Opinion/Editorial

 IMPACT

The earth travels through its circuitous route around the sun, plowing a path through the vastness of a vacuum so intense, that space is often referred to as a void, nothingness, or the void among the stars. Space, however, is filled with vibrations of electricity, magnetic emanations, radiation and all sorts of potentially harmful vibrations. What protects the inhabitants of earth from these lethal rays and vibrations is a protective sphere surrounding the planet referred to as earth’s magnetosphere. Once the concept of this magnetosphere is absorbed and adjusted to by human beings, it becomes relatively easy to use the concept of this moving protective shield in human interaction and behavior.

Human MagnetosphereHuman beings have magnetospheres. There can be little doubt that humans travel through life on the surface of the planet with the same offensive and defensive weaponry inherent to the planet itself. For years’ social theory has laid out theoretical hypothesis after hypothesis about the existence of the projection of human personality, intellect, and fight or flight mentality constructs to explain and describe the survival strategies that have led first to mankind’s survival, and then triumph over all other animal kingdoms, and then later hierarchal relationships between groups and tribes strewn across vastly different cultures and social orders. None of the constructs have been completely successful in explaining how a relatively unprotected species, without obvious talents, except possibly an extraordinarily high intellect, could accomplish such dominating and total success.

There is one success strategy that could explain human dominance over all other species and animal cultures. Impact. That strategy is an ability granted exclusively to the higher human intellect, the ability of individual humans to project his or her will upon all other living things. The impact of human personality, and applied will power, to effect everything is totally pervasive but seldom discussed. Why is it that humans have been inspired to make decisions, on a regular basis, to sacrifice themselves individually for the greater good or the greater number?

The power of the individual to effect life has been lessened by advancing technology. Individual expertise and intelligence has been reduced in significance by additive programs delivered through robotics, computers, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Today, for example, the need to remember how to spell most words of any written or spoken language is less because spelling is either done automatically, corrected by writing programs, or fact-checked online almost instantly. The need to carry extensive vocabularies in human memory banks has been disturbed. The ability to speak effectively to large or small groups of other humans has been minimized by tele-prompters and speechwriters. Today’s speeches are often delivered as if they are being made off the cuff by the speaker who is saying them, then and there, when that’s not true. The untruth of public speaking has been accepted, however, as if it is truth. What was once an area of plagiarism in writing and spoken words has become acceptable. Most Hollywood scripts are not written by the people named in the credits. Many well known contemporary writers do not write beyond one best-selling book. Those people have paid ghost writers who sign confidentiality agreements promising they’ll never reveal the truth.

When there is no truth demanded, or when there is consequently no truth expected, then there is no human impact one person can make upon other humans. No leadership qualities stand out for selection when all qualities are deemed and accepted to be false. The latest presidential election gives truth to this statement. The person deemed to be the least obnoxious liar, by most of the population, was elected. By today’s accepted social standards, lying is not something someone does that is exclusionary. There is no real penalty for lying to the public, and in fact, the most effective liar is likely to be the successful candidate for a leadership role, as all of us saw in this presidential election.

To have impact, humans are being forced to grow voluntarily silent, as the outspoken voices around them drone on and on and on into an enforced fragmented and lying silence. Where eloquence was once a sign of high intellect, integrity and a mentally agile mind, the times of modernity require that opinions, no matter how valid and apropos, must be kept inside. Or does it?

To stand and deliver is a phrase as old as the English language, and much older than America which is founded upon those words. To have an impact today, as in every era before, a human must stand and say something of import. Something of such import that change can be understood, and then taken. Without the willingness of people to set aside the tele-prompters, and speech-makers, there will be no core of new leadership stepping up to find ways to accommodate life’s current and staggering changes.

‘Have something to say,’ which means study and learn from what has come before.
‘Say something of original merit,’ which means having the courage to present formative thoughts.
‘Do not accept a future where phony presentations and enforced silence rules our days.’
Have an impact.
Stand and deliver.
~ James Strauss

Winston Churchill and Enemies

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