Erica, I hope we know each other well enough to haggle over specific points. I believe people who have access to food, housing, education, and a decent income are more responsible for the decisions they make than those who don’t. The ability to use reason is acquired. In my work with people raised in poverty, the most challenging task was teaching impulse control, which is difficult for adults who never learned to regulate their emotions. Self-autonomy requires a sound mind and/or insight into the issues that affect one’s mental health. For instance, before I knew I had DID, I was not responsible for many of the regrettable choices I made, but after ten years of psychotherapy, I have more emotional and intellectual discipline and can make better choices. A man who suffers from an untreated psychosis that distorts his sense of reality is not entirely responsible for his decisions. I think one of the myths that allow us to be complacent about homelessness is the myth that we live in a world in which everyone has access to the same resources.

We must judge each other as individuals and understand that what is true for some of us may not be true for everyone, especially in a culture that still grapples with racism and class oppression.

Today I can look in the mirror and take pride in my choices. Ten years ago, when I looked into a mirror, I did not know the man who looked back at me. Today, I am better able to use my mind to change my reality.

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Thank you, Erika. I long for a day when every person on this planet has the nessessary resources to develope and discipline their minds. I think pursuing the intellect is what the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence had in mind when they referred to the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable right.

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Humanity is such a mixed bag of good and evil. I’ve spent the past week studying the Fermi Paradox, the question of why can’t find other intelligent life in what we know of the universe, especially civilizations older than ours. The latest thinking is that most intelligent life does not necessarily evolve to make tools. We have examples of that on our own planet with the octopus, the elephant and the dolphin; they are intelligent and perhaps as smart as we are, but cannot make tools. Everything on this planet is the result of random events — so our species may be one of the first to evolve to invent the kind of science that allows us to leave the planet and colonize other worlds. If that’s true then we are rare and precious and should do everything we can do to save ourselves.

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It makes alot of sense. A species only needs to be smart enough to survive its specific environment and social order, so we thousands of animals on our planet with different kinds of intelligence. I saw a recent study of chimpanzees. It turns out their short term memories are much better than ours. They can precisely a remember complex pattern of numbers in 0.5 seconds. Here’s a link: https://youtu.be/ktkjUjcZid0

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Our hubris as a species kept us from appreciating the intelligence of other animals. As we evolve beyond our egocentric view of ourselves behind we will discover our planet teems with intelligent life. Thanks for engaging with me on this topic, Erika. It’s nice to share the wonder.

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Thank you, Erika. To me, the brilliance of social media is the opportunity to get new perspectives and new ideas.

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