The downside of air conditioning

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The scientist Stan Cox, in his 2018 book “Losing Our Cool”, blames air con for “resource waste, climate change, ozone depletion and the disorientation of the human mind and body”. Air conditioning emits some half a billion tonnes of CO2 annually, and the coolants used are even more polluting than CO2.
Air conditioners fuel a vicious cycle: they pump out heat, making the outside world hotter still. One study found that they increased the temperature of Phoenix, Arizona on summer nights by 2°C.

An air conditioned society, complains Cox, has fewer free communal spaces, and more commercialised indoor venues, such as shopping malls. It has also ended traditions such as the siesta, and condemned its users to what one critic calls “thermal monotony” – a global standard of 22°C (incidentally, a level calibrated to suit men, who have a higher metabolic rate than women).

My comment: I cringe with embarrassment. The height of summer was so scorchingly hot that we had a new aircon machine installed on the roof. Just shows – even environmentalist epicureans can sometimes be hypocrites. But not often! (at least, that’s my claim).

A Tale of Cruelty and Despair (in the UK)

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The way dementia patients in care homes have been treated during this pandemic “should make us sick with shame and pity”. Afflicted by an illness that attacks their memory and sense of self, they draw special comfort from the presence of loved ones. Yet in the name of infection control, the Government has seen to it that this vital human link has been denied them. No longer visited, they feel confused, abandoned. But it’s not the fault of the care homes: it’s the grotesquely inflexible official guidelines, which prohibit those who run the homes from devising sensible precautions while still acting humanely towards those in their charge.

That’s why John’s Campaign, a not-for-profit movement aimed at getting the Government to reform these rules, is so worthy of support. One of its main concerns is to ensure that family carers are no longer seen as “visitors”, but instead treated as a crucial part of the clinical team needing the same protection, testing and status as other key workers. The Government must be made to bring this “avoidable suffering” to an end.
(Nicci Gerrard, The Observer and The Week, 19 September 20)

My comment: Caring for people with memory loss can be very stressful. I have personal experience of dealing with someone with memory loss and intense frustration, which manifested itself as physical attacks on me personally, and upon others. This resulted in having to move her from home to home when carers could no longer cope. I salute those, usually poorly paid, who undertake this caring task on a daily basis.

Prescient!

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The Monmouth University Polling Institute conducted a poll in 2019. One thousand people were interviewed about their attitude towards religious fundamentalism, ethnocentric prejudice, and their political views and affiliations. The book written on the subject, “Authoritarian Nightmare: Donald Trump and his followers” by John Dean and Bob Altermeyer, was reviewed in the Washington Post on October 4th 2020. The following points are abstracted from that review:

– Most Trump supporters are highly authoritarian and religious. If necessary, were Trump unavailable, they would back another “strong” leader to take his place.
– Trump followers are overwhelmingly concerned about the “corruption” of American society. They don’t care about incompetence and dishonesty but are highly prejudiced against non-Anglo colored people, and would back Trump just as long as he protected them from the “danger“ of “lawless” minorities and immigrants.
– Trump supporters would support prosecution of his opponents, and would back him in the event that he had purportedly lost re-election, if he claimed it to be fraudulent, labeling it “fake news” (he has done so)
33% of respondents would “follow him anywhere”.
– Donald Trump followers have a remarkable lack of self-awareness. They assume that the “swamp” occupants look down on them anyway and don’t care about them or the views of the outside world, applauding Trump’s treatment of women, the military, the established system of American allies etc.

The book concludes (well before the recent election) that the US could be facing more strife and even an existential challenge.

My take: Yes, this blog is not supposed to discuss partisan politics. But the possibility of the undermining (even end) of the democratic system, enabled by politicians in Congress, is scary. The anxiety is made worse by the probability that the new Administration will meet a stone wall if it tries to get bipartisan agreement on anything important. One cannot govern successfully if obstructed on everything, and with a former President undermining the government every day of his life.

Who envíes President-elect Biden?

Death penalty

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Today’s Washington Post carries the news that the death penalty is alive and well and is being carried out, in several cases, in what appears to be a hurry before the change of administrations.

I naively believed for some reason that the deliberate killing of prisoners at the hands of the government was a barbaric thing of the past. Whatever the crimes of the several candidates for the elecic chair, killing them is pointless revenge and makes us complicit in what amounts to yet another murder.

The truth is that the death penalty is no deterrent to the killer. He (or she) is not going to pause before a murder and reflect on the risk to their own lives. You have to be, almost by definition, mentally disturbed to kill another human being. The electric chair might gratify a certain blood lust but does not deter murder. In short, the death penalty, banned in most civilized countries, is not only un-Epicurean but un-Christian as well.
What we should be doing is taking away as many means of murder as possible, and that refers, for a start, to controlling who can tote a gun. We should also put more money behind mental health.

The dire housing situation for so many people

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Before the pandemic hit, about 3.7m evictions were filed in the US in an average year – seven evictions every minute. Most poor renting families spent at least half of their income on housing costs and about one in four of those families spent more than 70%.

Most white families in the US own their homes in the US; most black families do not. Housing is the main driver of inequality.

The extremes of wealth and poverty in the US is a disgrace. One does not have to be a follower of Epicurus to realize this; the last time I looked it was against all christian principles as well. The future of the United States is not likely to be a happy one unless something is done about inequality, starting with education (please!)

A wrecking ball ( a little long, but important).

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US Secretary of Education Betsy Devos is arguably the worst Secretary of Education in living memory, favoring private religious schools and appearing to disadvantage the victims of sexual harassment. Among other things.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—passed was by Congress in March. $13.5 billion was allocated to K-12 schools. Using a Title I formula, the funding is intended mainly for schools in high-poverty areas.

But in the guidance sent to states, Betsy DeVos made it clear she wants to give just as much to private educational institutions, using $180 million of the CARES cash for a “microgrant” (read: voucher) program to assist with private school tuition. It bears repeating that most private schools in the US (78 percent by some estimates) are religious.

DeVos was recently interviewed on SiriusXM radio by New York’s archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Referring to her agenda during the coronavirus pandemic and to “a particularly passionate dream” of hers, Dolan asked if it was to “utilize this particular crisis to ensure that justice is finally done to our kids and the parents who choose to send them to faith-based schools.” Her answer: “Yes, absolutely.”

Back in November 2018 Devos announced her intention to restructure Title IX. Part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX states that: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The proposed changes would redefine how school campuses respond to sexual assault claims and redefine sexual harassment and the conditions that would obligate a Title IX funding recipient to respond to sexual harassment claims. Devos stated that these changes were intended to strengthen legal protections for the accused. (Note: not the victims. Ed)

When the public period for commenting on Title IX opened up for the proposed changes it was for one day only. Nonetheless, approximately 100,000 comments came in, indicating what an important issue this was. Later,this last May, amid the chaos caused by covid 19, when public schools, colleges and universities were wrestling with safety and online teaching, Devos
chose to announce the final Title IX changes, giving the educational community a little over a month to implement the entirety of the proposals.

The changes include (but are not limited to) redefining sexual assault as a repeated action, and allowing for a real time cross examination of the victim by a third party ( plus other rules in favor or sexual predators).

The backlash was immediate, and went far beyond the unprecedented turnaround time required of educational institutions and school systems. The changes were touted as an attempt to be “fairer and better protect accused students,” but civil rights advocates believe it is at the expense of sexual assault survivors. Of concern are the narrowed definition of sexual assault, suggesting it must happen more than once for a student to be allowed to report it as assault; the cross-examination of both students by third party participants; and removing the requirement of colleges to address off-campus assault claims.

The effect of the changes is to make it difficult for victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault to continue their educations, and this amid a global pandemic. Proponents of these rule changes, believe that colleges are not appropriate places to ensure due process and that sexual assault claims should be left to the police. However, colleges have a responsibility to their students to provide a safe and secure learning environment. By stating that colleges have no place in providing due process is perplexing, as institutions of higher learning are structured around rules and guidelines that students are required to adhere to upon admission. By stating that educational systems shouldn’t act when their rules and guidelines are broken would defeat the purpose of creating rules and guidelines in the first place.

Betsy DeVos’s Title IX rule rewrite is an attack on the civil rights of the most vulnerable people in sexual assault cases. Just as with her funneling of millions in federal coronavirus relief to private religious schools and voucher schemes — money that was intended for public schools. Her priorities here are not dubious, they’re disgraceful.

(The above is an edited version of articles appearing in The Humanist. Writers were Margie Delao, the Social Justice and Policy Assistant at the American Humanist Association; and Jennifer Bardi, Senior Editor of The Humanist. 23 May 2020).

My comment: The overall level of education is second-rate as it is, but preferring private schools is a clear discrimination against those who cannot afford private education, e.g African Americans and Latinos. And who is to say that private education is better than public when the teachers are drawn from the same reservoir of talent, or otherwise?

A Walk in the Woods. A poem

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I walk in wonder through a wood
Like some great temple, moist and still,
Bid fair to meet some forest god
Or spirit of the Spring’s new growth,
Maybe just perched upon a bough,
Or peeping round some mossy root.
“Do you, good stranger, come in peace,
Or will you jar our ageless calm?”

In churches bells hang high on towers,
But in this holy, pagan place
Bells upon bells in violet blue
Have carpeted the wildwood floor.
They burst upon the woodscape, fade,
Then, glory done, can rest a year.
No temple architect could match
This bluebell sea in stone or tile.

Beeches, like pillars of a nave,
Graceful, grey-green, smooth and clean
Hold high above a canopy,
A trembling green and yellow shade…..
When suddenly the lingering cloud
Above us parts, the sun breaks through,
Small shaftlets dappling light on bark
And drops of rain on sapling leaves.

The May shower ended, humid air
Hangs languorous in the awakened wood,
Silent I move in sheer delight,
Uttering a pagan prayer.

(Robert Hanrott, May 2004)

A diet to reverse type-2 diabetes

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Old news, but people may be able to “cure” themselves of type-2 diabetes by going on a radical 800-calorie-a-day soup and shake diet. Previous research has indicated that the disease can be temporarily reversed in this way. Now a study has suggested that the recovery can be permanent – provided the weight loss is sufficiently dramatic, and maintained.

Scientists at Newcastle and Glasgow Universities tracked 298 diabetics who were put on an ultra-low-calorie food-replacement diet for between three to five months. After a year, 46% of them were in remission, and after two, 70% of this group were still in remission. Those who were still in remission after two years had lost an average of 15.5kg (two-and-a-half stone) initially and had put 4.3kg back on after a year, while those who relapsed after a year had lost 12kg initially and regained 7.1kg. The researchers think that dramatic weight loss reduces levels of fat in the pancreas, allowing it to recover the ability to produce insulin. (The Week, 23 March 2019).

My comment: I was pre-diabetic myself until my doctor read the riot act. I cut down on sweet things and took exercise much more seriously. At one point I weighed over 200 lbs, with an A1C of 6.2; now I have been 160 lbs. for several years, with an A1C of under 6. One can do it if one really wants to!

Mindfulness and meditation: are they good for you?

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Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety.

Mindfulness (paying close attention to your own thoughts) and other types of meditation are usually seen as simple stress-relievers – but they can sometimes leave people worse off, worsening depression and anxiety.
About one in 12 people who try meditation experience an unwanted negative effect, usually a worsening in depression or anxiety, or even the onset of these conditions for the first time, according to the first systematic review of the evidence. “For most people it works fine but it has undoubtedly been overhyped and it’s not universally benevolent,” says Miguel Farias at Coventry University in the UK, one of the researchers.

There are many types of meditation, but one of the most popular is mindfulness, in which people pay attention to the present moment, focusing on either their own thoughts and feelings or external sensations. It is recommended by several National Health Service bodies in the UK as a way of reducing depression relapses in people who have experienced the condition several times.

Enthusiasm for meditation may partly stem from a growing awareness of the side effects of antidepressant medicines and the difficulties some people report in stopping taking them. There have been some reports of people experiencing worse mental health after starting meditation but, it is unclear how often this happens.

Farias’s team combed through medical journals and found 55 relevant studies. Once the researchers had excluded those that had deliberately set out to find negative effects, they worked out the prevalence of people who experienced harms within each study and then calculated the average, adjusted for the study size, a common method in this kind of analysis.

They found that about 8 per cent people who try meditation experience an unwanted effect, anything from an increase in anxiety up to panic attacks. They also found instances of psychosis or thoughts of suicide. The figure of 8 per cent may be an underestimate, as many studies of meditation record only serious negative effects or don’t record them at all

Katie Sparks, a chartered psychologist and a member of the British Psychological Society, says the figure could have been pushed up by people trying out meditation because of undiagnosed anxiety or depression. “Meditation has been found to help people to relax and refocus and help them both mentally and physically,” she says.

But sometimes when people are trying to still their thoughts, the mind can “rebel”, she says. “It’s like a backlash to the attempt to control the mind, and this results in an episode of anxiety or depression,” she says. This doesn’t mean people should stop trying the technique, she says, but instead should opt for guided meditation sessions, led by a teacher or an app with a recorded narration, which she believes is safer. “The current study could stop people participating in something which can be of benefit in the right context,” she says.
(Journal reference: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Clare Wilson, 19 Oct 2020).

My comment: What I call “my peace” is actually meditation and is very calming – and Epicurean. I sit there, eyes shut, reciting the words “peace”, “calm”, “relax”, tuning out altogether – and the stress falls away. But then everyone has his own way of attaining ataraxia.

Religion and prosperity

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It is well documented that less religious nations tend to be more prosperous. This is most true of the advanced democracies, but also usually holds elsewhere – see how officially atheistic China outperforms more pious India.
The trend tends to hold up within countries too: the most irreligious US states are better off than the most theistic. And over time, the global rise in nonreligion parallels that of the middle class. The big debate is not whether mass nontheism is better for societies than belief in the gods, but why the connection exists. A new study attempts to answer this. (Science Advances, doi.org/gdtmtn).

One possibility is that the better people feel they are doing, the less they feel the need to seek the aid and comfort of deities. Consumerism also converts many from frugal, pious churchgoers into irreligious materialists. In this case, religion is merely the victim of modernity. Another idea is that secularisation precedes and even drives socioeconomic gain. The latest paper backs this idea, using analysis of socioeconomic patterns in the 1900s, when theism really started to nosedive.

It finds that in most nations, and the planet as a whole, secularisation ran ahead of socioeconomic gains. It makes a good case, but I wonder if the measurements of secularisation and socioeconomics it uses are sufficient in scope to tell the horse from the cart in this way. And it is notable that the rapid rise in US nonreligion in the past decade or so, from 30 per cent to 40 per cent, is long after economic modernity.

Ultimately, the analysis suggests that the rise in personal and societal freedoms affects dogmatic spiritualistic religion (the extreme sects, American evangelicals etc) while also promoting capitalism, which tends to make lives better. Add the fast-growing set of nontheistic parents producing nonreligious children, and it looks like a potent feedback.

While we can argue over the details, the analysis is yet another science-based blow to the idea that religion is inherent and vital to individuals and societies. Instead, a world afflicted with religious strife needs to know that there is not a single example of a modern democracy that is highly religious and highly successful.

(This article appeared in print under the headline “Beyond belief” in Science Advances, and in The Week. Gregory Paul is an independent US scientist, author and palaeozoologist).

My comment: I believe one can be kind, thoughtful, generous, respectful, polite, forgiving, a good citizen and neighbor, and (hopefully) good natured without the intervention of a deity and without spending Sunday mornings in church. I personally support the absolute right of anyone to espouse organized religion if that offers peace and reassurance – just don’t sit in judgement of others.

Religious pilgrimages

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There’s plenty of evidence that pilgrimages accelerate the spread of infectious diseases. The Kanwar pilgrimage in India, which attracts millions to the river Ganges, has led to some of the worst mass cholera outbreaks in history; the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca was blamed for a deadly outbreak of bacterial meningitis in 2000.

So it was “common sense” for the Romanian government to ban the recent annual pilgrimage to the city of Iasi, where tens of thousands of Christians from all over the country gather to pray at the tomb of Saint Parascheva. The authorities knew that, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it could be a medical “catastrophe”.

But the Orthodox Church had other ideas. Having built up a “tourist empire” around the pilgrimage, it was loath to lose out on its annual cash injection, and encouraged worshippers to make the journey anyway. Thousands descended on the city, joining a reported 2.5-mile queue to reach the tomb. Some could even be heard chanting “Down with doctors!”.

Alas, an uptick in coronavirus infections is now sure to follow. The Romanian Orthodox Church claims to stand for “morality in society”; its irresponsible behaviour is truly disgraceful. (Alexandru Toma Patrascu, Contributors.ro (Bucharest) and The Week, 24 October 2020)

My comment: Epicureanism is an inclusive, caring philosophy that advocates a pleasant life, caring for others as they care for you. There are too many people who see faith as a weapon to gain power, make money and influence the ignorant. The crass selfishness of a distressingly large number of people throughout the world when it comes to covid 19 illustrates what a huge amount of work there is remaining.

Masks

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Large numbers of people, mostly in the mid-West, refuse to wear masks in public places within and without buildings, claiming that doing so infringes upon their “liberty”, and that mask searing and social distancing is at the “discretion” on the individual (ah! the individual!). This, notwithstanding the raging virus that is filling hospitals and killing people of all ages at an ever-increasing rate, while effete politicians talk about freedom.

Let me try and get this right. May we assume that, for the sake of this argument, most of the mask-deniers are White and call themselves christian. (I haven’t capitalized thais because what they are doing is as un-christian as it comes, selfish and careless of the health of others. These people are complicit in what is in effect a rolling manslaughter).

Pray tell me, what section of the Constitution gives people the right to infect others in the name of liberty? The bible? Where exactly, in the Bible, excerpts of which a majority of these people listen to every Sunday, does it advocate “every man for himself”, and tough on the hundreds of people dying of Covid every day, some of whom you might have infected? I would have thought that refusal to protect others from your disease would be regarded as unchristian, if not unattractive and bloody-minded. The hypocrisy of all too many people is on open display. The “love thy neighbor” bit apparently glazes over the eyes of these people, and is inconvenient. Epicurus believed we should respect and look after others as much as humanly possible, and protect them from harm if we possibly can.

A few quotations from works on Epicurus

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The laws are laid down for the sake of the wise, not to prevent them from doing “wrong , but to keep them from being wronged” (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series).

Happiness and blessedness do not belong to abundance of riches or exalted position or offices or power, but to freedom from pain and gentleness of feeling and a state of mind that sets limits that are in accordance with nature. (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series). Used 11/18/19

“Live your life without attracting attention”.

“In constant motion,atoms collide with each other, and, in certain circumstances, they form larger and larger bodies….the sun and the moon are made of atoms, as are human beings, water, flies and grains of sand.There are no super- categories of matter, no hierarchy of elements. Heavenly bodies are not divine beings who shape our destiny for good or ill. ……they are part of the natural order….subject to the same principle of creation and destruction, they govern everything that exists”. (The Swerve, page 63).

“Great abundance is heaped up as a result of brutalizing labor, but a miserable life is the result”. (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series).

“He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing”. (Vatican sayings, 68)

What the Greek philosopher offered was not help in dying, but help in living. Liberated from superstition, you are free to pursue pleasure. (The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series)

A prescient book written in 2019

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The Monmouth University Polling Institute conducted a poll in 2019. One thousand people were interviewed about their attitude towards religious fundamentalism, ethnocentric prejudice, and their political views and affiliations. The book written on the subject, “Authoritarian Nightmare: Donald Trump and his followers” by John Dean and Bob Altermeyer, was reviewed in the Washington Post on October 4th. The following points are abstracted from that review:

– Most Trump supporters are highly authoritarian and religious. If necessary, were Trump unavailable, they would back another “strong” leader to take his place.

– Trump followers are overwhelmingly concerned about the “corruption” of American society. They don’t care about incompetence and dishonesty and are highly prejudiced against non-Anglo colored people, and would back him just as long as he protected them from the “danger“ of “lawless” minorities and immigrants.

– Trump supporters would support prosecution of his opponents, and would back him in the event that he had purportedly lost re-election in 2020 if he claimed it to be fraudulent. 33% of respondents would “follow him anywhere”.

– Trump Followers would label a Trump loss of office as “fake news”.

They are not self aware, and do not care what people think of them. They assume that the “swamp” occupants look down on them anyway and they don’t care about the views in the outside world, applauding Trump’s treatment of women, the military, immigrants and their children etc.

The book concludes (well before the election) that the US could be facing more strife and existential challenges.

My comment: Relevance to Epicureanism? Solely, peace of mind. I never dreamt I (or anyone else) would bear witness to what suspiciously like an attempted coup in the United States of America. Now, talking heads seem to fear this, too, but can’t believe it is actually happening, enabled by huge numbers of people.

……..and following on from yesterday

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Teen girls’ self-harm crisis

Back in 2018 The Guardian ran an article about social media and a rise in school work being blamed for the doubling of U.K. hospital admissions of teenage girls for self-harm.

According to British National Health Service figures, in the two decades since 1997, the number of girls under 18 admitted rose from 7,327 to 13,463. The figure for boys remained broadly the same. The number of girls being treated for attempted substance overdose rose more than tenfold to 2,736. Research published the previous October found that self-harm reported to GPs among teenage girls under the age of 17 in the UK increased by 68% over a period of three years. The study also found that self-harm among young people aged 10 to 19 was three times more common among girls than boys, and those who self-harmed were at much greater risk of suicide than those who did not (From The Guardian, 6 Aug 2018)

My comment: So two years ago the Press was publishing horror stories about the effects of social media, in this case on girls. Leave aside political lies and fake news for a moment (and that is disgraceful enough, goodness knows) and think about the societal effect of social media on the young. As far as I know nothing has been done about this, not will it because people are making money out of it. (Somebody just phoned me from a research project wanting to talk about social media – I had pleasure in saying I would have nothing to do with it).