Mr. President Obama
PROLOGUE
Once you mentioned that it is the inevitable course that one country after another will seek to become a democratic free society and become so. As the forerunner of democratic countries, can we say, “Come on, follow us. We are a good model. Be good as we are.” No. We cannot say so. We have a serious problem. We must recall the words of Mr. John Stewart Mill, who was an advocate of Utilitarianism, the predecessor of Democracy. In his book “Liberty,” he apprehended that freedom in democracy would not rule out the freedom to be greedy and vicious. He declared that Democracy could only work among the people who possess the ethics of Christianity. At that time, he could never have foreseen the present era, where Christianity no longer has the authority to cultivate ethics into people in democratic countries. Within the paradigm of Christianity or any religion, by believing and obeying the words of God, one was promised to go to heaven, and if not, go to hell. If one believes, it was not difficult to obey the words of God and be ethical. Some conscientious devotees generated the secondary drives in practicing ethical conducts. That is, they felt pleasure in exercising ethical behaviors. Today, people are not sure if they will go to heaven by obeying disciplines, or go to hell by disobeying the teachings of Christianity. Partly due to the advancement of science, the authority of Christianity, as well as overall that of other religions, has gradually diminished. These days, money has taken over that position of authority. To gain money is the prime value prevailing in most of the so-called advanced countries, especially in this country, USA. To gain money, people tend to choose any means, even unethical ones. Among countries subscribing to “Democracy”, the biggest lamentation is losing ethics, good values, which prevailed in old times. This is also the very justification of the extremists in some religions for violent attacks on the free countries; “Look, without rigid restriction and order, people become immoral.” Obviously I am not advocating to enforce Christianity or any other religion to restore ethical values. In democracy, we all know, that government and religion must be separate. All I am emphasizing is that we need ethics to operate a sound Democracy. That is to realize the words of John Stewart Mill, “ THE GREATEST HAPPINESS instead of THE GREATER THE NUMBER( OR POWER AND OR MONEY), THE GREATER THE HAPPINESS.” Even the minority (lesser number and/or lesser power) should be entitled to happiness as well as the majority and/or more power. Let me quote from “Utilitarianism, Liberty, and Representative Government” by John Stuart Mill(P.6): “I must again repeat, what the assailants of utilitarianism seldom have the justice to acknowledge, that the happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent’s own happiness, but, that of all concerned. As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator. In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. To do as you would be done by, and to love your neighbor as yourself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.” If we are no longer able to rely on Christian authority to cultivate ethics, we must create a new paradigm to motivate people to be ethical for our own well-being.
We must face the peril that the very base for operating Democracy is diminished and crumbling. It is no longer the authority of Christianity to cultivate ethics in general citizens, society, while Democracy only works among people who are equipped with ethics.
Alas, we not only lost, if not completely, the authority of Christianity to enforce ethics and morals, but we’ve gotten all kinds of authorities which encourage and give good models to be UNETHICAL, DISHONEST and CHEATING. Look around current authorities surrounding us which are simply operating to gain profit by any possible means including unethical means.
The worst #1 example of this is insurance industry including health insurances:
I am enrolled in State Farm Insurance. On the back of the auto insurance card, it reads, “Don’t admit fault.” They instruct their insureds to be dishonest. For instance, when I hit the other car and made a scratch. The other party was a very well mannered gentleman, who identified himself as a lawyer. My insurance then was Farmers Insurance. After I received the subsequent higher premium, I called them and found out that the other party had claimed for medical expenses over ten thousands which they paid for the scratch damage. Insurance companies are very generous to give money to the other party who claim for obviously false doctor’s bills. Because it is cheaper to pay than to bring the other party to court. If I bring my car damaged to the body shop and tell them the insurance will pay, they will raise their estimate higher. Some body shop refuse to give an estimate unless I tell them the name of the insurance company saying,”We have to report to the insurance company.” I used the bodyshop subsidized by Lexus when my Lexus was hit by the other party and got substantially damaged. Though I did not pay a penny to the damage, I requested the bodyshop to give me a copy of charges to the insurance of the other party. I wanted to know how dishonest they would be. Out of the 3 pages itemized bill, I found several items the clerk could not explain. The other clerk came out to explain, he could not explain four items what the charges were. One of which was payable to the claim agent of the paying company, E-insurance. The bodyshop issued the check to the claim agent of E-insurance which was paying the damage. It appeared that the bodyshop kicked back to the insurance company who was paying the bill. Normally nobody check how honestly the bodyshop charges: Since “his insurance company is paying,” the insured would not check how much his insurance paid for the damage of other party’s car. Since the insurance company of the other party is paying,
the owner of the damaged car would not check how much the bodyshop charged.
The insurance company gives a very generous estimate and check, and tell us, “You can go to any body shop you like.” The body shop must know the name of the insurance company, telling me that they have to report to the insurance company. They raise the estimate. Then the body shop gives kick back to the insurance company. This practice seems to be commonly conducted among bodyshops and insurance companies. The insurance companies don’t mind to pay higher for the damage. They can not only get kick back from bodyshops but always raise the premium to recover the cost of insuring.
There are many people who make false claims on traveler’s insurance and property insurance, name it. Insurance companies are not interested in proving whether the claim is authentic or not. For even obviously false claims, they pay. Simply because it is cheaper to pay for the claims than spending legal fees except in the case of large scale fraudulence. Thus the insurance industry authority encourages people to be dishonest and to cheat. To recover the cost for paying false claims, insurance companies raise the premium. The honest insured never gets even and must suffer a higher premium.
Let’s talk about medical insurance. Hospitals and doctors in general charge unreasonably high fees because “ insurances will pay anyway.” Patients also go to doctors more than necessary because “Since insurance will pay anyway,I may as well go to a doctor to be paid off for premium.” To minimize this vicious cycle, the insured should pay the highest deductible,which he can afford, with the minimum premium. Then they can be motivated not to get sick and/or get injured.
In this era, we must develop a strong ego to be able to resist and go against the prevailing authorities in order to be ethical.
How people be encouraged to be ethical? One way is to create laws and enforce punishment for unethical conduct. But that is not enough. People always find the loopholes and/or they can be ethical as long as others are looking. Any TRULLY religious person would agree that when he is communicating with his God, he is doing so through his mind, not through someone else’s mind. We can utilize the same mechanism to cultivate ethic, if we cannot any longer rely on the Christianity paradigm to do so. One can regulate his own life to be accepted by himself if not by God. Being watched by God, being approved by God, is 24 hour/7 day works, no break. Same mechanism can be utilized. Just as much as being accepted by God, being accepted by oneself is constant and lifelong discipline, because you can not cheat or lie to oneself just as much as you cannot cheat or lie to your God.
In this era, we need to cultivate our ability to make our own decisions more than any time before. Flooded with soliciting commercials and advertisements, we may be trapped or deceived and/or to be lost. Banks solicit customers for fraudulent investments and loans.
Some doctors recommend some medications and/or surgeries which are not necessary or even dangerous. “Drink plenty water to prevent dehydration.” This statement can be heard as the matter of fact from medical doctors as well as from weather forecasters. We must recall the old proverb: “You can pull the horse to the barrel of water. But you cannot force the horse to drink the water.” Human beings are also animals. Why are we not let alone to drink water when we feel thirsty. If some of us are failing to sense thirstiness, we have to help them to restore the healthy pleasure principle. Why we human beings are deprived of regulating our behaviors in accordance with the pleasure principle. Basically, WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS, obesity is the result of failing function of the pleasure principle, unable to sense genuine hunger and overeating urged by a false feeling of hunger triggered by anxiety, frustration, anger, sadness, etc. Moreover, if the body took too much food to maintain the wellbeing of the body, it should react to flush out excess food by vomiting, defecation, or diarrhea, but that function is also failing. If any remedy for obesity is to restore the healthy pleasure principle, to feel pain to overtake food to the extent to harm oneself, self defeating behavior. We need the education to restore the sound pleasure principle, to be able to feel pleasure for contributing to our wellbeing, and to feel pain for inflicting harm to ourselves.
Mr. President Obama, once you lamented the racial profile when the black girl without any arm was shot when she was asking for help. You mentioned that you also had an experience hearing the clicking sound of locking from a stopped car when you were crossing the pedestrian walkway. You may have felt unpleasant, but I am sure that it did not affect your self-esteem. Because you know yourself and differentiate yourself from other’s projection, a stereotype. But there are many youngsters who cannot resist the suggestive expectation of others, stereotype, and become bad as being expected. It’s called “self fulfilling prophecy.” We must be able to offer education to all in order to be able to fend off the stereotypes, to cultivate higher self-esteem, which is basically nurtured by parents, and/or which used to be nurtured by Christianity, or other religions. We need the alternative to nurture self-esteem, self-love, based on which, we get mature to be competent members of the society. Following is my theory to meet all of above needs: “THE THEORY OF HUMAN REALIZATION by restoring sound pleasure principle” I hope that it will enlighten some and/or at least evoke controversy.