“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." - John F. Kennedy
"Action expresses priorities." - Mahatma Gandhi
Warning:
This post contains disturbing content regarding suicide, domestic violence and nuclear war. The content may not be suitable for all readers.
Part 7 of my personal mental health journey continues ....
Doctor, my eyes have seen the yearsAnd the slow parade of fears without cryingNow I want to understand - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
I'm sitting in my therapist's office. The room is silent except for the ticking of the clock on the wall.
"Something is on your mind", he said studying me carefully, "I'm ready when you are."
"Two things are on my mind", I replied, "The first is an old story about belling the cat."
"I'm not familiar with that story", he said, "But I would love to hear it."
"It goes like this", I began.
"A group of mice were arguing in a mouse hole one day about a cat that had been terrorizing them. With every passing day, the cat would sneak up on one of them without warning and would make off with the unsuspecting victim. The mice were now tired of this and were arguing about what to do about the villain."
"Many ideas were discussed, hotly debated and discarded. Finally, one mouse suggested that if they put a bell on the cat’s neck, then their nemeisis would no longer be able to creep up on them unawares."
"Recognizing the brilliance of the solution, the mice spent considerable time congratulating themselves on how they had solved the problem. When the cacaphony of their celebration subsided, their expressions of self-congratulations were interrupted by a lone voice in the back of the mouse hole."
"'The solution may be brilliant', observed a wise old mouse, 'but who will bell the cat?'"
"Silence filled the mouse hole and eventually the mice went about their business, realizing that there is a big difference between being full of ideas and having the courage to carry them out."
As I completed the story, I took a breath but said nothing.
"Wow", my therapist said, "That's a powerful story. Why is it on your mind?"
"I'm not sure", I replied, "But it may have something to do with this persistent dream I've been having for a couple of weeks."
"Please go on", he urged gently.
"Well", I began, "In my dream, someone ..."
I gestured air quotes around "someone" and paused,
"Someone", I repeated, "Keeps visiting me and insisting that I need to learn something from them, but I'm not sure what that something is."
"Is that all?" he asked.
"No", I replied, hesitating, "Before they tell me that I need to listen, they make a point of showing me some of the things that I have worked on over the years. When they have done that, they tell me that I need to pay attention to the lesson that follows. However, I never remember the lesson, and often I wake up with a start as the dream concludes."
I have done all that I couldTo see the evil and the good without hidingYou must help me if you can - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
"Can you tell me about some of the things that they highlight?" he asked.
"I guess", I replied, "It's a mixed bag of stuff. There was a project where I was helping a client determine the mortality rate of low yield nuclear weapons for major cities in North America. It's pretty complicated when you have family that becomes a statistic in the model that you are working on."
"Excuse me?" he interrupted, "You were doing what?"
I ignored the question and continued.
"Then there were other projects where we helped clients prevent bad events from happening in North America and Europe. I can't really discuss this in detail, but one of my client's favorite tools to motivate us was to send us gruesome pictures of what could happen if we were not successful in a timely fashion."
My therapist stared at me but remained silent.
"How many photos of dead and mutilated bodies have you looked at recently?" I asked nonchalantly.
He shook his head.
"Then there are the projects that I've been involved in around domestic violence", I said, "Helping victims of emotional, physical and financial abuse get out from underneath the people who hurt them."
"I don't want to get into the details of that either", I said, after a brief pause, "But between my team and I, we have helped hundreds of people just with the domestic violence stuff. I have no idea how many thousands of people we have helped with the other projects I mentioned."
I paused before adding, "Mostly women when it comes to domestic violence."
"I see", my therapist said, clearing his throat, "That's quite a list to be carrying in your head. Did your client, as you refer to them, provide emotional support as you performed these tasks?"
"For the things I did that involved them", I replied, "They did, but I think it was more to keep us balanced enough to keep providing solutions to them. I'm not sure that they cared enough about us as human beings."
I paused as I reflected on the help that I had received.
"And", I offered, "I think they used their emotional support to gauge whether or not we were lucid enough to not offer services to someone counter to their interests. That's a guess, though."
Doctor, my eyesTell me what is wrongWas I unwise to leave them open for so long - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
"I can't really get into details", I said, "Sorry. There's a lot more than that but that gives you a sense of what I am carrying around in my head. Maybe it's no wonder I decided to take my own Life. I've spent too much time in the heads of evil people without having someone to share it with so I could release the negative energy I've accumulated."
"I understand", he replied, gently, "Where do you want to go with this?"
"Well", I said, "I look at what's happening all around the world and in our backyard. Nobody seems to care about anything except the color of their next iPhone or what the next vacation they can't afford looks like."
I hesitated.
"A lot of people spending money they don't have on things they don't need", I said, "The banking system is close to ruin, governments have long since lost control of the bus they told us was being driven so skillfully, and the world is close to melting in a number of ways, including a nuclear disaster."
"On top of that", I added, "People in our own society are crushed as debt, violence and drugs overtake their world, while governments attempt to placate public opinion by telling them that these are the best of times. It's becoming more and more the best of times for a select few. While some government agencies promote these days as amazing, people within the same governments plan for the disaster they know will come when the rubber band that is society is stretched too far. How is that for hypocritical?"
"Do you really think that nuclear disaster is close at hand?" he asked, irritating me with the one thing he picked out, "After all, as long as the President is coherent, we will never launch first. I would like to think that the other side has similar controls in place."
I laughed at the idea of finding a coherent President who wasn't controlled by someone with ulterior motives.
"Really?" he asked, surprised, "Why would they take the risk?"
"Because", I said, "Redundancy is essential for assuring a military response if needed. But therein lies the complexity. Too many people can let things fly without authorization from the top."
'Cause I have wandered through this worldAnd as each moment has unfurledI've been waiting to awaken from these dreams - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
"So", I suggested, carefully, "The opportunity for a rogue to start a war is more real than you think. Then you factor in aging systems that are not completely stable. And then, factor in the new missile system, the LGM-35A Sentinel that is being built on IT software that will be nowhere near as tested and secure from outside hackers as the old stuff was. See where I'm going with all of this?"
Neither of us said a word, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
"Can we bring the conversation back to your dreams?" he asked, breaking the silence.
"Sure", I replied.
"Why do you think that you keep dreaming about this stuff over and over?" he asked, "And why do you remember all of that, but when you get to the lesson that you're supposed to take away from your dream, you don't remember that? That, I would think, is the most important part of the dream?"
"If I knew the reason", I replied, a little tartly, "I wouldn't need to talk to you about it."
He ignored my rude remark, but I felt obligated to offer an apology for my sharp answer.
"It's ok", he said, "I see that it's bothering you. There are no judgements in this room."
People go just where they willI never noticed them until I got this feelingThat it's later than it seems - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
Doctor, my eyesTell me what you seeI hear their criesJust say if it's too late for me - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
Doctor, my eyesThey cannot see the skyIs this the prizeFor having learned how not to cry - Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
"Try the technique outlined in this book for a week and we'll see if we can figure out what someone is trying to tell you", he said.
To be continued - hopefully with the answer.
GBSD critics include former Secretary of Defense William Perry; the late Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner; the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL); the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS); the Federation of American Scientists (FAS); and Peace Action. They argue that the new missiles would be not only costly, but also dangerous, increasing the risk of accidentally launching a nuclear war. Critics say that the targeting of ICBM silos, which are supposed to act like a sponge drawing nuclear weapons to deplete Russia's nuclear power, could result in the deaths of more than 10 million people. Ellsberg and author Norman Solomon argue that peace groups must oppose not only the GBSD but also the entire land-based leg of the nuclear triad to reduce the threat of an accidental nuclear war.Physicist David Wright, former co-director of the UCS Global Security Program, in his report Rethinking Land-Based Nuclear Missiles, writes that submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) are as accurate, if not more, than land-based missiles, and are "virtually undetectable," making the ICBMs not only obsolete but also sitting ducks in the five states that house ICBMs. Wright concludes that the vulnerability of ICBMs has prompted the Air Force to keep them on high alert, which is dangerous and could trigger a nuclear war. According to William Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, a president would have only minutes to decide whether to launch ICBMs in a crisis so that the missiles would not be destroyed in a first strike. Source.
The entire series can be found here:
- The Wrong Way to Catch a Bus
- Life: Choices and Possibilities
- Life: Self-Reliance and Courage
- Life: Forgiveness
- Life: Creating Space
- Life: A Question of Free Will
- Life: Who Will Bell the Cat?