Can it Happen Here?

I have never been prouder of the media and the judicial branch of our government.  They are saving the country from a maniacal tyrant by standing up for truth and justice at a time when we need it most.  When our president burst on the scene after his inauguration by sticking to the radical tenets of his base instead of working with the opposition, I and many others feared the possibilities of a totalitarian state coming into existence.  The president censored his own media outlets, tried to close our borders, and intimidate the opposition by threatening with enemy lists.  Fake terror was also used in places like Bowling Green and Atlanta- textbook methods of using fear to work out an agenda of attaining control.  When a judge stood up against the travel ban and the media refused to be intimidated, it proved to me that our bill of rights has stood the test of time.  And that Sinclair Lewis was wrong- maybe it can't happen here: "it" referring to a fascist dictatorship, like in Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy. 

But I still think it can happen.  I'm about halfway through the Sinclair novel.  What our president failed to achieve in his drive for supremacy is either a thuggish police force or the backing of the military.  In the book, president Windrip was able to mold his "corpocracy" by gaining the allegiances of ex-cons, who solidified into an army called the Minutemen.  This is similar to how Hitler was able to silence his opposition by use of force with the SS.  Immediate promotions were given to criminals and thugs who showed their unyielding loyalty.  Journalists were imprisoned and the courts were over-run.  In our lovely democracy, the military is required to take precedence over judicial decisions, not executive ones.  That is the crucial difference between ours and Lewis' dystopia- he failed to address how the military would be outmaneuvered from these laws by a quasi police force. 

What would have happened if Trump hadn't been leashed in by the media and judiciary branch?  I imagine he would have gone as far as he could go without getting the military involved in domestic issues.  He hasn't even tried reaching out to them, which is a very good thing.  The travel ban would have been expanded until all immigration was likely banned.  Facts would have become meaningless.  Anything he'd say would be true to his base (but let's face it, it is anyway).  The difference is he wouldn't be facing so much scrutiny as a result.  As long as we can fight him with laws and facts, we should be safe.  This will just be a bump in the road, in our long way to progress.  It looks like much of the world realizes that; that after 4 years (God forbid, 8) we will learn from our great mistake and elect someone who is actually qualified for the position. 

Why Humans Stretch

After running today, I had a nice stretching session.  In the midst of a stretch, it occurred to me that animals never do it.  Humans are the only species that stretch because we are so hell-bent on perfection that we are constantly over-exerting our bodies, whether for athletic ambitions or just to look good.  The struggle for physical perfection is caused by our unique vanity; winning trophies and looking attractive has inspired so many people to stress their bodies that it's a wonder why we never pause and ask ourselves why animals are so humble that they don't even bother. 

A better reason though, is that we humans also consume an excessive amount of food, which means we have more energy to expend.  Other species usually find food to be scarce, so they are forced to spend more time conserving energy than us.  Being at the top of the food chain has given us this privilege, though it also means that stretching helped get us there.  Humans are famed for being one of the most durable species in the animal kingdom, and stretching has a lot to do with that.  Stretching helps our muscles recover from exercise faster, and helps prevent injury.  It probably began when we figured out that we could run a lot farther to scavenge food if we stretched their muscles more.  On the other hand, animals probably never had the mental ability to figure out how stretching could help them, so their endurance has always been poor compared to ours. 

This could mean that despite our lazy reputation for seeking comfort in the modern age- and therefore being less active than in the past- humans are actually the most efficient species ergonomically.  Stretching means that our endurance is second to none, and may even have helped us evolve into what we are today.  Evolutionary biologists have said that endurance was one of the key elements that transformed us from cavemen into superior hunter-gatherers.  Funny then how most of us would rather sit on the couch watching television than go on a nice, long run.  The implication is that that Industrial Revolution, which caused all the conveniences of modern living, has caused us to begin devolving into ergonomically useless animals, like every other.  We would be wise to stop this trend, before it gets out of control. 

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, Daniel E. Lieberman

    Great read if you're interested in the human body and how it's changed through all the shifts in cultural development. It opened my eyes to several symptoms of modern living, like the rise in myopia due to indoor living, and the consequences of sitting around too much. We haven't adequately evolved into these post-agricultural and industrial living conditions yet. Even though our bodies have benefited from medical findings in the last few centuries, they are finding it difficult to keep up with the sedentary lifestyles that machines have given us. You can see this through what the author calls an alarming increase in "mismatch diseases", diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart failure, which are due to the excesses of our modern diet and the general lack of exercise. From an evolutionary perspective it all makes sense, and reading this was a refreshing wake up call. Keep those bodies moving, like they were meant to. 

Milky Way Reported to Exist in Cosmic Void

    I read in the news the other day that the Milky Way galaxy resides in a void inside the Cosmic Web.  That means our galaxy is a long way from the densely populated "filaments" of galaxies that create the shape of our universe.  It got me thinking:  what would the night sky look like if we were living in a filament instead, like 99% of the other galaxies?  In my estimation, these filaments would either hold a lot more life than our local group, or no life at all, simply because there is so much more light (and therefore radiation).  From a distance, the filaments connect each supercluster of galaxies in a network of light.  We can't even see these networks because they're so far away.  All we can see are the sporadic stars of our galaxy, hanging in the great void, far from what may be a more civilized neighborhood.  To put it in perspective, we might be on the barbarian outskirts of a great intergalactic empire, like Ireland was to Rome.  We may be the barbarians roaming the dark wilderness in the barrens of space, when all along we thought we were the light at the center of it all.