SURVIVING the LONGER TERM FROM OURSELVES

In the past but apparently now more than ever, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has seen undeniably widespread partisanship via Internet and news commentary. The politics of polarization outside of Israel and even the Middle East, perhaps in part for its own sake, has gotten quite disturbing. Within social media especially, the angry and thoughtless two-dimensional views have been especially amplified, including the majority posted by non-Jews and non-Palestinians.

It all arouses a spectator-sport effect or mentality, with many contemptible trolls residing well outside the region yet actively supporting the ‘side’ [via politicized commentary posts] that they hate less. I anticipate many actually kept/keep track of the bloody match by checking the day’s-end death-toll score, however extremely lopsided those numbers.

There’s a lack of compassion in our world that’s accompanied by so very much anger or rage. I myself have been angrier over the last few years — perhaps in large part in relation to the Internet ‘angry algorithm’ sending me the stories, etcetera, it has (unfortunately correctly) calculated will successfully agitate me into keeping the (I believe, overall societally-/socially-damaging) process going thus maximizing the number of clicks/scrolls I’ll provide it to sell to product advertisers.

However, as individuals we can resist flawed yet normalized human/societal nature thus behavior; and if enough people do this and perform truly humane acts, positive change on a large(r) scale may result.

Perhaps somewhat relevant to this are the words of American sociologist Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), of Obedience Experiments fame/infamy: “It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception [and] awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”

… Still, it could be that the human race so desperately needs a unifying existential/fate-determining common cause, that an Earth-impacting asteroid threat or, better yet, a vicious extraterrestrial attack likely is what we have to collectively brutally endure together in order to survive the longer term from ourselves.

We all would unite for the first time ever and defend against, attack and eventually defeat the humanicidal multi-tentacled ETs, the latter needing to be an even greater nemesis than our own formidably divisive politics and perceptions of differences, both real and perceived — especially those involving race, religion and nationality.

During this much-needed human alliance, we’d be forced to work closely side-by-side together and experience thus witness just how humanly similar we are in the ways that really count. (The movies Independence Day and, especially, Enemy Mine come to my mind.)

Then again, I’ve been told that one or more human parties might actually attempt to forge an alliance with the ETs to better their own chances for survival, thus indicating that our deficient human condition may be even worse than I had originally thought.

Yet, maybe a half-century later when all traces of the nightmarish ET invasion are gone, we’ll inevitably revert to those same politics to which we humans seem so collectively hopelessly prone — including the politics of scale. And, yet once again, we slide downwards.

PostScript: Before non-Caucasian people became the primary source of newcomers to North America, thick-accented Eastern Europeans were the main targets of meanspirited Anglo-Saxon bigotry. As a thick-accented/broken-English 1950s Eastern-European immigrant to Canada, my (now-late) father experienced such mistreatment. … If Canada and the U.S. were to revert back to a primarily Caucasian populace, if not some hypothetical VDARE whites-only ‘utopia’, I wouldn’t be surprised if Eastern Europeans with a thick Slavic accent would inevitably again become the main target of bigotry within the dominant Euro-Canadian/American ethnicity/populace.

Death Is Life’s Greatest Gift to People Like Me

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and, above all, those who live without love” (spirit of school headmaster Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2).

For some of us, the greatest gift life offers is that someday, preferably sooner rather than later, we get to die — and not have to repeat the suffering. But when suicide is simply not an option, it basically means there’s little hope of receiving an early reprieve from their literal life sentence. And, of course, reincarnation — especially back into the average bitter Earthly human existence an indefinite number of times, the repetition of mostly unhappiness — would be the ultimate unthinkable Hell. Ergo, the following poem:

__

I awoke from another very bad dream, yet another horrid reincarnation nightmare

where having blessedly died I’m still bullied towards rebirth back into human form

despite my pleas I be allowed to rest in permanent peace.

My bed wet from sweat, I futilely try to convince my own autistic brain

I want to live, the same traumatized dysthymic brain displacing me

from the functional world.

.

Within my nightmare a mob encircles me and insists that life, including mine,

is a blessing.

I ask them for the blessed purpose of my continuance. I insist

upon a practical purpose!

Give me a real purpose, I cry out, and it’s not enough simply to live

nor that it’s a beautiful sunny day with colorful fragrant flowers!

.

I’m tormented hourly by my desire for emotional, material and creative gain

that ultimately matters naught, I explain. My own mind brutalizes me like it has

a sadistic mind of its own.

I must have a progressive reason for this harsh endurance!

Bewildered they warn that one day on my death bed I’ll regret my ingratitude

and that I’m about to lose my life.

I counter that I cannot mourn the loss of something I never really had

so I’m unlikely to dread parting from it.

.

Frustrated they say that moments from death I’ll clamor and claw for life

like a bridge jumper instinctively flailing his limbs as though to grasp at something

anything that may delay his imminent thrust into the eternal abyss.

How can I in good conscience morosely hate my life

while many who love theirs lose it so soon? they ask.

Angry I reply that people bewail the ‘unfair’ untimely deaths of the young who’ve received early reprieve

from their life sentence, people who must remain behind corporeally confined

yet do their utmost to complete their entire life sentence — even more if they could!

.

The vexed mob then curse me with envy for rejecting what they’d kill for — continued life through unending rebirth.

“Then why don’t you just kill yourself?” they yell,

to which I retort “I would if I could. My life sentence is made all the more oppressive by my inability to take my own life.”

“Then we’ll do it for you.” As their circle closes on me, I wake up.

.

Could there be people who immensely suffer yet convince themselves

they sincerely want to live when in fact

they don’t want to die, so greatly they fear Death’s unknown?

No one should ever have to repeat and suffer again a single second of sorrow that passes.

Nay, I will engage and embrace the dying of my blight!

_____

P.S. By definition, I’m actually not suicidal.

To Beloved Felines’ Strong Characters

‘If only I had something new,’

she thought, ‘something adventurous

to do, like when the fields grew tall

fields from which wild fowl fed and flew’;

she the black feline feisty and precious

needed something new or to climb the wall.

.

She walked over to the windowpane

and looked out to the neighboring homes

to where she hoped to find something

—something new, beyond the back lane

rocky road where she often roams

to where her eyes would be wandering.

.

And when her attention was caught

by the towering shingle roof

sheltering the large corner store

she at once decided she ought

to climb to its high peak as proof

of her worth to those who did her adore.

.

Through the yards one by one she went

glancing around this and that corner

over then under fences tall

till she stood at the wall she’d meant

to conquer as a foreigner

without any fear that she’d fall.

.

She looked to the two garbage cans

leaning against the wooden shed

right next to the store that was so pink;

up she jumped, her feet and hands

reached the top by but a thread

of no better place could she think.

.

Having achieved her noteworthy climb

she gazed over to the swaying trees

unaware that her hostess stood near;

at the bus stop as passed the time

the woman looked up into the breeze

and saw her feline who knew no fear.

.

Thus the feline had done something new

and not seeing her hostess’s stare

she returned home fulfilled and content

for from this day excitement she drew

and she thought again she’d climb and dare

those high places worthy of her scent.

____

The preceding poem is a mostly true account involving pet cat Mimi, who was quite an adventurous indoors/outdoors cat. I say ‘mostly true’, because I obviously cannot read the feline’s thoughts. … The following poem also is a mostly true account involving Mimi, who insisted upon playing with my feet as I slept.

____

She laid by his bared feet

at the foot of his bed

though in his dream they’d meet

which they did in his head.

.

For this sleek black feline

she’d been in there before

such she’d never decline

as that cat he’d adore.

A myth it couldn’t be

that her claws touched his toes

as the dreaming did he

was about that she knows.

.

The dream she boldly caught

that night she did invade

was the dream she had sought

the dream she’d long delayed.

Within she placed her claws

upon his sleep-bound feet

all performed with no flaws

then and there they did meet.

.

Though not feeling abused

by prickling on his toes

he still looked down confused

at each of five toes, two rows.

.

Naught of her did he find

in his dream created

though back to wakened mind

he saw her and stated

‘Mimi, it’s you — you rascal!’

yet he still adored her

while finding special

her response, a smooth ‘mrrrrr’.

.

From the thick mattress down

she landed easy goes

as he said, ‘You little clown —

you leave alone my toes.’

Thought she: ‘Again we’ll meet

as you dream fast asleep

when the toes on your feet

from my paws you cannot keep.’

__________

_________

An Ode to OUR CAT’S DRINKING PROBLEM

It’s clear dear cat you’ve had a water drink

For it hangs thick and low from your thin chin

As a large drop through which light rays glisten

Then a flicker of your tongue’s tip quite pink

Comes with a sway of your tail, its kink

So noticed like that water drop again

(And you without a little silk napkin)

Your habit’s one endearingly distinct.

Plus your drinking problem leaves us no stink

Like old food stuff or hard liquor like gin

And into a bad thing you didn’t sink

You’ve committed naught resembling a sin

Habits can still be dropped in an eye’s blink

While having you near’s my mind’s medicine.

(Mis)Understanding Thus Representing Christ Representing Christ

It seems to me that America, and maybe Canada, is well on its way to being damned; never mind it somehow being God-blessed. Jesus Christ definitely would not approve of the almost systematic morbid greed and poverty rampant in “God’s Own Country”.

Seriously, some of the best humanitarians that I, as a big fan of Christ’s unmistakable miracles and fundamental message, have met or heard about were/are atheists or agnostics who, quite ironically, would make better examples of many of Christ’s teachings/practices than too many ‘Christians’. Conversely, some of the worst human(e) beings I’ve met or heard about are the most devout believers/preachers of fundamental Biblical theology.

I can understand corpocratically-inclined and extreme-wealth Americans supporting President Donald (Gimme’a Blow Job) Trump’s soulless — hell, completely un-Christlike — and most ugly Big Beautiful Bill. But there are so many voters and elected Republicans who claim to be Christian yet defend, or at least are noticeably quiet about, the bill despite its ultimate cutting of access to health services and food aid/supports for the poorest Americans.

It’s bad enough for the Trump government, that’s widely supported by the institutional Christian community in American, to cut whatever minimal government support there is for poor people, especially children, lacking food and/or those without access to privately insured health care. But to do so in large part to redirect those funds via tax cuts to the superfluously very wealthy — including those who have no need for more money, and likely never will — is plain immoral.

The money will mostly go towards an attempt to satiate the bottomless-pit greed of unlimited-growth capitalism and hoarded wealth. It’s morbidly shameful conduct by a supposedly Christian nation’s government, which is largely politically supported by institutional ‘Christianity’ in America.

And while Trump is pulling the wings off of many Americans who materially have little or nothing, his recent denial of very sick Gazan children entry into the U.S. only further exposes his administration’s fraudulent, bastardized version of Christianity.

Jesus must be spinning in heaven.

Jesus Christ was/is about compassion, charity and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard gratuitous resources, especially in the midst of great poverty. Yet, this is not practiced by a significant number of ‘Christians’, likely including many who idolize callous politicians standing for very little or nothing Jesus taught and represents.

Prominent actually-Christlike Christian leaders/voices should often strongly-emphasize what Jesus fundamentally taught and demonstrated to his followers. However strange that sounds, institutional Christianity seems to need continuous reminding. They all should consider that the Biblical Jesus would not have rolled his eyes and sighed: ‘Oh, well. I’m against what the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more his political competition?’

… Meanwhile, the U.S. president remains the unstable, vengefully angry and self-centered/-serving type willing to take the world for a most brutal spin, perhaps even for the sake of him making it into the historical-‘greatness’ books. If anything, he’s evidence of a great evil being unleashed onto a largely powerless world — including the natural environment. 

I watched a televised documentary a few years ago about Michel de Nostredame and his seemingly often prophetic quatrains. Amongst them were disturbing prophesies apparently making references to the first [Napoleon], second [Hitler] and third anti-Christs, the latter having yet to come and do his immense damage. One of the Nostradamus scholars interviewed for the documentary said the writings suggest the third anti-Christ would originate as the elected leader of what would become the United States, though he’ll be of European ancestry.

Early on Nov.6, Trump publicly stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life [from two assassination attempts] for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.” (Then again, Adolf Hitler also escaped assassination attempts made against him, most notably that foiled effort called the July Plot or Operation Valkyrie, and may have also mused that something divine spared his life.)

The institutional ‘Christians’ who still vocally and politically support Donald Trump tend to see him as literally Godsent. Many, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, also perceive Trump’s presidency as divinely-intended punishment against liberals. If anything, he’s evidence of a great evil being unleashed onto a largely powerless world.

The New Liberalism Largely Excludes the Poor

Way too many people, perhaps an all-time-high percentage, have to choose between which necessities of life they can afford. A very large and growing populace are increasingly too overworked, tired, worried and rightfully angry about housing and food unaffordability thus insecurity for themselves or their family — largely due to insufficient income — to criticize or boycott Big Business/Industry, or the superfluously wealthy, for the societal damage they needlessly cause/allow, particularly when it’s not immediately observable.

I tend to doubt that this effect is totally accidental, as it greatly benefits the interests of insatiable greed. … Apparently, the superfluous-wealth desires of the few, and especially the one, increasingly outweigh the life-necessity needs of the many.

A few social/labor uprisings or revolutions notwithstanding, it seems the superfluously rich and powerful have always had the police and military ready to foremost protect their big-money/-power interests, even over the basic needs of the masses, to the very end.

Even in modern (supposed) democracies, the police and military can, and perhaps would, claim — using euphemistic or political terminology, of course — they have/had to bust heads to maintain law and order as a priority during major demonstrations, especially those against economic injustices. Indirectly supported by a complacent, if not compliant, corporate news-media, which is virtually all mainstream news-media, the absurdly unjust inequities/inequalities can persist.

Perhaps there were/are lessons learned from those successful social/labor uprisings, with the clarity of hindsight, by more-contemporary big power/money interests in order to avoid any repeat of such great wealth/power losses (a figurative How to Hinder Progressive Revolutions 101, maybe).

And perhaps ‘Calamity’ Jane Bodine, in the film Our Brand Is Crisis, is correct in stating: “If voting changed anything [in favor of the poor and disenfranchised] they’d have made it illegal.”

… I recall watching a Democrat president named Barack Obama publicly drink from a glass of Flint, Michigan water [supposedly, anyway] via mass media, signifying the water system was safe from which to drink. But many say it is STILL not safe to drink. [“Ten Years Later, Flint Still Doesn’t Have Clean Water”: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/20/ten-years-later-flint-still-doesnt-have-clean-water%5D

As a then-admirer of then-president Obama, I muttered “Say it isn’t so”. It greatly reinforced my belief that U.S. presidents, indeed along with Canadian prime ministers, essentially act as instruments of big corporate/money/power interests.

I know that the lead-tainting was not Obama’s doing; however, what he did was a major shock to and disappointment for the lead-poisoned Flint folk, who’d expected far more/better from him. To a lot of people, he had behaved like some TV-promotion actor hired by an (in this case) seriously ethically/morally challenged corporation.

Though I would expect it from a Republican president or even the Democrat President Bill Clinton, I found it very disappointing of Obama (maybe because he is Black, as were many or most of the lead-water-ingesting Flint folk), regardless of the big business and/or political pressure he probably had on his head.

Meanwhile the common yet questionable refrain STILL prevails among ‘free-market’ capitalist nation governments and corporate circles. It claims that best business practices, including what’s best for consumers, are best decided by business decision-makers. But this was proven false numerous times.

… To conservatives the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and even Bill Clinton were progressive or liberal; however, they were, at best, neo or faux liberal — progressive only in regards to following/implementing ideologically liberal or “woke” policy: that involving race, sexuality, gender, and now also the politics of gender bending.

Clinton was fairly relatively conservative. For example, as president he decided against federally fully legalizing cannabis consumption after having championed it (or, at the very least, its decriminalization) prior to his election. He instead greatly ramped up the ‘war on drugs’ — including against personal users, which needlessly unjustly destroyed lives — at the very same time he made it easier for bankers to become richer.

He generally lowered the quality of life for those Americans in greatest need — the opposite of him and his neo-liberal-elite wife, friends, et al. And yet he probably slept well at night, nonetheless.

Mindlessly Minding Our Own Business Can Be Very Damaging

Early-life abuse or chronic neglect left unhindered typically causes the brain to improperly develop. It can readily be the starting point of a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals, even in otherwise non-stressful daily routines.

It amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage in the form of PTSD. Among other dysfunctions, it has been described as an emotionally tumultuous daily existence, indeed a continuous discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’.

For some of us it also means being afraid of how badly we will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated.

Therefore, the wellbeing of all children needs to be of genuine importance to everyone — and not just concern over what other parents’ children might or will cost us as future criminals or costly cases of government care, etcetera — regardless of how well our own developing children are doing.

Mindlessly ‘minding our own business’ often proves humanly devastating. Yet, largely owing to the Only If It’s In My Own Back Yard mindset, however, the prevailing collective attitude (implicit or subconscious) basically follows: ‘Why should I care — my kids are alright?’ or (the even more self-serving) ‘What’s in it for me as a taxpayer?’

… Meanwhile, people nonetheless continue procreating regardless of not being sufficiently knowledgeable of child development science to parent in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. They seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they (potential parents) will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.

In Childhood Disrupted the author writes that “[even] well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).

As liberal democracies we cannot or will not prevent anyone from bearing children, even those who selfishly recklessly procreate with disastrous outcomes. We can, however, educate young people for this most important job ever, even those who plan to remain childless, through mandatory high-school child-development science curriculum. And rather than being about instilling ‘values’, which many parents would understandably oppose, such curriculum should be about understanding child-development, and not just information memorization. There indeed is a difference.

It may even end up mitigating some of the familial dysfunction seemingly increasingly prevalent in society. … If nothing else, such curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood. Given what is at stake, should they not at least be equipped with such important science-based knowledge?

Crucial knowledge like: Since it cannot fight or flight, a baby hearing loud noises nearby, such as that of quarrelling parents, can only “move into a third neurological state, known as a ‘freeze’ state. … This freeze state is a trauma state” (pg.123). And it’s the unpredictability of a stressor, rather than the intensity, that does the most harm. When the stressor “is completely predictable, even if it is more traumatic — such as giving a [laboratory] rat a regularly scheduled foot shock accompanied by a sharp, loud sound — the stress does not create these exact same [negative] brain changes” (pg. 42).

On page 29 of the book (WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing) he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Bruce D. Perry (M.D., Ph.D.) writes:

“Starting in the womb, the developing brain begins to store parts of our life experience. Fetal brain development can be influenced by a host of factors including mother’s stress; drug, alcohol, and nicotine intake; diet; and patterns of activity. During the first nine months, development is explosive, at times reaching a rate of twenty thousand new neurons ‘born’ each second. (In comparison, an adult may, on a good day, create seven hundred new neurons.)”

… Being a caring, competent, loving and knowledgeable parent [about factual child-development science] should matter most when deciding to procreate. Therefore, parental failure seems to occur as soon as the solid decision is made to have a child even though the parent-in-waiting cannot be truly caring, competent, loving and knowledgeable. 

As a moral rule, a mentally as well as a physically sound future should be every child’s foremost fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter. Yet, many people still hold a misplaced yet strong sense of entitlement when it comes to misperceiving children largely as obedient property to misuse or abuse.

..

“I remember leaving the hospital thinking, ‘Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I don’t know beans about babies! I don’t have a license to do this. We’re just amateurs’.”

—Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons

.

“The way a society functions is a reflection of the childrearing practices of that society. Today we reap what we have sown. Despite the well-documented critical nature of early life experiences, we dedicate few resources to this time of life. We do not educate our children about child development, parenting, or the impact of neglect and trauma on children.”

—Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Ph.D. & Dr. John Marcellus

Foreign Policy Bully Nations Abound for Weak(er) Countries

An American public-opinion survey’s results, discussed on CBC radio in mid-January, revealed that most of the Americans polled who said they supported President Donald Trump’s 25%-across-the-board tariffs on imported Canadian products (albeit a minority opinion) suddenly changed their minds if that tariff ends up costing them that much more for those products.

The Not In My Back Yard mindset is depressingly alive and well, even between close neighbours. In President Trump’s twisted case, it may be more like: ‘… ESPECIALLY between close neighbours’. And his expectation of a rightful fair share will always be at least three-quarters of the pie.

The school-yard bully is especially angered by the relative weakling (nation) who in the least stands up to him. Yet, he can also be disgusted by the relative weakling’s (trade war) timidity or ‘elbows down’ response and behave even worse. He also fears appearing impotent by not unilaterally intimidating and/or exploiting via absurdly unjust tariffs against the comparably insubstantial nation that resists his skewed concept of ‘fairness’.

For us Canadians, however, the bullying dynamic extends considerably beyond dealing with Trump’s America. As a news consumer, I’ve particularly noticed the irritation expressed by China’s government, and increasingly even India’s, when our government — unlike with, say, mighty American assertiveness — dared to anger and/or embarrass them, even when on reasonable or just grounds. 

The Beijing leadership of the People’s Republic of China was annoyed by the relatively-weak Canada having been the one to detain (on Dec.1, 2018) and hold on (albeit luxurious) house arrest Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive and daughter of the tech corporation’s founder. Considering that a U.S. arrest warrant obligated Canada to detain her, why didn’t Beijing publicly express similar bluster towards Washington D.C. and, most notably, the then first administration of Donald Trump? Because size thus capability definitely matters.

Instead, Beijing took the more bullyish/cowardly path by arbitrarily detaining two Canadian men, commonly referred to by the news-media as “the 2 Michaels”, under bogus espionage charges effectively as human political hostages. Quite unlike Meng Wanzhou’s “house arrest” in a luxurious Vancouver mansion, the 2 Michaels did comparably very hard time in mainland China for a total of 1,020 days. The PRC could have more appropriately picked a couple of Americans to wrongfully imprison but deliberately stuck with bullying and taking hostages from the relatively militarily- and economically-weak Canada.

The 2 Michaels just happened to be released at the same time as the Trump U.S. dropped its charges against Meng Wanzhou, who was then released, for something political and/or economic in return from China. … Classic foreign-policy bullyish cowardice.

With India’s government, Canada dealt (at least somewhat) firmly after Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh separatist, was assassinated in Surrey, B.C., on June 18, 2023. Undoubtedly already aware of the diplomatic furor likely to come, even at Canada’s expense, an investigation nonetheless resulted in Canada charging three Indian nationals for the murder.

… It could be that more national governments around the globe are feeling and expressing a growing sense of foreign relations and power-politics entitlement toward militarily and/or economically weaker nations, including Canada — one that we are expected to simply get used to.

Truly Beautiful Yet Allowed to Greatly Suffer, Feral Cats Are

Many, if not most, people cannot relate to cat owners finding preciousness and other qualities in their beloved pets, including a non-humanly innocence, that make losing them someday such a horrible heartbreak. Even when the innocent animal has been made to greatly suffer needlessly, perhaps before finally being killed/murdered, many will instead think and maybe say, ‘It was just a cat’.

Many also don’t care for the innate resistance by cats to heeling at their masters’ command. Also, their reptile-like vertical-slit pupils and cliché Hollywood-portrayed fanged hiss when confronted, in a world mostly fearful/hostile toward snakes, caused cats to have a seemingly permanent PR problem, despite their Internet adorable-pet status.

But cats can and often do offer reciprocally healthy relationships — many cat lovers describe them as somewhat symbiotic — particularly for those suffering physical and/or mental illness. It’s the pet’s many qualities, especially its non-humanly innocence, that makes losing it someday such a heartbreaking experience.

Yet, human apathy, the throwaway mentality/culture and even some societal hostility toward cats often result in population explosions thus their inevitable homelessness, neglect and suffering, including severe illness and hunger. As such, the mindset of feline disposability likely goes: ‘Oh, there’s a lot more whence they came’.

Due to general human mentality, it’s likely that only when their over-populations are greatly reduced in number through consistent publicly-funded spay/neuter programs, might these beautiful animals’ potentially soothing, even therapeutic, presence be truly appreciated rather than taken for granted or even resented. Until then, cats likely will remain beautiful yet often misunderstood, prejudged and unjustly despised animals.

I’ve long found that along with human intelligence comes a proportionate reprehensible potential for evil behavior, i.e. malice for malice’s sake. With our four-legged friends there definitely is a beautiful absence of that undesirable distinctly human trait. While animals, including cats, can react violently, it is typically due to reactive distrust/dislike or necessity/sustenance. But leave it to us humans, with our higher capacity for intelligence, to commit a spiteful act, if only because we can.

Perhaps such human nature may help explain why Surrey, B.C., as but one seriously shameful example, allowed an estimated 36,000 feral/stray/homeless cats to fester, very many of which suffer severe malnourishment, debilitating injury and/or infection. That number was about six years ago. I was informed four years later by the local cat charity that, if anything, their “numbers would have increased, not decreased” since then.

Their TNR program is/was the only charity to which I’ve ever donated, in no small part because of the plentiful human callousness towards the plight of those cats and the countless others elsewhere. Thus, I was greatly saddened when told by the non-profit via email that, “Our TNR program is not operating. There are no volunteers that are interested in trapping and there is no place to recover the cats after surgery” without a feeding-station site.

The city’s municipal government as well as too many uncaring residents have done little or nothing to help with the local non-profit trap/neuter/release program. And then leave it to classic human hypocrisy to despise and even shoot or poison those same suffering cats for naturally feeding on smaller prey while municipal governments and many area residents mostly permit the feral cat populations to explode — along with the resultant feline suffering within.

‘Man Up, Men (& Boys)!’

According to psychologist, psychotherapist and author Tom Falkenstein (The Highly Sensitive Man, 2019, Ch.1), “numerous psychological studies over the last forty years tell us that, despite huge social change, the stereotypical image of the ‘strong man’ is still firmly with us at all ages, in all ethnic groups, and among all socio-economic backgrounds. …

“You only have to open a magazine or newspaper, turn on your TV, or open your browser to discover an ever-growing interest in stories about being a father, being a man, or how to balance a career with a family. Many of these articles have started talking about an apparent ‘crisis of masculinity’.

“The headlines for these articles attempt to address male identity, but often fall into the trap of sounding ironic and sometimes even sarcastic and critical. They all seem to agree to some extent that there is a crisis. But reading these articles one gets the impression that no one really knows how to even start dealing with the problem, let alone what a solution to it might look like.

“One also gets the impression from these articles that we need to keep any genuine sympathy for these ‘poor men’ in check: the patriarchy is still just too dominant to allow ourselves that luxury.”

Dr. Falkenstein also writes: “In the face of problems, men tend not to seek out emotional or professional help from other people. They use, more often than women, alcohol or drugs to numb unpleasant feelings and, in crises, tend to try to deal with things on their own, instead of searching out closeness or help from others. …

“While it is true that a higher percentage of women than men will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or a depressive episode, the suicide rate among men is much higher. In the United States, the suicide rate is notably higher in men than in women.

“According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, men account for 77 percent of the forty-five thousand people who kill themselves every year in the United States. In fact, men commit suicide more than women everywhere in the world.

“Men are more likely to suffer from addiction, and when men discuss depressive symptoms with their doctor, they are less likely than women to be diagnosed with depression and consequently don’t receive adequate therapeutic and pharmacological treatment.” …

Half of “Movember” — that being the month of November’s designation to publicly addressing men’s (though it should also include boys’) health issues — had elapsed before I, a daily news consumer, heard or read anything about it in the news or social media.

That may have been just coincidental, but there still remains much platitudinous lip-service on this matter, especially when it comes to proactive mental illness prevention and treatment for males. Various mainstream news and social media will state the obvious, that society must open up its collective minds and common dialogue when it comes to far more progressively addressing the challenge of more fruitfully treating and preventing such illness in general.

But they will typically fail to address the problem of ill males refusing to open up and/or ask for help due to their fear of being perceived by peers, etcetera, as weak/non-masculine. The social ramifications exist all around us; indeed, it is endured, however silently, by males of/with whom we are aware/familiar or to whom so many of us are closely related.

The mindset maintains, albeit perhaps subconsciously: Men can take care of themselves, and boys are basically little men. It’s the mentality that might help explain why the author of Childhood Disrupted was only able to include one male among its six interviewed subjects, there presumably being such a small pool of ACE-traumatized males willing to formally tell his own story of traumatic childhood adversity.

To get anywhere, including rectifying the notably disproportionately low number of male students attending post-secondary or higher education institutions, males need to have the same strong mainstream-media (news, social and entertainment) support that females have had for decades, and still do. Instead, males have observed thus known that, for the most part, they have not been taken seriously, at least not on this front. If anything, the media are generally cynical toward their cause.

I even recall a metro-daily newspaper editor sarcastically referencing some neglected males as “the poor little boys” in a brief phone call with me. Her attitude clearly rang with incredulity, that males can’t really be a social/societal victim group. … In summation: Suck it up, guys!

Misunderstanding and (Mis)Blaming Addiction and Addicts

While international and more-local merchants of the drug-abuse/addiction scourge must be targeted for long-overdue political action and criminal justice, Western pharmaceutical corporations have intentionally pushed their own very addictive and profitable opiate resulting in direct and indirect immense suffering and overdose death numbers for many years later and likely many more yet to come.

It indeed was a real ethical and moral crime, yet, likely due to their potent lobbyist influence on heavily-capitalistic Western governance, they got off relatively lightly and only through civil litigation. … Instead, drug addiction and addicts are misperceived by supposedly sober folk as being weak-willed and/or having committed the moral crime.

Decades ago, I, while always sympathetic, also looked down on those who had ‘allowed’ themselves to become addicted to hard drugs or alcohol. Although I’ve not been personally or familially affected by the opioid overdose crisis, I have suffered enough unrelenting PTSD symptoms to have known, enjoyed and appreciated the great release upon consuming alcohol or THC.

The unfortunate fact about self-medicating is: the greater the induced euphoria or escape one attains from it, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their non-self-medicating reality, the more pleasurable that escape will likely be perceived. In other words: the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while not self-medicating, the greater the need for escape from one’s reality — all the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.

In the book (WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing) he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Bruce D. Perry (M.D., Ph.D.) writes in regards to self-medicating trauma, substance abuse and addiction:

“… For people who are pretty well-regulated, whose basic needs have been met, who have other healthy forms of reward, taking a drug will have some impact, but the pull to come back and use again and again is not as powerful. It may be a pleasurable feeling, but you’re not necessarily going to become addicted. Addiction is complex. But I believe that many people who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse are actually trying to self-medicate due to their developmental histories of adversity and trauma.”

When substance abuse is due to past formidable mental trauma, the lasting solitarily-suffered turmoil can readily make each day an ordeal unless the traumatized mind is medicated. Not surprising, many chronically addicted people won’t miss this world if they never wake up.

Regardless, societally neglecting, rejecting and therefore failing people struggling with crippling addiction should never be an acceptable or preferable political, economic or religious/morality option. They definitely should not be consciously or subconsciously perceived by sober society as somehow being disposable.

Too often the worth(lessness) of the substance abuser is measured basically by their ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. They may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live and self-medicate their daily lives more haphazardly.

… Meantime, most of us self-medicate in some form or another (besides caffeine), albeit it’s more or less ‘under control’. And there are various forms of self-medicating, from the relatively mild to the dangerously extreme, that include non-intoxicant-consumption addictions, like pornography, chronic shopping/buying, gambling, or over-eating.

With food, the vast majority of obese people who considerably over-eat likely do so to mask mental pain or even PTSD symptoms. I utilized that method myself during much of my pre-teen years and even later in life after ceasing my (ab)use of cannabis or alcohol for many years. I don’t take it lightly, but it’s possible that someday I could instead return to over-eating.