James M. Redwine

Greeks

Natural Law, Morality and Democracy

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Our homo sapiens species has been around about two to three hundred thousand years. We probably began biologically in Africa with what we assert is our Western culture becoming ascendant in southern Europe about twenty-five hundred years ago. The Greeks and the Romans laid the foundation for our civilization and we still rely upon their theories of what a civilized society should be, especially in regard to morality and law.

History is replete with rising and falling societies that have gone from collectively agreed upon legal systems to usurpation of power by elites that caused the society to fall upon its own sword. While there are many reasons why each “eternal” nation collapsed, as Plato posited in his Republic, a society rules by consensus then by a ruling party in its own interests. The rulers define the laws based upon what the autocrats desire, then define anyone who breaks such laws a wrongdoer. This is the final stage of a great civilization. Law moves from a consensus among a majority of the citizens as to what is right and good to a decree from the powerful based upon what they want.

Thousands of years ago primitive societies found they could live better lives among themselves and with their neighbors if they cooperated on such matters as the sharing of natural resources and respect for the person and property of others. This was the beginning of morality; and still moral behavior by individuals and nations comes down to treating others as we wish to be treated. Gradually, such nascent civilizations came to realize that as Aristotle said, legal systems (laws) were necessary because people could not restrain desire for power. If people were perfect, laws would not be needed but, as we are not, to ensure justice we must have law. And if the laws remain just, a society can survive life’s inevitable chaos.

Such philosophers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed the world was grounded in Natural Law. Law just existed as did gods. Mankind only needed to divine what the gods required and apply such rules to humanity. If mankind ignored this immutable Natural Law, then chaos would rein. This concept of the eternal existence of Natural Law was at the core of most of the great legal theories from the ancient Greeks up to our Founding Fathers and is still prevalent today in many countries. In America, we separated law from superstition and left it to individuals to believe or not. This separation of theocracy from democracy was a new concept 250 years ago and has helped preserve our nation through many moral crises such as the Civil War and political in-fighting today. The First Ten Amendments of our Constitution are the rock by which we thrive.

Experience has proven that relying on a fear of a god or gods to enforce laws fails in the face of human nature. We have found that it is human law that must set limits on the natural tendency of mankind to abuse power. Over the last twenty-five hundred years or so we have sought systems of law that restrain autocratic impulses and protect individual rights. The most successful of such systems so far has been the Separation of Powers legal system as set forth in the United States Constitution.

Our Constitution was not based on Natural Law but upon the theories of such visionaries as Baron de Montesquieu. (1689-1755), John Locke (1632-1704), and especially, James Madison (1751-1836) and James Wilson (1742-1798). Wilson not only was a contributing author to our Constitution but also sat on our first United States Supreme Court. These legal philosophers recognized the major problem of instituting a lasting democratic legal system was preventing autocrats from usurping powers that properly belong to the citizens.

The division of executive power and legislative power as a restraint on one another was not sufficient. The inclusion of a third branch of government, the judiciary, was the piece of the puzzle that our Founders devised to answer this fatal flaw that had occurred in other legal systems which had failed, because as power corrupted the leaders, democracy collapsed into tyranny. In America today, our Legislative Branch has generally abandoned its role of restraining our out-of-control Executive Branch and our Judicial Branch has sometimes not asserted proper restraints on both of the other branches.

Is America in a vulnerable position democratically today? Probably not, as yet. However, when the Executive repeatedly takes the country to war in spite of virtually every poll indicating a significant majority of the electorate objects, and the Legislative Branch is supine in its duties concerning the power to declare war and the Judiciary fiddles away, the will of the people is frustrated and democracy might teeter. This could be one of those times as Greece, Rome and numerous other democracies discovered when it is critical that all three branches not only stay in their lane but gird their Constitutional loins up about them and courageously execute their own Constitutionally defined responsibilities.

You can also follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

Aposematism

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Aposematism. “Fair warning.” That is what that long Ancient Greek derived word means. “Stay away!” Or as it applies to skunks, “I stink; get back”. When one sees the white stripes among a skunk’s black fur Mother Nature apparently believes that is sufficient warning of skunks’ antisocial character. The Greeks used the term, aposematic, to identify any animal that had a way to warn off enemies.

My recent experience with skunks has led me to question whether skunks understand the “stay away” thing should go both ways. It also confirms my long held conclusion that the Ancient Greeks and Romans had already discovered over 2,000 years ago almost everything worth knowing.

The Ancient Romans provided the term for the scientific family we call skunks. It is Mephitidae which was based on the Roman god that referred to the malodorous gases emitting from swamps and volcanoes. It appears skunks had infiltrated the greatest cultures of Western Civilization. Of course, skunks and their relatives have not spared any other great cultures either.

But, Gentle Reader, we are not concerned with etymology, the origin of words, but with the origin of behavior, particularly skunk behavior as it relates to the family of skunks that has apparently decided Peg and I are their friends and that our home is, also, their home. What happened to that age-old skunk/human dynamic of don’t bother us and we won’t bother (or spray) you?

For three weeks now a family of skunks has been determined to live with us. This might not have been intolerable if the family of opossums and one squirrel that had already chosen our cabin as their home would have just moved on and given our crawl space to the invading skunks. However, reasonable retreat was not the opossums’ and squirrel’s decision. War was declared and you already know what the Dooms Day war weapon of skunks is. The skunks beneath our cabin deploy their spray frequently every night between about 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. depending upon the aggression of the opossums and the squirrel. Of course, Peg and I, whose only role has been to provide a warm dry area for all involved, get the collateral damage from this domestic terrorism. The stench wafts up through the floor and pervades every inch of our living space.

Peg used to tell me I needed to understand  the competing animals are simply some of our fellow mammals acting naturally. My attitude started out negative and has rapidly escalated to that of Bill Murray’s as the golf course groundskeeper in the movie Caddyshack and his battles with gophers. I just want them out from under our cabin and out of our lives. I realized I had slipped over the edge when I began to visibly rejoice each time I’d pass a dead skunk flattened on the highway. And Peg’s “tsk, tsk” admonition to me finally changed last night.

About 2:00 a.m. Peg heard a noise and got up to investigate. She opened the bedroom door that leads out to our porch. Fortunately she had switched on the outside light first. As she gingerly put a foot out the door a skunk came around the corner and headed into our home. Peg screamed, “Skunk!”. I grabbed my shot gun. The skunk kept coming. Peg slammed the door just as the skunk’s nose hit the glass. Peg and I are finally on the same page. Terminix, traps and anti-critter sprays and pellets are now our mantra. One positive thing is the opossums have decided they are through fighting and they and the squirrel have “moved on”. Now we just need to convince the skunks, starting with this “adorable” white with black stripe specimen that we caught last night. See the Euell Gibbons-like photograph Peg took.

Skunk!

Do We Want To Fool Mother Nature?

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China’s National Science Review reported in March 2019 that Bing Su of the Kunming Institute of Zoology has inserted human genes into monkeys. His apparent goal was to investigate how the brains of early primates developed along different paths with monkeys remaining in the trees and Homo sapiens progressing to the Internet.

Chinese scientist He Jiankui while at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China claims to have modified the genome, the DNA, of twin female humans in an attempt to preempt the possibility of them someday contracting the HIV virus.

Both of these researchers dealt with DNA and CRISPR. DNA is familiarly known as deoxyribonucleric acid and CRISPR is an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. The genome is the famous Double Helix discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. DNA is our 23 pairs of intertwined chromosomes that make us us. CRISPR is the DNA from viruses that might protect us from other viruses such as HIV.

Gentle Reader, if I were you I would not rely upon this exposition of biological knowledge from me for answers you may wish some paid tutor to give on your child’s SAT test. Please remember, I was an English major.

Instead of science, let’s you and I turn to literature for our analysis of genetic engineering. We can start at the beginning. In Genesis, that was written about 400 BC if we look to the Dead Sea Scrolls for a date, Yahweh was doing a little human manipulation when he decided Adam needed a companion. The DNA from Adam’s rib was used to create Eve. The Bible does not explain why two Adams was not the result. However, blissful ignorance was the life these humans led until fruit from the Tree of Knowledge was eaten. Some may think it’s been all downhill since.

About 300 years before Adam and Eve those marvelous Greeks were writing about Achilles who was the product of a human, Peleus, and the immortal nymph, Thetis. This mixing of DNA’s of differing species helped lead to the sack of Troy.

Of course, Jesus, about 2,000 years ago, was a similar product of the human Mary and a god who used genetic merging to create a Prince of Peace. To my way of thinking this was evidence there may be some true benefit to Mankind from such genomitry.

As for me, I could support the manipulation of human genetics if we could create drivers who would not clog up the passing lane and who could survive at least a few moments without a cell phone stuck in their ear. Also, as a husband, could we not embed in wives a gene that allows for beer and football instead of yard work?

What’s the Big Deal?

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A ninety-five year old guy died of cancer in an Ohio hospital a few days ago. Seems like a rather expected thing. So why all the fuss? I guess you almost have to have gone through those farcical exercises of hiding under your school desk to understand.

Did we really believe such actions would save us from atomic bombs? Maybe so, but it is hard to relate now to those Cold War fears and lack of hope.

After we lost a quarter of a million military personnel in World War II and fifty-eight thousand more in Korea America was about warred out. But the Soviet Union and “Red” China still loomed over us.

When Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth in 1957 we did not have a space program that could get off the ground. Then in April of 1961 our C.I.A. stumbled its way into the disastrous Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion. This was followed by the closest the world has come to blowing ourselves up during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

America was tired, back on our heels and scared. We were in the crosshairs of enemies on several sides and at a crossroads of ennui. What we needed was what the Greeks needed during the Trojan War. We needed an Achilles to inspire us, a hero whose confidence, ability and bravery could take our minds off of our fear and fire us with a will to win. Enter John Glenn.

This Midwestern, small town, normal sized unassuming product of the Great Depression, World War II, Korea and the Cold War climbed aboard an exploding cannon and rode it around the Earth less than one year after Gagarin thrilled the world and sent us under our desks.

To those of us who lived through the Cold War John Glenn represented the ability to fight back. So when Senator Glenn appeared with Presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy at the Indiana University Auditorium on April 24, 1968, we students who packed the place to boo Kennedy for running against Gene McCarthy turned into hero worshipers when John Glenn appeared.

That’s what a true hero brings out, gratitude and respect. If John Glenn thought Bobby was okay, then he was okay with us. Some might say we were fickle; I say we were converts.

A national hero is an extremely rare person. Adrian Peterson is a great football player and Madonna is a great entertainer, but to call them heroes is to miscomprehend the term. As commentator Charles Krauthammer said, we may have had only two true national heroes in the last one hundred years, Charles Lindbergh and John Glenn. That’s why the old guy’s passing is such a big deal.