Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Edward Haskell is one of the least known of the synergic scientists whose ideas and works are presented in the classic Full Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science and throughout the UnCommon Sense—Library.  …  I believe Haskell’s work is important to synergic science and to humanity.
The systems hierarchy which he
presented in his Unified Science has probably been done better in
Arthur Young’s Theory of Process. Much of his work that focused on
cybernetics and general systems theory has been done elsewhere equally
well or better (Bertalanffy, et. al.). But he still made several unique
contributions to human knowing: 1) The discovery of the 9 Co-Actions. 2) The discovery of three classes of relationships.
Prior to Haskell, Neutrality simply represented the boundary between
Adversity and Synergy. Haskell recognized that the Neutral class of
relationships, in and of itself, was of equal importance to both the
Adverse class of relationships, and the Synergic class of
relationships. In effect, Haskell discovered
Neutrality. If we are to build a synergic future, we will not only have
to transcend the Adversary Way, we will also have to transcend
Neutrality as well. I think this is one of the major difficulties
humans face today in understanding three-fold nature of relationships.
Because Neutrality is invisible in our paradigm of human relationships,
most individuals assume if they are not Adversaries they must be
Synergic. The same old Either/Or scientific mistake. 3) The invention of the Co-Action Compass or PCS.
This at first appears abstract and mathematical, but once understood is
a powerful reflection in one diagram of all three classes of
relationship. Haskell’s focus was on
evaluating adversary, neutral, and synergic relationships between all
stages of process. Much of his work was on relationships between
particles, atoms, molecules, bactereria, plants, and animals. The PCS
allowed him to plot the resultants of all three types of relationship
on a single geometric grid. The shape of the PCS was not
invented by Haskell. The shape evolved and took form from the real data
that was measured extensionally, and plotted from analyzing numerous
relationships between particles, atoms, molecules, bacteria, plants,
and animals. The term extensional here is borrowed from Korzybski to
mean from the real world. Haskell did not study or analyze
human relationships, but he predicted that the PCS would be useful in
anlyzing adversary, neutral, and synergic relationships between humans
and groups of humans, and finally. 4) The Moral Law of the Unified Science
— Much more important than Haskell’s recognition of the importance of
the spiritual truth “As you sow, so shall you reap,” was his
restatement of this truth as a scientific law of Nature that applied in
all seven stages of process—light, particle, atom, molecule, plant,
animal and human. (05/30/05)
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James Howard Kunstler writes: 
I like to claim that I am allergic to conspiracy theories and the
paranoia that attends them. But these days I’m not so sure anymore. The
noise in the system is getting pretty thick, and the Internet is the
perfect system for paranoia because any website can appear to be
dignified and therefore to speak with some kind of authority. You have
to sort out the reality from the noise the best that you can on your
own. (So maybe it’s not such a bad thing that this blog is so
amateurish-looking, as many readers complain.) The latest paranoid
thread out there is that the US Military is waiting
to commit a June assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and that the
Bush administration has been manipulating the stock markets up and the
oil markets down in an attempt to to lull the public deeper into its
coma of cluelessness by making the surface of American life seem
placid. I really don’t know what the government is capable of doing to
tweak the markets. It certainly has access to a lot of nominal “money,”and I suppose that it is not to difficult to put that money into
“play,” by funneling it this way and that way through large
institutions and agencies. The current crisis of capital derives from
the fact that the American economy produces fewer and fewer things of
enduring value — and more and more fluff in the form of Star Wars
movies — so any financial paper or instrument that pretends to
represent the nation’s longer-term prospects is in danger of not being
taken seriously. The wealth accumulated in the US in the second half of
the last century is actually shrinking now, since our industrial base
is withering away, and whatever investment we are capable of making has
been increasingly directed into the “hard assets” of houses. The catch
is that the “investment” in houses is almost all credit — mortgages,
promises to pay most of the money later. The catch of the catch is that
the cost of obtaining credit (interest rates) remains supernaturally
low and the standards for creditworthiness have ceased to exist. The
catch of the catch of the catch is that a lot of the mortgages are
adjustable, meaning the cost of borrowing doesn’t necessarily stay
supernaturally low. It can float with rising interest rates. … We now
face the Memorial Day weekend, traditionally the start of the
summer motoring season, when upward pressure on oil prices tends to
resume. Even if the tanks are full now, it pays to remind ourselves
that nearly three-quarters of that gasoline comes from other lands,
including lands full of people who don’t want us to be happy. One of
these, arguably, is Iran — though many in the hairsplitting game would
say it’s only the leaders who hate us, not the youthful masses of the
population, who don’t remember the Shah and all that. Some months ago,
our leaders said they would not tolerate a nuclear Iran. In reply, Iran
told the US to, well, to go piss up a rope, so to speak. All has been
quiet since that exchange. They’ve made it pretty plain what they aim
to do. Who knows what we aim to do? But paranoia runs deep. (05/30/05)
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Energy Bullentin — John
D. Rockefeller’s Cleveland refineries launched the Oil Age. A
superhighway in China may end it. Almost 150 years ago, barges plied
the Cuyahoga River ferrying black gold for oil lamps. There was no
turning back. Cheap, plentiful crude would power cars, mold plastics,
birth the suburbs and grease the path to a prosperous American century.
Much of today’s world slides along that same industrialized path. A
52,000-mile superhighway system is under construction in China.
Millions of prospering Chinese browse auto showrooms looking for a new
lifestyle based on crude. But recent spikes at gas pumps worldwide hint
that, for the first time, oil won’t come cheap. Analysts and traders
alike suspect we are on the verge of demanding more oil than we can
produce. Prices hover around $50 per barrel despite a global effort to
pump more oil. Producers try to squeeze more out of old wells, scour
the Earth for undiscovered fields and develop technologies to process
thick heavy crude that’s harder to refine. Tight oil supplies are
likely to spark fantastic technological development in a global
struggle for energy supremacy. Scientists are developing
hydrogen-powered cars, coal-made gasoline and corn-based plastics.
Engineers try to harness the 200-million-degree fires of nuclear fusion
for future power plants. Will these high-tech solutions come in time?
How will we cope when gas prices permanently zoom beyond $2.50 a
gallon? When food costs rise because of expensive fertilizer and
diesel? When plastics become precious? When the time comes, will we be
ready to live with less oil? (05/30/05)
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BBC Environment — A
group of Britain’s leading industrialists has written to the prime
minister urgently demanding long-term policies to combat climate
change. The heads of the 12 leading firms say climate change is a huge
challenge that needs serious investment by business. But they say they
cannot invest because they are not sure what future government policies
on climate will be. The letter is signed off by the heads of BP, Shell,
HSBC Bank, BAA, John Lewis, Scottish Power and more. Between them the
firms employ tens of thousands of people and have a turnover of £452bn.
…  In their letter the business leaders say they believe
emissions cuts of 60% can be achieved in the UK without damaging
competitiveness if firms use energy more wisely and harness new
technology. They believe measures to hold CO2 emissions to a safe level
would reduce economic growth by no more than 2% by 2050. They say bold
policy action could actually boost Britain’s profits by making the UK a
world leader in low carbon technology. The group say some of the
technologies to achieve this goal already exist but need to be
developed. Some are yet to be invented. They point to a study showing
that even if the UK starts seriously developing the market for zero
emissions cars now, total emissions from cars will not start to fall
until 2040. The business leaders demand that the government establishes
a long-term value for carbon emissions reductions and consistently
supports and provides incentives for the development of new
technologies. (05/30/05)
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BBC Technology –
The electricity goes off as Dr Roger Eltringham continues his round in
an intensive care ward in a Vietnamese hospital. The lights go out and
the life-saving machinery flickers momentarily, but within seconds and
by working in the dark, doctors get the ventilator back on stream
again, keeping the vital oxygen pumping into the patients. As the
creator of the machine, Dr Eltringham is introduced to the relatives
sitting round beds in the hospital in Thanh Hoa, 150 miles (241
kilometres) south of Hanoi. Although he cannot understand what the
doctor with him is saying, he assumes it is complimentary because they
all bow. There was no panic when the electricity failed, partly because
this is a common occurrence in Vietnam and partly because the
anaesthetic machinery being used has been specifically designed to cope
with situations like this. In countries like Vietnam, the Glostavent,
as the machine is named, is literally proving a life-saver. … Dr
Eltringham, a consultant anaesthetist at Gloucester Royal Hospital,
says the machine, designed largely in his spare time, is already saving
lives and improving treatment in Africa, Asia and parts of Eastern
Europe. It was while working in the developing world that he noticed
the western machines were unsuitable. Colleagues implored him to try to
help develop something more suitable that they and their staff could
operate and maintain in-house. “I got involved in working in the
developing countries and one of their biggest problems was that they
were trying to use equipment which would need sophisticated back-up to
keep it working. But they would have electrical failures and run out of
oxygen so they could not use it. The sophisticated machines we use in
the western world simply can’t cope in the developing world.” … Dr
Paul Cartwright, a member of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said
the machines were perfect for their use in the developing world. “This
machine works at its best when there is electricity, but the great
advantage is it can be used without electricity too. If it happens here
we have to have a back-up generator or mayhem ensues. It is better for
them to have something simple that works most of the time, than
something sophisticated that works just a fraction of the time.” (05/30/05)
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BBC Health –
US health officials are examining reports of varying degrees of
blindness among a small number of men using the anti-impotence drug
Viagra. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified 50 cases
of the condition, which can occur in men with heart disease or
diabetes. The FDA says it has as yet found no evidence that Viagra is
to blame for the condition. More than 20 million men worldwide have
used the drug since its launch in 1998. … There have been no reports
of the condition among 13,000 people tested in clinical trials for the
drug. The condition, known as nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic
neuropathy (NAION), causes a rapid reduction of vision and can, in the
most serious cases, lead to blindness. Dr Howard Pomeranz, co-author of
a report on the condition published in the Journal of
Neuro-ophthalmology in April, said the drug had long been linked to
sight problems. Viagra was known to cause temporary colour changes in
some men’s vision, he said, but NAION was a much more serious
condition. … Dr June Raine, of the UK Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency, said it had only received six reports of
adverse reactions to Viagra resulting in blindness, including four of
optic neuropathy. In contrast, about 900,000 patients had been
prescribed Viagra in the UK. Dr Raine said the issue had been kept
under review by European regulators, but as yet there was no firm
evidence that Viagra caused eye problems. “Anyone who has concerns
about their eyesight should speak to their doctor. The best advice is
always to make sure that Viagra is prescribed under a doctor’s care and
supervision. Patients are very unwise to get their supplies over the
internet.” (05/30/05)
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Orion Magazine — Sandra Steingraber
writes: A FEW WEEKS AFTER 9/11, I gave a lecture on environmental
pediatrics at the New York Academy of Medicine. The talk had been
planned months earlier, but it wasn’t at all clear, in the days leading
up to it, whether the event would take place. My host said, frankly, he
could not guarantee an audience. I had misgivings of my own. The drive
to Manhattan from my office at Cornell took five hours even before the
George Washington Bridge was outfitted with security checkpoints, and I
had a newborn who would be riding with me across that bridge. In the
end, we decided, as so many people did in those first dazed weeks, that
since all possible actions felt wrong anyway, we should just get on
with it. And so my husband paced marble corridors with our son on his
shoulder while I addressed a half-filled auditorium. In the audience
were a number of pregnant women and, as I was getting ready to leave,
they approached me as a group. They wanted to know about that most
toxic of all synthetic chemicals, dioxin, which, at vanishingly small
concentrations, can cause developmental problems as well as cancer. Had
the incineration and collapse of the World Trade Center sent a
dioxin-filled plume over Manhattan? They had heard that the towers were
filled with PVC plastic and that PVC makes dioxin when burned. Is that
right? Were their babies in danger? I tried to keep my voice calm. Yes,
I said, PVC—or polyvinyl chloride, or vinyl—makes dioxin when it burns
and yes, the Trade Center was surely full of PVC. It’s used in
electrical cables, flooring, wallpaper, and office furniture. I said I
didn’t know what health threats the smoke created for the people
breathing it—or for the fetuses they might be carrying. Colleagues of
mine at Mount Sinai Medical Center were, right now, researching those
very questions. Unfortunately, the answers would be years away. Science
takes time, especially when actual exposures are unknown and the
outcomes, like subtle developmental deficits, can take years to
manifest. The pregnant women watched Elijah nurse. I looked down at
their various-sized bellies. We all fell into silence. (05/28/05)
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Common Dreams –
CONPLAN 8022 is a series of operational plans prepared by Stratcom, the
U.S. Army’s Strategic Command, which calls for preemptive nuclear
strikes against Iran and North Korea. One of the plan’s major
components is the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the underground
facilities where North Korea and Iran are developing their nuclear
weapons. The standard ordnance deployed by the Americans is not capable
of destroying these facilities. After the war in Afghanistan, it became
clear that despite the widespread use of huge conventional bombs,
“bunker-busters,” some of the bunkers dug by Al-Qaida remained
untouched. This discovery soon led to a decision to develop nuclear
weapons that would be able to penetrate and destroy the underground
shelters in which the two member states of the “axis of evil” are
developing weapons of mass destruction. The explanation given by
administration experts calls these “small” bombs, which would have a
moderate effect on the environment. The effect of the bomb would not be
discernible above ground, the radioactive fallout would be negligible,
and the “collateral damage” caused to civilians would be minimal. …
The problem with this argument is that it is hopeless. To understand
this, one may analyze the effect of a nuclear attack of the sort
posited by American military strategists in CONPLAN 8022. Obviously,
the U.S. would not use less than five to ten “small bombs” were it to
attack Iran or North Korea, since, considering the number of relevant
targets in the two countries, anything less would fail to achieve the
goal of deterrence and prevention. According to the plan, each bomb
would have a 10-kiloton yield - about two-thirds of that of the bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each detonation of a bomb a few
meters underground would destroy most of the buildings on the surface
to a range of two kilometers. After the explosion, there would be a
need to quickly evacuate civilians from an area of 100 square
kilometers, to avoid the deadly effects of the radioactive fallout;
buildings, agricultural crops and livestock would be affected in an
area of thousands of square kilometers, and depending on wind direction
and velocity, there could be a need to evacuate more people from
thousands of additional square kilometers. None of this takes into
account the political and psychological repercussions of using nuclear
weapons for the first time in more than 60 years. The Bush
administration regards all this as “limited collateral damage.” (05/28/05)
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Bah·’u'll·h wrote:
It seems as though all creatures can exist singly and alone. For
example, a tree can exist solitary and alone on a given prairie or in a
valley or on the mountainside. An animal upon a mountain or a bird
soaring in the air might live a solitary life. They are not in need of
cooperation or solidarity. Such animated beings enjoy the greatest
comfort and happiness in their respective solitary lives. On the
contrary, man cannot live singly and alone. He is in need of continuous
cooperation and mutual help. For example, a man living alone in the
wilderness will eventually starve. He can never, singly and alone,
provide himself with all the necessities of existence. Therefore, he is
in need of cooperation and reciprocity. The mystery of this phenomenon,
the cause thereof is this, that mankind has been created from one
single origin, has branched off from one family. Thus in reality all
mankind represents one family. God has not created any difference. He
has created all as one that thus this family might live in perfect
happiness and well-being. … The man who thinks only of himself and is
thoughtless of others is undoubtedly inferior to the animal because the
animal is not possessed of the reasoning faculty. The animal is
excused; but in man there is reason, the faculty of justice, the
faculty of mercifulness. Possessing all these faculties he must not
leave them unused. He who is so hard-hearted as to think only of his
own comfort, such an one will not be called man. Man is he who forgets
his own interests for the sake of others. His own comfort he forfeits
for the well-being of all. Nay, rather, his own life must he be willing
to forfeit for the life of mankind. Such a man is the honor of the
world of humanity. Such a man is the glory of the world of mankind.
Such a man is the one who wins eternal bliss. Such a man is near to the
threshold of God. Such a man is the very manifestation of eternal
happiness. Otherwise, men are like animals, exhibiting the same
proclivities and propensities as the world of animals. What distinction
is there? What prerogatives, what perfections? None whatever! Animals
are better even–thinking only of themselves and negligent of the needs
of others. Consider how the greatest men in the world–whether among
prophets or philosophers–all have forfeited their own comfort, have
sacrificed their own pleasure for the well-being of humanity. They have
sacrificed their own lives for the body politic. They have sacrificed
their own wealth for that of the general welfare. They have forfeited
their own honor for the honor of mankind. Therefore it becomes evident
that this is the highest attainment for the world of humanity.  (05/27/05)
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Ervin Laszlo interviewed: Worst of Times: You can’t keep having more and more people use more and more resources, and have greater and greater inequality in the distribution of those resources, without a breaking point being reached. Right now, for example, with the melting of the ice cap deflecting the Gulf Stream, it’s entirely possible that in three years England will have the frigid climate of Labrador, which is at the same latitude. Spring and summer just won’t come. The fact of the matter is that we live on a planet where everything is circular—whatever you do to other people or to nature eventually comes back to you. While it has always been like this, we weren’t even capable of thinking this way until a couple hundred years ago. An additional factor has to do with the behavior of complex systems: they don’t change smoothly. It’s impossible to tell, even theoretically, when a complex system is reaching its limit—there are so many feedbacks, so many self-correcting mechanisms that are operating. But when there is more and more stress, sooner or later you reach a tipping or bifurcation point, and all of a sudden the system just can’t correct for it. We have been ignoring the pressure building in the system. As a result, we are facing an “ecol-nomic” crisis—ecological and economic simultaneously—with potentially catastrophic problems like climate change and sea level increase that may threaten our survival. … Best of Times: It’s about a new worldview with new values adapted to living, surviving, and developing on this planet. The rise of spirituality and the rise of meditation techniques and involvement with inner growth are all part of this phenomenon. And it’s already occurring, but it has to be accelerated. Now, you can get to this new worldview by rational or intellectual means. You can get to it intuitively, through art, spirituality, or religion. And you can get there through science. If you look at developments in science, you’ll find that science is increasingly recognizing that everything is connected very strongly with everything else. Everything that exists is an open system. Nothing is entirely closed or independent—everything is very sensitively connected. The implications are enormous wherever you look. So, for example, we are not just a block of cells, like a building is a block of bricks. Most fundamentally, our living tissue is not made out of hard-core elements—atoms and molecules—it is made of waves. Thus, we are living systems that are continuously receiving and transmitting information. This information transmission is faster than any conceivable biochemical mechanism, because what happens in one part of the organism simultaneously happens to the other part. It’s constantly interactive on multiple dimensions. It’s a remarkable thing—going way beyond any technical, biological, mechanistic, and materialistic concept of the organism. As so much of the spiritual literature says: we are not limited to five slits in the tower—meaning that we don’t just see the world through the five sense organs. To me, it’s very obvious that consciousness is not a byproduct of the brain, produced by a complex set of neurons. It’s something that’s pervading the whole universe. (05/27/05)
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