All Lives Matter

At a protest I saw on T.V. a couple of weeks ago there was a young black woman calling for all "whites" in the crowd to move to the front and face police in riot gear in order to feel what it's like to be "black" for at least a few minutes.

If I were in that crowd (protesting systematic racism and injustice), I would have been very offended by her suggestion, which directly implies that because I'm "white", I don't understand what it's like to be "black". THAT IS RACISM!

If any person is treated unjustly by our social system, then we are all responsible, and "victims" (i.e. we all suffer the consequences). The white police officer now facing murder charges for the callous murder of a black man is as much a "victim" of "systematic racism" as the man he killed. And so am I, even though I'm as "white" as they come, and was locked in a cell on death row when it happened.

The problem isn't racial, or sexual, or even ideological. The problem is that we can't see how connected we all really are! No person ever acts, or thinks, or feels, or suffers, independently. The illusion of independent experience is necessary for our survival (as animals). It permits us to behave in our own interest, which is necessary for motivation (to eat, find shelter, reproduce, etc.) and provides a sense of autonomy and self-worth.

But, when we become completely detached from the reality of our inter-dependence, not only with other people, but with the planet herself, then we lose touch with the one and only thing (literally) that can "save" us, and solve all our problems. We become fearful, and suspicious, seeing anything that is different than what we are use to as a threat, or "them"; bad guys, criminals, witches, Jews, druggies, homos, sex offenders, psychopaths, blacks, whites, men, woman; us, and them.

In the end we must realize that ALL lives matter, and stop using labels to define and separate ourselves from the broadest consequences of our experience. The "solution" is to stop believing in the illusion of independence, and see it instead for what it is. Like the sun, we need it to survive. But if we turn to it for solutions to problems that we create for ourselves, thinking we must "do something" as individuals in order to "fix" things, then we end up only making the problem worse.

Our individualism and independence are not sacred things that we need to protect, honor, and appease in order to prosper. It is there for a reason that if we ever hope to understand (and use to our advantage) we must first stop seeing it as something sacred and holy, and start looking at it - and the problems that come with it - as something to be objectively studied and understood. We need to stop pretending that if we can just come up with the right ritual, make the right sacrifice, or invent the right law, then everything will be okay. That's not how problems get solved.

We need to stop inventing slogans, punishing "bad guys" and making laws that usually end up doing more harm than good, and making the problem worse (often by pushing it "out of sight" where it can dig deeper and fester). Instead we should be applying the problem-solving tools we have and that we know work, like trial and error (not trial and punishment), or simply scientific analysis (not pseudo-science).

Instead of making laws meant to "fix" the problem, why not make a law instead that requires all laws to state clear objectives that if not met within a state time frame are repealed and analyzed so better laws, also subject to automatic appeal and analysis, can take its place? I know that sounds simpler than it would turn out to be, and it'd require a nearly complete overhaul of our current (dysfunctional) system. But, isn't that what everyone wants?

Imagine a law that requires police departments to reduce crime by clearly defined and measured margins, and provides the means (any means) for doing so. And if it doesn't work then we repeal the law and study why, just like a real scientific experiment.

Of course the naysayers will argue that we can't "experiment" on society. And I'd say, why not, if it works? Our current system clearly doesn't work, not even a little. I personally can't imagine any system of laws (which are imposed upon a population) that will ever "work" in the long run. I like to imagine a world (with humans in it) where order is allowed to arise from chaos, the way it does in nature (with or without us). But that world is a long way off. So for now, if we could just collectively admit that we don't know what the hell we are doing, and from there take steps in as many directions as necessary in order to find a path that goes somewhere (instead of in descending spirals), anywhere else!

[J.D. June 18, 2020]

"Science is not a body of facts. Science is a method for deciding whether or not what we choose to believe has basis in the laws of nature or not." - Marcia McNutt, Editor, Science Magazine