Written in 2010.

Who we are and what we do. Are you happy? And the reasons of current turmoil in the world. To my fellow Americans and to the rest members of our “advanced” civilization

We drive our cars to work. We work a lot doing important things, like designing new line of clothing or new cereal. Our industries are furiously producing more stuff that is absolutely needed to produce even more stuff. We are flying all over the planet to important meetings, deciding how to make more stuff.

We are busy in this life, very busy. Doing what? Trying to accomplish what? Can we pause for a moment, and try to feel what we really want?

Are we happy?

We work to “make a living”. What living? Are we happy? Do we live to work? Why do most of us separate life and work? What is “working”? Is working – life? Is that what life meant to be?

Are we happy?

Our beautiful planet. Our only home. We are busy destroying it. Why? Will we ever learn to live? To live and let live? We enjoy our only home, the nature 2 -4 weeks a year. So we work 50 weeks on destroying our planet and for 2 weeks are enjoying what we did not destroy yet.

Are we happy?

I saw the movie Avatar. What a great fantasy! A non-technological civilization, intelligent creatures that live in harmony with nature. No, they are nature, inseparable from the planet, part of the living planet.

Do we know more about life then they do? I wonder what would happen to American Indians, to their civilization, if we would not destroy them and their world. What would happen to African civilization if Europeans never invaded? Why are we so bent on destruction?

Why are we so sure that our way of life is the only way of life? How are we learning about the world around us? We came from animals, we are on the top of the food chain. We are superior to any other creature on this planet. Right? The planet is ours to destroy! So why don’t we feel the coming tsunami or the earth quake like animals do? A good part of our knowledge, of out technology is applied toward the better way to kill each other. Does that seems natural?

Are we happy?

I do not have all the answers, I just have questions. Maybe it is a good start. If my writing seems a little disorganized it is because I am trying to understand the deeper reasons for all the anger an violence not just in our country but around the world. So please forgive me.

Part 2

The coming crisis.

So again what is living? Living in our “superior” civilization. The majority of people are working 10-12 hrs a day doing something they do not like in order to make a living they don’t enjoy.

A living?

24 hours, minus 10-12 working hours, minus 7 hrs sleep, minus 2 hrs choirs, equals 5 hrs. And we call it living? And then it gets even better, you are laid-off, discarded in other words. Kicked out. And the world falls apart. Seemingly stable, also far from perfect order falls apart. Why? What did I do wrong? If it is not me, then who? Who is responsible for my problems? That’s where all helpful talking heads come in. Opportunists. Or may be just puppets, servants. Just “making a living” (Just ask Glenn Beck)

My fellow “average” American. You are looking for answers, and the “experts” are eager to give you one. These personalities tell you what you want to hear. They are pointing fingers at who is responsible, and you feel better.

The answers are “simple”. Now you know who is to blame for all your problems, now you know who to hate.

Barack Hussein Obama. A black guy with Muslim name. Our President. He is trying to destroy America! He is a “socialist!” These people who use and manipulate you use words that you heard since childhood. You are not sure what the words mean exactly, you just know the words describes something bad. “Socialism”, “Fascism”, “Communism”. It is all bad, scary. You know deep down that a black Muslim President got to be one of those or all of these words.

And smart people, famous people tell you that no matter what this man does, it is bad. And you want to believe that. Because it is a simple answer that “makes sense”. Because you do not understand why the world around you is falling apart.

It used to be so simple. And you want the answers to be simple again. Barack Hussein Obama is the source of all your problems. You do not realize that you are being used by the same people who made your life miserable. Like multinational corporations, Industrial/military complex, Wall Street. And these people hire servants to manipulate you, and it is so easy to do!

But I want to warn the puppets, like Limbaugh, Hannity and countless others that are devoid of human morality. The same hate and violence you preach to ignorant, will come to haunt you. It always does!

It has been a while since I wrote my last letter.

The reason – it seems everything has been said. The reason I am writing again is I just feel like reviewing what I said before. Many of us are trying to understand what is happening in our country. And so am I.

I think you cannot separate what is happening here from what is happening to the rest of the world. The Western civilization reached the critical stage. The natural resources are diminishing and yet we use them at the accelerated rate. Why? Reasons are many. But the main reason is profit. It is natural for capitalist society to make more and more goods and then to convince the population that the goods are needed to be happy.

Another reason – the growth of population. It grows exponentially. So again what is the reason for all this anger and frustration in people? One of the main reasons – information explosion and the accelerated rate of change in our society.

Here is an excerpt from an article that illustrates what I am trying to say: Change and Information Overload: negative effects

The way change affects our physical state is evidently through its effects on our mental state. The emotional reaction associated with change is first of all arousal. This a priori neutral state may develop either into a positive feeling, as when novelty elicits curiosity, excitement and wonder, or into a negative one, as when lack of understanding triggers confusion, tension and fear. However, the longer such arousal is sustained, the more likely it is that interest will wear off and fatigue will set in. If a person does not manage to find an adequate response to the novel stimuli, he or she will experience loss of control and distress.

It is clear that this underlying current of anxiety is often brought out and magnified by the media’s bad news bias. Anxiety also shows in the public’s growing distrust of different kinds of authorities and institutions, whether they be government, police, health care, or church.

This distrust is stirred up by the media’s ever more extensive reporting of cases of corruption, abuse of power or professional misconduct. More reporting does not in general mean more cases, but more extensive information gathering, and perhaps more emphasis on sensational aspects because of competition between publishers.

This overabundance of low quality information, which Shenk (1997) has called “data smog”, is comparable in its emergence and effects to the pollution of rivers and seas caused by an excess of fertilizers, or to the health problems caused by a diet too rich in calories.

Varian and Lyman estimate that the total production of new information in 2000 reached 1.5 exabytes. They explain that is about 37,000 times as much information as is in the entire holdings Library of Congress. For one year! Three years later the annual total yielded 3.5 exabytes. That yields a 66% rate of growth in information per year. This rate hardly seems astronomical compared to say the 600% increase in iPods shipped last year. But that kind of iPod burst is not sustainable over decades, while the growth of information has been steadily increasing for at least a century.

Part 3

Disillusioned Or the end of the Empire

Some thoughts about current affairs:

• We as a country are falling behind in every way.
• education
• science
• technology
• manufacturing
• healthcare, are we healthy as a nation?
• wealth – we live on borrowed money
• military – cannot have strong military without money, health and education.
• A little bit more about military: there is no use for conventional military with tanks, fighter jets and bombers against new enemy. That is unless you want to occupy every country that hides terrorists. But the money saved would help in education and health care.

A little bit about militant Islam.

Just like western doctors, we fight with symptoms, not the cause of militant Islam. We are supporting the oppressive regimes around the globe, which are “friendly” to us. Why we are supporting these regimes? That support creates the impression that America is the oppressor, so the local population becomes radicalized and hates their own rulers and their supporter – the US.

If we would know the natural laws that govern development of the society, we would be able to use these laws to our advantage, instead of installing “democracies” western style in tribal societies.

Some thoughts about our President. President Obama is too pragmatic and too practical to be a great president, he did not have the courage to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because he added troops in Afghanistan, it is his war now.

Part 4

The fall of the Empire.

There is a crises growing in our country. The conflict between the progressive forces trying to advance the country and the reactionaries trying to hold us back, to keep us in old and comfortable for them society. Many people are not comfortable, unhappy, in this fast changing dynamic society. They long for “good old” simpler, “happier times”.

New skills are needed to succeed in today’s advanced technological civilization. And the majority does not have those skills. And also, I suspect that many are just confused and scared to death of this new world. The reactionaries are using these anxieties to advance their own agenda. Their public agenda – back to good old simpler times. The real agenda – they are just puppets of multinational corporations.

Another note – during the crises extreme elements are more visible, more vocal. It is like you steer standing water, all the crap comes up to the surface. So, if not Limbaugh, Cheney, Hennety some other crap would float out there.

In light of what is going on right now.

We are at a very dangerous crossroads. The rise of mediocrity and cheap populism in these troubling times is similar to the times of the rise of the Third Reich. This situation brings the opportunists that use uninformed and confused populous to their advantage. I would argue that whether we like the President and the Democrats is not as important right now. We have to realize that the alternative is much worse:

• the rise of mediocrity
• the rise of storm troupers
• the suspicion towards intellectuals
• the threat of violence

We know it happened before. Please do not let it happen again! Please don’t be the “silent majority” While you are still a majority! Speak up! The tea baggers are just the loud minority now. But history tends to repeat itself if people don’t know history. Do not let mediocrity win in this great country.

In time of drastic change there is always turmoil. It’s happening already. Unfortunately, many use the uncertainty in their own short-term interest. But I do believe that our civilization will change, adopt and survive. Eventually.