Teenage Bullying and School Shootings: The Deepest Truth

So in our day and times, with the phenomenon of teenage bullying and school shootings having reached a clear and present, crisis level, I would like to blow your minds by unveiling its deepest truth. I am speaking from the point of view of having earned a Bachelors in the History of Modern Philosophy, a Masters in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts (Liberal Studies), a Masters Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership, and from the perspective of having spent 14 years traveling across America and engaging my fellow Americans in dialogue about life and meaning, resulting in my book “The Socratic Trucker: An American Memoir.” I am speaking, shortly, from my point of view as a seasoned student of human nature.

Adolescent bullying is a function of our human survivalist instinct. You see, human beings evolved in a state of nature where we had to compete with other species for the materials that support life. Species are imbued with instincts which enable them to hit the ground running, as it were, from birth. Therefore in order to survive, our human species had to be imbued with the competitive instinct.

This survivalist instinct has two sides to it, which together serve to secure our specie’s greater survival. First is the conformity instinct. This enables our species to group together and pool their strength for better chances at survival. Next is the individuation instinct, which enables individual members of our species to manifest potentially useful variety, enabling our species, ultimately, to better adopt to a changing, natural environment. Therefore this survival instinct of ours, coupled with the benefits of our brain or intellect, secured our human species’ triumph over nature vie our technological civilization.

Now, to bullying. Bullying is a function of our human survivalist instinct as it manifests in conformity pressure, which we today call peer pressure. Since, as a species, we had to develop a strong conformity instinct as described above, individual members of our human race who veer too far left on the individuation spectrum encounter problems in conforming to the status quo mentality of the group, which today we refer to as being “cool.” While nature imbues in every individual a unique personality, that personality must nevertheless not be so different that it becomes unable to harmonize with the group. Therefore the objects of bullying are teenagers who fall so far left on the individuation side of the human survivalist instinct as to have socialization difficulties.

This also accounts for why bullying can be so vicious. For collectively, the group senses that this excessive differentiation of the bullied individual is a classical threat to the survival of the species itself. Therefore in the collective unconscious of the bullies, they might as well be saying, “Better our social cruelty than the cruelty of nature via the teeth of the lion.” For an excessively different individual can put the whole group and species at threat if he or she cannot harmonize toward our collective survival.

Now to school shootings. This phenomenon is uniquely modern, arising from a breakdown of our human survivalist instinct in the state of society. You see, our human survivalist instinct served our species well, as mentioned before, in securing our triumph over other species in the state of nature. But now, in the state of society where there is no need to compete directly with other species for survival, the competitive drive of the human survivalist instinct has nowhere to turn but upon one another. The vicious survivalist struggles of nature is brought into our human family, and individuals and groups now prey upon one another as we once preyed upon mammoths and lions and antelopes.

When an individual member of our species therefore veers to far left on the individuation scale of our human survivalist instinct, he or she becomes an easy target for human survivalist competition. He or she is relentless picked on, both because he or she is seen as prey for the consumption of the bully, as well as because he or she is seen by the bully as an easy path to survivalist status in the larger group. After years of this relentless treatment, he or she can become homicidal, as if saying in his or her survivalist psyche “So you want to throw me to the lions of utter rejection, ha? Well, meet my little friend!” Click, click.

What, therefore, is the solution? The solution is to educate ourselves about this underlying, ignoble cause of bullying, and to challenge ourselves to transcend our more primitive instincts. And what is the path to this realization?

The path rests in a new understanding of human heroism. You see, human heroism is a very strong and profound sense of triumphalism. The human spirit wants to triumph unto life. But today, because of our survivalist instinctual residue, forged in primal memories of a past where we had to mortally compete for material resources in service of our physical survival, our human heroism has taken on a default state of material heroism. We feel that only in securing for ourselves a triumph over material goods and statuses, do we show ourselves the hero. Our current president, Donald Trump, is a perfect contemporary archetype of this heroism.

Yet because, as a species, we no longer live in the state of nature where we have to compete with other species, we can now adopt a new vision of human triumphalism (a new human heroism) which is more suited to our present state of technological triumph over nature. In other words, we can begin to celebrate our divergents, those teens who fall more left on the individuation scale of the human survivalist instinct, rather than keep trying to beat them down. For while nature has put this very individuation instinct into them for the sake of manifesting new variety which might serve the survival of the species as a whole, these new varieties can also now add human creative wealth and beautiful colors to the human-race-triumphant.

Let us therefore celebrate the colors and varieties of our human family going forward, recognizing these bullied ones for the truth of their existence—that they are the very future of shining humanity! For if our different ones such as Albert Einstein did not find a patent office to retreat to from the status quo of his society, earning a sheltered living while developing his unique light, we would not, after all, have been so scientifically triumphant as a species. And if I had not the cab of my eighteen-wheeler to similarly shelter myself and develop my unique perspective, we would not have this deepest truth, would we?

Yet here’s the good news. A pathway to this new society and world is spelled out and planned, via a comprehensive, social curriculum at http://www.newamericanspring.org. My life’s mission. Come and see.

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of World…

 

This article was originally published for The Good Men Project here:

https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/teenage-bullying-school-shootings-deepest-truth-lbkr/

 

Roger Farinha

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US Indictment of 13 Russians

Let’s be clear.

The Muller indictment of 13 Russians for U.S. election meddling means certain things only. Although I liberally lean, I do not buy into the ultimate implications that CNN, for one, is attempting to spin. Namely, that Russian support of Trump necessarily means that the Trump Campaign is treasonous. Rather, the issue at hand revolves around the significance of America’s latest awakening of populism and cuts to the heart of America itself.

Populism is neither a curse word, nor is it a signifier of any spirit of national betrayal. For it essentially declares the overt will of We, The People. Populist sentiment sits at the very heart and soul of our nation, so dedicated to a rule by, of and for us. Due to his broad based support, an exact phenomena which our Founding Fathers explicitly designed the electoral system to defend, Trump’s victory, though I may not personally be happy with it, is legitimately American.

Putin, who is indeed our enemy and the enemy of democracy generally, is only able to agitate our American people’ discontent with the present direction of our nation because of our own, internal dissent. In terms of hacking the election system, I am firm in the opinion that this behavior approaches an act of war, but my article here is mainly concerned with his propaganda campaign to sway American populist opinion. We are so in need of healing, of coming together in populist unity toward the greater glory of America—even for the very future of precious democracy! Our unification will only neutralize Putin and all enemies of democracy, most democratically, but will revitalize democracy itself.

Through my New American Spring movement at http://www.newamericanspring.org, I am attempting to champion a new, enlightened populism.

Come and see…

Unquiet Desperation

I propose that our whole society shares a deeper and underlying problem resulting in the occasional breakdown of mass shooters and other psychopaths. These characters are not completely off the rails we all travel, and if this thought seems shocking, perhaps we are in need of just such out-of-the-box thinking if we will plum the depths of such a psyche as that of, say, our Las Vegas shooter’s.

Our current civilization has lost something in our human success story of survival. Due to the population explosion in our present moment in history, the more and more anonymous individual is becoming more and more disconnected from a sense of place, purpose, and role in society. Lost, as he is, in the sea of humanity. In example, the social separation, incessant gambling and personal isolation demonstrated by Stephen Paddock exactly points to such an existential dilemma. Henry David Thoreau coined the term “quiet desperation” way back in the mid 1800’s in his early warning about our civilization’s loss of value as we disconnect from the rhythms of nature. But today, our general human desperation is deafeningly louder as multitudes of egos scamper for attention on social media, ever lowering the bar of decency, of sanity. Could the maddening of some of our weaker souls in this environment of imbalance be nature’s way of foreshadowing a cruel rebalance, a course usually taken via plagues, pestilence and warfare? Warfare, by the way, is sadly not unthinkable given the Trump verses Kim Jong Il showdown of egos.

I recently read author Dan Brown’s “Inferno,” the theme of which book speaks to our present global population crisis. The mass of purposeless human beings on our globe today, grasping for self-expression, for psychological existence, was likened to Botticelli’s famous Mappa dell’Inferno which depicts Dante’s seven layers of Hell. In response to this human crisis a supposed genius and figurehead of the trans-humanist movement, throughout the book appearing to be a madman until the end, manufactured a virus which infected the human race, making a certain percentage of our population sterile in order to decelerate our global population growth and buy time for human progress to champion sustainability. Better than mass murder was the idea, whether mass murder via the hands of ruthless human beings, or cruel nature. But let me ask a more profound question. Is overpopulation, meaninglessness and human desperation the root problem or is our greater disrespect for ourselves and one another the true culprit?

Underlying all our human problems is our misguided way of thinking about ourselves and each other—our larger spiritual bankruptcy. Author Ernest Becker is right in his book “The Denial of Death” when he identifies the human heroic impulse as the deepest, most powerful, and indeed most promising energy source for a true and even exponential progress in human affairs. But here is where I will add, only if the individual learns to direct his and her right and noble impulse to be the hero, outward and toward the elevation of humanity itself through serving one another rather than inwardly seeking to outshine others. The former path leads to the ennobling of our species while the latter leads to inferno and chaos where our weakest members, created equally to shine, will not perceive any other outlet than either the unbearable desperation of empty anonymity, or infamy.

The solution, I offer, is a new and enlightened people’s movement where the individual is called upon to live per his and her unique conscience. By introducing a heroic culture of conscience charged to every individual root of grass [grassroots], we will challenge ourselves to finally wake up and become the adult in our social dealings rather than spiritually maintaining, as a species, in the throes of our terrible two’s. When all persons are challenged to live chivalrously in open and serving heroism we will see the dawning of our collective intelligence, creativity, and flourishing. Although the more “well adjusted” and “healthier” of us might choose to make children and build families as our best way of achieving meaning in an otherwise empty world, as presumably directed by God Himself in his command to “be fruitful and multiply,” we only end up adding to the sea of despair through an overpopulation of the otherwise aimless. While if we adopted a new culture of self-giving chivalry, we might find that we naturally incline either to self-limit our human additions to an imperfect globe while we vocationally dedicate ourselves to its improvement, or at least make sure our children have a heroically sustainable place in a nobler world. Then might we see our destiny as a great species!

The self-hatred, indeed the wickedness in us which would wag our heads at this impossibly idealistic vision is the very poison which now keeps us in self-imposed desperation, and those who succumb to it deserves the world as it stands right now. I for one don’t. For all his emphasis on the meaningfulness of living in sync with nature’s rhythms, Henry David Thoreau himself went on to leave his beloved Walden Pond for a life of intellectual service to his fellow man. Why, because humanity is indeed made for a higher meaning than mere naturalism and the multiplication of our species, perhaps to transcend our very earth in cosmic destiny. I therefore respond, like Thoreau, to this higher call by challenging the reader to delve into this providential message further by accessing my free indie essay series at smashwords.com titled “The E=MC2 of our New Humanity,” and to take up the gauntlet for a nobler future in partnering with my social vision at NewAmericanSpring.Org.

Revolution of vision, evolution of world…

My “Moth” Podcast Pitch

Written:

I am a first-generation immigrant who legally came to this country at 10 years of age and was promptly naturalized through the efforts of my father. I have a deep appreciation for this country as a land of immigrants, and I have an even deeper appreciation for what I understand to be the “American Experiment” in history. This experiment is our national calling to champion what I would term “practical democracy and the rule of law” in our world today. This national mission is absolutely special and sacred for all of humankind and the fate of our “better world” is resting squarely on America’s back. My intention in life, through my educational preparation afforded through the American student loan program, is to become a central fighter in this great cause.

In this age of our American experience where Trump represents a rise of some of our less noble sentiments as a nation, I am here to take a stand as an immigrant and true American. I will make it my life’s mission to remind America of its special significance as a nation of plurality and to do my best to initiate a movement of populist unity through my social justice vision at http://www.newamericanspring.org…

Recorded:

Hey I’m a first generation immigrant who desperately feels that America is beginning to forget its identity as a nation of immigrants.

When I was in school I learned about “The American Experiment.” I learned about the ideals under which our nation was founded and I was introduced to our great and foundational thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, to special admirers of our new country like Alexis de Tocqueville, and to wonderful poets like Emma Lazarus who wrote the famous lines beginning with “Give me your tired, your poor…”

One of the special things about America which I am so grateful for is its sheer generosity. While I was, by social inheritance, just another one of these tired, these poor, these huddled masses who yearning to breathe free, this did not prevent my acquiring a very good education. Through our student loan program, I was able to gain my Bachelors in the History of Modern Philosophy, a higher liberal arts Master’s degree and most recently, my Masters Certificate in nonprofit leadership. I pursued these degrees because I simply wanted to blossom, to become myself with no specific plans for what will become of me once I attained my identity.

After gaining this education I embarked on a rambling and soul searching lifestyle. With the foundation of my liberal education, I simply wanted to explore my America and my fellow Americans, as they were, outside of academia. I wanted to see the real world. So I became a big-rig truck driver, going about my country and interviewing my fellow Americans in imitation of my favorite philosopher, Socrates, who interviewed his fellow, ancient Athenians.

What came out of this life experience of mine was my book “The Socratic Trucker,” and my final realization of my true calling in life. In these years of Trump, many of my fellow Americans are forgetting our nation’s special calling to showcase to all the world that a rule of the common people is not just a futile idea which is destined for shame and failure on the national stage. Our nation is meant to prove the glory of the common man and in so doing the true glory of humanity.

As an immigrant and someone of the most common background who benefited from America’s mission, I am here to remind my country of that mission and to help advance our final triumph as a nation through my New American Spring movement for a revitalized people.

This is my story.

 

Why Fear Putin?

How is it possible that America is just waking up to the weakness of its citizens to message manipulation? Have we not allowed ourselves, most shamefully, to be steered by our long tradition of political ads and money politics? This history of ours is particularly ignoble because, supposedly, unlike all the other nations upon our globe, America most directly claims to be a nation of, by and for the people.

The original aim of our forefathers for a rule of the people, having its origin in the historically miraculous spirit of the Magna Carta, should have resulted in a nation whose direction has always been from the bottom up. Yet to the contrary, the American people have passively allowed forces, interests, and messages originating from top-down entities, to continually play various alluring and seductive tunes for them while they sway their votes in the direction of these pied pipers. Should we therefore be surprised that, given the opportunity, foreign enemies like Vladimir Putin might identify our embarrassing weakness and utilize whatever means they find at their disposal to laugh at and mock our “democracy” in sowing dissent? Have we not allowed our “bright republic,” from the start, to become fundamentally tainted?

Wake up, America! It is not too late to revive, or maybe for the first time awake, to our populist sovereignty over our City on a Hill. We must make the effort of embracing one another in our various diversities so as to keep our populism pure, uniting under the rule of law and democratic spirit, taking back the reigns of our great nation from our grassroots. I can say this because, as an ordinary American, I am committed to fighting this good fight at newamericanspring.org, for my nation and for the world which still looks upon its light.

Revolution of Vision, Evolution of world…

 

The Kingsmen Movie Series– Story Idea

Would you believe that the Kingsmen movie producers are considering MY, an ordinary movie fan’s, IDEA!?

 

I noticed that the Kingsmen movie series seems to be developing an identifiable theme– ultra-powerful individuals and or organizations seeking to decrease the human population in a sudden and drastic way. This theme is familiar to people who are aware of the global overpopulation debate.

 

Solving our problems by drastically decreasing the world’s population is, of course, a clearly evil approach. What if the next Kingmen series did something mind-blowingly creative by having the powerful Kingsmen network defend the life and work of an ordinary, unknown man, the titanic opposition to whose work is unknown even to that man? The Kingsmen would defend the life and work of said man because although he is a most ordinary person in the global sea of humanity today, he is actually the next great human visionary who is developing the kernel of a global social movement which will usher humanity into a noble and bright future, one which is grass-roots-based rather than top-down-directed. Said man is also being targeted by ultra powerful forces aimed at preserving their top-down domination by holding the world back from this evolution (perhaps via a back-from-the-future effort), and the Kingsmen secret service is countering their threat to this man’s life and work via great action and battle scenes which are just out of view of the visionary himself. He must be kept in the dark about his true significance until his work has reached a launching moment when its message begins to catch on virally, at which time the Kingsmen shall openly join forces with the movement, as the peoples’ defenders.

 

This man and this movement: Roger Farinha and New American Spring!

 

Worth a try! lol…