THE EARTHIAN — 23

THE EARTHIAN, Number Twenty-Three, Effective Learning Publications, https://effectivelearning.net/effective-learning-publications/ 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, May 8, 2021, Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, Writer, Editor & Publisher   

THE EARTHIAN is a digest of articles containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, analyses, and recommendations concerned about existential states of affairs affecting all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth. Recent articles written and published by intelligent hard-hitting truth-seeking writers in Internet journals about psychological, social, economic, political, military, religious, and ecological states of affairs around Spaceship Earth are posted and linked below as recommended sources of relevant reading to help Earthian humans comprehend larger and larger systems to develop consensual answers for dealing with existential problems.

To comment about this issue of The Earthian in general or any article included please scroll to the top of this page and click on the prompt for ELR Editor’s Daily Shares. Write your comment either at the top of the editor’s Facebook page that will pop up or at the bottom of the specific article you are thinking about that was previously shared on the ELR Editor’s Facebook page that popped up.

“ASK LESS WHAT YOUR NATION CAN DO FOR YOU—ASK MORE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR SPACESHIP EARTHâ€

That object under my left hand in the picture above is a Classroom De-Gamerâ„¢.  It has a spinner attached and there are concentric circles of numbers around its circumference to accommodate different numbers of students in classes. Each student got a number and whoever’s number got selected when the spinner was spun got to be the leader of the moment leading a discussion of assigned reading, mostly long factual cases in my courses. I have published some refereed professional journal articles and book chapters attached as references to this issue of The Earthian explaining how learning De-Gamers de-Game psychological Games in learning situations, including an article I published in 1978 in the Transactional Analysis Journal titled “The Classroom De-Gamer” in which I first explained how and why my invention worked. Learning De-Gamers can work in any situation in which there is teaching and learning going on, involving parents and children in homes, teachers and students in schools, bosses and employees in businesses, preachers and Sunday school teachers and members in churches, and leaders and members in groups and organizations of all kinds.

Learning De-Gamers cathect (activate) all Ego States in all participants. I used a Classroom De-Gamerâ„¢ in my classes thirty-five years producing management learning with university students, and I used one with a large manufacturing corporation, dealing with current problems in a plant with several hundred employees from all functions and levels of the plant, lecturing three hours on transactional analysis concepts and techniques to thirty or so plant employees per group in classes at a university setting and spasmodically applying TA to interrelated plant problems over a five year period on-site on an as needed basis with small mixed groups of ten or so members, with each member of a small group having an equal shot at being selected the leader of the group. Whoever got selected by the plant De-Gamer became the leader of the moment to start a discussion about whatever he or she thought was the most significant problem facing the plant. I wrote about this experience in my ebook Recommendations for Waking Up From the USian Nightmare, at https://www.amazon.com/Recommendations-American-Nightmare-Business-Voyages-ebook/dp/B009TOJVPI .

Learning De-Gamers facilitate a democratic way of teaching and learning involving sortition wherein everyone involved is OK with an equal shot at being the leader of the moment, a process ancient Greeks used to create democratic government during one of the more OK periods of Earthian human history. I think Learning De-Gamers based on sortition should be used around Spaceship Earth today in as many teaching and learning situations as possible, including governmental legislative groups, such as the USian House and Senate.

Learning De-Gamers cause more and better learning to happen by causing Adult Ego States to be cathected (activated) in participants and by preventing the learning process from being corrupted by Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims playing psychological Games. When the Leader of the Moment is randomly selected psychological power struggles do not happen at the start of discussions and participants cooperate from then on.  

For more detail regarding learning de-gamers read the latest episode of my serially published Internet novel, Rout Logger’s Group: A Novel Approach for Increasing Human OKness at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/rout-loggers-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-internet-episode-8/. 

Following are some transactional analysis terms and concepts that might help Earthian humans think and talk more clearly about psychological, social, economic, religious, and political processes that might help develop consensual answers to bring about salutary feeling, thinking, and doing processes around Spaceship Earth for dealing with existential threats such as global warming, climate change, and nuclear war.  

Ego states are states of being including thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, feelings, gestures, body language, and other signals determining how people come across with others in communication episodes that are parent-like, adult-like, or child-like.  People switch ego states depending on who they are communicating with and what sort of circumstances they are in, whether they are parenting, working, socializing, teaching, having fun, or playing Games.  They transmit messages from three ego states in themselves to three ego states in others in pair vectors, Parent-Parent, Adult-Adult, Child-Child, Parent-Child, Child-Adult, Adult-Parent, or whatever possibility.  These transmissions or transactions are especially meaningful in situations in which there is some sort of authoritarian system involved, such as parents parenting children in homes, teachers teaching students in schools, or bosses bossing subordinates in a business, political, religious, or military organization, which normally entail primarily Parent-Child transactions. In most cases the more Adult-Adult transactions there are the better things go in families, schools, businesses, churches, military units, political organizations, and governments. 

A life script diagram shows three stacked circles metaphorically representing Parent, Adult, and Child ego states depicting transactions between real parents and children. The solid lines in the diagram denote overt spoken social messages on vectors from ego states in the parent to ego states in the child, and dotted line vectors denote covert psychological unspoken ulterior messages transmitted from the Child ego state of the parent to the Child ego state of the child. Social messages are verbalized overt auditory messages; psychological messages are covert non-spoken ulterior messages transmitted by body language, emotional states, and after the fact positive or negative stroking as people react to situations and feel and do things.

Strokes are units of recognition.

Scripts in families are created automatically when parents transmit various messages to their children from various ego states socially and psychologically, in and out of awareness.  Scripts are life plans are generally decided before the age of eight by offspring based on script messages transmitted to them by their parents and others.  Since parents by and large transmit the same script messages that were transmitted to them before they were eight years old script messages in families can remain intact for many generations.  According to transactional analysts script decisions made before the age of eight have lasting effects determining three general life outcomes:  winner, loser, and non-winner.  These decisions can be redecided and updated later in life but it’s not easy for most people. 

Psychological Child-Child ego state script injunctions are what cause the most trouble for people in their lives.  These script injunctions forbid appropriate behavior in the here and now. Script injunctions are caused by emotional and behavioral requirements created by families through time as they adapted to and coped with problems and environmental forces that may have been appropriate in past environments, but which are inappropriate and ineffective in different here and now environments. 

Opposing script messages transmitted by parents can put a child in a Not-OK bind in childhood and throughout adolescence, assuming a divorce has not already occurred, causing considerable trouble within a family, since the child cannot please both parents in the presence of both parents, which can put parents in worse Not-OK positions if the child makes a decision about which parent is right, increasing Not-OKness in the family system as a whole.  

What many people need is psychological permission to violate and ignore their psychological outdated obsolete family Child ego state script message Injunctions, not only to increase their own OKness but the OKness of all living members of the family system, and the OKness of Earthian humans in general.

Two common family script Injunctions in most cultures are Don’t Think seriously about the true nature and causes of states of affairs and Don’t Feel certain feelings, such as mad, glad, sad, and scared, when certain things happen in certain environments.

Joe Biden at least socially comes across projecting an I’m OK—You’re OK life position. Donald Trump on the other hand comes across socially and psychologically projecting an I’m OK, my buddy is OK, nothing else is OK, and we are going to make the world pay life position.

Here is some writing of mine based on the teachings of Martin Groder, MD, a founder of transactional analysis and one of my TA mentors, published in my book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2011, pp. 148-150:

“The Human Spectrum

“Humans generally give little thought to what kind of human they are and where they fit in the spectrum of various types of humans. Innumerable philosophers, psychiatrists, social scientists, preachers, priests, writers in various fields, and other types have described and categorized humans in various ways. Following is a schema developed by Martin Groder, MD, a psychiatrist, organizational development consultant, and entrepreneur, who also had an undergraduate degree in physics (Groder, 1977). Groder developed this schema while working with maximum security inmates of the federal prison system at Marion, Illinois in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He was involved in a process of changing hard-core criminals into law-abiding citizens. Such a process would challenge the abilities of the most skillful and powerful of change agents.

“According to Groder, humans vary on two fundamental spatial dimensions. One dimension is Okness, which he estimates on the horizontal axis of Figure 1; the other dimension is the energy level of the individual estimated on the vertical axis of the space.

“People vary in terms of how OK they see, feel about, and experience, (1) themselves, (2) the other individual, (3) their group, (4) other groups, and (5) the world. In Groder’s terms, they are OK or not-OK with respect to I, You, We, They, and It (the world). Groder estimates how OK they are on each of these five existential dimensions on a scale of -1 to +1, -1 being as not-OK as possible and +1 being as OK as possible. Thus people with extremely high self-esteem would exist at the +1 level regarding themselves; someone with extremely low self-esteem would exist at the -1 level regarding themselves. People could exist at any level in between, at -.5, 0, +.25, etc. The same would be true of the positions of specific individuals with respect to buddies on a one-to-one basis, groups with which one belongs, other groups with which your group cooperates or competes, and the world in general. Summing the 5 existential OKness positions for an individual (I, You, We, They, and It), the highest possible OKness rating would be +5 and the lowest possible would be -5. A +5 person would have the highest possible feelings of Okness regarding his or her OKness, the OKness of buddies, the OKness of his group, the OKness of other groups, and the OKness of the world. Such an individual would have very positive feelings and thoughts for self and others. Groder called such people myth-makers. On the other end of the spectrum, a -5 person would have the lowest possible feelings and thoughts for self and others. Very negative people tend to end up in prison. Very positive people tend to end up cultural heroes. Probably the most profitable attitude for an entrepreneur in a capitalistic economic system would be I’m OK, my employees are OK, my company is OK, the world is OK, but my competitors aren’t worth a damn, since this position would motivate his or her sales employees to steal business from competitors to increase the profit of the company.

“Entrepreneurs have higher energy levels than middle managers and normal people. It takes less energy to be a normal person than anything else. Entrepreneurs in Groder’s schema have approximately the same energy level on the vertical axis of Figure 1 as Monsters, the -3 OKness level convict leaders of other convicts. Monsters have the attitude “I’m OK, my buddy is OK, but everything else is not OK, and I am going to make the world pay.†According to Groder, it’s more difficult to change the energy level of a human than the OKness position. In rehabilitation work, Groder attempted to arc people across the gap of Figure 1, and make +3 OKness level entrepreneurs out of -3 monsters, +2 OKness middle managers out of -2 OKness creeps, slobs, lunch buckets, etc. Sometimes people arc across the gap the other way. Honest entrepreneurs can turn criminal. Entrepreneurs are winner-survivors; Monsters are loser-survivors.â€

The trick to it all is setting appropriate goals and objectives, doing what you really want to do, can do, and should do given your natural abilities, scripting, and education, and the requirements and options of your environment that will produce satisfaction for you. How much money you get your hands on in the process beyond a certain level necessary to satisfy needs for food, clothing, shelter, belonging, and good health is irrelevant, if you aren’t addicted to playing psychological Games caused by poor scripting. Most really rich people are playing a psychological Game called BALANCE SHEET, a Parent ego state Game in which the winner thinks s/he wins by piling up more money on a balance sheet than others.

 I became a certified transactional analyst in education and organizations, a CTA, after passing written, oral, and experiential comprehensive exams administered by the International Transactional Analysis Association in 1978, after undergoing three years of once-a-month training, all day Saturday and half of Sunday, at the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I have covered ego states, scripts, Games, and OKness in my books Business Voyages  and Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning,  listing common Parent ego state script messages and Child ego state injunctions.  All parents do not transmit the same script messages creating considerable variety among family scripts and outcomes.  Certain life scripts conveniently fit certain roles, jobs, professions, careers, and what have you more than others, providing fresh recruits already scripted for job openings, slots, roles, and positions in an economy, which is fine so long as the economy does not change very much.  In recent years in the United States the offshoring of high wage blue collar jobs to foreign low wage countries and the use of more and more automation has rendered many family scripts obsolete. 

A bitter pill for some people to swallow postulated in my books Business Voyages and Born to Learn is that everything that happens is either predetermined or accidental and therefore no one is to blame or praise. Believing and acting otherwise will perpetuate the same sorry I’m OK—You’re Not OK life position that has bedeviled humankind since time immemorial.

For more information regarding my use of Transactional Analysis  https://www.itaaworld.org/  to create better discussion groups and democratic processes read my book Born to Learn:  A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.  https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331 

For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems using transactional analysis read my book   Business Voyages:  Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds    https://www.amazon.com/Business-Voyages-Schemata-Discovering-Co-Constructing/dp/1413480810

Read my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,† https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/   for some management science ideas on how human Earthians might eventually co-construct an economic system that is viable and satisfying for everyone aboard Spaceship Earth, making it possible for all Earthian humans to develop an I’m OK—You’re OK life position. 

This entails Earthians peacefully reducing through natural attrition the human population aboard Spaceship Earth, never doing work that machines can do better, and delegating the day-to-day management of systems for scheduling, producing, and distributing the necessities of life to artificial intelligence programs and supercomputers.

This is possible based on the general algorithmic matrix algebra form

Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi

as I explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.†  https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/  

Flying aboard an airliner about to land at night moving at four hundred miles an hour at thirty thousand feet with cloudy and rainy weather below, which would you rather have landing the plane, the plane’s radar and computer system or the pilot and co-pilot, seeing nothing out their windows but clouds and lightning?

The main reason however for turning over the scheduling, production, and distribution of the necessities of life to AI robots and magnum computers is that they do not get greedy and power hungry or play psychological Games. Thus far in human history sooner or later corrupt Not-OK leaders atop large organizations such as countries, large corporations, and big banks got control acting out their life scripts playing psychological Games, hogging all the power and money they could get their hands on for themselves and their cronies, ruining everything for everyone. AI robots and computers are not egotistical.

I am indebted to Buckminster Fuller for teaching me in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth the airplane-landing metaphor in the above paragraph and for planting seeds for other ideas in my essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,†such as computers being the best hope for mankind and humans not doing work machines can do better, being paid to think instead with what Fuller called mind grants. Fuller said unemployment all around Spaceship Earth could be eliminated overnight with mind grants. To my knowledge Fuller was the inventor of the appellations Earthian and Spaceship Earth.   

For details regarding my transactional analysis and management science qualifications see my RJS Academic Vita at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/rjs-academic-vita/ .   

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum/ go to our RESPONSES page and let us know about them at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/responses/ .

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Feel free to forward, share, post, print, or otherwise circulate this edition of The Earthian any way you see fit.  

Born to Learn has not been a best seller but it has had some impact as this review in the Texas Tribune shows at https://www.texastribune.org/2016/10/26/bookshelf-oct-26-2016/?fbclid=IwAR3ctGFk_zCH5QOyvLjqUiulkAcEPUQ4deUq1-tZIS6OuwaYhI-bmrM4Ebw . A German orthopedic surgeon discounted Born to Learn with a customer review at Amazon.com, causing the book to be algorithmically lowered from a five star to a three star Amazon rating. The orthopedic doctor said I did not “come across†like a real transactional analyst, the book title promised more than it delivered, and he could understand why some students did not like my teaching. Seems to me the Kirkus review in the Texas Tribune is fair and accurate. Both reviews comment on admittedly a debatable issue with Born to Learn: Is the book useful only for teachers and students in schools or is it useful for all teachers and learners, including parents and children in homes, bosses and employees in businesses, preachers and Sunday school teachers and members in churches? Is it useful for leaders and members learning in all kinds of groups and organizations, boy and girl clubs, civic clubs, chambers of commerce, street gangs, political parties, military units, and governments? I say it can be useful in all organizations and groups and can help increase human OKness.

Read both reviews above for yourself and write a review of Born to Learn at Amazon.com.( https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510510282&sr=8-1&keywords=born+to+learn++++richard+john+stapleton&dpID=414yiE-4%252BIL&preST=SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40&dpSrc=srch ). The more reviews the better.

Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning by Richard John Stapleton was featured in “20 Great Indie Books Worth Your Time,†in Kirkus Reviews, VOL. LXXXV, NO 21, 1 November 2017, Page 130:

“Illuminating if quirky at times; insightful eye-opening observations about the interplay of teachers and students in the classroom. A refresher course in Transactional Analysis emphasizes its application in the classroom.â€

SOURCE READING FOR THIS ISSUE OF THE EARTHIAN

May 12, 2021

Would you believe this?

“America is Not a Racist Country,†by Courtenay Barnett and George Garwood, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/america-is-not-a-racist-country/.

May 10, 2021

The USian government has decided waging war is far less dangerous for the USian economy than waging peace.

“Programmed for War,†by William Astore, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/10/programmed-for-war/?fbclid=IwAR1tIlzjOp4pwKXQT4Ejf1vUX8DUSqvPIUV6Kh5lgFTPLgilnjTh2wNt81U.

May 10. 

Yeah, right, what do you really think is the problem and the alternatives, and what do you recommend for the best way forward?

“Venezuelas: And Yet It Moves,†by Chris Gilbert, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/10/venezuela-and-yet-it-moves/?fbclid=IwAR0iWd69bkpxMMCropv6y2PaKXKB9v3sWnrHuFvlBJVVYQbsjUUubtQ4AE8.

May 8

Give a shout out to the French Revolution of 1789, but cringe about its aftermath. Let us all grieve together that Spaceship Earth today should not evolve and degenerate similarly. Let us grieve that Biden does not become another Napoleon Bonaparte. Seems to me Earthian humans need no more republic democracies. They need real democracies. This article is by far the best summary explanation of French Revolution stadia I have read.

“Napoleon Between War and Revolution,: by Jacques R. Pauwels, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/07/napoleon-between-war-and-revolution/?fbclid=IwAR3Vpp_VWhU5rGXulpwE8zeYW3LIzDbLeyi-74FQ9NLbArFE0g8s4SVYgE4/.

May 8

If Trump and his big lie and his insurrection against the Usian govt would not cause repugs to lose government seats what would?

“Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ Could Hurt Republicans in 2033, GOP Pollster Says,†by Chris Walker, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-big-lie-could-hurt-republicans-in-2022-gop-pollster-says/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR3LMjRC_HDrGVY27_B6zdZ9tbagdk4x3iHhd4vOhIgcbpjgtcnCN35Smfs/.

May 8

Whoopee!

“Nearly half of Americans think they’re a better person than EVERYONE they know!, by Chris Melore, STUDYFINDS, https://www.studyfinds.org/half-americans-think-better-person-than-everyone/?fbclid=IwAR1VsTv-wwe5P7H7EJ2vMaFXelHPLiSl_LxBbRznpRXbDFvZhojlAveTx7I.

May 6

Out on a limb, you might say

Grundlach—”Between the stimulus checks, which were supposed to be temporary, and all the expansions of unemployment and other benefits, the percent of personal income comprised of government payments soared, something we also saw in recent spending data when we observed that 34% of household spending last month came from the government.

“A lot of weird things happened once the pandemic hit….it was a steady march to dependency on the government by a larger and larger fraction of the US population went absolutely vertical what this chart represents is what percent of personal income which is a government statistic what percentage of government of of personal income is made up of government giveaways which we call transfer payments back in the 60s it was down near five percent.

“The trillions in Congressionally-approved payments caused the deficit, already blown out under President Trump, to widen further.”

“Gundlach Warns America’s ‘Unfunded Liabilities’ Are $163 Trillion, More Than 5x National Debt,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/gundlach-warns-americas-unfunded-liabilities-are-163-trillion-more-5x-national-debt?fbclid=IwAR08Cr0LZ5QMnZJArJmb7nea3NQ5IHoYR_67ALJ8L7Ca79Df4jcaJCsTlLA.

May 5

A must read for any thinking person.

“Escobar: The Brave New Cancel Culture World,†by Pepe Escobar, THE ASIA TIMES, https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-brave-new-cancel-culture-world?fbclid=IwAR2ML3WWtUDIpOIE3FO449GWpW4W01Kh_KxA3xpuQN2fkrsbjp27qqt0txg.

May 5

Now here is an interesting read for you. A major irony is that a dictatorial lawgiver is required to install democracy, such as Rout Logger in my serial Internet novel in progress, “Rout Logger’s Group: A Novel Approach for Increasing Human OKness.

“The Laws,†by Plato, INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY, https://iep.utm.edu/pla-laws/?fbclid=IwAR08Cr0LZ5QMnZJArJmb7nea3NQ5IHoYR_67ALJ8L7Ca79Df4jcaJCsTlLA.

May 5

Here’s more than you probably wanted to know about what the USian senate is up to regarding China. Read the whole senate bill for yourself.

Pepe Escobar—

“The concomitant wishful thinking envisages a world economy that will “move closer to a cleaner capitalist modelâ€. One of its features is a delightfully benign Council for Inclusive Capitalism in partnership with the Catholic Church.

“As much as the pandemic – the “opportunity†for the Reset – was somewhat rehearsed by Event 201 in October 2019, additional strategies are already in place for the next steps, such as Cyber Polygon, which warns against the “key risks of digitalizationâ€. Don’t miss their “technical exercise†on July 9th, when “participants will hone their practical skills in mitigating a targeted supply chain attack on a corporate ecosystem in real time.â€

“A New Concert of Powers?

“Sovereignty is a lethal threat to the ongoing cultural revolution. That concerns the role of the European Union institutions – especially the European Commission – going no holds barred to dissolve the national interests of nation states. And that largely explains the weaponizing, in varying degrees, of Russophobia, Sinophobia and Iranophobia.

“The anchoring essay in Raging Twenties analyzes the stakes in Eurasia exactly in terms of the Hegemon pitted against the Three Sovereigns – which are Russia, China and Iran.

“It’s under this framework, for instance, that a massive, 270-plus page bill, the Strategic Competition Act , has been recently passed at the US Senate. That goes way beyond geopolitical competition, charting a road map to fight China across the full spectrum. It’s bound to become law, as Sinophobia is a bipartisan sport in D.C.”

“S.1169—Strategic Competition Act of 2021,†by the 117^th Congress, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1169/text?fbclid=IwAR0nQK9uFfyEEuJq0EluNTzl9Mo_sHSqj29XV2Dagrb4s0IY_HRoK6gq3pk.

May 5

So it seems

“Time for a great reset of the financial system: A 30-year debt supercycle that has fuelled inequality illustrates the need for a new regime,,†by Chris Watling, FINANCIAL TIMES, https://www.ft.com/content/39c53b9f-f443-4dde-9cdb-07e8999ec783?fbclid=IwAR1FJ3WgTIspGNEsqKUZj4MyCqsSVbc6GaEDckhBQL3oOYN-_d4yy4w0yCI.

May 5

If most repugs are unethical enough or gullible enough to believe Trump’s ‘big lie’ that the election was stolen from him then they can believe any lie McConnell tells them.

“Sanders Accuses McConnell of Hypocrisy and Corruption in Scathing KY Speech,†by Sharon Zhang, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-accuses-mcconnell-of-hypocrisy-corruption-in-scathing-kentucky-speech/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR2ML3WWtUDIpOIE3FO449GWpW4W01Kh_KxA3xpuQN2fkrsbjp27qqt0txg.

May 5

Say it aint so Joe

“Epic New Documentary Series Exposes Brutality of European Colonialism Worldwide,†by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, DEMOCRACY NOW, https://truthout.org/video/epic-new-documentary-series-exposes-brutality-of-european-colonialism-worldwide/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR0ZzobZ-KxLHgG5EwElVEobRqGC-5zD9CR14pu3FciLbBl89unwf3nw7Pw.

May 3

A paean to serious hard manual work, which a smaller percentage of humans do anymore, because there is less hard human manual work per capita to do anymore, AI robots having taken over more and more hard labor lately.

“In the Smithy of His Soul: A Steel Worker and Scholar,†by Peter Linebaugh, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/30/in-the-smithy-of-his-soul-a-steel-worker-scholar/?fbclid=IwAR0y2q-hh15lBe9L2OqIaStuuSb27Yd0xJcrVZ9e0zvt3Aer60b61juKnVs.

May 3

Declaring and waging peace is thought to be more dangerous than declaring and waging war for the Usian economy.

“American-Style War Until the End of Time,†by Tom Englehardt, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/30/american-style-war-until-the-end-of-time/?fbclid=IwAR3qN2dmO9sfH25gIYXKXWciy6yJ6gB8xwp2A7WHHbpPynSrRY9VNX2i1mQ.

May 2

Words of wisdom from an elder USian economic myth-maker

“’Bernie Sanders Has Won’: Munger Says Millennials Will Have ‘A Hell of A Time Getting Rich Compared to Our Generation’,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bernie-sanders-has-won-munger-says-millennials-will-have-hell-time-getting-rich-compared?fbclid=IwAR3qN2dmO9sfH25gIYXKXWciy6yJ6gB8xwp2A7WHHbpPynSrRY9VNX2i1mQ.

May 1    

Never heard of hail like this before. Climate change anyone?

“Hailstorms Bombard Texas, Oklahoma, Causing Billions of Dollars in Damage,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/hailstorms-bombard-texas-oklahoma-causing-billions-dollars-damage?fbclid=IwAR2wyomw6N6Ba7kfI9FUG_pR-BYw-sT9DyrRLiJqclXhVSEu0TAgwZ1UBs0/.

May 1   

Sounds too good to be true, but if true, would it be worth it, counting the total cost of the fuel necessary to produce the laser beams, including environmental degradation costs caused by the fuel feedstock production process?

“Farm Robot Zaps Weeds With High-Powered Lasers, Eliminates Need for Toxic Herbicides,†ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/farm-robot-zaps-weeds-high-powered-lasers-eliminates-need-toxic-herbicides?fbclid=IwAR0ROnkIGsxDShrj1_Pj51QxA3eVTJqV3K0ZL-P1Q75lniwdAk-3b4hgmCw/.

April 29

Is money now worthless as an investment? Pretty hard to live on your savings if money pays zero in interest.

“US Sells Treasury Bills at 0% For The First Time Since The Covid Crash,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-sells-treasury-bills-0-first-time-covid-crash?fbclid=IwAR2eA8-xQWKfsN44nTMDBr07bl023h7PN9_NhX8r1i66dMvIt0wOH-TAmSw.

April 28

In this well-conducted U-Tube round table discussion some big brains two years ago at Davos discuss what they knew about what’s going to happen. Not much has changed since then economically or politically besides deposing Trump.

“Is Another Financial Crisis Looming? Tom Keene, David Rubenstein & Experts Debate,†WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, Davos 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WOs6S0VrlA.

April 28

During the last five years common sense and good conservative judgment did not pay off in the USian economy. A few unethical reckless fools were the big winners.

“Value Investing Icon Jumps Off Manhattan Skyscraper To His Death After Liquidating Fund,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/value-investing-icon-jumps-manhattan-skyrscraper-his-death-days-after-liquidating-fund?fbclid=IwAR3ypB355KSWduPasEfsP-0K40xEGmR7j_2cA3IkhZWWQC4bzIFKNvQIM-w.

April 28

Best summary of the problem I have read

“Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?,†BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, https://thebulletin.org/2021/02/why-is-america-getting-a-new-100-billion-nuclear-weapon/?fbclid=IwAR2eA8-xQWKfsN44nTMDBr07bl023h7PN9_NhX8r1i66dMvIt0wOH-TAmSw#.YIlBAaHfje8.facebook.

April 28

Truth is dangerous. That’s why it’s so hard to find in political states of affairs. Better to believe and espouse pleasant falsehoods than to wind up a dead or abandoned hero. Necessary lies they are sometimes called.

“The incompetent, negligent, mishandling, miscalculating elite blunderers,†by Edward Curtin, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/32313.

April 27

I taught three months at Incirlik in the fall of 1982 for Troy State.

“Key U.S. air base in Turkey sits on property stolen from Armenians during the genocide,†by David Boyajian, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/32305.

April 26

Here’s a U-Tube discussion with two of the best storytellers around Spaceship Earth discussing free speech and democracy worldwide. Well worth a look and listen.

“Elif Shafak and Wole Soyinka: Studio B: Unscripted,†AL JAZEERA ENGLISH, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcUANjP_6o.

April 25

The FBI finally admitted it was investigating this case all along, a fact withheld till now. Most likely Hillary is again railing against a vast right wing conspiracy persecuting her and Bill.

“FBI Releases Documents on Investigation into Death of DNC Staffer Seth Rich,†by Zachary Stieber, THE EPOCH TIMES, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-releases-documents-investigation-death-dnc-staffer-seth-rich?fbclid=IwAR2AHmFPohpuJpIe3h0cTLA9g3HAQePYNAj9Fk9lJld0ptCyzUV7o5Ajmt4.

April 24

Another interesting and relevant perspective by Paul Street

“Slaves to the Constitution,†by Paul Street, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/23/slaves-to-the-constitution/?fbclid=IwAR35WGGUKvJBqxfsOj5gH3El6jWyYWkU-LCsEKlG_NkImiyJfnHQ2dVnqyg.

April 24

As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.â€

“Reject Greenwashing. At This Point, Only An Ecological Revolution Will Do,†by William Rivers Pitt, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/reject-greenwashing-at-this-point-only-an-ecological-revolution-will-do/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR25noW43PcqStdfnrvh85XNriqPUb-Yho42GO9LP1pu2juYrx91yy5Fhew.

April 24

Who started it? They started it, of course!

“The Rising Threat of Nuclear War Is The Most Urgent Matter In The World,: by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM, https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/the-rising-threat-of-nuclear-war-is-the-most-urgent-matter-in-the-world-d39336f7e442.

April 23

Hopefully it means increased OKness

“What Chauvin’s Conviction Means for Black Communities,†by Kerry Mitchell Brown, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/21/what-chauvins-conviction-means-for-black-communities/?fbclid=IwAR2mla-iYBTo15ok0SMVuvDQCDL4pf3QrYe_ZlChYSzI92m3HuYEMzI2Fts.

April 23

Why produce the documentary now?

“Ken Burns; and Lynn Novick’s ‘Hemingway’: Nobody Called Him Ernie,†by Jonah Raskin, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/18/ken-burns-and-lynn-novicks-hemingway/?fbclid=IwAR18TqR7aGtG2eTgNqHsTRmqQgrJT1fkOdZ6S6Fpl1zdxRu1FiWz1uPNmXs.

April 23

Capitalism may be the worst system, but none of the alternative economic systems have worked either, so far.

“The ‘Innocence’ of Early Capitalism is Another Fantastical Myth,†by Pete Dolack, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/18/the-innocence-of-early-capitalism-is-another-fantastical-myth/?fbclid=IwAR3koTC5ovIdOaUtUtjG60Z_PKYkQsA-zG0DCwBC5dwQI83AtSGAayeEMvU.

April 23

Never knew this before

“How ‘representative’ is US democracy?,†by Thomas L Knapp, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/32281/.

April 23

Say it aint so Joe

“Comply or die: The only truly compliant person in a police state is a dead one,†by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/32288.

April 21

Sounds like Dr Strangelove stuff to me. Now we have to worry about what mere “adversaries” might dream up to do to us, so we should give the Pentagon all the money they want to protect us.

“US Strategic Command Issues Random Warning Over Nuclear Strike,†by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-strategic-command-issues-random-warning-over-nuclear-strike-enemys-least-bad-option?fbclid=IwAR3ypB355KSWduPasEfsP-0K40xEGmR7j_2cA3IkhZWWQC4bzIFKNvQIM-w.

April 21

This was news to me last night. According to O’Donnell the Minneapolis police department told the public Floyd had died of heart problems while being transported to a hospital in an ambulance before learning of the existence of the video recording showing what really happened.

“If not for a teenager’s recording of George Floyd’s murder, the world would have believed the police lie,†MSNBC Daily, https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/if-not-for-a-teenager-s-recording-of-george-floyd-s-murder-the-world-would-have-believed-the-police-lie-110564933535?fbclid=IwAR1Nkk1qPrwmCcZUynBRtEsPepztuWrru9u028LSbyS5Xrz0d7ir6icQ99I.

April 20

Won’t be the end of real america. American history should start with native history, including not only the natives of the USian part of North America but also including the natives of the rest of North America and the natives of Central and South America. Hubristic limited European-USians are so mistaught in families, schools, churches, newspapers, and in Internet memes they believe they are the only “americans” aboard Spaceship Earth. All three of the above continents were delineated after Amerigo Vespucci landed in what is now known as Central America in 1497, discovering what he called a “New World,” after sailing west from Europe to reach the east, specifically India, European humans by 1497 having mustered the courage to test the theory Earth was a globe by sailing on and on in wooden ships farther than the eye could see across the Atlantic Ocean, causing the extermination in the next few centuries of most of the millions of native inhabitants of the “new” world, who had been there for over a thousand years.

There never was an “America”. What the author refers to here as “America” is a part of the North American continent now known as the United States of America, maybe one fourth of the land mass discovered by Amerigo Vespucci. However, assuming the author of this post is right, it is sad the USian part of North America is ending. In any event it seems to me it’s about time USian schools, parents, teachers, professors, writers, newspapers, etc. started teaching the truth about the matter of what america is by giving natives that had been in North, Central, and South America more credit and consolation for what they did and what happened to them before and after the Europeans arrived. They also need to stop calling USian History American History. Surely the inhabitants of non-USian territory in the Americas also contributed something to real American History on three continents. Most USians, alas, seem to hubristically think they are the only Americans aboard Spaceship Earth that count.

“The End of America?,†by Naomi Wolf, AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH, https://www.aier.org/article/the-end-of-america/?fbclid=IwAR1kYf7M67q42I5K1FV9dgGtZ2AzBqM9cAkKJJLC-X0UPAeFQw-l71IkQmI.

April 19

There should be no place aboard Spaceship Earth for hate.

“The Spread of Global Hate,†by John Feffer, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/19/the-spread-of-global-hate/?fbclid=IwAR0O62Kli5XwO5SWJmapeIYFBZodnCvlln7KesMgN9qakwEwjTi1hhGhmt4.

April 19

Hate should become a barbaric relic, but it won’t so long as massive psychological, social, economic, and political injustice exists.

“What Einstein and Freud can teach us about the psychology of hate,†by Bill Blum, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/32231.

April 19

But what can a therapist do about it?

“Therapists Are Seeing More Patients Struggle With Climate Anxiety,†by Isobel Whitcomb, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/therapists-are-seeing-more-patients-struggle-with-climate-anxiety/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR0au2BgfDMeu5fQFF8D1AUS-83PIO7Z6kPkTXWvtEFRWbNnkBa3suxSzoc.

April 17

Another cogent relevant article by Michael Hudson, one of the greatest economists alive. But even he does not seem to know what america is in his title for his article.

“America’s Neoliberal Financialization Policy vs. China’s Industrial Socialism,†by Michael Hudson, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/16/americas-neoliberal-financialization-policy-vs-chinas-industrial-socialism/?fbclid=IwAR1xw837AEbM-qNNesIeDUv-BbI6Uv4UBxAORl1v557-ISBvQUrxlPdfZUA.

April 17

You don’t say

“Pentagon: Unclear if Contractors Will Leave Afghanistan,†by Dave DeCamp, ANTIWAR.COM, https://news.antiwar.com/2021/04/16/pentagon-unclear-if-contractors-will-leave-afghanistan/?fbclid=IwAR3-2Z99oZl3kTGWpZx2Q8QsqIjitQPW7Nsp1_EGDNuyan3wIjsTSGHNB_c.

April 17

Now here is some truth for you if you can believe it. The bottom line: Who can you trust and believe?

“Greenwald: Journalists, Learning They Spread A CIA Fraud About Russia, Instantly Embrace A New One,†by Glenn Greenwald, ZEROHEDGE, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/greenwald-journalists-learning-they-spread-cia-fraud-about-russia-instantly-embrace-new?fbclid=IwAR0IUJc_inxNj9o8BGXiFvcxjn0EOy1n8-n4IqqlHryn5XjWqwQbd-vSWbE.

April 16

Great article and discussion

“Yet Another Imperialist Occupation of Afghanistan Ends in Disaster,†by Craig Murray, CRAIGMURRAY.COM, https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/04/yet-another-imperialist-occupation-of-afghanistan-ends-in-disaster/?fbclid=IwAR2AHVV5PALFgpDVuVabI2OXL7_u88w5JSmQhaFy6bX3SL2AsTiN_jkOqeA.

April 11

Rout Logger’s Group: A Novel Approach for Increasing Human OKness is a work in progress. While settings, plots, theories, objects, and narratives in this novel may be loosely analogous to the same that have happened in various realities, the names, actions, and attributions of characters cast herein are fictional. All parts of this novel will be published in the Effective Learning Report at various intervals on the Internet, subject to revision at any time, hopefully culminating in a final print edition offered to the public.

Copyright 2020 by Richard John Stapleton, Effective Learning Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this Internet novel may be copied or printed on paper without permission. Share on the Internet as you wish.

To refresh yourself about what happened in earlier episodes, go to the following website addresses:

Internet Episode 1, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-part-1/.   

Internet Episode 2, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-episode-2/.

Internet Episode 3, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-episode-three/.

Internet Episode 4, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-episode-four/.

Internet Episode 5, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-internet-episode-five/.

Internet Episode 6,  https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-internet-episode-six/  

Internet Episode 7, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/rout-loggers-group-to-save-spaceship-earth-internet-episode-7/

A list of names of forty cast characters with a short biographical blurb about each is presented in Internet Episode 1.

“Rout Logger’s Group: A Novel Approach for Increasing Human OKness—Internet Episode 8,†by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVELEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/rout-loggers-group-a-bright-idea-to-save-humanity/?fbclid=IwAR0au2BgfDMeu5fQFF8D1AUS-83PIO7Z6kPkTXWvtEFRWbNnkBa3suxSzoc.