Book Review: Mere Christianity

Author:	C.S. Lewis	Rating:	*****(5)
Date read:	January, 2010

Read it twice now, and the second reading was even better than the first. The first part contains a reason-based argument for the existence of God and the truth of Christianity as a religion. Then some fairly universal Christian beliefs are discussed, which are not dependent on any particular denomination, though in a few cases the described Christian morals and beliefs might be considered a rather conservative interpretation of the scriptures.

I particularly like his description of God’s mission in the Christian’s life, which is to aim toward perfection, which of course cannot be attained in this life. However, this perfection is not that of the self, but of giving up on self and allowing Christ to live in and through one’s life more and more fully. This is accomplished by a continual making of mostly small decisions on a day-to-day basis, gradually letting oneself be governed a little more by that Christ-life and a little less by the selfish self.

Another inspiring discussion was his description of human forgiveness, how it works and what it is. When we decide to forgive someone who has wronged us, we are not saying what they did was ok, nor that we like them as a person, and not even that they should not be punished. We are saying that we hope things turn out well for them, that they can move beyond whatever is wrong and come to the knowledge of life in God’s love as we know it. A key insight he provides is that there is one person I am constantly forgiving for doing the wrong things – myself. The commandment, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” in terms of forgiveness, means I should forgive others the same way I forgive myself.

Book Review: The Alchemist

Author:	Paulo Coelho	Rating:	***** (3)
Date read:	January, 2010

Inspirational, but not life-changing. No real revelations in this story; it is mostly just a new and interesting portrayal of what you might call “cosmic principles” that most people would believe are true and important, and which many of us are in the habit of forgetting or minimizing in our lives. It is an interesting story, and well written, I think.

Retreat to Subsistence

An excellent article in The Nation, which was summarized somewhat loosely on the Guernica blog.  It describes the issues surrounding corn in Mexico, the effects of NAFTA and Mexican government policies, and the potential consequences for the future of corn as a viable crop in the U.S. and everywhere.

Retreat to Subsistence

Disease is Not Random

There exists a misconception which is sadly common in our times, and which I feel is the first issue that must be addressed in our attempt to achieve optimum health. Therefore the subject of this my first post to my health blog is this misconception that disease strikes randomly.

Cancer, heart disease, Alzhiemer’s, Parkinson’s, arthritis, diabetes, asthma and other degenerative diseases do not strike an individual because he or she is unlucky. Cancer rates in the United States are currently about 50% for both men and women. Half of us will get cancer. Which half? God is not tossing a coin to decide who gets cancer and who doesn’t. Neither is nature the coin-tosser. There are natural laws at work, just as true and predictable as the law of gravity. The biological processes involved in the health of our bodies are very complex, and there are many things we do not understand. However, there is much that we do know and understand at least at some level, and much that we can do to ensure that we have the best health possible.

What can we do? Well, as an individual human being, there are exactly three factors that determine my health, including every aspect of it. How much energy I have, how susceptible to colds and flu I am, whether I develop arthritis, whether I get cancer, whether I develop Alzheimer’s disease, how strong my bones are, etc., etc. These three factors are:

• Genetics
• Environment
• Lifestyle

Let’s look at each of these one at a time. The first one is the simplest, at least from my personal perspective regarding my own personal health. I have no control over my genetic makeup. It was irrevocably set when I was born. There is nothing I can do to change it. Whatever inherent weaknesses and strengths, in the biological sense, that I was born with, I am stuck with. However, I do have quite a bit of control over the health of my future children. Studies have shown that the health of both mother and father before conception, along with of course the health of the mother during pregnancy, have a very strong effect on the health of the child.

Number two is environment. Environment includes everything that touches my body in any way. The air I breathe and live in whether clean or polluted, the water I bathe and/or swim in, cosmetics, shampoo, soap, deodorant, clothing, furniture, bedding, detergents, cleaning agents, car and truck exhaust, mold, pesticides and herbicides, chemical fertilizers, airborne toxins in factories and offices, … well, you get the idea. Some of this is under my control. I can choose, within limits, where to live. I can certainly choose the kind of products I use to wash my clothes and my body, what I apply to my hair and body, and what I use to clean my home, dishes, and furniture.

Number three is lifestyle. By lifestyle I mean what I eat, how and how much I exercise, and how I spend my time.

Diet

Eating is a big one. My experience indicates that people are generally more resistant to changing how they eat than they are to any other change. With most of us, we don’t change what we eat until we experience a sufficient level of pain to provide the motivation. With some that threshold is never reached. Similar to the smoker dying of lung cancer who refuses to give up smoking, many of us eat ourselves into our graves despite readily available solutions to our health problems that would simply require us to change what we eat.

I hope to cover more of the details about nutrition in future articles, but as a quick start guide, here are some nutrition tips:

• Minimize, eliminate if possible, sugar. Sugar is an anti-nutrient and is bad for us in numerous ways. The common sweetener corn syrup is worse than sugar. And do not replace sugar or corn syrup with artificial sweeteners; they are even worse. Stevia is a healthy, sweet-tasting herb that works great as a sweetener for foods.
• Minimize starches, especially refined starches such as white flour, white rice, bread, and pasta. Grains are best when boiled as a whole grain. Barley is very healthy, and quinoa is a popular grain with many nutritional benefits. If you are hooked on bread, try sprouted grain breads. If you must eat pasta, look for some made of brown rice or whole grain spelt.
• Maximize vegetables, raw or cooked, and aim for a variety of colors. Fresh is best, frozen is ok in a pinch, canned is worthless. Organic is ideal, and yes, it does make a difference.
• Eat sufficient good-quality animal protein. Raw egg yolks are almost a perfect food, assuming the egg comes from a healthy hen. Shelton’s eggs and Organic Valley organic, free-range eggs appear to be some of the best widely-available eggs. Raw milk is also extremely nutritious. Beef or lamb from grass-fed animals is ideal. Otherwise at least try to get antibiotic, hormone and pesticide-free meats. Same for chicken and turkey, try for organic and free-range. Eat the meat with the fat.
• Eat only healthy fats. This includes naturally occurring fats on healthy meat, butter and cream (raw is best but expensive), coconut oil (Omega Nutrition is my favorite), palm oil, and organic extra virgin olive oil. Coconut oil can be used for high-heat cooking; olive oil should not be heated above 300 F. Do NOT eat margarine nor any of the bottled so-called vegetable oils in the supermarket.
• Fruit is ok, especially with other foods. Berries (except strawberries) are best. Fruit juice is not good, containing too much concentrated sugar that is too easily and quickly absorbed.
• Avoid foods with additives, whether colors, preservatives, artificial flavors, etc.

Exercise

In my reading and experience I have heard from multiple sources the advice that if, in your quest for better health, you had to choose between changing your diet or starting to exercise, choose exercise. We cannot be healthy without regular exercise. That’s the way our bodies are made. Biology does not listen to excuses, and is unaffected by how much we like or hate physical activity. These natural laws do not limit themselves to apply only to persons for whom it is convenient to exercise, or who do not have to work long hours, or who do not have children to care for, or any other reason to not exercise, whether valid or not. Lack of regular exercise equals poor health, both short term and the long term. Period.

Most experts agree that some combination of moderate-to-strenuous aerobic exercise combined with strength training is necessary to get the maximum benefits from exercise. One hour per day or more seems to be an average consensus as well.

How I spend my time

The other aspect of lifestyle is everything else. Getting enough sleep. Balancing work, home life, and relaxation. Maintaining healthy relationships. Letting go of the past. There are many pressures and problems in life, and everyone faces them. There are good and bad ways of dealing with the pressures and problems, and each of us must find what works for us to maintain our spiritual, mental and emotional balance. Most of us seem to need some outside help in order to accomplish this, whether from a church, counselor, support group, etc. Emotional health is essential to physical health, and vice-versa. They work together. It is not uncommon for someone who is working on improving physical health to be presented with situations and insight that help to improve the emotional side of things, and for someone who is making progress on the emotional side to experience improved physical health.

Taking Control

The point of this article, and the reason I’m bothering to publish any of these articles at all, is that each of us can take control of our health. I, as an individual, can make changes in my environment, my diet, and my lifestyle which will improve my health. I can’t change my genetic makeup, and if I was born with a weakened immune system or other problem, I can’t change that. So I don’t have absolute control over whether I will be affected by disease. But I can certainly take action that will dramatically improve my chances of a happy and healthy life both now and into the future.  I am not helpless in the fight against disease. I can do something.

For a good source of information on nutrition and health and lots of worthwhile book reviews, see David Getoff‘s web site.

1963 – This country has become…

“This country has become frankly a warfare state built on affluence, a power structure in which the interests of big business, the obsessions of the military, and the phobias of political extremists both dominate and dictate our national policy. It also seems that the people of the country are by and large reduced to passivity, confusion, resentment, frustration, thoughtlessness and ignorance, so that they blindly follow any line that is unraveled for them by the mass media.” – Thomas Merton, “The Cold War Letters”, 1963 (Quoted in “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James W. Douglass)

Book review: Socialism – A Very Short Introduction

Author:	Michael Newman	Rating:	***** (4)
Date read:	January, 2010

Excellent overview of socialism as a concept, looking especially at the history of socialism. Starting with almost zero knowledge, I found it to be informative and not too difficult to understand. Cuba and Sweden are discussed as modern examples of attempts at socialism, with good and bad, advantages and disadvantages, advances and problems, etc. Also the effects of various other movements, such as feminism and environmentalism, on socialist thought is discussed.

Key quotes

(From the introduction, I like this definition of socialism) p. 2-3

“In my view, the most fundamental characteristic of socialism is its commitment to the creation of an egalitarian society. Socialists may not have agreed about the extent to which inequality can be eradicated or the means by which change can be effected, but no socialist would defend the current inequalities of wealth and power. In particular, socialists have maintained that, under capitalism, vast privileges and opportunities are derived from the hereditary ownership of capital and wealth at one end of the social scale, while a cycle of deprivation limits opportunities and influence at the other end. To varying extents, all socialists have therefore challenged the property relationships that are fundamental to capitalism, and have aspired to establish a society in which everyone has the possibility to seek fulfillment without facing barriers based on structural inequalities.” 

(From the section “The relevance of socialist ideas”, in a discussion of economic inequality and social mobility) p. 139 

“Such inequality is not fundamentally between individuals but is embedded in structures: the fact that some individuals, with particular talent or determination or luck, can rise from humble backgrounds does not affect the fact that the overwhelming majority cannot do so. Of course, the perception of the system as a meritocracy is functional to its legitimation, but this does not change its underlying basis. Similarly, the fact that poor people possess more than their grandparents had done in absolute terms helps sustain the belief that poverty and inequality are no longer fundamental problems in advanced capitalism; but poverty should be measured in relation to the wealth of contemporary society, rather than by historical standards.”

Book Review: The Value of Nothing

Author:	Raj Patel	Rating:	*****(5)
Date read:	January, 2010

Excellent discussion of the “market society” and some alternative ways of looking at society and economics. The title is based on a statement by Oscar Wilde: “Nowadays people know the price of everything but the value of nothing.” There is a discussion about the true cost of things, for example, if a hamburger were priced to include all the environmental and human costs associated with it, it would cost $200. Also, corporations are not having to pay the true costs of the things they are selling. For example, health care and other assistance for underpaid workers, environmental costs which will have to be paid by future generations, etc.

The author discusses why the economy and society cannot be treated separately, and how our modern concept of “market economy” came to be and what it means. Particularly that the market economy requires a market society in order to function. He goes on to describe the concept of the “commons,” giving several historical and contemporary examples of how relatively small groups of people have been able to cooperate in their management of a shared resource. Many political books are available that convincingly describe the problems in our current society, both in the US and internationally. Creative solutions, however, are few and far between. “The Value of Nothing” is the most hopeful treatise of politics and economics that I have read. The possibility of adapting the commons on a large scale is not discussed, and it may not even be possible, especially in the current world situation. However, the examples cited give me hope that people can cooperate effectively and govern themselves if given the opportunity and environment that supports such cooperation. Even if only possible on a small scale now, this concept does provide a real solution that can work today. And it couldn’t hurt to have more and more of these small, cooperative initiatives as we move into the future.

The description of the relationship between the “market” and freedom starting on page 112 is outstanding. He shares the thought experiment of the late Oxford philosopher Jerry Cohen, relating rights to tickets. Then this is applied to the sorry state of health care in the US. As a statistical example, he cites maternal mortality–women who die during or shortly after childbirth. It turns out that African American women in the US, if they were a country, would rank just below (a little worse than) Uzbekistan, a country where the average income per person is $840 per year. “In the United States, one corollary of free market liberty is dying young.”

Another key concept is that of “homo economicus,” an imaginary human that is a purely rational consumer, seeking to maximize its own comfort and rewards while minimizing the effort needed to acquire them. It turns out people aren’t really like that, but there is an entity that is: the corporation.

Overall this book provides lots of insight, as in useful ways of looking at the world, ourselves, politics, economics, society, the past, and the future. Everyone in the world should read this book!