Mirror to your mind; will “Facing Reality” make you unhappy?

The other day I was helping a neighbor clean up a shed. In the shed was an old trunk and in it was a Milwaukee Sentinel Newspaper from 1951. It had all kind of interesting articles that caught my eye. On the top of the yellowed front page, it announced pork prices would rise from 6 cents a pound to 7. Next was an article on setting the Korean demarcation cease-fire line.

What fascinated me the most was a column dedicated to a psychologist named Lawrence Gould. The title was, “Mirror to your Mind”. His paragraph on “facing reality” was short and to the point. I will wind up this column with his advice.

When I was a new second lieutenant going through helicopter training I had a bunch of well-educated friends with whom I would debate controversial topics. Since their arguments were often supported by facts, I would find myself backed into a corner facing logical arguments I could not counter. At that point I would yell out, “Don’t confuse me with the facts I have made up my mind!” Then we would all laugh.

Perhaps this friendly sparing, where I found myself lacking facts, is what has made me so diligent in searching out peer-reviewed science information.

In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson was presented the facts on our atmosphere by his Science Advisory Committee. He took the facts to heart and addressed the US Congress with these words, “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.”

That was quite a statement coming from a Texas Oil politician.

Since 1965 science facts on climate have piled on in a logarithmic progression. But we have been loath to take heed.

When I first started asking people about climate change, they   were indifferent. Many were listening to deniers and were content with being misinformed.  Often, adults told me if climate change was real, they wouldn’t be around for the worst of it anyway.

It has been over 50 years now since LBJ gave us a heads up and we are just coming around to the fact rapid disruptive climate change is a reality. It is not because of the multiple scientific warnings, it is because we are getting hit by unprecedented heat waves, mega-rain events, and melting ice caps.

The efforts to deceive us continue. In July, Rod Schoonover, a veteran intelligence analyst, delivered his report on the wide-ranging SECURITY impacts of climate change. His work was based on multiple peer reviewed journals and intelligence reports.

The report was intended to be delivered to the US House Intelligence Committee intact, but the Trump White House redacted half his report before it could be read. The redactions were, of course, all tied to climate change.

The nearly ten-year veteran analyst resigned in protest.

Who are we as a nation? Is our new motto, “Don’ t confuse me with the facts?” Are we in love with politicians who coddle us by denying us uncomfortable realities? Do we elect representatives because they allow us to live in a make-believe world?

Will “facing reality” make you unhappy? Here is psychiatrist Gould’s response to the question: “Not once you have done it. For since lasting happiness depends on how well you are able to adjust your desires to the kind of world in which you have to satisfy them, it is obvious that the more clearly you can see things as they are, the more effective you can adjust and the happier you will be. You dodge a great deal of unhappiness, for instance, if you recognize how far and under what conditions other people can be trusted—and how far you can trust yourself.  What will make facing reality most painful to begin with is your having been conditioned to feel guilty at the fact you are ‘human’.”

Happiness depends, he says, on seeing things as they are. That is not so easy. That takes moral courage. No one who exercises moral courage ever need feel guilty.

 If you have a question about climate disruption, please let me know by calling me at 906-285-3702 or e-mailing me at climatelynx@earthlink.net


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