The downside of being a mammal, even at our position on the Tree of Life, is our dependence; our need to need. True, being warm blooded and having the ability to grow hair (though keeping it is a different story for some of us) are big bonuses. That said, the tradeoff is a formidable one; from conception through birth and then some we are tied, inexorably anchored to an umbilical. Can’t debate it. If you’re a mammal you’re trained to search out Mother’s milk: before too long, you grow addicted to the nipple.
Politicians love the fact that dependency is rooted deeply in your biology. They base their hopes and careers that your sense of livelihood, happiness and security hinge on them, that you’ll subserviently take all your eggs and place them in their baskets. If your life is contingent on a line, they’ll be the ones all too happy to toss it to you. Clearly, our codependence and silence only emboldens them.
If there is a second thing elected officials love, it’s the fact the we humans are a terribly gullible group of mammals. Scare us enough and you have our attention. We’ll believe anything as long as you can guarantee our well-being. Show us you can provide prosperity wrapped in a safety blanket and we’re on board. Dependent and dupable is a remarkably precarious combination. Never is that danger more profound than in the misguided understanding of the term security.
As unpopular and avoided a topic as there is, truth be told, we are all living on borrowed time, fragile, vulnerable and dying. Mammalian life is punctuated with daily close calls of accident, illness and disasters both manmade and at the hands of Mother Nature. On and given day, in any town USA your number could be up; today possibly the “bell tolls for thee.” For that reason, most security is really a false sense of security; a feel-good figment of your imagination.
The Environmental Protection Agency was guarding us from oil spills, the Security and Exchange Commissions from economic recession and double digit unemployment, the National Security Council from terrorists attacks on our homeland, FEMA from a host of natural disasters while an ever increasing number of government watchdogs and task forces sell us on safety. I’ve one question. Who stopped the Christmas Day, the Shoe Bomber or the New York City would-be bomber?
Sadly, in 2010, terrorism is about as predictable and dependable as tornado forecasting. Even with our color-coded security systems and TSA guards screening our toiletries and our vast array of local, state and federal government intelligence and law enforcement agencies, we are no more secure from a hostile terrorist attack than we are the next big earthquake. The hyped hysteria used to force us to capitulate has more to do with PR than actually protecting us.
Ben Franklin once said, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” I’ve grown to believe that any society that surrenders its freedom chasing a mirage, a hallucination, a security pipe dream deserves what it gets.
So before we surrender all of our freedom in the want of security, remember we’re trading our liberty for something that doesn’t truly exist.
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Hiker Surviving in Wilderness Outlasts Expectations
LOST doesn’t mean Lost for Good. For all of our frailty, all of our short comings, human beings can survive against tremendous odds. Though many believe that wilderness highlights human weakness, once again a survival story, this time of a missing Colorado woman reminds us just how resilient we can be.
I know it sounds impossible, even highly unlikely but we can survive without food, custom shelter and excess water in some pretty wild situations and for a decent amount of time.
I still believe survival is a mindset, a train of thought void of panic and feebleness. Today, we are conditioned to believe that survival is dependent on a backpack full of gear and a mind full of learned skills, to successfully survive. It’s more about temperament than technology, more mental than mechanical. What we need, thank goodness, we already possess. It’s in us.
You and I are a product of thousands of years of walking out into the wild, Eden or Africa, and making our way to the end of the day. Humans, if nothing else, are survivors.
Survivors First. Consumers, a distant second.
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