The stressful demands placed on people by their culture or social group may set the stage for psychophysiological disorders. The stress may be wide-ranging, such as that produced by wars or natural disasters. As followers of Jesus Christ, we condemn abuse in any form. Abuse is a serious public health concern and is against the law in many countries. It is also forbidden by the commandments of God. No one should abuse another, and no one should have to endure abuse. Protecting and caring for others was a priority for Jesus Christ in His life, and it is a priority in His Church today. Abuse is a matter the Church takes very seriously. When we learn of abuse, our first priority is to help the victim and stop the abuse. People who have been abused, victimized, or terrorized often experience lingering stress symptoms. More than one-quarter of all cases of posttraumatic stress disorder are the result of physical or sexual assault. Indeed, research suggests that more than one-third of all victims of assault develop posttraumatic stress disorder. Similarly, as many as half of all civilians who are directly exposed to terrorism or torture may develop this disorder. Sexual assault is a common form of victimization in our society. Rape is forced sexual intercourse or another sexual act committed against a nonconsenting person or intercourse with an underage person. Surveys suggest that in the United States of America, more than 876,000 persons are victims of rape each year. The psychological impact of rape on a victim is immediate and may last a long time. Rape victim is immediate and may last a long time. Rape victims typically experience enormous distress during the weeks, maintains a peak level for another month or so, and then starts to improve. In one study, 94 percent of rape victims fully qualified for a clinical diagnosis of acute stress disorder when they were observed an average of 12 days after the assault. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Although most rape victims improve psychologically within 3 or 4 months, the effects may persist for up to 18 months or longer. Victims typically continue to have higher than average levels of anxiety, suspiciousness, depression, self-esteem problems, self-blame, flashbacks, sleep problems, and sexual dysfunction. Although many rape victims are injured by their attacker or experience other physical problems as a result of their assault, only half receive the kind of formal medical care they need. Interviews with 390 subjects revealed that such victims had poorer physical well-being for at least five years after the crime and made twice as many visits to physicians. It is not clear why rape and other assaults lead to these long-term health problems. Ongoing victimization and abuse in the family—specifically child and spouse abuse—may also lead to psychological stress disorders. Because these forms of abuse may occur over the long term and violate family roles and trust, many victims develop other symptoms of disorders as well. People who are victims of terrorism or who live under the threat of terrorism often experience posttraumatic stress symptoms. Unfortunately, this source of traumatic stress is on the rise in our society. Few will ever forget the events of September 11, 2001, when hijacked airplanes crashed into and brought down the World Trade Center in New York City and partially destroyed the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing thousands of victims and rescue workers and forcing thousands more to desperately run, crawl, and even dig their way to safety. One of the many legacies of this infamous event is the lingering psychological effect that it has had on those people who were immediately affected and their family members, and on tens of millions of others who were traumatized simply by watching images of the disaster on their television sets as the day unfolded. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

A number of recent studies clarify that acute stress reactions were common indeed among victims and observers following the terrorist attacks, that thousands more experienced posttraumatic stress symptoms in the months that followed, and that these symptoms and disorders will, in many cases, linger for years. Clearly, extraordinary trauma can cause a stress disorder. The stressful event alone, however, may not be the entire explanation. Certainly, anyone who experiences an unusual trauma will be affected by it, but only some people develop a disorder. Before the 1970s, clinicians believed that only a limited number of illnesses were psychophysiological. The best known and most common of these disorders were ulcers, asthma, insomnia, chronic headaches, high blood pressure, and coronary heart disease. Recent research, however, has shown that many other physical illnesses—including bacterial and viral infections—may be caused by an interaction of psychosocial and physical factors. Ulcers are lesions (holes) that form in the wall of the stomach, occasional vomiting, and stomach bleeding. This disorder is experienced by up to 10 percent of all people in the United States of America and is responsible for more than 6,000 deaths each year. Ulcers are often caused by an interaction of stress factors, such as environmental pressure or intense feelings of anger or anxiety, and physiological factors, such as bacterial infections. Asthma causes the body’s airways (the trachea and bronchi) to narrow periodically, making it hard for air to pass to and from the lungs. The resulting symptoms are shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and a terrifying choking sensation. Seventy person of all cases appear to be caused by an interaction of stress factors, such as environmental pressures, troubled family relationships, or anxiety, and psychological factors, such as allergies to specific substances, a slow-acting sympathetic nervous system, or a weakened respiratory system traceable to respiratory infections or genetic inheritance. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Insomnia, difficulty falling asleep or maintaining sleep, plagues 35 percent of the population each year. Although many of us have temporary bouts of insomnia that lasts a few nights or so, a large number of people experience insomnia that lasts months or years. They feel as though they are almost constantly awake. Chronic insomnias are often very sleepy during the say and may have difficulty functioning effectively. Their problem may be caused by a combination of physiological problems, such as an overactive arousal system or certain medical ailments. Chronic headaches are frequent intense aches of the head or neck that are not caused by another physical disorder. There are two types. Muscle contraction, or tension, headaches are identified by pain at the back or front of the head or the back of the neck. These occur when the muscles surrounding the skull tighten, narrowing the blood vessels. Approximately 40 million Americans suffer from such headaches. Migraine headaches are extremely severe, often near-paralyzing aches located on one side of the head. They are often preceded by a warning sensation called an aura and are sometimes accompanied by dizziness, nausea, or vomiting. Migraine headaches are thought by some medical theorists to develop in two phases: blood vessels in the brain narrow, so that the flow of blood to parts of the brain is reduced, and the same blood vessels later expand, so that blood flows through them rapidly, stimulating many neuron endings and causing pain. Migraines are suffered by 23 million people in the United States of America. Research indicates that chronic headaches are caused by an interaction of stress factors, such as environmental pressures or general feelings of helplessness, anger, anxiety, or depression, and physiological factors, such as abnormal activity of the neurotransmitter serotonin, vascular problems, or muscle weakness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Hypertension is a state of chronic high blood pressure. That is, the blood pumped through the body’s arteries by the heart produces too much pressure against the artery walls. Hypertension has few outward symptoms, but it interferes with the proper functioning of the entire cardiovascular system, greatly increasing the likelihood of stroke, coronary heart disease, and kidney problems. It is estimated that 40 million people in the United States of American have hypertension, 14,000 die directly from it annually, and millions more perish because of illness caused by it. Around 10 percent of all cases are caused by physiological abnormalities alone; the rest result from a combination of psychosocial and physiological factors and are called essential hypertension. Some of the leading psychosocial causes of essential hypertension are constant environmental danger and general feelings of anger or depression. Phycological causes include faulty baroreceptors—sensitive nerves in the blood vessels responsible for signaling the brain that blood pressure is becoming too high. Coronary heart disease is caused by a blocking of the coronary arteries—the blood vessels that surround the heart and are responsible for carrying oxygen to the heart muscle. The term actually refers to several problems, including angina pectoris, extreme chest pain caused by the partial blockage of the coronary arteries; coronary occlusion, a complete blockage of a coronary artery that halts the flow of blood to various parts of the heart muscle; and myocardial infraction (a “heart attack). Together such problems are the leading cause of death of men over the age of 35 and of women over 40 in the United States of America, accounting for over 700,000 deaths each year, almost one-third of all deaths in the nation. The majority of all cases of coronary heart disease are related to an interaction of psychosocial factors, such as job stress or high levels of anger or depression, and physiological factors, such as a high level of cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, the effects of smoking, or lack of exercise. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Over the year, clinicians have identified a number of variables that may contribute to the development of psychophysiological disorders. Given the close link between psychological and physical functioning, it should not surprise us that several of these variables are the same as those that contribute to the onset of acute and posttraumatic stress disorders. The variables may be grouped as sociocultural, psychological, and biological factors. Aside from the effects of parental modeling, certain negative family dynamics and atmospheres may predispose adolescents toward substance use. The families of teens who use substances tend to be less cohesive, to be less adaptable, and to exhibit less togetherness than families of teens who do not use. Negativity and conflict in the family are also positively correlated with adolescent drug use. These results notwithstanding, some of these family dynamics may actually be related to parental drug use. Researchers, for example, found that after they controlled for parental monitoring and family drug use, the association between family cohesion and adolescent drug use was not significant. The family may also influence adolescent substance use through problematic or ineffective parenting. For example, inconsistent parental discipline and skewed parenting, in which one parent is overinvolved and the other is overly permissive, are risk factors for initial drug use in adolescents. A combination of low parental support and high parental control has proven to be a particularly noxious combination of parenting behaviours that is also predictive of adolescent substance use. In addition, excessive maternal expressed emotion (criticism) is associated with a threefold increase in the risk for at least one of the following childhood problems: depression, substance abuse, or conduct disorder. The effects of paternal hostility on adolescent alcohol use are equally proven. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Some noteworthy longitudinal studies indicate that defective parenting behaviour may precede offspring’s substance misuse by many years. A landmark study found that mothers of children who were frequent users of marijuana at age 18 were overresponsive to their children and gave them little encouragement during an observation at age 5. Similarly, parents who exhibited less directive control and assertiveness while interacting with their 4-year-old children were more likely to have adolescents who used marijuana heavily some years later. These parenting behaviours and family environments may push an adolescent away from the family—causing one to reject traditional family beliefs and values such as religion, work, and education, and to move toward socialization with deviant peers. Parents of at-risk adolescents hold beliefs and values similar to those of other parents, but their children do not share these values. This suggests a breakdown in the process of parenting and/or an overwhelming influence of deviant peers. As with so many other mental health problems, a history of interpersonal maltreatment (including physical and sexual abuse) is predictive of later substance misuse. Although this phenomenon may be an extension of the aversive family-or-origin environments descried above, such maltreatment need not be perpetrated by family members in order to increase risk for substance abuse. In addition, the assessment of childhood maltreatment in this report does not always identify the relationship between the perpetrator and the child. Therefore, this set of social stressors is discussed separately from family-of-origin environment issues, although it is acknowledged that there may be a considerable interrelation between family-of-origin environment and these stressors. (It is also acknowledged that other social stressors, such as rejection by peers, may play a role in adolescent substance use/misuses; however, the present discussion focuses on physical and sexual abuse.) #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

In a study of prisoners in treatment for substance misuse, 67 percent had a history of physical abuse, and 37 percent had a history of sexual abuse. A large national probability sample of adolescents revealed that a history of sexual assault increased adolescents’ odds of alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug abuse/dependence by factors of 3.93, 3.80, and 8.59, respectively. In this study, adolescents with a history of sexual assault were over eight times more likely to have a drug use problem than were those without a history of sexual assault. Moreover, among the adolescents with substance use in this study, those who were sexually abused started using at a younger age than those who were not. A large national survey of adult women also indicated that a history of childhood sexual abuse increased the odds of using illicit drugs by a factor of 2.52. The research findings on childhood physical and sexual abuse cast the parental modeling hypothesis and findings in a different light. In addition to modeling drug use and misuse, parents who use drugs are also more likely to abuse their children physically and sexually than are parents with no history of substance use. Thus parental substance use may affect adolescent substance use/misuse both directly, through modeling, and indirectly through the effects of maltreatment. A number of hypotheses have been developed to explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent substance use. The self-medication hypothesis holds that survivours of physical or sexual abuse engage in substance use to cope with the emotional trauma of the abuse. This may take the form of sedating or dulling the senses with depressants, or maintaining a state of hypervigilance and watchfulness with stimulants. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

The self-esteem hypothesis suggests that people turn to substance use to combat the effects of the damaged self-esteem resulting from maltreatment. For some people, drug use may bring a temporary feeling of acceptance from peers, and a ready means of socializing without developing any real intimacy. An additional and related explanation for the association between physical or sexual abuse and substance misuse could be characterized as a hypothesis of perceived non-risk. People with a history of such abuse sometimes feel damaged and worthless. To such individuals there may be fewer deterrents to drug initiation, since they feel that they have less to lose. Unfortunately, adolescent substance use in response to prior maltreatment may create a vicious cycle. Substance use of misuse can itself increase the risk of subsequent maltreatment, due to impaired judgment, socializing with deviant peers, and inhabitation of dangerous environments. Therefore, many young people may find themselves in a cycle of maltreatment, substance use, more maltreatment, further substance use, and so on. This intergenerational model of substance misuse and family abuse/neglect provides a useful connection between findings indicating that parents who misuse substances are more likely to maltreat their children, and that survivours of childhood maltreatment are more likely to get involved with substance use. According to this model, substance misuse may be passed on intergenerationally, in part, through child maltreatment. Parental substance misuse (substance abuse in the figure) has negative effects on overall family competence (exempli gratia, cohesion, parenting quality, respect for boundaries) and positive effects on the likelihood of child abuse/neglect. The poor family competence and abuse/neglect are expected to predispose the offspring to adult abuse/neglect, due to their learned “victim” roles and developing excessive dependency needs. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The continuation of this abuse and neglect into late adolescence or adulthood then leads to offspring substance misuse, perhaps for reasons such as self-medication and coping. As adults, these offspring then become parents themselves, and the whole cycle starts anew. The origins of substance use appear to be largely interpersonal. Modeling, family-of-origin discord, and the social stressors constituting childhood maltreatment, are all interpersonal processes and mechanism associated with substance use in adolescents. It is apparent that drug use (and its initiation, in particular) is associated with family and peer influences, but that drug misuse may be related more to biological and psychological processes. Nevertheless, it would be naïve to overlook family-of-origin environments and other chronic stressors as contributory factors in drug misuse. Unlike problems such as depression of schizophrenia, which are in some cases characterized as “endogenous,” substance misuse is a phenomenon that almost always originates in interactions with other people. These people demonstrate the problematic behaviour. A predisposition to engage in the behaviour, and its maintenance may be activated by a tumultuous family-of-origin environment and interpersonal maltreatment. One may not realize it, but we are living in the good old days. I am convinced twenty or thirty years from now most of us will look back and say, “Those were some great times.” We are not always going to be here together as a family. Make sure you are enjoying your family and special people in your life. They may not always be there. Every morning you wake up, gaze in appreciation at your children. Go outside and admire your yard. Take time to pick a flower and just stare at it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Few of us would say that the greatest day of our lives was waking up and being able to see. However, oh, how things change when we find out we may lose something as precious as our sight or the ability to walk. If you can see and hear, if you are healthy, if you have a family and friends, if you have a job, food, and a place to live, learn to appreciate those things. Do not go around complaining about what is wrong. Change your attitude and thank God for what you do have. You may be facing some formidable obstacles in your path. However, if you look hard enough you can find some reason to be grateful. The Scripture says, “In everything gives thanks,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.18. Notice, it does not say, “For everything gives thanks.” You do not necessarily thank God for your problems; you thank God in spite of your problems, looking for the good in every situation. Many of us have almost lost our lives, and that is why it is a great idea to work up ad find some reason to be grateful, find some reason to give God thanks. Let His praise continually be in your mouth. Even when I pray, most of my praying these says is simply giving God thanks. I believe we should spend more time thanking God than we do asking Him for things. Some people give God their “to do” list: “God, give me this. God, fix this. God, change Aunt Greta. God, give me more money. Amen.” The Scripture says, “We enter into God’s presence with praise and thanksgiving,” (see Psalm 100.4). If you are just giving God your orders, you are not even getting through the front door, much less entering God’s presence. I like to start off my day by thanking God for the basics: “Father, thank You for my health. Thank You for my children. Thank You for my family. Thank You for my home. Father, thank You for all that You have done for me.” Friend, God already knows your needs. He already knows what you are going to say before you say it. There is nothing wrong with asking God for things—the Scripture clearly instructs us to look to Him for His goodness than requesting His goodies. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

We should spend more time giving God thanks for what He has already done than we do asking Him to do new things. I have discovered the more I thank God for what I have, the more God gives me what I do not have. Try it and see. You do not have to beg God; He wants to help you. Begin today to thank God for who He is and all that He has done for you. Dear Lord in Heaven, I thank You for supplying all of my needs. Father, You have done it in the past, and I thank You that You are going to do it again. “I will come in the strength and with the mighty acts of the Lord God; I will mention and praise Your righteousness, even Yours alone. O God, You have taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared Your wondrous works. Yes, even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, [but keep me alive] until I have declared Your mighty strength to [this] generation, and Your might and power to all that are to come. Your righteousness also, O God, is very high [reaching to the Heavens], You Who have done great things; O God, who is like You, or who is Your equal? You Who have shown us [all] troubles great and sore will quicken us again and will being us up again from the depths of the Earth. Increase my greatness (my honour), and turn and comfort me. I will l also praise You with the harp, even Your truth and faithfulness, O my God; unto You will I sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of America,” reports Psalm 71.16-22. Some (perhaps too many) believe that the glimpse has permanently changed them, made “the new man” out of the old Adam. However, what is to outlast time itself takes time. A pathetic self-deception may delight the ego, but breaks down in the end. That with one breakthrough in awareness, all would be known and comprehended, all questions answered, all personal shortcomings obliterated, is the usual conception of this experience. However, there is some wishful thinking there. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

The misinterpretation of one’s experience, the belief that one’s glimpse is the full transcendence of ordinary humanity, often follows it. In no way has one attained perfection, whether of knowledge, consciousness, character, or wisdom. One’s condition does not vanish because of the experience: it returns and remains with one as one’s usual one. Only swollen megalomaniacs assert otherwise. It is true that illumination of itself exalts character and ennobles feeling, purifies thought and spiritualizes action. However, if there has been insufficient effort along these lines, then the illumination will only be temporary. Too soon one will find that the rebirth was not a durable spiritual event but a temporary one. It offered a picture of something for which, from then one, one must start working in earnest. It was a glimpse only but it provided testimony, evidence, confirmation. Enlightenment may come suddenly to a human, but then it is usually a temporary glimpse. Only rarely does it stay and never leave one. The normal way is a gradual one. This is a rare fated exception, and can only be looked for at the risk of frustration. Glimpses will come to one now and then; they will cheer one’s heart and enlighten one’s mind; but a constant level of serene perception will be quite beyond the orbit of one’s experience. There are two things lacking in these glimpses. They are not full and total nor are they stable and lasting. In the meantime, walk in faith, as the Great Paul has said in Second Corinthians (5.7), comforted to know that one is following the footsteps of the Saints. Also have with one, as one’s vade mecum, the Holy Books as a consolation—a sentiment expressed by the First Maccabist (12.9)—as well as a mirror to life; and above all these things, Your Most Holy Body as a singular remedy and refuge. My body is a prison, and the view from my cell is grim. I survive, but barely. I do without things in this wretched state, but two things I just cannot live without. Food and Light. And You, Deal Lord, You bring them to me in the middle of the night. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Food? Your Sacred body, which revives my sagging mind and body. Light? Your Divine Word. As the Psalmist has sung in similar circumstances, it is a lamp for my shackled feet (119.105). Without the Food and without the Light, I wither. Without the Bread and without the Bible, I wander. Without the Sacrament of Life and the Book of Life, I perish. From my cell I see—or think I see—an altar. A Holy Table from which rises Holy Church in all her splendour. On one side is the Holy Bread; that is to say, the precious Body of Christ. On the other, the Holy Bible; that is to say, the Divine Law that contains Holy Doctrine, teaches right faith, leads even the imprisoned soul through the veil of veils to the Holy of Holies, as the Letter to the Hebrews has led us to expect (6.19). I thank You, Lord Jesus, “Light of Eternal Life”—that is the title the Wisdom of Solomon assigned to Sophia (7.26)—for the Holy Doctrine, which You have administered through the ages to the Prophets, the Apostles, the Disciples, all who have come after. Thanks to You also, Creator and Redeemer of Humankind, for displaying Your charity to the whole World. That is to say, You prepared a great banquet, the centerpiece of which was not the requisite lamb, but rather Your Most Holy Body and Blood. All the faithful are jumping for joy at the Holy Meal, dipping the Bread of Life time and time again into the Chalice of Salvation, brimming with all the paradisal vintages. The Holy Angels dine with us; we, quite humdrum with knife and fork; they, quite fascinating without limbs or implements. It is difficult for us to imagine the actual breakup, of say, the United States of America, as the dissident historian Andrei Amalrik once forecast. However, a Chinese think tank has published a report that criticizes American democracy. The paper entitled “Ten Questions for American Democracy” was released by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China on Monday, 2021 December 6. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

The research report raises questions about the American democracy, including whether it will promote unity of lead to division. Instead of prompting unity, the paper says democracy is leading to social disorder within the United States of America, while inciting chaos in other nations where the US “exports” democracy. Lui Yuanchun, vice president of Renmin University, criticized the United States of America for fostering division around the World through its ideologies at a time when humankind is in need of unity. He added many nations are frustrated by the United States of America.  A day earlier, the Chinese government released a similar report called “The State of Democracy in the United States.” It invited participants from more than 120 countries and regions to a forum held on the theme of democracy in which China created its own model of democracy. The moves come head of the two-day online “Summit for Democracy” to be hosted by US President Joe Biden that starts on 2010 December 9. Invitations have been extended to some 110 countries and territories but not to China. It is impossible to gauge the full intensity of separatist sentiments in various parts of the United States of America. However, the nightmare or multiple secession movements must haunt the authorities. If war were to break out with China, or a series of uprisings suddenly exploded in the United States of America, other nations might well face open secessionist or autonomist revolts in many of its republics. Most Americans can hardly conceive of circumstances that would tear the United States of America apart. (Neither could most Canadians as recently as a decade ago.) However, sectionalist pressures are steeply on the rise. Some economist fear that the Northwest plans to secede from America and will use their own COVID restrictions as their justification for this secession. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Other secession scenarios also make the sounds. A report prepared for the national security adviser discussed the possible breakaway of California and the Southwest to form Spanish speaking or bilingual geographical entities—“Chicano Quebecs.” Letters to the editor speak of re-attaching Texas to Mexico to form a mighty oil power called Texico. At a hotel newsstand in Austin not long ago, I bought a copy of Texas Monthly which sharply criticized Washington’s “gringo” policy toward Mexico, adding, “In recent months it seems we have had more in common with our old enemies in Mexico City than with our leaders in Washington and California….The Yankees have been stealing our oil since Spindletop and sending their cash strapped Californians refugees to steal our land, jobs, and drive up real estate prices making it hard for our natives to live, while simultaneously replacing their own population with refugees from Mexico and the Middle East…so Texans should be least surprised by Mexico’s attempt to avoid the same kind of economic imperialism.” On that same newsstand, I also purchased a prominently displayed bumper sticker. It consisted of the Texas star and a single word: Secede. There were still also red MAGA hats for sale, which tells you the state is seeing red in 2024. Such talk, however, may be quite farfetched, yet the plain fact is that throughout the United States of America, as in other high-technology countries, national authority is being tested and sectional pressures are mounting. Leaving aside the rising potential for separatism in Puerto Rico and Alaska; Oakland, San Jose and Southern California, or the demands of Native Americans for recognition as a sovereign nation, African Americans for Constitutional Rights, and the disabled, veterans, and retirees for a living wage, we can trace widening cleavages among the continental states themselves. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “there is a second civil war taking place in America. The conflicts pits cities in California against the state of California, the Midwest, Northeast, and the sunbelt states of the South and South West against California and Washington. California used to be the darling of the World, now it is becoming one of the most hated regions in the World.” Infuriated by White House energy proposals, many feel are being instigated by California and impacting the entire World, these officials have “pledged everything short of secession from the Union to save oil, natural gas supplies and coal for the region’s growing industrial base.” Widening cleavages also divide the Western states themselves. Western states see themselves increasingly as energy colonies of states like California. Then there are the much-publicized bumper stickers that are reemerging in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana during the spiking gas prices and shortages: “Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark.” The thinly veiled implication of secession could also be found by the state of Louisiana due to the way George Bush handled hurricane Katrina and California’s preference for non-Americans over their own citizens. A recent article urged the reader to “Consider an America without Louisiana.” Midwestern’s today are being advised to stop “chasing smokestacks,” to move to more advanced industry, and to start thinking like regionalists, while Northeastern governors are organizing themselves to defend that region’s interests. The public mood was hinted at in a full-page ad placed by the Coalition to say New York. The charge that “New York Is Being Raped” by federal policies and that “New Yorkers can fight back.” What does all this belligerent talk around the World, not to mention the protest and violence, add up to? The answer is unmistakable: potentially explosive internal stresses within the nations spawned by the green revolution and Constitutional Rights. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Some of these stresses obviously arise from the energy crisis and the need to shift to Green Energy. Others can be traced to political conflicts, the American news media’s propaganda and lies, human rights violations in America, stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing, and corrupt American politicians. In many places we are also witnessing the growth of subnational or regional economies that are as large, complex, and internally differentiated as national economies were a generation ago. These form the economic launching pad for separatist movements or drives for autonomy. However, whether taking the form of open secessionism, of regionalism, bilingualism, home-rulism, or decentralism, these centrifugal forces also gain support because national governments are unable to respond flexibly to the rapid de-massification of society. As the mass society of the industrial era disintegrates under the impact of the Third Wave, regional, local, ethnic, social, and religious groups grow less uniform. Conditions and needs diverge. Individuals, too, discover or reassert their differences. Corporations typically meet this problem by introducing more variety into their product lines and by a policy of aggressive “market segmentation.” National governments, by contrast, find it difficult to customize their policies, they find it impossible to treat each region or city, each contending racial, religious, social, sexual, or ethnic group differently, let alone to treat each citizen as an individual. As conditions diversify, national decision-makers remain ignorant of fast changing local requirements. If they try to identify these highly localized or specialized needs, they wind up deluged with overdetailed, indigestible data. Pierre Trudeau, once caught in the struggle against Canadian secessionism, declared: “You can’t have an operative, operating system of federal government if one part of it, province or state, is in a very important special status, if it has a different set of relationships toward the central government than then other provinces.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

In consequence, national governments in Washington, London, Paris, or Moscow continue, by and large, to impose uniform, standardized policies designed for a mass society on increasingly divergent and segmented public. But like a bad child, California is disobeying its parents by allowing the recreational use of marijuana, not enforcing boarder security, and ignoring the suffering of some low-income, disabled, veterans, and retirees during the pandemic. And also increasing restrictions, fees, fines, and taxes on the wealth and corporations.  Local and individual needs are forgotten or ignored, causing flares of resentment to reach white heat. As de-massification progress, we can expect separatist or centrifugal forces to intensity dramatically and threaten the unity of many nation-states. The Third Wave is placing enormous pressures on the nation-state from below. The history’s course is predetermined: the capitalistic phase of society cannot avoid being followed by the chaotic phase of its own dissolution, and that, in turn, cannot avoid being followed by the Communistic form of a rigid reorganization. This is a materialistic caricature of the doctrine of fatalism, which in its true form as a Universal law has so far entered only into the spiritual thinking of the New World. This Marxian view, that is to say, the short-sighted view, is too simple to be true. Life is more complex than that. It is true that Demos is astir and seeks at the least to better his lot and at the most a paradise on Earth. When a man passes through a long period of unemployment or earns too little for adequate support of his family, he begins to feel despairingly that society has no use for him. This bitterness weakens his ethical sense and renders him liable to fall into the illusion that any social change, even a violent one, is necessarily a change for the better. If, instead of making proper efforts to remove the deficiencies and eliminate shortcomings, we merely seek for plausible pretexts to justify them, then we ought not to be astonished when disaster comes. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars, and the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, and the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest, and the running blackberry would adorn the parlours of Heaven, and the narrowest hinge in my hands puts to scorn all machinery, and the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue, and a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels. Please rescue me, and deliver me out of the hand of those whose mouth speaks falsehood, and whose right hand contrives deceit. May our sons be as saplings growing strong in their youth; our daughters like carved cornices of a palace; may our garners be full, abundant with all manner of produce, our sheep increasing by thousands and ten thousands in our fields; may our oxen be well laden; may we neither be attacked nor enslaved, and no cry of distress be heard in our broad places. Happy is the people that enjoys such security; happy the people whose God is the Lord. God, please be gracious unto us and bless us; cause Thy spirit to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon Earth, Thy saving power among all nation. Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, O Lord; let the people gives thanks unto Thee, of all them. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for Thou judgest the peoples with equity, and guidest the nations upon the Earth. Let the peoples gives thanks unto Thee, O god; let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, all of them. The Earth has yielded her produce, may God, or God, bless us. May God bless us; and let all the ends of the Earth revere Him. And God being merciful, forgiveth iniquity and destoryeth not; yea, often He turneth His anger away, and doth not stir up all His indignation. O Lord, save us. O King, answer us on the day when we call. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20   

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Including a three car garage and a convertible den option, this one really can be customized to fit your lifestyle to a “t.” We’re in love!

At 2,827 square feet you’ll be hard pressed to a contemporary floorplan that offers this much space. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/residence-three/

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