KEN RUEGG
VICTIMIZED BY MILLIONS
RECAPITULATION: CONCEPT, TIMESPAN, and USEFULNESS of KNOWLEDGE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             AN EVOLUTION OF BODY AND MIND:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Physical life is totally cellular. Bacteria existed 3.45 billion years ago. The earliest known round cell was discovered in pre-Cambrian rock by Professor Schopf, a paleobotanist, and dated radiometrically at 1.2 billion years old. Man began to develop 3.1 million years ago. Man is physically reasonably complete, but mentally still primitive and very similar in many ways to the Great Apes. HE HASN'T HAD ENOUGH TIME AS YET TO EVOLVE TO HIGHER STAGES OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. CIVILIZATION HAS EXISTED ONLY RECENTLY. MAN LEARNS FROM HIS ENVIRONMENT. If nothing catastrophic happens to the Earth sooner, our sun is a middle-aged star, and will not begin to expand into a red giant, enveloping the Earth within itself, until some 5 billion years from now. I have stated a process through time whereby a larger number of people out of those alive will achieve higher stages of mental development during their lifetimes, and that this process will continue to improve Man's mind, through the more and more advanced environment of ideas created by it, and put here for successive generations to use to develop mentally. HIGHER LEVELS INDICATE A GREATER EXTENT OF THE SAME THING. SUCCESSIVE STAGES ARE QUALITATIVELY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER. EVOLUTION OF BODY AS FOUND IN THE FOSSIL RECORD IS INDICATIVE OF STAGES, WHICH CONTAIN LEVELS. EVOLUTION OF MIND ALSO OCCURS IN STAGES, BUT NOT EVERYONE ALIVE IS AT THE SAME STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT AT ANY GIVEN POINT IN HUMAN HISTORY. THE TYPE OF THINKING AND BEHAVIOR CHARACTERISTIC OF A GIVEN STAGE OF MIND IS A MENTAL SPECIES PECULIAR TO THAT STAGE. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT DEPENDS UPON A DIVERSE, ACCESSIBLE, AND INTERESTING ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH TO THRIVE, AS INDIVIDUALS HAVING A SENSE OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOR. UNIFORMITY OF IDEAS IN A CLOSED MENTAL CULTURE, WHICH SEES PART OR ALL OF THE REST OF HUMANITY AS BEING THERE TO BE USED, OR VICTIMIZED, BY THE MEMBERS OF THAT CLOSED CULTURE, TO GET WHAT THEY WANT BY TAKING IT, IS EXTREMELY DAMAGING, DANGEROUS, AND AT A LOW, PRIMITIVE STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERISTIC OF APES. LARGE NUMBERS OF SUCH PEOPLE TOGETHER, WITH THE INTELLIGENCE AND MEANS AVAILABLE TO THEM TO DO THAT DAMAGE TO THE REST OF US, IN ORDER TO TAKE FOR THEMSELVES AT OUR EXPENSE, CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS IN ALL SORTS OF WAYS (REMEMBER WWII? HOW ABOUT SADDAM HUSSEIN'S INVASION OF KUWAIT? OR OSAMA BIN LADEN'S EGO TRIP? HOW ABOUT THE NORTH KOREANS OR AHMADINEJAD?). EVOLUTION OF MIND WILL OCCUR OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS ANYWAY, AS EVOLUTION OF BODY DID. THINKING MAN, HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS, IF HE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS THE PROCESS, CAN USE THAT KNOWLEDGE BOTH TO AVOID MISTAKES, AND TO FACILITATE AND PROMOTE THE PROCESS ITSELF. HE CAN MAKE IT WORK FASTER, BETTER. FINALLY, THE JUNGLE IS ABOUT TAKING LIFE, NOT SAVING IT. CIVILIZATION IS ABOUT SAVING LIFE, NOT TAKING IT. WE FIGHT WHEN WE MUST TO PROTECT OURSELVES OR OTHERS FROM THOSE WHO SEEK TO VICTIMIZE US. SELF-DEFENSE OCCURS WHEN WE ARE ATTACKED FIRST. IT IS ALWAYS JUSTIFIED. IT IS THE PROTECTION OF INNOCENT HUMAN LIFE. IT MUST BE DONE WITH THE MINIMUM OF FORCE NECESSARY TO STOP AN ATTACK. AMERICAN FORCES DRIVING NORTH DURING THE GULF WAR, STOPPED AT THE BORDER OF KUWAIT WITH IRAQ. "THOU SHALT NOT KILL!" REALLY MEANS, "THOU SHALT NOT MURDER!".