Getting on the Road Again - The Devil Really IS in the Details!

Since the inception of the idea of riding my bicycle across the country I have faced many challenges, some expected and accepted, others unexpected, but still accepted and sometimes used to advantage wherever possible.

After what turned out to be "Stage II" in 2013 - 400 miles through the Central Texas hill country from my aunt and uncle's house in Weatherford, TX to my last "official" stop from "Stage I" in Luling, TX - my plan was to spend a year in Santa Barbara, working and hopefully saving some money for "Stage III". What I found out the hard way was that most full-time employers were not willing to hire and train me for just a year of work, and, of course, that time frame grew shorter and shorter with each month that passed. Eventually, I felt I had to set aside my "dream" for an indefinite period of time to be able to work and live in Santa Barbara at all. In the mean time, I continued to work temporary jobs through Office Team with my last assignment being at the City of Goleta.

In the early part of July, one potential full-time employer called me back. I had interviewed with them several weeks before and because I was honest about wanting to finish my bike ride in the spring/summer, and that was their busiest time of year, they chose another candidate instead. However, at the time they contacted me, they were still facing a growing customer base and filling a big gap that had been left by a long-time employee who had passed away. Since I had changed my mind about continuing my bike trip right away, I accepted their offer and went to work about two weeks later, giving the City of Goleta proper notice in order to wrap up any last-minute projects I was working on for them.

I had been told upon hiring that the work was going to be stressful. That I was going to have to accept a lot of complicated instruction and correction. After 8 years in the Navy, I figured I could handle it. I know how to pay attention to detail, and I'm not shy of working hard.

However, what I was maybe not as prepared for was - you know - office politics. And since they had already sent another woman away in tears, my guard was up just a little. And, sure enough, by the end of the week "training by default" i.e. letting me answer phones, make lots of mistakes, and then correcting me after each call, started to take its toll. However, before it did any real damage to my psyche, I gently but firmly stood up for myself, basically saying "I just need to take a break from being constantly corrected for a while," especially in light of the way I was being trained, i.e. no real scripts to go by, and having multiple people involved in correcting me, without everyone knowing who was telling me what and when or how often. I'm a pretty self-confident person, so when I started to lose that feeling of self-confidence even with regards to parts of the job that I was handling without problem, I knew there was "something else" going on, and I took what I felt were rational and functional steps to deal with it, directly, at the lowest level, first; i.e. with the person who was "primarily" responsible for training me.

Apparently, that did not go over well with her, and eventually I found myself in a somewhat impromptu conference with the owner of the business and the other woman who was also less directly involved in training me. I thought things got at least somewhat resolved at that point, finished the work week, and even went out to celebrate my new job on Friday evening. However, by Saturday morning, I found an e-mail in my inbox from the owner saying,"I don't think you are a good fit for this job. I hoped it would work but there is stress in the work place." Of course, that was a bit of a shock, and kind of a let down, although, admittedly, I was not looking forward to continuing to work there under the circumstances I have described above. To soften the blow (I guess), the owner also offered another week's "severance pay" and asked me to come meet with him that day. When I went in to pick up my check, there was no antipathy expressed from either of us towards one another, but from the conversation, I was left to conclude, that there were issues with one or more of the other people (women) I was having to work with. And really, not something I could have done much about, so I "Let it Go!" (And yes, actually, I was thinking about using the "adult" clip of the chorus, but have to keep in mind there may be younger people reading my blog! And, otherwise, at this time of year it is more that "the heat never bothered me anyway"...although, it can sometimes, but I've learned how to deal with it!)

True to the song, none of that really mattered. I just had to Roll with It! Something I have learned to do both figuratively and literally in the past three years. I went back home, started to put some more energy into re-writing and updating my resume' and in the course of doing that it struck me...with my first pay check from this company, plus the second "severance" check, and my last pay check from my last week at the City of Goleta all coming into my hands simultaneously - I was sitting on about $900 (even after the money I spent "celebrating" Friday night). I'd worked a lot harder to earn and/or "save" a lot less before starting my other bike trips. So, maybe, just maybe, this would be enough to get me back on the road again...

As things have turned out...It was...along with lots of support from my friends and other associates in Santa Barbara!.

So with regards to "the Devil Being in the Details..." - a lot of the challenge of doing what I'm doing started in my case with getting semi-organized chaos like this:

10 x 15 Storage

And this:

Stage I Yard Sale

Stage I "Garage Sale"

And this:

Stuff for Stage I

And this:

Stage I and II Stuff

And this:

Transition between Stage 1 and Stage II
Packing in Santa Barbara to return to Jacksonville, FL

Stuff for Stage III

At various times to look more like this:

5 x 10 Storage

And progressively this:

5 x 5 Storage

And this:

Local Storage in Santa Barbara, CA

And of course this:

Stage I and II Rig

And now this:

Stage III Rig

But that's not all...

There's food as well that started out like this:

Rations for the Road

And this:

Supplements

Initially using a bag like this:

Large Insulated Food Bag

And filling it like this:

Egg Fried Rice

And this:

for Finger Salads and Smoothies

But that didn't work out so well because food that needed to be refrigerated or refrozen was buried too deeply in the trailer to get to once I reached the residence of one of my hosts. So eventually I moved the food to the back two panniers where I could get to it more easily using smaller insulated bags to hold everything. Now I have all of that down to one back pannier, including space in one of the side pockets for making my mung bean and lentil sprouts and soaked sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. And, of course, all of those go into the egg fried rice recipe that I try to cook for my hosts as often as possible (depending on the timing and how long I stay with them).

In addition, I pack food for while I'm actually on the road like this:

Finger Salad

Cheese and Crackers and Peanut-Apricot-Chocolate Candy Trail Mix

It goes into my handle bar bag along with my a Luna Bar, homemade green smoothie, cashews and Brazil nuts, and Dulse flakes...

Luna Bar

Green Smoothie, Dulse, and Nut Containers

And my "cutlery"...

Cutlery - with Custom Duct Tape Knife Cover
stored in a nylon compact umbrella cover

Loaded Handle Bar Bag

Bag on the Bike

All that fits on the front of the bike where it is easy to get to. I also carry two 27 oz Klean Kanteens one with a sport top and the other with a regular one. I found it was better to have a regular one on the bottle when I was shaking up the water and Clif Shot electrolyte powder. So I will stop and switch the lids over as necessary throughout the day.

And I keep all of these things, including a few others in my diet both off and on the road as I incorporate "My Top 20 Foods":

My Top 20 Foods

I have chosen these particular foods for the following reasons: 1) They are nutritionally dense. 2) They are relatively easy to access pretty much everywhere in the country, 3) They are relatively inexpensive. Even though the nuts may be the most expensive of the other items, as a source of non-meat protein, I've found I don't have to eat a lot of them to be satisfied. 4) I actually Enjoy Eating these foods and have been pretty consistently for about six years now. And 5) I CAN actually maintain my diet this way while I am on the road. (See my post: Food Basics Part VI... for more details on nutritional data and sources.)

Given what I have learned from Stages I and II, I now pack all this food:

My Road Food, etc.

Into this bag:

Food Pannier (Bontrager nylon pannier with custom side pockets.)

Wherein I use my frozen smoothies and another ice pack to keep the rest of my refrigerator items cold - like cheese, soy sauce, roasted sesame oil, and the occasional Trader Joe's chicken sausage (to mix with my egg fried rice).

Smoothie Freezer/Refrigerator

The Rubbermaid "Take Along" containers stack on top of each other in the bottom of the pannier, followed by the lunch bag, and other cold packs. Then I pile my rain gear on top (where it's handy if I need it) but also where it provides additional insulation for the refrigerator/freezer bag. My grater/box fits in the bottom of one pocket and I can fit all three sprout jars on top of that, two upright and one on it's side. The other pocket holds the box of crackers, my bicycle tool bag, pump, lock and 20oz bags of Clif Shot Electrolyte Powder which I've been able to find at REI stores.

The opposite pannier holds what I refer to as my "administrative gear":

"Admin" Gear

What you see here is my original "Intellectual Busking" box and accessories (just in case I need to busk while I'm on the road), another donation container that holds markers and pens, a very beat up copy of my "Pocket Constitution", and my scissors for cutting apart my business cards. The blue clipboard holds some important papers along with some plain copy paper and card stock (for printing the business cards). I have my green journal that I use for keeping track of my host/logistical info as well as my "We'Moon" calendar in which I put daily entries for past and future reference. Then there's my sewing kit which has already been used multiple times on this trip (often for my host's mending projects). One item not showing is my iPad keyboard that gets stored in the box as well for protection. All these items and a few others go inside the main body of the pannier, while my extra water bottle (for head towel wetting) and my LifeSaver Filter Bottle go in the added side pockets. (See "Miscellaneous" photo below.)

The front two panniers I reserve for clothing, towels, and toiletries. I store my "sets" of clothes in a mesh bag, inside a plastic bag that gets labeled with the contents.

A typical riding set of clothes includes Sport Bra, Gore Women's Baselayer (Super Wicking) Singlet, shorts and cycle top.

Typical Riding Set

There are multiple advantages to this mesh bag/plastic bag system for storing clothes: 1) I keep my clean clothes separate from my dirty clothes; i.e. I know the clothes are clean if they are in the mesh bags. Outside the mesh bags means they are dirty. 2) Having things in "sets" means I have everything I need when I head to someone's bathroom or a camp shower. 3) The plastic bags make for added water protection. 4) The labeling makes it easy to figure out what is what. 5) When it comes time to wash delicate items, I have plenty of mesh bags to use.

In addition to clothes I pack the toiletries shown here:

Toiletries, etc.

These include DZ Nuts Bliss Women's Chamois Cream, Nature's Gate Fragrance Free Moisturizing Lotion (in an 8 oz bottle), Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap (8 oz size), Nature's Gate Herbal Shampoo (8 oz bottle), hair detangler (I reuse this slim bottle and fill it with CVS Brand spray-in detangler found in the baby shampoo section), comb, toothbrush, toothpaste with carrying bag, razor and extra blades in travel case, Atwater Carey Light and Dry 1 Person First Aid Kit. (I used to work for this company when I lived in Buena Vista, Colorado.) Custom nylon bag with hair "scrunchies", etc., Trader Joe's Sun Screen for sensitive skin (for my face), crystal deodorant (for when sweating doesn't matter), regular sun screen for the rest of my body, Bee Propolis tincture (for gum treatment as needed), and another custom bag that holds make-up and a travel size regular deodorant/antiperspirant (for when sweating does matter).

All these items fit into a "Travel Bag" that is one of the few items I have left from my much earlier years sewing for "Networks" in Missoula, MT.

The Old Red and Black Travel Bag

Then that bag fits (barely!) into the top of the pannier on top of the other clothes I also store in that bag.

Red Bag fits in the top of the pannier.

The typical organization plan when these bags get packed is to keep clothes, towels, etc., that I might need shortly after I arrive at someone's house in the left side pannier where it is the most accessible.

Packed Front Panniers

With regards to shelter...apart from my Couch Surfing and Warm Showers hosts...

I initially designed and sewed my own tent. The floor of the tent was also a clothes bag which folded out to create more of a padded surface to sleep on. I carried it on a rack I also constructed to fit on top of my Wheele Bike Trailer.

Tent Floor/Clothes Bag on Custom Rack for Wheele Trailer

Unfolded Tent Floor/Clothes Bag

The tent itself needed to be strung between two trees and then the bottom walls were zipped into the floor, leaving an intentional overhang of about one foot on the sides and about a foot-and-a-half on each end so that I could put shoes, etc., outside to keep dry but also keep from tracking dirt into the tent.

The tent had a zippered door, and mesh net front and back screens with zippered nylon panels, very similar to store-bought tents.

Overall, it was fairly functional, and I eventually made an additional rain fly to cover the main part of the tent.

Tent with Rain Fly

There were limitations though with this prototype tent - I needed two supports (which I have sensed all along that I would not find going through various desert areas and the greater expanse of Texas), and it was on the small side inside. Room for some gear and to sit-up (barely), but otherwise, a pretty close fit.

Consequently, I was not averse to leaving the tent behind when I left New Braunfels, Texas at the end of Stage II, and later picking up another tent in Santa Barbara - for only $10 off of Craig's List! Hexagonal, free standing, and not terribly heavy, it's turned out to be a good tent so far, although it has not had to endure any rain just yet.

New Tent

I've already had two opportunities to try it out...

Host's Yard in Coast Village

Pt. Mugu State Park

In addition to the new tent I have a green "standard issue" mummy-style sleeping bag (given to me by my friend Alisa), a roll-up pillow, and a blue, light-weight hooded jacket that all fit in a custom-made blue nylon bag, as well as a $10 foam camp pad from K-mart. I have a pair of Trader Joe's shopping bags fit together end-to-end (so everything is covered and water protected) that contain some of my cold weather clothes, bulkier first aid and toiletry items, my rain fly from the old tent and another nylon tarp that fits over my bicycle. I'm also carrying one pair of regular shoes (black, closed-toed, Birks) and my turtle hat and fluorescent riding vest, and a sleepingbag style sheet that works well on couches because it doesn't slip off! I also have one of those Girl Scout style tuna-can, cardboard and wax "stoves" with a blue enameled metal bowl and a pineapple can chimney should I ever need to heat anything at a campsite without a fire pit or grill.

Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Finally, I ended up buying one of those collapsible coolers when I stayed with my host in Ventura, since she does not use a refrigerator in her house. (Instead she uses a large clay pot within a clay pot with a layer of sand between the two and a plywood lid on top that she keeps outside to take advantage of nighttime temps and shade. I think she said her electric bill was $4 for the month!) I had brought frozen smoothies with me and wanted to keep them as cood as possible before heading to Pt. Mugu. (More about that later!)

The advantage of having all of these items kind of piled on the back of my bicycle has been that I have this relatively flat wall of space where I can display signage...

New Signage

This has proven to be an effective way to let passers-by, either on foot, by vehicle, or by bicycle, know that I do have a mission and needs and how they can help. And it has been very encouraging over the last 30 days just how many people have stepped-up, or driven-up, or ridden-up to do just that! I get a little boost of dopamine each time that happens and it keeps me going!

Because in case this blog post has not already made it clear, there is actually A Lot of Work involved in keeping all of this "stuff" organized. And that's before I even get on the bike to work my leg muscles and heart muscles and lungs and will power! Given the difficulty of uploading photos via my iPad and into the Blogger platform, this post has taken at least 10 hours to produce. In other words, I may not be working a typical day job, but I am definitely working. At the same time, I really can't imagine any more meaningful work then this work that I am doing, and I am grateful for the opportunity, and especially grateful to all of the people who have supported me thus far.

And so...my journey continues...

Farewell and Thank You - Santa Barbara and Company!

I have so much to be grateful for.

I want to say "Thank You!" to the people who helped me in so many different ways during my most recent "tour" in Santa Barbara as well as my preparations for Stage III of my cross-country cycling adventure:

Thanks to Johnny and Kelly for allowing me to stay with them when I first got to town. I had met Johnny at the 2012 SOL Food Festival while he was promoting the Santa Barbara Time Bank. When I was looking for hosts upon my return, he and Kelly were the first to step up. I am grateful for their ongoing friendship and support, for their introducing me to more of their friends in the community including the Fishbon Artists Collective and especially for Kelly's great food during my stay with them as well as in preparation for my going away party.

Thanks to Karen for allowing me to stay with her and to commute to work with her while I was on my temporary assignment at the City of Goleta. In addition, she passed down a couple of pairs of pants that I really needed, both of which have become important parts of clothing I am carrying with me on this trip.

Thanks to Andrea and Mercio for helping me move my things for my temporary stay with my "host" Christie in Goleta, and Thanks to Christie for offering to let me stay with him and for being a sensitive and communicative companion for my last couple of weeks in Santa Barbara.

Thanks to all of the folks at Bici Centro and the Santa Barbara Bike Coalition - for all the hard work they are doing to increase bicycle infrastructure and optimal bicycle use for the South Coast region, and for letting me use the front room for my going away party, as well as helping me with last-minute bicycle maintenance and repair, and financial support. (Thanks especially to Matt Dobberteen for his generous donation to both the building purchase and my travel fund!)

Thanks to all of my friends - and "representatives" of the various circles of which I have become a part in Santa Barbara - Jay from the Conscious Creators (and other) Meet-up group(s); Dave, Veselina, and Marge from the Love Grid; Mike from Community-Planet Savvy Investors of Santa Barbara; Bob and Jacky (and her husband Michael) from Woodland Toastmasters, Winston, Ernie and Tamarah from my days "working the streets" as an "Intellectual Busker", Bob from The Santa Barbara Time Bank for his support and photo contributions, and Alicia and Rob from Fishbon and the Fishbon Storyteller's Cell. Thanks to all of you for your friendship and support and for coming to see me off, and for your contributions to my travel fund!

And to my other friends who have offered their support in various ways: Dr. Joe (Migliore) and Jackie for keeping my neck straight and for emotional/moral support, to Kenji and Martin of Santa Barbara Japan Photography Group for letting me hang-out with them while they take (really great) pictures (!), Eleanor for letting me store some of my stuff in her storage unit, Ed for the honey (a long time ago :) ) and for the bag of home-dried fruit to take on my journey, John for hooking me up with a new pair of sturdy tires for a very reasonable price as well as connecting me with Channing at Old Man Mountain Racks to get my rear rack repaired, to Lori and Kent at Traffic Solutions for the REI Discount Coupon so I could save a little on my replacement micro-fiber towel, and for many of the folks at the City of Goleta and FCP, Inc. who became more like friends while I was working temporary assignments at their offices.

(I'll also add a "Thank You..." to the recent employer who hired me and then let me go with my first week and another week's severance pay, as that was all the money and incentive I needed to get myself back on the road!!...More on that in a post to follow.)

And Thanks to Anders Johnson for his ongoing friendship and support, the frequent pleasure of his company and intellectual discussions, and for the beauty of his art-work that is graciously installed all over Santa Barbara and beyond!

And finally, I want to say "Thank You!" to everyone at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation including their Peace Leadership Director and author Paul K. Chappell for the many, many years of hard work they have invested in making the world a safer and more peaceful place for All Living Beings - and for All of Our individual and collective efforts to build better relationships and better communities. I appreciate being able to Do What I CAN Do to help them in their efforts, and, in my case, that means riding my bicycle cross-country spreading their message of hope backed up with clear, persevering, and strategic action (such as the recent lawsuits filed by the Marshall Islands).

As I have explained to people over and over again, I have felt a special, Dynamic Quality and "resonance" with the place and the people of Santa Barbara, and it has not been easy saying "Farewell" again, especially without knowing how long it might be before I will be able to return. But, in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I'll be back!"

...And in the mean time, I will keep you all posted as best I can while my ongoing journey unfolds!

You Get What You Play For!

Robert Pirsig is the best selling author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. He is also the author of another book, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. I've read both books. Most recently I finished reading Lila... for the third time. I can't say there are many if any other books that I have read three times in my life, but this one was definitely worth it.

Furthermore, as I have a much clearer intention of writing my own book, in this reading of Lila... I allowed myself the freedom to underline and write comments in the margins. Because of this, I feel I digested these ideas much more thoroughly than in the first two readings. In addition, over the past couple of weeks I have been very intentionally bringing these ideas into conversation wherever appropriate, and I am finding more and more instances where Pirsig's perspectives do have relevance.

So, to offer a brief summary:

In Lila... Pirsig challenges the "subject-object" metaphysics of scientific materialism replacing it with his "Metaphysics of Quality". In this "Metaphysics of Quality" he sees the first division of reality being between "static" and "Dynamic" Quality. Furthermore, he sees reality sub-divided into what he calls "patterns of value" that exist at different levels; i.e. there are Inorganic Patterns of Value, Biological Patterns of Value, Social Patterns of Value, and Intellectual Patterns of Value. There is an implicit evolutionary hierarchy here as well as "moral codes" that exist at the interfaces of each level. For instance there are certain "moral codes" that guide the interactions of biological patterns of value with inorganic patterns of value. As expressed by various cultures around the world, there are "moral codes" that guide the behavior of individual biological organisms within various societies (and this could actually be said of non-human as well as human societies, although human societies tend to be the most diverse and complex). As exemplified in our "Bill of Rights", there has been an advance in recognizing the place of "Intellectual Freedom" even in the midst of a Society - for instance, with Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion.

About half way through the book, Pirsig points to the Victorian era as representing the last point when "Society" was seen as the highest expression of human development. To know if something was moral, all one had to do was answer the question: "Does society approve?" With this guideline, both biology and intellect were seen as subservient to the prevailing social moral codes.

However, during WWI this "virtuous and noble" Victorian society saw fit to send millions of its young men to their deaths. With the introduction of the Gatling Gun, the casualties were enormous and gruesome. Those who survived were left to question how such a "virtuous and noble" society could be so willing to sacrifice so many of its members. In addition, there was an increasing shift away from those social moral codes as the perspectives of scientific materialism framed the world as not having, nor needing any kind of moral codes to guide it. Everything was seen to be happening by "chance," or the seemingly random assembly of molecules that eventually led to the appearance of complex human beings. Furthermore, since neither a "moral" nor a "society" could really be studied, like a scientist studies a microbe under a microscope, then these were essentially disregarded as having no real "existence" at all, let alone any "value".

Therefore, the generation that followed WWI embraced Intellectual Freedom over social moral codes and traditions. In order to determine if something were "good" one needed only to appeal to one's intellect and the "proofs" provided by science, including anthropology. For instance, if free sexual exploration as teenagers was "good" for Samoan society, than it could be "good" for every other society as well. Pirsig sees the shift of the power base from the Old Victorians to the New Intellectuals exemplified in the election of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the first president to have also been a university professor.

It is from the rising Intellectual Class that the ideas of social engineering via socialism and communism came into vogue. And from Pirsig's point of view, WWII was really a war between the Old Guard of social moral codes and social authority (represented by Fascism) and the New Guard of Intellectuals and scientific materialism dominating society. And the New Guard ultimately won that battle.

From my point of view, the development of the atomic bomb, though pursued for military reasons, was also a pursuit of the intellectuals and the scientists, again without any regard for the moral implications of their work. It was only after their success, and the use of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that those moral implications became much more obvious, especially to Robert J. Oppenheimer. He became a voice against the use of the weapons later in his life, a challenge to the New Intellectual and Scientific Elite, and he was branded a traitor as a consequence.

(Even to this day, many people question the MORALITY of ever developing, let alone using the atomic bomb. But keep in mind, scientific materialism cannot consider morals. The scientific method provides no tools for observing or studying morals. Morals are beyond the purview of science as we currently know it. The "morality" of creating atomic weapons was never at issue, only the facts of the science of creating them, and who could discover those facts and implement them first. If we are going to let the assumptions of scientific materialism guide us, this is logically where they lead.)

By the '60's and '70's a new rebellion took place. This time it was initiated by fairly well-off and fairly well-educated young men and women who not only continued the attack against "society" and "social moral codes" started after WWI, but also began to attack the Intellectuals and Intellectual Institutions that had grown up since then. The new answer to the question "Is it right?" or "Is it good?" - became "If it feels good, do it!" Interestingly enough, as Pirsig points out, many of these young people began to steer their lives towards adopting the social patterns of Native Americans; i.e. more gentle rearing of children, simplicity, speaking directly, and being closer to nature, among other things. However, he also goes on to point out, that this kind of "laid back" approach to day-to-day life does not "fit" well in an urban setting, where there are other expectations - like being on time to do a job where other people are depending on you.

I guess the most important take home point I got from reading this chronicle was this: The revolutionaries of the '60's and '70's made no distinctions between biological freedom and intellectual freedom. I have realized that "If it feels good, do it!"is the most primitive motto of all individual biological organisms. However, even within the first colonial organisms, some of that individual biological freedom had to be sacrificed for the benefit of living more safely and securely within a group of similar individuals.

That most basic pattern of sacrifice of individual biological freedom for the benefit of being part of a collective has replicated itself throughout the evolutionary tree. In other words, some of the most primitive single cells that organize themselves into colonies "understand" that complete "biological freedom" is not "moral" if you want to live in a group with others like yourself. And yet, back in the '60's and '70's this "moral code", that even the members of a Volvox colony could understand and value, got thrown out the window and was replaced with the idea that every individual should be free to do whatever they want, no matter how it affects the people around them. In other words..."If it feels good do it!" and following that - "Survival of the fittest"...

So here we are roughly 50 years later, and if you judge by that particular moral code; i.e."If it feels good, do it," and "Survival of the fittest", then the Big Corporations and the Big Governments and the Most Powerful Countries are also the most "moral"! Hey...they're just "playing by the rules"! Everyone has decided those old Victorians were idiots and didn't have any clue about how to be part of a society. Furthermore, the intellectuals got off track since they could not see a "moral" or see a "society" in any kind of meaningful way, and, consequently, they had nothing to offer to replace the social moral codes of the Victorians.

Now our technology has completely outpaced our Moral Maturity as far as evolutionary progress is concerned. As I listened to Noam Chomsky speak recently on "Security and State Policy", I completely understood why, when it comes to Security of the Society - i.e. the Majority of the People living in this country (for instance), none of our leaders really care if we get blown up by terrorists, as long as They don't get blown up by terrorists, as long as any of their financial backers and corporations do not get blown up by terrorists. They have no sense of being Part of a/Our Society, or accountable by any "social moral codes" that include all of the rest of us. They are just doing their own thing for themselves, while they feed off the rest of us, and off the rest of our labor and intelligence.

However, if you can imagine that a "society" is a real thing. That we are part of a society that is simply a different level or type of "organism" or "pattern of values" to use Pirsig's term, then the 1% are like a cancer that has been growing and growing and growing, building more and more avenues/blood vessels through which to channel the resources of this society/organism to themselves.

There are some people out there who are thinking, like many medical doctors think about cancer, that we're going to have to "radiate the entire body" in order to kill off the cancer. Those are a lot of your violent revolutionaries and apocalyptic thinkers. Of course, such a violent and radical approach risks killing the body itself. Violent revolution can be that kind of "chemotherapy", in that it can destroy the "innocent/healthy" cells as well as the "cancerous" ones, and there is a very good chance that the patient will die - that the patient will not have enough functioning parts left to survive after the cancer is gone.

In his books, Paul K. Chappell writes about violent approaches to resolving major conflicts as being similar to using amputation of a wounded leg to prevent infection rather than antibiotics. He asserts that the key is better understanding. Just as medical doctors have made progress in understanding how the body works, so they know it is better to give antibiotics rather than cut off a leg, so the populations of the world must better understand the nature of conflict in order to find a more precise way of dealing with it that does not involve violence.

Interestingly enough, (and I think without really knowing it) Paul K. Chappell has offered a new version of a "social moral code" that we might aspire to, especially in his book, Peaceful Revolution. And knowing Paul somewhat personally, I'd say he would have probably been quite comfortable in Victorian society! I will not say that he has All of the Answers, but a lot of his work certainly points in a general direction that I feel needs to be considered seriously, especially in light of Robert Pirsig's ideas as well.

One of the strategic instructions of Paul's work centers on the teaching of Sun Tzu in The Art of War: Never attack your opponent at their strongest point. Our government in combination with the current corporate powers, has the most highly trained and technologically advanced military, police, and security forces in the world. Consequently, to try to dismantle any of that through violent revolution would be devastating for all concerned. Again, that is more like the "radiate the entire body to destroy the cancer" approach. And in this case, the cancer has a much stronger immune system than the body itself. Instead, as Paul suggests, we have to attack them at the level of their Moral Authority, where they are weakest.

However, in order to do that, as a society, we have to be functioning with a Higher Moral Code ourselves...and that means we have to understand the difference between "biological freedom" and "intellectual freedom". We have to fully understand that we cannot have total "biological freedom" and be part of a stable, sustainable, society or world for that matter. Consequently, when we say we want more "freedom" we are going to have to be very, very clear about what that means. From my point of view, that needs to mean we want more "freedom" to create new forms of society and community that are not at the mercy and threat of the political and financial "cancers" that have grown up in our midst.

Think of the movie,The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie epitomizes the ideas of "survival of the fittest" and "if it feels good, do it". Those ideas make up the (biological) "moral code" we are actually functioning under, especially here in the West and it is the same "moral code" we have been exporting throughout the world for decades now. However, if that really is the "moral code" we have (mostly unconsciously) agreed to in this society, ever since the revolutions of the '60s and '70s, then those who manage to "survive" the longest and make the most money to "do whatever they want", are the MORAL VICTORS here!!!! And we have NO RIGHT TO BE COMPLAINING about them!!!

Furthermore, if the people who want to challenge them only want to displace them so a New Group can continue to "survive" at the expense of the rest of "society," then that means that those "displacers" are Not Representing a "HIGHER MORAL CODE". Such "displacement" of the "current powers that be" without a Change of Moral Codes is NOT GOING TO MAKE FOR ANY FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE for "society", and that means for Most of the Rest of Us and for the World!...

Really take some time to think about that...

...However, if each of us is willing to recognize that, no matter how loosely we may be held together right now, we are already a part of a Society of Humankind. And to actually make those bonds stronger, we have to recognize that there is a Different Moral Code to guide our behaviors as part of this Society. That Moral Code means giving up at least some elements of our "individual biological freedom"; i.e. to "do whatever makes me feel good," or "reproduce as many babies as I want to, with or without a partner, with or without the means to support them," or to "eat as much crap as I want to even if my bad health negatively impacts the people around me and the medical system that supports us," or to "consume all kinds of resources that I really don't need just because I can," or "Let me speculate in the stock market for short-term gains at the expense of long-term financial stability", etc., etc., etc. If we can collectively move beyond the biological moral code of "if it feels good do it" and "survival of the fittest", and once again find our path to a new, and actually, More Intelligent "Social Moral Code" then, and Only Then, will we be in a position of Moral Authority over those elements of our society that are currently in power - elements that are clearly not functioning with anything like a Social Moral Code except maybe "Honor Among Thieves"!

And, maybe, hopefully, we can turn this mess around in time, and help to renew the other critical component of our survival here - the Earth itself, upon which ALL biological organisms and societies and free thinkers depend.

To Summarize...

You cannot have Biology without the Earth, you cannot have Society without individual biological organisms working cooperatively to sustain it, you cannot have Intellectual Development without a Society that is there to educate its members and to give them the tools of self-discipline to regulate their biological drives so that they can be productive and contributing members to that society, and you cannot have Intellectual Freedom without a Society that understands that without it, there can be no New Ideas that help to keep Society as a Whole moving forward.

I am grateful for the society of which I am a part, in spite of its obvious problems. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had for gainful employment that have allowed me to sustain my biological needs and to further my education. I appreciate the technology that is available to me to continue to expand my knowledge of others ideas and to communicate my own.

And I am grateful for all of the people in my life who read my blogs, who are critical thinkers and communicators themselves, and who are doing whatever they can to make the world and this society a better place for all of us to live and grow and develop our full potentials as human beings, both individually and collectively.

I have hope for the future, knowing what I know now. But I do feel a certain Urgency in spreading these ideas, as the clock is ticking for how long we can keep going down the path we are on. I would hate to see all that we have managed to create here "go to waste" when so much of it can be salvaged with a fairly simple shift in understanding; part of which again, is understanding the difference between biological and intellectual freedom and the critical role a healthy, functional, society plays in mediating between the two.

I welcome your questions and feedback...