Letters to St. John Tradewinds To my shame and embarrass- ment I find I am full of bias, that I have prejudices about every group that I am able to distinguish — including the one I’m commonly supposed to belong to — and prej- udices also about groups I actually am not able to distinguish, includ- ing the one I really belong to if it exists. I catch myself at it time after time. Sometimes at least, rather than looking to justify or hypocrit- ically conceal (while holding on to) prejudice, I do question my as- sumptions and motives. Obviously I still have work to do. So, how can we do better? What I am saying is that apparently it’s not easy, if rationality is up for grabs and free will and true im- partiality are only illusions, and if moreover many are quite satisfied that this be so. To add to the difficulty, we are even confused and conflicted within ourselves. One explanation is genetic and evolutionary. Evolu- tion is a gradual selective process that takes place over thousands and millions of years. Most of the genes we carry around with us today got selected for what worked long ago in the prehistoric cons in the jungles, caves and savannahs, not for what works best during the relatively brief period since. Especially not since that point in time when so much of what is important to us is accomplished sitting at a desk. Moreover, a proponent of evo- lution, prominent scientist Richard Dawkins, argues that our “selfish” genes are into “survival of the fit- test” for themselves, rather than for the individual organism car- rying them, or for the species to which that organism belongs. Now if some of these genes, which are focused only on their own perpetuation, (and not neces- sarily on working together for us,) help to determine our inclinations and preferences; and each organ- ism carries a scrambled recombi- nation of genes from its parents and ancestors; then, right there in our haphazardly inherited genes is also a scientific explanation for our being at war with ourselves, Untruth — Part 2 torn this way and that, for our am- bivalence and fallibility. Moreover, we are not just deal- ing with disinformation put out by bad or confused intentions. Not all misinformation is either wholly or partly intentional. And miscom- munication can also occur when individuals with different back- grounds or from different loca- tions use the same words and have different meanings or implications and associations. Opposite sexes and different so- cial or age groups, peer groups or gangs, bring in all sincerity to the same words different collective experiences. Different individuals have different wants and needs. Different languages, cultures, local conditions, add to the con- fusion. Different nations and re- gions, and different ideologies and religions have different realities: polytheists, pantheists, agnostics, monotheistic Jews, Christians and Muslims, deists, atheists, religious fundamentalists and secular em- pirical scientists all have differ- ent basic assumptions, methods of reasoning and conclusions about what is so and what is right. I see more and more where the person right next to me can have wildly different ideas about what is right and what is so, even about what I take to be simple matters of fact. It seems indisputably in our best collective interest to reduce the sea of disinformation and mis- information that contribute to the confusion. Surely it is dangerous if many of us, even vast majorities, are de- luded, full of delusions, or even delusional and passionately com- mitted to remaining so. Clearly, tt can be dangerous if one person’s hero and martyr against an unjust invasion is an- other’s terrorist, suicide bomber against a just national defense, if one person’s truth is another’s abominable heresy. Modern transportation and com- munication increase the danger from across the seas, at our bor- ders and in our neighborhoods and homes (at the same time as they increase the richness of experience and depth of understanding), as do modem weaponry and means of delivery. Although so often delusional, biased and dishonest, over twen- ty-four centuries ago the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras put reality itself at our mercy, “Man is the measure of all things: of the things that are, that they are; of the things that are not, that they are not.” That we as we are should be the measure of reality itself is fright- ening to contemplate. We watch it practiced and applied, locally, na- tionally, regionally and universal- ly, even in the highest legislative, executive, judicial and academic councils. History has shown such prac- tice and application to be at times evil and uncontainable. Under the circumstances to make ourselves comfortable with that could be diagnosed as widespread being in states of denial, when it is not sheer cynical complicity and com- placence. Ironically, not to say cynically, meanings change. The ancient Cynic (originally meaning “dog- like” for a shabby minimalist life- style) philosophers actually main- tained that virtue was the only good. To maintain an impover- ished simplicity or to see virtue as the only good is not the meaning of “cynical” now. So if we are dangerously con- fused deluded ignorant deceitful and at odds with one another, how do we begin to reduce the danger? Our president Obama is in favor of negotiation. If there is an objective reality out there independent of our lim- ited minds, which at least we can apply our limited minds to, and to that limited extent figure out together and use together in order to work things out together, if all of that, then it seems basic to the enterprise to arrive at mutually un- derstood same meanings for words and to find compatibilities among different versions of how to deter- mine what is so and what is good, in order to negotiate our real and perceived differences. Nicholas Childs St. John Tradewinds, December 14-20, 2009 = 15 St. John Tradewinds Keeping Track 2008 FINAL COUNT Homicide: 0 Solved: 0 2009 TO-DATE Homicide: 1 Solved: 0 Shootings: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 Shootings: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 Stabbings: 1 Under Investigation: 1 Solved: 0 Stabbings: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 Armed Robberies: 2 Under Investigation: 2 Solved: 1 Armed Robberies: 5 Under Investigation: 5 Solved: 0 Arsons: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 Arsons: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 1st Degree Burglaries: 1 Under Investigation: 1 Solved: 0 1st Degree Burglaries: 6 Under Investigation: 6 Solved: 1 2nd Degree Burglaries: 18 Under Investigation: 18 Solved: 0 2nd Degree Burglaries: 17 Under Investigation: 16 Solved: 1 3rd Degree Burglaries: 67 Under Investigation: 67 Solved: 0 3rd Degree Burglaries: 68 Under Investigation: 66 Solved: 4 Grand Larcenies: 67 Under Investigation: 64 Solved: 3 Grand Larcenies: 68 Under Investigation: 68 Solved: 0 Rapes: 0 Under Investigation: 0 Solved: 0 Rapes: 1 Under Investigation: 1 Solved: 0 St. John Tradewinds’ Keeping Track data comes from the V.I. Police Department’s Leander Jurgen Command Incident Log, an unofficial record of calls to the station, reports and arrests on St. John. Alcholics Anonymous Meetings Alcoholics Anonymous meets as scheduled: Sundays, 9:45 a.m. at Hawksnest Bay Beach; Closed meeting for alcoholic only at Nazareth Lutheran Church at 5:30 on Tuesdays; Open meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m. at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cruz Bay; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 p.m. at Moravian Church, Coral Bay. Narcotics Anonymous Meetings Narcotics Anonymous has open meeting from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Saturday at St. Ursula’s Church. Al-Anon Meetings Al-Anon meets on St. John every Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the picnic table at the VINP ball field, and every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at St. Ursula’s Multi-purpose center. Alateen Meetings Alateen will meet on Mondays at St. Ursula’s Church from 6 to 7 p.m. and is open to anyone interested in attending.