributions to peace and justice. And that should be commenced without
fear of thanking those that shouldn’t be thanked, for every nation has some kindness to build on,
and every good gesture holds the possibility of increased returns. Goodwill and friendship can be

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considered as a never ending supply of currency that can be invested in peace and one day be
paid back in kind.
Undoubtedly a good leader should seek out occasions to build friendship and trust. He
should take the initiative in inviting other world leaders to enjoy the best of nature’s beauty and
humanity’s generosity. And he should show an interest in the beauty and generosity of other
nations in turn. Like a friendly child, a good leader should ask his neighbors to come out and
play, inviting them to his house and taking up any offers to enjoy the hospitality of his new
friends.
It’s well known that people are influenced by their environment, and it’s equally
disappointing that diplomats fail to make full use of that fact. A hike among the spring flowers of
Yosemite Valley, with the grandeur of waterfalls cascading from granite mountains, is bound to
put a smile on people’s faces. If not Yosemite, then a stroll among the living giants of Sequoia
National Park, a walk around a clear alpine lake ringed by majestic mountains, the smell of a
native prairie on a warm summer day, a float on the Snake River in Idaho, a visit to Niagara
Falls, a slow boat ride through a quiet southern swamp, or perhaps a round of golf in Hawaii
overlooking the ocean would serve as effective bond builders.
Those are just a few of the places to make good memories that foster friendship. And one
should choose his associations wisely, forgoing the pollution, noise and congestion of ugly cities
that simply aren’t conducive to peace and quiet. Furthermore, matters of policy should be
approached gingerly until a friendship and trust of sincerity and common value has been
established. Certainly it’s imperative that goodwill should always be a priority of a goodwill
policy.
Additionally, world leaders should celebrate the beauty of other countries and enjoy the
friendship of the people. More opportunities should be taken to share in good times and
friendship with foreign citizens. That’s a principal role of a good ambassador, as it’s much better
to inspire compassion than fear. Today, a newly elected President could tour the countryside of
China without escort, with safety equal to that in America. And the President should see the
world and seize the opportunity to be a man or woman of the people.
If, as the case is today, people live in a world where the President is at risk in friendly
nations, that’s a clear indication that America is failing in the quest and commitment for peace.
Without doubt there’s a risk in showing vulnerability. But the risk is greatly reduced when the
spirit of competition and the us-verses-them attitude yields to friendly cooperation. What, some
ask, is the possible reward for such outgoing optimism? How about a world of friends? Why
can’t there be a world of friends standing with America instead of enemies standing against us.
There’s a possibility that political leaders could be harmed by removing the barriers
between themselves and the public. Though unfortunate, should harm strike, it could actually be
accompanied by opportunity greater than the loss. Despite all of the consideration behind
carefully thought out ideas and proposals, emotions are still powerful motivators. Fear, love,
anger, happiness and sadness give meaning to life.
It’s emotion alone that sometimes give cause to action when reason has failed. Mighty
powerful is the sense of grief and outrage when something terrible has happened. The unity,
sympathy and motive to act wrought from tragedy should not be squandered. Let people be
drawn together in time of need, not driven apart. And as with other contingencies, such an event
should be planned for. Any man is only as good as his actions and ideals, and a line of succession
should reflect the highest ideals and abilities. But, of course, the volatility of emotions makes it
even more critical to govern by the Universal Rules of Life instead of the whim of politicians and
mobs.
Though tragic, rare indeed are such times when others will be so willing to compromise,

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and stand with America as following the terrorist hijackings of September 11, 2001. People
around the world were shocked and horrified to see jetliners crashed into the World Trade
Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. In that time of tragedy was hidden the
opportunity of a generation, but self-absorbed politicians and the general public couldn’t see it.
To an objective observer, the course of events that followed were predictable. Politicians
would be sure to rush in for photo opportunities; as did Rudolf Giuliani, who used the ensuing
popularity to make a bid for President. And President George W. Bush was also quick to arrive,
using the tragedy to define his presidency. In the few morning hours of September 11th that it
took to orchestrate mass murder, President Bush had an excuse to hide the miserable failings of
his juvenile domestic policies, including an embarrassing lack of economic and educational
understanding.
All the while, politicians and commentators thoughtlessly stirred confusion by repeating
overused catch phrases such as “do not panic” like they were in a burning theater; adding to the
sense of smoke and mirrors behind the political limelight. While the average citizen was standing
around with his mouth dropped open, there were others that knew how the country would really
be affected. Before the towers had collapsed, some people were fully aware that George W. Bush
and his administration would squander the opportunity at hand, and together with the
sensationalist media would ride the wave of public emotion and sentiment for all it’s worth;
unwittingly plotting to darken and mortify the public conscience for many years to come by
beating on the same tired drum over and over and over; always keeping tragedy front and center
in the public conscious instead of joy and opportunity.
Instead of searching for face time on TV, and making hollow promises of bringing those
responsible to justice, leaders should have been seeking reconciliation and cooperation with
those countries with which America needed improved relations the most. At that time America
had the world’s sympathy and support and failed to take the opportunity to talk with countries
like Iran and North Korea and work out some differences. That was a good time to build bridges,
it wasn’t the time to engage in rhetoric and proclaim an axis of evil.
But that’s a common failure of egoists that seek public office but are lacking in capable
intellect. Even sports coaches know that you speak through action, and that words of slander only
serve to embolden the opposition and make one’s objective that much more difficult. In
addressing those religious extremists that constituted terror cells and governed Afghanistan, war
may have been the best option. But that was a war that America could have asked China, Russia,
and other nations that might oppose America’s actions, to fight. That was the emotion of the
time, countries that were frequently at odds were willing to help. Even Iran offered some
assistance in promoting a peaceful post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The opportunity lost was considerable because all it takes is one act of friendship to erase
years of hostility, and change attitudes from hateful to happy. Though that time and opportunity
is lost, every day presents another opportunity to change the world for the better. It may not be
obvious or plain to see beforehand, but every act of goodwill could be the act that changes the
future for the better. One simple greeting or gesture may be all it takes to change the “Death to
America” chant to a chorus of “peace be with you.”
Although good leadership may be woefully lacking, knowing that people the world over
aren’t all that different from one another, it shouldn’t be surprising to recognize that decency and
moderation can still be readily found in Iran’s population of 70 million people.
They don’t get the attention and press coverage of outspoken extremists, but there are
many Iranians who desire peace, appreciate friendly relations, and aren’t intent on forcing archaic
myths on the rest of the world. More importantly, regardless of some of Iran’s negative
tendencies, nothing is to be gained by antagonizing and provoking a country when such action

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just serves to undermine internal moderation movements and galvanize the population around
Islamic fanaticism and against world peace interests. By playing with aggression and hostility,
America plays the only game tyrants know. There’s been a history of ill will between the U.S.
and Iran, but it’s never too late to seek Iranian assistance in the mutual quest for Health and
Happiness.
After 9/11 there were great possibilities. If, by accepting humility instead of embracing
bravado, President Bush would have met with the friends and enemies of America, he, or
someone of higher intellect, might have even cleared up some long-held misunderstandings and
differences. Instead he vowed America would pursue her enemies anywhere around the world;
and, of course, those enemies vowed to fight to the death.
The art of diplomacy; of embracing common hopes and seeking common solutions, even
when there seems no common hope exists, is lost on garden-variety politicians. The bottom line
is simply that George W. Bush got what he wanted, a fight, instead of the peace that he should
have been seeking as a man willing to turn the other cheek as he claims to be. Any man that
considers himself too great to humble himself to promote a greater good, is too small to be an
effective President of the United States.
After invading Afghanistan, President Bush continued riding his wave of vengeance to
gather support for an invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein; the man accused of hatching a
plot to kill his father, the first President Bush. Now, since America can’t round up the illegal
immigrants in it’s own borders, what made people think America could peacefully occupy Iraq or
Afghanistan with Muslim extremism out of control? Unfortunately, few voices of reason were
heard over the media’s clamor to keep the news sensational, and the American public-at-large ate
rhetoric and propaganda by the spoonful, with almost no consideration for consequences of
military engagement or occupation of hostile populations. Instead of having a rational national
discussion, President Bush waved the flag, praised God and ordered an American invasion of
Iraq, as he had Afghanistan some months before.
Major military engagements went as expected, but then that old familiar nemesis called
internal resistance kicked in, aided by weapons and jihadists from all over the region. Also, like
Korea and Vietnam, the people were dead set into opposing factions. Not communist and
capitalists, but Kurds, Shi’a, Sunni's, Talibanists and more. In time Americans started to ask what
country they had to invade to get some affordable oil, and the realization set in that America was
trapped in Afghanistan and Iraq waiting on a peace process beyond its control, and searching for
an exit strategy to end the figurative and literal bleeding.
Unfortunately, America now appears too weak to control backwards, desert nations. But
the humiliation of persistent casualties at the hands of flamboyant insurgents is as much by poor
design as it is a result of physical realities. In Iraq, for instance, after triumphing on the
battlefield, the Bush administration disbanded the Iraqi army and allowed the soldiers to keep
their weapons, instantly providing a large population of unemployed armed soldiers hostile to the
occupying force. What were those masses of armed Muslims expected to do? Was it not logical
that they would seek to profit by turning their weapons on the Coalition invaders?
As if turning armed soldiers loose to roam and terrorize at will wasn’t bad enough, the
Bush administration further incapacitated the American military by severely limiting military
response so as not to offend the natives. Only an imbecile would choose to invade a country
while not prepared to offend some of the inhabitants. The result of that decision was to
essentially put American military personnel on the streets of Iraq as targets. While U.S. soldiers
were being killed by snipers and roadside bombs, Iraqi insurgents like Muqtada al-Sadr were
directing military strikes from the comfort of mosques, knowing that the Coalition forces were
too afraid to offend Muslims to target a mosque or religious leader.

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 How upset are the parents of dead American servicemen knowing that their children were
placed in harms way as targets without the protection of readily available means to defend
themselves?
The results of this ill-planned war have been disappointing, but why weren’t people
asking what price they were willing to pay, and what benefits they expected, before engaging in
war? Who did John Q. Public think was going to die for the cause or who did he think was going
to pay the cost of war expected to exceed a trillion dollars? And who was asking why the U.S.
wasn’t stepping out of the spotlight already? Until America can establish internal independence
and integrity, international meddling and political foolery is only embarrassing. Even when in a
strong position, subtle encouragement and leadership is much more effective than outspoken
bravado.
Had George W. Bush not avoided service in Vietnam, he might have learned some
lessons from that disastrous effort that cost America a fortune in money and lives but still failed
to positively effect the final outcome of the Vietnamese civil war; a war that may never have
come about without American meddling in the first place. Perhaps then he would have been more
reluctant to commit American troops to policing countries where they weren’t welcome; where
enemy combatants could blend into the local population. Nevertheless, in the case of Iraq, he
boldly insisted that the replacement of a dictator in control of a stable country, with a bunch of
squabbling warlords heading opposing factions, would bring stability and freedom to the region.
Even after invading Iraq and easily toppling Saddam Hussein’s government, there was
still ample opportunity to seek the cooperation of Iran and neighboring states in establishing a
democratic Iraq. But offers of such assistance were summarily rejected. It’s true that, by
definition, every nation with an interest in molding the future of Iraq has just that, their own
interest in how Iraq is reformed. And many of Iran’s interests in Iraq are dissimilar to the
interests of Coalition countries.
But, like America, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and other interested nations; Iran
also shares many of the same common interests in a free, stable Iraq. And America and the rest of
the Coalition was still in a strong position to forge a democratic alliance within Iraq after having
defeated Iraq’s military in only a few weeks, considering Iran suffered approximately one million
casualties in eight years of fighting with Iraq.
The refusal to openly involve and utilize Iraq’s neighbors posed some inherent
challenges. The concept of a regional coalition offered, not the certainty, but the possibility
anyway; to have moderated extreme influences, offered border security, and encouraged internal
cooperation. But the antagonism between Washington and Tehran had the opposite effect of
fueling both sectarian and anti-occupation violence inside Iraq. Any war of occupation in which
the occupier is incapable of or unwilling to use the force or diplomacy necessary to break the will
of opposition is not winnable.
Of course there are means of attacking rogue states, whether occupying them or not, that
will result in the total capitulation and cooperation of the citizenry. But, the details of applying
variable combinations of overwhelming force, ruthless intimidation, closed borders, systematic
sweeps, restricted movements and internment camps need not be addressed here.
If presidents and kings were required to stand on the front line of combat, war would
almost be an ugly memory. Even if presidents and kings do stay safely out of combat and send
others to fight for them as is the case with war, there are other measures to lessen a hasty
commitment to war. For one thing, except for self defense, nations should not let the will of one
man determine so important a matter as going to war. That was the purpose behind the U.S.
constitutional provision giving only congress the power to declare war. But the intent of the
provision has been thoroughly disregarded by presidents calling their limited wars police and

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security actions in recent decades.
Another procedure that would help to prevent unnecessary warfare would be a rigorous
public discussion of different conflict resolution options. Some of the conflict resolution options
and possible outcomes include:
• Engaging in a war of words – serves to entrench and antagonize opposing parties.
• Applying sanctions – also antagonistic and rarely effective in bringing about a desired
outcome. Often times sanctions are difficult to enforce and can only apply limited pressure.
Many authoritarian leaders would let their people suffer hardship and even starvation
before admitting error or compromising their stand on principal. And furthermore, bonds of
common enemies are strenthened through increased interdependence, resulting in a more
polarized world order.
• Pinpoint attacks – could neutralize intended targets and possibly act as a deterrent. But
such attacks also stand to fuel the fire of war and escalate hostilities.
• Limited war – in a war where one or both sides don’t bring all available force to bear on
the opposition it must be asked how far the people are prepared to go and what other
nations may be inclined to join in opposition. Since World War II America has a history of
failure in limited wars. However, there has been success in avoiding full scale war.
• Real war – means using all necessary means to force the opposition into complete
submission. America could easily crush the will of small countries such as Korea, Iraq and
Iran, but there are always two major considerations of real war. The first consideration is
how much harm to civilians, animals and the environment is acceptable. And the second
consideration is the involvement of additional nations that would have the potential to
escalate into a third world war and possibly result in mutual destruction.
Obviously, war is always a risky gamble, and a nation should choose to engage in war
only when it appears absolutely necessary, as the people can hardly be certain of the outcome. It’s
obvious that if the will of other international powers, particularly members of the nuclear club, is
not firmly united, any war could lead to utter devastation. Since the buildup of nuclear arms
stockpiles during the Cold War, it’s been fortunate that mankind hasn’t turned them on one
another and annihilated much of life on earth in the process.
If nuclear nations continue to oppose each other, it’s only a matter of time until somebody
does pull the trigger that unleashes atomic fury on the world. In a similar vein, it’s unfair that
some should have weapons capable of such massive destruction while others don’t. In that sense,
nations are justified in seeking their own nuclear programs; though some, if not all, lack the
restraint and intelligence to be trusted with nuclear weapons. Before a country of hostage-takers
such as Iran develops strategic nuclear weapons, or Pakistani technology helps arm other
countries with nuclear weapons as has been reported with North Korea, or before fanatics take
over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons with the intention of using them on Israel or India; all nations
need to come together to call an end to the arms race.
There’s no logical doubt that the nations of the world need to join as one, and liberate the
planet from the threat of war. And it bears repeating that to promote such unity, leaders of
advanced nations must seek agreement with others based on the Universal Rules of Life.
Agreement should first be sought among close, friendly nations. As the new World Union grows,
so will ties with other nations and incentives to cooperate. The newly joined members will reach
out to their friends as the Union spreads around the globe. Benefits of union must be apparent
and able to stand on their own, without force of threat or coercion.
Today, the European Union (EU) offers a good example of international cooperation.
What started as economic cooperation between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, and West Germany in the 1950’s, has grown into a cooperative union of 27 nations

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in 2007. Today, in addition to economic concerns, the nations of the European Union share
common policies in matters such as foreign relations, national security and criminal justice.
Among other things The EU fosters free trade and movement among member nations, sets trade
policies, and participates in economic development planning. But, very importantly, nations must
meet democratic, free market, human rights, and other standards in order to qualify for
admittance into the EU. As a result, member and prospective nations have worked toward
betterment in those areas of common concern.
Prior to agreement and unity there are some cornerstones of free government that should
be encouraged in all nations. Some of the most important prerequisites for membership in
international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, and voting rights in the United
Nations are freedom of press and speech. The contempt bred by censorship, secrecy and
propaganda is much shorter lived in the light of truth.
And, with freedom comes responsibility, so supporters of freedom should remain mindful
that speech and press should be conducted in gentlemanly fashion, without having to suffer
vulgarity, tirades of hate, or Hitleresque speeches. Maintaining high standards of conduct is
especially important when the people of contrary countries are exposed to the examples of
foreign leaders through free press. The remedy for archaic perceptions and delusional ideology is
the free exchange of ideas available in open societies, and that flow of ideas shouldn’t be
hindered by animosity and resentment.
And nothing inspires like example. A truly great nation can shine like a star in the
bleakness of space. Weak nations, like weak people, feel a need to proclaim their own strength.
But a truly strong nation, one comfortable with independence, speaks not with rhetoric and
debate, but with the quiet tolerance of confidence. With little to fear, the strong remain calm and
steady while others engage in hysterics.
For America, such strength must come from a commitment to Health and Happiness for
All, which inherently fosters such beneficial conditions as economic independence. America is
currently in a position of trying to bargain for energy and cheap foreign goods. The resulting
trade imbalance and reliance on foreign goods is a weakness seriously compromising America’s
future and preventing America from standing as a symbol of strength. Debt will soon cripple not
only the United States Government, but the entire American economy without substantial
corrective measures. America is definitely in for hard economic times in the near future, and it
won’t be long before foreign lenders will demand debt repayment and the American economy
will face foreclosure.
Massive decline of the dollar against foreign currencies is also reversing the international
transfer of wealth that America enjoyed in the 20th century. The shrinking dollar is a reflection of
the many years the American economy has been losing ground to the European Union, Japan,
China and even smaller economies like that of South Korea. Even Russia, that former icon of
communist inefficiency, stands to one day challenge the United States in economic strength.
Russia’s economy still functions poorly, but it’s getting better. And although there’s no
indication it will function well, if Russia’s economy does prosper it has the natural resource
wealth to be a major world economy.
America’s on a downhill slide, and tougher days are undoubtedly ahead. The country, and
the world, is on the brink of a serious economic meltdown. At the same time, resource depletion
and environmental damage is at record levels. But the greatest difficulties confronting America
are self-imposed. With a little wiser practices the American economy can still be the most
efficient and effective the world has ever seen. As easily as changing wasteful consumption
habits, replacing welfare with work programs, and eliminating non-productive jobs, America can
re-assert a confidence and example only possible with superior economic comfort and

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independence.
The world faces more real problems and challenges than people can fully overcome,
without the added burden of human conflict and other debilitating man-made impediments.
Disease, pollution, and resource degradation are just some important concerns that offer
abundant reasons for people to work with, instead of against, one another. Add to that the
difference between a world of hate under threat of annihilation, and a happy world secure in
peace, and the incentives to live and work in unity are too apparent to ignore. Superstitious
beliefs, hostility, selfishness, competition and secrecy have all combined to set civilization back
by thousands of years, and hasten ecologic damage proportionately. And people’s inabilities to
collaborate for mutual benefit are direct reflections of ignorance and small-mindedness. Can this
yet be a greater generation that welcomes humanity to the world of cooperation?
People can learn to stop fighting, and hurting fellow earthlings. And justice will prosper
where the will to do good is stronger than selfish desire. Just as prophecies of messiahs and wars
have been self-fulfilling; in that they encouraged messianic hopefuls and hastened wars, so too
can the prophecy of peace promote brotherhood. And so it will one day be; divides bridged,
brothers embraced, and unity championed. One among the masses will be instrumental in
bringing peace to the world. And in time, that person may be hailed as the most accomplished
person to ever walk the planet, being celebrated long after warmongers of the past have been
forgotten. When the last jihad, and the last genocide, and the last invasion has passed, there’ll be
a feeling of liberation like the days following the great wars. And future generations may know
the joy of peace.

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 Measuring Time
Reality is at times elusive; often challenged by fantasy for acceptance in the mind. But
through long study and great devotion, even obsession toward problem solving and discovery,
generations of scientists have worked hard to develop brilliant and sophisticated theories to
explain reality. However, sometimes no distinction exists between theory and fantasy, and even
today fiction finds acceptance as fact; with the most popular example possibly being time travel.
Thanks in part to mysterious speculations advanced by such scientific notables as Albert
Einstein about warps in the fabric of time and shifts in the space-time continuum, many educated
people actually believe it possible to move forward or backward in time. In total bouts of whimsy
they’ve tried to make time into something it isn’t: a tangible, physical dimension that can be
traversed. But, in reality, time is much simpler than that. Time is only a measure, a method for
noting the passing of events, or action. And without events time has neither meaning or
existence. Those events could be apparent movement of stars and planets, the march of ants, or
even the simple ticking of a clock. But if all motion, action and change ceased, there would be no
time, as there would be no sequence of events to measure.
However, the universe is full of action, and similar events can, and do, occur at differing
speeds and frequency, depending on variable internal and external forces. Moreover, the
frequency or speed of repetitive actions, such as the periodic movement of clock hands or earth’s
revolution, changes as the series of actions perpetuates. Regardless of how slow or fast events
may transpire however, time shouldn’t be confused with whatever event is being measured.
The silly notion of time travel is even less complicated than relative frequency. People
imagine the pure fantasy of somehow going to a time other than the present, but time isn’t a
physical reality. Time is only a concept of tracking change, with no real property that could be
physically traveled. In the reality of the physical universe, events can be slowed or accelerated,
but all of the motions and interactions of matter will never reverse to allow the old to grow
young, pains be undone, and losses be gained.
Although it’s not possible to travel back in time to change the past. Life can still be
considered a form of time machine if people grasp the opportunity to carefully consider the goals
they hope to achieve and mistakes they hope to avoid, and then work to steer the future to those
ends. Looking back at the sorrow and regret of their past, people may realize the exciting concept
of changing the future for the better. People vow to stop mistakes from ever happening, and
wonder what they would do differently. Children, in particular, should be taught to prioritize
their goals in life, examine how their behavior will affect the realization of those goals, and think
of ways to best assure success. Because, the present is the time to prevent future disaster and
build future happiness.
Paying no mind to the fantasy of time travel, and looking back in history however, one
finds that the day served as the original human measure of time. When humans first considered
the passing of days, they didn’t know what caused sunlight or how the sun appeared to cross the
sky every day. Fortunately they had only to count the days to assist in organizing their lives by
marking time, and it didn’t matter what mistaken beliefs they might have held as causing the
passing of day and night.
Just as fascinating to our ancestors as the apparent travel of the sun every day, was the
varied but predictable appearance of the moon. The cycle of transitioning from a moonless night
to full moon and back again in a 29½ day lunar month captivated the supernatural curiosity of
primitive people. The lunar cycle also offered a convenient way to track long periods of time.
Whereas days all seem to run together, the distinctive character of moon phases made observance
of ritual over periods of approximate 15 or 30 day increments an easy matter.

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 As convenient as lunar cycles were to observe however, they aren’t synchronous with
earth’s yearly orbit around the sun, and therefore don’t correspond to seasonal variations.
Because a synodic year of twelve lunar months equaling 354 to 360 days is a little more than 11
days short of a solar year, lunar calendar years can begin anytime in a solar year. And that variety
can be seen in the Muslim calendar, an example of a lunar calendar still in widespread use in
many Islamic countries today.
Although they were convenient, because lunar calendars weren’t representative of solar
years, mankind still needed a method of predicting seasonal weather changes for important
activities such as planting, harvesting, travel, and shelter preparation. And people living far from
the equator had special interest in knowing when to expect the last hard frost of spring, the first
killing frost of fall, and other recurring events.
While ancient Egyptians didn’t have the temperature fluctuation found at greater latitudes
to contend with, they did have a need to anticipate the annual Nile flooding season. Due to Nile
flooding, annual civil administrative affairs, and other periodic events the Egyptians were using
one of the first known solar calendars of 365 days as early as the unification of Upper and Lower
Egypt approximately 5,000 years ago. Though the ancient Egyptians are reported to have known
that the solar year was a little longer than 365 days, they apparently had no automatic mechanism
for calibrating their calendar with the solar year, although they could simply synchronize their
calendar and the solar year by periodically waiting an additional day to begin the new year, based
on simple astronomical observation.
For simplicity, many societies divided the year into 12 equal months of 30 days each. It
was common to either add 5 days at the end of the year or add an extra month every sixth year to
keep calendars roughly in line with a true solar year. But some societies made poor showing of
their efforts to approximate the solar, or even synodic, year. And that included the Romans, as
prior to calendar reform by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., the Roman calendar was a confusing mess.
It was an awkward combination of lunar, solar, and other considerations, that required the
addition of an extra month every couple of years, and still it was out of sync with the solar year.
At one point the Roman calendar consisted only of 10 months for a total of 304 days.
Apparently, at that time they didn’t feel compelled to keep track of 61 days in winter. Their year
started in March, which they called Martius for the war-god Mars, coinciding with the arrival of
spring and warm weather. That was a popular time to begin calendar years, and today, the Persian
calendar is one that still begins about the time of the spring equinox. Other early Roman month
names were Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and
December; with the months Quintilis through December incorporating the Roman names for five
through ten. Januarius and Februarius were later added to the end of the year.
The Julian reforms extended the calendar to 365 days, with an extra “leap” day at the end
of every forth year, giving February 29 days on leap years. And about 36 years after his death the
month Quintilis was renamed Julius in his honor. Later still, Sextilis was renamed Augustus in
honor of Augustus Caesar. Obviously the short, 28-day length of February is just a holdover of
archaic origin, when February was the last month of the year.
But, even though month lengths didn’t alternate between 30 and 31 days as one would
logically expect, the Julian Calendar was pretty accurate, and remained in use well after the
Gregorian calendar, now the world standard, was introduced in the 16th century. The revisions
decreed by Pope Gregory XIII increased the accuracy of the Julian Calendar by eliminating the
leap day in centennial years not divisible by 400. Today, the Gregorian calendar is reported to be
accurate within 1 day in 3300 years, near the range of variability of earth’s revolutionary and
orbital velocity, and degree of inclination, or tilt, relative to the orbital plane.
Over the past two thousand years, the start date of the Roman calendar has varied

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considerably among the countries where it was adopted. The new calendar year has begun on
such dates and occasions as the spring equinox, Christmas, Easter, Annunciation, March 1st,
September 1st, and January 1st. It wasn’t until 1752 that the Gregorian calendar was adopted and
the beginning of the year was moved from March 25th to January 1st in Britain and its colonies,
and September 2nd of that year was followed by September 14th to bring the calendar back in line
with the solar year. Of course, with the promotion of January and February to the first and second
months, the still numbered months of September through December were pushed two months
past their namesake positions.
It makes sense for the new year to coincide with the winter solstice by moving January 1st
to what is now December 22nd. Especially, considering that December 25th was chosen as the day
to celebrate Christmas because it was the date of an important pre-Christian Roman holiday
celebrating the return of the sun following the winter solstice, which was near December 25th on
the calendar of the time. But the way Januarius was tacked on the end of the old Roman calendar,
it begins about ten days after the beginning of the sun’s annual apparent northward journey.
Not only days and months, but the years themselves were very difficult to keep track of in
old Roman times because they were ordered by reigns of rulers. It wasn’t until the year we now
know as A.D. 525 that a monk named Dionysius Exiguus calculated the passage of years since
the birth of Jesus and introduced the now familiar period Anno Domini, meaning year of the lord.
As a side effect of his attempt to accurately set Easter observance, he fixed the birth of Jesus in
what is now known as the year 1AD.
Even among the Church and Christian countries however, the Anno Domini and Before
Christ periods weren’t widely used until many centuries later. As usual, tradition trumped
practicality and even Popes continued to refer to regnal year dates for a long time more. But
eventually enough people saw the wisdom of numbering years in unbroken sequence as opposed
to widely variable and unpredictable terms of rule, and historical time was rearranged relative to
the birth of Jesus; though after further study scholars have since declared Jesus was born four or
more years before 1AD.
The concept of a week, being as simple as it is, has gone through much less change than
annual calendars. There’ve been alternative week lengths through history, such as the 10-day
weeks of ancient Rome and Greece; but the 7-day week popular in Egypt and many other ancient
societies came to be the world standard. The 7-day week is said to owe its development to the
sun, moon and five known planets of the ancient world: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and
Saturn. One should keep in mind that all ancient societies were aware of a sixth planet; that being
Earth. But at the time they, like their gods, were unaware that Earth was a planet like Venus and
the others.
When the Romans borrowed the 7-day week concept from the Egyptians, possibly via the
Greeks, they labeled the days with the names of their planetary gods, giving: Dies Solis, Dies
Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Jovis, Dies Veneris, and Dies Saturni. When the English
in-turn borrowed the 7-day week from the Romans, they renamed them after their own Germanic
gods and names for the sun, moon and Saturn. Thus, the Old English day names were:
Sunnandaeg, Monandaeg, Tiwesdaeg, Wodnesdaeg, Dunresdaeg, Frigedaeg, and Saeternesdaeg
The cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia are old enough and had sufficient contact
with each other to confuse the origin of many practices that appear to have originated in the
region, including the 24-hour day. There’s still debate as to whether the 12 hours of day and 12
hours of night were a random division, or were based on astrological divisions of the sky. So,
twelve hourly divisions of day and night might have been born of a story like the Egyptian sun
god Ra traveling through the twelve domains of the sky, and the underworld, or it may simply
have been an example of grouping using a convenient number. Twelve has, after all, been

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perhaps the most popular number for grouping other than ten. For example, there are 12 inches in
a foot, 12 units in a dozen, 12 ounces to the troy pound, 12 twelves to the gross, and 12 signs of
the zodiac in addition to 12 hours of night and day.
As previously stated, the 360o circle, 60 minute hour, and 60 second minute were the
result of Babylonian tendency to divide things into groups of 60. The base 60, or sexagesimal
number system may have been a purposeful invention, but, number systems of varying bases
resulted primarily from simple grouping. Before people could count with numbers, numbers had
to be invented. And just because people could transfer a symbolic stone or make a symbolic mark
to represent real goods, doesn’t mean that they invented specific words to represent individual
numbers that would have significant meaning to people hearing them. For example, a person
might know that he had this many (lllll) fruit trees, and still have no idea what to call that many
or how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide by that many.
The concept of mathematics began as simple counting and grouping. People weren’t
contemplating effects of the group size, or base, on future mathematical operations, they were
simply using group sizes convenient for their purposes. Perhaps because of the number of fingers
and toes, 10 eventually became the world standard, though there are still some pockets of the
world using a duodecimal, or base 12, number system. The term duodecimal is based on the
Latin word duodecim for 12. And the Latin word for one-twelfth, uncia, is the root of the English
words ounce and inch.
Some people have argued that a duodecimal system has advantages over the standard
decimal system, also called base 10. They say that 12 is better suited to fractional division than
10, because it is readily divisible into thirds and fourths. Otherwise, number systems of other
bases work essentially the same. They would all be readily divisible by 10, and surprisingly, the
base would still be 10. 10’s, 100’s, 1000’s and so on, would still look and calculate the same,
they would just represent different values than what we’re familiar with.
Much more important than what number is chosen as the base, is the need to harmonize
number-based systems such as weights and measures. Commerce would be much more
complicated if there were, say, 114 cents to the dollar, instead of the nice round figure of 100. It’s
easy to figure 75% of one dollar, it’s 75¢. And $8.00 is 800¢. But 75% of 114 cents is 85.5¢, and
eight 114-cent dollars would be 912¢, and neither of those operations is relatively easy to
calculate. A system like that doesn’t make good cents, or sense. Neither does the foolery of using
4-rod chains, 5½-yard rods, 12-inch feet, 16-ounce pounds, 16-cup gallons, 36-inch yards, 128-
ounce gallons, 1,728-cubic-inch cubic-feet, 5,280-foot miles and 43,560-square-foot acres.
Using incompatible numeric systems is like walking backwards to get where one’s going.
Laziness and stupidity have too long delayed the inevitable American acceptance of the metric
system of measure, also now referred to as the International System of Units (SI). The United
States is one of only three countries in the world that hasn’t officially adopted the SI, along with
economically stunted Liberia and Myanmar.
Redundancy in domestic and international systems of measurement adds yet another
hurdle to American commercial competitiveness, which is only now beginning to reflect decades
of neglect and decline. If there is any doubt as to whether America’s economic troubles are
anything but self-imposed, one only need look at the laughingly obvious inherent inefficiency of
not using a decimal system of measure with a decimal number system.
The practical difference between using U.S. Customary Measures and using the SI is as
plain as subtracting 3/16 of an inch from 3 3/4 inches (least common denominator of 16 and 4 is 16,
3
/4 is equal to 12/16, subtracting 3/16 gives 9/16) yielding 3 9/16 inches; and dividing by 5 (divide 9 by
16 to get .5625, add to 3, then divide 3.5625 by 5 giving .7125, multiplying that by 32, if 32nds is
the desired level of accuracy, resulting in 22.8 which can be rounded up to 23) to yield five

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marginally accurate equal lengths of 23/32 of an inch. Now, compare that tedious process to the
relative simplicity of working with base 10 SI units by subtracting 5 millimeters from 95 mm to
yield 90 mm and dividing that by 5 to give 5 equal parts of 18mm each.

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 Language
Hannah's eyes popped open as a sudden muscle contraction jolted her from sleep. She
threw back the warm covers and rose out of her comfortable bed before moving to a small frosty
window to wonder who might be outside on such a frightful night. A shiver rippled over her skin
as she looked out on the moonlit winter landscape. Night never looked brighter. The whole earth
glowed under a soft blanket of pure white snow. How could anything survive in that? she
wondered, thankful to be inside her cozy little house, staying warm under the steady puff of the
chimney.
It was as though Hannah could sense at precisely the same moment, on the other side of
the mountain, a shadowy figure looked up past frigid wooden tree fingers stretching toward a
cold, shimmering abyss as she stumbled barefoot through powdery drifts; shaking uncontrollably,
with lips trembling like the flittering of her nightgown in the wind, her focus and bearing
confused by bitter cold and exhaustion. Ice crystals threatened to form in her fingers, ears and
toes; rupturing blood vessels, splitting cell walls and driving deeper into her tissue like frozen
shards of glass. Fear of the long steel blade carried by her pursuer, as cold as ice, that yet burned
like fire against soft flesh, drove her forward to uncertain destiny.
The stranger's story may never be told if not for words that convey emotion and meaning.
Words tell the most dramatic stories. They’re cold as wind-whipped snow swirling around icy
mountain peaks, and hot as splashing lava; desperate as the Donner party starving in the dead of
winter, while soothing as a mother’s touch; enraging as murder and torture of innocents, evil as
Satan, and still righteous as the Prince of Peace. They have the power to unite lovers, to move
entire nations, and literally shape history. There's even a little magic in words; coarse and cross;
beautiful and elegant; sophisticated, smooth and stylish. Whether conveying meaning simple or
complex, words are little pieces of imagination.
Language is the single tool that set man apart. But the practical benefit of words in
spoken and written language can be considerably improved upon. That which separated men
from other animals, that greatest of all tools; with which people share feelings, ideas and
valuable knowledge; still yet harbors a tremendous capacity for improvement. It offers
tremencous potential for easier and more effective communication and cooperation among
people of the world. Language, of which there are hundreds of variants in common use, is taught
and studied prodigiously around the world. And yet, as vital as language is to the betterment of
civilization, relatively little effort has been put forth to organize, unify, and improve it. Clearly,
people of the world would be better served by a single efficient language than hundreds of mish-
mosh archaic conglomerations that require tremendous redundant and wasted efforts.
Even the most common tongues, such as English, are wrought with idiosyntric
inefficiencies. Many readers have wondered at the inconsistent complexity of English writing.
How did it come to be that words spelled as similar as aid and aisle are pronounced as dissimilar
as ād and īl; and what’s called a naranje in India is called an orange in England? Obviously,
speech is inconsistent, and spelling hasn’t kept step with the fluidity of speech.
Ben Franklin, who suggested a revised phonetic alphabet more than two hundred years
ago, was far from the first to recommend much needed reform. But without sufficient leadership
the call has remained unanswered, and language remains much more difficult and awkward than
necessary. A simple lack of initiative has allowed discrepencies introduced over millenia of
communication to continue to plague modern language.
As tribes of people spread around the world, they became separated, and their languages
developed independently. While groups sharing a common language could effectively
communicate with each other, people of unfamiliar languages could not. But as society has

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grown more mobile, and electronic media has enabled global communication, linquistic
limitations have become starkly apparent, hindering commerce and culture alike.
Other limitations of common languages are largely the result of haphazard development.
Instead of resulting from careful design, spoken languages have evolved informally over long
periods of time; randomly changing and incorporating new or foreign components; to become a
confusing hodgepodge of unrelated words and dialects. And their accompanying writing systems
have been dragged behind the language train like only so much lost baggage.
Paintings, drawings, and carvings in caves and other locations preserved some of ancient
man’s ideas as speech couldn’t tens of thousands of years before writing systems were invented.
And the longevity of writing itself has had a dramatic impact on civilization. Not only have
contemporaries and future generations learned and benefited from written information, inscribed
artifacts have even been very useful tools for understanding human migration patterns.
Some of the earliest writing systems were counting marks useful for trade and commerce
that were in use as long as 9,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Slowly, common symbol sets
were developed to represent various objects; and writing developed in Sumer, Egypt and nearby
cultures. In time, some of those symbols came to represent not only objects and concepts, but
also sounds. The symbol for hand, for instance, could represent a hand, or grabbing, catching,
lifting or holding; but it could also represent the first sound of the spoken word for hand.
In that manner sound letters, known as phonetic letters, worked their way into Egyptian
hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Those Egyptian phonetic letters later influenced writing of
Semitic language. One famous ancient Semitic letter system is called Phoenician in reference to
the trading society along the Eastern Coast of the Mediterranean with which it was associated.
Through its daughter writing forms, Aramaic in the east and Greek in the west, the Phoenician
letter system has been adopted by other cultures as the basis of most phonetic writing systems
used in the world today.
After modification, the Phoenician system of 22 letters adopted by the Greeks circa 1,000
BC came to be called an alphabet based on the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta. While the
Greek letters themselves were little changed from those of the Phoenicians, the actual spoken
languages of the Greeks and Phoenicians were very different, so, many of the borrowed letters
had very different sounds. The Indo-European language spoken by the Greeks made much more
use of vowel sounds than did the consonant dominant Semitic languages. While the Greeks had
little use for the sound called a glottal stop, that separates the syllables uh and oh in the English
term uh-oh, represented by the Phoenician letter alef, they did need to represent the “a” sound in
English father. So the Greeks used the letter alpha to represent an “a” sound that’s familiar to
much of the world’s population today.
In addition to changing the sound of some letters, the Greeks added a few new letters of
their own. But, of course, even among Greek speakers, alphabet usage varied, and differences
developed between what would come to be known as Eastern and Western Greek even before
other cultures adapted the Greek alphabet for their own uses. With every adaptation, whether it
be from Western Greek to Latin, Latin to French, French to English; or from Eastern Greek to
Galgolitic to Cyrillic to Russian; or otherwise, the common alphabet passed down by the
Phoenicians has been considerably altered.
Beyond that, the nature of language has been so dynamic that even individual alphabets,
such as Greek and English have undergone very significant changes in response to dramatically
altered speech through the centuries. Languages, in their great variety, haven’t been shaped to fit
the alphabet after all; it’s the letters of the alphabet that have been transformed to serve the
changing practices of their users.
The English language alone is a smorgasbord of eclectic word types and spellings. Old

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English was a mix of a dash of Celtic and a lot of lowland German written with the runic Anglo-
Saxon Futhorc letter system from about the 5th century until some time after the 7th century when
the Latin alphabet was poplularized in England. Certainly runic Old English and to a lesser
degree Old English written with the Latin alphabet looks like foreign languages to English
speakers today. Subsequent popularization of Christianity in England helped further absorption
of Latin and Greek terms. And, Viking invasion and settlement of the 8th and 9th centuries
brought in a wave of another German language, Norse.
Still another invasion, the Norman conquest, added a heavy dose of French to the
mixture and marked the end of Old English. For some time after William conquered England in
1066, English speaking commoners were ruled by French speaking nobility, with French being
the official language of the courts and government. French influence can still be seen in English
government, and interestingly, many French phrases still hold an air of formality to some English
speakers, such as “cordial reception” as opposed to the equivalent phrase “sincere welcome.”
One direct casualty of all the variety of English was reading and writing, as foreign words
made a mess of spelling practices. But, another important change occurred after French rule had
ceased, in what’s been called the Great Vowel Shift. Though there’s little way of knowing true
pronunciation since there was no practical method to record sound prior to the invention of such
instruments as the phonograph and gramophone in the latter part of the nineteenth century,
linguists report that for reasons unsure, common vowel pronunciation changed dramatically in
England from approximately the 15th to 18th centuries. Vowels took on new sounds, including
those of other vowels. One of those shifts involved the letter “i,” which traditionally sounded like
the “e” in bee. To this day it continues to represent the traditional sound in words like Tina, but
by the end of the Great Vowel Shift it also represented the “i” sound in high.
That and other profound phonetic changes associated with the Great Vowel Shift were, of
course, only part of the changes to English pronunciation through the centuries. Even some
English consonants underwent dramatic changes, such as “p” transforming from “f” in phone, to
the pop in pine. But that’s typical of language. For instance, the Latin alphabet contained three
letters with the “k” sound: c, k, and q, before it was even adopted by the English. And that kind
of chaos is still readily apparent today; with call, king and quick all having the same “k” sound.
Letter confusion isn’t surprising when one considers that the Phoenician letter waw,
which sounded like “w” but looked about like a capital Y, is the ancestor of the Latin letters F, V,
Y, U, and W. Y alone, has taken on many pronunciations over the centuries. Just notice the “ī”
sound of why, the “ē” in philly, the “y” in yes, and the “i” in symbol. But, in times past, English
speakers have also pronounced Y as the modern “u” like fluid and “w” like what.
Y even got pressed into service with the advent of printing in Europe to represent the
letter thorn, þ, which had lost favor by that time and was largely replaced by the letters “th,”
holding on principally to lend old character to writing. For instance “the” often continued to be
written þe in Middle English. But because imported printing fonts lacked the thorn character,
some printers began substituting y, which looked similar to þ in a popular writing style of the
time. It was only through use as a look-alike that Y came to represent “th” in phrases such as “Ye
olde shoppe,” pronounced “The old shop.” This, of course, led to considerable confusion
between ye, meaning the, and ye, meaning you, which was pronounced similar to the way we
know it today in the phrase “Here ye! Here ye!”
Common place names, too, suffered from the changes in spelling and pronunciation, such
as the name of the River Thames in England. To the average American reader it appears Thames
would be pronounced like James, with the hard “th” sound in thick substituded for J. But the
word is actually pronounced timz, or temz, and has never sounded as it’s currently spelled.
The river was actually named by the Celts before arrival of the Angles (after whom

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England is named), Saxons, Jutes and Frisians from the Continent. The Celtic name is reported
as Tamesas, which was later spelled Temese in Middle English. The letter H wasn’t added until
the Renaissance, when, it’s speculated, the spelling was changed to more closely approximate
Greek words, such as the name of the Greek river Thyamis.
It’s unfortunate and rather inconvenient that English spelling, like most languages, makes
such poor use of a phonetic alphabet. The
sharp “a” pronounced in cake is spelled
about ten different ways in English writing
including: fade, tail, gaol (obscure spelling
of jail), gauge, day, forte, great, vein,
reign, and they. The “e” in bee can be
spelled in even more ways, including such
oddballs as Caesar, mini, quay, and hilly.
And there are yet more ways to represent
the “o” in no, such as: haute, bureau,
yeoman, sew, smoke, loan, foe, oh,
furlough, tow and owe. The “o” in own
and only are pronounced alike by many
speakers and subtly differently by others,
but neither are pronounced like one; and
one and won sound alike even though
there’s no “w” in one.
Some foreign words have been
borrowed by English speakers with their
spelling intact, while others were re-
spelled in the English writing style popular
at the time, just as newly invented English
Letters can be as simple as dashes and
words were. As accents, spelling
dots placed on pre-printed “trunks.”
characteristics and dialects changed over
time, spelling wasn’t consistently
modernized, leaving words spelled in ways
of old used right alongside words of
modernized spelling. Even some individual
words have retained old spelling alongside
newer spelling to have multiple accepted
forms; in such cases as grey and gray.
Ideally, every letter would represent only one sound. And one day a system may be
devised to denote all possible position and volume combinations of every variable constriction
point of the human vocal tract, from vocal chords of the larynx to the pharynx, jaw, tongue and
lips; and speech could be accurately represented all around the world similar to reading and
writing sheet music. But for now, speech continues to be represented with much simpler systems
such as the Latin alphabet.
However, owing to the immense range of the human voice it’s impossible to formulate an
alphabet of distinct letters representing every voiced human sound. Consider that people have the
ability to emulate the whistles, caws and screeches of birds; the barks, howls and growls of big
dogs, little dogs, wild dogs and lap dogs; the moo of a cow; the gobble of a turkey; the chirp of a
squirrel; and so many more sounds of fellow animals. And that’s just a part of the amazing
human vocal range; expanded, as it’s been, over eons of verbal communication.

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 The variation of modern vocabularies in the pronunciation of words in common usage
around the world is also too great to realistically represent with a convenient sound-specific
alphabet. While the concept of long vowels is a meaningless distinction among common vowel
sounds in English, some languages make significant use of differences in the duration of letter
sounds. About the closest thing to long and short letter distinctions in American English would
occur if a speaker pronounced a drawn out “s” in hiss as opposed to the short “s” in sock. And
long letters are just the beginning of common speaking practices unfamiliar to English speakers.
What may sound like choking, coughing, or heaving to some people, is vocabulary to others.
But even common English language sounds are too variable to accurately represent with
efficiency. Even slight changes in tongue, lip or larynx position, for instance, alter sound
production. This can be readily seen in differences between regional accents. One could easily
assign ten letters to represent sound variation in the short range from “o” to “aw” based on
holding the mouth wide open or more closed; holding the tongue high, low, forward or back; and
holding the lips open wide or tightly puckered. But while more precisely defining sound, the
enormous size of such an alphabet capable of representing the totality of spoken sounds would
make it tediously cumbersome.
So, realistically, any alphabet or writing system is a balance between useability and
accuracy; with the optimal balance being that which most efficiently conveys accurate meaning.
True written representation of speech would require a system more difficult to read and write
than all the dots, dips, dashes, letters, marks, strokes and slashes of dictionary entries. Therefore
writing will continue to consist of letters symbolizing fairly broad sound ranges for a long time to
come.
But the letters of the distant future will have very different shapes to facilitate faster
writing and better space conservation. The Letter Tree illustration demonstrates a basic position-
specific letter system. Each letter takes the form of a leaf (dot), or one or two branches on the
gray tree trunks, as indicated by color coding on the chart. Notice that hard and soft consonants
made in the same tongue location are paired together, with hard consonants represented by dots
and their softer sounding partners represented by dashes in the first illustration.
Though the Letter Tree style spelling of “letter tree” in the bottom line of the chart
illustrates how simple such a system is, future writing systems will be less space intensive.
Today, designers are hard at work developing computer scanning languages that are much more
compact than common bar codes and may give an indication of the future of human writing.
Less dramatic change would involve simple revision of the English language. The art of
spelling should be no more difficult than learning the sounds of letters and sounding out words.
Many letters, by necessity, represent more than one sound, but any sound should only be
represented by one letter. If all sounds of speech were represented by individual, distinct letters,
spelling of even very long words would be a simple matter of routine for even the poorest
spellers.
Something needs to be done to take the memorization and guess work out of reading and
writing. For instance, there is no v in of, but there is in oven; go figure. If only words were
written just as they sound, without overlapping letter sounds and redundant letters, or, even
worse, the dreaded silent letters; spelling skills that otherwise take many years of practice and
scholastic study, could be readily acquired in the first years of childrens’ education, leaving more
time to learn other things or simply enjoy life.
Not just children are hindered by spelling difficulty. Even experienced readers (and
writers) have trouble with English spelling. It’s astonishing that silent letters, like the ‘p’ in
pterodactyl and psalm, haven’t yet been weeded out. And why are there so many spellings for
words pronounced alike, such as: buy, by and bye (and of course the prefix bi); way, weigh and

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whey; leach and leech; weather and whether: and rite, right, write and wright?
While spelling differences give meaning to the reader, human language is primarily
verbal and meaning is given by the context in which words are used, whether written or spoken.
Every alternative spelling of rīt contains at least one silent letter: three in the case of wright.

Right can indicate correctness, the opposite direction of left, a personal entitlement, or more than
two dozen other meanings as shown in common dictionaries. So, it’s apparent that spelling alone

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doesn’t indicate meaning, context does that. But the confusion of four spellings for rīt is
compounded by having to search four different dictionary entries to verify spelling or definition.
Many experienced readers don’t recognize the spelling mistakes in the following words:
accidentaly, ajudication, arguement, amature, aparent, barbituate, bellweather, calender,
cemetary, collectable, column, concensus, diligence, dumbell, embarass, greatful, harass,
humourus, independant, inocculate, judgement, milennium, mischeivous, mispell, nazalization,
neccessary, noticable, ocassionally, pasttime, personell, posession, possum, recommend, twelth,
untill, vaccumn.
The only words not misspelled are column, diligence, harass and recommend. In America
the rest of the words should read accidentally, adjudication, argument, amateur, apparent,
barbiturate, bellwether, calendar, cemetery, collectible, consensus, dumbbell, embarrass, grateful,
humorous, independent, inoculate, judgment, millennium, mischievous, misspell, nasalization,
necessary, noticeable, occasionally, pastime, personnel, possession, opossum, twelfth, until and
vacuum.
Certainly, there’s no just cause for eight to rhyme with ate, and height to rhyme with site.
Nor is there good reason for route to rhyme with root and bout. But there’s also little practical
need to define transitions as slight as those from aid to air, arrow and aero. Nor is there much
need for separate letters to differentiate in writing the sharp k and long k in lock and loch.
Letters, like words, must sound distinct to have clear meaning. As sound ranges are divided into
smaller and smaller units of precision, they lose their distinctiveness; and that leads to confusion
in communication.
Due to spelling confusion there are even a couple of existing English letters that aren’t
worth keeping in their present form. The first of those letters is the letter C which does double
duty as a K or an S, but has no distinct sound of it’s own exepting that of CH. X also shares
sounds with other letters. It splits duty between “z” and “ks,” only very rarely taking the “eks”
form of its name. C and X are doing more harm than good. Either letter would be well suited to
represent the “ch” of church, and both serve that purpose in some languages. Substituting C for
CH, omitting X, adding vowels, and defining vowel ranges results in a revised English alphabet
of 34 letters as shown in the table on the following page.
Barring catastrophic disruption of civilization, the world will one day unite in common
language. Today the world is waiting for an efficient common language. Thanks to prior British
colonialism, English is the most prominent international language. Though Mandarin Chinese
has vastly more native speakers than English, when second languages are also considered,
English barely edges Mandarin as the most widely spoken language in the world. And as the
most influential modern language, with intelligent reform, English could very well gain universal
status.
English, even revised English, however, may not be the most likely universal language, or
writing system. In 1886, some language teachers organized what would later become the
International Phonetic Association in Paris. And the International Phonetic Association has
developed an alphabet that represents the common sounds in languages from all around the
world. Their International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents good progress toward a universal
alphabet that could form the basis of a universal language. In total, it consists of more than 100
characters representing all the common sounds of world speech, and approximately 50 of those
letters represent sounds common to American English.
With some global cooperation and symbol modification, the IPA could very well form the
basis of a global alphabet. But, like most systems, the IPA makes use of some letters that are
awkward to write; such as spelling bad “bæd” and jump “dʒʌmp.” And the IPA letter for the “zh”
sound in measure, ʒ, looks a little too much like the Hindu-Arabic numeral 3.

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 Letter selection will be a principal sticking point as the world works together to select a
universal alphabet. Letters have undergone too much change in form and sound since the early
Phoenician and Greek alphabets to be easily harmonized among the languages of the world. In
Russian, B is pronounced like “v” in venom, P is pronounced similar to english “r,” and r is
equivalent to the English “g.” In making language more efficient, people of all nations will have
to adjust to some unfamiliar letters, but the rewards of open and more effective communication
far exceed the costs.
It might be tempting to just adopt a comprehensive alphabet like the IPA. But, is it really
beneficial to have an alphabet consisting of more than 100 letters? The answer is no, for a
number of reasons. First, the sheer size of such a large alphabet would be problematic. Mastering
the reading and writing of so many letters may be more difficult than remembering the varied
spelling of current language. But fortunately, many of the IPA symbols aren’t necessary to
effective writing.
Many of the letters are even incompatible with each other as part of a common alphabet
because they represent sound differences so small as to be indistinguishable in common speech.
For example, people aren’t well served in common reading and writing by twelve different letters
representing “i” sounds alone. Many variations are so subtle as to be akin to regional dialects.
Words needn’t be spelled differently for a Frenchman to add a nasal accent, or a Bostonian to
pronounce a word differently than a Texan. Also, many symbols represent inefficient and
unneccessary speech that requires additional effort, and interrupts good flow, such as inhaling,
grunting and swallowing during speech. And a number of IPA symbols are redundant because
they represent combination sounds that can easily be represented by other symbol combinations.
Whether the universal alphabet is more reflective of English, Latin, Greek or another
language, it’s only part of the coming universal language. But when people are capable of
reading and writing each other’s words, it’s a relatively small step to understanding a common
language. It’s also important to remember that the adoption of a universal language is an
opportunity to purge difficult and confusing words, and reduce multiple meanings for individual
words, while incorporating useful words from other languages.
Universal language should be encouraged and supported. America fell behind the rest of
the world by not adopting the International System of Units, but could make up that ground and
more by taking the lead in the development of a universal language. But until that time arrives, a
simple alphabet revision will dramatically improve common English usage; and reformed
English could well become the universal standard.
At least English doesn’t inexplicably assign gender for inanimate objects like Spanish,
but there’s still a certain difficulty posed by the lack of a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to a
person of unknown gender. For centuries English has been hamstrung by a reliance on the
masculine “him” to denote such a person. Worse yet, lacking a gender-neutral singular term,
people have at times resorted to referring to the singular person in the plural as “they.” Selecting
a gender neutral pronoun is a very simple task however, and the Estonian term ta, for instance,
meaning he or she, would work well for English speakers. In addition ta could also represent him
or her, and tas could replace his and hers.
The distinction between upper and lower case letters, commonly referred to as
capitalization, or mixed case writing, is another unnecessary inconvenience. Early alphabets were
full-size, but for ease of writing and space conservation, a smaller and more rounded script was
developed in Roman times to compliment full size scripts, though the scripts were independent
of each other. It wasn’t until the middle ages that larger (majuscule) and smaller (minuscule)
characters were combined in the same texts with any regularity, and that was largely for artistic
effect. Eventually it became common in Europe for all objects, or nouns, to be capitalized

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amongst minuscule print, as can still be seen in German writing.
But many written languages have no such case distinction; as well they shouldn’t because
there’s no practical benefit to mixing upper and lower case letters. Customarily in English,
capital letters serve to indicate the beginning of sentences, a redundant process in the company of
punctuation. Capitals also denote proper nouns in a complicated scheme that serves little purpose
other than providing business for publishers of style guides. The practice impairs efficiency by
adding unnecessary complexity, confusion, and wasted keystrokes. TIME, EFFORT AND KEYBOARD
SPACE WILL BE SAVED BY ELIMINATING MIXED CASE WRITING FOR ALL BUT DECORATIVE EFFECT.

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 Politics
Sometimes known as the Idiot’s Game or Great Popularity Contest; politics is dirty
business with one fatal inherent flaw; it’s plagued with self interest. And it’s rife with egoists and
imbeciles selling liberty to lobbyists that make good money peddling their corrupting influence.
Unfortunately, truth and goodness can't triumph in such a system, and fairness will never carry
the day by accident. In order to escape man's wicked tendencies the Universal Truths and Rules
of Life need to constitute the highest authority of the land. Uncommon sense dictates that
Universal laws should govern, not the desires of a few, or even the greed or delusion of many.
There’s a choice to be made. America can stand strong together with liberty and
cooperation for all. Or America can continue to slide down the path of least resistance; with
people bickering, fighting, and cheating each other on the way to the bottom. It's slowly
becoming apparent to even some of the simplest observers that America is reaping a bitter
harvest resulting from many decades of greed, self-interest and discord. For the sake of equality,
prosperity and justice it’s imperative that American law and government be guided by the
essential doctrine of Health and Happiness for All.
Circumstances seem overwhelming, but in this time of complexity, the American political
process could hardly be more simple: fame-hungry politicians promise the moon at the very same
time they promise to reduce taxes, and as soon as they get in office they sell the farm to stay on
the gravy train. They lie out both sides of their mouths and the public can’t get enough because
politicians say exactly what they think the voters want to hear, and because the voters are fixated
with trying to work the system for personal advantage, they really are too inept and disorganized
to demand accountability, or even the truth.
It seems that regardless of how many people participate in the ruling process, they're
always looking out for number one, projecting their individual interests. Of the many political
systems that have been tried through history, the most basic system has been the autocratic
decision making of the dominant male. Over time, as tribes became a little more civil, and people
learned to cooperate to overcome the dominance of a single person, alliances of dominant males
formed. In some tribes and villages a council of elder males called the shots.
It's not surprising that rule has traditionally been the domain of dominant males, whether
it be one or many. And even as governments changed through the ages, one general rule
remained constant. That constant was the authority of the powerful over the weak; the rich over
the poor. Along the way, women, juveniles and ethnic minorities were almost always left out of
the decision making process.
Perhaps the most famous democracy in history, that of ancient Athens, was a direct, but
limited democracy in which every male citizen had the right to speak and vote, and government
offices were filled by lot from the citizen body. To the modern reader, every male citizen seems a
lot like every male, but many people living in Athens were in fact not citizens; those without
voting rights included women, children, aliens and slaves. Little had changed two thousand years
later when America’s founding fathers also reserved the right to vote for adult male citizens. But,
for a period anyway, Athens did have something many governments lack, and that is
accountability. In fact, if a magistrate was suspected of inappropriate conduct, he was liable to
face charges in front of a people’s court.
Rome, like Athens also had, at times, a multi-member ruling body. When not ruled by an
emperor, Rome is usually regarded as a republic. The term republic is often mistakenly
associated with democracy; America, for instance, has a republican form of government, yet is
erroneously called a democracy. The population of the early Roman Republic was, however, not
represented by the ruling body. The early rulers of Republican Rome were elite members of the

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wealthy class, known as landholders because, not surprisingly, they owned the land. Still yet,
even when ruled as an elite republic, Rome was unusual for the time. Historically Roman
government was more representative of political regimes when ruled by emperors. Authority has
commonly been held by a single dominant male referred to as king, khan, kaiser, emperor, chief,
supreme leader, and so on. Egyptian pharaohs, Cyrus, Alexander, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan,
and Napoleon are some of the more popular examples of single rulers.
Clearly a republic, even though the majority of the population may have no political
voice, seems at first glance to be more fair than an autocracy. But is that necessarily a true
assumption? There are two main differences between autocratic and republican rule. First, there’s
little disagreement in an autocratic government since authority rests with one person. Ruling
members of a republic on the other hand, are often locked in disagreement and struggles for
reward, attributing to inconsistency and waste in government. It was that kind of disunity that has
been cited as a contributing reason for increasingly autocratic rule under men like Julius Caesar
in Rome and Napoleon in France.
The second principal difference is the modifying effect of multiple decision makers
debating important issues. The consensus view of a republic is often considered less prone to
extremes than those of a single ruler; though that isn’t always the case, as consensus rule
occasionally takes on a loathsome mob mentality. While the middle rule of a republic is superior
to that of a poor king, the same mediocrity has been cited as lacking the clarity and decisiveness
of a superior king.
However, since the generosity of kings as a group has been far surpassed by their own
selfish tyranny, republics have been argued to have historically afforded greater liberties to the
governed. However, it should be noted that in most cases, the authority of kings has not been
absolute and they had to placate the nobles in much the same fashion as a republic. In reality, the
number of decision makers is of much less importance than the principles which guide their
conduct.
Today, the majority of nations are called republics. But the term simply implies authority
is invested in more than one person, but less than all the people. Russia is a republic now, as it
was in the Soviet Union under Stalin, even though, through corruption and intimidation, Russia
under Stalin was essentially a dictatorship. The People’s Republic of China, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are all
republics in theory. But all three countries are controlled by a single party system; and how much
freedom of self-determination do those populations have? Even Iran, one of many lands
seemingly drowning in ignorance and burning with intolerance, is a republic in name, the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Those examples simply go to show that bad policy can dominate a country
whether it’s governed by one or many.
Republic or not, much of Iran's problems owe to a strict adherence to seriously flawed
religion. But that’s not to say that every nation with a Muslim majority is necessarily a
dysfunctional state. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country that maintains a secular
government that’s relatively tolerant of minorities. Since 1952 Turkey has been a member of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Turkey has lately been in the process of adopting
European standards in anticipation of joining the European Union. After the U.S. led intervention
in Iraq, it’s yet to be determined if Iraq will emerge a cesspool of Islamic ideology like its Shiite
dominated neighbor to the east or a moderately more progressive secular state like it’s neighbor
to the north.
Fortunately, America’s political system isn’t like the train wreck in Tehran, and isn’t
plagued by attacks from separatist Kurdish guerrillas, as Turkey is, but American government
and policy is nonetheless in much need of improvement. American government is dominated by

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two parties, yes, that’s twice as many parties as North Korea has, but still starkly lacking in
variety. The danger of factionalism in party politics was addressed by George Washington in
1796, in what came to be known as his farewell address to the American People. In it
Washington stated the party spirit agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false
alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; and enfeebles public administration. In
so describing partisanship, President Washington had the objective intelligence to understand the
effect of polarizing argument and the benefit of people working in cooperative unity to achieve
the greatest good.
Even before bickering in office, members of the Democratic and Republican parties along
with candidates of smaller parties and some candidates with no party allegiance, accept
contributions from supporters to finance campaigns for office. That should be an immediate red
flag warning that the system is faulty. Candidates, and their sponsors, are spending billions of
dollars campaigning for modern elections. Why, oh why, would people spend billions of dollars
on an election if they didn’t have reason to think they were going to get something in return?
America has long been for sale to special interests, but at the very least special interest groups
should have to buy the favor of all Americans, not just politicians.
Though it costs billions to buy the presidency of the United States. Once national
politicians get in office, the illicit spending continues. Supporters sponsor vacations, gifts and
lavish parties to influence politicians, but most influence is bought with campaign contributions
and job placement for congressional friends and family members. That’s the currency politicians
demand from lobbyists.
Pompous politicians like the conservative former Republican House Majority Leader
Tom Delay of Texas seem to display a righteous contempt for equality and cooperation. Delay is
a poster child for party politics and the appearance of blatant abuse of power and corruption
infecting the American political system. Delay, who repeatedly referred to his commitment to
“Christian values” as the majority of American politicians do, was indicted for conspiracy and
money laundering, and has been officially admonished for using federal resources in a political
issue and giving the appearance donors were influencing federal legislation.
Through political contacts such as lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Delay was associated with a
million dollar political contribution from Russian oil officials preceding a vote on a bailout of the
Russian economy in 1998. He was also associated with $6.7 million in lobby contributions from
the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth that labeled products ‘Made in the USA’
but wanted to maintain exemption from immigration and labor laws.
Similar contributions from the Superior Court of Guam, internet and Indian gambling
interests, companies incorporated offshore for tax purposes, the governments of Malaysia and
Sudan, and the Channel One school TV news service have been similarly linked to Delay. He
was also reported to be a founder of the K Street Project whereby lawmakers leaned on
Washington lobbying firms to hire former Republican officials and staff members. Delay’s own
wife was reported to have received approximately $140,000 in compensation from the lobbying
firm Alexander Strategy Group.
While it seems outrageous that legislation and justice is being sold by politicians, it
continues almost unchecked for two principal reasons. The first reason is because people have
failed to implement a system to prevent the rental of congress, and the other reason is that
politicians are left largely to supervise themselves. With the enormous size of government and
constant internal strife, the public is overwhelmed and confused by the sheer bulk of fraud and
mismanagement.
So, can the American public expect politicians to turn down money? As unlikely as that
is, other than replacing incumbents with other politicians in a naive hope they aren’t lying just to

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get elected, there’s little the public can do; for there is no public initiative or referendum
mechanism provided for by the Constitution. The architects of the United States Constitution,
often described as founding fathers of the nation, are thought of as champions of democracy, but
the truth is, as a group they were afraid of democracy. They feared the dangers of self-
determination, and they feared, rightfully or not, the general public lacked a capacity for
intelligent reasoning.
It may seem absurd on the surface, but there was good reason for public leaders to be
suspect. Within the prior century Americans had publicly tortured, tried and executed their fellow
citizens, not for heinous crimes of murder, but for imaginary crimes of witchcraft. No, sadly,
people of that age, as any age, couldn’t be completely depended on for fair and true justice. But
did public representatives, ambassadors of the people, set about designing a system of
governance based on the Golden Rule? No, the representatives of the colonies considered
themselves better than the common people, although, they were by definition representative of
those very people. While the Constitution may be credited as progressive for it’s time and place,
some of its authors were practicing sexists and slavers; and most were still firmly held hostage by
an imaginary god. What they crafted was decidedly a less than just Constitution; and it would
take a long time before legislators finally moved to correct even blatant defects of discrimination
in the highest law of the land:
Amendment XIII, ratified on December 6, 1865, finally laid a foundation for racial equality by
providing: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.”

Amendment XV, ratified on February 3, 1870, at long last asserted: “The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” and

It wasn't until Amendment XIX, was ratified on August 18, 1920, that: “The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account
of sex.”

Whether it was a result of arrogance, short-sightedness, or plain old practicality, the

Constitution vested power over the American public in elite bodies of legislators. Like so many
of the unjust forms of government that came before, the Constitution placed the power of life and
liberty in the hands of a President and a few Senators and Representatives; of which there were
only 26 Senators and 65 Representatives in the First Session of Congress held in 1789 in New
York City. Fortunately there were no recognized political parties in the First Congress, but it
didn't take long for disagreement to foster division, and soon afterwards political alliances
organized into opposing factions.
Since that time congress has grown into the self-serving beast people know today, where
politicians fly around the world in search of photo-opportunities on the tax-payer dime, where
they try to tell every audience just what it wants to hear, and where they stand ready to sell the
public out to the highest bidder on a moment's notice. Shockingly, with no mechanism for public
federal referendum, the Constitution provides no real remedy for politicians run amok, or even a
method for the public to ever gain control.
Since politicians won’t stop selling legislative influence for personal gain, is it possible
that enough politicians could be elected to voluntarily dissolve their own jobs and disband
congress in the process of reforming government and the legislative system? Not very likely,
after all, congress won’t even allow a line item veto to stop the tremendous bleeding of earmarks

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buried in huge appropriations bills. It doesn’t seem possible that politicians would ever
purposefully give up their seats of privilege. So, another approach to reform must be undertaken.
Like a game of chess, politicians must be lured into handing over the key to the kingdom.
If politicians eager to implement democratic reform can’t be elected, then those in office should
be coerced into establishing a practical process for public referendum. With the power of law in
the hands of the public, reform could finally come down to public vote. But, be forewarned,
greater involvement of the general public is no guarantee of prosperity or goodness, and even if it
were so, politicians will not cede their selfish desire to the public good willingly, and
democratization would involve a political revolution not seen in America since the civil war, or
perhaps as far back as 1776.
The U.S. Constitution doesn’t even allow for the American people to directly elect their
president. Presidential elections are actually determined by some strange body known as the
electoral college. When the Constitution was being written, there were those delegates that
believed the president should be elected by the people. Other delegates, for a range of personal
and professional reasons, wanted only politicians to elect the president.
The result of their half-baked recipe, with a few modifications over time, is a system in
which an individual’s vote in one state is equal to three votes in other states; and a man can be
elected president even though he received less popular votes than his opponent, as happened
when George W. Bush was elected over Al Gore, though Gore received more popular votes.
Because all electoral votes of individual states are generally awarded to the high vote getter in the
state, a president could be elected even though losing the popular vote by a huge margin, much
larger even than the margin of Gore over Bush.
Another significant inherent flaw of the Federal legislative system is the artificial
separation of the nation into political subdivisions, each fighting for their share of the pie. It truly
is a contest between politicians to secure the most advantageous legislation for their constituents,
or more specifically, their supporters. How do people not understand the problem with that type
of competitive system? Are there not bound to be winners and losers in American politics
because resources aren’t distributed, and regions and people aren’t represented, equally? But
that’s just the obvious problem that voters don’t seem very concerned about.
People say to themselves they don’t care, because their representative is always on the
news telling them about the special funding he secured for this project or that, so they think
they’re winning the battle for funding. As long as he thinks it’s someone else getting screwed and
not him, Joe Public doesn’t seem to care. More importantly, as long as there are selfish
politicians abusing the system, voters want them on their side, lest the more crafty politicians
take away part of the funding for their district, or reduce the pandering they receive.
The special interest money and competition among states and districts hasn’t only
influenced the formation and approval of laws, but also led to the shameful proliferation of
earmarks, or pork-barrel spending. These scandalous appropriations are secretly inserted into
large bills by greedy politicians in committees. Citizens Against Government Waste quoted
Senator Robert Byrd of Virginia saying how much he enjoyed being called ‘The Pork King.’
How shameful it is that a man should brag about activity that he should be publicly flogged for.
Byrd’s attitude is typical of congressmen that insert line items for such projects as a $6
million snowmobile course, $20 million wooden bridge demonstration, $2 million Hawaiian
canoe, $1 million seafood consumer center and the now infamous designation of $223 million for
a bridge to an Alaskan island with fifty residents. The desire to win votes, pay back contributors
and reward kickback lobbyists cost taxpayers $29 billion in special interest projects in 2006
according to Citizens Against Government Waste.
That taxpayer watchdog group listed earmarks including $13.5 million for the

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International Fund for Ireland and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum. Other concerned
citizen groups have reported even higher earmark totals, although, public outcry and record debt
aggravated by war spending and Gulf Coast bailouts after hurricane Katrina, aided by a few of
the more responsible legislators, pressured the earmarks down to $13.2 billion in 2007.
But the real tragedy of competing political districts may be just that; competition. The
myth of beneficial competition has become wildly popular, despite the fact cooperation is
actually vital to providing for the greater good. Competition between the Axis and Allied powers
of World War Two hastened technological advancement; but at a cost of unprecedented
devastation. Likewise, competition between congressmen trying to steal funding from other
states and districts that could be applied to more beneficial purposes is hurtful to society.
Political division causes congressmen to put the interests of their constituency ahead of others to
the extent that the country is weakened and made poorer by their rampant pandering.
That frenzied atmosphere of legislators grabbing all they can take has combined with a
growing phenomena of selfish desire to buy re-election from everybody with their hand out, to
contribute to the current state of gross fiduciary mismanagement of criminal proportions. The
current national debt of the United States is approximately 11 trillion dollars, and growing by the
second. That means every U.S. citizen’s share is more than $30,000.00. While that may not at
first sound so bad, one shouldn't be confused: that’s not every rich man's share, every working
man's share, or even every family’s share; that’s every man, woman and child’s portion of the
debt the federal government owes to creditors.
It would take over $30,000 from every old woman in senior housing, every disabled
person, every person on welfare, every retiree, every homemaker and every child in the country
to pay the American government debt. And the politicians just keep spending with malevolent
disregard for the burden they’re imposing. What started as an inconvenient boil on the back of
the collective taxpayer has steadily grown into a consuming cancer to which people have become
so accustomed as to now turn a blind eye. In 2008 politicians went beyond back-room deal-
making and juvenile spending practices to giving money away in economic stimulus packages
designed to buy votes from the very public being sold down the river, to an undisciplined free-
for-all panic of throwing money in every direction in a fantastically vain hope of staving off the
inevitable crash fueled by skyrocketing trade and public debt.
Like gamblers desperate to recoup their losses politicians are digging America into an
ever deepening hole, of which the walls are about to collapse by borrowing more to risk more, all
the while maintaining a purposeful ignorance of the fact it takes work to create real wealth: not
money presses and pie-in-the-sky speeches. Massive trade deficits and staggering government
debt are combining to cripple the economy. There’ll come a time, if major corrective measures
aren’t taken, that the United States Government will be bankrupt and the dollar will be worthless.
Similar economic collapses have occurred in the past, accompanied by tremendous social
upheaval. But the collapse of the dollar may cause economic devastation never seen before. The
Great Depression; triggered by the crash of the overvalued stock market; with people standing in
soup lines and begging for food and a place to stay; would seem like good times compared to the
collapse of the dollar.
Modern economies and urban populations can’t survive without currency. What do
inhabitants of cities have to barter? And how will people pay for the gas and equipment to
transport food to markets? If something isn’t done to prevent the collapse of the dollar, people of
urban areas could starve by the millions. Riots will break out and regard for the law, and
consideration for others, will be overcome by people’s frenzy to get all they can get, without
regard for mutual benefit, and chaos will spread around the world in a domino effect. Amid the
suffering, confusion and frustration, countries will go to war to restore stability or take advantage

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of the turmoil in other nations.
To be fair and effective and avoid eventual revolt, government must be objective, and
decision makers need to see beyond their own perspectives as though they were outside
observers. The more a nation can be rid of selfish desire, injustice and unequal economic policy,
the more secure and prosperous it can be.
Up until now, every attempt to fix America’s defective legislature has failed, so it’s time
for Americans to take control of their future by establishing democracy and immunizing against
the infection of self-interest. Implementation of a much better system could be surprisingly easy.
But, to break from the corruption inherent in tradition requires a fresh start with prudent changes.
A well functioning restructured federal government should include the following:
1. Unseat the monarchy – Take the royal treatment and royal perks out of government.
In a government that’s supposed to be of the people and by the people, politicians are treated like
kings. Salaries and perks should be brought into line with those of average working citizens. A
reasonable compensation package will aid in deterring fortune seekers from campaigning for
office. Even if there was no salary there would be no shortage of qualified people willing to assist
the national pursuit of the common good. There’s a foolish myth that lucrative salaries are
necessary to prevent corruption. But the truth is, people can never have enough money, and the
more money people get, the more they expect, and the easier it becomes to waste.
2. Create a unicameral legislature – A dual body legislature is a throwback to the days
of Rome when commoners finally got representation alongside the wealthy. Getting 435
representatives, 100 senators and a president to cooperate for the good of society has proven
extremely problematic. As things now stand the House and Senate perform duplicate and
conflicting services. The president should be restricted to executive duty and the lawmaking left
to the public and a single Council of 99 members.
3. Implement an easy-to-use internet and mail-based voting system – Increased public
participation will require a more efficient voting system. Voters would be able to vote online or
through the mail with a unique voter ID and security answer, or in person at physical polling
locations. Secure, convenient voting is essential to true democratic governance.
4. Eliminate political advertising and contributions – A key factor in removing the
influence of money in politics is removing money from politics. By restricting political debate
and information dissemination to free specifically designed forums and free media programs, the
process will be largely freed of contributor influence. Perhaps lacking the need for fund raising,
more time will be found for substantive discussion. And the American public should demand
coverage of substance from the sensationalist news media that would rather influence public
perception by turning campaign coverage into soap operas starring sound bites and opinion polls
instead of reporting on voting histories and closely examining candidate proposals and position
statements.
5. Develop candidate and policy forums – Specified forums will contain relevant
information on issues and candidates in one place, where people can easily find the information
they’re interested in and become educated voters. Sites will have no party or lobby affiliation.
Public divisions into political parties drives wedges into growing divides; stressing conflict
instead of unity. Each issue and candidate must be evaluated independently on their own merit,
without the mask of political machinery. Candidates and policy speakers may still attend
interviews, debates and public speakings, but shall not spend money or accept items or services
of value beyond normal personal expenses.
6. Monitor forums, candidates and officials – Information should be reviewed for
intent and accuracy before publication. Today, candidates and propagandists openly lie to the
public with almost complete disregard. In the future anyone can appeal issues of fact, or

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deception, to the oversight committee. If content is shown to be misleading or inaccurate after
publication, the oversight committee will remove erroneous content and post a retraction. Once
in office, legislative and executive officers will be monitored for how they uphold their election
promises and for any indication of favoritism. If any officer demonstrates self interest or district
bias, he shall be reprimanded, removed if the behavior persists, and face criminal prosecution for
any harm done. Officials will be held to the high ideals of Health and Happiness for All, and high
standards in representing the nation as a whole.
7. Set policy by public vote – All policy should conform to the Universal Rules of Life
which should form the basis of the constitution. Beyond that, the people should decide matters of
high importance. And everyone ought to have a say in issues that affect them. Legislation that
doesn’t offer overall benefit to the nation is probably an issue for local government or the private
sector. Issues may be put to public vote by public or legislative initiative, and confusing issues
should be adequately explained or accompanied by a minimal, simple test to demonstrate basic
subject understanding. To guard against voter fatigue, specific policy legislation can be limited to
public vote every other year and three times in ten years. In that way, voters won’t be
overwhelmed by voting on the same issues over and over
8. Characteristics of Council – A Council of 99 wise and humble people, committed to
what’s good and fair, shall be established to effectively implement the general policies set forth
by the citizens in the true democratic process. Council members will fully participate and be held
accountable for satisfying public mandate; without unnecessary absenteeism, and with no
exception made for campaigning. The number of Councilors should be sufficient to incorporate
adequate knowledge and perspective, and small enough to work effectively as a unit.
Responsibility for setting Council agenda and breaking ties or deadlocks will rest with one
person designated Council Executive.
9. Characteristics of Executive Officers – The role of cabinet members, or department
heads, should be evaluated, along with the method of appointment and who they should report to.
In the present system, the position of president is like a king opposed by a group of noblemen
called congress. The Federal Government consists of a couple of legislative houses of congress,
some courts, and then there’s everything else. And the president’s in charge of that everything
else, including defense, transportation, security, commerce, foreign relations, health, human
services, revenue, justice and generally the rest of the behemoth that is the Federal Government.
Not only do presidents also appoint justices to the courts and hold veto power over the
legislature, they even makes laws in the form of executive orders.
Government was small when George Washington was the chief executive. In 1789 there
were only 50 employees of the Federal Government, today there are approximately twice that
number of departments and agencies that report to the president, and many more agencies under
them, with nearly three million employees not counting the military. Now the president
supervises such disparate agencies as the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and
the National Security Council.
It’s too much to expect one person to meet with foreign heads of state, coordinate disease
prevention, manage economic policy, supervise the administration of justice, negotiate
international agreements and perform all the other duties of presidential authority with any high
degree of effectiveness. Should all that authority be vested in one person elected in a popularity
contest? It should not. Executive heads should be under the authority and guidance of the
Council along with the position of president which should be redefined as Executive
Ambassador.
10. Selection of councilors – Councilors may be elected from anywhere in the nation, as
they work for the entire nation, not states or districts. No councilors may be affiliated with a

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political party, nor can they be lobbied. Correspondence regarding government policy must be
submitted for discussion in appropriate avenues designed for that purpose. Councilors would
serve at the will of the people and be subject to public recall; with any and all members subject to
a possible vote of no confidence at any time.
It must be remembered that the public good is best served by humble people. Seek out
capable policy crafters and administrators, and judge them on their policy and humility – not
their popularity. The work of council members is just that, work; and they should be afforded
neither glory or luxury. They aren’t to be recognized for doing their job any more than the
average worker is recognized. Staggered 6 or 8 year terms with no term limits would allow
councilors to hone their craft while maintaining a large proportion of experienced councilors.
11. Maintain satisfaction indexes – Every service, whether performed by private
companies or public entities should be freely evaluated by those who receive, fund or are affected
by the service. Performance evaluation is essential to knowing the success of any endeavor. And
every government program should be responsive to citizen concerns and identification of areas of
potential improvement. Satisfaction indexes will be the core determinant of task performance in
the future of business and government.
12. Guidelines for declaration of war should be identified – Before people are aroused
by the passion of the moment, a thorough debate on the conditions that would warrant the cost,
suffering and devastation of war should be undertaken. When rationally evaluated, the benefit of
war must outweigh the losses of war. Prevention of present and future harm should equal or
better the harm of war; with the merit of lives determined by their impacts on others.
And the decision to engage in offensive combat should be made by the people. Or, at the
very least the full Council must decide if war is justified, not one man that may not have a
comprehensive perception of reality. One strong deterrent is the financial reality of war. People
take a pretty dim view of things that hit their pocketbooks hard, and the longer they have to think
about it, the less attractive large expenditures become. But if an end to warring is sought, the
remedy is to require payment upfront. For, if a national debt of $10 trillion says anything, it says
that politicians haven’t the willpower to save enough money to pay for war.
13. Slash government programs – A grotesque bloated parasite; the federal government
continues to gorge on the American taxpayer. But, its true function should be to only serve
purposes not better served by other entities. Those purposes are principally security and
infrastructure. The current state of subsidies and handouts is nothing more than the unfair and
immoral result of political pandering.
Politicians have no business interfering with the free market by subsidizing farmers with
taxpayer money; just as they have no business providing flood insurance and giving away hard
earned tax money in the guise of “disaster assistance.” For example, if people choose to live in a
depression by the Gulf of Mexico and mouth of the Mississippi River, they should take
responsibility for that decision. It’s totally unfair for a family to enjoy a home with a million
dollar view on the coast of Florida or the Carolinas and expect a family in Kansas to help pay for
damage to that home when a hurricane hits.
If the risk of flood damage to buildings in flood-prone areas was acceptable, private
insurers would offer coverage for that risk. The government should definitely not spend
taxpayers’ money on unacceptable risks without their permission. But what’s even worse than
spending taxpayer money without taxpayer consent, is the terrible waste encouraged by risk
assumption. As long as government is willing to cover losses, people will continue to build in
high-risk areas, assuring more damage and waste.
People are always willing to abuse a handout, whether it be from the government or
private sector. You can bet people wouldn’t be burning their homes if they didn’t stand to get an

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insurance payout; just as you can be certain that brushfires in California wouldn’t be burning
down multi-million dollar homes with swimming pools full of water only a few feet away if
insurance weren’t covering the loss. Those aren’t forest fires burning down hundreds and
hundreds of expensive homes. It’s grass, shrubs and brush fueling those house fires that could be
prevented with an axe and garden hose.
As long as there’s opportunity for abuse in charity there will be abuse in charity;
especially government charity. And that’s why FEMA should be disbanded, because it’s a
colossal waste of money spent doing things for people that they should be doing themselves.
What do the majority of taxpayers receive for their money? Lots and lots of waste, and a heavy
dose of welfare recipients complaining that they’re not getting enough charity and that they’re
not getting what they deserve. Well, they deserve to take responsibility for their own care, and
they deserve to learn that charity is a gift – not a right.
Resources are so easily wasted when they’re free. Even total tax revenue of more than
30% of personal income isn’t enough money for government at the local, state, and federal
levels. In 2004 congress and President Bush spent $568 billion more than general revenue
receipts. Even as officials looted Social Security funds to pay other expenses the federal debt
increased by 33% from 2004 to 2007. And interest expense on that burgeoning debt totaled more
than $433 billion for fiscal year 2007.
Federal government waste and inappropriate spending is so egregious and pervasive,
there’s no way to realistically represent the irresponsible spending in a small amount of time.
But, agricultural subsidies are prime examples of ridiculous government pandering. Robert
Samuelson reported that politicians doled out $578 billion in farm subsidies to friends and
constituents since 1970. The entire concept of agriculture subsidies is absurd. As a whole,
farmers will go out of business when people stop eating. Since there will always be people
willing to pay for food, there will always be people willing to grow it and sell it to them. This is
just another case of legislators stealing from all the American taxpayers to buy elections back
home.
That stolen money is strictly political vote-pandering, buying votes and rewarding the
farm lobby for campaign finance. Besides buying votes and repaying political contributors with
that money the government has been able to interfere with free market supply, push up land
prices, encourage wasteful practices, bail out poor managers, reward wealthy landowners and
generally pay people for doing nothing. Through such means as Conservation Reserve Payments,
the government pays landowners, who are better off than many citizens just by ‘owning land,’
not to grow crops, thereby subsidizing their private hunting clubs and other uses to which the idle
land is often put. None of that money however, provides any significant tangible benefit to the
American public.
Even the big oil, gas and coal companies are subsidized. But with record-high oil prices
come record-high oil company profits, and every increase in oil prices, makes other energy
sources more valuable. So, naturally, when oil prices climb over $100 per barrel, energy
companies scramble to capitalize on profitable energy sources, including domestic oil reserves.
So, why does congress subsidize wealthy energy companies? Primarily to reward energy
lobbyists, and to a lesser degree to say that they’re doing something to reduce America’s
dependence on foreign oil, which, of course, they’re not.
By treating the American treasury as their personal pocketbooks politicians have
butchered any semblance of fiscal responsibility and devoured its remains. Every dollar taken by
government is a dollar that taxpayers might have better used to put food on tables, clothe
families, pay for healthcare, and make house payments.
14. Replace the welfare state – Welfare programs serve a useful function; in a very

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dysfunctional manner. There is some merit to helping those who can't care for themselves, but
the process of rewarding people for doing nothing, with the efforts of other people’s labor is
simply not right. That alone is considerable injustice, but the current system of providing welfare
in the United States does the most harm by encouraging abuse, and discouraging personal
responsibility; in a manner similar to insurance and government-in-general. As a society,
Americans are paying people to stay home, bring more children into an overcrowded world, and
invent more excuses why they’re unable or unwilling to work.
Unfit parents are using children as a source of income, as more and more people are
choosing not to support themselves and be burdens to society. The welfare system is a self-
perpetuating monstrosity that encourages sloth and bad behavior.
But where there’s waste and abuse, there’s opportunity. There’s opportunity to restore
self-sufficiency, not just to people in cycles of despair and poverty, but to the national economy
as a whole. Instead of providing food, and housing assistance that interferes with free-market
real estate prices, and generally paying people to do nothing and freeing time for some to menace
society; people can be paid to work. The vast sums of money being wasted on welfare,
unemployment, healthcare, disability benefits, and similar assistance can be used to provide
valuable goods and services.
America’s welfare system is the result of poor political reaction to unfair economic
circumstances. During the Great Depression people were hungry, families were homeless, and
politicians wanted to help. Those hungry and homeless people wanted to work, and through
public work programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps they did. Public work programs
are worthwhile, but, over time the work programs gave way to wait programs, in which people sit
and wait for their monthly check to arrive.
But the essential economic problem that led to government welfare programs was
unemployment that was a product of a defective economy. As long as there’s work to be done
and people willing to work, there’s no good reason for unemployment. Unemployment is simply
the result of greed. People work full-time jobs, and even over-time, while others sit idle. Even
during the hardest of economic times, there’s still work to be done; and instead of business
owners and investors continuing to make excessive profit, and some employees working 40
hours a week while others are let go, the work should be rationed more equally.
A principal reason the American economy is in the tank is because people want others to
work for them. Today, Americans pay foreigners to supply their products and illegal immigrants
to pick their food. Thirty years ago televisions, bicycles and shoes were made in America. Today
they’re imported from such places as the Philippines, Japan and China. Americans are paying the
Japanese for televisions, Chinese for shoes, and Germans for windmills to generate electricity,
while paying American citizens to do nothing at the very same time. That’s one of the many
reasons why Toyota is now the largest automaker in the world, why Sony dominates the
consumer electronics industry, and why the little island nation of Japan is kicking America
around in the marketplace.
By spending money that’s now being given away, on television production technology,
for example, there could still be a television industry in America, along with the high-tech jobs
and better trade balance that went away with it. It’s high time that America invest its money for
high returns instead of throwing it away in crime centers and blighted neighborhoods. Why not
apply the resources of the present welfare system toward matters such as energy independence?
With the swipe of a pen America could have an army of alternative energy workers building and
installing wind generators and solar energy systems, along with performing additional activities
that have the advantages of promoting energy and economic independence, and reducing
environmental damage.

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 Whether welfare money is redirected to high-tech electronics, simpler production such as
textiles, public service such as recycling programs, or medical care, it stands to serve a number of
important functions. By producing goods that would otherwise be imported, public works
programs can reduce the staggering trade deficit and help restore self-sufficiency, reducing
America’s vulnerability to foreign influence. And by giving disadvantaged people opportunity
and responsibility for their own lives, and getting them off the streets and into productive
environments, incidence of crime could be reduced and blighted welfare neighborhoods could be
transformed into proud working neighborhoods.
But there’s much more benefit to be gained from a can-do culture as opposed to the
current welfare society. Complacency is a disease that can be cured by a pervasive sense of
personal responsibility. With less money leaving via illegal immigrants and restored trade
balance, the United States will regain economic independence. And full employment would even
shift labor to lessen the divide between rich and poor.
15. Social security and disability should serve as a safety net of last resort –People
must take responsibility for their own health and welfare, and that of their children. Bringing
children into the world is a risky proposition, there’s no guarantee that children will be healthy
and well-functioning, especially those born to inactive or unhealthy parents. Prospective parents
need not only be prepared to provide a wholesome, comfortable life to healthy children, but also
must accept the responsibility to care for disabled children, in some cases for a lifetime.
The public has seen or heard stories of parents having multiple disabled children even
though they knew beforehand that the children would likely suffer from a debilitating health
defect. And too often those devastating decisions to gamble with the lives of children are
encouraged by the prospect of government assistance to care for the disabled children, thus
relieving parents of their financial responsibility.
The Social Security Disability program suffers wanton abuse like other government
handouts; with claimants sporting an injury people commonly live with from a work or auto
accident, or illness they’ve brought on themselves, they hire a disability attorney and head on
down to the adjudication center. Yes, the American taxpayer is supporting people that smoke like
it’s going out of style, nurse on soda’s all day while laying on the couch, and wash the smoke and
sugar down with beer and whiskey.
The cure for the ailment that is disability abuse is to simply stop paying those unable or
unwilling to work. Charity can start with that freely given by the community. If people have no
means of supporting themselves, and no friends or families to care for them, the working people
of America should only provide the disabled with a place to stay, food to eat, and necessary
medical attention. If the “disabled” weren’t paid to stay in the comfort of their own homes, there
would be a lot less “disabled” people in America and a lot more people willing to maintain their
health through good exercise and eating habits. Should charitable individuals and organizations
choose to, they would, of course, be welcome to provide the disabled and other non-productive
citizens with additional assistance.
Social Security payments to retired workers are a different matter. Those workers are
receiving deferred savings payments as promised to them. But it wasn’t designed as a
comfortable retirement fund and shouldn’t be construed as such, and it’s a shame that politicians
have over-promised it as anything more than a savings account that would be shared with those
that couldn’t afford to contribute their own savings. It was intended to help people without
significant assets and savings to survive in old age. Unfortunately, politicians have acted
criminally in squandering the Social Security trust fund, and have seriously jeopardized the
ability to meet huge future obligations.
Even despite gross mismanagement, recent talk of account privatization was just more

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irresponsible behavior by one of the most mentally challenged presidents to ever hold the office.
If people were to gamble their safety net in the stock market, why withhold their money in the
first place? And where would the money come from to pay current benefits and benefits to those
that didn’t pay as much into the system as they receive?
A sudden, massive influx of money in stock exchanges would enrich those wealthy
people with significant stock holdings. But the spike in stock prices would be followed by a
major corrective decline as people realized the degree of overvaluation accompanying truckloads
of new money. The reality of privatization would involve people running short of money and
legislators reinstating former benefits in another leg of the seemingly endless cycle of futile
government financial waste.
16. Tax waste and pollution – Financial waste garners public attention because money
appeals to selfish human desire more so than environmental impact. But deadly toxin and
overwhelming waste emissions are unfortunately one of humanities most lasting legacies. If
mankind were to disappear tomorrow, the trash and poisons man has already dumped on the
world would continue to impact other life for many generations to come. As if the devastation to
sea life caused by commercial fishing weren't bad enough, man's relentless environmental attack
has altered life even in the vast oceans. Plastic diapers, shopping bags, 6-pack rings and syringes
are just some of the floating reminders that for too many people, the whole world's a trash dump.
Household garbage is joined in the nether waters by sewer sludge, mass siltation, military
munitions, poison gas bombs, barrels of radioactive waste, and untold other chemical and
particulate waste.
The extent of America’s consumption and waste generation is hard to comprehend. A
person can consider the 1,600 pounds of trash the average family generates each year, or the 251
million tons of reported annual Municipal Solid Waste, or the amount of trash burned or buried
by individuals, or the 1.1 billion tons of coal consumed each year. Those are telling statistics, but
perhaps the best way to perceive the extent of the national waste problem is to look around. How
much of what we produce is destined for trash dumps? For 2002 the U.S. Department of
Transportation reported that almost 12 trillion tons of freight was transported nationwide. How
much of that 12 trillion tons was destined to be burned, flushed down the drain, sprayed on
fields, washed into groundwater, lakes and oceans, or buried in landfills each year?
Because people are more sensitive to their pocketbooks than the voices of moderation,
economic realities may be the best hope to change American habits in the near future. The
average reader will likely be surprised to learn that until recently the United States led the world
in oil production, and still only trails Saudi Arabia and Russia in that department. The bad news
is that America consumes more than 20 million barrels per day, about the same as the next five
largest oil consumers combined. By the time U.S. oil production peaked in 1970, the nation was
already a net importer of oil due to a wasteful mindset. And people were quickly burning through
the versatile fuel that took nature millions upon millions of years to create.
But, even since the 1973 Arab oil embargo that closed gas stations and caused people to
wait in long lines to fill up, Americans have failed to heed the call for efficiency and energy
independence. Now oil dependence is another critical force pushing the American economy
toward the edge of ruin. American auto companies have ignored the example of foreign
carmakers since Honda first introduced the Civic to the U.S. market, and even back as far as the
introduction of the Beetle by Volkswagen. Now domestic automakers are forced to play catch-up
to foreign reputation and technology that boasts hybrid cars capable of more than 50 miles per
gallon of gas, while the domestics have touted hybrid SUVs that are about half as efficient. If
they survive, the domestics will continue to close the innovation gap, but it's as though for
Americans, whether they be part of the import-buying public or corporate big-whigs, forward

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thinking has been harder than pulling teeth.
In typical knee-jerk reactions American politicians have been so inept as to react to
increasing oil prices in recent years by proposing payments to consumers; and even fuel tax
reductions, which logically stand to exacerbate the growing imbalance between demand and
supply. Had prohibitive taxes on dirty energy and waste been invested in waste reduction and
independent energy infrastructure in America decades ago, the American economy would still be
strong and the world would be a cleaner place. Certainly things will change, because of future oil
shortages if nothing else. Readers can expect to see a resurgence of clean nuclear power; and
perhaps it won't be long before burn-barrels in backyards and gas-hogs in driveways are replaced
by electric cars plugged into windmills.

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 Wealth
National fortunes come and go; rising and falling with innovation and sloth, with resource
development and depletion, and with the winds of war. Just in written history, the land of Britain,
for example, was invaded by Germans, Romans, Vikings and Frenchmen before the British
gained prominence as a power in their own right. Following colonial expansion, Britain rode a
wave of innovation known as the Industrial Revolution and maintained the world’s strongest
economy of the nineteenth century.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century Germany emerged as a strong chanllenger to
Britain's economic dominance, but after being battered in the First World War, Germany
struggled to provide for itself through the 1920’s and into the 30’s. Then, while the world was in
the grip of the Great Depression caused by a collapse of speculative investing, desperate
Germans lined up behind the fiery orator Adolf Hitler, pulled up their bootstraps, and went to
work. In only a handful of years, Germans worked together to again build one of the world’s
strongest industrial infrastructures.
At the same time, in the Pacific, Japan’s course of industrial armament mirrored that of
Germany. Though smaller than many other nations, Japan and Germany were world leaders in
heavy industry. But, while their workforces were highly organized and utilized, each country was
dependent on imported resources to maintain their fromidable output. While those two countries
leveraged their industrial might to gain military advantage over their neighbors, America was
slowly coming out of the Great Depression when World War II broke out. However, it took only
a few short years to see how productive a motivated American workforce could be; backed by
large reserves of oil, coal, iron ore, and other raw materials necessary to a sustained war effort.
Germany and Japan had been driven by the allure of conquest, and it was war that threw the
switch sending America’s workforce and factories into full capacity.
When the dust finally settled after World War II, much of the industrialized world lay in
ruins. Russia had been scorched and besieged, on the heels of its own civil war, Europe as a
whole was devastated, Japan was occuppied, Germany was divided, and America, which largely
escaped the devastation of war on home soil, emerged as the premier world economic power.
Relatively independent and efficient, the U.S. was the model of the modern economy. For
decades no nation on earth compared to the economic standards of America.
But, there were growing weaknesses; faults in the very foundation of the economy that
were undermining productive effort. In time, the cooperation that had been so natural and
necessary during the war, was pushed aside by that old nemesis of honest labor: greed. In their
competition for advantage people became more complacent, seeking wealth through investing,
market manipulation, collective bargaining and other non-productive means. And eventually the
work ethic was replaced by the shirk ethic. People looked out for numero uno, hoping someone
picked up their slack as they perfected the art of just getting by; losing focus on pride and quality
of work. One’s reminded of tales demonstrating a disregard for integrity, such as the story of
college football All-American Brian Bosworth, as he recalled installing a hidden rattle as a prank
in a new car on an automotive assembly line. What may have seemed funny irresponsibility at the
time isn't garnering many laughs now.
That failing is nothing new however; work integrity and enthusiasm tends to decline in
mature economies as part of a natural progression in industrial society. As long as there are
people with nothing, they’re willing to do almost anything for something. As long as there are
undeveloped, yet politically stable countries, there will be a cheap source of labor. As societies
experience economic growth and the wealth that comes with it, people are inspired to keep
reaching for excellence. Eventually, however, the economy reaches a zenith of process and

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participation. As the workforce becomes comfortable in their lifestyles and realizes diminishing
returns on labor investment, workers become complacent and direct more of their effort into non-
productive activity.
It’s just as well that economically mature societies realize what’s important in life, and
prioritize happiness. Their certainly is, after all, more to life than more and more material goods.
Comfortable people reflect more on life objectives and often make more determined effort to
enjoy the time they have. In merely striking a balance between life and work, economic output
declines from peak production. In the course of transitioning from determined growth to casual
effort, free economies will typically come on strong, flatten out, and then decline before settling
into a long-term trend based on societal values.
And therin lies much of America's economic problem: society's values. America is
plagued by laziness and greed showing up as opportunism and deception. From welfare to Wall
Street to Fifth Avenue, America has settled into a major long-term decline based on selfish
inefficiency. As America was sliding down the path of least resistance, Japan was rebuilding a
strong economy; focusing on doing quality work as the people strove for higher levels of
excellence. Like China today, Japanese products first found acceptance in the American and
world markets by way of price advantage. The Japanese were willing to work, not just for less
money, but they were willing to work. It's not that all Americans are unwilling to work. Many
Americans work as hard as anybody in the world. But even when Americans aren't working to
keep from working, they're in many ways hampered by educational, legal and professional
systems designed to prevent opportunities for rewarding work.
On the other hand, over the past few decades, nearing their productive zenith, the
Japanese earned a reputation not for cheap products but for quality and innovation. But, once the
pinnacle of productivity was reached, Japan too, took a breath and slid downhill a bit while
people shifted focus from work to reward. Japan hasn’t yet been hampered by greed and
institutionalized inefficiency to the degree America is; but where there's obstacles, there's
opportunity, and tomorrow still holds possibility that America will get back on track. But one
doesn't have to wait to see that countries like South Korea and China are racing headlong up the
hill of industry today.
Across the pond, Europe, the scene of increased cooperation within the European Union
and a re-unified Germany, is growing more high-tech and productive. And Russia; the world’s
number two exporter of oil at approximately 5 million barrels per day, with the resources of the
largest national land mass in the world; with only moderate stability and economic organization
is a good candidate for economic growth. All this comes at a time when the U.S. is hemorrhaging
resources in foreign occupations and wealth in foreign trade.
America’s role as principal producer has been usurped in recent years by the Chinese
economy, an interesting combination of capitalism and communism that resembles serfdom.
Because China’s economic strength is cheap labor, and business owners are becoming
increasingly rich, China has an unusually small middle class. In the waxing and waning of
cooperation and competition, many breeds of coopetition have formed within China. The most
populous nation's mix of seemingly incompatible private and public ownership systems gives
cause to reflect on the different schemes of production and distribution of goods and services.
Diverse economic systems color the global landscape, each with its own mechanisms of
distributing goods, services and other resources. None are perfect; some are working, and some
are broken. At the core of the running theoretical debate between capitalism, socialism and
communism is freedom and advantage. With each system differing in the degree to which it
controls both. Pure capitalism offers the greatest freedom and advantage; while modern socialism
attempts to limit advantage and disadvantage, at the expense of some freedom; and communism

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tends to further minimize individual advantage at the greatest hindrance to freedom.
But, of course, political communism has little in common with economic communism.
True communism is, after all, an ideal state of cooperation among members, much as bees
working for the good of the hive, or ants for the good of the colony. There’s simply no inherent
rule that communist countries are characteristically undemocratic and militaristic. Economic
communism is independent of political structure, and would actually be most prosperous in an
open, democratic society, if the people so desired to live.
But that's the key, the people must so desire to live. Communism came to be a dirty word
because, by and large, it wasn’t adopted in free will, but rather it was forced upon the people. In
its infancy, political communism was a reaction by the disadvantaged to the concentration of
wealth in industrialized Europe. It was a somewhat justified revolt against the have by the have-
nots. And in that struggle, the haves usually suppressed or reached a tenouos compromise with
the have-nots. Raised in conflict, economic communism was quickly pushed into the shadow of
political ambition. And having to smash resistance to common ownership in order to survive,
political communism turned suppressive and combative.
But even in a willing society, as it’s been adopted in many communities, including parts
of nineteenth century America, communism has failed to thrive. In a world where husbands and
wives disagree over finances, and parents and children don’t see eye-to-eye on how things should
be maintained and what work needs to be done, communism is fatally flawed.
In a world of love and generosity, communism could thrive. But communism is
dependent on a selfless culture, in a selfish world. Communism simply doesn’t work because
people lack the love for others that they have for themselves. Economically, it doesn't work
because people don't have the self-incentive that drives productivity. They don’t own significant
property and therefore have little incentive to maximize productivity or efficiency. In short, as
individuals, people in communist society have limited capacity to significantly improve their
own lives, and therefore lack incentive to expend extra effort that wouldn’t bring them
proportionate reward. Other practical matters, such as the natural mechanisms of supply and
demand being replaced by centralized production planning, has led to frustration and hardships
due to shortages of some goods and services, and wasteful abundance of others.
Socialism, on the other hand, is a more moderate approach to equalizing the distribution
of goods and services. While so-called patriots beat on the drum of capitalism like it’s the only
game in town, socialism is becoming more embedded in America by the day. From welfare and
social security to flood insurance and education, social programs continue to grow in the largest
national economy in the world. Those social programs are only a part of the rules and regulations
that purportedly promote what's good and fair, but, in fact, are strangling the American economy.
Fairness is of crucial importance to not only a good economic system, but any relational
system, including justice systems. In the confusion of this complex world of economic
relationships, fairness has largely been forgotten as the culture succumbed to competition and
advantage. But most simply, it’s unfair for some to disproportionately benefit from the labor of
others. In an ideal society each receives reward equivalent to the fruits of his own labors.
Certainly, every person should benefit in proportion and accordance to that which they produce.
That’s where greed and poor planning first fail workers economically. As a society, and as a
function of governance, America has failed to work toward the ideal of work and reward. In
every challenge and every endeavor, economic or otherwise, it should be asked what is the ideal
and how can it be achieved or best approximated.
As with other disciplines, there are challenges and barriers to realization of the ideal. Of
course, the first is selfish desire. Other barriers include supporting those unable or unwilling to
contribute in proportion to their reward, and determining what each person’s efforts are worth.

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Relatively speaking, America has a large supply of labor and resources, but much of society isn’t
actually engaged in the production of goods and services. Most of the young and elderly aren’t in
the workforce; and many working age adults are unemployed, receiving disability, or on welfare.
In all, roughly half of the United States population is employed, working about 35 hours a week
on average. Yet, those workers compete with investors and recipients of government wealth
transfer programs for the products of their labor.
So, what is the worth of one's labors? Forbes Magazine reported that Oprah Winfrey
made approximately $260 million during the fiscal year 2006-07. Does Oprah “earn” $260
million a year? The reader can contrast that to his or her own annual compensation. Or contrast
that to those people working full time for near minimum wage, making less than $15,000 a year.
Is Oprah grossly overcompensated for her labor? What about Tiger Woods, is his labor worth
$100 million a year? That isn’t to say that Tiger and Oprah are bad people, or that they're doing
something wrong; they’re intelligent people with some outstanding personal qualities. The issue
under consideration is not personal character, but rather equitable wealth distribution according
to one’s productive labor.
Consider also other corporate CEOs, those administrators that supervise subordinates
often performing more strenuous work. In 2007 Forbes reported that Ray Irani, chief executive
officer of Occidental Petroleum, received compensation worth more than $321 million in one
year. And at United Airlines another CEO was hired following the slowdown in air travel after
the 9/11 hijackings, to take the company into bankruptcy. He and other executives were paid
handsomely while employee compensation was reduced and the pension program was kicked to
the curb for the American taxpayers to pay at less than 100%.
That’s right, while the CEO’s pension of $4.5 million remained intact and executives
received new stock when the company emerged from bankruptcy protection, the American
taxpayer was saddled with paying retirement benefits for United’s workers. Even with exorbitant
salaries for top executives, however, the share of national income as wages and salaries is at a
record low, while the share of total income captured by corporate profits, and thus investors, is at
a record high.
As of 2008 Forbes estimated the fortune of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, at $58
billion; amassed in a little more than 30 years. The magnitude of such wealth is difficult to
understand, getting lost in a world of numbers, but that’s fifty-eight thousand million dollars. In
America, where many working people are still making house payments when they retire, Bill
Gates could buy 580,000 homes costing $100,000 each. Or he could buy two million cars and
trucks costing $29,000 each. In what distorted perception of reality is it fair that one person or
one couple should have more than a million times the net worth of the typical American
household?
Where is the outrage? People just accept the enormous advantages of the rich over the
poor, not stopping to consider the injustice. The problem is that any value a person receives
beyond the value of his actual effort has to come from the value of other peoples effort. Every
extra dollar for the rich is a dollar taken from the rest of society. If someone unexpectedly seized
half of a family’s assets, or took grandma’s home without just cause, there’d be hell to pay. Yet
that’s exactly what’s happening day by day, dollar by dollar. Every dollar of wealth derived from
anything but productive labor is taken from the real wealth of goods and services produced by
working people. The next time a working family falls on hard times and loses their home, it
should be remembered that they’d still have their house if non-workers weren’t taking a portion
of their wealth in what amounts to legalized theft.
What’s even more aggravating is the realization that some of this injustice is the result of
government interference. Here’s just one example of the injury caused by the copyright and

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patent system. In the mid 70’s Paul Allen and Bill Gates partnered to adopt the BASIC computer
language to perform on an emerging variety of mini-computers. The BASIC language, or
Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was developed at Dartmouth by John
Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz in 1964. In the early years of Allen and Gates’ partnership they
called Microsoft, the free enterprise system worked pretty well. They charged reasonable rates to
add value to previous work. That’s the natural process of benefitting from and contributing to
civilization’s growing pyramid of knowledge.
In the late 1970’s Microsoft charged Apple Computers $21,000 to develop Applesoft
Basic, amounting to a few cents for each of the million machines onto which Apple subsequently
installed the program. In that relationship the free market economy was functioning properly;
Apple received another application to run on the company’s computers, and the members of
Microsoft received fair compensation for their efforts.
In the process, the language developed by Kemeny and Kurtz was put to further use and
society benefitted from the combined efforts of those that had contributed up to that point. But
when Microsoft developed an operating system for IBM personal computers in the early 80’s, to
be known as MS-DOS, Microsoft sought copyright protection. Copyright protection made Gates
Allen and others rich, and it prohibited others from freely adding value to Microsoft’s work;
which was only made possible by the efforts of those that had previously contributed to the
ongoing development of computer language.
Lacking open, agreed upon standards for operating systems in the rapidly expanding
personal computer industry, software developers strived to gain acceptance of their product as the
industry standard. With IBM’s strong presence in the business world, it was their model that
became the industry standard; and other computers and software applications were marketed as
IBM compatible. So, as the standard operating system that computer hardware and applications
vendors would have to be compatible with, Microsoft had a virtual stranglehold on the personal
computer operating system market.
From that time on, with every passing year, the cost of changing such a large percentage
of the world’s personal and business computers and applications to another operating system has
steadily increased. All the while, Microsoft has been getting richer while being almost
unchallenged in the continued development of personal computer operating systems; benefitting
from not only strong operating system sales, but marketing and engineering advantages for their
other software products and bundled packages. But while more of the worker's productivity has
been concentrated as wealth in the hands of a few, society’s been deprived of the contributions of
others that may have improved the features and efficiency of computer software, all at a reduced
cost.
That sort of government interference is unnecessary, and the premise that patent and
copyright protection is necessary to innovation is an absurd lie. Actually, it has the opposite
effect and should be largely abandoned. Ideas are a dime-a-dozen, and anyone who claims
otherwise should ask the people of the world. Earth’s human population is approaching 7 billion
people (wow! Bill Gates has, or had, more than $8 for every man, woman and child on the
planet). That means there are nearly 7 billion individual perspectives, ideas and possible
improvements for how things are done. And the truth is, people have such a desire to be right,
appear intelligent, and outperform others that they won’t hardly shut up. Why should wealth from
working people be redirected to so grossly overcompensate people with great riches for their
thoughts and observations when they so eagerly share them for free? Should people have been
barred from using Einstein's formulas in the manner people are barred from using Microsoft's
script?
In contrast, while much of the populace is intent on amassing personal riches, there are

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those that give more charitably of their time and effort. In contrast to the dominance of
Microsoft’s highly profitable office software, Open Office offers office software for free, with
donations accepted, at www.openoffice.org And unlike the costly services of online auction and
shopping services like ebay, people can list their items and services for free at www.craigslist.org
Yet another good example of sharing for the common good can be seen in the online
encyclopedia Wikipedia at www.wikipedia.org where people donate their time and money so that
others may freely benefit from collective knowledge. And why shouldn’t knowledge be freely
shared? Anyone could tell you that building stones will one day be stacked like Legos® instead of
being mortar dependent. And lots of people know that children will one day carry rolled up
computers in their pockets instead of bookbags on their backs. Those computers will be flat,
flexible, voice activated and capable of downloading entire books and videos in seconds. But
consumer use of that technology shouldn’t be dependent on and beholden to the first people to
rush down to the patent or copyright office seeking to monopolize that technology.
Copyright protection now lasts the life of the author plus 70 years for work produced after
1977. Consider the common calculator, would people still be working calculations by hand if one
person had exclusive rights to the formulas necessary to electronic calculations? And what’s to
happen when a universal language is soon developed to serve the entire world? If one thinks a
computer operating system, or keyboard layout, or memory storage device, etc. is important; how
important is the spoken and written language of every person on the planet? Should the world be
held hostage by a copyright holder of a modified language?
Or, consider for a moment the use of fire. Where would civilization be if humans had to
wait for lightning to strike, or pay a license fee to use the procedures or methods of starting fire?
And what of the ever popular wheel? That’s an idea more beneficial than the quest of any tyrant
for fame and fortune. But it’s also an idea that may have occurred independently to a thousand
different people before ever seeing practical application. People could still be dragging sleds if
civilization was dependent on development by the heirs of the first person to perceive the notion
of a wheel. But a still tastier example would be recipes. Why not copyright recipes? Isn’t society
beholden to the first person to bake a pumpkin pie, or any pie for that matter? Oh, the world of
the intellectual property holder would be pretty bland if the inventor of pie had exclusive rights
to development and distribution of pies.
Besides generating artificial economic iniquity; and depriving people of technical
proliferation; the patent and copyright system promotes waste. It’s costly and time-consuming to
apply for, defend and enforce patents and copyrights. The only guaranteed winners in such
matters are the hoardes of patent and copyright lawyers preying on sick policy. Copyright and
patent protection should be sparingly awarded and limited to five years or less for the combined
prosperity and advancement of civilization. How much time and effort, for example, did Donald
Trump have to invest to say “you’re fired”? And why should he have exclusive use through
copyright protection for a phrase that’s older than he is?
In the old days of barter, excepting the distortions imposed by those in positions of
power, trade was pretty equal. A family may have traded a pumpkin for beans, and both parties to
the transaction received equitable value for their efforts. But with the advent of money, which
was critical to an efficient trading system, came much greater complexity and opportunity for
unequal commerce. Money opened up new possibilities for people to get something for nothing;
new opportunities to reap the rewards of other people’s labor.
Now, the field of finance is the dominant source of unearned income in the open market.
In fact, much of Bill Gates’ fortune isn’t derived from the huge profits of Microsoft, but from the
value of his stock shares. And in that pursuit he’s joined by millions of investors. The estimated
$62 billion fortune of Warren Buffet, Forbes richest person for 2008, came from investing.

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Despite not generally engaging in productive labor, Mr. Buffet’s been rewarded with entitlement
to $62 billion worth of other people’s production. Again, Mr. Buffet is a likeable gentleman, but
it's unfair that the goods people work to produce should be so inequitably distributed.
The value represented by every dollar of investment income and any other income that
isn’t fair compensation for one’s labor necessarily comes from the value of real goods and
services produced by others. And to ever think that there is any true value in the economy other
than real goods and services people can use, is to lose all sight of economic reality. Sadly,
America most cetainly has lost sight of that fact. But those goods and services are the only true,
or useful, value of an economy. And every person receiving more of that value than he has
contributed is getting somebody else’s share.
In reality, nobody can get rich by today’s standards by means of fair compensation for his
labor, because individuals simply can’t do that much work. People only get rich through the
unfair acquisition of others’ production. Yet, the unfair distribution of wealth continues and is
even encouraged. Politicians and people with interests in financial markets regularly encourage
others to invest. Why are people encouraged to invest, and why do politicians and current
investors worry when they don’t? One reason is because stock markets are pyramid schemes,
based less on the true value of companies’ assets and earnings, and more on the speculation that
more people will pour money into the system and the prices of stocks will go higher.
Well, some companies, like Enron, flounder, and those left holding the stock realize how
overvalued that stock was when their investment is lost. The only sure value a company has
when it goes out of business is the value of its assets in liquidation, and even that value is likely
to go to creditors or be absorbed in the liquidation process.
The huge difference between the value shown on companies financial statements and the
inflated value of their stock is the speculation gap. When investors worry that the market isn’t
being bouyied by new investors, there's inevitebly a mad rush to sell before others pull their
money out of the market. The danger to everyone, not just the investors trying to get something
for nothing, is that when the markets crash the money supply may be disrupted, mortgage payoffs
may be demanded in full, banks may go under, business may not be funded and a global great
depression will set in again. But is that reason to bail out the very investors that have been
siphoning wealth from the workers? Is that reason enough to throw good money after bad?
No, inevitable market corrections, whether they be stock, financial, housing or
commodity markets is not reason to panic and turn the economy upside-down. When the
speculative return on investment is gone, what are stockholders left with? Why, the very earnings
the share value should have been based on in the first place, of course. And what of obligations
to creditors and pensioners? Creditors of securitized assets are by definition part owners of the
companies indebted to them and in uncertain financial times they have an interest in keeping the
companies productive and viable. If creditors didn't want to assume some ownership interests,
they shouldn't have been so willing to profit through lending.
And pensioners? They're another class of creditors to whom companies are now
beholden, and as such they too have an interest in continued company profitability. But many
times those very pensioners have contributed to the poor financial health of the companies they
worked for. In many instances they've received what they fought for: unrealistic benefit packages
through collective bargaining agreements under threat of strike and lawsuit. Pensions were
simply never a good idea. They're nothing more than delayed compensation schemes. So there
are two important issues to consider in a delayed compensation scheme: why and how? Why pay
people part of the money they earn now and part later? One reason is to save for them, as though
people are incapable of saving for themselves. Why don't people pay off their mortgages sooner
and save the rest of the money that's supposed to last them the rest of their lives?

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 Again, politicians are partly to blame for the taxation rules that reward investing. But,
there's more reason for delayed compensation than helping people save their own money, and
that gets into the question of “how?” Perhaps the principle reason for corporate delayed
compensation is the fact that many companies didn't have all that money to give to their
employees at the time, so it was promised later. How were companies supposed to pay more
employee compensation in the future? That's simple, they were going to invest the money and
reap the artificial rewards of investment return. So, the problem reverts to the erroneous
assumption of perpetual investment return. Pensioners, along with other investors, came to feel
entitled to future rewards for other people's labor. They jumped on-board thinking there would
always be some poor class of workers to pull them down the road in style. But the car inevitibly
got too full and in the end everyone wants the free ride and there aren't enough people left in the
roles of productive workers to keep pulling that car up the hill.
Notice that the terms “productive labor” and “productive workers” have appeared
numerous times in the text of this book. The reason is simple, it's not enough to distinguish
between workers and freeloaders, but a distinction should be made between productive and non-
productive labor. All the non-productive labor in the world won't amount to a hill of beans, only
productive labor will provide beneficial goods and services. Unfortunately there are more and
more hard working people that aren't contributing to useful production. Take for instance, a man
laboring in the hot sun with nothing to drink, and working until he’s worn blisters on his feet and
hands and he’s nearly in tears from the terrible ache in his back. Well, despite the hardships and
sincerity of his labor, his effort is only as good as the service he performs. And it’s seen all the
time; people exhausted from their labors, yet they’ve accomplished nothing useful. Like digging
a hole only to fill it in again, some labor is just wasted.
That’s called non-productive work, and the economy is riddled with it. Some of these
duties are regulated by government, some result from meritless lawsuits, some are the result of
workers just finding something to do to look busy and justify employment, some are the result of
agencies spending all their budget so they’ll get more money in the next budget, some entire
occupations are useless or even counterproductive, and often people just haven’t carefully
considered how to achieve desired results more efficiently.
Lending and investing are examples of labor, that, while may be necessary in modern
business practices, don’t produce anything tangible for public consumption. The important thing
to remember about law enforcement, psychiatry, marketing and other occupations that don’t
directly contribute to production, is their cost to society, through resource loss, pollution and
wealth siphoning. Marketing is a clear example of non-productive work, excepting occasional
entertainment benefits. The productive benefits are obvious when one considers the result of
applying labor and resources currently invested in marketing to production of desirable goods
and services.
Advertising truly is devil’s work. Because, though costly, it’s generally lacking in social
benefit. More and more marketers are con artists; paid to mislead consumers into buying
products and services they don’t need, and even going so far as to try to trick people out of their
money. They exaggerate benefits and purposefully hide dangers or deficiencies. They even pay
celebrities to endorse products; making celebrities richer while not adding value to the products.
It’s the marketer’s job to convince people to buy a $100 pair of shoes of comparable quality to
$30 shoes.
Marketing is a monumental waste of money, however, too often people measure cost only
in monetary terms, when in fact there are many other costs associated with everyday actions and
decisions. Environmental, health and opportunity costs are some of the factors that should be
considered when making economic decisions.

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 Fortunately, smart consumers can protect themselves by resisting vain desire and
advertising gimmicks. Marketers are trained to take advantage of people’s vanity. The motive
behind annual model revisions is less product improvement than an appeal to vanity. Marketers
want to promote a stigma of obsolescence, or being so yesterday. They’re selling an image, but
every purchasing decision has a consequence. When consumers pay a premium for shoes
associated with famous athletes, for example, the shoe industry questions the business value of
efficient, high quality production. Why should businesses concentrate on value and quality when
the market rewards vanity over value.
With every premium purchase, consumers encourage premium pricing that may falsely
associate higher quality or better performance with higher price. But the presence or lack of
celebrity endorsement doesn’t indicate quality and value. People have to rely on their own
experience and the true experience of others in evaluating the performance, comfort and
durability of shoes or any other product they consider purchasing. That’s why, with all the styles
and fads in the marketplace, it’s so important to have ready access to satisfaction indexes that
include long-term product evaluations by consumers who’ve actually used the products.
Regarding premium pricing, obviously, if a new car is discounted $5,000 when a newer
model is rolled out, it wasn’t worth the $5,000 premium to begin with. Premium shoe and car
purchases are representative of financial costs, but more important are health and environmental
costs. One category of interest is the food industry’s reliance on sugar and sweetened foods.
While soda companies don’t make the misleading claim of soda being part of a nutritious
breakfast, as the sweetened cereal companies do, they don’t bother to warn people that the sugar
in excess of 45 grams commonly found in a regular 12 ounce can of soda contributes to crippling
disease. Soda and similar soft-drink companies spend billions of dollars convincing people to
buy their products, which essentially amount to sweet mild poison.
Even some brands of canned vegetables contain added sugar. How indicative of a terrible
problem with the marketing industry that is; it’s a one-sided promotion of self-interest. It’s not
just vain and ignorant consumers that suffer the effects of marketing. Advertisers habitually try to
trick consumers into thinking they’re getting more than they actually are. When coffee cans were
reduced from one gallon size, advertisers touted “new looks,” “new designs,” and other
gimmicks instead of telling people they were trying to increase profits by including less product.
Will consumers wait until they buy a can of beans with just two or three beans in fourteen
ounces of water, or one of those small potato chip bags filled with air that just smells like potato
chips, before they take action? Sure, people may be better off having less oily, salty potato chips
to eat in a bag, but it’s unfair to deceive people. Furthermore, there are serious environmental
costs, to consider. A lot of resources and energy go into making those bags that are destined for
landfills already bursting at the seams. And whether they’re hauling bags of chips or bags of air,
those chip trucks are still burning a lot of diesel fuel and spreading tire dust. In the process, the
increased demand for fuel adds to the consumption of limited oil reserves and pushes up the price
of fuel.
And more trucks on the road causes greater road degradation and congestion, both of
which necessitate additional costly highway construction and maintenance. Beyond that, the
trucks themselves are being worn out and will need to be replaced, triggering further destructive
mining, refining, transportation and manufacturing processes. Considering hidden costs, beyond
the purchase price, it becomes apparent that wasteful marketing practices like wrapping little
individual pieces of candy in plastic is very harmful to life on the planet.
While advertisers are trying to distinguish their products and services, consumers are also
paying an opportunity cost; the cost of looking at billboards, watching and listening to
commercials, and flipping through pages of advertisements. Any time taken by advertising that

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people would have spent doing something enjoyable is an opportunity cost of what limited time
people have in life. In addition to time, energy and resources are directly consumed by
advertising. For example, consider companies offering competing phone books. Those extra
phone books aren’t only a waste of paper, printing and distribution resources, they’re also
confusing for consumers, and more expensive for businesses that are compelled to advertise in
multiple phone books when one would have served just as well.
As with voters needing convenient access to unbiased information regarding political
matters, consumers need the same kind of unbiased product information. Because, like special
interests that lobby politicians, marketers are constantly lobbying the public in order to influence
people to make decisions that may not be in their best interest. People need to know how
products and services might affect them, how they perform, what features they have, and how
dependable they are.
Consumers should have access to information provided by sellers, independent reviewers,
and customers to make well informed decisions. J. D. Power & Associates offers an example of a
useful product dependability survey. American car buyers are interested to know that Buick tied
Lexus for top honors in the 2007 J D Power & Associates Vehicle Dependability Study, which
tracked reported problems through 3 years of ownership. In that study Cadillac and Mercury also
scored slightly higher than 5th ranked Honda and 6th ranked Toyota, which comes as a surprise to
some people with the perception that foreign car brands are more dependable than American
cars.
A good information system should make it easy for businesses and consumers to find
products and service providers; with all the information necessary for consumers to choose
what’s in their best interests. Phone books, industrial directories, company profiles, product
descriptions, independent reviews, product comparisons, bid solictations, customer satisfaction
indexes and other informative systems can all be combined into one easily searchable
information portal. Obviously, much of this information is already available, but part of the
problem is that it’s available from thousands of different sources that are largely driven by
motives other than transparent, objective organization of information. The internet is a very
useful tool, but it’s so overloaded with marketing and biased and duplicate content from every
person with his finger in the pie that it’s often frustrating and time-consuming.
Equally harmful, is the financial drain on the economy. Search engines, directories, and
countless web links are all funded by advertising. And just like with redundant phone books, that
huge advertising cost is passed on to consumers by suppliers compelled to spend more to cover
the increasingly fragmented marketplace. Gone are the days when buyers and sellers met at a
single marketplace, now every online server is a potential marketplace. And some sellers are
taking advantage of buyer confusion with all the different marketplaces, to mislead consumers
and avoid faithfully backing the products they sell.
Providing one central source of business information would be a useful service the
Federal Government could provide at little or no cost, and it already has some experience
organizing content in a central site. The U.S. Government’s official web portal at www.usa.gov
offers a convenient place to find information and services from many different agencies and
departments on the national and even state level. That type of centralized information service,
with added transparency and broader participation can be applied to many issues of broad public
appeal. Other countries are already well represented by online product and service directories.
And the U.S.needs to catch up, and get ahead of the curve, by maintaining one single official
source of information for products and services under the Commerce Department.
Wise organization has always been crucial to the efficiency of any endeavor. And there’s
good advice in the old saying “work smarter, not harder.” While it’s true that some Americans

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ought to be working harder, others are working too hard because society’s not working smart
enough. Despite some common perceptions at home and around the world, a lot of Americans
are among the hardest working people in the world. And fortunately there’s no good reason why
people should be working to the point of fatigue, and injuring themselves as they push aching
joints and muscles too long just to make a living.
The combination of government wealth transfer, court judgments, interest and investment
income, non-productive jobs, idle time and non-productive tasks is costing as much as 50%
inefficiency in the economy. It’s all just so much talk to a lot of people. But, they don’t realize
that if labor waste alone was corrected in the economy, people would work considerably less for
equal pay and environmental harm would be greatly reduced as well.
At no time was the deficiencies of inequitable capitalism more apparent than during the
Great Depression; when a simple disruption of the money supply caused people real harm.
Similar to a psychiatric struggle, the Great Depression, like milder recessions, didn’t result from
a lack of production capacity or a crippling drought. There was enough food for people to eat,
and factories sat empty; yet many were unemployed, hungry, and homeless: all because the
unnatural reliance on money prevented people from working and providing for themselves.
In fact, there was food in abundance. By that time America had become a major
international food producer. But due to better European harvests and the worldwide depression,
food prices were low. Instead of letting the free market correct itself, newly elected president,
Franklin Roosevelt, introduced the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which taxed food and clothing
to pay farmers to reduce production by about 30%. Shockingly, while many were near starvation
due to inequitable distribution, the federal government was paying farmers not to grow crops, so
the supply might be reduced and crop and livestock prices increased, and then taxing food and
clothing on top of that. It’s hard to imagine the insanity of artificially raising food prices when
people were starving.
The relevant economic question should be what production is necessary and desirable,
and that answer is found in the free market. America needs desperately to return to a free market
to increase productive efficiency and help return to self-sufficiency, which is critical to reversing
growing international indebtedness, assert control of the country’s future, and return to a position
of strength only possible with independence. The temptation of inexpensive goods provided by
cheap foreign labor is compelling. But the resulting trade imbalance is without doubt mortgaging
America’s future; and one day that mortgage will have to be paid off, just like the national debt,
or the economy will be picked apart in macro foreclosure.
Even within America’s borders greedy employers are undermining the economy by hiring
foreign workers. Politicians and wealthy people have the outrageous audacity to go so far as
announce on national television that the American economy is dependent on the labor of illegal
aliens. Little could be farther from the truth. Immigrant labor is contributing to both the
American trade deficit, when earnings are sent out of the country, and the historic gap between
rich and poor. Low paying jobs are going to illegal aliens instead of paying the higher wages the
American labor market demands. Instead of paying people fair wages for hard work, the wealthy
want to pay the lowest possible prices, even if it means losing jobs. And it’s not just the jobs held
by immigrants that are affected, extra labor in the market increases competition for jobs and
keeps other wages artificially depressed as well.
Laborers enter the United States from Mexico and Latin America searching for work.
When, and if, Mexican and Central American economies prosper, laborers will no longer have a
need to sneak into the U.S. However, if only employers were held strictly accountable for
verifying worker eligibility there wouldn’t be an illegal alien problem in the United States.
Report illegal hiring and heavily fine guilty employers and the problem of illegal immigration

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will disappear. Of course, when Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are united as one nation,
Americans will invest in Mexico and the Mexican economy will pick up and assimilate with the
U.S. and Canada. Although, it must be an indication of poor management that the Mexican
economy isn’t stronger than it is, especially considering the number of jobs U.S. companies have
transferred to Mexico in recent years.
It seems pretty easy for executives and shareholders that don’t have to earn their money to
export jobs. And sometimes it seems pretty easy for unions to demand more compensation even
though job security is at stake. In times past, the battle for economic equality has raged into riots
and violent conflicts, but today it’s conducted between bargaining units, and debated by wealthy
people in the halls of congress in the form of minimum wage laws and tax rates.
The true question of how to effect economic fairness and equality, wherein each receives
the just value of his production, is hardly being asked. In those circumstances where people
perform the same work under the same conditions, it’s fair that they be paid in proportion to their
production. For example, if a man digs a ditch or assembles widgets 5 times faster than his
neighbor under the same circumstances, he deserves 5 times as much pay as his neighbor. On the
other hand, effective labor isn’t easily compared among differing tasks.
Societies have long pondered how to keep the distribution, or accumulation, of wealth
fair, as reflected in the variety of economic systems through history and around the world. As yet
neither communism, socialism, capitalism, nor any other ism has emerged as the fair answer.
Even America’s mix of free market and social programs has failed to prevent some of the worst
disparity between rich and poor the world has ever known. There are, however, a number of
adjustments that can help instill monetary justice.
The first action citizens can take is with their own pocketbook because every purchase
reinforces a company’s business practices. Consumers can maximize their purchasing power by
shopping for high value, and buying products of companies with the most balanced executive and
labor compensation. Usually, companies can only take what we give them. To guard against the
greedy, consumers can avoid impulse buying and consider buying from cooperative, non-profit
and employee owned organizations. Many cooperative enterprises are exemplary business
models. Customer owned cooperatives are managed by customer elected directors, and surplus
income, or savings, is returned to the customers. Some cooperatives such as rural electric
cooperatives provide some of the best service at the lowest prices, often with high customer
satisfaction ratings.
Voting with one’s dollar is an important tool to effecting business changes. But that
won’t be enough to change many unfair practices. Free market restoration, along with tort and
education reform are two critical components of economic correction that will be discussed in
subsequent chapters. One needed change is merely a change of culture. Low wage earners are
pitted against each other to keep wages as low as possible. And that’s the way it should be, jobs
should be awarded to candidates that will deliver quality service for the lowest cost. But
competition for jobs paying higher wages is severely restricted by time-in-grade, education, and
other restrictions; whereas general aptitude and a good work ethic makes much of the population
aptly suited to perform any job.
Individual job performance doesn’t occur in a vacuum, it’s affected by and is a reflection
of the organization as a whole. Take, for example, a college football program that consistently
produces quarterbacks with tremendous passing numbers, ranking high in touchdowns, yardage,
and completion percentage. The corporate executive business model would suggest that all of
those quarterbacks were the highest rated and most heavily recruited high school quarterbacks in
the nation. But they weren’t, while being fine quarterbacks in their own right, they reflected the
well-designed passing system of which they were a part and even the coach’s propensity to throw

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as opposed to run. But those very same quarterbacks may not perform well in the pro’s because
the team they’re on doesn’t have a well-designed passing offense.
Professional football has seen a lot of high-dollar first-round draft busts, and a lot of late-
round surprises. So too, the world of outrageous corporate compensation packages. Large
corporate boards, like professional and high-profile college sports teams are regularly awarding
obscene contracts for the latest and greatest best hope CEO or coach, just to turn around and drop
more money buying the contract out in a few years because reality didn’t live up to their dreams.
Modern organizations are so poorly organized that they expect to fill positions with people
already experienced in the position to be filled; instead of plugging quality people into roles with
established and proven performance and decision guidelines.
Until organizations realize that people have similar abilities, and stop looking at
prospective employees as stats on paper and a good sales pitch, they won’t realize that every
detail is part of a greater plan. It’s the greater plan that will determine the fate of the organization,
not the next position filled. High paying positions need to be competitively bid, not doled out as
rewards for friendship or long-service. All above-average salaries should be evaluated for labor
intensity. If they aren’t more labor intensive than lesser paying jobs, they should probably be
reduced. That issue will resolve itself if jobs are competitively bid, because one can be assured
that there are multitudes of people that are making less than $50,000 a year that could perform
the jobs of the highest paid CEO’s with equal effectiveness.
One simple way to limit incomes is to set a ceiling on maximum wages similar to
minimum wage laws. There’s long been a debate about how much more the highest paid people
should be paid than the lowest paid employees. Rightfully, people should be paid according to
their productive contribution. Unfortunately the workforce is a pyramid scheme, where people
are paid more in proportion to the number of people under them in the pyramid. But, if there’s
unimportant work that shouldn’t pay much, maybe that work shouldn’t be done. The reality is
that much of the most important work is done by low-paid people. They’re working where the
rubber meets the road, so to speak. They’re the labor by which most physical work gets done. No
one can eat without the workers picking the crops, or servers preparing the food. Those low-wage
jobs and others like them are critical, and they require a lot of real work. It can be reasonably
argued that their work is both more difficult and more important than the work of their
supervisors, or their supervisors’ supervisors.
In a well-functioning free market, labor rates would be set by open-bidding. Anyone
who’s ever worked a physically challenging job for a living: one that’s sweaty, dirty, and
physically painful: would understand the desire to do less demanding work, such as that of a
supervisor. Would the average worker want more money to stack slabs at a saw mill all day, or
manage a department from an office where he was free to come and go at will? Certainly, given
the choice, it would take a lot more money to convince people to work difficult, dirty, noisy,
dangerous jobs than clean, physically easy jobs in relaxed environments. And honestly, a lot of
people would take a pay cut just so they could be the boss.
Everybody knows that the compensation system in America is backwards. The easiest
jobs, the ones where people can wear suits and ties because they don’t even get dirty, pay the
best; and the hardest jobs pay the worst. The question isn’t why employers pay hard working
employees low wages, that’s because employers want maximum production at minimum cost.
The baffling question is why employers pay employees that don’t have to work as hard, so much
more money. There are lots of reasons, excuses really, but when the day is done, it’s just a
culture thing. From the time of kings and noblemen, there’s just been a general acceptance of a
financial hierarchy. It’s a hierarchy without practical benefit or purpose, but it’s a hierarchy that
people have grown up with, and haven’t the insight to change.

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 But, it should be changed, and if culture; that is, those in charge of the money; won’t
change, then a maximum wage should be enacted. A maximum wage number is arbitrary, just as
the minimum wage is. But, it makes sense that the top of the income range shouldn’t exceed ten
times the minimum wage. If there are jobs where people aren’t required to work as much as
1/10th as hard as other jobs, maybe those jobs shouldn’t exist, or at least be compensated on a
part-time or piece-work basis. If the minimum full-time compensation were $20,000 per year, the
maximum wage might be $200,000 per year. Even that seems like a terrible discrepancy, but the
amount of equality that would restore to the economy is astounding. Of course, that maximum
income should be reserved for the most difficult of jobs or most productive workers – not just for
people in suits.
A maximum wage would actually be easy to implement. But investment income, that evil
accumulation of unearned money, would be more difficult to limit. Limiting personal income
would be easy, but, asset accumulation would also need to be limited. Otherwise one would turn
around one day and realize that somebody has amassed a $62 billion fortune in assets. Also,
every dog, cat, and family member of the rich would be receiving maximum investment income
in efforts to circumvent the spirit of maximum income limits.
Corporate profits would also have to be accounted for in asset consideration. Limiting
corporate profits, would force that money to be distributed more evenly among corporate
employees, boost reinvestment, and benefit consumers through lower prices; with the added
benefit of making American products more competitive in the global marketplace. While all this
is possible, and would virtually eliminate the harmful wealth gap in America; the biggest
challenge might be in limiting the profits of foreign companies and individuals. To that end, all
individuals and companies doing business beyond a dollar threshold in the U.S. could be required
to independently verify adherence to the same income limits as those imposed on Americans.
For all the complexities of schemes to make something for nothing and distribute wealth
from the productive to the non-productive, economics is really quite simple: produce that which
is desired and distribute it according to personal productive contribution. There are limitations
and obstacles to overcome, but for the most part, a free market balances supply, demand and
distribution pretty effectively. Sometimes additional regulations are required to promote fair
trade practices and equitable wealth distribution. And those regulations don't have to interfere
with free market activity, but the following chapter will examine some additional regulations that
have a harmful effect on the free market.

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 Doctors, Lawyers and Money
Skyrocketing healthcare costs spurred by a provider shortage is causing serious economic
harm to society that’s only getting worse. And the tragedy is that it’s not disease, but government
regulation that’s holding Americans hostage to medical practitioners. Severe licensing
restrictions directed by doctors to limit competition have created a critical artificial shortage of
doctors; and additional ludicrous, stifling regulation of all aspects of the medical industry has
pushed the cost of medical services well beyond the financial means of much of the population.
Legislative meddling has given control of the market for medical services to the only providers
of those services, and caused simple, ordinary practices to become prohibitively expensive, and
more complex or long-term treatment to bankrupt patients and dramatically drain vitality from
the economy.
The reason for outrageous medical cost in America is simple: Prohibitive Regulation =
Prohibitive Cost.
One shouldn’t be fooled for a minute into thinking that the medical swindling gripping
America is in any way accidental, natural or justified. There’s no way to deny that a medical
procedure like tubal ligation, a popular form of permanent birth control, which costs thousands of
dollars, is anything but a ripoff when considering that veterinarians perform the same and similar
procedures on dogs for less than one hundred dollars and sometimes less than fifty dollars. Yet,
sheer stupidity, the magic of marketing, and scare tactic propaganda, mixed into waters muddied
by countless unnecessary rules propping up prices, keeps the public from rising up in justified
revolt.
There was a time when medicine wasn’t regulated. People were free to seek their own
medical treatment; just as they were free to provide medical services themselves. Health
practitioners traded their services for goods and services of equivalent labor inputs such as
simple necessities that might include a few loaves of bread, a new shirt, or a wagon repair. In
those days of free market competition, there was value in healthcare. Doctors received fair wages
for their effort, as it should be. Of course, medical technology was still in its infancy and there
were many ailments that doctors couldn’t effectively treat, although, just like today, many did
accidental harm along with whatever good they claimed to be doing. But doctors who provided
good quality and value built reputations of trust that carried a lot of weight with patients in their
communities.
The proof, as they say, was in the pudding. Reputable physicians enjoyed job security,
while quacks and swindlers often went out of business shortly after opening their doors or they
traveled from town to town seeking new simpletons to whom they could peddle their snake oil.
They sold to people looking for a miracle in a bottle, whereas smart consumers took a wait and
see attitude before plunking down hard-earned money on claims of fantasy. Of course, marketing
really hasn’t changed much from the old snake oil days: with exagerated claims, hidden dangers,
and attempts to convince target audiences that they need just what the hucksters are selling.
Overall, the snake oil market is alive and well today, whether it be from drugs, cosmetics,
vitamins or diet pills, there's no shortage of peddlers of fantasy and the rubes eager to swallow
the lies one pill at a time.
Naturally, people don’t want to be sick or die. So, they were never totally satisfied with
the quality of healthcare as a whole because people continued to get sick and die. But some
greedy and clever doctors took advantage of that discontent. They saw opportunity in persistent
public fear. Traditionally doctors were not wealthy men because competition kept their wages in
line with local averages. If word got out that a man was getting rich doctoring people, the next
day the neighborhood would logically be crawling with doctors trying to secure their own profit.

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 But some doctors reasoned, if they could prevent competition, they’d be able to set their
own prices. And so, it was that practicing doctors decided to regulate the medical industry to tip
the balance of supply and demand heavily in their own favor. The doctors had stumbled across a
gold mine, with demand holding steady or even increasing, it would be like they were able to
print their own money if they could severely restrict the supply of medical providers. And from
the time of the first licensing requirements until now, doctors have steadily increased licensing
restrictions and tightened their chokehold on the American consumer. Even now physician
associations are constantly working to further erode consumer choice and self-determination.
The success of doctors monopolizing healthcare has opened the door for additional
factors that have added to the tremenous upward price pressure associated with a tightly
controlled monopoly. One such factor has been the tit-for-tat between medicine and the law. Just
as the cost of medicine has skyrocketed, so too has the tendency of politicians and juries to pile
more responsibility on doctors, resulting in more lawsuits and larger settlements. There was a
time when people took their chances, but now doctors are sued not only for mistakes in treating
illnesses, but also for failing to identify illnesses in the first place. And so the modern lottery of
medical malpractice awards contributes to ever higher health costs to be paid by American
workers.
But the high liability insurance premiums mandated by excessive jury awards has neither
helped nor hurt doctors. That cost just gets passed along to the patients, and through taxes or
health insurance premiums to the American worker. But the great unwitting accomplice to
physician greed has been health insurance, whether it be private or public. Dramatically
escalating costs gave rise to health insurance where there was no prior need for insurance. When
healthcare costs were reasonable, people paid for medical care out of their pocket the same way
they paid for other services. No, medicare and insurance companies don't want to pay more than
necessary for medical services, but their mere presence has allowed doctors to take full advantage
of the “free money” syndrome.
Along with health insurance came the great shift in responsibility, that of who was to pay
the inflated cost of healthcare. As soon as it became “someone else's money” being spent almost
all resistance to the outright extortion of medical providers was eroded. Patients no longer
constrained by their own finances, and doctors lusting for money, shared a damn-the-cost
attitude. Today, most hospital patients never know what their total bill is, and doctors would
rather keep them in the dark and keep their outrageous charges as their dirty little secrets to be
shared on a need to know basis, and if the patient isn't writing the check, he doesn't need to
know. The sky was the limit for what was called “patient care,” no expense was too great for the
treatment of loved ones, as long as it wasn't loved ones paying the bill.
Popular leaders want to make insurance companies out to be the bad guys, and they can
be motivated by greed. But, lo, isn’t it typical that in this age of entitlement, the only voice of
fiscal responsibility is cast as the villain. Without doubt, insurance is only a bit player in this
drama, a side-effect of the real disease. When excessive medical costs are brought under control,
and they easily can be, the problem of spending accountability will fade into memory because the
responsibility can shift back to the patient, and then it'll be seen if the sky's still the limit.
The real financial scourge of healthcare is the lack of supply competition. Demand for
medical services exceeds the severly limited supply of doctors to such a degree that doctors don’t
need to compete. Instead, doctors compete with each other to see how much they can charge,
how extravagant a home they can afford and how little effort they must put forth to free up time
for their golf games and other hobbies. The government interference that’s provided miles and
miles of red tape to impede efficient and effective medical care, has thrown up road block after
road block to the licensing of new doctors.

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 In bitter irony, the public is asked to freely donate blood and organs while doctors are
buying larger trucks to haul their growing mountains of money to the bank. However, after
spending a small fortune and often more than a decade beyond high school getting a medical
license, it’s not surprising that doctors charge an arm and a leg for services in such high demand.
Nor is it surprising; frustrating, yes, but not surprising; that doctors then lobby for ever greater
restrictions to new licensure to further reduce competition. And people making $10-20 an hour
simply can’t afford to pay upwards of $10,000 for simple medical procedures that are performed
in less than an hour. A system in which a doctor’s daily wages equals the yearly earnings of some
working poor is so grossly unfair that it’s failure and burden to society is absolutely predictable.
How can anyone be surprised at the fact that the American healthcare regulatory system is
a crippling economic disease? Obviously the system is wrong, it’s broken: creating a crisis of
shortage where there should be abundance. Unemployment lines are growing, and this pathetic
excuse of a healthcare “system” is in a sever labor crisis? What other lies could be so blatantly
false? And yet, despite the obvious causes, politicians desirous of the fame of public office
haven’t the basic sense to recognize the only solution to the devestatingly high cost of healthcare
is to lower that cost by addressing the source, not play shell games about who’s getting stuck
with the bill.
And even worse, many blindly propose to “fix healthcare” by throwing more money at
doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, equipment suppliers and other medical vultures. It
truly seems that America is run by idiots if they can't see the cause and cure of this crisis. But,
maybe the economic harm isn’t unintentional after all. Doctors and medical associations have so
many politicians in their back pockets that they can’t pass gas without someone feeling the
breeze.
It’s staggering how so many politicians are proposing universal healthcare. In slobbering
ignorance beyond that of a cartoon villain they propose to fund the entire system with tax payer
money instead of reducing the ridiculous rampant systematic waste and price gouging. The surest
way for doctors to get even richer, and the rest of America to be further burdened is for the
government to give doctors and patients a blank check. As matters now stand, doctors and
hospitals can only nag poor people for payment. With universal healthcare, even as the demand
for service increases, adding to growing upward price pressure, payment for the indigent, the
damn-the-cost patients, and the attention-seeking hypochondriacs would be guaranteed. The
government might as well just set up the lazy people that won’t take care of themselves with their
own permanent rooms because that’s where they’ll ultimately end up. And the few people still
working for a living will find their load an even heavier burden to bear.
The only practical way to restore sanity to the depravity of medicine is to relax barriers to
licensing and the supply of products and services. Now, with just the mention of deregulation,
alarmists start beating drums of panic and misinformation that echoes across the land. But
deregulation of the medical industry is certainly no means for alarm; quite the opposite, it’s a
cause for celebration, though reactionaries habitually cry wolf at any attempt to balance
regulation with common sense. Dramatic increases in supply availability and competition can
easily be achieved while maintaining high standards of care. To insist that adequate knowledge
and skills can only be developed by means of the current corrupt system is to insist on further
victimizing the American public. Anyone that thinks prohibitive licensing demands and reliance
on inefficient and bloated medical degree programs are the only, or best, anwer to quality
assurance is woefully mistaken.
Medical regulation in the United States has done more harm than good by making a
mountain of counter-productivity to deal with a molehill of a problem. The problem that medical
regulation was supposedly enacted to address is quality of service. That task could hardly be

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more simple and yet it was the excuse that drove the herd of medicine stampeding right over the
cliff of decency. How is quality monitored? By reviewing patient experience, of course. And the
method of assuring quality care is that simple: track patient experience and let that experience
guide patients to the best quality of care.
No degree or license is going to relate the experience of previous patients to prospective
patients with similar needs and concerns. Only a consumer reporting system can do that, and
that’s part of a Truth in Medicine system that’s far and away the best program to protect
consumers from inferior medical service and assist them in making better health decisions.
The best assurance of quality is verifiable experience as related by actual patients, which
brings the conversation back to the urgent need for readily available customer satisfaction
indexes in all industries. By making the experiences of previous patients readily available to
others, those in need of service can make intelligent decisions in finding the doctor they’re most
comfortable with. In the presence of full disclosure, where previous experience and associated
risks are known, the consumer has the ability to choose wisely based on realistic, statistically
relevant expectations. And beyond full disclosure, no government regulation is necessary. Let
those who wish practice medicine, and let their track records speak for themselves. Voila: as
simple as that, the healthcare crisis in America can be dismissed.
Transparency in the medical industry would be patients’ best advocate; giving notice of
all previous results including successes, failures and mistakes. Medical service providers could
address their mistakes and failures with a candid assessment of such performances and
explanations of what, if any, corrective actions they would perform in the future. And just that
easily, peer and consumer review can lead to valuable improvement, and even innovation in the
medical field.
It’s obvious that impractical educational and licensing barriers were concocted by doctors
fearful of competition, and promoted by irrational Chicken Littles with no real consideration for
or understanding of economic cost. Of course it’s easy for alarmists and reactionaries to call for
increased regulations and barriers, but it’s quite another matter altogether to pay for such
unneccessary waste. Restrictive measures are clearly contrary to the public’s best interest. And
because doctors are specialists they needn’t be trained to perform all medical disciplines, nor do
they need to be reciting Shakespeare or bowling for college credit. They need only be asked to
perform simple services within their capabilities and allowed to expand their practices as their
skills and experience grow, whether those skills and experiences come from formal medical
school training or any other means.
Doctors are overtrained, and overtrained doesn’t mean that they’re better trained, it
simply means valuable time and effort is wasted and potential doctors are prevented from
providing much needed service. General practitioners don’t perform cardiac and neuro surgery,
and brain surgeons aren’t in the habit of removing warts, so why are doctors trained as though
they’ll do everything. There’s much to be gained by allowing competent people to perform tasks
according to their abilities, whether those tasks be simple or complicated. There truly is no
legitimate reason why medical services should cost any more than other services of comparable
labor. But, in the current putrid medical system, it’s no coincidence that general practitioners
and specialists alike are turning patients away.
Take for instance a pediatric endocrinologist treating children with Type 1 diabetes. Type
1 diabetes is characterized by a permanent inhibition of production of insulin in the pancreas.
The cause of Type 1 diabetes is commonly attributed to a malfunctioning auto-immune response
in which the body’s own white blood cells mistakenly target the beta cells in the Islets of
Langerhans of the pancreas that are responsible for the production of insulin. And without the
beta cells, the insulin hormone isn’t produced, and glucose can’t be properly utilized by the

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body’s cells for energy production. When insulin is completely absent death results in a matter of
days. When insulin is in short supply, weakness, dehydration, long-term vascular damage and
other complications occur.
Still not knowing if, in fact, white blood cells are attacking healthy beta cells or if they're
actually only removing damaged or mutated cells; or the trigger of supposed beta cell destruction,
how to reverse the destruction, or even stop it; treatment is typically limited to balancing insulin
and diet. Though there are dosage variables involved that include selecting among insulins of
differing effective speeds, in addition to exercise and diet considerations, the common medical
treatment of Type 1 diabetes is so simple a ten year old can do it. Endocrinologists basically
prescribe insulin and advise patients to adjust their dosage as necessary. In fact, it sounds like a
simple process that most anyone could easily be trained to do, and it is. That patients should have
to pay a doctor thousands, or even hundreds, of dollars for little more than a prescription, that
they shouldn’t need in the first place, is paramount to robbery.
It’s logical to believe that any general practitioner or endocrinoligist would be willing and
able to fulfill such a basic duty. But that’s how dysfunctional the American medical system is.
Due to the high demand for, and low supply of, doctors; and prohibitive malpractice insurance
costs, other doctors refuse to perform duties associated with the pediatric endocrinologist, and
patients have no choice but to endure the added time and expense submitting to a specialist
who’s office may be a number of hours away.
Knowing that patients have few other options, specialists lose sight of who they are
supposed to be working for, and it seems the patient is working for the doctor. Taking a
derogatory ‘my way or the highway’ approach, specialists refuse to prescribe needed medicines
unless patients submit to their terms which likely include unneccessary hospital stays and other
waste that only serves to pad medical bills. With hospital stays costing as much as $15,000 a
week, just ten week long referrals can be worth $150,000 to a hospital.
That kind of shameless greed typifies the medical community that sucks on the economy
like a growing, uncontrollable plague of leeches. The still greater crime that victimizes patients
and their families is that they have to pay doctors outrageous sums of money for services they
could easily perform themselves. Those people responsible for not allowing patients and families
to monitor their own progress, schedule their own tests and buy insulin or other needed
medication should be held accountable. The politicians, doctors, health officials and lobbyists
that force citizens under the thumbs of doctors should be whipped and have their assets
confiscated and applied toward the national debt. It’s those true criminals that have taken away
the liberties of citizens and made the public slaves to a corrupt healthcare system.
Like a sticky web meticulously spun by cunning predators, the trap of legalized larceny
has been set for the American consumer. There’s a great hoax that doctors do more important or
demanding work than other workers. Yet, in reality, providers of food, clothing, housing,
transportation, utilities and numerous other essential services are every bit as critical as medical
providers. And yet, the medical industry is the posterchild of unreasonable regulation, unfair
practices, outrageous cost, and wasteful spending. And even despite a restrictive, litigious
culture, and far and away the most expensive healthcare in the world, America ranks 42nd in life
expectancy among the nations of the world. Dollar for dollar, the return on investment in
American healthcare is about the worst in the world.
Could Americans afford to pay mechanics the wages of doctors, even though mechanics
perform more physically demanding and comparably complex labor? And even considering how
important bus drivers are to the safey of school children all across the country, could Americans
afford to pay bus drivers $200,000 per year? Clearly the answer is no, in fact, public school bus
drivers in America earn as little as $15 per morning route and $15 per afternoon route, for a total

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of $30 per day.
In reality, the public can no more afford to pay farm workers, electric linemen,
construction workers, sanitation workers, delivery drivers and the wide range of other vital
product and service providers, egregious wages any more than the public can afford to be thrown
under the healthcare bus. Healthcare is a bigger racket than the vice enterprises of Al Capone’s
old Chicago gang. Regulated competitive hindrance of other industries in a manner anything like
the medical industry would result in widespread hunger, homelessness and general economic
collapse.
People want effective care with minimal risks, and a good understanding of risks and
benefits, at a fair price. But, those objectives aren’t being met under the current system. In the
current system, prospective doctors obtain four-year undergraduate degrees, then four-year
medical degrees, followed by one to three years of post-graduate training commonly known as
residency or internship, as part of the requirements to receiving a license to practice medicine.
And fellowship programs that confer specialist certification are an additional two to three years
in duration. So, the process of medical licensure in America requires an investment of as many as
14 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars before prospective doctors can even establish their
own practices.
And because much of the funding for higher education comes from taxpayers, the
American public is paying a fortune to prevent people from providing needed medical services
for as long as 14 years. Certainly politicians and medical regulators have succeeded. They’ve
succeeded in creating the most inefficient system that the public can support, though the failing
economy will not continue to support the growing drain of healthcare for much longer. And
despite all the innovation- and enthusiasm-killing regulation, the present healthcare system
doesn’t even make patient experience information available to the public or gaurantee full
disclosure by the medical community.
To see how regulation has taken value out of the medical industry, consider the results of
similar regulation of other industries. What would happen if school bus drivers were regulated as
healthcare providers are? The government could easily impose much more stringent bus driver
licensing requirements. Prospective bus drivers could be required to obtain four-year mechanical
engineering degrees to aid in their understanding of bus design and construction, and the stress
forces involved in acceleration, directional changes and braking under varying conditions of
weight, wind load, surface conditions, visibility and other factors.
With engineering degrees in hand, prospective bus drivers could then apply for admission
to highly restricted bus driving schools where more than half the candidates will be denied
admittance. Those students that make it into bus driver school would be taught to completely
disassemble and reassemble buses, and perform all known bus repairs. Then they would undergo
years of accident avoidance, emergency preparedness, hostage negotiation and student
psychology training before obtaining nursing degrees and fire-fighting certifications for first-aid
and fire and rescue training.
Upon graduation from bus driver school, bus driving candidates would be required to
drive inner-city school buses during the day and taxis at night in high-crime districts for two
years before being allowed to sit for comprehensive exams designed to test their knowledge on
all the subjects they’ve studied in their years at engineering and driver schools. Then, after
investing ten years of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars, bus drivers would be able
to regulate their own industry, and school districts would be free to choose transportation
providers that they wouldn’t have to pay for, as costs would be paid by public insurance.
Through such a reform program, wages for school bus drivers could go from as low as
$30 a day that they’re currently paid, to as high as $1,000 per day for the same amount of work.

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To top it all off, lawmakers could make it illegal for parents to transport their children or for
students to self-transport. Really, what would the world be like if the ridiculous, extravagant
meddling of medical regulation were extended to other professions?
Although the disease of American healthcare could easily spread to infect other
industries, remedies to cure the cancer of healthcare are as simple as the affliction. With one
swipe of the legislative pen barring licensing restrictions from impenging on consumers’ rights to
choose their own treatment, the healthcare crisis would disappear. One obvious source of new
doctors to alleviate the supply shortage is the nursing, and emergency medical technician ranks.
Why not trust the people that already provide much of the medical care? Many overpaid doctors
are riding the backs of their assistants anyway, patients might as well just bypass doctors and go
straight to the ones doing the work.
New doctors can work up through apprenticeship programs, or people can simply be
tested and licensed to work limited practices. Actually, contrary to what doctors bleeding people
dry would have the public think, licensure isn’t necessary at all. With the implementation of a
transparent policy of full disclosure wherein risks, experience, independent concerns, customer
satisfaction and past performance are known, licensure is nothing more than another assurance
that consumers should be able to weigh for themselves. There’s no reason why just about
anybody shouldn’t be able to apply a few stitches, remove warts, prescribe antibiotics for
bacterial infections that the body is unable to adequately deal with, tell people there’s no cure for
the cold, clean and dress simple abrasions, apply casts for simple fractures, peddle insulin to
diabetics or blood pressure medicine to old people, and perform similar elementary tasks.
What may come as a surprise to the public at large is the relative simplicity of most
medical treatment. If one can read questions from a symptom chart, perform simple indicated
tests for infection or deficiency, and prescribe the recommended treatment for the indicated
condition, then one can carry out the typical duties of physicians. And where there’s gross
financial injustice, there’s great opportunity. America could easily add millions of healthcare
workers within a year if desired.
There’s medical work to be done, an army of people willing to do it, and only gross
corruption stands in the way of medical care performed with free market value. With nothing
more than common sense America can go from having the most expensive and wasteful
healthcare in the world to the world leader in available, affordable, quality healthcare. By the
time such a simple medical revolution were over, there’d be more highly qualified doctors than
consumers would be able to shake a stick at, and it would be patients turning doctors away, not
the other way around. And the medical industry would once again provide value comparable to
other industries.
When supply competition is restored to the medical industry, health insurance would be
obsolete. That’s correct, with supply and demand equilibrium restored, medical care would be so
affordable that people won’t need health insurance. Medical procedures, including major
operations would be no more expensive than comparable appliance service calls and car repairs;
and medical care would once again be a regular part of the average household budget. And with
the disappearance of health insurance goes the associated fraud, waste and abuse associated with
insurance and people not taking responsibility for their own health.
But not concerning who wishes to practice medicine, and wherever they may come from,
one thing is certain: those responsible for limiting the individual’s healthcare choices to this
point are guilty of a grave evil. Contrary to the Universal Rules of Life, those politicians and
alarmists who’ve prevented people from seeking the assistance of their choosing, regardless of
qualifications, have violated fundamental personal liberty.
Individuals must have the right to determine their own affairs. Regardless of how they

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choose to live or care for themselves, in the absence of harming others. Persons of authority do
evil by not allowing individuals the liberty to do just as they desire. That’s true not just in matters
of healthcare but life in general. The politicians and do-gooders must be stopped from imposing
their will on others, whether they erroneously believe they’re helping or not. The fundamental
and crucial third Rule of Life allowing that which is desired and doesn’t harm others must be
applied with due diligence.
The immaturity of civilization is most visible in the common violation of the Rules of
Life. Liberty must be preserved. And justice would see those responsible for infringing on basic
liberties made to serve those they have wronged. Such is the levity of violating personal liberty
and the Rules of Life. Life belongs to the individual, it’s his alone and not society’s; to do with as
he pleases. Not only should people be allowed to seek their own path to recovery, they very well
have every moral right to do with their body as they choose. That fundamental right extends to
behavior that may even seem self-destructive. Life is embodied as the individual, and none other
should be its master.
It’s wrong to force people to pay doctors for care or treatment they can administer
themselves. Regardless of society’s ‘war’ on drugs, lies of “concern for patient health” and other
false justifications, individuals should be free to purchase any available medicine and perform
their own treatments without being hostage to doctors. Anything less is unacceptable. It’s just un-
American to extort people’s savings when they could very well provide for themselves in the
absence of prohibitive regulation. Politicians have made it illegal for individuals to care for
themselves, and not only should that never happen, people shouldn’t be denied liberty over their
own bodies. Anybody that thinks they have a right to tell others what they can or can’t do with
their own body should go get bent. The urgent need for a constitution including the Rules of Life
is painfully obvious.
The same greed, and the same misinformation that brought about the healthcare crisis will
continue to be manifest, so there will be great resistance by those in the medical profession that
stand to lose their free ride, and by uninformed consumers with irrational fears that quality of
care is dependent on restrictive regulation. But, while most of the resistance would be a
smokescreen meant to keep the public hostage to price gouging, the fear born by consumer
ignorance is easily laid to rest. The basis of a free market is free choice, and that’s just what
deregulation would provide, the freedom to choose one’s care and how much one is willing to
pay for that care. If some of the market demands choking regulation and grossly inflated prices,
they may have it, but it shouldn’t be forced upon everyone else.
So far, 10 years of college, medical school and residency training hasn’t prevented
doctors from peddling drugs as the cure to most health problems; doing perhaps more harm than
good in the process. Known drug side effects are bad enough, and many drugs are prescribed just
to counteract the effects of other drugs. But, harmful and even deadly unexpected reactions are
common. Doctors, like politicians, are wrongly influenced by pharmaceutical companies, and
prescribing drugs is about all that many know how to do. And like psychiatrists, they have a
vested financial interest in keeping people dependent upon their services. So they stand to make
more money by pushing pills instead of plainly telling people that a healthy lifestyle based on
exercise and diets high in healthy vegetables will do far more long-term good than common
drugs.
Certainly, the over-reliance on prescription drugs and talk-therapy sessions is just one
indication of the decline of personal responsibility in America. “Oh, woe is me,” goes out the
collective cry across the land. “Who ever will pay my bills and support me the rest of my life,”
the question is asked over and over. And while people should be supporting themselves, or
hoping they’ve got loving, responsible parents to support them, more and more it’s the public

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providing care for the reckless and deadbeats. Insurance, public welfare, and a give-away judicial
system has invited abuse and fostered a national cry-baby attitude.
As previously mentioned, malpractice lawsuits are another significant factor contributing
to absurd medical rates. Malpractice insurance can cost doctors from around $15,000 per year to
over $250,000 per year in sue-happy states. And of course those costs are passed along to
consumers. But the whole issue of medical malpractice centers on who should assume the risk of
medical treatment. It’s that basic issue that’s been severly mishandled. For it’s not doctors, and
it’s not the public that should assume the risk of any medical procedure. It’s the patient that
stands to benefit from the procedure that should assume the associated risk.
Patients should make it their duty to understand the risks and not undergo any procedure
for which they’re unwilling to accept the risks. And doctors should be liable for no more than a
fee refund for the performance of their duties as long as they: 1. Show no intent to injure or a
flagrant reckless disregard for safety, and 2. Honestly represent risks and make no attempt to
mislead patients. Eliminating malpractice lawsuits would also eliminate the need for armies of
lawyers, administrative costs, and other wastes associated with malpractice insurance; just as the
dramatic lowering of medical costs overall will eliminate the waste and expense of medical
insurance.
The cure for healthcare is as simple as these eight easy steps:
1. Maintain a central database of patient experience for all healthcare providers. – Patients
are better served by full disclosure than by licensing requirements. A central database can be
an inexpensive, invaluable tool to track much more than doctor performance, such as trends in
health risks and treatment effectiveness.
2. Remove licensing restrictions to restore freedom of choice to consumers. – Create an
abundance of healthcare providers where there’s currently a shortage to drive down cost
through increased supply competition. Remove the extraordinary waste and expense of up to
14 years of education beyond high school from the costs that doctors have to recover from
patients.
3. Give consumers direct access to medications and supplies. – Taking the middle-man out of
the supply chain will: free doctors to treat those who need their services; and allow consumers
to treat themselves, save money and take more responsibility for their own health.
4. Reduce bureaucratic red tape. – Keep essential information on file electronically at the
central database and drop the requirements that doctors’ offices maintain complete patient
histories in paper files that are costly to maintain and fax back and forth, and aren’t even being
used to form a total healthcare picture that the central electronic database would provide.
5. Eliminate medical malpractice lawsuits. – It’s time that people recognize the inherent risks
of any medical treatment and stop treating healthcare like a welfare lottery program.
6. Steamline the drug approval process. – Eliminate the worthless experiments of animal
torture, move more quickly to human tissue and antigen tests, then move more rapidly to
clinical tests on patients in critical need by starting with small doses and gradually moving up
to effective dosage amounts.
7. Maintain a central database to track drug performance and incidence of side-effects. –
Again, there’s no better consumer protection than complete knowledge of real-world
effectiveness and consequence.
8. Reduce patent interference in the marketplace. – The purpose of the patent system is
supposedly to increase innovation, but it actually has the opposite effect. The patent system
wastes billions of dollars stifling competition while costing consumers billions more by virtue
of product monopolies for companies that may well not have been the true inventors and
likely benefitted from contributions by others that were more significant than their own

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 contribution to product development.
These easy reforms will restore true value to healthcare and effectively kill the plague of
high cost and unresponsive service that is bankrupting millions of people and sucking more and
more vitality from the American economy. Just as over-regulation has snow-balled into a
behemoth of high cost and waste, each reform will have a domino effect of cost reduction. A
centralized information system will result in better prevention and more efficient treatment;
raising quality and lowering cost by reducing waste. And when the savings of licensing reform
are added to the savings from the elimination of health and medical malpractice insurance with
all of their associated administrative, abuse, and liability control costs; along with savings on
medications, healthcare cost will be but a small fraction of what it costs today.
For now, however, every day people are inventing new illnesses and drugs to treat them.
There are drugs to pep people up and calm them down, drugs to treat tired legs and active legs,
and drugs to speed up the heart and slow it down. Pharmaceutical companies are peddling more
treatments than the miracle cure salesmen of old, with many of the same effects. And those
proclaimed cures in a bottle are ridiculously expensive. Consumers can thank the Food and Drug
Administration and the United States Patent Office for the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs.
Bureaucrats at the FDA have made the process of introducing new drugs into a marathon of high
expense, animal torture and useless hoop jumping. The process is so time-consuming and
expensive that the pharmaceutical industry is dominated by a few large corporations with pockets
deep enough to play the FDA’s games.
The FDA is even so inept it won’t allow sales of drugs in the U.S. that have lengthy, well-
documented track records in other countries. It doesn’t matter how many years a drug has been
used in other countries, how much testing was conducted, and how well the effects are known; if
a multitude of animals haven’t been poisoned and killed in specific FDA tests, the FDA won’t
allow the drug to be marketed in the U.S. While that’s devastating for the American public, it
rewards the major drug companies by limiting competition.
With FDA approval and monopolizing patents in hand, drug companies are then free to
stick it to consumers to the tune of as much as $1,700 and more for a single injection. And
because other countries don’t foster that kind of price gouging, America is subsidizing drug
treatment for the rest of the world. It’s no accident that the same drugs often cost twice, three
times, even four times as much in the U.S. as they do in Canada and Europe. Pharmaceutical
companies dictate FDA and congressional policy, and the public pays dearly for it.
Why are drug costs grossly inflated? Why does a bottle of medication that costs less than
$10 to produce, cost consumers in excess of $100? The answer is simply politics. Politics
shaping government regulation is solely responsible for the debacle of outrageous drug prices and
healthcare in general. And it’s imperative that the medical industry be drastically reformed soon
to restore free market competition because the demand for medical services is skyrocketing. The
steady trend of average Americans becoming more dependent on prescription drugs and medical
care is combining with the swelling of the senior population by the aging Baby Boom generation
born after the Second World War to exceed the capacity of the American healthcare system. As
that becomes more of a reality, consumers and tax payers can expect the costs of healthcare to go
nowhere but up unless the government stranglehold is broken.
The great harm of inappropriate government regulation of the healthcare industry is plain
and obvious, but hidden by a wall of misinformation. Another danger not taken very seriously is
the degree to which people are poisoning themsleves with the foods they eat and drink, and by
the chemical bombardment of industrial society.
It’s easy to forget that life itself is a complicated series of chemical reactions. Those
reactions reflect a level of mutual dependence billions of years in development. Of the countless

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processes occurring every second within complex animals, each individual action is dependent
on a particular balance of substance and circumstance. Should that chemical balance be
significantly upset, serious and potentially deadly complications can arise. The enormous
pharmaceutical industry is based on redirecting processes within the body through subtle changes
to the chemical balance. But that balance is so precise, that a few teaspoonfuls of antibiotics can
precipitate a hyperglycemic episode, or a pain reliever can contribute to a heart attack.
The familiar phrase ‘you are what you eat’ seems to have lost popularity in recent years,
but the need to carefully consider one’s diet has never been more paramount. Gone are the days
when ancient humans ate whatever nutritious foods they could get their hands on. Today’s world
is one of pesticides and processed foods.
Sugar is the sweetest killer. A little is delightful, but like alcohol, tobacco and numerous
other popular foodstuffs, too much is deadly. And despite the dire warnings associated with
alcohol and tobbacco products, no product is more commonly addictive than sugar. Sugar
contributes to diabetes, vascular problems, osteoporosis, arthritis, cancer, heart disease,
headaches, allergies, asthma, obesity, infection, periodontal disease, and tooth decay. Still yet,
people fail to consider that a candy bar or soda pop is dangerous to health in a manner similar to
a cigarette.
But sugar is part of a larger diet threat to human health. Like sugar and corn syrup,
starches and other carbohydrates common to many processed, or refined, foods are readily
converted into glucose. By their very nature, processed foods are already broken down into a
readily digestible state. The wave of glucose rushing into the bloodstream after eating processed
foods presents multiple health problems. One of these problems is the demands placed on the
pancreas and other parts of the blood regulatory system. It shouldn’t be surprising that high
glucose levels resulting from high carbohydrate intake is contributing to both insulin resistance
as cells are overwhelmed by glucose uptake, and inhibition of insulin production due to the high
demands made of pancreatic beta cells.
Another major problem of glucose loading from refined foods is a growing dependence
on highly digestible food with a marked decrease in varied nutrient uptake. Consider the
digestive system as a sieve that opens and closes as needed to refill the body’s nutrient supply. In
a moderate, well-balanced diet the sieve provides for a steady flow of important nutrients to the
bloodstream. In a high carbohydrate, processed food diet, carbohydrates are quickly broken down
for absorption in the stomach and upper small intestine, leading to rapid glucose intake,
triggering the sieve to partially close off and move food through the tract more rapidly. What
little nutrient variety, in the form of essential vitamins and minerals, that’s present in less readily
digestible food in the digestive tract is less likely to be absorbed by the body as the food is
ushered through the digestive tract.
In that way the body is essentially starved of important nutrients found in a variety of
colored vegetables. One can actually feel the difference in digestive rates among various foods.
The feelings associated with hunger and fullness result from not just the actual physical stomach
space occupied by food but also by the uptake of matter into the bloodstream, such as sodium
and glucose. That’s the reason that a person can eat large amounts of healthy foods that are low
in carbohydrates and slow to digest, like green beans, broccoli, cucumbers and similar
vegetables, and still not feel full. Many people remain hungry until eating rich food, typically
desert, that’s quickly converted to glucose. It’s not until the stomach cries out “that’s enough,”
that some people feel full. Unfortunately, the more dependent on rich, refined foods people
become, the more challenging it is to reverse the trend and better utilize a healthy variety of more
slowly digested, nutrient-rich foods.
Many other dietery imbalances pose similar health risks. Too much salt is also linked to

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vascular damage and high blood pressure. Too much alcohol can damage the liver. A taste for
grease, fat and oils can elevate artery clogging cholesterol levels. Over-eating, in general, can
contribute to colon cancer, poor circulatory function, and other ailments besides the obvious
threat of obesity. And there are many more dangers of poorly balanced diets.
But perhaps the single greatest common dietary harm that doesn’t get much attention is
failing to breastfeed infants, relying instead on sweetened formula. Early mother’s milk, known
as colostrum, contains many biomolecules important to healthy development. An infant diet
combination of sweetened formula and juice, high in acids and sugar, will likely result in
corroded teeth and a sickly childhood. The longer a predominately sweet, refined diet is
continued in childhood, the more susceptible to infection and disease the child will be.
Eventually the child’s health and immunity may be so compromised that irreversible damage will
occur. When that point is passed, the child’s entire future could be adversely affected and it may
be too late to make things right.
Living in a time of plenty has presented humans with unprecedented advantages and
disadvantages. Abundant and convenient food supplies have afforded the opportunity for men to
grow larger than ever before. The heavy giants of yesteryear are of little notice today as mankind
progresses toward the size of elephants. But the abundance and convenience of modern food
production has been accompanied by toxins and eating habits that threaten to disrupt the critical
chemical balance of nature.
Changing to a healthy lifestyle isn’t easy, but people should perservere. The reliance on,
and addiction to, unhealthy refined foods, and a sedentary lifestyle that developed over many
years will be difficult to abandon in just a few days, or even a few weeks, however, in time the
body will adjust in positive ways and a healthy lifestyle will become easier, with the rewards of
more energy and better health being apparent.
While the public has battled internal diet and exercise demons, the civil law, or tort,
system has become another tool for the wicked. The same kind of irresponsible people that
legislated the cost of health care through the roof, in conjunction with money-hungry,
ambulance-chasing attorneys, are also costing working Americans a fortune in meritless lawsuits.
It’s gotten so bad that some people invite a medical mistake so they can sue for malpractice in
hopes of hitting the hospital lotto.
Those people need to get a clue that life doesn’t come with a guarantee of riches in the
event of an accident. There are even jurors so dumb as to think that they’re evening scores with
doctors and big companies by awarding huge rewards to plaintiffs. But when they think they’re
striking a blow against the man, they’re actually burying everyone but the plaintiff and lawyers
under a crushing burden of debt.
Somehow, in this litigious, welfare society, people have developed an obscene sense of
entitlement. They refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. They drive the highways
carefree, ignoring the inherent dangers in high speed travel, and then sue for millions in the case
of an accident. All drivers should be held to high standards of safety, much more so than the
common standards of today. But still, there’s no guarantee that accidents won’t happen, and
those that can’t accept that fact need to stay home.
And someone driving a million dollar car can leave that at home as well, or be ready to
loose that much value, because other drivers shouldn’t be liable to pay for another man’s million
dollar status symbol in the event of an accident. People have come to rely on the government to
raise their kids; bail them out of floods; comfort them in a storm; support them when they’ve
spent beyond their means; and support them when they’re injured or out of work; regardless of
their own fault or irresponsible behavior.
Well, too much is more than enough. Failing to get a lid securely on a cup of coffee isn’t

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a multi-million dollar offense. Neither is failing to warn employees of every possible scheme
some pervert may concoct to get people’s pants off. And cigarette companies aren’t responsible
for all the people that light up knowing full-well that they’re inhaling smoke. What fool would
ever think inhaling smoke is healthy? The cure for a detrimental, out-of-control, civil legal
system is to restrict lawsuits. Individual juries are going well beyond remediation of specific
injustice, and adversely impacting the lives of the public-at-large.
Mistakes will be made, accidents will happen, and nobody does perfect work. Everybody
makes mistakes in their work; waitresses get orders wrong, architects put lines and figures where
they shouldn’t be, teachers give incorrect answers, receivers drop passes, engineers forget details,
and doctors miss symptoms. Patients and the rest of society should expect realistic results. If one
in a hundred people die from surgical complications, then potential patients should realize that
one person could be them, and they should find out why people are dying and learn what can be
done to prevent it, when considering the cost and benefit of any procedure.
People should exercise caution and thoroughly evaluate risks and side effects, while
receiving all available relevant information from providers of goods and services. But, to try to
hold people to errorless standards is contrary to the facts of life. Patients, drivers, employees, and
everybody else need to assume their own risk. It’s imperative that monetary punitive awards be
barred from lawsuits involving honest mistakes neither intentional or reckless. Professional
sanctions and criminal prosecution are more appropriate corrective action than inflated jury
awards when purposeful misconduct is involved, and those sanctions are less transferrable to
consumers to bear in the form of inflated costs.
As the medium of exchange modern economies are based on, the function and control of
money is critical to economic security. All the talk of money and how to divide it makes one
wonder where money comes from. When people think of money they commonly think of cash. In
the U.S. cash is printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when the Federal Reserve
advises that the economy will need more currency. This usually occurs, among other times,
during the Christmas shopping season when people go to their banks and request cash out of their
checking and savings accounts.
The Federal Reserve, or the Fed, serves commercial banks in a manner similar to the way
commercial banks serve the public. It’s a quasi-governmental entity that manages joint assets and
concerns of commercial banks and reports to the government. After printing, the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing delivers the currency, or Federal Reserve Notes, to the Federal Reserve.
Once at the Fed, the currency isn’t yet in the economy, it just sits there until traded for some
asset. Cash isn’t just loaned out to banks, the Fed trades for, or buys, assets to hold as collateral
until such time as the cash is redeemed, with the Fed.
In olden times, the Fed, and before that the Treasury, traded dollars for gold and silver.
That’s why old paper dollars were known as gold or silver certificates. The currency could
actually be redeemed for gold or silver. For example a $5 bill, or silver certificate, read: “FIVE
DOLLARS IN SILVER PAYABLE TO THE BEARER UPON DEMAND.” Nowadays the Fed commonly buys debt
instruments such as Treasury Securities. When there’s an excess of cash in the economy, such as
after the Christmas season is over, the Fed simply sells some of the securities in its posession.
Trading securities or other assets for cash gets the cash back in the hands of the Fed and out of
the economy. When putting cash in the economy the Fed could pay sellers of Treasury Notes in
cash. But most ‘money’ is represented by balances in accounts like checking and savings
accounts, and those people from whom the Fed is buying securities will probably prefer an
addition to their bank account balance over receiving payment in cash. With the sellers’ accounts
credited, the cash is made available to be withdrawn by account holders when cash is needed.
That demonstrates how cash is introduced and removed from the economy, but it’s

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somewhat surprising to realize that cash is a minor fraction of the money supply. Although we
measure our monetary accounts like savings and checking accounts in terms of dollars, those
accounts are no more than numbers on paper and in machines. Actual cash is used with
proportionally less frequency in the electronic age of debit cards and electronic transfers. The
majority of the money supply, that represented by numbers in computers, is just pulled out of thin
air. That money is ‘created’ through bank loans by the money multiplier effect. By regulation,
banks may only lend a portion of funds held in deposit. The ratio of what must be held in reserve
and what can be lent is called the reserve ratio.
As a simplified example, if somebody deposits $100 in a bank savings account and the
reserve ratio is 10%, the bank must hold $10 and can loan $90 to someone else. When that $90 is
deposited in a bank that bank must hold $9 and can loan $81 to somebody else. The process
continues as long as there are borrowers and deposits in excess of the reserve ratio. Carrying the
process to conclusion, the initial $100 deposit can generate $900 in loans. Considering that all of
the resulting ‘money’ is borrowed except the initial $100 deposit, the net worth of the accounts
totaling $1,000 is still only $100. The net worth never exceeded the initial deposit, or the seed
money.
Since today’s currency is only legal tender for the payment of debt, with no intrisic value,
and most money is just represented by debits and credits in account books, why should the Fed
waste money buying assets with cash? It almost seems like the acquisition of Treasury debt
securities is a clever way to finance the federal debt. And also considering that the collateral for
much of the original seed money from the Federal Reserve, that banks increase through the
money multiplier effect of deposits and loans, is government debt instruments that should one
day be repaid, it becomes apparent that if all of the public paid their debts, along with the federal
government, there wouldn’t be any money left.
That’s an alarming realization. The U.S. economy is funded almost exclusively by debt.
Without debt there’d be no money. Is the monetary policy that’s the foundation of the American
economy just a game of smoke and mirrors? The implications are both frightening and
disturbing.
That is, until one realizes that money is just a form of IOU, a way to keep track of
accounts. Without indebtedness there would be no IOU’s, thus no money. But, money, as an IOU
is like a contract. There’s an implied contract that the holder of money is entitled to receive a
certain amount of goods and services. And it’s that implied contract that’s most harmed by
inflation.
Ideally, money, as a contract for future goods and services, shouldn’t diminish in value
over time. Yet that’s exactly what inflation is doing, it’s robbing people of their savings. One
dollar saved by a worker in 1970 was worth only 19 cents in 2006, meaning an item costing $1 in
1970 cost more than five dollars in 2006. As if that’s not bad enough, the government taxes
capital gains without factoring out inflation. So, if someone purchased an asset for $1,000 in
1970 and sold that asset for $5,250 in 2006, he would be taxed on $4,250 of imaginary income,
leaving him worse off financially.
Inflation is nothing more than a rise in the price for which a provider is willing to sell a
product and a consumer is willing to buy a product. Prices are largely determined by the supply
of goods and services in proportion to the supply of money. If productivity increases made goods
and sevices more abundant, and the supply of money remained unchanged, prices would drop, in
a movement known as deflation. If product supply disruptions, such as a drought, oil embargo or
licensing restriction, limited product availability, prices of affected products would escalate. And
if product supplies remained constant, and a reduction in lending activity decreased the amount
of money in the economy, prices would go down. Conversely, as bank lending increases the

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amount of money in the economy, prices tend to rise.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve manipulates the money supply by changing
interest rates. The Fed, and many economists, actually encourage moderate inflation; claiming
that it keeps the economy growing. But purposeful inflation is bad policy, and those economists
are getting their cause and effect relationships confused. Of course, inflation accompanies an
aggressive economy with high borrowing activity, but inflation isn’t the force driving the
economy, it’s an adverse side effect of increased borrowing.
Actually, manipulating interest rates is not the proper mechanism for controlling
inflation, as it has adverse side effects as well. Not least of which is the cyclical bust and boom
nature of an economy driven by changing and unpredictable interest rates. In addition, some
consumers and businesses are harmed by high rates while others are rewarded with low rates.
With the real winners being lenders charging refinancing fees.
Banks are in business to make money, and they do; otherwise they wouldn’t be in
business long. But, what might happen if the government were the sole legal lender, and all
lending activity was transacted through public banks, instead of private banks? Unearned wealth
currently being siphoned by investors in the form of interest payments could be financing public
programs, and combatting the ballooning national debt. In fact, if the money supply was
controlled to prevent inflation, all private interest income could be abolished, and the federal
government could be reduced to the point of being largely financed by interest earnings. Because
labor produces goods and services, and money doesn’t, it’s labor that should be rewarded with
goods and services produced, not money. Eliminating private interest income would be a step
toward realizing a fair economy.
No matter who’s lending money, however, be it private citizens or the public, interest
rates should be fixed at a reasonable rate to encourage stability, and discourage waste, wealth
siphoning, and roller coaster style swings in borrowing and development, with associated
employment fluctuations. Interest rate change by the Fed is aimed at adjusting money supplies by
encouraging or discouraging lending activities. But there are two less harmful means of adjusting
the money supply. One method to adjust the money supply is to adjust the money multiplier
factor, or reserve ratio. The low reserve ratio set by the Fed in recent years has encouraged
lending and inflation. Moving the reserve ratio from 10% closer to 20% would strengthen banks
in addition to reducing inflation.
Another simple method to limit borrowing is to lower the debt to equity ratio of loans.
That’s accomplished by requiring a larger down payment or reducing the percentage of a home’s
value that can be financed, for example. This makes sound financial sense for a number of
reasons. It encourages responsible savings, combats inflation, and most importantly, helps
prevent people from borrowing beyond their means of repayment. History is full of examples of
consumers and businesses making poor economic choices, borrowing beyond their means and
not managing money wisely. A recent example is the bank crises of 2007 and 2008 due to rising
rates of payment default, or foreclosures.
Real estate experienced a highly inflationary period in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The
upward price pressure was aided by easy money and speculative investment. Speculative real
estate investing was fueled by the decline of the stock markets in late 2001, with investors
seeking more profitable venues for their money. With easy access to money through low interest
rates and low down payments, buyers outbid one another as prices climbed to record levels.
When consumers predictably failed to keep up with their high house payments in a struggling
service-based economy, many banks and investors lost their real estate gamble.
Unfortunately, politicians have a tendency to bail out crying homeowners and failed
investments, compounding the harm to responsible consumers. That harm is three-fold. Firstly,

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politicians spend taxpayer money and add to the national debt by making payments to poorly
managed banks. Secondly, the real estate market remains artificially inflated, hurting home
buyers by causing them to pay more than homes are truly worth. That inflationary effect is
similar to the inflationary effect of government housing assistance. In many low-income areas,
government housing payments are keeping rent prices higher than free market forces would
allow. And thirdly, others are encouraged to take imprudent risks because they see yet another
case of the Federal government subsidizing stupidity. That sort of safety net funded by taxpayer
money encourages unreasonable risk, just as it encourages people to build homes on beaches and
floodplains.
But it’s hard to imagine a more blatant waste of money than an “economic stimulus” cash
handout like politicians authorized for the initial economic downturn of 2008. What kind of idiot
believes borrowing more money is the answer to an economy buried under too much debt
already? If people were smart they’d save that stimulus money to pay the higher taxes the
stimulus itself will precipitate in coming years. Unfortunately, instead of providing any long term
strength to the American economy, much of the stimulus money will go overseas to pay for
Chinese consumer goods and Middle Eastern oil. The economy isn’t suffering from a superficial
lack of confidence, it’s suffering from high debt, a skyrocketing trade imbalance, tremendous
waste, and a poor competitive position.
To think that the economy won’t be healthy without government stimulation is irrational.
People don’t need additional incentive to buy what they want to have, and work to provide what
others are willing to pay for. That’s the most natural aspect of an economy; people exchanging
goods and services for overall benefit. Without interference, free economies naturally balance the
affluence people want with the labor they’re willing to invest. People would neither sit on a
warehouse full of spoiling or obsolete product, nor pay for things of inadequate perceived
benefit. Government policies of fluctuating interest rates and currency values is only promoting
waste and harboring investing wealth vultures.
Currency trading, taking advantage of international value fluctuations, is another source
of wealth piracy. When the dollar gains in value against the yen or euro, traders buy yens or euros
and hold them until the dollar loses value, at which time they’re able to buy more dollars than
they originally held. By repeating the cycle with various international currencies, professional
traders siphon some wealth from working people.
And even normal currency exchange, in travel or trade, is assessed wasteful finance
charges. In fact, America’s massive trade deficit with China is due in part to monetary policy. By
keeping their currency valued as a percentage of the dollar, for a long time Chinese leaders
gauranteed that Chinese goods would be inexpensive, resulting in a trade surplus. Different
monetary systems foster competitive advantages, and a united world needs one world currency to
improve efficiency and equality.
There are many economic systems designed to create and distribute wealth. But economic
prosperity is only one facet of life, and it should be balanced by fun and consideration of the
quality of life of our fellow earthlings, among other things. Despite all of this discussion about
economic efficiency, concentrating on economics above all else is a juvenile affair. For the
reality of life is such that a successful economy is not necessarily full-employment, high-
production or even material wealth. Economies are successful when people have what they want,
for the labor and resources they’re willing to invest, at an environmental price that they and their
fellow earthlings are comfortable with.

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 Education
America is becoming a land of excuses instead of action, where reasons not to do things
are outnumbering reasons to achieve, and the can-do attitudes are succumbing to the better-nots.
The culture is one of regulation and discouragement, full of discontent and litigation; and
requiring increased career or business investment. But with greater investment comes greater
risk; and business enterprise and career development is more and more a gamble of growing
stakes.
Gone are the days when children learned beside their mothers and fathers. Today young
people are no longer encouraged to pursue simple, progressive career goals whereby they can
overcome small hurdles of doubt and gradually realize professional success. Instead they’re
asked to jump through seemingly endless hoops, invest years of their time, and tens of thousands
of dollars for a college degree in the hope that they may then start a successful career in their
chosen field. Unfortunately, quite frequently graduates can’t find meaningful employment in the
field of their study or they come to realize they'd rather perform, or would better benefit from, a
different line of work.
Even in those instances when university graduates enter their chosen professions, they
often do so in low-wage jobs. Why are people required to undertake years of formal education at
considerable cost to themselves, only to end up filling so many entry-level, low-paying jobs?
And why are so many college graduates unemployed? Quite simply, because education as an
American institution is another fantastic failure of monopoly and politics. In much the same way
as the legal system and healthcare are substantially controlled by the American Bar Association
and the American Medical Association, education is monopolized and championed by teachers
unions, inept politicians and other self-interested, naive butt-insky's.
In it’s present state, education is a bloated, ridiculously overrated institution choking the
diversity and free will of America's youth and continually lobbying for more money and control
over the American public. Being a long-time political issue, politicians want to throw money at
the behemoth while increasingly bullying local districts. Only through stupidity do people
continue to promote increased educational costs as the answer to economic and social problems.
Popular leaders are clearly ignorant of the current state and contribution of formal
education in America. Certainly a president that couldn’t learn the difference between nuclear
and nukuler, whatever that is; wasn't the person to be setting an agenda for every public school
district in the country. Unfortunately, by “leaving no child behind” the future of America is being
herded over a cliff into a deep ocean of debt and ignorance. And the best kept secret in education
is that reliance on the current wasteful and ineffective educational system is causing extensive
damage to the American economy.
What's the core source of educational dysfunction? That's no mystery, it's the same source
of waste and conflict that plagues all life on earth. The true problem is selfishness, of course: the
root of evil. Although selfishness often manifests as blatant abuse or confrontation; it's frequently
subtle and deceptive, as in the case of self-serving education. Like most any institution, education
has grown to look out for itself, to take care of it's own. In many ways education mirrors religion.
Though often opposed by religion; as they're incompatible in theory, and in direct competition for
the minds and money of the masses; education mimicks religion.
The more religion and education people have, the more proponents say they need, even as
the two often weigh like anchors around the neck of society struggling to stay afloat in troubling
economic or political times. And the more obstacles they face, the more blind obedience is
demanded. When religion fails to deliver on its promises, the public is told they aren't praying
enough; and when education doesn't cure economic ills as proponents have predicted, the

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prescribed course of action is to waste more freedom and resources on more of the same.
Educational performance is determined by motivation. Obviously, student motivation is
important in shaping the educational experience, but, just as motivation is key to understanding
the evolution of religion, there's much to be learned by understanding the motivation of
educational leaders. Is it right that teachers should determine the role of education? Is it right that
employees decide the course of the enterprise; instead of the customers, as would be the case if
education was a “free-market” and it were in fact students and their parents choosing the
methods, content, extent and direction of their own education? That's a very profound question:
why are the purported beneficiaries not in charge of their own educations?
Teachers and politicians have seized control of education. And to understand the
motivation of those in control, it's necessary to remember the first rule of the ego: perception is
limited by self-interest and self-importance.
Note how the television announcers carry on like today's news is the most important news
the public has ever heard, or today's game is the best game ever played and today's player is the
greatest of all time. Their limited perspectives are overwhelmed by the inertia of the moment as
the big picture is obscured by action at hand. Just as firemen are said to have the most important
jobs in the world when the conversation is about fighting fires, and police have the most
important jobs when the conversation is about law enforcement; teachers are considered to be the
greatest people doing the most important jobs when the conversation centers on education.
That narrow-minded bias for the topic at hand affects not only teachers, but also the
people that feel compelled to run for school boards. Of the long laundry list of reasons why
someone would choose to run for any elected position, chief among them is the ego: that quest
for recognition as an important person. So, at the local level, schools are typically ran by people
that think themselves important and naturally have a bias for more of what they're involved with;
in this case formal education and greater control of student lives through the processes thereof.
School board members once had a great deal of control over local school system affairs,
but that authority has been usurped by politicians higher up the political food chain: those at the
state and national levels. And after seizing power, the politicians turned around and delegated
control to state boards and departments of education, which are themselves dominated by
teachers and the powerful teacher unions. To point: state laws stipulating state boards of
education must be comprised of a majority of certified teachers.
The monopoly of education by teachers is so extensive that for many, many years only
graduates of a limited number of certified teaching programs have been allowed teaching
certificates; and it's not students and their parents that set curriculum and policy, it's ultimately
teachers. Obviously, it's only natural that teachers exaggerate their own importance and strive to
secure additional funding, jobs, and control for themselves.
But, rather than further identifying the selfish system that effectively guarantees the
failure of education in America, it may be best to consider the role of formal education. The
application of knowledge and wisdom goes far beyond classrooms and even employment.
Everyday, people are continually faced with decisions that affect not only themselves, but all life
on the planet, and even future generations.
With such great potential to affect not only one's own definition of success, but also the
potential impact to others, the need for wise, life-long behavior has never been greater. And it
should be remembered that the knowledge necessary to the development of wise character comes
from many sources throughout a person’s lifetime. Of course, formal education is just one of
those sources of learning. But what’s the objective of formal education? It turns out that a lot of
people, even those involved with school administration haven’t taken the time to carefully
evaluate the role formal education should play in a society.

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 One of the most common perspectives of the usefulness of education involves economic
contribution. In that respect, popular culture has the cart pulling the horse when too much
economic function is attributed to formal education, and industry blames education for its own
failures and business practices not conducive to productive efficiency. The truth is, economic
prosperity is independent of school performance. Education is a crutch unable to support poor
business practices. Politicians and business leaders use education as a scapegoat, but that old goat
will never fix the problems born of poor management. The current business climate is one of
laziness where corporations and institutions keep expecting someone else to train their workers.
And that's why college graduates are flipping burgers; because the system is overwhelmed by
inherent flaws.
Non-economic societal impact is another perspective of the role of education. Elementary
and secondary schools are influential centers of social interaction and character growth in
developing children and young adults. As more time has been devoted to formal education and
society has grown more mobile, children have been spending proportionately less time learning
from, and interacting with, older members of their families and communities. That growing
tendency of being surrounded and influenced by peers has contributed to a generational gap and
loss of positive family and community values.
The common approach to evaluating the educational system is an attempt to determine
the effectiveness of school programs in furthering chosen objectives. But, long before asking
how formal education has met stated goals, it should be considered what objectives are best
served by formal education. As it turns out, common demands of education and the best use of
education are often far from agreement. And as with any endeavor, true educational success can
only be determined through understanding the potential and realized costs, limits and benefits of
education.
Career preparation and social value promotion are two relevant school benefits. Others
might include keeping children safe, happy, and entertained. Also, in promoting social values,
the public may benefit from reduced crime, better resource usage, environmental protection, and
increased consideration and social awareness. In addition to those potential benefits and
objectives, student interest can be stimulated and nourished, encouraging better mental health
and enduring passion for learning.
Besides mental activities, students can benefit from physical activities aimed at
improving overall physical fitness and health; and athletic or similar competitions have been
argued to promote teamwork, problem solving and leadership. Furthermore, library, art, and
music courses can entertain, inspire, and encourage students to excel artistically. History and
social studies allow students to know what events have given rise to modern society, and learn
more about other cultures. And certainly health, driver's education, math, science, and language
arts classes can instill practical, commonly useful knowledge beneficial to overall quality of life.
Certainly there aren’t enough hours in a day to teach all subjects that can be included in
school curriculum. That brings up an important question; what price should people pay for
education? How much time should be devoted (even wasted) to sitting in classrooms anyway?
Countering all of the purported benefits of formal education are the costs and limits of
educational institutions. Direct financial costs are important considerations, and environmental
costs such as transportation pollution and waste should always be counted, but perhaps the most
overlooked costs are opportunity costs that include lost income and productivity. Even still, lost
income and productivity is probably secondary to the very real lost opportunity for students to
engage in more preferred activity.
At times it seems insignificant, and it’s commonly disregarded by administrators and the
public alike, but student happiness is of critical importance to life and education. Because

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pleasure, or joy, is the highest purpose of life, a life not enjoyed is a life not worth living. In the
best scenario every minute of every day would be cherished and spent in the pursuit of happiness,
because life, and especially the innocence of childhood, is fleeting. This is especially clear when
considering that some children, through accident, disease, and catastrophe, won’t live beyond
school age. So never let it be forgotten that the future is but the distant present, and future
concerns are an extension of present needs and must be balanced by happiness in the moment.
Joy is for all time; it's not right to delay pleasure indefinitely, for that time may never come. And
in reality, the dangers of failing to prepare for the future are often equaled or surpassed by the
harm of denying joy in the present.
Finally, beyond the limits of cost sacrifices people are willing to make, there are very real
physical limits to learning, especially in boring classrooms. There’s a limit to how much one will
learn in a day, and there’s a balance to be struck between learning and enjoyment. The human
mind doesn’t remember anywhere near all of the vast information it processes in a day. Nor does
it function at a high level for long periods at a time. With brain function and lasting learning
falling off during the day, education is only as productive as the amount of interest students have
in the curriculum. No system of education can prepare students to know all of the important
decisions they will face in life, nor all of the job functions they may be asked to perform. But
good education can instill students with a foundation that will enable them to learn what they
need to learn when that's known in the future, and to make wise decisions for a lifetime.
Given the physical and various cost limits of learning, knowledge must be prioritized to
maximize benefit. As other body development and performance is influenced by such factors as
inherited traits, environmental variables, exercise, and diet, so too is brain development. In
addition to those factors of mental accuity, the result of mental exercise is affected by the
attention given to various subjects. Since the sum can total no more than the whole, attention
given to any subject is necessarily unavailable for other matters. And that helps to explain why
high achievers aren’t necessarily smarter than other people, but rather they are more focused on
particular tasks. For example, some savants might be brilliant with dates and numbers, but
severely lacking in life skills because so much of their mental focus is directed toward obsessing
with dates and numbers. Sometimes excellence at some tasks correlates to deficiencies in other
tasks or disciplines.
Despite reputations for being daycares ran by homework assigning tyrants, people want
and expect different things from school systems. Some want schools to champion student
prosperity. Others want to impart as much knowledge as time and money allows. And still others
hope to improve the living conditions of the community by producing good citizen-students.
Considering the great variety of possible educational benefits along with associated costs and
limits, it becomes clear that education can’t be all things to all people, and classroom study can
realistically provide only a fraction of well-rounded knowledge.
So, it’s imperative that a concerted effort be made to impose only highly useful
knowledge as the core of elementary education. With education, less really can be more. Less
stress, confusion, and wasted effort results in more practical learning. And even more important
than literacy and math is the need for any curriculum to be consistent with the Universal Truths
and Rules of Life. Education is only a means to an end, and the ultimate goal should always be
Health and Happiness for All.
Beyond Health and Happiness for All, the basic 3 R curriculum of early American
schools: reading, writing and arithmetic serves as a good elementary model. That foundation
reflects the basic technical knowledge necessary to function efficiently in a literate, quantitative
society. In an age when pre-school and kindergarten classes were almost unheard of and
scholastic education often didn’t reach and rarely exceeded the eighth grade, increases in

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productivity and standards of living were among the highest in history during the 19th century.
Clearly, historical economic and social advancement was far from dependent on formal
education.
It’s also instructive to consider the fact that school attendance of any kind wasn’t
mandatory in all states of the union until 1918; and prior to that time Americans were more self-
sufficient than the masses even dream of being today. In fact, the educational system would be
much more efficient and quite possibly much more effective if attendance weren't mandatory.
Just imagine how much better the learning environment would be if the students being taught
actually wanted to be there, instead of putting in their time because they are forced to attend.
As education control has been rested from first parents and then communities, mandatory
school attendance expanded, and enrollment in secondary education skyrocketed; and the gap
between rich and poor has mushroomed, common courtesy is in the tank, debt and trade deficits
have exploded, and the American economy is teetering on the brink of catastrophe. During all
this time, popular wisdom has failed to realize the extent of waste and lost opportunity associated
with every growth of the true cancer that is 'education.'
What formerly took parental guidance and later eight years of education from lone
teachers in one-room schoolhouses now takes 17 years and an entire army of principals, assistant
principals, teachers, assistant teachers, coaches, counselors, art enablers, deans and professors.
All the while, new studies have been invented to fill the increasing time allotments. With
increasing non-productive wealth from investing and similar activities, and burgeoning welfare
assistance, the American economy isn’t productive enough for the workforce to finish school at
age 22 or later, bounce around from job to job in search of a long-term career that may never be
found, and expect to comfortably retire by age 65. Years of productive capacity that could be
contributing to society are being utterly wasted in school, along with the freedom and all the
resources consumed in the process.
The underlying problems are very simple: schools are where children are forced to go to
do things they don't want to do; and education is not driven by the goals of those being served. It
may be purported to be, but commonly identified objectives are useless feel-good political
ramblings and pie-in-the-sky fantasies that don’t account for real-world costs and needs. No...
education must be the means to achieve a realistic, beneficial objective. That objective can be as
simple as producing a literate population, or as ambitious as training scientists and engineers. But
whatever the objective is, it needs to be defined and the educational system and curriculum needs
to be tailored to satisfy the objective. Public education is a misguided effort of generalization in a
world of economic specialization.
The focus of mainstream education needs to be returned to the basic core of literacy and
mathematics. Other studies, while interesting and somewhat useful, aren’t as necessary for
everyone to learn. Even much of what is currently studied in math and grammar amounts to
wasted effort. The public has little use for learning grammatical structure, which is merely a
confusing scheme of dividing and classifying parts of speech and writing, and it has virtually no
practical application. While that may seem like a severe statement, it’s absolutely true. What is
severe is the waste of youth in such fruitless labors. Not only does the general public not benefit
from years of wasted study of grammatical structure, the average person can’t begin to identify
all the artificial divisions of the written word. Even though valuable time and effort is expended
in studying sentence structure in school, only a tiny percentage of the population knows the
difference between irregular verbs and regular conjugations.
Fortunately, people have no need to remember such trivia; there’s no need to know the
roles of prepositions, adverbs, conjugates, and other grammatical classifications. Much of the
study of grammar has been a scholarly exercise of taking something simple and making it

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tediously complicated. As with most such endeavors, the study of grammar has been pushed by
those standing to gain, namely teachers.
Communication is the role of language whether written or spoken. And people were
effectively communicating hundreds of thousands of years prior to scholars embarking on a
mission to classify the words and structure of language. Such a classification system was
unnecessary before it was developed, and serves little useful purpose today. Did William
Shakespeare know the definition of a compound participle, or appositive phrase? It makes no
matter whether he did of did not, for he didn’t need to.
Most distinctions between verbs and adjectives, semicolons and commas, or subjects and
clauses can be summarily dismissed. The only rule necessary to effective language use is to
clearly convey intended thoughts or messages. Grammar is that simple; if writing makes sense
then its grammar is correct. Writing that clearly expresses, or communicates, the intended idea
without confusion or contradiction is good writing.
Actually, it’s surprisingly absurd to spend so much time teaching English without
improving the language, or teaching math without adopting the international system of units. It
almost seems, for example, like there’s a long-standing conspiracy by English teachers to
sabotage the language for job security. But, sadly for conspiracy theorists, English teachers
haven't coordinated such a successful scheme; the present twisted state of English study, and
education in general, results from a long tradition of self-interest, laziness and short-sightedness.
As things stand, students certainly don’t need to be taught in school an arbitrary
classification system to legitimize the communication skills they’ve learned from infancy, and
continue to learn through everyday communication. Children have learned to express themselves
by the first time they say “I’m hungry.” The meaning is understood regardless of whether
scholars may choose to define ‘I’m’ as a subject, possessive noun, or a zadoodledink. But
educators, convinced of their own importance and consumed with justifying a paycheck, continue
to insist on wasting time and effort on studies with little or no practical benefit. America’s
students are being held hostage by ineffectual educators, who are, in turn, hostage to state and
national regulatory boards of education and are, in large part, ineffectual by law..
Anyone that doesn’t recognize the educational assault on personal liberty fails to
understand the concept of mandatory, or compulsory, education. America’s youth is being forced
to attend school and learn what educators choose to teach. While students do benefit from studies
with widespread practical application, it’s harmful to forget that forced activity violates personal
freedom. Because there are always losses associated with degradation of personal freedom,
efforts must be made to moderate educational directives with practical expectations considering
opportunity cost and learning limits.
Many studies and pursuits are sometimes, but not nearly universally, fascinating and
rewarding. The subject of history is an excellent example of knowledge that is splendidly
captivating for many people, but contributes very limited practical impact to the common
citizen’s quality of life. Whether the War of 1812 continued into 1813, or Cyrus preceded
Xerxes, or the Ordovician Period preceded the Cenozoic Era, or whether the first printing press
was invented in China well before Gutenberg’s lifetime, may make for interesting trivial pursuit,
but doesn’t offer practical benefit to everyday life.
It’s sufficient to examine a brief summary course of history that would adequately explain
the origin and development of life and civilization. Suffice it to say that the reader of this book
has had an ample introduction to history for practical purposes; and practical purposes should
define modern curriculum. People wishing to know more of the fascinating subject of history are
encouraged to voluntarily watch history documentaries on television and read selections from the
vast collections of history books. Certainly, no subject is better received or learned than that

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undertaken of voluntary free will.
There’s a tremendous difference between being free to study subjects of interest and
being forced to study subjects chosen by another. And that’s at the core of mandatory education’s
problems. While art and music are wonderfully rewarding pursuits for some people, they
shouldn’t be part of a mandatory curriculum. And while it may be interesting to know that some
Amazonian tribespeople paint their faces; and wear large disks in their ears and lips; exhaustive
social studies shouldn’t be forced on school children because they have much more important
activities to occupy their time. Even the study of science, being both interesting and important,
should be limited in mandatory curricula. Because, knowing facts such as molten rock is called
magma underground and lava aboveground provides the average person with almost no tangible
benefit.
Modern school curriculum is wretchedly inflated and misguided. What’s worse, not only
is the popular curriculum wrong, it’s also taught incorrectly. What can be a challenging job, is
made tediously more difficult and off-task by ever-increasing “training and performance”
pressures imposed by politicians. Teaching today is very similar to learning in school: it's a
frustrating exercise in hoop-jumping and pandering. More and more effort is being directed away
from the task of teaching and toward seemingly endless reporting to politicians and government
departments.
It’s quite regrettable that many teachers are working for a salary, not working for their
students. In fact, many teachers have no concept of what they can or should be contributing to
their students’ life experience. Everyday, teachers should ask themselves what they’re going to
contribute to students’ future happiness or benefit to life on earth. Should they not have a
worthwhile answer to that question, they have no business robbing precious time and energy
from children’s lives. Though, like the majority of the population, because most teachers have a
delusional view of their own importance and contribution, the question should really be posed by
impartial observers.
Furthermore, what does it say about a system where employees boss customers, as
teachers boss students? Teachers have lost sight of the singular purpose of their professional
existence, that of serving students. But part of the conflict and even animosity between students
and teachers is the direct result of the compulsory nature of formal education. The resentment
students feel at having activities and work forced upon them ensures that even knowledge
retained for the sake of testing will likely not be long remembered.
There may be no institution better suited to performance review by customer satisfaction
indexes than education; a field with very little measurable administrative product. How better to
know if children are happy and satisfied than to ask them? It may be true that all students will
never be satisfied because some of them just don’t want to be in school, but formal,
comprehensive student surveys serve to identify both good policy and faculty performance, while
also indicating areas of concern and areas of improvement.
But satisfaction surveys shouldn’t stop there. Good administrators, like good
businessmen, make use of the vast body of collective knowledge around them, and build
teamwork to achieve common goals. Administrators can seek the input of students and staff
alike. And parents should definitely have much greater control in the education of their children.
And, not to be forgotten, former students should be surveyed periodically after graduation, when
they’ve had a chance to reflect on their past and consider what they wish they would have done
differently; reaping the benefit of experience and hindsight.
A popular myth in urgent need of correction is the notion that children don’t need friends
in authority figures. That mistruth is contributing to the decline of courtesy and goodwill.
Authority invites abuse, and conscious efforts need to be made to preserve a sense of equality

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and friendship. Society has moved from close-knit communities where people were inclined to
treat each other with kindness and respect, and enjoyed a feeling of affection and belonging; to a
mobile society full of strangers and saturated with violent, sensationalist news and media
content. Students need to feel that in teachers they have friends working to help them, because
that’s exactly what they’re being paid to do.
The first thing students should learn is kindness, consideration for all life, and protection
of the environment. These matters should be taught in school as well as at home, and are best
taught by example. Indeed, a comfortable environment is crucial to efficient learning. Fostering
genuine interest in students is difficult in its own right, but distractions caused by fear, anxiety or
discomfort are terribly detrimental to both health and learning. The art of good teaching involves
nourishing interest in beneficial knowledge, in a welcoming atmosphere. There’s a funny thing
about the mind, it remembers what it wants to, and resists forced memory. The reason being:
memory is reinforced through successive recollection. While recalling pleasant memories is
soothing and healthy, forced repetition of unpleasant or unwanted memories is actually stressful,
unhealthy, and represents lost time that could be better spent.
Students primarily fail not because they’re dumb, but because they aren’t fully
comfortable with and interested in what they’re doing, where they’re at, and who they’re with.
Optimal learning occurs at the pace and environment most comfortable to the student. And
comfort preferences are just part of the intellectual process that makes people different. Thought
patterns vary among individuals. Two people of similar cognitive capacity may pass time
thinking about wildly different matters. Some people more readily focus on a singular subject
while others are constantly aware of environmental conditions and peripheral activity. Some
students immerse themselves in one topic and others touch on more topics than an encyclopedia.
There are also those people that can sense the sincerity of a smile and emotion behind the
subtlest of actions, while others are oblivious to the feelings of others. Some of the most socially
awkward, or culturally challenged people are also some of the highest academic performers. It
turns out that intellectual endeavor is influenced as much, or more, by focus as intelligence. And
while task oriented individuals can be selectively productive, it’s also good to have people
around that are cognizant of the big picture.
Good teachers find a way to keep their students at ease and happy. Good teachers also
either successfully nurture subject interest, or fluidly combine the subject with existing student
interest. Instead of mind-numbing repetition, some instructors have more success emulating the
popular trivia contests. At least if kids are having fun challenging each other learning to invert
and multiply fractional division problems then they’re sure to be interested, and if they’re
interested, they’re learning.
On the other hand, even the learning process itself may be a distraction. Time students
spend thinking about the actions of teachers or other school-related activity is time not dedicated
to subject learning. That’s why learning is so critically affected by student-instructor relations
and general student comfort. The worst teacher is the one that overwhelms subject study by
fomenting antagonism.
One sure way to lose participation and put minds to sleep is to repeat mind-numbing
mathematical equations over and over. To solve intriguing real world mysteries by applying
mathematical concepts and formulas, on the other hand, can spark lively enthusiasm. There’s a
trick to learning that moves boring exercise to the background of exciting discovery.
Mathematical equations that are tedious to remember, are better remembered as part of the
process of achieving less abstract goals. Consider a boy intrigued by airplanes. He might work
tirelessly on trajectory calculations all day long, though he may balk at only trying to memorize
the underlying equations. Teachers will do well to simply remember the goal of education.

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Motivation for learning math isn’t for math’s sake, but to assist students in producing tangible
real world benefits.
To that end the teaching of mathematics is also currently misguided. Math should be
studied less alone and more as part of other disciplines. Instead of telling students that abstract
mathematical concepts are both useful and necessary, more time should be spent solving those
important problems to which math is so necessary. While studying math preparatory to other
disciplines seems to make sense, that approach has some considerable drawbacks. The first
drawback is lack of interest from failing to connect math with personal desire. The number one
complaint from math students at the algebra level and above may be that they’ll have little or no
future use for what they’re supposed to be learning. And, they’re largely correct. The need for
advanced math skills among adults is limited. Even math intensive occupations specialize in
different kinds of math.
Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of studying math is the fact that it will be largely
forgotten before being put to practical use. Because time spent learning information that will be
forgotten is time wasted, people are well served to learn on an as-needed basis. Reliance on
memorization is just another example of educators and social leaders making things more
difficult than they should be. A better approach to math is to keep an easily read book of
mathematical formulas and examples handy as a reference in performing calculations necessary
to productive work. Working mathematical equations is like baking pies. Math equations are like
recipes, only they’re directions for producing answers instead of dishes. It does no good to learn
pie recipes years before baking pies. When the time comes, the baker will have to refer to the
recipe until he naturally remembers the ingredients and instructions.
But almost certainly homework is the greatest example of wasted scholastic effort. The
entire concept of homework is one of a counter-productive exercise in frustration and futility.
The fact that homework is almost universally disliked should be a clear indication that it’s a poor
instrument of learning. Assignment of homework shows a disregard for both opportunity cost
and learning limits. If teachers can’t impart desired knowledge during the school day, they’re
terribly inefficient and have no business teaching.
Demanding that students work after school to learn what educators fail to teach them
during school is forcing students to bear the injustice of poor educational administration. Because
people remember so little of what they experience in a day, homework doesn’t contribute to
learning in proportion to the time and effort involved. And unfinished homework is a cloud
hanging over the nation’s children, darkening their everyday lives, and robbing them of precious
happiness. Children should at least have their nights and weekends free of school anxiety.
After the school day is over, when interest has waned and the mind has tired of exercise,
is not a time conducive to study. In fact, homework challenges whatever positive attitude
students may have for school and learning. By fostering resentment, redundancy and inefficiency,
homework is directly opposed to healthy learning. It must be remembered that only high student
interest will result in high subject comprehension, and lasting, effective learning. Due to stress
and distraction, forced learning isn’t nearly as successful as voluntary observation and study.
Subjects studied but not learned are subjects teachers failed to make fun and interesting. On the
other hand, any school that kids can’t wait, or at least look forward, to go back to is doing
something right.
Upon thoughtful consideration it becomes readily apparent that America doesn’t suffer
from too little education, but from too much inappropriate education. The institution of education
has been a self-serving monster intent on consuming more time and money instead of
concentrating on transferring a high level of beneficial knowledge with minimal sacrifice.
Success is not a measure of sacrifice, but rather, a measure of benefit, and the two aren’t as

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closely linked as popularly believed. The true curiosity and desire to learn that pays big dividends
is quickly drowned under menial busy work in today’s scholastic system. And that’s very
unfortunate. However, it also means that there’s tremendous opportunity for improvement and
reason for optimism.
People are amazed to learn that wise education management can provide a high school
quality education by the eighth grade; and absolutely astonished when they’re told that college
educations can and should be completed in high school. But it’s positively true. With accelerated
learning reforms high school education can be every bit the equal of today’s college education. In
order to suck in more revenue, universities promote their degree programs as well-rounded,
comprehensive studies; instead of focusing on specialized study as they should.
As filler, they require; yes require, just like the filler in compulsory elementary education;
completion of courses in the arts, humanities and even physical education. All the while most of
these universities are sucking away tax money to fund the egregious waste of collegians in
bowling class and other wasteful efforts. Is it even the slightest wonder that college degrees are
some of the most over-rated economic boondoggles in the world today when one considers that
classes such as beginning judo, tennis and art appreciation are prerequisites for business and
science degrees?
The economy, even employers, would be better off if job applicants just downloaded
degrees from the internet as opposed to wasting four or more years of their lives getting any one
of a myriad of university degrees that are virtually worthless. Career preparation should involve
just that; practical job performance preparation. But colleges, like elementary schools are largely
concerned with keeping people busy until they pass through the system. All the while, simpletons
talk up university study as rigorous performance enhancement. A high quality eighth grade
education and real vocational study and training in high school can well surpass the useful skill
set conferred by typical university degrees.
But that really shouldn’t come as a shock to inquisitive people, because it’s not hype, it’s
just the honest truth of the margin for improvement in the modern educational system. The real
deception comes from those who might imagine that licensed professionals don’t pull their pants
on one leg at a time. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that many tasks legally reserved for
only holders of high professional licenses could be performed by monkeys in trousers.
Surely people wonder why a quality American made push lawn mower can be purchased
for a little more than $100, but a set of small metal braces to align teeth costs about $4,000. The
reason why orthodontists make out like bandits is obvious to any thinking man, the extra cost is
the price consumers pay for government meddling and regulation of the healthcare industry.
Obviously a little tensioning wire inserted in brackets glued to teeth requires no more labor or
material than the production of a lawn mower. Actually, an entire set of metal tooth brackets cost
around $30-$40, but the cost of braces exceeds one whole lawn mower per tooth. A person could
even buy four good riding lawn mowers made in America for the price of one set of orthodontic
braces. If that doesn’t inspire outrage then there must not be any economic common sense left in
America.
It’s especially infuriating when one realizes that there isn’t any good reason why
orthodontic work costs ten times what it would in a free market economy. Back before
government got involved, barbers performed dental work. And rightfully orthodontists should
receive wages equivalent to barbers because they perform comparably demanding work. Those
who spend time around orthodontic offices could tell you that the assistants performing much of
the work actually do make barber-style wages while orthodontists are pocketing fortunes. This
makes orthodontists, like so many other medical professionals, leading profiteers in the quest for
unearned income. They make out like mob bosses; extorting a king’s ransom for the menial

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service provided by their assistants.
Who’s fooling who here? What average highschooler can’t be trained to glue brackets to
teeth, bend wire, and insert rubber bands? Or even remove a simple cataract and insert a
replacement lens, a process that takes about ten minutes and, combined with a few simple exams,
brings eye surgeons around $4,000 per eye.
It’s time the tail stopped wagging the big dog of education. Any high school in America
could immediately be reformed to train orthodontists, and professionals of much more
demanding careers. High school education can and should satisfy the objective of training
capable doctors, lawyers, engineers, computer programmers, scientists, web designers,
astronomers, architects and other professionals in high demand. It’s so exciting to understand
that by replacing fluff and time wasting, with professional training as the goal of American
education, high schools can be turning out doctors, lawyers and engineers. In addition, licensing
restrictions should be replaced by free market and full disclosure mechanisms; or, in the very
least educational requirements should be replaced by testing or another demonstration of
functional proficiency.
That’s the rational course of action. All that’s needed is leadership.
But until circumstances and public opinion favor wise policy reform, there are actions
business and industry should take to further efficiency and productivity. The first place to start is
accepting responsibility for enterprise direction and achievement. Organizations have too long
expected education to train their workers. The best available training is on-the-job training, like
the apprenticeships of old. In olden times adolescents went to work with their parents or
apprenticed to other professionals where they learned the skills necessary for their jobs. It worked
well then and there is no other training system that can better teach people to do a job than
actually doing the job. It's no exaggeration to say new employees learn more about performing
their jobs in 6 months than they could in four years of college.
With apprenticeship, new employees can grow into the job at the optimal pace, becoming
a contributing member of society much sooner than through a degree program, without the
tremendous personal burden and waste of tax money. It’s a political battle to be sure, educators
have as much political clout as the medical industry, and they have a great financial stake in
maintaining the status quo requiring university training. That being said, the schools themselves
are an excellent starting point for hiring quality people that can best serve students, regardless of
degree status or formal training.
Other industries should also immunize against the disease of educational waste that
businesses and college graduates absorb so much of. Ultimately, consumers and tax payers are
big losers in the degree game. Still, it’s wrong for companies to think they’re receiving a bargain
by getting training they should provide because it's being paid for by the public. Companies and
industry regulators are shooting themselves and the economy in the foot by requiring university
training. By requiring job candidates to possess a college degree employers ensure that more
people will waste time going to college, and job competition is reduced due to the smaller pool of
eligible candidates, directly contributing to upward salary pressure.
Until the rules change however, prospective employees need to learn to play the game.
People not set in a career should definitely consider entering a career field if licensing restrictions
are soon to be implemented. Often times, existing job holders are ‘grandfathered’ in, while
subsequent professionals are restricted by educational requirements. Of course law, medicine and
other fields with severe licensing restrictions already in place are certainly still good career
choices for those with the time and financial means to complete the required schooling. It’s also a
good idea to review lists of good-paying jobs in high demand published by private organizations
and public agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

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 Regardless of how nice, skilled, or hard-working someone is, if their qualifications don’t
present well on paper, they’re unlikely to get a job of their choosing. When a job vacancy occurs,
employers have to narrow a lengthy list of applicants down to the one person they’ll hire to fill
the open position. For employers, the hiring process is more a process of elimination than an
exhaustive search for prospective employees that will most benefit the organization. Every job
requirement or qualification is an opportunity to reduce the pool of applicants. It’s only by
eliminating everyone else that a new hire is chosen. Job candidates should study what employers
are looking for, rehearse interview skills, and maintain high grade point averages to play the
system before the system plays them and they end up digging ditches for minimum wage or
otherwise donating much of their labor to society’s wealth leeches.
It’s a certainty that the system is set up to benefit those in power, just as it’s certain that
state and national politicians don’t know education’s proper function. They’re forcing curricula
and testing on local schools and tying funding to criteria of their own design; stripping local
schools, through growing totalitarian methodology, of the ability for improvement through self-
determination. Shockingly, population, pollution, greed and waste are out of control at the very
time schools around the world proclaim their own success, proving they have little concept of
what’s truly important in life.
The next time a politician, school administrator or naive do-gooder asks for more money
for education or demands that mandatory attendance be expanded, let it be asked what a dangling
participle is, who the eighth president of the United States was, what a music half-note is, what
they like about Veronese paintings; and why they want to waste tax dollars teaching such trivia?
Better yet, one can go to the local school board and ask them what the school’s customer
satisfaction rating is, or if they even know who their customer is. One should be disappointed,
but not surprised if local school administration can't answer those questions; after all, state and
national officials certainly have misplaced priorities. But of those that understand the basic role
of student advocacy, a scarce few have the intelligence to realize that any school’s highest and
best function is to foster Health and Happiness for All.

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 Population and Environment
Infancy can last a very long time; as virtuous development can be painfully slow in
coming. From the time microorganisms first flourished on earth life has been dominated by self-
interest. Through periods of prosperity and frequent misery and suffering, life has struggled for
survival; waging fierce wars of competition that caused most to suffer. During this time the seed
and body of intellect has grown. Still, in four billion years, civilization has yet to mature. Will
this be the time in which consciousness awakens? Will benevolence blossom in this generation?
Or will society carry on business as usual, with every man for himself; working against
the rest of the world and future generations? Will the legacy of the 21st century be generosity or
greed? Before people can leave a positive legacy, they must come to grips with their impact on
the world. Every action has a consequence, and it’s well past time that humanity considers the
consequence of every action.
Examine the role of the consumer, and the alluring sparkle of diamonds. The sparkling,
crystalline rocks have some very useful properties, but their primary appeal is a function of rarity.
If not for prestige, why do consumers pay hundreds of dollars for a little gem that looks like a
piece of glass? In fact, to the casual eye, glass costume jewelry has the same pretty, sparkling
qualities as precious gems. But, it’s that exclusive rarity that inspires people to pay premiums for
natural diamonds when the difference with high quality synthetic diamonds is difficult for even
diamond experts to distinguish. What’s the total cost of decisions to pay more money for natural
diamonds than equal quality synthetic diamonds?
The true cost is a combination of all the environmental destruction, resource usage, labor,
pollution and opportunity cost involved with the production and delivery of each class of
diamond. People are turning the earth inside out looking for diamonds. But some diamond sales
have had another consequence. In the late 1990’s it was reported that as much as 20% of raw
diamond sales were funding violence in Africa. International actions have since reduced that
amount dramatically. But political implications of diamond, oil and other consumer transactions
brings to light some of the hidden costs of business and purchasing decisions.
In that regard, spending can be viewed as an instrument of harm or healing. And some of
the most common purchasing decisions have far-reaching effects. One clear example would be
the plastic shopping bags littering landscapes and waterways, and adding to the stream of refuse
flooding landfills. The environmental impact of discarded shopping bags is readily apparent, after
all, they’re found along roadsides, in backyards, and nearly everywhere people frequent. But the
total cost of plastic shopping bag production is much greater still.
The highest cost is born by the animals and children that die from eating or suffocating in
plastic bags. But, the first step in plastic shopping bag production is pumping crude oil, which
requires production of wells and drilling equipment, consuming a considerable amount of
resources, energy and labor, and producing a considerable amount of pollution. With the delivery
of well and drilling equipment, labor and energy are required to construct an operating well. Oil
extracted by the well from limited reserves in the ground are then transported with additional
equipment, labor and energy, at an additional pollution and resource cost, to ships for overseas
transport. At the same time as the oil is being extracted, a similar process is being carried out in
the American West to extract coal. After coal mining equipment is produced, adding to pollution
and resource exploitation, the earth is laid back, exposing huge open sores that leach toxins from
tailing piles.
The mined coal is then transported by rail, with additional resource usage and pollution
similar to that produced by the transport of overseas crude oil. It’s delivered to a huge power
plant near the Eastern Seaboard where it’s burned to power an oil refining facility near the coast

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that received the overseas oil destined for plastic shopping bags. Both the oil refining and electric
generating processes produce a great amount of air pollution and other toxic waste products.
From the refinery, resins are transported via diesel powered tractor-trailers to a factory
that consumes more energy and equipment resources to transform it into plastic pellets. The
pellets are then shipped to another factory that actually produces the plastic bags. Once the
plastic bags are made they’re shipped to retail store warehouses and finally to the retail stores
where they’re given to consumers who unceremoniously discard them.
The cost of those shopping bags, that are used once by the consumer to carry groceries or
other goods, include the pollution and resource consumption of every link in the production
chain in addition to the eyesore and environmental hazard they create once discarded. It’s a good
thing that some stores like Wal-Mart offer to recycle their shopping bags, and an even better
practice by Aldi food stores and others that discourage the use of such bags in the first place. But,
regardless of store shopping bag policy, it’s important to realize that all the items and products in
the store share a similar legacy of waste and pollution.
That leads to an important point. Even with improvements in production efficiency and
economic equality, consumption discipline is crucial to Health and Happiness on earth. Not only
can full-time workweeks be reduced in the face of gains of production efficiency, they must be
minimized for resource conservation. Prior to achieving substantial labor conservation however,
the competitive nature of culture needs to be modified.
That desire for self gratification cost the life of the largest living thing in the known world
soon after European-American settlers reached the giant sequoia groves of California. In 1852
Augustus Dowd found a tree, which came to be called the Discovery Tree, that was so large it
defied belief, so what did people do with that 1,300 year old super tree? They cut it down, of
course, to show they could do it.
After felling it by drilling holes through the base because they lacked a saw large enough
to cut through the massive tree, they left the magnificent tree on the ground to rot where it lay
and made a dance floor of the stump. Eventually humanity did manage to overcome the greed of
a few and passed laws to protect some of the more magnificent examples of living giants, some
of which have been around since the time Rome was founded.
It’s not easy for people to overcome braggardliness. But even when he was the richest
man in America, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, chose to drive an old Ford pickup. And
even though people knew he was rich, it took a little courage to maintain a humble lifestyle. Most
wouldn’t demonstrate such restraint by resisting the temptation to flaunt their financial success.
It would be fair to say that more people want to project an aire of wealth like Donald
Trump or a rap star than have the confidence to go about life without succumbing to a yearning
to impress people. Because spent money can be opportunity lost however, it should be
remembered to consider the highest and best use for money before spending it. Wealth is
culture’s primary measure of success, but, in fact, it’s not a measure of true success at all. True
success is measured by the joy one shares with the world.
Unfortunately consumers are driven less by necessity than they are by jealousy and peer
pressure to trade-in for the latest model car, buy as much house as they think they can afford and
keep a stock of the latest toys and gadgets. Without the wall of resource constraints now facing
society, people would one day be competing to see who can buy the largest rocket and blast into
space just to say they did, burning tons of fuel and production cycle waste in the process.
Actually, some rich people are already paying as much as $20 million to be launched into
space, but society won’t reach the point where the common man owns a behemoth space shuttle.
Available resources are simply too limited. Earth is a limited space, with finite resources, capable
of sustaining a limited population with moderate standards of consumption and comfort. But

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today’s population is anything but small or moderate. The absurd current overpopulation of the
planet, approaching seven billion people, is increasing by the day. And recent escalation of crude
oil prices is a telling point. The global population already consumes shameful amounts of
resources and produces equally enormous pollution.
Unfortunately, that consumption trend is far from peaking. Those people that think $4.00
per gallon gasoline is prohibitively expensive should brace themselves. America has far and
away historically been the largest consumer of natural resources like oil. With the international
wealth gap shrinking and the colossal Asian population becoming more affluent, the demand for
resources is skyrocketing.
The feverish construction and production activity transforming the Chinese economy into
a giant with tremendous trade surpluses, and the flood of job outsourcing to India and other
developing countries is contributing to dramatic increases in global wealth and construction.
Upward price pressure from increased world demand will continue to push the price of gas ever
higher. In the near future, only a massive worldwide recession, brought on in part by escalating
energy costs, that appreciably reduces global affluence will bring about a significant reversal of
energy prices.
There’s no question the world will run out of meaningful, commonly affordable oil
reserves, the only debate is how soon that will happen. On the positive side, it does seems the
bleak proposition of economic and social disruption caused by fuel shortages will help slow the
trend of runaway pollution. As long as cars run on gas, rising gas prices will combat wasteful
driving habits. Without such limits mankind would soon have the world covered in a toxic,
choking haze. Unfortunately, even with a shortage of oil mankind may still proceed to choke the
world with the burning of coal and other fuels, and civilization may yet return to the black days
when cities like London were covered in coal soot.
Now is a good time to reflect on mankind’s role in such environmental trends as the
desertification of the fertile crescent, the birthplace of civilization, a land where lions once
roamed, and where millennia of resource abuse has severely taxed the fertility and stability of the
land. Further east, China and India are prime examples of the effects of severe overpopulation;
rivers are filthy with trash and toxic pollutants, cities are covered in haze, while solitude and wild
habitat have all but vanished.
Urban masses are dependent on intensive agriculture high in fertilizer and pesticide use.
And that chemical barrage is supplemented by rampant industry, business and home chemical
use. Environmental poisoning is so bad that even honey bees have been exterminated in some
regions. People of the worst affected areas have been reduced to pollinating crop plants by hand.
And that heavy environmental toll is only part of the steadily growing overpopulation crisis that
is quickly reaching a critical stage.
Overpopulation even affects international relations and global communications.
Obviously if borders were thrown open hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indian immigrants
would quickly overwhelm countries like America and Russia. And the horrid environmental
conditions of the most populous nations should serve as a stern warning to reduce population in
America and every other country where any semblance of intelligence may reside.
What people are doing to each other and future generations is a terrible shame; but it’s
outright vicious how man’s pollution, expansion and resource abuse has brutalized our fellow
earthlings. Humanity is a ravenous consumer, chewing up land and resources, and spitting them
out before trampling on them. Earth has never seen a living scourge to rival humanity. People
have pushed animals into little reservations where even there they’re not safe from human greed
and brutality. Many species have been pushed to extinction and a lot of those that remain exist
only by the pleasure of man. It’s frightful to consider the added degradation accompanying

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increasing affluence and population around the globe. There truly is no place safe. And no profit
or dollar amount can correct the injustice being perpetrated on fellow animals.
Concern over global warming may be over-stated. Earth is experiencing a natural
warming trend, in the roller-coaster cycle of ice ages and warm periods. And, aided by man or
not, that warming trend is welcome by many. It makes land in Alaska, Canada and Siberia a lot
more attractive. Cold is hard, it kills flowers, crops and stops plant growth, while sunshine and
warm temperature is vital to abundant life, that’s why life is concentrated in tropical regions and
more scarce near the poles. A warm, humid climate brings to mind dinosaurs roaming lush fern
forests and insects growing as large as cats.
And sometimes it’s forgotten that storms are fueled by temperature differences, not by
temperature alone. So, is the dread over global warming warranted? Maybe not just for the
warming aspect, but the message of conservation and pollution control is still very appropriate.
Because, there’s a tremendous amount of toxins and particulates included in those combustion
products that are altering the atmospheric and terrestrial chemical balance. What is certain is that
present pollution rates are severly poisoning the planet.
What’s to become of the world if the average of approximately two-and-a-half billion
Indian and Chinese citizens owns a car and a house? The lifestyle of the industrialized world has
exceeded long-term sustainability for the past century. Now that lifestyles are even less
sustainable and worldwide population has mushroomed, environmental damage is piling up fast.
Much of the arable land surface has already been transformed by man, and at the current rate of
destruction, the great Amazonian rainforest would be gone within a century. Many important
forests including other diverse rain forests, like those of Indonesia, will be destroyed much
sooner. Whether selfishness continues to drive human behavior, or broader issues are respected,
mankind’s consumptive lifestyle will, out of sheer necessity, undergo drastic changes in the near
future.
That much is also certain, because people are literally using up the world’s resources. It
boggles the mind to consider that humanity hasn’t the sense to appreciate that limited resources
cannot support an unlimited population. The unanswered question is to what degree humanity
oppresses other animals and cripples future generations.
How much forest and wetlands will be destroyed? How many more species will be killed
off? How much more pain will man cause? How much air and water pollution will be tolerated?
How much trash is too much? When will people grow tired of clearing forest for pasture, paving
fields for parking lots, and seeing landscapes littered with roads and buildings everywhere they
look? Have those limits been hit in America? What about China? Be aware that present citizens
of India, China and other severely overpopulated societies will never experience the beauty of
wide open space.
America too, has assaulted free space. When Europeans arrived, America was teeming
with life. Deer, bears, beavers, rabbits, turkeys and other wildlife were abundant and vast,
uncountable herds of buffalo grazed in the great plains. But, today wildlife hides in the shadows.
For those that want to stop the devastation, to do what’s right, the time to act is now. It’s time to
stop racing headlong for catastrophe.
The great pink elephant in the room is population control. Population is the obvious
primary cause and essential remedy of environmental damage. Common kindergarten sense
dictates that a hundred people could travel the world slashing, burning, trashing, plowing, and
polluting at will and the earth, as a whole, would hardly be worse for it. And imagine the thrill of
having an entire Hawaiian island, or an entire country to oneself. Oh, the joy to be unbothered by
planes, trains and automobiles; exhaust and congestion; chainsaws and street sweepers; guns,
whistles and sirens.

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 But 6,700,000,000 people screaming, slashing, burning, trashing, plowing and polluting
the planet is absolutely disastrous. Even if population and lifestyle were frozen today and stayed
at the same level in the future, the forests would still disappear, intensive farming practices
would sterilize the land and foul the water, non-renewable energy resources would be exhausted,
pollution would continue to poison the planet, and people would be starving and at war when a
drought or other natural catastrophe tipped the scale of habitability. The reason for such bleak
prospects is simple, people are already using up nature faster than it can recover, and they have
been for a long time. That’s without even taking into account such matters as erosion, waste
generation, additional construction, desertification and other important environmental concerns.
But population and lifestyle aren’t frozen. Both continue to escalate at an alarming rate.
The world’s population doubled in the last 40 years! And that growth trend is yet to be slowed.
There are already too many people in the world. With every day that passes before drastic
adjustments are made, a deeper hole is being dug in which to bury the world. The challenge of
survival has conditioned people to promote prolific breeding and large families. But now it’s
clear that future generations stand to inherit more only if they are fewer in number.
Thousands of years ago the author of Genesis advised the Hebrews to be fruitful and
multiply so that they could outnumber their enemies. But now humanity’s sheer number is the
enemy. Without doubt, the first priority of world preservation is drastic and immediate
population reduction.
Overcrowding is the difference between a clear sky of sparkling stars and the glowing
haze of a city skyline; it’s the difference between a valley of flower filled meadows and a valley
of roads and cookie-cutter houses; it’s the difference between wide-open spaces and staring at
strangers 24-7; it’s the difference between the noise of a jet engine and the soothing splash of
waves on rocky shores of a reckless sea under dark, windy skies; and it’s the difference between
callous disgust, and appreciation. Not only the earth, but people too, are sick-to-death of the
pestilence of mankind.
No longer should governments give tax credits, supplemental welfare payments, and
other financial incentives for additional children. Because human overpopulation is the world’s
greatest burden and threat, parents should be penalized for every child they add to the crisis, and
a massive program of free permanent birth control solutions should be implemented without
delay.
Schools should be financed by parents of enrolled children instead of property tax levies.
There’s no fairness in taxing land out from under people if they don’t benefit from programs
those taxes finance. Parents contributing to overpopulation are stealing resources from the rest of
society. For every additional child born, limited resources are further divided. The difference
between high standards of living and poverty for future generations depends on the size of those
generations. Would it not be wise to leave an estate to one child instead of dividing it among
many?
Effective immediately, families should be limited to one child until the population trend
is reversed. Those wanting larger families can adopt unwanted, orphaned and foster children. As
matters now stand, society is being dumbed down because it’s those people too dumb to
understand the harm of population growth or too dumb to prevent unwanted pregnancies that are
swelling the population. Because eliminating unwanted pregnancies alone might reverse the
harmful population growth, the best remedy for society is to offer free permanent birth control.
Another important component of environmental responsibility is waste reduction. And
the three R’s of recycling are a good starting point. Reducing, reusing, and recycling are so
important to business, consumer and lifestyle choices that they should be taught in school along
with reading, writing and arithmetic.

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 Reduction is by far the most undervalued component of a waste reduction plan, and
should be priority number one, because no amount of reuse or recycling can undo the
environmental impact caused by first producing and distributing a product. Every decision to do
without unnecessary items is a benefit to the environment and life on the planet, just as every
purchase of products of little to no value is a strike against the environment. For instance, a
person is money ahead and the environment better off when it’s decided not to buy a plastic toy
that would just end up in the trash the following week.
Product packaging is a huge generator of unnecessary waste, and consumers need to send
manufacturers a clear message that packaging excesses won’t be tolerated, by buying in bulk and
buying products with minimum packaging when possible. Another valuable consumer activity
providing a good example of waste reduction and reuse is when people reuse shopping bags, or
reuse another container in lieu of shopping bags. By reusing items, the demand for additional
products is reduced right along with landfill waste. Finally, solid waste volume and other
environmental damage is further reduced through recycling.
Recycling occurs when waste is reprocessed into new products. Examples of recycling
would be the production of carpet from old soda bottles, and paperboard cereal boxes made from
used paper. Recycling is playing a valuable role in reducing waste and resource usage. However,
efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle are barely scratching the surface of the waste problem.
Recycling participation is driven largely by necessity and existing infrastructure. Poor areas
typically don’t devote a lot of effort to recycling because of a shortage of recycling facilities and
labor. On the other hand, crowded countries and regions are often leaders in waste management
because they’re overwhelmed with garbage.
Unfortunately, society is motivated by financial incentive, and the most effective waste
management tool by far is to tax garbage and all forms of pollution in proportion to
environmental damage. Not until consumers weigh the environmental cost of their purchasing
decisions will they change buying habits and force suppliers to minimize waste. Marketers have
shown consistent allegiance only to the almighty dollar, and profit considerations may be the
only factor they will voluntarily respond to.
It’s absurd to think that almost everything now comes wrapped in plastic. Even address
windows in envelopes are covered with plastic. And while paper envelopes are recycled,
contaminating plastic sheets aren’t. Even those little plastic sheets on envelope windows are
important reasons to encourage closing the recycling loop by requiring packagers to use materials
for which a ready recycling system is in place. As things currently stand, many community
recycling centers accept polyethylene terepthalate (PETE) and high density polyethylene
(HDPE), numbers 1 and 2 plastics, but don’t accept the vast quantity of other packaging plastics
such as polypropylene, vinyl and polystyrene.
Composting is a very important recycling process. Organic matter that all life is
comprised of is very limited, and a tiny portion of the earth’s surface is covered by rich soil. It’s
nothing less than shameful to bury valuable organic material under mountains of assorted trash in
landfills. That’s another reason why society should staff material recovery facilities (MRFs,
pronounced like smurfs) with workers from entitlement programs that are to be phased out.
MRFs are intensive recycling facilities that extract a great deal of recyclables and fuel sources
from waste bound for dumps. The labor requirements of MRFs make them logical choices for
work programs to replace welfare and unemployment programs.
Overall, humanity is assaulting the environment on all fronts. But it doesn’t have to be
that way. It can be turned around by committing to befriending the earth. Mankind can still lead
the way to a brighter future by championing generosity. With a simple awakening of
consciousness and a combined effort people can still cut back on waste and toxic pollution. And

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there will be opportunities in emerging technology and market expansion for clean energy
products. Folks can expect to see a lot more windmills in rural yards in coming years. They’ll be
joined by more rooftop solar panels and better home construction methods. Nuclear power will
be joined by large scale solar and wind farms, in addition to such unusual power production as
wave powered generators.
Nobody should expect to burn, bury and dump all the trash and pollution they can
generate indefinitely, anymore than they should expect to replace fossil fuels ten million years in
the making, with nutrients leeched from the ground each growing season by corn or switchgrass.
The last forests and savannahs will be slashed and burned before that happens. The world is
faced with an immediate, serious man-made environmental crisis and the time to take
responsibility for the damage being caused is now. The possibilities range from pleasantly
encouraging to sickeningly rotten. Clean and free natural energy could meet the power needs of a
small, reasonable population. But without population reduction and major cultural reform, the
whole world, because of humanity, is in for a filthy, toxic, murderous future.

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 Society
Poor health habits plague the modern world of consumer industrialism. Pollutants in the
air, water, and food people breathe, drink, and eat are upsetting life’s chemical balance.
Lifestyles low in exercise and high in oily, sweetened, processed foods are further contributing to
poor health. Though scientific advances and better sanitary practices have reduced the incidence
of many natural sicknesses and diseases, people are bringing many other illness on themselves.
Good health is not an accident, it’s a choice.
While research is ongoing to combat both natural and self-induced illness, society isn’t
even making good use of existing technology and resources. Millions of Americans die in easily
preventable accidents every year, but at the same time more are dying while waiting in vain for
organ transplants. Yet the connection between available organs and those that need them isn’t
being made. Why aren’t more lives being saved by organ transplant? There are two principal
reasons: the first reason is irrational perceptions and the second is a lack of organizational
leadership. Regarding irrational perceptions, most people just don’t consider a body’s options
after death. Without interference, a body will quickly rot after death: as bacteria break down and
consume the tissues. That’s how life works; organic matter must be recycled or the circle of life
is broken.
Because the natural decay process is so distasteful to a lot of people; and to delay decay
for funerary services; bodies are embalmed. Modern embalming involves removing blood from
the deceased and replacing it with powerful poisons such as formaldahyde to kill the
microorganisms that would otherwise decompose the body. The result of embalming is valuable
land devoted to cemeteries full of poisoned bodies that slowly dehydrate into skeletons covered
by hair and grotesquely stretched skin. The common alternative to burial is cremation, whereby
bodies are burned in furnaces. Of course, smoke from roasting bodies is a tiny, tiny fraction of air
pollution, but one would dare to say that breathing the smoke of burned bodies is not an
attractive prospect.
In that light, the process of organ, cell and tissue donation seems a lot more attractive.
Having one’s tissue live on as part of a life it helped save is a much more pleasant alternative
than cremation or burial. And because there’s nothing to lose and so much to gain, organ
transplanting should be the norm for society. It’s a terrible shame to waste the time and complex
development involved in building the human form when that form could be transplanted to save
lives. The challenge now is to engage public discussion so that everyone can see the practical
benefit of organ and tissue donation, and organize a network to automatically convert tragedy
into as much help and hope as possible.
Another little understood avenue of medical research that’s received a lot of attention in
recent years is stem cell research. The junior President Bush, along with others that rely on their
perception of religion in the process of decision making, protested that the use of stem cells is
wrong because it’s unethical. Are they correct? Should stems cells be protected? To answer that
question, it’s necessary to have some basic understanding of cellular biology, which many
involved in the argument seem to lack. As discussed near the beginning of this book, all the
characteristics of life result from molecular chemical interactions. The molecular composition of
cells alone is amazingly complex, but even that level of complication lacks the character of
incredibly sophisticated inter-cellular relationships in animal bodies.
Individual cells don’t have the attributes of the whole animal. Alone, they don’t walk,
talk, chew gum, laugh or cry. What people know of thought and feeling is the product of nervous
system development. Plants don’t have it, and neither do individual cells: they aren’t aware of
pleasure or pain. And because individual cells have no consciousness and no capacity for pain,

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there’s no ethical basis for the preservation of individual cells.
Any who don’t believe that to be the case should consider the billions upon billions of
cells that die, or are recycled, every day in the average adult human. Human cells are constantly
reproducing and dying, yet people are unaware of the ongoing process, and experience no pain as
individual cells die. Even the usual constant cellular warfare inside a body between the immune
system and germs goes unnoticed. Cells no more experience pain than the hair on a person’s
head. Pleasure and pain live in the consciousness of the brain; showing the truth to that old
expression “the pain’s all in your head.” In fact, a loss of consciousness induced by anesthesia,
allows a body to undergo the trauma of surgery without pain.
So clearly, when one is discussing individual cells that don’t comprise integral parts of
developed bodies, there is no ethical dilema in putting them to good use. And stem cells are
uniquely helpful because they’re generic cells found throughout the body that can develop into
different kinds of specialized tissue cells, such as bone, blood, muscle and brain cells. Different
chemical triggers and molecular materials relative to specific body position act in concert with
the vast number of enzymes coded by genes in the DNA to form specialized cells particular to
their place and function.
Because stem cells lack the capacity for pain, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be
utilized to treat serious diseases. Currently the most convenient source of stem cells is umbilical
cord blood. Cells can also be cloned by transferring their DNA containing nuclei to egg cells
with the nuclei removed. Lacking the environmental triggers present in specialized cells, the new
cell proceeds to divide into stem cells. Cloning a patient’s own cells offers the possibility of
overcoming rejection that’s so troublesome in organ and tissue transplants. But because stem
cells in the body are relatively difficult to extract and have often been exposed to environmental
conditions that determine specific tissue development prior to extraction, mass reproduction of
individuals’ own stem cells for therapy still faces significant prohibitive challenges.
Much of the debate over stem cells resulted from some of the earliest stem cell research
involving embryos left over from in vitro, or out of body, fertilization techniques. About four or
five days after the combination of egg and sperm trigger cell replication some of those divided
cells have formed a protective sack around a group of about 30 inner cells. Those inner cells are
stem cells that haven’t yet begun to transform into specialized cells. Having been raised in a
society believing in a creation myth, some people are disturbed that this group of cells would be
used as a potential cure for various diseases. But that’s because they don’t understand the
chemical nature of cellular development and reproduction.
While they irrationally believe some invisible soul is responsible for the reproduction,
there’s no such magic involved, they’re just cells that haven’t specialized and haven’t even begun
to form a complex nervous system capable of consciousness. They’re just more generic cell
divisions of the combined sperm and egg. Women pass unfertilized egg cells with every
menstrual cycle. And men pass hundreds of millions of sperm cells with every orgasm. Still,
there’s no cause for alarm, people needn’t cry for sperm cells, because they don’t live long
whether a man engages in sex or not, and they haven’t a brain between them to know the
difference. Even when a sperm does fertilize an egg, there’s only a fractional chance that the egg
will attach to the wall of the uterus and eventually develop into a growing baby.
While there’s no harm in stem cell use, the benefits of stem cell therapies looks very
promising. When one considers how the body’s tissues are adversely affected through time by
physical damage and cellular mutations, stem cell therapy offers very exciting possibilities. It can
be considered just a little sip from the fountain of youth because mutated cells that continue to
pass on defects as they reproduce can be replaced by stem cells similar to those present at birth.
Stem cells can even fill in where there were no functioning cells in the past, for instance, today

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some American citizens that were born blind are traveling to China for umbilical cord stem cell
injections to build neural connections between the eyes and brain that didn’t fully form early in
life.
Certainly not all of the controversy over embryonic stem cells is really about stem cells.
The stem cell controversy is in many respects a step-child of the larger, more serious abortion
debate. And there are very important reasons that abortion is one of the most divisive issues of
modern times. Abortion doctors have been killed for doing legal work. And rightfully so; in some
people’s eyes.
But, is abortion wrong, and if so, how wrong is it? Although every abortion does
represent a failure to practice responsible birth control, there’s no harm in early abortions. But
the difference is like night and day late in pregnancy when nervous system development has
progressed to the point of consciousness. Eventually the cells, so impervious to pain by
themselves, duplicate and specialize to the point of brain and nervous system development
capable of feeling pain. So, early abortion is acceptable and late abortions are wrong. If the
mother should carry a pregnancy to the point where the developing fetus is aware of pain,
adoption is a sensible alternative.
The process of mental maturation is slow, and even after partial brain and nerve
development, no cognitive capacity is present. Development of consciousness in the womb is
like a very slow version of awakening from anesthesia. Only gradually does the ability to feel
pain grow, as nerves grow, and functioning connections are made. And mental awareness
develops even slower, with stupor lifting like a slowly dissipating fog. A British study concluded
that unborn babies can perceive pain at 26 weeks of development, more than 6 months into a
pregnancy. But it should be strongly cautioned that there is not widespread consensus concerning
when fetuses are first subject to pain. Although, in the U.S. and U.K. more than 90% of abortions
are carried out in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, well before developing fetuses are generally
believed to feel pain.
But there shouldn’t be a reason for an abortion even at 14 weeks. Every abortion means a
mistake was made, as time passes, that mistake grows. The “morning after” pill should be readily
available to any that want to use it. And it should be asked of every unexpected pregnancy what
can be learned to prevent another one like it. If it takes handing out condoms to teenagers, then
condoms should be readily available and young people beat over the head with the importance of
responsible birth control; rather than continue the tremendous prevalence of unwanted
pregnancies. And beyond education there are even more effective options, as certainly permanent
sterilization is a very practical and effective option.
Women’s rights groups are right to demand control for women over their own bodies;
until unborn babies are aware of pain. After that, the welfare of the developing fetus must be
considered. And right now the time’s right to consider the issue rationally, without the blind
desire of emotion one way or the other, limit abortions to a time before babies are capable of
feeling pain, and put the ugly cultural divisiveness of abortion in the past.
Unfortunately, a lot of people find it difficult to hold their emotions in check, hindering
rational discussion and consideration. Not that emotions should be abandoned, however. They’re
an important part of life: they’re feelings more pure than reason; and they motivate the grandest,
or most vile, actions. At times, emotions even fall victim to futility. Sorrow and frustration can
kill emotion; leaving a cold, black void where happiness and hope once dwelled. And one way to
help keep emotions from suffering an agonizing death is to keep them in balance with honest
objectivity.
Today, mental health may be more imbalanced than physical health. And it’s largely the
result of coddling and denial, instead of facing up to reality and accepting responsibility. Every

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day, media reports on people battling addictions. And addiction has become the excuse for
excuses. Addiction is the term weak people substitute for saying they’re weak and generally
lacking in will-power. Whether they’re addicted to coffee, chocolate, cigarettes,
methamphetamines, beer, soda pop, cookies, chewing tobacco, computer games, sex, internet
chatting or laying in front of the television; people claiming addiction are just too cowardly to
admit they’re lazy and weak.
Inventing excuses to assure people that addiction isn’t their fault has done nothing but
feed dysfunction. Nobody’s going to achieve their goals until they accept responsibility for their
own success and failure. Since people do what they want to do, when they don’t change bad
habits it’s because they want to keep doing what they’re doing more than they want to change.
Until people truly want to change, no amount of effort or money or empty talk will bring about
desired results. Not until people really decide that they’ve sank as far as they’re willing to sink,
and that they truly don’t want to continue their bad behavior will they reject their own excuses
for failure and disappointment. Addicted people aren’t stricken by disease, they just suffer from a
heavy dose of the same stupidity and laziness that affects everyone. And the sooner everyone
admits that, the sooner they can get better, because until they admit their fault, they’re not going
to rise above it.
There are, of course, very rewarding steps that can be taken to promote better mental
health. Whatever one’s weakness, be it addiction, criminal behavior, depression, or something
else, the key to overcoming it is to de-prioritize the underlying obsession. The dark cloud of pre-
occupation must be dissapated by sunnier, more pleasant pursuits. Mental therapy is about
unburdening the mind and enjoying simple pleasures, and the best remedy for the unhappy is to
take a vacation from stress and worry.
Because happiness is the ideal mental state, there’s absolutely no better cure for poor
mental health than happiness, and that only comes when one is able to let go of the worry holding
the mind hostage. That cure may involve something as simple as adopting a different routine or
seeking a change of scenery to to put those old harmful habits and thoughts to rest. By
concentrating on what makes them happy, people can lose focus of what makes them unhappy.
Just go where you want to be; that’s good advise for everyone, not just the unhappy or
dysfunctional. If the thought of going on a grand tropical adventure surrounded by friends is what
makes man happy he should embrace that idea, or if having an unlimited fortune to spend endless
hours shopping for the finest clothes, the flashiest cars, and the most luxurious house is another
person’s dream of happiness she should feel free to fantasize to relieve stress and anxiety.
Obviously a dream of fantastic riches, owning an island or state, embarking on an inter-galactic
voyage, or being king of the world is unlikely to come true. But that moment of happiness; that
moment of freedom from worry or obsession is definitely something to build on. Just breaking
free for a moment can change a person’s attitude.
Overcoming harmful addictions and habits are some of the easiest mental health
adjustments to make. Just being strong enough to say no to bad habits and forget temptation is a
mark of good mental character. So, certainly not everyone needs to change their lifestyles in
order to reduce detrimental behavior. But, there’s nothing wrong with a little help either; and by
pursuing healthy, practical hobbies and goals, it’s much easier to forget the desires that trigger
unhealthy activity.
Actually, changing old habits can be one of the best things to happen to a person. By
nurturing an interest in basketball, or hang gliding, or photography, or hiking, or any number of
fun activities, someone may realize they’ve opened up a whole new world of possibilities for
Health and Happiness. Making a positive change doesn’t even have to cost a dime, and in many
instances there are substantial savings to be had by not succumbing to the urge for one more beer,

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or one more hit, or one more cigarette, or one more donut. For instance, getting out for a walk in
the woods or a walk through the neighborhood to see some smiling faces or see what’s new
won’t cost any money, and the exercise will make the body feel better as well as the mind.
Without a doubt, there are a million healthy activities people can do to have fun, and when
they’re busy doing good they don’t have time to be bad, and before long the destructive
behaviors that so plagued their lives are distant memories.
That’s how simple mental health is; as simple as replacing bad habits with good habits
and bad thoughts with good thoughts. Instead of inventing more and more phantom “diseases of
the mind” to excuse lack of self control and poor parenting, it’s appropriate to come clean as a
society. Overpaid doctors are raking in small fortunes labeling kids bi-polar and ADHD, and then
prescribing a variety of powerful drugs; as if parenting now comes in pill bottles. It may sound
crazy, but bad parents are looking to drugs to do their jobs as responsible caregivers; and they’re
reinforcing poor behavior in the process. As impressionable, developing people, youth need
constructive pursuits to occupy their curios minds. As long as children are busy doing positive
activities with their parents they remain in step like ducklings following their mother. But when
the parents sit around idle, or are otherwise pre-occupied, young minds can wander and engage in
unprofitable, even destructive, behavior
Mental health professionals would soon be without jobs, but they’d do the most good if
they just told people the truth. Sometimes they feel powerless, but people are in control of their
own lives. Good mental health advice can be summarized as: get your priorities straight, seek
what makes you happy, and be the person you want to be. The first priority is health and safety,
beyond that, it’s up to people to make their own happiness. And the truth is, a lot of people
invent their own unhappiness. Not a lot of people should feel sorry for themselves, those that do
may need to read the final chapters of this book to gain a real understanding of how bad life can
be, and why they should feel thankful every day to be safe and healthy. The key to Health and
Happiness is making Health and Happiness the top priority and life’s guiding principal, then the
harvest will reflect what was sown.
But things will not always be good, and unfortunately, at worst, depression is a real
product of an unfair and harsh world. And no psychiatrist, counselor or therapist can eliminate
the horrible suffering in the world. In those cases where people feel the pain of others, and can’t
find happiness knowing that others are hurting, the only remedy is knowing that all they can give
is their best efforts to prevent suffering and promote Health and Happiness for All. Beyond their
best efforts, there’s nothing to be gained by their own unhappiness. At some point generous and
caring people need to take a break from worrying about things beyond their control and build up
their own happiness, because they deserve better and the world is made better by their joy.
At times priorities are so misplaced that even love is a source of great despair. By and
large, people don’t want to be alone, and some people desire affection more than others. And just
like feeling sorry for not being rich or not having something else one wants, many a life has been
altered by lost love. It’s worth remembering that loving is easy, but finding somebody that shares
one’s interests and love, on the other hand, is a little more trying.
There are lots of different qualities people find attractive, with physical beauty high on
that list. Perceptions of beauty vary, with some drawn to angelic eyes, or gorgeous smiles, or
voluptouos, sexy bodies. And keen wit, charm, and financial status are just a few more common
considerations of potential relationships. When people finally find what they’re looking for in a
mate, they often try to win that person’s affection. But, that pursuit of one-sided attraction can be
a mistake, because the winning of affection is often a temporary victory. What may be the love of
a lifetime to one partner may be no more than something to do until something better comes
along. Even mutual relationships go sour, but when attraction isn’t mutual, relationships are

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especially unlikely to last. And the broken-hearted are devastated.
That’s a danger of living for the moment, prone to emotional extremes. It’s better to have
patience and wait for equal mutual attraction instead of trying to win affection, because that win
will probably be short-lived when one’s prize find’s someone else even more to their own liking.
It’s a romantic myth that there’s one true love in the world for every person. There are literally
millions of potential mates that could mend a broken heart, but those connections aren’t easy to
find, especially if a person thinks they can never find another love. There are millions of people
in the world just as beautiful, just as smart, and just as marvelous as a lost love. Love is real
alright, but it’s not exclusive; there are lots of other people, just like puppies, looking for the love
that others have to offer.
There’s no doubt that love is one of life’s great pleasures. People are most comfortable
and happy when enjoying time with loved ones. That’s some of the pleasure that gives purpose to
life. And all that’s pleasurable and doesn’t harm others is worth doing. Life is, first and foremost,
the pursuit of pleasure, or joy. It’s also at times a conflict of individual desires. Some people
foolishly resist pleasure; going so far as to whip themselves in pennance. And others mistake
pleasure for immorality, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The first Universal Truth is the fundamental guide of life. Pleasure is good, it’s pleasant,
it’s pleasing, it’s what makes conscious animals, including humans, happy. Pleasure is what one
would expect of paradise. The liberty to pursue what one desires and isn’t injurous to others is a
cornerstone of fulfilling lives and should be protected with great zeal and determination. Each
life is a one-time, limited opportunity, and people should be encouraged to do all they can to
realize their kindly pleasure while the chance is upon them.
Paradise is walking in a peaceful field of wildflowers, surrounded by joyous life as far as
the eye can see. Brilliant yellow tropical sulpher, black and orange milkweed, and dazzling
swallowtail butterflies flitter in a gentle, leisurely breeze, perfumed by the delightful fragrance of
mixed grasses. The butterflies dance past busy honey bees, bumblebees and flying beetles as they
light upon blue chicory, white daisies, black-eyed susans, pink coneflowers, purple spiderworts
and yellow tickseed coreopsis. A deep blue sky caps scattered trees that are alive with chirping
squirrels, boisterous cicadas, and the sweet songs of strikingly beautiful orioles and blue birds.
Young deer play carefree around the oaks. Rabbits and bobwhite quail nest in the grass and
doves are busy collecting seed, while radiant yellow warblers perch on some of the hardier
prairie stems. All is quiet except for the gentle symphony of life.
That’s one version of paradise, but to each his own. Others have different perspectives
and different affections, colored by personal experience and cultural influences. Unfortunately, a
lot of perspectives have been distorted by popular culture. Fairy tale gods and the people who
invented them have obscured reality right along with the proliferation of jealousy and selfish
desire. Wild ideas have taken on lives of their own. Actions and objects are glorified by some
and villified by others at the same time. Some people like to drink and dance, while others abhor
the notion. Some like to smoke, chew and spit, while others think they’re nasty. Some people
want a break from reality, while others think they’re trippin’. And some think the crave’s the
rage, while others think lust is a bust.
For these matters, battles are fought to the death. Because, civilization has but a faint
understanding of good and evil. If wisdom is the fruit of the tree of life, mankind has had only a
tiny nibble; acquiring little knowledge of right and wrong. In the perception of pleasure there’s
room for difference of opinion, but of right and wrong there’s only Universal Truth. The merit of
any matter, like any person, is but the effect it has on others. That which gives pleasure is good,
that which gives pain is bad, and that which gives neither is neither.
Sex is the most popular subject of moral debate. It’s been both worshipped and reviled

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through the centuries, and even the subject of various death penalties. Still today, imbeciles are
driven to jealous fisticuffs and even murder by the thought of sharing the objects of their carnal
desires. Muhammads around the world still insist on stoning adulterers, unmarried fornicators
and homosexuals. Even American politicians have advocated the death penalty for certain sex
offenses. What’s so fascinating about sex? Is it worthy of so much attention and impassioned
emotions? Is it the pinnacle of pleasure that approximates heaven on earth as some suggest, or is
it the work of the devil corrupting mankind? To answer that, one needs to ask what sex is and
what it isn’t.
Above all else, sex is necessary; neither people nor the birds and the bees would be here
had their ancestors not engaged in sexual relations. In light of the overpopulation crisis however,
sex for the sake of procreation should be fervently avoided. But beyond necessity, sex is also
quite fun. Or, at least, it can be. But, it’s not always the bomb digity, and can even be boring.
After all, body parts that may seem lustfully beautiful one minute, may very well be considered
drab and ugly the next. Sex is only as fun as one wants it to be, because much of the pleasure of
sex derives from imagination. A sense of the unusual adds exotic to the erotic. And sure, it’s
about “bumping uglies,” or rubbing private parts together, but it’s also about sharing a feeling of
intimacy and union.
The joy of sex adds spice to life and a tingle to the senses, and for that it should be very
much appreciated as a pleasurable act in an often unpleasant world; because there’s too much
distress and not nearly enough joy in life. The amorous appreciation of form and style has been
compared to the thrill of an exotic sports car, and the satisfaction of a savory favorite dessert. But
while those experiences are pleasurable, sex neither harms the environment like a fast car, nor
does it contribute to obesity, tooth decay and diabetes like a rich, sumptuous cake. In fact, few
things in life are as pleasurable and harmless as sex can be.
Of course, sex does have two principle inherent dangers: pregnancy and disease
transmission. Each danger is potentially catastrophic and very real, and should be carefully
guarded against. The most important conversation concerning sex should involve safe sex
practices. With the prevention of pregnancy and disease, sex is a safe, environmentally-friendly
pleasure. Simply put, sex is most certainly not evil nor is it a secret potion of ultimate happiness.
It’s just a fun form of recreation, regardless of what errant ideology or jealousy might fuel rage
like the fires of hell in the immature people of the world. It’s fun, free and sometimes fast; what’s
not to like about it? The world’s a better place where people are free as the wind to play with
themselves and anybody that cares to join them. Actually, maybe a little more mutual attraction
could even help bring the world together.
No harm – no foul, wise people say. But the petty and insecure people that let others do
their thinking for them and see wickedness in harmless fun, are persecuting people for crimes of
their own delusion. Sex opponents have more in common with the Muslims that won’t allow
women to show their faces than they’d like to admit. The pleasure police need to grow up, get a
reality check, and get a grip on their ridiculous fascination with a rather ordinary act.
Anyone worried about who’s getting laid doesn’t have a clue about the real pain and
suffering of the world. It’s a dreadful trap people fall into by getting riled up about something as
trivial as sex while vicious, cruel, systematic brutality and torture infects the planet, and the
innocent are still being ripped apart and slaughtered with great impunity. How can any fool stick
his nose in other people’s business and wage a petty war of jealousy when the world burns with
greed and violence?
Furthermore, how did people come to feel so important and empowered to punish those
who would pay for sex? Ideally, everyone would be drop-dead gorgeous, men and women would
be equally attracted to each other, and nobody would be paying for what they could easily get for

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free. But, in reality, a lot of people can’t get for free what they’re willing to pay for. It may be a
waste of money, but so is going out to a movie, or paying to watch boxers beat the sense out of
one-another, or taking in a night at the opera or ballet, or most of the rest of the things people
spend money on for entertainment purposes. And it’s hard to deny that an evening of passion
isn’t as satisfying as a night on the town.
The most controversy, however, is centered around same-sex relationships; though there
is no matter for debate among intelligent people. Sexual orientation is just one more area in
which dullards and dimwits have the foolish compulsion to meddle in and dictate the affairs of
others. What people want to do is their own business. And, sexually speaking, it has been, for
much of man’s history. Same-sex relationships have been common in many societies. Many of
the most powerful men in history were engaged in same-sex relationships including Greek,
Roman and Chinese emperors, among others.
But, what was common in the golden ages of Greece and Rome, for example, was made
punishable by death by the Christian emperor Justinian as Christianity was beginning to choke
some of the life out of the Roman Empire. Fear and condemnation of same-sex relationships is
largely the product of religious fanaticism, which fears and condemns almost all personal liberty.
But even amongst religions, sexual tolerance is highest among the friendly, generous faiths and
lowest among the institutional hate-mongers. Interestingly, sexual oppression is even a good
indicator of national intelligence. The most free and prosperous nations are the least
homophobic, while the popular opinion in Africa and Muslim countries is most opposed to
freedom of sexual choice.
And it’s not just personal liberty that suffers. Culture that scandalizes sex makes ‘victims’
of non-violent sex. If society wasn’t continually trying to shame sexual activity, there would be
no reason for people to feel ashamed and victimized by it. For example, it may be awkward and
embarassing when a dog tries to hump a man’s leg, but it’s no cause for panic or hysterics. On
and on people go, crying about how somebody’s private part was touched or somebody said
something they shouldn’t have, until people are convinced something terrible has happened;
while in fact what has happened is not terrible, but embarassing.
Physical harm like broken bones is real, but mental health is what people make of it. So,
instead of always re-living unpleasant or embarassing events, all involved should say “So what?
it’s in the past and we’ll not even be bothered to think about it again.”
Especially ridiculous has been the recent tsunami of sex-offender postings. That’s just
hippocritical hysteria aimed at ruining people’s lives for nothing more than a temporary lack of
judgment, if that. It’s ridiculous that a woman should be imprisoned and forever branded as a sex
offender for making some 16 year old young man’s fantasy come true, while he’s running around
bragging to all his friends. Perhaps lists of shoplifters, bad-check writers, forgers, armed robbers,
drug users, assaulters, speeders, schoolyard bullies, embezzlers, drunk-drivers, resume
exaggerators, litter bugs, holier-than-thou’s, welfare recipients, and over-paid people should be
posted for permanent discrimination and public ridicule. It’s simply unfair to channel hate at one
group of people and not spread it around proportionately to harm.
In fact, the general concept of victimless crimes is preposterous and would be laughable
were it not for the burden it puts on society and the real pain and suffering it causes the accused
and their families. Criminalizing any conduct like drug usage that harms no one but the willing
actors violates the third Universal Law of Life. There really is no need to discuss the merits of
personal behavior in legal contexts beyond any real harm inflicted upon others, because people
should have every right to be stupid and to learn their own lessons.
Currently prisons are full of drug offenders, but it wasn’t always like that. In the first
century of the American Nation, people weren’t legally prohibited from using drugs, though most

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had no interest in smoking marijuana or opium, or similar activity. But thanks to foolish public
campains just the words drugs, and drug offenses have come to be associated with heinous
violence and depraved activity. Somehow drugs have acquired an ugly reputation that’s not at all
deserved. Certainly drugs don’t assault, steal and bully; people do that. And it’s not just people
that use drugs that do that, just as not everyone that drinks, smokes or takes pills is a violent
monster.
Like sex, drugs are the subject of a popular frenzy of feeding on baseless propaganda. The
politicians and simpletons cry out for war on drugs. War on inanimate substance, they say? They
blame drugs for every evil in society. Police officials beat the drug war drum, and social workers
and rehab clinics work to convince the public of the powerful power of the evil, magical power
of drugs; while of course holding their hands out for more money so that they may be paid a
salary commensurate with the mighty battles they wage against cannibis leaves and poppy seeds.
But there is no war on drugs, there’s a war on people and liberty.
Drugs are abused by people seeking to alter their senses and perceptions. Truthfully,
street drugs impair mental function, they’re poisons that attack the entire body; with the effects
on the nervous system being most apparent. Regrettably, people are too stupid for the good of
society without even taking drugs. It’s absolutely moronic for people to knowingly take
something that will make them even dumber. And it cannot be more plainly stated than to say
only an idiot would choose to consume the poisons which are drugs for recreation. That’s all
street drugs are, poison consumed by fools. Drug addicts aren’t victims of drugs; they’re just
stupid people bringing intentional harm to themselves.
But that’s their business and in the absence of harm to others it should remain so. Law-
makers and busy-bodies should have no say in such matters that don’t affect them. If people want
to fall on their faces, they can pick themselves up, or stay at rock bottom; that’s not society’s
responsibility. But there are those who blame every crime imaginable on drugs, and there are
those criminals who use drugs as an excuse. But people cheat and murder and should definitely
be held accountable for their actions. If the public were empowered to police themselves and
look after their own neighborhoods, they could take back control of high-crime areas where
decent citizens are afraid to walk the streets. Thugs and bullies should be treated harshly, as they
would treat others. But to confuse drug use with turf wars and armed robbery is to commit an evil
and only compound society’s woes.
Like fighting insurgent civilians in occupied territory, politicians can promise victory, but
all they deliver is more suffering and debt. Police break down doors and terrorize families, and
judges lock up dealers and throw away the key, but that gains nothing but overcrowded prisons
and inflated law enforcement budgets costing taxpayers a fortune. It won’t eliminate the supply
of drugs, just as prohibition didn’t eliminate the supply of alcohol, because the allure of black
market profits is too great for poor people to resist.
As long as people are unemployed, working a thankless, dirty job for minimum wage, or
living in deplorable conditions, there’ll be a ready supply of people willing to take a risk for a big
payoff. Even those that have money are tempted by the public demand for drugs. The limited
supply competition caused by law enforcement efforts in the street drug market drives up profits
just as it does in the medical market.
America’s drug warriors are in the same questionable company as Middle Eastern and
Asian officials that execute people by the hundreds every year for drug offenses. When not
blaming their problems on the West, the Muslims and Communists have a tremendous
propensity for blaming their sorry states of affairs on drug users, homosexuals and other non-
conformists; conveniently overlooking the contribution of their own mental dwarfism and archaic
ideology. While having an expanded list of hanging offenses might reduce some crime incidence,

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who want’s to live in those countries where the governments are the biggest thugs and criminals
in the land? With hundreds of executions every year, and continued drug use, obviously even the
death penalty isn’t a totally effective deterrent; it’s just an outrageous abuse of power.
With or without barbaric, liberty-killing laws, the only thing that will truly stop people
from using drugs is the individual decision not to use drugs. But while stump speakers stir the
call to arms, American government wastes many billions of taxpayer dollars on the drug war that
it will never win. Drug use appeals to a lot of people simply because society makes such a big
deal of it, and the government tells them they can’t do it, so they think they’re missing out on
something special, and they try to show the man that they can’t be bossed around. It’s not until
they realize that they’re not missing out on anything but poison and sickness that drugs lose
appeal to them. Rates of drug use reflect cultural opinions more than legal status.
Controlled substances; they make good news, and police waste much of their effort
looking for evidence of drug use to further their public standing, as if there isn’t enough real
crime to investigate. Police and law-makers would rather fill prisons with victimless criminals
than concentrate on violence, theft and burgeoning internet fraud. In this respect American
government is similar to the Taliban regime still fighting for control of Afghanistan. Drug use
and production was very well suppressed by the Taliban; just as most every aspect of life was,
because Muhammad’s men have an insatiable appetite to control everything people do. Like
alcohol consumption, drug use is stupid, but people should be allowed to live their own lives.
But that’s not to say that personal responsibility shouldn’t be demanded; just like alcohol,
workers should be fired for working under the influence and arrested for driving under the
influence.
Whether government imprisons and kills people “for their own good” or users poison
themselves to death faster than alcoholics, smokers and sugar junkies; some lives will be lost and
others ruined. The only only choice is whether society should waste resources and commit evils
by unduly interfering with individual lives. And the only solution to drug use is wisdom enough
to rise above it.
That’s why the role of parenting and cultural values is so important. The primary thrust of
government efforts, that of forcing people into submission, is a terrible mistake. Regulatory force
will never have the beneficial effects of appropriate free will. If one man couldn’t be paid enough
to poison himself with drugs, while another man would risk life itself for another bout of
delirium, it behooves society to learn how two individuals acquired such opposing judgement.
Only by individual choice is curiosity and desire for the foolery of drug use to be
overcome. Coddling drug addicts and enabling an excuse based society with taxpayer supported
rehab programs is counterproductive. Society needs to acknowledge the laziness and stupidity of
addicts, and leave them to sink or swim. Only by accepting responsibility for their own lives will
they make needed progress. Addicts and beggars and others that have chosen to be burdens to
society should have the old-tyme stigma of lepers about them. Because they’ll get better only
when they get disgusted enough about who they are to want to change. If they’re homeless, herd
them into work camps so that they might provide for themselves and see the benefits of a
productive day’s work.
Children are easily convinced that drug use and drinking and smoking are all stupid
things that weak people do. And children don’t want to be considered weak and stupid, they want
to be heroes and all-stars. So, good parenting can immunize children against desires to engage in
self-destructive behavior. Each and every user and addict is a product of poor parenting.
Good parenting skills however, aren’t as simple as telling children what’s right and
wrong, but instilling within them the wisdom to make good choices. Telling children something
doesn’t necessarily make them believe it, but if the children are the one’s saying it then they

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believe it. It’s for that reason that sometimes serious subjects should be laughing matters. When a
parent can suggest getting slobbering drunk on whiskey or high on crack and the children laugh
at what they know to be the utter foolishness of such conduct, then the children are prepared to
dismiss such destructive behavior as the cancer that it is.
Knowing that stealing, violence, substance abuse, laziness and any number of other
harmful behaviors is wrong is a step in the right direction, but inspiring children to consider the
possible harm or benefit of any action will well equip them to live wisely throughout their years.
And teaching good behavior isn’t shouting from the bully pulpit, because nothing is so poorly
received as forced obedience; it’s a tactful art of leading by example and subtle reinforcement
that will make the difference when safety’s on the line.
Parents have different methods of imparting wisdom to their children. Some set a fine
example for youngsters to emulate. Some take the time to rationally discuss real life experiences
and things their children are likely to be exposed to. And there are also those who laugh and joke
to highlight the absurdity of bad behavior. However, one of the worst things people can do is to
disguise reality by denying the truth, or even making problems seem much worse than they are. If
children have cause to wonder if a brain on drugs is really like eggs frying in a skillet, then
unfortunately they may have cause to wonder if they’re being told the straight truth.
No subject is taboo if it’s just treated as an ordinary fact of life, no more and no less than
something that happens. If children are aware that grown-ups rub their peepee’s together like
dogs in the street, they won’t be shocked or unusually enamored to learn of such behavior later in
life. And if they grew up seeing female breasts just as common as naked cows in the field, then
they don’t grow up fantasizing about what’s inside all the girls shirts. Children are constantly
learning new things, that’s the experience of life, and it’s better they be exposed to a broad reality
while everything’s no big deal to them, instead of fascinating over something new when they
think they already know everything, which happens soon enough.
Few feelings are as powerful as adolescent urges and desires. Eventually kids will be
exposed to sexual content and when they are, those that had an eyeful of old saggy, hairy bodies
when they were young are much less prone to be driven to unacceptable behavior by the allure of
beautiful bodies in the media. Even though mass media is full of drug references and sexual
teases, secrecy and prohibition make sex and drugs seem all the more attractive to adolescents.
But certainly, the subjects of sex and procreation shouldn’t be confused. The necessity of
proper parenting, so desperately lacking in society, added to the terrible burdens of
overpopulation, provides more than ample reason to discourage all but well-planned pregnancy
and child-rearing. Only when people are happy, emotionally stable and financially secure should
they even consider having a child.
Raising wise and happy children isn’t an easy task, and it’s made much more difficult by
financial, social and other outside stresses. Behavior is like fuzz drawn to static electricity, it
sticks to those exposed to it. Children of angry or frustrated parents will likely be angry or
frustrated because that’s the behavior they learn their parents. Let no parent squander the
opportunity to impart happiness to children. To behave coursely, speak fouly, and demonstrate
hostility is to kill the innocence and wonder inherent in a baby. And having a television as a
babysitter won’t work either, parents need to share in the fun and adventure of youth to for the
sake of current happiness and future accomplishment and satisfaction.
Loving, responsible parenting and similar social reinforcement is the only means of
achieving a loving and responsible culture. No amount of heavy-handedness or oppression will
ever do that. Of course, society is the collective body of individuals, and any societal change
originates with individuals. Today, every concerned citizen desiring a happier, more peaceful
society can help to bring about that change by showing more love to his family, friends,

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acquaintances and strangers; and by exercising patience to show less frustration and contempt.
Some of the best wisdom parents can impart to their children is to teach personal responsibility
and tolerance of others.
Society can let love lead by example and tolerance flourish in free liberty. Allow people
to choose to wear seatbelts and helmets by their own accord, not by force of law and threat of
fine. If a man wants to marry a dozen wives and a dozen women want to share one husband, they
should have every right to do just that, whether it makes any sense to others or not. And if two
men or two women want to recognize their relationship as a marriage, they’re altogether justified
in doing so. Only ignorant biggots would argue otherwise. Furthermore, for the sake of the
exploding overpopulation crisis, gay and lesbian unions should be wholeheartedly endorsed.
Surely, even the most archaic evangelical can see that unwanted pregnancies are not an inherent
problem of same-sex relationships.
And lastly, no regulation should interfere with an individual’s control over his own body.
Even if a person wants to set himself on fire and run screaming through the gates of heaven,
that’s his prerogative. Of course, there’s no mad rush of people wanting to set themselves on fire.
But, there are plenty of very sick people suffering the terrible pain associated with terminal
illnesses. Anyone that’s watched someone turn yellow and writhe in bed after liver failure, or
turn black from pneumonia, coughing up some of the fluid that will eventually suffocate him,
should understand a person’s desire to end his own misery when all hope is lost.
When pain and agony are all that’s left of life it’s a fate worse than death, which is, of
course, the ultimate end of the suffering. There is such a thing as a mercy killing, it’s a tragic end
to some more tragic circumstances, but it is at times quite merciful; and when appropriate it’s the
best option. Suicide for the terminally ill need not ever be encouraged however, because if ever a
person has to endure unbearable pain with no relief other than death or comatrophic drugs, the
thought of suicide will naturally arise. And if one chooses to end such awful pain, even before it
reaches its worst, he has every natural right to do so. It’s a hard thing to accept, but when
presented with the opportunity between two miseries, it’s only natural and wise to choose the
lesser of the two. But, those who deny that opportunity, and force ailing people to endure further
agony against their wishes, should be held responsible for the suffering they cause.
Certainly death is the antithesis of life, to be guarded against with great diligence. But
sometimes pain is worse than the inevitable death. It would be great if terminally ill people could
recover and lead happy lives, but to force an old-timer to endure another week or month of
wretched agony with not even a hope of recovery is evil, whether born of ignorance or arrogance.
What an awful world it is where people won’t allow some desperately sick people to decide
when they no longer wish to suffer, but still won’t let others live in peace.
True peace will never be attained without a true desire for Health and Happiness for All.
It’s that universal love that parents need to instill in their children. All justice and equality will
follow that commitment. Personal responsibility, truth, generosity, love and all good things are
made self-manifest in the supreme pursuit of Health and Happiness for All.
Parents need only teach their children love and respect for all good creatures to ensure
wise and responsible character. No more would thugs stomp, strut, swagger, and stare people
down in the hood in evil displays of hate that have spread like a wild plague through modern
culture. Even music has transformed in modern times from beautiful art to hateful, vulgar noise.
And everyone seems so quick to cast stones, but reluctant to cast a critical eye in the mirror.
Hate is even fueled by media that celebrates conflict and outlandish behavior because it
gets high viewer ratings. It seems professional footballers can’t make a play and a pro basketball
player can’t score a point without posing and staring into the camera with a wrinkled-up forehead
and hateful scowl on his face. People are being raised without even sense enough to show

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common courtesy or decency. Are these people so dumb they think they’re in a war zone where
they’re forced to intimidate their enemy for their very survival?
There’ve been times past that people engaged in duels and open combat with less overtly
hateful behavior and disrespect than that in many urban areas today. And certainly, people
wouldn’t have put up with such brattish attitudes. Even murderers can go free with a little
celebrity and well-paid attorneys. Justice has certainly changed since 1690 when Thomas Rogers
was hanged, drawn and quartered, and Anne Rogers was burned alive for clipping 40 pieces of
silver. Obviously, much of the change has been for the better, but true justice remains elusive.
In many courtrooms today trials are less an attempt to ascertain truth and advance justice,
as they are exercises in beauracracy that leave all argument and proposition to opposing parties.
Jurors should be free to ask questions, yet they aren’t even allowed to take notes in many
jurisdictions. And rules that make sense in some situations are nothing short of preposterous in
other situations. As in double jeopardy; it makes sense to protect citizens from repeated trials to
improve prosecutorial odds of gaining convictions, but the truth, in the form of new compelling
evidence such as photographic or video proof of murder, should always trump formality. On the
other side of the fence, there’s a great injustice in the common double punishment forced on
those people prosecuted on multiple state and/or federal charges for the same act.
Truth and safety should also trump confidentiality and privacy. The debate between
security and privacy is without merit for the most part. Balancing people’s right to safety and
privacy is easy; after all, it’s the same people, the general public, that needs both protections.
There’s no reason why information gathering and analysis has to conflict with personal privacy.
All information gathered for security purposes should remain anonymous unless and until such
information indicates criminal activity, at which time the source of the information is noted and
further investigation can be conducted.
Nobody should be concerned about their emails being read, website visits tracked, phone
calls listened to, and other monitoring activity if it can only be used to prevent real crimes with
real victims. So what, if a stranger’s reading someone’s anonymous emails? As long as that’s as
far as it can go, who cares? The real problem involves monitoring for violations of unjust and
unnecessary laws.
Stopping violent crimes is an appropriate use for eavesdropping; of course, it’d be nice if
terrorists would email their plots for mass destruction, but those revelations seem to be few and
far between. Eavesdropping should not be used however, to randomly search for so-called
victimless crimes, especially considering the urgent need to stop crimes with real victims. To
verify appropriate confidentiality and anonymity procedures are in place, privacy watchdogs
should be invited to assist in designing and monitoring the intelligence gathering and analysis
process.
The government hasn’t always inspired the greatest trust, and fear of government abuses
also helps to fuel discrimination. Fear is the main culprit behind discrimination, the child of
people lacking confidence in their own strength and security, and perceive in others a threat to
their own position or culture. For instance, Irish and Italians may oppose intermarriage among
their groups because they fear the loss of their traditions and identity. Blacks may fear the
political power of whites. Indians may fear the loss of their heritage. Asians may fear they can’t
walk the streets after dark. And whites may fear that everybody will one day wear baggy shorts
so low that their underwear becomes a fashion statement, and that the words ask, jewelry and all
right will be forever replaced by axe, jury and a’ight.
But fortunately the clothes one wears and dialect he speaks doesn’t define a person. No
matter the changes around him or her, a person’s strength lies in his or her kind and generous
character. That’s the measure of a person, and it’s time to move past concern of how one is

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affected and show more consideration for how one is affecting others.
And few activities are in greater need of more consideration than driving. If parents were
teaching Health and Happiness for All, vehicular accidents would be greatly diminished, as
drivers would be more mindful of the dangers they pose to others. And good driving is no
accident, like all behavior, good driving habits result from a desire to drive responsibly. If only
beginning drivers are convinced to choose safety as their top driving priority, they will be much
more likely master the challenge of driving safely, and everybody from little bunnies and
children, to entire busloads of people will be the better for it.
Special care should be given to helping prospective drivers understand the collective
nature of roadways, and the extraordinary trust and responsibilities society places in their hands.
The need to inspire children to want to learn and perform well is as important in few other
subjects. Drivers are responsible for safely operating multi-thousand pound projectiles capable of
terrible death and destruction caused by nothing more than callousness and inattention.
Surprisingly, the time to begin driver education is early in life when children will
appreciate the dangers and responsibilty of driving. Not at 15 or 16 years of age when willingness
to understand and seek to improve is compromised by an independent, devil-may-care, attitude.
There’s actually something to be gained by introducing children to driving gradually at as early
an age as they take an interest. They can learn early that light acceleration and braking will
improve mileage, and carpooling and reducing unneccessary trips will save even more money
and time. But most importantly they can learn driving respect while they still have respect.
Generally, victimless crimes should go unpunished, but mandatory compliance with safe
driving regulations are appropriate because of the high probability for harm to others. But
without a doubt, good education and wise leadership will far exceed prohibitive law
enforcement. Regrettably, the standard methods of fostering driver compliance are woefully
inadequate, and committed driver cooperation is absolutely essential to safety. The shared nature
of roadways and threat to animals and people near those roadways cannot be overstated, and
potential drivers need to demonstrate a thorough understanding and acceptance of that principle.
That concern for safety needs to be reinforced by public intervention of dangerous
behavior. The first rule of safe driving is to be prepared to stop. Yet, drivers fly over hills and
around corners with no possibility of stopping for whatever might lie in their paths. Much of the
time they’re not even entirely in their own lane. The earth could’ve opened up and swallowed the
road on the other side of the hill or curve and drivers wouldn’t know it until their cars
disappeared. Or a bulldozer could be parked in the road and irresponsible drivers would slam
right into it.
And that’s just what they deserve, because it will more likely be a child or animal or
accident victim just over the hill, at the mercy of clueless, inconsiderate drivers. Justice would
see rocks and logs and other roadblocks placed over hilltops until drivers learn, the hard way if
necessary, to drive within their vision and braking ability. Spikes hidden in fake turtles and
rabbits would also go a long way toward teaching consideration. Of course, checkpoints of police
or concerned citizens standing in roadways below the crest of hills, reminding those that go
screeching past of their duty to always be vigilant for safety would be another very effective way
to Only considerate driving will prevent more death and horrible injuries to innocent victims.
And the best education any driver can receive is concern for others.
Certainly, it’s those whose voice isn’t heard, those who don’t benefit from the roads of
men, that are most harmed. The safest drivers are those who strive to keep any creature from
perishing under wheel. Those are the drivers who proceed with diligence, moving slowly and
scanning side to side for any animals that may run into the road in confusion. It’s certainly not
the fault of other animals that man has bulldozed and paved the common land of all earthlings to

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install criss-crossing corridors of death to speed him on his self-serving way. Animals didn’t
build highways, and it isn’t their responsibility to understand man’s customs and habits. It is
unequivocally drivers’ responsibilities to operate motor vehicles without harming their fellow
earthlings.
In this cruel, self-centered world, insurance companies are actually paying bounties to
deer hunters. What an outrageos affront to justice; encouraging slaughter to keep deer away from
highways built on shared land! If people just slowed down in hours of darkness, on rural roads,
and in other conditions where clear, wide visibility is limited, collisions with deer would
decrease dramatically.
And what’s safe for animals is safe for people. Automotive travel is a compromise of
speed and safety. Speed kills, and safety is enhanced with the reduction of every mile per hour. It
all goes back to that concept of personal responsibility. The removal of responsibility
expectations results in unsafe driving just as it does in the abuse of government assistance. Under
no circumstance should insurance policies compensate damages from animal collisions. In fact,
drivers should face serious punitive fines for running over animals. And they should definitely
lose their licenses for purposely hitting animals, as some of the lowliest, most vile drivers do for
sport. It’s infuriating but true that some bowels of humanity take pleasure in running over turtles,
rabbits, squirrels, dogs, cats, frogs, opposums and any other animals unlucky enough to wander
onto roads.
That’s the kind of real harm which demands increased monitoring, better education, and
stronger enforcement. Were it not for malicious intent and reckless indifference, many a child’s
best friend would be alive today, along with other animals that never asked to have roads built
through their lands and stocked with mannerless bufoons. To best monitor driving behavior
citizen volunteers should be deputized to enforce public safety laws in their neighborhoods. They
needn’t be armed or provided patrol cars, as they would serve a purpose of public presence to
increase safety awareness, ask drivers for better cooperation, and issue citations as a last resort. If
only leaders would utilize abundant volunteer resources, and make a positive safety connection
with young drivers, tremendous tragedy could easily be avoided.

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 Summation
Earth has experienced dramatic changes since being born naked and barren billions of
years ago. It’s amazing to think the simple mixing and grouping of atoms that formed molecules
as plain and abundant as water has led to the marvelously sophisticated process of precise
replication found in animals as diverse as butterflies and whales. Even in this so-called
information age the connection’s so easily missed between the astounding complexity of factors
and conditions necessary to life, and the astounding magnitude of molecular combinations
formed every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every one of the last four
billion years.
That’s how long it’s taken for simple molecular combinations and chemical reactions to
reach the level of intricate, interwoven, complimentary relationships that make the complexity of
life possible today. And much of the fascinating work of cellular replication is made possible by
a special enzyme called DNA polymerase that splits the two helical strands of human DNA,
found in the individual cells of the body, and proceeds to work down each strand, driven by
simple atomic attractions and energy transfer; attaching a compliment to every one of the three
billion nucleotides in each strand to produce two complete sets of DNA folded into tightly-
packed chromosomes. After DNA replication, the cell divides in two, with each of the newly
formed cells containing a full set of DNA.
And the amazing DNA polymerase enzyme is just one of thousands of different kinds of
enzymes performing tasks throughout the body. They’re the little assembly machines that
perform much of the body’s molecular work. Complex protein structures, made from 100 to as
many as 1,000 amino acid molecules joined together in such a way to allow them to break or
combine specific bonds in other molecules, they perform such vital tasks as building cell walls,
making ATP fuel molecules out of glucose, assembling hormones, and other critical production
work.
Not surprisingly, enzymes themselves are produced by a complex enzyme called the
ribosome; which reads messenger RNA strands that are copied from little segments of the DNA
helix called genes by the RNA polymerase enzyme. Once the requisite amino acids are
assembled, the new enzymes are released to drift in the cell’s cytoplasm, ready to perform their
highly specialized tasks with the specific molecules and polymers that they interact with. And all
of that intricate work is automatically guided in orderly fasion by the three billion character DNA
sequence. However, those complex automatic cellular and molecular processes can be altered by
even small chemical changes, and the sophistication of chemical processes is so great that what
seems a simple cure for one ailment can fatally upset the balance of critical biologic function.
And humanity is only now beginning to understand the complex biological processes, as
technology matures. But long before man became the first ape to laugh, cry and walk on the
moon, his ancestors set themselves apart from other primates through their language. The more
those pioneers talked, the more they shared; and the more they listened, the more curious they
became. And like children, when they matured as a species enough to question the causes of
effects all around them they found themselves in a dangerous, grown-up world with no one able
to explain their past, present or future.
While desire for a better life slowly drove invention and innovation, fear of death and the
unknown was driving men to seek protection and hope in any quarter. No truth was too obvious,
nor fantasy too fantastic in the imagination of men that invented their own realities. It was a
better feeling than picking diamonds on the beach for those who chose to believe they could beat
death by inventing gods to grant them everlasting life. Just as simple as that the individual
escaped the fear of death and embraced the comfort of an empty promise.

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 But childhood dreams die hard, and when later generations had to choose between truth
and the ridiculous lies they had had been told, they tenaciously clung to old fantasy. The
Egyptian gods shone in the heavens as the sun, moon and stars, but at the same time dwelt with
the people as pharaohs. Greek gods lived on a mountain, until the mountain was conquered and
no gods were found.
And Jews borrowed a story about a man building a boat and rounding up a pair of every
animal species on the planet; before their god realized that the sun didn’t revolve around a flat,
motionless earth; there wasn’t enough water to flood the entire planet; no man’s wooden boat
could hold a pair of each of the 13 million animal species; land plants can’t survive underwater;
and all the Indians, Asians, Pygmies, Inuit, Europeans, Africans, and Aborigines of the world
today couldn’t be descended from Adam and Eve through Noah’s family in only a few thousand
years. And most importantly and sadly for them, the god of the Jews didn’t realize that Christians
and Muslims would eventually steal his identity and do to to his chosen people what they created
him to do to the Canaanites and other nearby tribes.
It’s easy to look back and wonder how people could be so desperate and guillible, but
because people have trouble disassociating from their own circumstances, and considering their
own lives through different, objective perspectives; the grasping and holding of irrational
convictions continues unabated to this day. Unfortunately, man’s intellectual maturity is still
stuck in adolescence, as he struggles to separate fiction and reality; fact and fantasy.
That’s illustrated by the continued religious ferver and strong belief in magic still present
in New England decades after the Salem Witch Hunt. An impressionable man that many have
called crazy, named Joseph Smith Jr. was captivated by magic and obsessed with a desire to
divine his way to treasure. Like many of his peers at the time, for years Smith labored to read
divining stones, rods and other implements of magic to lead him to hidden treasure. Seers, as
they were called, were very common in those days. But, having no more luck finding secret
treasure than a modern day sorcerer divining lottery numbers, Smith eventually hatched a scheme
to make his own treasure out of thin air.
The real lingering question was whether Smith played the fools around him or was he too
fooled into believing his own story? After all, it was a phenomena commonly claimed: people
receiving holy visions. The minds of simpletons, possessing a child-like ignorance, were then
and continue to be very susceptible to the powers of suggestion. What is to be expected when a
child is taught at home and church, over and over again, that fantasy is reality? The effects are
powerful enough to keep people shackled by intellectual immaturity for their entire lives it what
can realistically be called life senctences of naïve ignorance. Those mind-control techniques can
still be readily seen in churches around the country today, where fanatical preachers whip their
followers into a frenzy with powerful theatrics not so unlike an infamous German Fuhrer.
“Can you feel the Lord’s presence in the room with you here today?” the preacher asks.
“Hallelujah!” replies the excited crowd.
“Can you see the light of Jesus in your own mind?” cries the preacher in a fit of passion.
“I can see! I can see!” people shout out in the crowd. “Hallelujah! O’ Lord I can see,” trail
off the trembling voices.
“Can you feel the power of the Army of the Lord risin’ up in you now, from your toes up
to your hands stretched out to embrace the Glory of God?”
“Amen! Amen!”
“Can you see God’s own angels flying overhead and standing amidst you in the crowd
today?”
“Standing by to deliver you from the deadly grasp of the Devil today!”
“Can you feel it? Can you see it? Can you hear the voice of God ringing in your ears like

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a great bell; a thunderous trumpet calling you to the Kingdom of God? Today! Not tommorrow,
my friend in Jesus, but Today!”
“Do you have the love of the Lord and the Power of God inside you?”
“Open your heart and your mind to Lord Jesus right now; and all your mortal sins and
transgressions will be washed away! And the Power, and the Glory, and the Kingdom of God
will be yours everlasting!” …
Can you see it? Can you feel the power of suggestion and the allure of fantasy? Yes, even
today the false promise of everlasting life and eternal riches influences people to believe anything
imaginable; and oppose all that doesn’t benefit them, and even to corroborate lies with more lies.
There were those that doubted Joseph Smith, a desperate treasure hunter, when he claimed to
have had in his possession for a number of years a set of gold tablets that had been buried on a
hill conveniently located near his home outside Palmyra, New York.
According to Smith the tablets had been placed there about 1400 years before by a man
named Mormon and his son-turned-angel Moroni. Not surprisingly, Smith could never produce
the gold tablets for public display. And it seemed to most thinking people that Smith was just
making up the ludicrous story about sticking his face in a hat and reading a couple of “seer”
stones that supposedly translated phantom gold tablets into English to reveal another Christian
Bible. However, it’s a shame that the weakest of minds are easily consumed by such blatant lies
and falsehoods; and those weak minds are the most determined to lead others down the same
illusionary path.
Still, despite widespread ignorance in the population, due to natural suspicion of such
ridiculous claims, Smith and his followers were run out of New York, and later Ohio, Missouri
and Illinois. Well, actually, Smith was killed in Illinois, and after that his confused glory-seeking
followers dispersed in a number of directions, with many following Brigham Young to some
much less popular and thus less contested real estate in Utah.
But before his untimely death, Smith had always put a positive spin on the difficulties and
forced relocations that his group brought upon themselves. Before the Mormons were kicked out
of Jackson County, Missouri in 1833, Smith had announced that the town of Independence would
be the future center of Zion upon Jesus’ return. After expulsion from Jackson County, Smith
softened his follower’s dissappointment at being once again forcibly evicted and having their
property confiscated, by announcing that Adam and Eve had also been kicked out of what would
later become Jackson County because that was the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
It’s not surprising that a lot of dyed-in-the-wool Christians were upset with Smith for
feeling free to move the Garden of Eden from Mesopotamia halfway around the world to
Independence, Missouri, and more importantly for inventing his own testament of Jesus. It was
especially irksome for many that Smith and his followers had a nack for finding divine metal
tablets everywhere they went, yet they could never show those tablets to anybody else, not even
each other; except in visions, of course; with everyone free to see them in their own mind, as
Smith’s “witnesses” claimed to do. Also bothersome to mainstream Christians, were Smith’s
claims to have been visited by John the Baptist, and the apostles James, John and Peter.
But, regardless of the general hostility and mistrust by the general public, there were
those who bought into the vision Smith was selling. And after his death, many followed one of
his associates, James Strang, after he claimed to be called by God to head the Latter Day Saints.
Strang and some of his group moved to Wisconsin, where strangely enough, he too found a set of
tablets nobody else could see, which he called the Voree Plates, and he proceeded to publish his
own divine supplement to the Bible called the Book of the Law of the Lord in 1851.
To be fair to Joseph Smith Jr. and James Strang; if people could believe witches haunted
Salem, Joshua parted the Jordan River, thunder issued from Thor’s hammer, Hercules slayed a

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nine-headed Hydra, young King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, Samson slayed a
thousand armed warriors with the jawbone of an ass, and desert nomads found gods on
mountains thousands of years ago; then people could very well believe Smith could find tablets
of gold and commune with gods through stones in a hat.
The success of Smith’s Latter Day Saint movement demonstrates how powerful ideas are.
What was blasphemous and deserving of death in the eyes of many, was welcome revelation to
others, raised, as they were, to see magic and omens in common objects, and expect the
appearance of mythical beings. Today, people still claim to talk to gods with all the zeal of a
sideshow carney. And even as people seek to understand the human genome, much of the world
is held back, busy battling archaic demons of their own design; and worse yet, creating demons
to battle others. From Sudan to Somalia, to Persia and a field in Pennsylvania, and from the Holy
Land to the hills of the Bible Belt; men still wallow in ignorance and hatred in the names of their
lords.
But what have people to show for cutting hands off thieves, hanging drug users, and
stoning unveiled women? What’s been gained by the violent fantasies and jihads against all
that’s different? And who really benefits from car bombs, beheadings and religious uprisings
around the world? Nobody wins, yet the power of false hope is so great that people don’t realize
or care that everybody loses, and life is made all the poorer by simple fallacies.
Life is actually best considered as a collective whole with work directed toward mutual
benefit. It’s only through cooperation and consideration that life can ever achieve the greatest
good. And society must remain vigilant for the conditions in which harmful ideas are born and
the circumstances in which they might be replaced by healthy behavior. And most importantly,
understanding of the Universal Truths and Laws is necessary to distinguish good from evil and
advance true prosperity.

Universal Truths Universal Rules

PLEASURE IS GOOD HARM NOTHING BUT TO PREVENT IT
PAIN IS BAD FROM HARMING OTHERS
JOY IS THE MEANING OF LIFE BE NICE, KIND AND GENEROUS
LIFE AND JUSTICE IS INDIVIDUAL ALLOW THAT WHICH IS DESIRED
UNDERSTANDING IS INTELLIGENCE AND DOES NOT HARM OTHERS
GENEROSITY IS STRENGTH SHARE THE PERSPECTIVES
SELF CONCERN IS WEAKNESS OF OTHERS
ULTIMATE EVOLUTION IS CONSIDER THE EFFECT
GROWING BEYOND THE SELF OF EVERY ACTION
WORTH IS ONE’S EFFECT ADVANCE HEALTH AND
ON OTHERS HAPPINESS FOR ALL

Every developing mind is open to influence. Young minds are like sponges soaking up
the culture of their environments. Children are the most susceptible to catching the frustration,
rudeness, selfishness, abusiveness, and hatred plaguing their homes and communities. But they
can also manifest the good manners, generosity, kindness, tolerance and consideration of loving,
caring friends and family members. The environment people create through their own example is
often their principal contribution to culture that will form the basis of the personal experiences
that shape the lives of the next generation. Unfortunately, in this age of misinformation, young
minds are drowning in the abundant example of reckless stupidity and hatred on television, radio,
magazines and the internet from people screaming for attention.
To understand oneself, however, and the appropriateness of personal behavior, requires

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the objectivity of external perspective. Just like understanding the world, one must see not only
how actions affect him, but how actions affect others. One can’t understand the effect of his own
behavior unless he can see himself through the eyes of others. To achieve true personal growth,
it’s suggested that people seek out-of-body experience.
Not real out-of-body experience of course, the brain and senses can’t really be extracted
from the body; but people have the capacity to figuratively step back and imagine how they
appear to others. How does one appear to those around him? If a person could see herself through
the eyes of others would she be pleased with what she saw, or perhaps embarrassed, or even
disgusted? That’s what people must ask themselves, and try to imagine what those around them
are seeing, and how they would feel if they were in the shoes of others. That is the key to broad,
well developed perspective. Only by considering the feelings of others can a person climb the
thought chart to grow beyond the self by pursuing lasting Health and Happiness for All.

Disposition Consideration Immediacy

Loving All Animals Legacy
Caring Species Long-Term
Indifferent Regional Short-Term
Hostile Friends & Family Routine
Cruel Self Subsistence

Another important consideration of wisdom is the truth of existing notions. Long ago it
was said that nobody can learn what they think they already know. A closed mind is a stagnant
mind, and only open-minded people can learn new truth. Self-imposed blindness keeps people in
the dark, unable to see the big picture. And in seeking growth in truth, one must freely abandon
existing notions and question even what they think they know. A eureka moment, or epipheny,
may occur at any time when taking a brand new look at the world, or a particular situation. One
must let go of fear because truth never needs to fear examination, nor should it be shielded from
questioning, for if what was held to be true is indeed true it won’t be changed by consideration.
But, if a person is mistaken, then he stands to benefit from better understanding through
expanded perspective.
And regardless of the truth of one’s observations, there’s little to be gained by casting
stones at another’s faults, without recognizing the faults in oneself. Selfishness prevents people
from Doing unto others as they would have done to them. Whether relations concern
individuals or entire nations, the nature and effect of those relationships will be determined by
the character of the concerned parties. For a nation seeking to promote peace and unity,
understanding and observance of these simple precepts can aid in furthering international
agreement and prosperity:
Be confident and comfortable – seek desired change at home first.
Be self sufficient and strong – weak or needy behavior undermines respect.
Be realistic – it’s good to hope for the best, but better to plan for contingencies.
Build friendship – celebrate common goals, and stay positive and appreciative.
Seek the best path – consider all options, even letting problems work themselves out.
Lead by example – adopt Universal Laws of justice and equality.
Be subtle – don’t trigger defensive mechanisms by approaching divisive issues head-on.
Seek free speech – truth can’t triumph if it isn’t heard.
Build concensus – utilize the circle of friendship that extends around the world.
Unify – join together where practical to increase efficiency and trust.

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 Before America can begin to lead the world to greater harmony and prosperity, a grand
housecleaning and restructuring must occur. The United States government has grown so large
and parasitic that the American public has little idea how wasteful and harmful it really is.
What’s hailed as the world’s most prosperous democracy is actually a land ruled by special
interests and economic leeches sucking the lifeblood out of the economy. Only a dysfunctional
system would sue tobacco companies and subsidize tobacco growers at the same time. Yet that’s
how messed up American government is; and it brings up the obvious question of why the
federal government ever subsidized tobacco with taxpayer money in the first place?
The public has neither control of the federal government, nor means of getting control of
it because the U.S. Constitution makes no provision for true democracy. And since rule of law is
only as good as the law and mechanism of rule, it should be up to the public to decide when they
want to go to war, what projects they want to spend their money on, and what laws they want to
live by. But the law is in the hands of Washington politicians and the lobbyists that influence
them. And it will take a strong movement and leader to open the American political system. But
it can be done; it wasn’t very long ago that parents wept in the streets of the Soviet Union with
the joy of believing their children would have greater freedom and control over their own lives.
As American prosperity declines and the public becomes more aware of injustice and
strangled liberties, the yearning for true democracy in America will grow. To believe that
republicanism is a better form of government than democracy is to believe that politicians make
wiser decisions than the public. While that is the principal upon which the country was founded,
it has failed to be apparently manisfest, as politicians have regularly seemed to represent the
lowest of public conviction just as readily, if not more so, than convictions of more noble cause.
The distinction between rule of the elite and rule of the masses is, however, not among the most
important issues to be addressed. Regardless of whether it’s the people, or their representatives
passing laws to govern the country, those decisions will only be consistently good and fair if
bound by a constitution of the Universal Laws of Life.
For too long there has been a sickly black shadow of greed hovering over the country that
has nearly killed the spirit of cooperation. Some people have riches measured in millions and
even billions of dollars while others can barely keep a roof overhead and food on the table, and
culture is still plagued by selfish brutality. A culture of peace and mutual benefit is only possible
through cooperation, but these injustices, along with prohibitions of liberty are killing the
cooperative spirit. But people can elevate cooperation and mutual benefit by adopting these
changes essential to equitable governance and culture:
1. Govern by the Universal Laws of Life and public vote.
2. Replace legislative branch with Council to administer on the public’s behalf.
3. Place executive departments under authority of Council.
4. Replace position of president with Executive Ambassador.
5. Forbid self interest, favoritism and district pandering to serve the common good.
6. Create Central Information Service as a single source for public information.
7. Replace welfare programs with public work programs.
8. Minimize disability program to discourage abuse and encourage independence.
9. Reduce government involvement to that which is desired by a supermajority.
10. Reverse population trend, limit biological family size.
11. Reverse pollution trend with aggressive taxes on pollution.
12. Reduce consumption and waste.
13. Expand recycling operations.
14. Set aside more land for fellow earthlings.
15. Form more business cooperatives.

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16. Maintain satisfaction indexes for products and services.
17. Fully disclose past customer experience and realistic expectations.
18. Adopt International System of measurement.
19. Develop and adopt universal language.
20. Make material reward proportionate with productive effort.
21. Set minimum and maximum wage range and total income limit.
22. Rollback patent and copyright free market interference.
23. Apply usury profit to public debt.
24. Cancel policy of intentional inflation.
25. Hold people responsible for their own health and welfare.
26. Restrict monetary punitive damage awards from civil law to cases of willful harm.
27. Streamline education.
28. Eliminate educational requirements of professional licensure and job placement.
29. Allow consumers to select any service provider of their choosing.
30. Don’t impose on personal freedom, except to prevent harm to others.
Right now humanity faces a lot of critical challenges. The rich are getting richer, and the
poorest can’t get any more poor. Hate and intolerance still rage in the slums of the world, while
less dramatic injustice and discrimination pervade more affluent areas. Greed and selfishness still
drive society even though Health and Happiness is more desirable than all the king’s riches and
all the wealth of the world. Human population has covered the planet like a fungus, killing and
crowding fellow earthlings, and steadily turning the world into a toilet and trash dump.
Population is still rising, along with waste and consumption, and resources are dwindling. And
general animosity and lack of trust continually threatens to turn people against each other in a
war of worldwide devastation.
This book has illustrated a lot of injustice and a lot of ills that need addressed, and a good
many methods to promote mutual prosperity. And where there are tremendous challenges there
are tremendous opportunities; opportunities to slash the cost of healthcare, save years of wasted
effort and expense in education, maximize economic efficiency and equality, and united the
world in lasting peace.
Despite all the challenges that must be addressed, there’s a lot of good in the world that
sometimes goes unrecognized and uncelebrated. Life itself should be a celebration. As
individuals adopt the Universal Laws to live by, and society adopts Universal Laws to govern,
culture can be transformed from self-interest, and scandalous sensationalism to generous people
united for common good that desire the best for others and celebrate good news instead of trying
to stir controversy. But the evils and concerns of injustice thus far described are overshadowed
by greater suffering.
There’s a dark beast among the people; a monster lurking in the midst of humanity that’s
responsible for more death and destruction than any beast that has ever trod the ground or preyed
in sky or water. This dark lord is no mythological demon from the depths of imagination. The
essence of evil takes on a very real form and attacks like the hounds of hell, inflicting
unimaginable horrors and committing atrocious acts of barbarity. Caution children and the truly
kindly that suffer no others with injustice, not to read further. For screams of the innocent, cries
of terror and images of excruciating suffering in the final chapters will haunt the rest of the
reader’s days.

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 Savage Lord
Sol’s smile flooded the room as he peeked through the open window. The warmth felt
good on Bobby’s face, and charming sounds of songbirds caused him to smile just as brightly as
the morning sun. Opening his eyes, he rolled over in bed and hugged his best friend Buddy, who
yawned and stretched a big waking stretch before giving Bobby some sweet puppy kisses. Kisses
made Bobby giggle and he squeezed Buddy tighter.
Then the two friends shuffled out of bed and hurried to the kitchen where mom greeted
them with a warm smile. “Good morning boys,” she said, “breakfast is ready.” Bobby rushed
over and hugged his mom; Buddy right beside him, wagging his tail a mile-a-minute.
Curtains fluttered in a light summer breeze gently blowing in the kitchen window while
the boys ate. After the two friends enjoyed a delicious hot breakfast they gathered up the dishes
and dirty clothes for mother to wash. Then all three were off on their regular morning adventure.
Into the woods they walked, mom and her two little ones, on a well-worn path trod most nice
days. They walked among giants: ancient red oaks, white oaks, and hickories that nearly blocked
the sun; and they walked among parades of ants scouraging the forest floor for food to carry back
to the nest.
The woods were full of life in the morning. Squirrels chattered back and forth incessantly,
occasionally stopping to cast a curious gaze at the ponderous trio down below. Sometimes deer
and turkey were coming back from the meadow, and always there were birds going about their
usual treetop business. Bobby marvelled at how it must feel to soar far above the ground and
zoom between the outstretched arms of giants. Among the celebration of life Bobby and Buddy
were happy as pigs in a garden as they looked for turtles, moths, lizards, chipmunks, treefrogs,
and other acquaintances to make. And it never failed that they got dirty because they never tired
of lifting rocks and leaves and whatever else might be harboring toads and crickets and moths
and slugs and centipedes and roly-poly’s and those ever-industrious ants.
On this particular morning, adventures lasted until the sun was high in the sky and pond
frogs were basking in full warmth. When at last they returned to the house, mom left the boys in
the soft warm grass of the yard while she went inside to do a few chores. The yard was a busy
place; butterflies, bees and hummingbirds danced all about, attracted by the sweet fragrance of a
thousand flowers.
But as much as Bobby loved watching the bright fliers, he was looking for something
else. When at last he spied his favorite ball lying in the grass, he raced over and kicked it as far as
he could kick it, and the great game was on. Bobby laughed and Buddy barked with delight as
they chased that ball. Over and over Bobby kicked the old ball and Buddy chased it down and
slobbered all over it until Bobby could catch up and kick it again. Buddy’s tongue nearly dragged
the ground, and soon the ball and his whole face was a dirty, slobbery mess. But no amount of
dirt and slobber bothered those boys because they enjoyed nothing more than playing ball
together.
Time flew by, and the laughs and giggles grew into shrieks and screams of enchanted
excitement. During moments like that, it was good to be alive. At that time the world was as big
as a ball, a yard, a wide open blue sky, and a best friend to play with. Inside the house momma
smiled knowing the boys couldn’t be any happier as she stood at the window and watched the
simple fun go on and on as they played, without a care in the world. Paradise was the fun and
happiness of youth, and clearly nothing could be better. After a while, momma went outside and
joined in the fun. And she too was laughing and grinning ear-to-ear with a smile brighter than all
the stars of heaven. Perhaps momma even laughed hardest of all; because in her heart she knew
that joyous and blissful moments like those were truly the time of their lives.

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 It was nearly lunch time when the boys’ fires cooled and they started to run out of steam;
leaving them ready to take a break to rest awhile. By the time the boys got cleaned up, momma
had lunch ready to eat. And after eating a hearty lunch worthy of growing boys, Bobby and
Buddy laid down for a much needed nap and fell fast asleep.
But momma couldn’t join them for a nap, she had some things to do in town, so she let
Buddy out and carried Bobby to the car, still asleep. When Bobby woke up he was in the car,
pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store. But after a few errands, they were back on the
road home.
Bobby was standing on the seat with a smile on his face when they drove up the driveway
of home. He was always happy to get back home to his best friend. But his brow wrinkled and he
started looking all around as they made their way down the drive to the house. “Where’s
Buddy?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” his mother replied. “He’s usually waiting by the drive when he hears the
car coming home.”
When the car stopped Bobby got out and yelled for Buddy. But, still Buddy was nowhere
to be seen.
Bobby’s mom took his hand. “That’s odd,” she said. “It’s not like Buddy to leave the yard
by himself.”
Then the two of them started walking down their favorite trail, calling Buddy’s name.
“Here Buddy! Here Buddy!” they called. But still no reply; still no sign of Buddy.
They walked the whole trail calling for Buddy. Then they walked up and down the road.
And they circled behind the house and around the other side. But they couldn’t find Buddy
anywhere. By the time they had looked the last place they knew to look, Bobby was really
worried for his best friend. He started to think something bad might have happened to him. Tears
started welling up in his eyes and his lips started to tremble and his cheeks puckered up as he
called out for his best friend as loud as he could; hoping more than anything that Buddy would
hear him.
But Buddy couldn’t hear him. Buddy was in a crate in some man’s truck, surrounded by
other dogs in crates. And when the truck pulled down a long, bumpy driveway and stopped
beside a dirty old house, the man got out and went inside, leaving Buddy and the others in the
truck. Buddy called out for Bobby. But the other dogs were barking and Buddy couldn’t tell if
Bobby could hear him. And Buddy kept barking from inside the crate, and miles away Bobby
stood in the yard calling for Buddy. And they both called for each other into the evening until
their throats were too hoarse to call anymore. And Buddy finally whined and laid down in the
hard old crate, and Bobby finally went inside and cried himself to sleep.
Bobby woke many times throughout the night, crying for his best friend. But Bobby’s
anguish and tears couldn’t help Buddy, and early the next morning the dirty man came outside
and started the truck and hauled Buddy and the other dogs down the road. Back home, Bobby
arose in the daylight and looked over, hoping that it was all just a bad dream he would wake up
from and his best friend would be right there beside him. But Buddy wasn’t there. He was on the
way to a research laboratory.
Bobby felt sick and he got dressed and went outside. His mom tried to console him and
get him to come inside and eat breakfast, but Bobby didn’t want to eat and couldn’t feel good
while his best friend was missing. So, mom went inside and grabbed a staple gun and the missing
friend posters she made the previous night. Then she went back outside, took Bobby by the hand
and walked down the road to staple posters on power poles and road signs before getting in the
car and driving to the vet’s office, the newspaper, the radio station and a few other places to pass
out posters and ask for help in finding Buddy.

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 Nobody they asked knew where Buddy was, and even as Buddy was being taken into the
research lab, Bobby was walking around their house calling Buddy’s name. Buddy was still
calling for Bobby too, but neither could hear the other. Buddy was too far away, locked in some
cold concrete building that smelled like chemicals inside. For the rest of the day the two boys felt
sad and frustrated, as they occasionally called out for each other. Buddy pawed at the cage door,
and Bobby pounded his little fist on the floor. And both went to sleep that night still hoping that
the other would soon show up.
After another long night in a cold, cramped cage, Buddy sprang to his feet when he heard
the building door opening. Somebody came in and turned on some faint lights. Buddy thought
Bobby might be coming to get him, so he started barking and wagging his tail and scratching at
the door to his cage, hoping it would open and he could run to Bobby. But Bobby wasn’t with the
man that came in the building, and that man didn’t even come over to see Buddy and the other
dogs, he just went into another room and turned on some more lights and sat down at a desk.
Before long, more people came in the building. And all the dogs got excited, thinking someone
was about to come over and let them out of their cages and let them go home. But one by one
they walked on past, not paying them any attention.
Finally, someone came over to Buddy’s cage. But he didn’t pet Buddy and he didn’t open
the cage door. He just filled the food and water dispensers and left. Buddy couldn’t do anything
but sit and wait. It wasn’t until almost lunch that a man came over and opened one of the cage
doors. When he did, a cocker spaniel bound out, ready to go. “Where do you think you’re
going?” the man said, grabbing the golden dog by the neck. Then the man carried the cocker
spaniel into another room.
It was quiet for a while and then Buddy heard the golden dog yelp. It wasn’t a really long
bark, or a really loud scream, but it made Buddy nervous and he stepped back in the cage, which
seemed so strange, and he looked for a way out, but the only way out that he could see was
through the metal bars of the door. So, he stepped forward again and started scratching and
pushing at the bottom of the door. Now, on top of missing Bobby, he was getting scared.
When the man brought goldie back, she was pretty quiet, she didn’t seem as energetic as
she was earlier, but her breathing sounded a little quick, shallow and shaky. The man had no
sooner put her back in a cage, when he opened another cage and carried another dog away. Some
of the dogs were starting to turn circles in their cages and yap excitedly, but Buddy just wanted to
go home, he wanted to find a way out of there. Every time the man came back to the cages,
Buddy backed away from the door. But finally it was his door that opened, and Buddy slumped
down just a little. “Come on you,” the man in the white overcoat said, and he picked Buddy up
and carried him into the other room.
Buddy was normally happy and friendly, but he didn’t like the feeling he was getting as
the man sat him on some scales to be weighed. Then the man picked him up and put him on a
cold metal table. There, another man put a hand on Buddy’s face, and shone a bright light in
Buddy’s eyes, then he lifted Buddy’s ears and looked inside them, then he put his finders in
Buddy’s mouth and pried his mouth open, and then he held Buddy’s tale up and put something
cold in his butt.
Buddy was really starting to wonder what these strange people were doing to him, when
the second man grabbed a handful of skin on Buddy’s back and pulled it up. Just then Buddy felt
a stick and tried to turn his head to see what it was, but the handler was holding his head, keeping
him from beeing able to see what was hurting him. And then the sting started to burn and Buddy
cried out in a yelp like the other dogs had made. And Buddy tried to get away. He tried to squirm,
and wriggle, and push, to free himself; but the man’s grip was too tight. And the man carried him
back to the cages and placed him back inside.

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 The place where he was stung on the back was really hurting and he reached back to
check on it and lick it but he couldn’t quite reach it up by his shoulder blades. But pretty soon
Buddy started to feel hot all over, and dizzy. So he sat down. And the longer he sat there, the
more tired he became. His mouth started to water, and he got a little shaky, and he laid down.
The longer he laid there the worse he felt, he ached all over, and his head throbbed, and he
started to get a nasty metallic taste in his mouth, and his stomach started to hurt real bad. For the
rest of the day Buddy lay there in terrible pain hoping Bobby was going to come get him, until he
finally fell asleep.
Sleep, however, was intermittant and tense. Buddy felt like he was going to burn up and
the long, dark night seemed to drag on forever. Even when the people came back the next
morning and turned on some lights, Buddy didn’t feel like getting up. Neither did the rest of the
dogs. They were very quiet, even when the man came to check on their food and water. He
didn’t need to give Buddy anymore food and water, because Buddy felt to sick to eat or drink.
But, Buddy did manage to stand up on wobbly legs and scoot back in the cold, steel cage when
the man came near.
In time the man started to take the dogs, one by one, back to the other room. And when it
was Buddy’s turn, he mustered his strength and tried to run. But the man grabbed him hard by the
scruff of the neck and slapped Buddy in the face, poking him in the eye. Buddy, ducked his head
down, his eye blinking, and tried to pull away but the man was too strong and he just squeezed
harder and started cussing at Buddy. After the second man examined Buddy on the steel table
again, he pulled a syringe out of a drawer and stuck it in Buddy’s front leg. Ow! that felt a little
like the thing that stung Buddy the day before. He instinctively tried to reach down and bite the
stinger.
Wham! the man holding the stinger hit Buddy on the side of the head with his fist,
bruising Buddy’s left eye. “Hold that dumb son-of-a-bitch still!” he yelled to the handler.
With that, the first man with the white overcoat picked Buddy up and shook him, and
then slammed his head on the steel table. “Don’t move, you little bastard!” he threatened. And
Buddy began screaming. He was scared, hurting and confused and all he knew to do was scream.
The second man grabbed some straps and threw them over Buddy and then cinched them
down tight, holding Buddy pinned against the table. Buddy struggled, but the straps were too
tight, and he was too weak to go anywhere. With the handler holding him, the second man
inserted the needle in a vein in his leg and drew out some blood. But that didn’t burn like the day
before. That was just a blood sample. It was the second syringe that the man picked up and
inserted in Buddy’s back that contained the awful, burning chemical. Buddy was scared out of his
mind and he started screaming for help again; but the man holding him grabbed his face and
squeezed his mouth shut, and Buddy couldn’t breathe.
With the shot complete, they took the straps off Buddy and put him back in the cage. In
the cage it’s not clear how much shaking was from fear, and how much was due to the poison
racking his body. He tried to stand up, but the poison was too strong and his body couldn’t fight
it. He laid down in his own filth and started to heave. He felt so sick. He was heaving, but there
wasn’t anything in his stomach to vomit. There was just some bitter stomach acid coming up, and
diahhrea that came out the other end. Everything hurt, so much. He was burning up inside, but he
shivered and felt so cold in the steel box. His head hurt, and that nasty metallic taste was only
getting worse. Even his muscles and joints ached terribly.
That day Buddy didn’t get any better, he only got worse. He hurt so bad he couldn’t sleep
that night. By the next day, he was too weak to even sit up. The handler in the white overcoat
came and looked at the dogs, but he didn’t take any to the other room. “They won’t make it
another day,” he announced. And he walked into the other room and sat down to read a

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newspaper.
The man that gave all the shots got up and walked toward the door. “I’m gonna go get
some fresh air,” he said. “These little bastards make me sick.”
Buddy just laid there, trembling on occasion. But he was tough. He tried to be brave and
he held on as long as he could. He watched the men leave at five o’clock. And he laid there. He
laid there into the night; cold and shaking, with cramps in his stomach that felt like his intestines
were being ripped out. He thought of Bobby and he moaned. Where are you Bobby? Bobby had
always been there for him. Now Buddy was hurting more than one can imagine. It hurt so bad.
He didn’t want the man to hit him again, he didn’t want another shot that burned, and he didn’t
want to feel so sick anymore, he just wanted his best friend back.
Buddy didn’t know why any of this was happening. He didn’t know why he couldn’t just
be happy with his best friend in the whole world. He didn’t know why they couldn’t wake up
together and go walk the trail. He didn’t know why mom couldn’t make them breakfast and play
ball with them. He didn’t know why Bobby didn’t come to get him. But it was too late. He was
getting sicker and the terrible pain was more intense than ever. And finally, through that night
and into the dark hours of morning he got away from the pain. As he lay there convulsing with
muscle spasms, the agonizing pain in his head started to fade away, and finally his heart stopped
beating, and a while later the spasms and gasps for breath ceased too, and Buddy was gone.
The next morning the man with the white overcoat walked over to the cages and looked
inside. “We’ve got some wringers,” he said, as he opened Buddy’s door. “Get the knives out.”
And he grabbed Buddy and pulled his limp body from the cage, and held him by the
scruff of the neck as he carried him in and dropped him on the cold, steel table. “Slice and dice
time,” the handler quipped with a smile.
And the man that gave the shots took a scalpel and made some deep incisions high inside
Buddy’s back legs to drain Buddy’s blood before setting the knife down and picking up a small
spoon from a tray and resting his hand on Buddy’s head. Then he put the spoon on Buddy’s eye
and guided it to a corner and worked it under an eyelid, and then forced it down inside the eye
socket with a little squish.
The handler in the white overcoat held his hand out. “Let me have that one.”
Without saying a word the dissector pried Buddy’s eye out with the spoon. The eye socket
made a little slurping sound as the eyeball came out. And the dissector pulled the eye out,
stretching the optic nerve and blood vessels until they snapped. “Here,” he said, handing Buddy’s
eye to the cage keeper.
“How do you like me now?” he asked the eye. Holding it up in front of his own face.
“Take a good look, because it’s the last thing you’re going to see.” After passing Buddy’s
eye over his own lifeless body on the table, the cage keeper dropped it on the floor and slowly
stepped on it, until it popped and squirted fluid across the floor.
The dissector laughed. “You’re cleaning that shit up,” he said.
“Oh, well. There’s plenty more where that came from,” the handler replied.
Then the dissector removed Buddy’s other eye before picking up a scalpel and cutting off
one of Buddy’s ears. And then he cut Buddy’s belly open and started to remove the internal
organs. With every piece the evil monster cut from Buddy, Bobby died a little more inside.
Finally, the dissector cut the top of Buddy’s skull off and removed his brain, setting it in a chest
with the internal organs. Then the cage keeper picked Buddy’s mutilated body up and shoved it
in a trash bag, before going to get the next dog.
It couldn’t get any worse for Buddy, the men took a happy boy that shared all the love in
the world, and they tortured and mutilated him and stuck what was left of him in a trash bag. But
what makes the tragedy even worse, if that’s even possible, is that Buddy was killed for no

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reason – the chemical he was injected with has been known as a deadly poison for more than a
century. But that’s just a cost of doing business for the Food and Drug Administration, the
Environmental Protection Agency and drug and chemical companies. For the lab it was a little
more profit, and for the demons in lab coats it was just another day and another dollar.
Animal testing is a huge business of torturing and murdering fellow earthlings as if they
have no feelings and no fears and no hopes at all, and tops the ranks of the most egregious
demonstration of man’s selfish immaturity. It is the most condemnable aspect of human character
that clearly shows humanity has not grown beyond the most selfish desire and childish
understanding of life. While man’s pyramid of technical knowledge has grown volumes, true
wisdom has stagnated like a like a sickly weed in the shadows of brutality. Mahatma Gandhi said
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.” And America may trail the rest of the world in decent character by leading the world in
the inexcuseable torture of innocents.
That kind of base depravity is also reflected by the support for al-Qaeda and other
terrorist organizations consumed with hate and violence for the sake of hate and violence. But the
fact is, they’re the blind, bastard sons of ignorant dogma. And that reality is apparent in their
brutality to the innocent. They kidnap children, and hold entire elementary schools hostage. They
blow up markets and buildings, not caring who’s killed or gravely injured. And when they don’t
think they can cause maximum carnage and suffering with a car-bomb, they pack bombs on
donkeys. And for practice, they shoot, bomb and poison dogs, sheep and other animals that
trusted them. It takes a sick, selfish, evil kind of person to hurt their fellow earthlings like that,
but those evil people aren’t restricted to hate organizations, they infect all aspects of society.
Throughout history evil barbarity has been a constant companion of mankind. For
instance, animals have always suffered in man’s wars. Horses forced to serve in the armies of
men have had hard lives. Many times they were beaten by their riders, and pushed to the point of
collapse, suffering untold heart attacks and broken legs before the enemy even began to attack
them. And the Mongols weren’t alone in trying to shoot horses out from under enemy
combatants. Every horse ever forced into a cavalry charge was a target for swordsmen, javelin
throwers, archers, riflemen and other warriors. All the while, the men behind all the misery and
devastation were hiding behind their horses, pack mules, camels, and even elephants. And when
food got scarce soldiers ate their trusting servants.
In fact, the wanton destruction of war has been particularly hard on animals. Armies of
warriors and civilians alike shoot, hack and slaughter every animal they can get in their sights in
war, sometimes when they’re not even hungry. No animal’s safe in the presence of a hungry
army, and quite often, animals were killed just to keep them out of enemy hands. Almost no
place on earth is more desolate of animal life than an active war zone; especially with the advent
of modern weaponry. Those animals not directly targeted have no place to hide from saturation
carpet bombing, random shell and rocket strikes, napalm fireballs, machine gun strafing, and so
many more implements of death.
But while wars among men have come and gone. Man’s war on animals is constant. The
savage cowards of al-Qaeda aren’t nearly alone. Decent people would think such barbarians are
few and far away. But they’re not. Militaries around the world are burning, drowning, poisoning,
electrocuting, shooting, and slicing innocent animals at a frenzied, barbarous pace. And among
the worst offenders is the United States Department of Defense. Is that the kind of power
America wants? The power to brutalize innocent babies? How long shall America continue to be
a land of such tremendous dishonor?
In 1945 America dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities. Many of the people that
were scorched and poisoned by the radioactive blasts deserved what they got, however, many

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animals likewise killed or injured did not. Still, in the context, the use of atomic weapons wasn’t
a mistake, in that more would likely have been killed had the war continued in conventional
fashion.
But, shortly thereafter the Japanese surrendered and America subsequently occupied
Japan, having unprecedented opportunity to witness firsthand the horrid effects of nuclear
explosions. The center and extent of the blast zone was well known, and effects to all life in the
vicinity were obvious. Japanese civilians would be treated for burns and radiation poisoning for
many years to come, and the effects of radiation they suffered was available for extensive study.
Yet, for no obvious benefit, and secret from the American public, in 1946 the U.S. military
loaded 4,000 sheep, goats and other animals onto a boat they called the Atomic Ark in the pacific
ocean and exploded a nuclear bomb overhead, killing and severely burning all on board.
For such a warmongering species, man has surely been cowardly. People are strong
enough to subjugate fellow earthlings, but not brave enough to take responsibility for their own
actions. Because of that cowardice, man wasn’t even the first earthling in space. The United
States and Russia launched a mouse, numerous monkeys, dogs and even fruit flies into space
before the Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Since then many different
species have been sent into space; some as no more than elementary school projects.
Monkeys had electrodes implanted under their skin to monitor their vital signs during
flight, and a chimp was trained by painful electric shocks to operate levers while in space, not
levers to perform a necessary procedure of course, just levers to demonstrate a chimp could pull
levers in space. And that’s a tiny sample of tests monkeys were subjected to in order to
demonstrate the already known effects of all kinds of injury. Donald Barnes was a U.S. Air Force
officer that described the fate of some rhesus monkeys trained to keep a platform level by painful
12,000 volt electric shocks from metal plates under their feet.
The little monkeys didn’t know why they were being shocked or what would stop the
pain. They struggled but couldn’t escape the electric chairs, and some monkeys died of heart
attacks from being shocked repeatedly. Others happened to react in a certain way that got the
shocking to stop. In time over a thousand would die in the same useless experiments.
One of those monkeys that endured many months of shock training, called Susie, was
described as being very nervous when she was taken to a strange room one day and secured on a
shock platform with only one arm free to operate the control joystick. For ten months she had
been trained not to let the platform tilt or she would receive the painful shocks. But strange
noises made it difficult for her to concentrate on her task. A large cylinder rose from the floor
near Susie and startled her, causing her to lose control of the platform until the painful electric
jolts pulsing through her body caused her to get the platform level again.
An unseen man counted down from ten to “pulse,” and the cylinder emitted a pulse of
radiation so powerful it lit up the room. The intense radiation instantly caused her head to hurt
and made her sick. The cylinder sank back into the floor and Susie vomited. Fright and
wooziness caused her to lose control of the platform. And the more it wobbled, the more she was
shocked and the harder she tried to hold it still. But the radiation damage was too great for her to
keep the platform level and, in terror, all she could do was hold on tight like she was riding an
electric chair on a roller coaster. The shocks kept coming until she lost consciousness and
slumped forward.
Sadly, Susie died a terrible death combining radiation and electric shocks, but the result
was already known because the Air Force had conducted the same tests for years. The operators
knew Susie wouldn’t be able to withstand that amount of radiation, just like they knew it would
fry her internal organs and make her sick. But did they show any decency whatsoever? No, they
just carried her away, cleaned up the vomit, and locked the next victim in the chair.

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 To the imbeciles in lab coats that like to call themselves scientists Susie was just a
number and means to a paycheck, like Buddy and millions more each and every year in the U.S.
alone. The more monkeys the airmen could kill, the more money their department stood to
receive to kill even more monkeys the following year. And when money’s involved, the U.S.
military’s an equal opportunity abuser. For decades it’s been infected with devils testing all
manner of weapons on sheep, dogs, goats and pigs. And they don’t just blow up groups of pigs
with new bombs and shoot German shepherds with new guns and redesigned bullets. They create
new excuses to satisfy a seemingly insatiable appetite for shooting animals.
They even get colleges in on the action. Michael Carey of Louisiana State University
convinced officials to pay him to shoot cats in the head to model human injuries. Of course, it’d
be nice if people weren’t being shot and there were no human gunshot injuries to observe.
Unfortunately, with persistent warfare and violent crime, there’s no shortage of gunshot victims.
Nonetheless, Carey’s team received military money, and had 700 kills in it’s war on cats before
public outrage got the plug pulled on that tax-funded exercise in cruelty.
The military doesn’t just demonstrate the killing and maiming power of new weapons.
They torture animals to test defensive equipment as well, like when they blow up goats wearing
bullet proof vests. There really aren’t many tortures the U.S. military hasn’t tried on animals.
They can’t touch Osama bin Laden, but they can dip rats in boiling water and set others on fire
without recompense or remorse.
One of the Department of Defense’s most popular means of animal torture is the “wound
lab.” That’s where dogs, sheep and goats have been shot, burned and blasted for decades to
introduce medics to wounds. It makes sense that medics could assist veterinarians or perform
needed services such as spaying and neutering if they’re to learn medical procedures on animals,
or that they could assist doctors in treating the abundance of human injuries. But that’s just how
evil those military authorities responsible for the needless carnage really are.
People that torture animals don’t want the public to see the horrible things they do to
friendly animals on a daily basis. Wound labs and other dens of death are kept hidden, they’re
secret because those monsters don’t want the public to see a friendly Labrador retriever like
Russell walk into a room smiling and wagging his tail. They don’t want the public to see a rope
placed around his neck to keep him from walking away. Because they don’t want good people to
see the pain on his normally cheerful face.
When the rope was placed around Russell’s neck he sniffed it, but didn’t think much
about it because he was used to a leash. But when he started to walk out with the technician that
had walked him into the shoot room, the rope stopped him and he looked around, curious that the
man wasn’t carrying the leash like people usually do. Then Russell barked as if to say, “Hey, you
forgot me.”
But the Army had something else in mind for Russell, they had him right where they
wanted him. He looked around the dim, quiet room with his bright eyes; ears perked up and still
smiling. The only light in the room was facing him, but he could hear something at the other side
of the room and cocked his head, trying to get a better look. As his eyes focused in that direction
a shot rang out and Russell dropped to the ground.
His eyes squinted and ears pulled down as his face contorted in pain. He struggled to
stand on wobbly legs and tried to run away, but the rope choked him and he spun around trying
to get free of the choking rope. When he spun on his shaky legs he fell down again. But, try as he
might, he couldn’t get up. Russell trembled as he tried to push himself up; his legs didn’t have
the power and they just slid on the slick floor; and Russell fell on his side with legs still reaching.
For about a minute his legs ran on, but they only swung in the air. Blood oozed from his
mouth and bubbles formed on the end of his nose as his mouth involuntarily gaped open as wide

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as it could. Russell held on for a little while, swinging his head trying to breathe through the
blood filling his lungs, as his head smeared the growing frothy puddle of blood on the floor. Then
Russell, a fine friend to all who met him, took his last gasp: just another number in a long list of
casualties nobody hears about. One by one, and sometimes by the dozens or hundreds the U.S.
military keeps on killing hundreds of thousands of animals per year and wasting hundreds of
millions taxpayer dollars like a huge life and hope crushing machine.
Obviously man has acquired the knowledge to conquer the world, but not the wisdom to
live in harmony. Maybe things would be different if people experienced the kind of pain they
inflict on others. Of course, that’s what justice is: experiencing the effect one intends for others.
Common people can hear about lab animals being drowned or set on fire and it means almost
nothing to them, like hearing that someone had a mild headache. But people should be very
thankful that they don’t know much pain. The pain most people experience is bad at times. But
it’s more like discomfort compared to the pain inflicted on our very own fellow earthlings, by
vile, wholly contemptible scourges that call their torture science.
Mark Twain had good reason to say: “I am not interested to know whether vivisection
produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t … The pain which it inflicts
upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient
justification of the enmity without looking further.” He could imagine the unjust suffering our
fellow earthlings are subjected to. But apparently the common dullard cannot.
People think they know pain, but generally they don’t. Let him that gives no
consideration to the pain of others perform some very simple, quick tasks. Let any man that
doesn’t recognize the evil of torturing animals learn better. Let anyone that approves or accepts
animal testing: A. bring a large pot of water to boil, and B. insert hand. Just as simple as that,
people lacking the wisdom to know right from wrong can gain the simple, basic perspective to
not wish harm to the innocent.
If the ignorant will do just that, they will have greater understanding, and understanding is
intelligence. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Just like the other pains inflicted by animal torturers, it’s
easy to ignore, unless it happens to them. At that point the world might as well be coming to an
end, because that’s what it feels like to the victim. But people aren’t that brave. They’re not brave
enough to place their bare hand in a pot of boiling water and hold it there for one, two, three,
four, five seconds.
Who’s that brave? Who knows what that feels like? What man would go even further and
plunge his whole body, face first into a hellish, liquid inferno? Nobody. But without having done
it, nobody can say they know the pain of innocents. And since that’s too much for a man to do,
perhaps much less painful experience would help him to begin to understand the evil of torture.
It’s all just talk to people, and most have never taken the time to experience the perspectives of
laboratory victims. But before any propose dissection and vivisection, let them at least hold their
breath for a few minutes.
This is a challenge to all that hear these words and doubt the evil of animal testing: hold
your breath until losing consciousness and then reconsider the meaning of justice. After less than
one minute many people begin to panic. As the seconds tick by one’s lungs begin to hurt from a
buildup of carbon dioxide, and that pain spreads to the stomach, and a little while later the whole
chest seems ablaze. And then all a person can think about is sucking in air to relieve the pain.
It becomes not a matter of how much time, but how much pain a person can endure. And
invariably people can’t take any more and they gasp for breath because the pain is too much, but
it was really just beginning. After one has experienced terrible pain is the time to ask if they
would want to inflict terrible pain on innocent fellow earthlings. At that time of increased
understanding, at that time of having some realistic appreciation for the suffering of others,

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people are much less inclined to wish horrible agony on others.
The average American has no understanding of the horrible pain lab animals endure. The
simple truth is this: over 20 million animals are tortured and killed for research and education in
the United States every year in just about every way imaginable. Whatever way one can imagine
to torture and kill an animal and call it research has probably been done. Twenty million animals
per year! That’s 200 million animals mutilated in the name of science in just ten years. Some
animals are injected with chemicals, and others are forced to ingest chemicals. Just about every
stupid scheme to burn, poison, drown, electrocute, infect, drop, explode, crush and mutilate
animals has been carried out against innocent fellow earthlings.
A few of the more common tests are the lethal dose 50 (LD50) and Draize eye and skin
irritancy tests. In the LD50 test, animals are poisoned to determine how much of a chemical or
product is required to kill them. Somewhere, in some secret locations, buried under other useless
data, are the records of how much rusty-bolt remover, and how much lipstick, has to be force-fed
or injected into a population of rabbits to kill half of them. That really doesn’t tell people how
much lipstick they would have to eat or how much rusty-bolt remover they would have to inject
into themselves to become very ill, but it really doesn’t matter. Like the overwhelming majority
of laboratory animal torture, those tests serve absolutely no useful purpose. They’re mostly
designed to cover the asses of soul-less government workers and corporations that say they’re
keeping the public safe.
In the Draize eye irritancy tests, rabbits locked in metal traps that prevent them from
moving have chemicals applied to one eye which is held open by clips to prevent blinking. The
rabbits are forced to endure the chemical burn on their unblinking eyes for as many as several
days before they’re killed; just so the chemicals can be rated from mild to corrosive. Obviously
people could just try to keep chemicals like battery acid out of their eyes, and when some poor
schmuck accidentally gets it in his eye he can tell the rest of the population if it was mild or
severe.
But that would take money out of the pockets of animal abusers, and that’s what keeps
driving the system. The pharmaceutical industry, government agencies, and other animal abusers
have so much clout with the degenerate lawmakers of Washington, D.C. that they were able to
get special legal protections for animal abusers under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of
2006. Of course, enterprises that torture animals already had the same legal protections as
everyone else. But politicians are so reprehensible that they enacted special protections, above
and beyond the common citizen, for the most heinous stench-filled puss bags to ever infect the
earth. What better example of the evil spawn of the three-way blood-orgy between torture, lies
and politics could there be than special protections for animal abusers?
The government, pharmaceutical industry and large consumer product companies have
long led the way in stuffing rats into little bottles barely large enough to hold them and forced to
inhale toxic gases. Monkeys and baboons are strapped into machines that smash their skulls and
break their necks. Car companies used pigs and baboons as crash dummies. Columbia University
researchers pried out baboon eyes and inserted clamps on blood vessels to cause strokes.
University of North Carolina technicians cut the toes off mice with scissors as means of
identification.
Even the March of Dimes charity has been an equal opportunity mutilator. It’s had
kittens’ eyes sewn shut for a year before they were killed, injected baby opossums with alcohol,
destroyed the eardrums of unborn sheep, and funded numerous other experiments that tortured
and killed monkeys, pigs, dogs, rats, mice, rabbits, guinea pigs and others.
Animal torture in the name of science is a huge industry, and those that make their livings
killing and cutting lab animals are wretched demons that haven’t the wisdom for compassion, yet

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invent every justification to secure additional income to continue perpetuating the atrocities.
Readers were earlier warned to beware of so-called experts because of inherent bias and limited
perspective. Well, when “experts” in other fields mislead the public the greatest harm is often a
waste of money. But when animal abusers mislead the public, the result is more animals like
Buddy, Susie and Russell being tortured to death.
Given the shocking amount of harm done there has been almost no benefit. Invasive
animal research is a colossal waste. The truth is, stupid, lazy people are getting paid billions of
dollars per year to torture animals for very little benefit. Many adults can recall dissecting a frog
or baby pig or some other animal in a high school biology class. Many of those victims were
drowned just to provide what? Most people that dissected an animal in a high school biology
class couldn’t begin to describe any useful information they retain from the experience. And
that’s all the practical benefit of most animal research. But regardless of any perceived benefit,
“Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical
research,” as stated by George Bernard Shaw. Mr. Shaw also said that: “Vivisection is a social
evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character.”
Seeing that there is clearly no meaningful purpose served by drowning frogs so that they
can be mutilated in classrooms all across the country, what is the motivation behind such
senseless torture? The true motivation is schocking stupidity in the educational community
combined with the greed of frog killers promoting their industry.
That’s what drives candy companies to feed their products to animals and make them
perform strenuous exercise like swimming in a pool with no place to rest in hopes of making
health claims for their products, much like tobacco companies that locked animals in smoking
masks and later dissected them to “prove” that smoking wasn’t as unhealthy as other studies
indicated; as if the yellow fingers, hardened arteries and emphysema of millions of smokers
weren’t sufficient indicators of the effects of smoking. It’s hard to believe that people can be that
cruel. But they most certainly are. Most animals that die in laboratories never feel grass under
there feet, or smell fresh country air, or feel the warmth of sunshine, or the patter of rain. Most
animals tortured and killed in labs are born in, and spend their lives in small cages, never able to
stretch and run.
Unfortunately, these brutal killers are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Most proponents of
animal research torture falsely claim to have some good intention, and some actually make the
outrageous claim to be working for the environment and even for animals. That certainly
contrasts sharply with a popular conception of environmentalists as people that want Health and
Happiness for All. Those that wish to torture animals aren’t interested in how all life is affected
by environmental conditions, but rather just how the environment affects them and their kind.
Care for the environment is important to all earthlings, not just humans.
Al Gore has jumped on the global warming bandwagon, and even won a nobel prize for
his efforts. Does that mean he’s concerned about animal life? No. He’s also aggressively pushed
for the torture and murder of millions of animals. No one that wants to torture millions of
animals in chemical tests is much of a friend to life on earth. That’s one fact that contributed to
his defeat in the 2000 presidential election.
But, he’s also joined by some surprising company. Some popular environmental groups
have lobbied strongly for massive chemical tests on animals, while opposing non-animal testing
alternatives. It sounds like a group called the World Wildlife Fund would be against poisoning
and dissecting animals in huge chemical tests, but the World Wildlife Fund, Environmental
Defense, and the Natural Resources Defense Council pushed for just such atrocity.
Poisoning lab animals won’t cure cancer, it won’t improve fuel economy, it won’t burn
less coal, it won’t prevent massive oil spills, it won’t decrease consumption and solid waste.

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Animal torture won’t prevent erosion, or forest fires, or tsunamis, or toxic chemical spills. Yet
the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of poisoning and killing millions of
animals in such colossal programs as the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program and High
Production Volume chemical tests. And the European Union wants to kill millions more in the
Registration Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals program. That’s despite the fact that: A.
much of the resulting data will be redundant because most of the chemicals have been in
widespread use for decades, B. most of the data will be absolutely useless, and C. it won’t affect
the way business is conducted anyway. Regardless of test results, dangerous and poisonous
chemicals will continue to be widely used.
For example, even though thousands if not millions of pets and other animals, and some
children have been poisoned by ethylene glycol contained in automotive antifreeze,
manufacturers have long refused to add a simple, inexpensive bittering agent to keep children
and animals from drinking the sweet liquid. So, no, useless torture data isn’t needed, what’s
really needed is a central clearinghouse and mandatory reporting of existing test results, along
with information about accidental poisonings, and much better evaluation coordination impeded
less by competition. Management of chemical information is woefully inadequate and inefficient.
People don’t have the foggiest idea what tests have been performed and what the results were.
With 20 million animals killed in research every year, and countless other chemical tests
and analysis, there’s way more information floating around out there than people know what to
do with, and it’s not even accessible. Well, first things first, all existing information must be
made available and evaluated to discern what other information is even needed and stop
collecting information for the sake of collecting information and killing animals to cover
corporate and political asses. As things now stand, animals are being tortured in useless and
redundant, and redundant tests.
There’s a long running debate about the possible benefit of torturing animals for research
and education, especially considering the many good alternatives presently available, and even
more alternatives that would be much further advanced had animal abusers not wasted so much
time and money torturning animals. But such debate is completely without merit. For this, the
Universal Truth is clear. To injure others out of sheer ignorance or in attempts to profit from their
suffering is evil of the highest order.
Thomas Edison said long ago that “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the
goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” And
that cannot be stated too plainly: as a society we are savages. Any assertion that humans have any
inherent right to torture and abuse fellow animals is a greed driven lie; much more heinous and
harmful than even the lies of about 150 years ago when America was at war with itself because
slave holders insisted they had a right to harm fellow people for their own gain. The question is
clear. Shall America be a land of torture or shall America be a land of peace? Hopefully it won’t
take another war for America to choose peace and realize justice.

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 True Worth
Henry weighed less than three pounds when he was born. His soft pink skin didn’t offer
much protection from the cold concrete floor, so he spent all of his time huddled with his seven
brothers and sisters when he wasn’t nursing. His brother Frankie was weaker than the rest,
however, and didn’t get much to eat. What he did eat seemed to go right through him as diarrhea.
Without the strength to stay in the huddle as it periodically moved, Frankie laid by himself on the
concrete floor, and by the third day he was dead. That was the day when Henry was awakened by
a man picking him up, along with the rest of his siblings, and taking them to another pen. In that
other pen Henry heard one of his sisters start squealing, and everybody started moving around
looking for momma; not knowing what to do. Then one of Henry’s brothers started squealing,
then another, then a man grabbed Henry and held him against the floor.
Henry was squealing too, hoping someone would get the man off of him. But the man put
a couple of fingers in Henry’s open mouth and held it that way while he inserted some pliers and
snipped the ends off Henry’s eye teeth. “Help! Help!” Henry squealed, as the man continued by
cutting notches in his ears before flipping him around and snipping off his tail too. Ow! that hurt.
Little Henry really went to squalling then and kept it up until the man dabbed some iodine on his
ears and tail and let go of him. Henry thought that was pretty bad as he went around carrying on;
swinging his little bloody tail stub in agitation.
Rose, Henry’s mother, was stirred up too, and when the babies were put back in the pen
with her she walked back and forth hurriedly sniffing them, wondering what was wrong. In her
excitement she stepped on Sally’s foot and Sally went to squalling. Rose whirled around to see
what was wrong with Sally, and when she did, she stepped right square on little Peter. He didn’t
stand a chance. Peter’s back was broken by the weight of his own mother. Peter’s back burned
like it was on fire, and when he caught his breath he started crying out. He tried to get up, but his
back legs wouldn’t work; they just laid there. He tried to drag them along, but wasn’t strong
enough to go anywhere.
Rose nudged Peter with her nose trying to get him up while he laid there crying, but it
was no use, his back legs were paralyzed. After a while Peter calmed down and Rose did too and
she laid down with the rest of the babies. Unable to move, Peter laid there alone on the cold
floor, calling out occasionally. As time passed, he called out less and less.
The pain of a broken back was pretty bad, and there wasn’t anything he could do but lay
there and suffer though it. He laid there all afternoon, through the supper feeding and right
through bedtime. All night he laid there moaning. By the following morning, he was quiet. The
feed man just looked at him and kept on walking that morning. It wasn’t until the afternoon that a
man reached in with a shovel and scooped Peter up. By then he was dead and stiff; and the man
just carried him outside and threw him on the dead pile.
After the tooth snipping, ear notching, and tail docking; resting and eating like babies do,
Henry and his siblings continued to grow pretty fast. One day when they were about five weeks
old, two men came and took Rose away. Henry didn’t know it, but that would be the last time he
would ever see his mother. A while later the two men came back and opened the pen gate. One of
them walked inside carrying a stick about the size of a walking cane. “Yha!” he yelled, and beat
his stick against the fence and everybody ran out the gate into the hallway.
Once in the hallway, Henry’s bunch split up, with some running north and some running
south. The ones going south soon ran into a locked gate, and the man that shooed them out of the
pen walked past yelling and hitting with his stick to get them running in the other direction.
Walking north past row after row of nursery pens, the group came to another building. As soon
as they stepped through the open gate they could sense how different things were there. The

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stench and burn of ammonia hit them like slaps to the face, but what they noticed most was the
gaps in the concrete floor that were just about large enough to get a foot stuck in.
Henry and his siblings were herded a long way down the enormous room of pens until
turning down another aisle, and then another before reaching an open pen that held about 20
more pigs Henry’s age. They had only been inside a few minutes, meeting their new penmates,
when the two men returned and the horror began. By that time the little pigs were leery of men
and they all ran into a corner, trying to escape. But there wasn’t anywhere to run, and the men
closed in and grabbed one while everybody else ran to the opposite corner. Henry’s heart was
racing from the thought of being trapped in the pen with the men, he had a vague recollection of
what these men could do to a little pig.
Then he heard the first pig tear into a blood-curdling scream, the loudest Henry had ever
heard, and Henry’s heart about leapt out of his throat. It sounded like they were killing him for
sure. On and on he screamed for what might have been a minute but seemed like an eternity.
Then they let him go and he was still screaming. He ran over to the rest of the group and forced
his way into the middle, with his stubby tail swinging frantically and still screaming. Right
behind him was one of the men. He dove and everyone made a break for it, but one of the pigs
wasn’t lucky enough to get away. And he went to screaming. And a little while later he was
making that loud, terrifying super-scream like the first one had.
Henry was panicking. He looked about for some way out of there; any way out. But all he
saw was steel pipe fencing. He was hopeful someone would hear the screams and come to help,
but the gigantic maze of pens was a constant mad-house; somebody was always screaming in
there. Over and over the men caught someone, tortured him and then came to get another. Henry
was pretty smart, he figured out that if he just stayed back by the fence, all the other pigs would
shield him from the men and he wouldn’t get caught. Round and round they went. The boys that
had already been hurt felt lucky to get away with their lives and were terrified they would get
caught again.
Henry was doing a fine job of staying away from the henchmen. Round and round he ran.
Until … Wham! the man with the cane-size stick clobbered Henry across the bridge of the nose.
To Henry it felt like his head had been knocked off, or at least that his nose was laying on the
ground. It must have knocked the sense right out of him, ‘cause he just sat there with his eyes
closed and head twitching to one side.
When Henry got his wits back about him he was penned to the ground again, this time
with the cane man sitting on top of him holding his back legs up off the ground. The man was
hurting Henry’s back and it felt like it might break. But then came an unimaginable pain that shot
through Henry like a bullet. Henry was being castrated! He screamed with all his might. Right
then and there one of those butchers was cutting into Henry’s scrotum with a knife, and it was
slicing right into one of his testicles! The barbarian squeezed Henry’s sac and a bloody ball
popped out, split wide open like a swollen bean, with blood just pouring out. That mad savage
grabbed the cleaved, bleeding nut and ripped it right out of Henry. And Henry felt like his whole
insides were being ripped out. Then the barbarian squeezed his sac again and grabbed the other
testicle and ripped it out too. Oh! it hurt! It hurt like Henry couldn’t imagine.
All that day Henry and the other boys hurt. They felt sick to their stomachs and on their
backsides at the same time. And Henry’s nose hurt from being hit in the head. It was a hideous
experience none of them would ever forget. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last brutality they
would have to endure. Little Lenny even had the bad fortune of falling through a hole in the
floor. When his front foot hit the hole he fell head first through the floor, and as his back feet
caught the floor on the way through he flipped over and landed on his back. Splat! he hit and
sank into a sloppy, soupy mix of urine and feces. Lenny righted himself and got his head above

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the putrid excrement, covered nose-to-tail in that nasty sewage.
Lenny tried to find his way out of the pit, but there was no way out! All he could do was
call for help. Nobody could here him though, amid the constant cacophony. The other pigs
couldn’t help him, and the people weren’t about to rescue him from the crap trap even if they did
hear him. All day and all night Lenny stood down there calling for help. He grew more and more
exhausted, and the cries became more faint. Many times exhaustion got the better of him and his
head drooped down into the poop. Shit was caked all over his face, it nearly had his eyes
mattered shut, and it made his head that much heavier.
The longer he went the more it seemed like his head weighed. With every passing minute
it became harder and harder to keep the encrusted slits where his eyes should have been open,
and his head above the cesspool as more excrement rained down on top of him. For a while
staying upright was annoying and difficult, but as the hours passed it went from challenging, to
unbearable, to impossible. Lenny just couldn’t hold his head up forever. His neck muscles burned
and he moved around to stay awake. His muscles cramped, and later still they tremored, and
toward the end he lost control between spasms like seizures and his head repeatedly fell into the
soup of urine and feces. Exhaustion robbed him of his strength and mental acuity. Lenny sank
lower and lower, and trying to stay awake and standing was a long, drawn-out hellish nightmare.
He was tired like few have ever experienced. But to fall asleep was to die.
He held on a long time. He held on while it was light and dark, he held on as people
passed overhead and people slept in their soft, warm beds. He held on until there was no more
power to fight. At the end he couldn’t struggle any more. As hard as it had been to will his self
awake for so long and hold his head up when it hurt like hell, he just didn’t have anything left.
He found the impetus for a few more desperate, frantic jerks as his head was going under, and he
managed to prolong the suffering with a few more gasps of air. But in the end he went under and
hadn’t the strength to come back up. He sucked acidic urine and scours into his lungs and
coughed and breathed some more in and coughed and breathed some more in and coughed and
kicked and fought death another half minute. And even after his heart and breathing stopped,
every now and again his body mustered the energy for another gasp.
Generally, life in that enclosed, sprawling hell-hole of a hog farm was pretty miserable.
The air was so nasty it was hard to breathe and constantly aggravated the eyes. The floor was so
hard and slick with urine and feces that it was difficult to stand up and not at all comfortable to
lay on. Henry’s joints were swollen from constantly landing and laying on hard, cold concrete.
And the darkness, and constant squealing and yammering was simply maddening. At the farm
where Henry lived the pregnant sows were kept in single pens too small to turn around in. They
could stand, sit or lie down, but they didn’t even have room to stretch out on their sides.
The rest of the pigs were bound for slaughter by the time they were less than a year old.
Many farm hands are brutal when it comes to handling large pigs. They think the pigs should
know where they’re expected to go and politely cooperate with their own murder. Obviously, the
pigs are scared and confused and don’t know which way they’re supposed to be going. They’re
beaten, poked and prodded with electric rods down corridors and onto trucks. Some are crippled
in the process of being beaten and ran over; others are crippled by other accidents and disease.
And hog farmers have different ways of treating pigs that can’t walk.
First, they’ll do everything they can to get them to walk. They beat and whip the crippled
pigs and hold electric prods against their skin or stick them in their butts, ears, mouths and eyes.
If the pigs are unable to walk even under torture, then they have to be dragged out. At Henry’s
farm, there wasn’t room to get a front-end loader in between the pens in the barn, so downed pigs
were dragged out by hand. Sometimes they were beaten to death with pipes and hammers before
being dragged out. Others just had a rope thrown around them and were dragged outside to wait

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until a butcher arrived to haul them off.
It was the cold of winter when Henry was loaded onto the truck bound for the
slaughterhouse. Henry and the other pigs weren’t used to exercise or strenuous activity, they had
never stepped foot on grass or ground, yet they were shocked and beaten until the truck was
practically bursting at the seams. The last to be loaded were driven forward until the pigs in front
were buried under a wave of thrashing pigs. One of those buried was squished so hard her
intestines were forced out her butt, in an all too frequent occurrence known as rectal prolapse.
She did, however, manage to get up, while another pig that couldn’t get out from under the pile
of flesh died of suffocation.
For those unfortunate pigs pushed up against the outside walls of the trailer, it was a
bitterly long ride in the freezing wind. By the time the truck arrived at the slaughterhouse, a few
were actually frozen to the walls. There they remained, stuck, after the others had gone down the
chute to a holding pen. A little warm water would have unstuck them slick as a whistle. But the
truck driver came in yelling and kicking, and the pigs started squealing and struggling. When
kicking didn’t get the pigs unstuck, the truck driver went to his toolbox and came back with a
prybar.
“I oughta knock you stupid ******’s in the head!” he threatened. And then he went to
jamming the prybar in between the pigs and the walls. Sometimes the bar hit the wall, sometimes
it hit the pigs. They screamed in agony as he thrust the pointed bar into their flesh, and he wailed
even harder. “Get off there you dumbass hog!” he yelled as he pried against the wall. Twice he
managed to rip the half-frozen flesh and pull pigs away, leaving hunks of skin and fat stuck
against the side of the trailer.
Inside the slaughterhouse, the night shift was getting tired, but the line was still running at
full speed. The holding pen and kill room workers were very abusive, and pigs were getting
scared. Henry’s brother Dale was getting really nervous, the smell of blood and strange sounds
made him scared to go in the kill room. A holding pen worker jabbed his electric prod onto Dale
to get him up the lead chute. Dale went up screaming and fidgeting. “This ought to liven things
up in here a little boys,” the stunner said with a smirk as he gave Dale a half-powered shot of
electricity.
That only stunned young Dale for a few seconds, and he started kicking and screaming
when the shackler was trying to get him hoisted. He jerked himself free and ‘plop’ landed on the
kill room floor. That was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Little Dale was
damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. The kill room floor was a bad place to be. One of the
shacklers swung wildly at Dale with a lead pipe. Dale tried to get out of the way, but Whack! the
pipe hit him on the nose, breaking it badly. Blood came pouring out of Dale’s disfigured nose
and he took off running … right into a wall. And the killer with the lead pipe was still swinging
away. Wham! Wham! Wham! Dale was spinning as the blows crashed into his head and
shoulders. By the time he went down he had blood streaming from one ear and a crushed eye
socket. His legs stuck out straight as pegs as the bludgeoning continued on the ground.
“Don’t finish him,” the stunner yelled. But it was too late, Dale was dead. “I wanted to
have a little fun with him.”
The stunner wanted to send Dale down the line alive. At least Dale was finally dead, they
couldn’t hurt him anymore. But poor Henry was up next at the stunner’s station. The electric
shock hit Henry like an invisible hammer slamming all the way through his body; leaving him
paralyzed. By the time Henry could move again he was hanging upside down on the bleed line,
just about to be sliced by the sticker! At the last second he kicked and swung wildly, trying to get
off the line; almost kicking the sticker.
“Just do your ******* job!” the sticker yelled at the stunner, as Henry passed on by;

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twisting and running in mid-air, working to get off the conveyor of death. But the line kept
moving, hauling him toward a fate worse than death alone. From the time he was a cute-as-a-
button baby all Henry ever wanted was the simplest of pleasures: some wide open room to run
and soft grass under his feet. All he ever got was contempt and abuse; and now he was headed
toward the scald tank! – a huge vat of almost boiling water that loosened the hair from pigs’ skin.
And all of Henry’s thrashing wasn’t keeping him from it: closer and closer the line carried him to
the scald tank. Then he hit it! Face first he went into the pool of scalding water. The pain was
unlike anything one lives to tell about. Poor Henry; never hurt a soul; and there he was being
boiled alive and drowned at the same time.
The pain was so intense it instantly flooded his mind and his whole being. Scalding hot
water filled his veins, permeated his bones, and ran through his mind like a train of liquid fire;
his whole insides were burning. Henry screamed and splashed uncontrollably. Scalding water
was all Henry knew. Whatever happened before, whatever memories he had, were all gone now.
Mind and body were searing liquid. It was all around him, it burned his eyes and ears, his nose
and belly, his throat and lungs. There’s no words to describe the complete, total, overwhelming,
excruciating pain. For more than a minute he thrashed in perfect agony. For more than a minute
he knew nothing but the most intense, unimaginable pain. One … two … three … the seconds
passed like days as Henry fought with everything he had, hanging upside down in a watery hell,
and feeling utter pain with every nerve in his body. Ahhh! it wouldn’t stop, the assault on his
being was relentless … until finally death overcame him like a fire consuming a match.
Henry was alone when he needed help the most. Nobody cared about him, nobody tried to
help him, nobody even knew him. But the suffering he endured wasn’t alone. Every day nice
boys and girls like Henry are brutalized in unspeakable acts of cruelty. People kill more animals
for food each year in the U.S than there are people in the whole world.
And to make matters even worse, much of that food is wasted. How many animals are
killed just because people don’t eat what’s on their plates? How many animals are brutally killed
just to be discarded by restaurants, cafeterias and kitchens as leftovers? Killing animals only to
throw them in the trash and bury them in landfills is especially unacceptable today, when there
are so many delicious meat alternatives. When individuals are finally presented with the truth and
take just a moment to question the reason for all the unnecessary suffering, and their own role in
the world, an epiphany occurs: something clicks, a light finally glows in the mind, and one finally
asks “What am I doing, and why am I doing it? And what can I do to stop needless suffering?”
And that’s how the tide is changing, one by one that’s the moment when a person begins
to grow beyond the self and become a conscious member of the world community; seeing the
commonality and unity of life all around. It’s that personal growth, the enlightenment of each
individual that will one day usher in a new age of peace and joy unlike the world has ever seen.
By making one simple decision to always do unto others as one would have others do unto him, a
person can make all the difference in the world to some of the abused and oppressed.
The great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was one luminary in a dark world. “I
have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will
look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men,” he said. Centuries
later, Albert Schweitzer wisely professed that “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to
all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
Killing is not a pretty business. But it is a business. It’s an ugly, bloody mess repeated
millions of times a day in America. And the procedures of the bloody business of slaughter are
driven by greed, and that greed is satisfied by profit. The faster the death lines run, the more
money operators make, and the higher the “processing” throughput, the higher the profit.
Slaughterhouse operators see concern for animal pain and suffering as cutting into their profits.

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They could choose controlled atmosphere killing, where animals just go to sleep and don’t wake
up. They could make humane handling and slaughter a top priority. But they choose not to,
money is their top priority. They choose to wallow in an orgy of blood to turn a little extra profit.
No business operates perfectly. In most businesses, error results in poor service, product
defects, and loss of quality. In the slaughter business, error results in automatic throat slitters
cutting chicken legs and conscious chickens going into scald tanks; and cows being hit multiple
times with captive bolt guns to incapacitate them, with some going through alive, having their
hooves cut off and being skinned while still conscious. Horses suffocate in blood collection pits.
Animals on transport trucks freeze to death in the winter and die of heat exhaustion in the
summer. An estimated 420,000 pigs are crippled, and 170,000 die during transport in the U.S.
every year. Still, that’s just a small fraction of the tens or hundreds of millions of chickens and
turkeys crippled and killed during transport every year.
One reason animal “production” and slaughter is so horribly cruel is because it’s nasty,
underpaid work. While corporate managers and stockholders earn millions of dollars per year,
the people performing the critical job of killing billions of animals every year are paid little more
than minimum wage. Many slaughterhouse employees are illegal immigrants because
slaughterhouses don’t pay enough money to interest most American workers. The result is animal
slaughter being carried out by the dregs of society, like the animal testing industry. The most
critical aspect of slaughter, the actual killing performed by kill room workers, is staffed by the
lowest of employees. The reasons are simple: no decent person wants to kill animals for a living,
only the cruel and unintelligent would want to do that; so the people working kill rooms are
either monsters that like to kill or people that don’t want to be there. Either way, the difficult task
of killing animals isn’t performed with care.
Often it’s unreasonable production policies and poorly designed or maintained equipment
that causes live animals to be cut and skinned alive, but in too many cases the torture is
intentional. The first heinous abuses perpetrated on animals when they reach the slaughterhouse
are performed by truck drivers that try to jerk the heads off chickens and turkeys, cripple larger
animals with clubs, and even run over some downers or escapees. Some think it’s funny to shock
the pigs and cattle so much with hot shots that they’re too wild for the stunners to work with,
which leads to missed kills and more live dissections.
It’s not unusual for chickens and turkeys to get their heads and feet stuck in cages, and
when that happens frenzied workers break their legs and necks by yanking them out of the cages.
Shackling lines move so fast workers have to hustle to keep the line full. The poorly paid
workers grab birds by whatever they can get a hold of and hang them by their feet on the line.
The combination of low wages, difficult work, and a very limited hiring pool, leads to high levels
of frustration in excitable employees. Shacklers have been known to swing birds like baseball
bats and slam them against walls, cages and equipment; to kick and stomp chickens and turkeys;
pull handfuls of feathers from shackled birds; and even try to tear them in half by their legs. One
shackler bragged of “popping” turkeys by stomping them so hard their guts exploded out their
butts. Other workers show off by intentionally sending chickens to the scald tank alive.
It’s all a big joke to some slaughterhouse workers. In groundbreaking investigative work
Gail Eisnitz revealed some very disturbing behavior and rampant slaughter industry cruelty in the
book Slaughterhouse. Many workers complained that they couldn’t stop the line for live animals,
and production speeds were too fast for workers to kill all the animals before they had their feet
cut off, were skinned, or drowned in the scald tank. One veteran worker reported dragging pigs
that wouldn’t or couldn’t move with a meat hook in their “bungholes,” and how, as a result, he’d
seen thighs and intestines ripped out. Another worker reported how sickening it was to see
conscious hogs blowing bubbles in the blood collection tank.

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 But many workers reported heinous acts of barbarity. To understand how people can
behave in manners about to be described, one must understand the low worth and intelligence of
such violators and the environment they’re operating in. They live and work in a culture that
denies or disregards the suffering of our fellow earthlings. One man reported working with a guy
who chased hogs into the scalding tank. Another worker showed a morbid immaturity by taking
pride in having a reputation for sucking on eyeballs. Giving such people weapons and total
control over defenseless animals is just inviting malicious violence.
A sticker, one of the men responsible for cutting the throats of pigs to “bleed them out,”
was quoted as saying: “… A live hog would be running around the pit. It would just be looking
up at me and I’d be sticking, and I would just take my knife and – eerk – cut it’s eye out while it
was just sitting there. And this hog would just scream.”
He went on to say: “One time I took my knife – it’s sharp enough – and I sliced off the
end of a hog’s nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it
just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose.
Now that hog really went nuts …”
Another worker from a pork processing plant admitted: “Sometimes, when the chain
stops for a little while and we have time to screw around with the hog, we’ll half stun it. It’ll start
freaking out, going crazy. It’ll be sitting there yelping.”
Any good person would wonder what kind of evil motivates people to cause such
atrocious harm. And one of the workers interviewed for Slaughterhouse summed it up rather
succinctly, showing what little consideration people have for terrible suffering of their own doing
by explaining: “Because it’s something to do. Like when our utility guy takes the ol’ bar and
beats the hell out of the hogs in the catch pen. That’s kind of fun. I do it too.”
The slaughterhouse is a brutal end to some miserable lives. Many of the animals killed for
a plate have already been branded, de-horned, castrated, de-beaked, de-combed, ear notched, tail
docked, and otherwise painfully injured on the farm. Some sheep have the skin cut off their rear
ends to prevent botfly infestation, and they’re only susceptible to botfly infestation in the first
place because they’ve been bred to have extra wrinkly skin to hold more wool. And a lot of farm
animals never even make it to slaughter. Broiler chickens and turkeys live in large sheds that
often contain thousands of birds. Because health conditions are so poor, the mortality rate is very
high. The common method of dealing with sick chickens and turkeys is to club them to death, or
even stomp them, or slam them against something, or grab them by the head and swing them
around until their necks break or their heads pop off.
Male chicks born on egg farms are often thrown into plastic bags to suffocate or ground
up for pet food. In some operations, mating roosters kept with hens have sticks inserted into their
nostrils to prevent them from eating out of the hens’ food trough. When the females are old
enough to lay eggs, they’re placed in tiny wire cages too small to stand up in, where they’ll spend
the rest of their lives, or at least until they’re shipped to slaughter, in a dark room reeking of
ammonia. Because the hens are so crowded in the wire cages, their feet actually grow around the
wire in many instances.
And always beware the unscrupulous advertisers, keeping in mind the tremendous
difference between eggs from “free range” hens and those from “cage free” hens that are crowded
by the thousands in filthy sheds similar to “broiler” chickens. And wouldn’t it be nice if dairy
cattle in California were actually happy as advertisers so deceptively claim, instead of being
artificially milked until their production falls off and they’re too sent to slaughter. The biggest
con of all may be those lies about milk and meat products being essential to healthy bodies. Any
fool need only look at an elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, race horse or other herbivore to realize
that eating the flesh of another isn’t necessary to robust health.

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 Dairy cows lead lives of servitude just a little better than egg laying hens. From the time
they’re old enough to breed, they’re kept on a cycle of pregnancy. Much of their lives they spend
lugging around an unnaturally large, uncomfortable udder, and spending twice a day on the slick,
feces covered, concrete floor of a milk barn. When their milk production declines, they’re
knocked up again. When consistent milk production drops below a certain level, they’re shipped
off to slaughter.
Calves are taken from milk cows when they’re only a few days old so people can drink
the milk that would naturally go to the growing babies. Some female calves are kept to become
milkers but most calves will be slaughtered at a young age. Many of those will be veal calves.
Veal calves are kept in small stalls, often too small to turn around in. In addition to being tightly
confined to minimize exercise, they’re also kept anemic to prevent their little muscles from
getting tough, until they too are shipped off to slaughter like so many unconscious rocks that
don’t feel fear and pain.
Like the veal calves, foi gras geese are also manipulated to produce a distinctive food.
They’re force-fed through tubes shoved down their throats to produce an extra fat liver known as
foi gras. The forced-feeding is so severe that the stomachs of some geese rupture from being
overstuffed with food.
Of course, farm work for near minimum wage is also far from desirable employment, and
beatings on farms are commonplace. The overwhelming majority of farm animal abuse goes
unreported and unknown by the public. Even when a person is courageous enough to document
vicious beatings and other abuse like drownings, local authorities in farm country often won’t do
anything about it. Prosecutors won’t enforce the meager laws that are on the books, and judges
don’t want to hear animal abuse cases. Everyday people are getting away with beating, shocking,
starving, drowning and even hanging farm animals. And there are those that take brutal abuse to
levels of pure sadistic torture like some North Carolina farm workers that recently skinned a pig
alive.
That’s the stakes of the continuing battle of good and evil. The motivations are simple.
On the one side stands an elite but growing minority of the population with the wisdom and
courage to grow beyond themselves, on the other side are people in varying stages of immaturity
that are still prisoners to their own greed and lack even basic intelligence of understanding.
Where the public sees no apparent personal gain, it forbids some brutal abuses such as
bullfighting, dogfighting and cockfighting. But still, Louisiana is so ate-up with redneck
ignorance to allow cockfighting, and New Mexico only outlawed cockfighting in 2007. The
Humane Society of the United States reported only token restrictions in some other states, such
as the maximum $50 fine in Alabama and no penalty in Virginia if wagering isn’t involved.
But it’s not just dirty laborers that take pleasure in causing animals to mutilate each other,
even the wealthy and famous NFL quarterback Michael Vick was willing to risk his career and
reputation for dogfighting. That’s why good parenting is so important, if children aren’t taught to
be considerate, they may never learn on their own. Rap star Busta Rhymes was reported to have
bragged to Vibe magazine how he tortured mice caught on glue traps: “We used to stick burning
cigarettes in their bodies, watch them wiggle til they just stopped moving. Can’t live in the crib
and not pay some kind of rent.” With role models like that in popular culture, it’s critical that the
birth rate be brought under control and parenting skills more carefully considered.
Unfortunately, deranged people are continually coming up with more ways to showcase
their barbarity, like the recent popularity of people setting killer dogs loose on pigs and other
animals. It’s all part of a cruel culture that’s seen a surge of thousands of private hunting resorts
in the U.S., with many offering “canned hunts” of exotic animals like giraffes, lions, zebras and
rhino’s and less expensive targets including deer and goats. Those animals are shipped in from

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petting zoos, circuses, farms and roadside attractions to be hunted in pens.
Hunts consists of such “sports” as shooting a declawed leopard hiding under a truck, and
shooting a domesticated tiger as it sits under a shade tree. Penned deer and goats often approach
the “hunters” thinking that it’s feeding time, only to be chased around the enclosures by bow and
arrow wielding idiots that are all excited about having the opportunity to kill something. It’s just
sickening to see those imbeciles standing there shooting arrow after arrow into a goat standing in
a corner of the pen bleating for help.
And it takes a long time for the terrified goats to bleed to death, or become so
incapacitated that a hunter can try to cut its throat, often resulting in a nasty cut that’s too shallow
to severe the carotid arteries and the goat is left gasping for air through a bloody, gaping hole in
its neck. Bowhunting in particular is a gruesome practice. Outside of enclosures where
domesticated animals can’t escape their pursuers, bowhunters wound more animals than they
recover. Some of the wounded animals may live for a while with an arrow hanging out of them,
but they’re generally doomed to succumb to blood loss, starvation or infection.
That leads one to wonder why there are special seasons set aside for archery, black-
powder guns and other archaic weapons. The answer to that question is simple: state
conservation and wildlife management departments are little more than hunt-clubs funded by
massive sums of taxpayer money, managing hunts on public lands, and assisting landowners to
proliferate hunting activities. Those agencies exist to supply men with recreational killing
opportunities. It’s outrageous that they should stock and maintain animal populations to enable
hunters and fishermen to enjoy “sports” of bloodlust; and it’s even more infuriating that they are
doing so with money extorted from taxpayers very much against the barbarity.
To take pleasure in maiming and killing is purely evil. But people should also be on guard
for less intentional harm. There are even times that people don’t realize the harm they’re causing.
Take for instance the purchase of a puppy or kitten from breeders, also known as kitten and
puppy mills. If people would only stop and think about the consequences of buying from
breeders, they’d quickly realize that the number of dogs and cats killed in pounds and shelters
and shot as strays, is roughly equal to the number of puppies and kittens produced by breeders.
That simply means that for every puppy or kitten bought from a breeder, an unwanted
puppy, kitten, dog or cat is “knocked in the head,” shot, or drowned, or poisoned at a pound or
shelter. Some of those homeless pets are even doomed to suffer at none other than the dreaded
animal torture labs. Clearly all commercial breeding operations should be immediately halted,
and no purposeful breeding should be allowed until every stray is off the street, no more cats and
dogs are being euthanized at pounds and shelters, and the shelters themselves are empty of
animals in need of good homes. The most logical solution is to simply remove the motive of
greed by prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats. Just as easy as that, the killing of millions and
millions of homeless pets every year would come to an end.
Even the arguments for the function of commercial breeders maintaining pure breeds are
falsehoods propagated by the greed of breeders, pet sellers and registration organizations. Before
being domesticated, there weren’t nearly so many kinds of wild dogs and cats. It wasn’t until
men started selective breeding programs that the number of different “breeds” mushroomed. The
process of new breed introduction continues to this day, and the purposeful inbreeding and
accentuation of selected traits has led to inherent genetic defects that make domestic purebreds
more susceptible to health problems than their wild and mixed-breed relatives.
The flat faces of Persian cats and some bulldogs is just one example of health degradation
due to selective breeding. Due to the marginal nasal and sinus area and unusual skull shape bred
into flat-faced breeds, they’re prone to breathing difficulties and deadly birth defects. Other
inherited selective breeding defects include a wide range of health problems from persistent skin

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allergies to hip dysplasia. And the longer that registered breeding programs maintain closed gene
pools, the longer genetic health problems will persist, and in many cases worsen.
Things like that underscore the importance of being mindful of the effects of every
decision because, as is the case with pet breeders, the consequences can be deadly and people
often don’t even realize it. But of the greatest concern by far is the intentional torture and callous
abuse inflicted by evil demons that is so pervasive that it’s spearheaded by the federal
government. It’s most imperative that the heinous, black-hearted monsters of the world be
stopped from inflicting terrible pain on innocent victims, and spreading their infectious
poisonous attitudes.
The struggles are kept secret but cries for help ring through the minds of good people as
they toss and turn at night, while villains don’t give their terrible crimes a second thought. In
addition to killing, maiming and torturing fellow earthlings, selfish brutes are killing the emotion
of considerate people. Joy, concern and fondness is being drowned, slashed, burned and beaten;
leaving smoldering embers of rage and hate powerful enough to fuel an army.
“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation,” William Ralph Inge said, “and have
treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to
formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”
Sadly, the world would be a better place without people, as it very well may one day be.
But, before it comes to that, there’s opportunity for civilization to mature and for people to grow
beyond selfish desires. How many times has it been asked what is the worth or value of a life?
There are two answers to that question: the truth and what people say to justify selfishness. The
worth of any conscious life is that individual’s effect on others, no more and no less. Not all life
has a net worth. There’s no overall benefit served by mosquitos, fleas and tapeworms; just as
there’s no net worth in mean people.
What’s the worth of a man that tortures his fellow creatures? One innocent life is worth
more than all the cruel, malicious killers combined. More poignantly for most, it should be asked
what’s the worth of a man whose appetite is responsible for the death of about 3,000 animals
over a lifetime and whose reckless and destructive lifestyle kills many more? That’s the toll
exacted by the average American meat eater, and the lives of many of those victims come to a
very gruesome end. Every man has the opportunity to vanquish the Dark Lord in the mirror, and
then set forth as a beacon of wisdom in a world of ignorance, and be a friend to the innocent in a
world still controlled by savages.
If there was a just, all-powerful lord, then all that one wished for another would be
manifest on himself. But in reality, despite the most sincere wishes, justice is at the mercy of
individuals; and life is only as good as moral character. From the earth all life has come and to
the earth it all returns. The matter that formed a man in this life may be part of worms, grass,
rabbits and cattle in the next. No matter the standing, no matter the fate, whether possessing of
riches, or mired in hate; one takes nothing with him, and cannot escape; for the end can’t be
tamed, and it leaves none unchanged.
When the individual’s end has come, only one’s legacy remains. And that legacy is the
effect on life in the future: no better than whatever residual benefit to others there may be. Our
opportunity dies with us, and there’s no way to know if this generation is the best hope for peace
on earth, but it’s certain that brutal violence and horrific suffering continues with each passing
day.
For every monkey that sits alone in a metal cage, poisoned to the point it’s tail literally
rots off, shaking from a combination of fear, sickness and cold; and for everyone like Henry
being castrated without anesthesia, sleeping on a concrete floor, and beaten on his way to a
gruesome slaughterhouse; the consequence of individual decisions couldn’t be greater. Every

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personal victory over greed, every decision to not eat, wear, abuse or torture our distant relatives,
means the world to a fellow earthling. And that's an awesome responsibility to consider: our
everyday decisions literally mean the world to a babe in a harsh world.
Love and joy awaits. All it takes to change the world is one easy decision. With a
commitment to Health and Happiness for All the most humble person becomes a giant among
men by allowing fellow earthlings the liberty to run and fly where their dreams might take them.
Let the day to grow beyond the self be seized far and wide for the betterment and unity of all life
on earth. May fun and laughter finally spread around the world to replace the haunting cries of
injustice. And seek not paradise in a land of fantasy, but in the land of here and now, for no lord
would give everlasting reward and an unspoiled world to people that have been so cruel and
made such a mess of this one. Time will tell if there's one among us that will rise to the peak of
greatness and bring peace to the world.
In the end we're judged by our actions: for True Worth has no measure in riches, only
kindness. And may the glory of goodness be about you as a light of comfort to the world.

http://lordsandliberty.spaces.live.com
or email: lordsandliberty@yahoo.com

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 Thanks
SPECIAL THANKS TO GAIL EISNITZ FOR DESCRIBING SOME OF THE HORRORS OF
SLAUGHTER IN HER BOOK SLAUGHTERHOUSE, AND TO THE FOLLOWING
ORGANIZATIONS THAT REPRESENT SOME OF THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT
DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO PREVENTING THE TORTURE AND ABUSE OF OUR
FELLOW EARTHLINGS.

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – www.aspca.org

Animal Welfare Institute – www.awionline.org

Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute – www.api4animals.org

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection – www.buav.org

Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade – www.caft.org.uk

Dr Hadwen Trust – www.drhadwentrust.org.uk

Humane Farming Association – www.hfa.org

Humane Society of the United States – www.hsus.org

In Defense of Animals – www.idausa.org

International Fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org

National Anti-Vivisection Society – www.navs.org

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – www.peta.org

Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine – www.pcrm.org

Viva! – www.viva.org.uk or www.vivausa.org

World Society for the Protection of Animals www.wspa-international.org

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