Thursday, May 15, 2008
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From the 2002 SynEARTH Archives. ... This article was the fifth in the SafeEARTH series. See: 1) Beyond Crime and Punishment, 2) Synergic Containment: Protecting Children, 3) Synergic Containment: Science & Rationale, and 4) Synergic Containment: Protecting Community
SYNERGIC DISARMAMENT
If those perpetrating the adversary event have weapons, they must be disarmed.
Today, the danger of adversary events is greatly magnified by access to
weapons. We humans are Time-binders. That means as a species we can
create knowledge without limit. When we incorporate knowledge into
matter-energy it is called a tool. Because knowledge can grow without
limit, tools can also grow without limit. When tools are used to hurt
others, they are called weapons. In our modern world, we have created
ever more powerful weapons. These weapons are not safe in the hands of
ignorance.
Once the perpetrators of an adversary event are
contained, their victims rescued, then they will be disarmed, this must
be effected before they can be rescued.Much
of the pain and suffering in our world today is the result of our love
affair with weapons. In regard to weapons humans are unsane. They have
deluded themselves in to thinking weapons make them safer.
Six years ago, the advent of the Washington D.C. area sniper has brought
renewed interest in the subject of weapons and their role in
our present society. We were reminded that weapons are very
easily available to just about anyone that wants them. And, while the
technology to track these weapons and even the ammunition used
within them is easily possible, we don't do it, since
this might infringe on the American citizen's Right to bear Arms.
In a synergic society
there is no need to be armed. Even within our present adversary-neutral
society, weapons in the hands of law abiding "good" citizens seem
to bring society little benefit. And certainly, weapons in the hands of
criminals and predators bring great harm to the public. Any scientific
analysis of the role of weapons in modern America would reveal that weapons are not only plentiful and easily available, but that they are also very powerful.
One gift of human
intelligence is that it allows humanity to create knowing without
limit. Every generation knows more than the previous generation. When
humans incorporate their knowing into artifacts, they are called tools.
Unlimited knowing produces unlimited tools. Every generation has more
powerful tools than the previous one.
As I have explained elsewhere, we humans always have three options in relating to others. We can help each other, we can ignore each other, or we can hurt each other. When tools are used to hurt others, we are call them weapons.
Now humans have been making
weapons for a long time. Weapons are tools designed to hurt or kill
others. As our human knowing has grown, we have always quickly
incorporated that knowing into our new weapons. And as a result,
weapons have and continue to grow evermore powerful.
Humans
have proven themselves to be infinitely ingenious at creating and using
devices to overcome their limitations. From one perspective human
history can be seen as a series of ever-more-efficient devices to help
humans communicate, travel, trade, work, and even to think. Similarly,
the history of violence, peace, and conflict can be seen as the
history, or the evolution, of a series of ever-more-efficient devices
to enable humans to kill and dominate their fellow human beings. The concept of an "evolution" of weaponry is
very appropriate, since the battlefield is the ultimate realm of
Darwinian natural selection. With few exceptions, any weapon or system
that survives for any length of time does so because of its utility.
Nothing survives for long on the battlefield simply because of
superstition. Anything that is effective is copied and perpetuated,
anything ineffective results in death, defeat, and extinction. There
are fads and remnants (the military equivalent of the appendix), but
over the long run, everything happens for a reason, and a valid theory
of weapons evolution must make these reasons clear, explaining all
extinctions and all survivals. ...
Weapons' lethality
(in peace and war) is a factor of the effectiveness of the weapons used
to kill and of the ability of available medical technology to save
lives. Thus, weapons' lethality can be thought of as a contest between
weapons' effectiveness (the state of technology trying to kill you) and
medical effectiveness (the state of technology trying to save you).
Like weapons' lethality, the difference between murder (killing
someone) and aggravated assault (trying to kill someone) is also
largely a factor of the effectiveness of available weapons vs. the
effectiveness of available medical life-saving technology.
Throughout most of human history the
effectiveness of weapons available for domestic violence was basically
stable, a relative constant. The relative effectiveness of swords,
axes, and blunt objects has been basically unchanged, and killing (as
an act of passion vs. a pre-meditated act like poisoning or leaving a
bomb) was only possible at close-range by stabbing, hacking, and
beating.
Bows were kept unstrung, not in a state of
readiness for an act of passion. It required premeditation plus
training plus strength to kill with a bow. Early, muzzle-loading
gunpowder weapons were also often not kept in a state of readiness. It
required time, training, and premeditation to load and shoot such a
weapon. Once loaded, the humidity in the air could seep into the
gunpowder and the load could become unreliable. Only in the late 19th
century, with widespread introduction of breech-loading, brass
cartridges was a true act of passion possible with state-of-the-art
weapons technology. Powerful weapons could now be kept in state of
readiness (i.e., loaded), and they now required minimal strength or
training to use.
| ca. 1700 B.C. |
Chariots provide key form of mobility advantage in ancient warfare |
| ca. 400 B.C. |
Greek phalanx slows the chariots, since horses consistently refuse to hurl themselves into a hedge of sharp projecting spears |
| ca. 100 B.C. |
Roman system (pilum, swords, training, professionalism, leadership) |
| ca. 900 A.D. |
Mounted knight (stirrup greatly enhances utility of mounted warfare) |
| ca. 1350 |
Gunpowder (cannon) in warfare (Battle of Crecy, 1346) |
| ca. 1400 |
Widespread application of long bow defeats mounted knights ( Battle of Agincourt, I4I5) |
| ca. 1600 |
Gunpowder (small arms) in warfare, defeats aIl body armor (30 Years War & English Civil War) |
| ca. 1800 |
Shrapnel (exploding artillery shells), ultimately creates renewed need for helmets (ca. 1915) |
| ca. 1850 |
Percussion caps permit all-weather use of small arms |
| ca. 1870 |
Breech loading, cartridge firing rifles, and pistolsª |
| ca. 1915 |
Machine gun |
| ca. 1915 |
Gas warfare |
| ca. 1915 |
Tanks |
| ca. 1915 |
Aircraft |
| ca. 1915 |
Self-loading (automatic) rifles and pistols |
| ca. 1940 |
Strategic bombing of population centers |
| ca. 1945 |
Nuclear weapons |
| ca. 1960 |
Large scale introduction of operant conditioning in training to enable killing in soldiers |
| ca. 1970 |
Precision guided munitions |
This then is our real
problem. Weapons in our modern society are not only too plentiful
and too easily available, but they are also way too powerful and easy to use.
Speaking just this week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
said, "Looking at what was overwhelming force a decade or two decades
ago, today you can have overwhelming force, conceivably, with lesser
numbers because the lethality is equal to or greater
than before," he said. It has been a mistake, he added, to measure the
quantity of forces required for a mission and "fail to look at lethality, where you end up with precision-guided munitions which can give you 10 times the lethality that a dumb weapon might, as an example."
GENIUS, we shouldn't have!
Timothy Wilken, MD
One
of my areas of interest and study is human intelligence
science. The reason human intelligence is so powerful is because of the
synergic relationship between two powerful minds—the space mind and the
time mind. This "dual mind" intelligence is capable of
generating four distinct levels of knowing—Information, Knowledge, Genius, and Wisdom. I am currently completing a new book on Understanding Human Intelligence which will explain the Dual Mind and the four levels of knowing which it produces.
A simple metaphor for these four levels of knowing are:
Information is KnowWhere. Where do I go in space to survive. Where do I get water, food, shelter?
Knowledge is KnowWhen. When do I act in time to encourage or stop a sequence of events.
Genius is KnowHow. How do many different temporal sequences fit together to create spatial complexity.
And, Wisdom is KnowWhy. Why do things happen the way they do? What is the consequence of complexity?
A human with information would know they should avoid a nuclear explosion. Where can I go to be safe.
A human with knowledge could learn to detonate a nuclear weapon. When to a push the button and in what sequence to trigger the bomb.
A person with genius could invent and design a nuclear weapon. How do the laws of physics work together and what temporal sequences must I create to allow nuclear fission or fusion to occur.
A person with wisdom,
would know that nuclear weapons should never be invented or
manufactured. What are the consequences of using nuclear power as
weapons? What happens when such weapons are common? What happens if
they fall into the hands of those dominated anger and ignorance. Why would it be a bad idea to create nuclear weapons?
With our new
understanding of human
intelligence, it will soon be possible for many humans to learn to
understand their minds and began accessing the higher levels of
knowing. As they do they will gain increasing understanding of
sequence and consequence. But, today most humans live their lives in
the level of Information with only occasional visits to the level
of Knowledge. Educated people with high literacy, good
understanding of mathematics and science may live their lives equally
in the levels of Information and Knowledge with occasional flashes of
brilliance in the level of Genius. Inventors, innovators, and what we
commonly call creative geniuses live in Information and Knowledge, but
have learned to easily visit the level of Genius. But, so far only a
handful of human geniuses have learned to access Wisdom.
Tools Contain Embedded Knowing
Recall from the introduction, that tools are
artifacts made from matter-energy that contain embedded knowing. And,
as there is no limit to human knowing, there is also no limit to the
amount of knowing that can be embedded in an artifact. That is why we
have such powerful tools. Today's tools commonly contain embedded
information, knowledge and genius.
Think of the power of the tools we humans use
everyday—a Boeing 747 airplane, our automobiles, the internet,
computers, cell phones, televisions, household appliances, the tools in
our garages and at our places of work. The knowing in these tools
multiply our human power by orders of magnitude. They allow us to do
what was considered impossible just a few years ago. It is the power of
the knowing embedded in these tools that give them their power.
Using Tools without Understanding
You don't have to be wise to use a tool full
of genius. You don't even have to be knowledgeable to use such a tool.
Many of our fast food restaurants, use picture icons of the food and
drinks on the buttons of the check out computers, so that the
illiterate and innumerate humans working there can operate
the computers without reading, adding or subtracting. The computer even
tells the operator the correct amount of change to return to the
customer.
However, there is risk in using tools you
don't understand. Remember, "a little knowing can be a dangerous
thing." Today, we commonly put enormously powerful tools into the
hands of those who do not understand them. This means the risk of these
tools being used in an unsafe manner is high.
And since weapons are just tools
that are specifically designed to hurt or kill, they are among the
most dangerous tools in our present world. Today, weapons
are easily available to anyone who desires them. They can be purchased
legally by any adult who passes a background check for a criminal
record. If you are not a convicted felon, you can legally purchase all
the weapons and ammunition you desire. You are not legally required to
be literate, numerate, or have any knowledge of science or physics.
You are not required to demonstrate any
knowledge of weapons or the consequence of their use or misuse, before
becoming armed. And of course, there is no psychological screening
to determine if you are stable and responsible.
As to felons, minors, or non-citizens—anyone
wishing to avoid the background check of legal purchase—they can easily
purchase weapons illegally in almost any town in America.
Why are weapons so easily available ?
We don't let just anyone operate a nuclear
powerplant, a 767 Boeing Airliner, or for that matter an automobile,
without some training, education and testing. But we will sell a gun to
anyone who can afford it. After all we just want to make money. And, of course every American possesses the Right to Bear Arms.
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "A well-regulated
Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (1791)
The result of America's policy of easy availability of weapons is reflected in these grim statistics from the CDC:
Rates of homicide among American youths 15-19
years of age reached record-high levels in the latter half of the 1980s
and continue to be among the highest ever recorded in the US for this
age group. Between 1985 and 1991, annual homicide rates among males
15-19 years old increased 154 percent.
- In 2001, homicide was
still the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds
overall. In this age group, it is the leading cause of death for
African Americans, the second leading cause of death for Hispanic
Americans, and the third leading cause of death for Native Americans
(CDC 2001).
- In 1999, 4,998 youths ages 15 to 24 were murdered - an average of 14 per day (CDC 2001).
- Guns are a factor in most youth homicides. In 1999, 81% of homicide victims ages 15 to 24 were killed with firearms (CDC 2001).
It must be obvious to the reader, that manufacturing unlimited tools and unlimited weapons, and then placing them in the hands of ignorance is foolish.
Humanity as Community
Synergic society seeks to protect humanity as
community and humanity as individuals. No responsible parent would
allow a four year old child to use a blow torch, a power saw, or a nail
gun unsupervised. No responsible parent would allow a ten year old
to drive the family car on the interstate highway.
Why not? Because these tools are just too powerful to be used without adequate knowledge, education and training.
Genius, they shouldn't have.
This is our problem today. People have genius, they shouldn't have. They have access to enormously powerful
tools and weapons—tools and weapons containing embedded genius—that
they are shouldn't have access too.
The Saudi terrorists that attacked America
on September 11, were not geniuses. None of them could have
invented a Boeing 767 or even a cell phone. None of them could have
even explained how these tools even worked. However, they were allowed
to use deceit, and threat of force to gain control of these enormously
powerful tools, and then use these tools as weapons to bring down the
World Trade Towers and damage the Pentagon.
By embedding genius into tools and then
selling those tools to anyone with money, we endanger humanity as
individuals and humanity as community.
Today, we need a higher standard. Most advanced tools today contain embedded genius. This is powerful KnowHow.
Those who use such tools need to well trained and intelligent
enough to understand the consequence of using such powerful tools.
Access to powerful tools (tools leveraged with genius) that could
potentially harm others must be controlled. Only those humans who
demonstrate: 1) the knowledge for the safe use of the tool,
2) an understanding of consequence of that tool's use and
misuse, and 3) a history of responsibility, should be allowed
access to them.
Iraq & Saddam Hussein
How many Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Iraq in science, physics, biology, or medicine? How many for Peace?
Did Iraqi scientists invent the
automobile? The airplane? The telephone? The radio? The television? The
computer? If they don't have the intelligence to invent or
even manufacture any of these tools, how did they get them?
They bought them with money.
Where did they get the money? They got it by
selling the oil discovered under the desert they live on. Did they
discover the oil themselves? No it was discovered by engineers from the
West. What makes this oil even theirs? An accident of birth and the
mistaken belief that oil is property.
As I have discussed elsewhere,
the land and natural resources are wealth provided to us by God and
Nature. The sunshine, air, water, land, minerals, and the earth itself
all come to us freely. The Earth’s land and natural resources are not
products of the human mind or body. They existed long before life and
humankind even emerged on our planet. There exists no moral or rational
basis for any individual to claim them as Property. If a claim of
ownership can be made at all, it must be a claim on behalf of all
humanity both the living and those yet unborn.The Iraqis have no moral
or rational basis to even claim ownership of the oil. It is only our
mistaken belief that oil is property, and specifically the property of
those who happen to be living over the deposit that allows this fiction
to fly.
Did the Iraqis invent and manufacture
oil drilling and refining technology? No, they bought this technology
with money loaned to them by Western banks based on future
repayment once the oil was extracted.
If you take away the oil money, and limit
them to those tools invented and manufactured in Iraq, there would be
no danger to anyone. Saddam Hussein would have been impaled on a sharp
stick long ago.
We
Americans must recogize that we have flooded the world with billions of
high powered tools and weapons in order to make money. All
the great democracies are guilty. But, the biggest exporter of tools
and weapons in the history of the planet is the United States. We
Americans are the most guilty. We have basically sold these tools and
weapons to anyone with the money to buy them. That has been our only
criteria.
Now let us look once again at the second
amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it reads: "A well-regulated
Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Somehow, we
have focused on the right of the people to keep and bear arms, but have overlooked the founding fathers purpose in writing the second amendment: that of insuring "a well-regulated Militia". A mob with guns is not a "well-regulated Militia."
Public Safety requires responsible use of
powerful tools and weapons. We need to recognize the potential danger
in the use of tools and weapons in our present society. We
must establish some standard of knowledge, training, and
responsibility as a prerequisite to gaining access to these
tools and weapons.
Protecting Us from the Police
Some will argue that we need a private right to weapons to protect us from the police. This argument misses the point. In an earlier article of
this SafeEARTH series, I introduced the concept of the Life Trust
Guardians and their enforcement arm the Synergic Containment Officers.
Life
Trust Guardians and Synergic Containment Officers are not the police,
they are synergists. They will be well educated and trained. They will
understand the powerful tools they use and the consequence of both the
use and missuse of those tools. Remember, synergists believe that we should work together and act responsibly to
make the world work for everyone. Synergy means working
together—operating together as in Co-Operation— laboring together as in
Co-Laboration—acting together as in Co-Action. The goal of synergic
union is to accomplish a larger or more difficult task than can be
accomplished by individuals working
separately. Synergists are committed to a world where I win,
you win, others win and the Earth wins. Win-Win-Win-Win.
Best of the Best
Synergic
Containment Officers are Life Trust Guardians. The Life Trust
will seek to attract the best of the best as candidates for Trust
Guardianship. Once selected these Trust Guardians would have greater
trusteeship privileges with concomitant authority and responsibilities
for and to the Life Trust.
Trust
Guardian Candidates should have repeatedly demonstrated both personal
and public honesty, and should have a history demonstrating synergic
morality and behavior. In the future, Universities will offer degrees
in Trustegrity and Guardian Science to prepare those young humans
to desire to serve Humanity as Community. A careful selection process
will be developed to select the very best which could include Trust
Guardian Academies.
It
is apparent that the responsibilities of Trust Guardians will be great.
They of course are not allowed to hurt anyone through their control of
the Synergic Trusts. But in addition they are required to protect and
conserve the Synergic Trusts. Further, they are required to help others
and to insure that all humans have the basic needs of life —both
survival and meaning. This is a binding obligation. Failure to meet
these obligations results in the immediate loss of Synergic Trustee
privileges. The Life Trust Guardians will be charged with
protecting Humanity as Community, and Humanity as Individuals.
Public
safety is paramount. No human has the right to injure another human
with an adversary action. Once such an event has occurred, those
responsible will be contained, they will be monitored and their
freedom restricted until such time as the Life Trust Guardians have
determined that they are safe without monitoring or restriction.
This process is described more completely in Synergic Containment: Science & Rationale and Synergic Containment: Branch Davidian Compound, Waco, TX.
If
the Life Trust Guardians release them from monitoring or
restrictions, and they hurt someone else with another adversary
action, then the Life Trust Guardians involved in their release
will share responsibility with them for that adversary
event. Life Trust Guardians are held accountable for failure to
protect the public. This is a much higher standard then offered by
today’s criminal injustice system.
No Knives, No Guns, No Killing!
One
hundred and twenty years ago the American West was a vast, open area
brimming with natural resources and opportunity. Cow towns and mining
camps sprung up across the landscape. From around the world, millions
of people flocked to the Western territories with the hope of making a
better life for themselves. Many came to find gold or silver. Others
came to open saloons, general stores, and other small businesses. And
still others came to steal from the productive members of the west.
It
was in such a setting that Wyatt Earp lived and worked. Like many of
his time, he skipped from one boom town to another, always optimistic
that his fortune awaited at the end of another long, dusty ride. And in
nearly every town he invariably found himself called upon to bring law
and order to what was previously anarchy. Earp's exploits in taming
lawless cow towns and mining camps and his bravery in facing ruthless
killers—particularly at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona—make him
one of the great figures of the American West. While the movies make
much of the gunfights and use of intimidation in the streets of Dodge
City. Earp's greatest tool was the prohibition of weapons within the city limits. His rule was simple: "no knives, no guns, no killings."
The
history of the American West, is in large part the struggle to
overcome adversity. Earp's discovery of a mechanism to insure
public safety spread. By the summer of 1876, Denver was slightly
larger than Dallas, although not a mite different as far as being
fronted by the inevitable plankwalks and halter-polished hitch rails. A
sign posted at the edge of town warned: "No guns in town." This law was
strictly enforced.
Zone of Safety
What
Wyatt Earp achieved with his "No Guns in Town" law was the creation of
a zone of safety. Within city limits there could be no guns. Apparently
Earp understood that "guns do kill people." Guns are weapons. By
excluding them from the town, he was using a principle of synergic
containment and disarmament.
We
need to create a zone of safety. And, then we can begin to extend that
zone. We need to protect those within the zone and isolate those
outside the zone. This is how the immune system in our body works. The
skin is the boundary for the body. Its job is to isolate all adversity
from the interior. We need to create a skin around our safety zone.
That isolates all adversity from the interior.
Within the safety zone, there should be no tolerance of adversity. None!
No
violence would be allowed. No weapons would be allowed. Violation would
result in expulsion from the safety zone. Committed Adversaries would
be expelled from synergic community. They would be expelled from the
zone of safety. And that zone of safety is not anonymous. Everyone is
the zone is know. The immune system of our bodies knows every cell.
Unknowns are presumed to be adversaries until proven otherwise. Freedom
and privacy is available to all who do not hurt others. Injure someone
and forfeit both.
It
is time to put away the adversary way.There is no need for weapons in
the zone of safety. In civilized community, the simple possession of a
weapon is an adversary act. It must be surrendered immediately and
voluntarily, or you leave the zone of safety.
Living
in the zone of safety is not a right, it is a privilege available to
civilized humanity. Civilized humans do not want or need weapons.
I
believe it is time to create and then extend zones of safety. This is
the only way the Israelis can make their people safe. No knives, no
guns, no killings! None. The same is true for all nations. Except for
small arms in the hands of Synergic Containment Officers charged
with protecting both Humanity as Individuals and Humanity as
Community, it is time to put away all weapons.
Pandora's Box
What do we do now? Now that these powerful tools and weapons are in the hands of ignorance and anger, how do we get them back.
We must begin by regaining control of all those tools and weapons that threaten humanity. Our
message to Saddam Hussein, and all who would act to harm
humanity. If you want peace lay down your weapons. All of them.
This must be our message to all those who are armed.
It
is time for a complete and total disarmament. Within the human body
reside 40 trillion individual cells, none are armed except the immune
cells. Within a synergic organization which could reside all of
humanity presently 6.3 billion humans. None would be armed except
Synergic Containment Officers.
Universal Disarmament
During
a period of moratorium, all humans would be expected to surrender all
weapons into the custody of the Life Trust Guardians. A few of these
weapons would go into museums, some would be be made available to the
public within Earth Trust hunting parks and designated sport weapons
clubs. Humans who desire to use weapons to hunt and kill animals may do
so only within designated hunting parks managed by the Earth Trust
Guardians and regulated by the Synergic Containment Officers.
Those
humans who desire to use weapons for sport shooting may do so only
through designated sport weapon clubs which are regulated and monitored
by the Synergic Containment Officers. All weapons must be kept on the
premises of the sports clubs, or within the grounds of the hunting
parks. These weapons will be montored and accounted for under strict
Life Trust Guardian guidelines.
However,
the vast majority of weapons would be destroyed and scraped. Once the
moratorium expires, the possession of a weapon outside of a permitted
location is prohibited, and is by definition an adversary event. The
Life Trust Guardians will dispense Containment Officers to confiscate
the weapon or weapons and take those responsible into custody. Those
individuals found responsible for weapons possession would be subject
to the same public safety process as any other human found responsible
for an adversary event including rehabilitation, education,
restitution, and prevention of future adversary events.
How
dangerous would the Washington D.C. sniper be without a gun and
ammuntion? How dangerous would Saddam Hussein be without his
weapons?
Read more by Timothy Wilken: 1) A Synergic Future 2) Protecting Humanity 3) Beyond War
Read Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's: 1) Aggression and Violence 2) Evolution of Weaponry 3) Psychological Effects of Combat.