I don’t adhere to norms, i.e., I’m not normal, … but that does not equal being bad or wrong:
• I strongly believe in living in solidarity through low-input lifestyles because there are natural resource- and free available energy-limits … and that the whole is the sum of its parts; therefore, dynamic homeostatic symbioses is a zero-sum game. I also fervently believe that all should get an education in applied ecology & associated values.
• I have the calm surface-characteristics of Mom St. Louise (Kneuper) Martin. But I also have much of emotional, temper-prone Dad Alton Martin in me. When I see: a “Make America Great Again” cap; a Confederate or similar flag; my comprehension of too much order, luxury, wealth; my perception of smugness, arrogance, & being spoiled … my amygdala & limbic system kick in and dominate. The same happens in varying degrees when people use the word Whore, or the n-word, or damn Jew, or greaser or bleeding -heart liberal, or tree hugger, or mojado, or illegal alien, etc., etc. It often happens, but more moderately, when folk smugly, arrogantly, condescendingly say “We’re blessed!” or “God willed it!” or “We need to pray!” … or yell, “U.S.A.!!, U.S.A.!!” (Of course, this limbic system and its effect on my short & long-term concepts & actions, and my psyche, through interacting with my frontal lobe, does depend on who it is who speaks and how, where, and other aspects of context.)
My limbic system kicks in when I believe folk are lazy non-participants as citizens, apathetical, complacent or when they blindly & unthinkingly rush into groupthink or a mob mentality. And it mildly happens when folk talk about the Earth being 6,000 years old, or deny evolution, or express disbelief in ecological destruction … including denial of anthropocentric global climate change. (Of course, the amygdala, etc. can really come into full force with some of their effects from some of the policies and actions of an ignorant, arrogant, smug, disrespectful, crude, non-empathetical, narcissistic, morally and ethically corrupt Trump!)
• I do not believe in corporal punishment (even though my children remember more whippings they received than I do, and even though I did whip one of my grandkids on one occasion).
• I do believe in unpaid chores for children, including tough farm work and adventuresome learning experiences. (And I did have my oldest son Jeremy on a tractor running a mower-conditioner when he was nine years of age, I arranged for him to travel alone to southern Brasil when he was 14 with the idea of him working on an organic farm for the summer, and I secured him a job at the USDA entomology lab at College Station between his junior & senior year in high school. … And my younger children, John & Angie did similar work.)
• I believe youth should at least contribute somewhat to paying for their college education expenses. (My wife and I did financially help all our children through college, especially the last two.) … I also believe all youth should be required to do volunteer community service during college studies, and to serve two years in an AmeriCorps- or Peace Corps-type position prior to or after college.
• I do believe in trying to lay “it” all out on the table, and attempting to communicate about “it”, but also do believe in investing energy and resources into tried-and-true processes of communication and in communication facilitators. Effective dialogue can help us to think, to dig deeper, to understand each other, to not assume too much, and to perhaps realize better (ecological) community.
• I am a big picture thinker and actor and try not to get too dragged into the dense trees, but rather to view the whole of the forest-system. Of course, I do have to get into the trees some in order to know the forest-system and that is the reason I do many of my volunteer activities related to applied ecology, and particularly in have-not communities. Moreover, in recent times I stir up the pot through Facebook and my blog, etc. Then I observe folk of like minds and those on the dark side duke it out and I learn from them without exhausting my own energies. I’ve used similar tactics all my life. (Getting intimately involved in the real fight there amongst the trees, IS very emotionally, mentally, & physically exhausting.)
• We sometimes attempt to learn from limited and messy information which perhaps might be reflective of desired outcomes resulting from actions by Trump’s and other administrations’ policies and actions, such as data re murder, crime, terrorism, & birth control statistics. However, in doing so we are dealing with symptoms rather than addressing causes. We need to spend more time with overshoot, destruction of the natural resource base, disparity, imperialism, colonialism, neoliberal capitalism, rampant greed & conspicuous consumption, War, and inappropriate technologies, structures, and practices (e.g., arms, armaments, drones for warfare; conventional air-conditioning; big automobiles & homes; etc.).
• My ethos is to a large extent that of my father Alton Martin. I bucked him hard in high school and early college, but I really had a deep respect for him & I took on many of his values. … He was a U.S. Marine in WW II. One of the things about him for which I am very proud is that he never used the “I-Was-A-Marine-in-the-Pacific-in-WW II Card” or “I-Am-a-Veteran Card”. I truly admired him for that (and much more in terms of his living a life which was sabio, simple, small, slow, steadfast, sharing, and sustainable).
• My god is dynamic homeostatic symbioses. As far as other Gods are concerned, I don’t believe you can Truthfully claim to be a Theist or atheist—you can never be sure. Therefore, I am sort of a believer (in science and symbioses) and an agnostic, or an ignostic.
• Finally, conventional neo-liberal capitalism, or what Molly Ivins called “bidness”, is very destructive of sustainable social fabrics & homeostatic symbioses (“nature”). Trump is conventional neo-liberal capitalism on steroids and huge amounts of artificial hormones and speed. Some of the policies of the Trump administration have done relatively irreparable damage (at least for several lifetimes) to the waters, air, & soils of ecological systems, & to our social & moral fabric, i.e., he has been seriously destructive to life and living systems.
7Ss / VV->^^
pbm
