Why?

There are days, when the incoming news are so terrible and heartbreaking that one wonders, how to take them without being consumed by rage and desperation. There are days, when the only possible escape from the documentations of evil, cruelty, and idiocy is a retreat into music, gardening, meditation, and walking in the woods with my cats.

And I wonder, what I should write about Bani Walid, about the assassination of Zohra Al-Buaishi, about the Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria, about drone strikes, about Haiti, about Fukushima, about mass extinction, the poisoning of the oceans, and the destruction of the worlds forests?

What could I write about the masters, the evil players, the planners and puppeteers, who cold blooded and cynical sell our children’s future for increased corporate profits, higher stock valuations and dividends, kickbacks, bribes, secret bank accounts in Dominica, Nevis, Anguilla, Barbados, Cyprus, the Cayman Islands?

What could I write about them, as they watch amused from their palaces, their private islands and super-yachts, laughing about the outrage and despair of their powerless and helpless subjects and victims? The more their subjects and victims are protesting, voicing anger and wasting their energy on futile gestures, the more they are pleased.

The masters, the evil players, the planners and puppeteers don’t care anymore to conceal or masquerade their machinations, and if disguises, coverups, deceptions, lies are used, they are applied so poorly, that only the naive, uninformed, uneducated, unintelligent individuals are fooled. This is intentional, because the alert, critical, skeptical individuals shall realize the ploys and shall be shocked, traumatized, be left breathless by the displayed viciousness, the catachresis, the sadism.

This world was never a nice place and the described method has been used countless times throughout human history by despotic, fascist regimes. The critics, dissidents, nonconformists either retreated into inner emigration or communicated clandestinely, embedding their encrypted messages in artworks, satire, allegories, black humor and dark comedies.

WARNING: reading this text could cause confusion and discomfort. Proceed at your own risk.

As I argued and tried to explain already in my blog post A short guide for non-believers, nothing in our life is certain, nothing can be taken for granted, our very existence is a riddle, a conundrum, is shrouded in mystery, is a big question mark.

Every now and then I have the urge to raise some of the persisting questions of life and I start thinking and considering and contemplating and meditating and pondering and reflecting and musing and I start turning and twisting the words and I construct various theories by combining the words using the rules of logic or my own rules. 

Of course I also use my own rules, my very personal rules. Why shouldn't I use my own rules? Don't we live in an individualistic society? Politicians and bankers also always (or at least most times) use their own rules which are often very different from the rules of logic that are applied in science and technology and from the moral codes that a decent person would obey.

As I start twisting and turning the words it sometimes happens that I get into a state of agitation, elation, and ecstasy. And though I'm striving for brevity, clarity, decency, elegancy, modesty, and purity, my brain chemistry, my avidity, bigotry, cupidity, rapacity, voracity, and last but not least my stupidity are causing acrimony, antipathy, atrocity, barbarity, bestiality, brutality, cruelty, depravity, ferocity, and hostility.

And furthermore down the alphabet my brain chemistry is causing immorality, indecency, iniquity, jealousy, monstrosity, obscenity, and savagery. And though my quest for dignity, felicity, harmony, liberty, placidity, serenity, sobriety, stability, and tranquility leads me finally to the notion of empathy, I still feel that ingenuity, novelty, and originality are not a remedy or a therapy and my destiny, history, and legacy could be very much in doubt if I don’t change my ways.

And I wonder, why do so many words end with y? why "Y"?

Is this the ultimate question? The probability that I will be a calamity of the inability to answer this question is quit high. And though I try to calm down and though I try to regain my sanity and vitality, I feel the impulse, the compulsion, I feel the urge to throw some dishes and mugs against the kitchen wall and to wide open all windows and to shout at the top of my lungs the persisting questions of life: "why? why?".

The questions: "why? why?" will probably for many readers of this text actually seem to be only one question, but from my understanding there are at least two "why's". And they are very distinct because of their position, one is the first and the other is the second (or alternatively the last). Any person, who is not able to understand this logic, should rather stay away from Jacques Derrida. And also better not read W.D. Hart,  David Chalmers, William S. Robinson, Dean Zimmerman or other contemporary dualists (they are called “dualists” because they belief in two why’s).

By the way, Derrida is sometimes witty and I'm not sure, If he doesn't simply enjoy playing with language and making a fool of both his followers and critics.

Is it possible that more "why's" than the two that I mentioned are existing? Could there be an infinite number of "why's"? Maybe I have to look at this problem from a different angle or maybe I have to try another method of analysis. The question "why"? without additional specification is undoubtedly very broad and in some cases it may be useful to narrow it down and mold/transform it into a more concrete question. Like for instance:

Why are there only social and no asocial media sites?

Why are mainstream media organizations not social media? Are they asocial media?

Why do people still believe the claims of advertisements, the sermons of imams or priests, the news reports, and the promises of politicians?

Why are corporations, who are clearly not living creatures, considered to be persons? Are they super-human? Are they divine?

Why are so many people desperately grabbing as much money and possessions as they can (and often more that they ever will be able to spend) when they inevitably will lose all their riches at the end of their life?

Why do so many people mislead and lie and cheat and why are they rewarded with high earnings and why are they able to acquire big wealth with their fraudulent behavior?

Why are the wealthy owners of corporations allowed to siphon off and hide away big profits when this money could safe a billion people or more from disease and hunger?

Why are Cubans so much better off than Haitians, despite the fact, that Cuba is a communist dictatorship and endured a total trade embargo by the Western world for 50 years, while Haiti is a democracy under the guidance of the United States and is very connected with the US economy?

Why is China able to feed 22 percent of the world’s population with only eight percent of farmland? Why was China able to achieve the biggest alleviation of poverty in human history?

Why do we destroy the natural habitats that support our food system?

Why are public services sold to companies who will only pursue the welfare of their shareholders and forget about the welfare of the population?

Why are the laws of thermodynamics not compatible with capitalism? (The laws of thermodynamics should be changed as soon as possible, otherwise there will be dire consequences.)

Why are wars organized and conducted by the Defense Department and not by the War Department?

Why does the USA support dictatorial regimes in Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen (only to name a few), despite the declared intent to spread democracy in the Middle East?

Why are tens of thousands maimed Iraqis (10,000 of them children) now better off than before the US invasion? Why are 100,000 dead Iraqis better off? Why weren't they baptized first before their slaughter? The crusaders and the Spanish conquistadors were able to do that!

Why is jumping over our own shadows still not an Olympic discipline?

Why do we continue to produce weapons?

Why do we kill?

I was told, that "thinking out of the box" is sometimes necessary to solve difficult problems or to challenge conventional wisdom. I leave my box all the time and my mind is spreading it's wings and in my imagination I fly across forests and deserts, and I fly across land and sea. I try to leave the box of course also when I'm pondering about life's persisting questions and so I have formulated a few additional questions (including some follow-up questions) in the form of "why not"?

Why are the screams and death rattles of torture victims not recorded and sold for good money to the producers of horror movies?

Why are torture scenes not videotaped and sold on DVDs? (Judging from postings on social media sites there could be a tremendous demand for such products.)

Well, maybe I should try to formulate more positive and constructive questions...

Why aren't profits socialized and losses privatized?

Why are banks, insurance companies, the Russian mafia, the Italian mafia and other similar financial institutions not checked, tracked, surveilled, investigated by the security apparatus to the same extend as ordinary citizens are?

Why are pharmaceutical scientists all over the world not working determined and restless to develop drugs that can calm down aggressive alpha males and transform them into responsible members of society?

Why are prisons not converted to Buddhist monasteries or to educational centers?

Why is castration not encouraged and rewarded and widely used by parents and why are eunuchs not preferably chosen to take important positions in judiciary and politics? (like it happened in long lasting periods of Chinese history).

Why are lesbian and gay couples and polyandrous marriages not cherished and supported in any possible way, when they could substantially curb overpopulation?

Why are computer games not used to teach social behaviors and implant ethical rules in the brains of the players?

Why is advertising not replaced by courses that educate how to live a harmonious life, use the least amount of resources, and avoid ecological damage?

Why don't intelligent individuals not use their ingenuity to develop models of social and economical organization that are sustainable and fair?

Why is "the entrepreneurial spirit" not used to implement these models?

Why are the two trillion (2,000,000,000,000) US$ which are annually spunt for weapons and military infrastructure not used to feed the one billion people who are hungry, to help the one billion children who live in poverty, to help small farmers, and to distribute land or build homes for the destitute?

Why is a part of this two trillion US$ not used to pay off and reeducate the soldiers, military contractors, militiamen, mercenaries, and terrorists?

Why are the between 700 and 1000 US American military basis not converted into distribution centers for the needy?

Why don’t we stop producing weapons and why don’t we convert the existing weapons into useful tools that are helpful and beneficial for mankind?

Why don't soldiers and military contractors and militiamen and mercenaries and terrorists all over the world not lay down their weapons and fraternize with their enemies and celebrate with them and have a good time together?

Why don't we stop the killing and why don’t we try seriously to live in peace and harmony?

Why are peace, love, and happiness not the most important words to all of mankind?