In the course of history alienation has undergone significant qualitative changes so that its meaning today is quite different from what it was in previous eras. Once the concept of individual sovereignty had been awakened in the minds of women, a new climate prepared. Women in the male-dominated, rural culture of Sacramento are often viewed as submissive and passive. Growing up in a patriarchal society many such women outwardly display passivity when relating to men. They have been taught to submit to their fathers and husbands and bend to their will. However, while public displays often fit this mold, many women are in fact very strong and important contributors to their families, kinship networks and communities. Just as there are certain types of male marijuana growers, there are also differing types of women associated with these men. Each of these varieties of women serves different roles in the business and life of the male marijuana grower. Women’s functional roles include assisting in recruiting men into the industry and providing domestic and sexual services for isolated growers and aiding the men in growing, harvesting, transporting, and selling the crop. Females’ roles, to an even greater extent than their male counterparts, in the marijuana industry are dependent upon social class membership. Women’s degree of involvement ranges from passively assisting their husbands to playing highly active central roles. Theoretically more important though, is a view of women’s cultural statuses in the communities of the rural marijuana industry. There are three distinct roles for women in these communities: Strumpets, Decent Women and the Women-in-Between. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

The Strumpet is typically a young, uneducated and unmarried woman. Strumpets usually have one or more illegitimate children, are often substance abusers and therefore are perceived as being of loose morals. Additionally, or perhaps consequently, the strumpet rarely attends church, which is an important social function for the rural women. The specific roles expected of the strumpet are to provide companionship, sexual services and to perform domestic chores for rural men, including marijuana growers. Unless she is fortunate enough to marry, as the strumpet ages she becomes increasingly expendable to the men in her life. In such a case, due to lack of education and jobs available to women, the strumpet will live out the rest of her life in poverty, and be looked down upon by other, more respectable women. While marriage will not bring the strumpet the same degree of respectability afforded the decent woman, marriage will bring her relative financial security. These young women often associate with marijuana growers for personal gain. She receives clothing for herself and her children, is taken to restaurants and other places of entertainment, travels with her male associate and may receive additional money for her living expenses. Strumpets display strong loyalty to the men of the marijuana industry. However, this loyalty does not extend to waiting for a grower after he is imprisoned, leaves the area or ends their relationship. She is typically a very pragmatic and self-interested person. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Despite her avowed love for her man, a strumpet realizes that when he is no longer immediately available it is in her financial best interest to seek out another man. The rural male also recognized this relationship as a practical arrangement. The strumpet fulfills very specific, and for him important, roles in his life. He does not expect the same loyalty from her that he does from his wife. The strumpet’s role is to keep him sexually satisfied and to perform jobs decent women cannot and would not be asked to perform. Because including women in the growing operations would require living with other men, rural Sacramento males would never allow their wives or other female relatives to be involved. Thos considered to be decent women would not consent to such an arrangement in any case. When discussing the roles fulfilled by women in his organization, Mr. Buford described strumpets, saying: “Most of us had girlfriends that we could trust with our lives…even though most of us were married at the time. These girls would go on some deals, more or less to keep us company. Also they kept the guys happen and content…They didn’t need to leave the marijuana farm for sex. We all loved women and always will.” Strumpets are not respected in their rural communities. As might be expected, such women received especially strong disdain from female relatives of the men in the marijuana industry. However, even though a man’s female skin will disapprove of a strumpet, because the culture is extremely patriarchal their disapproval need not derive him away from a relationship with a strumpet. The marijuana grower accepts the strumpet as a necessary, and sometimes valuable, part of his business. She is a commodity, valued only by the men with whom she couples. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

The second type of female is quite different and much more respected. Decent Women are highly respected and very rarely placed in any jeopardy by rural men. Decent women include the majority of mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, aunts and wives of the active participants in the marijuana industry (as well as many women with no connection to the industry). Although there are few exceptions, these women do not generally grow, transport or in any way become involved with the activities of the marijuana industry. They are, for the most part, aware of illegal activities engaged in by the men in their lives, but they themselves rarely participate. Among decent women those most likely to express strong disapproval for marijuana-related activities are the mother and grandmothers of the men involved. Countrymen show great respect, both real and ritual, for these women, displaying great deference to them. However, decent women’s expressed disapproval does not lead the men to curtail their activities, for after all, they are “just women.” Living in a strictly patriarchal culture, the decent women may be called upon by her male relatives to assist in recruiting new members of the marijuana industry. New participants, for the most part, are introduced into a kinship network involved in the marijuana industry by marriage to a decent woman. For the decent woman’s husband to be incorporated into her kinship network of marijuana growers she must “indirectly” indicate her endorsement of her husband’s involvement. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

It is her responsibility to communicate her husband’s desire for inclusion. While she may (and probably will) voice her disapproval, in the end she will bow to her male relatives’ wishes. Jolene, a decent woman explains how her husband became involved in the marijuana industry by the way of her male relatives: “My husband and I was married about six years before he got in with the family. I kind of had an idea what my uncle was doing. My husband said he wanted some good pot…The only way my husband could be brought in was if I said the word…Finally, I mentioned it to my uncle in an off-hand sort of way. My uncle said for me to tell him to drop by, he might be able to help him out. I couldn’t have gotten him in sooner. They had to see what he was like before inviting him in and then on my say-so.” Women-in-Between are distinct from, yet a combination of qualities found in, decent women and strumpets. They may be divorced and employed at the local factory. If unmarried they may frequent the local nightclubs in search of a new husband. They often meet and form intimate relationships with marijuana growers. Unlike strumpets, these women may insist upon a monogamous relationship of either marriage or at least living together. While more respected than the strumpet, they are still less respected than the decent woman. The woman-in-between is unique, she often has an active role in growing and distributing marijuana. Mr. Buford descried the role of these women as a relatively recent development in rural culture. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

The woman-in-between is a new social category in the World of marijuana growers. It is difficult to ascertain the full extent of her role in this culture partly because of her recent emergence and partly because of their status as a hidden member of the culture. Few of the women have been arrested and none has chosen to discuss her role. In this patriarchal society, she is apt to have been recruited and trained by male relatives, her husband or boyfriend. Her future in the marijuana industry remains to be seen. It appears women may be developing more egalitarian roles in the marijuana industry. It can also be speculated that as male marijuana growers are being imprisoned for longer periods of time, the women are stepping in to replace them. It remains unclear, then, whether the emergence of women that is presently being seen is due to feminist politics or simple necessity. All three groups of women play significant roles in the marijuana industry. Some are respected in their community, others are not. They all reflect the culture in which they have been raised and have the same distrust of outsiders as their male counterparts. The marijuana industry is a powerful economic and social force in the United States of America, especially in economically depressed, rural regions of the country. The U.S.A. semi-legal medical and recreational marijuana sales for the closed of 2023 are estimated to be $33.6 billion. However, illegal cannabis sales are estimated to be more than $100 billion each year. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

The growth and distribution of marijuana is not a randomly occurring, scattered endeavor, but rather is a structured industry that occupies an important cultural position in rural communities. Even those individuals who are not themselves actively involved in the industry play important roles in facilitating the industry’s economic success and continued operation. Furthermore, with the organization of rural Sacramento’s communities there are structural factors that promote and support the marijuana industry. Due to cultural and economic factors of the region, the roles rural residents occupy in relation to the industry are focused on the maintenance of community and culture, not necessarily making the success of the industry itself the primarily focus. Accepting the political economy and its laws, we presuppose private property, the separation of labor, capital, and land; and of wages, profit and rent; the division of labor, competition, the concept of exchange-value. And not only are most forecast in the political economy about global power based on overly simple assumptions, they misdefine. Some sources popularize the idea of the decline of America, essentially measure national power in terms of wealth and military capability alone. However, these sources also only allude to, but undervalue the impact of ideology, religion, and culture, all of which are becoming more important than ever. They vastly underestimate the role of knowledge—which, in fact, has now become the dominant source of both economic wealth and military strength. This is the central powershift of our time. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

Moreover, power, as we have seen, is not just a matter of how much but of how good—quality of power may be as important as its quantity, and a nation’s power must be related to its own goals, not merely to the power of other nations. What might be adequate for one purpose, reflecting one set of values, might be inadequate for another. Unlike Europe, whose focus is regional, and Japan, which is hesitating between a regional and a global role, the United States of America is committed to a global role. Having led a global coalition for the past half-century, America can hardly imagine narrowing its ambitions to a single region. However, more than psychology is involved. The U.S.A. economy is linked into so many parts of the World, and now depends upon so vast a variety of relationships, that to be cut off from access to an significant part of the World economy would be devasting. No American political leader can allow that to happened. The same may turn out to be true for Japan—and perhaps for Europe as well. Thus, any serious threats of protectionism—in response, say, to an economic crisis—would totally destabilize relations among the three great capitalist centers. What is more, three is an unstable number. Parties of three frequently split into a two and a one. Of course, many other nations and regions are already fighting for a place in the 21^st-century power system. Strange new alliances and strategies will appear. Countries long relegated to the back pages of history will suddenly loom into our consciousness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

However, even now, European leaders are approaching Washington with what amounts to plans for a new alliance, no longer aimed at Moscow. Some proposals are limited to specific fields, like high-definition television, or to technology generally. However, broader terms are clearly in mind. Closer ties between Europeans and Americans can only be of mutual benefit in coordinating policy toward their joint competitor Japan. However, what if American long-range strategists were blind and permitted history to swing in the opposite direction—toward a tacit alliance (and economic division of the globe) between Japan and a Germanicized Europe? Japanese companies like JVC Professional Europe Ldt/Germany is already a reality in Berlin. Mitsubishi has already forged links with Messerschmitt. The United States of America, even if integrated into an all-North American common market, could not for long survive this global squeeze play, the result of which might be nothing less catastrophic than World War III. A reinvigorated U.S.A.-Japanese alliance, however, could produce a sharply different outcome. U.S.A.-Japanese relations have never been worse since World War II. Indeed, the gap between the United States of America and Japan can only widen so far before dangerous sparks arc across it. Irresponsible jingos in both Tokyo and Washington, playing for easy votes and money, are deliberately stoking dangerous emotions. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

If Shintaro Ishihara, a former Cabinet member, can speculate about a future in which the United States of America reoccupies Japan to prevent the sale of advanced chips to the Soviet, he is, by implication, speculating about outright war, voicing an incredible thought not far from consciousness in both countries. He and his American counterparts who picture Japanese and American missiles pointed at each other should remember that he who rides the tiger cannot get off. In a World of sudden turnabouts and surprises, no fantasy can be ruled out. However, the remotest risk of such confrontation should send horrors down the spine even of those who are equally weary of American superpowerdom and Japanese competition. Such a struggle could plunge the entire Earth into a nightmare from which it might not recover for centuries. The growing hostility between these two Pacific powers could only be heightened if Europe turned protectionist, forcing them into even fiercer competition in the rest of the World. Which is why the idea of a “Fortress Europe” closed to outside competition is the equivalent of a death threat to World peace. In this highly volatile situation, American can play the coquette, allowing itself to be used as a “card” to be played by Europe or Japan in their global competition. It can play the role of mediator. Or it can force an alliance to dominate the earl decades of the 21^st century. But with whom? #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

It is precisely here that the “power triad” analysis proves most revealing. For if we once more look at violence, wealth, and knowledge, we can glimpse the power consequences of any given lineup. It tells us, for example, that a defector U.S.A.-European alliance would weld together great military power (the old NATO, plus). It would bring together huge markets and great wealth (much of it, however, based on rust-belt manufacture and assumptions). It would merge America’s science and technology with Europe’s and it would assemble vast cultural power. Long cultural and ethnic ties would make this convergence natural. Such an alliance, aimed at Japan, would call up memories of the 1930s, further accelerate Japanese rearmament, install hawks in power, and drive Japan deeper toward the developing countries as less favorable markets for its goods and capital. Militarily it could lead to Soviet-Japanese deal and even toward some new form of Chinese adventure. For Japan to be froze out of Europe or even if it is imaginable, the United States of America, would be yet another equivalent of setting off a global bomb. By contrast, cold calculation also shows that a de facto alliance between the United States of America and Japan, despite their current tensions, would produce quite different consequences for the planet. This turnabout should not be discounted in a World in which public opinion can shift overnight and in which the United States of American finds itself defending Vladimir Putin. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

Strange as it sounds, an American-Japanese alliance to balance the power on the European “heartland” would bring together what are currently the World’s first- and third-biggest military budgets; its two largest economies; and its two fastest-growing scientific and technical bases. Such a combination could form a strategic duopoly or condominium encompassing within it the fastest-growing economies in the World—those of the Pacific region, the “heart-sea” counterpart of the “heart-land.” There is, moreover, one last awesome factor differentiating the two alliances, between which the United States of America may find itself torn. This difference is so little discussed in Washington, Tokyo, or the European capitals that strategists in the richest and most powerful nations tend to forget it. Yet over the long run it holds potentially enormous significance in the great game of nations. Any Euro-American alliance without Japan is basically a mono-racial, all-white power coalition in a World in which the white race is a dwindling minority. By contrast, a United States of America-Japan alliance, for all the xenophobia in both those nations, is an interracial power coalition. That difference cannot but register on the rest of the planet’s populations. History does not run along railroad tracks to a pre-set future. In the Powershift Era, a period of revolutionary upheaval on the planet, many other permutations of power are possible. Europe is already worrying about the Muslim pressure on its southern flank. China could erupt in civil war. Any number of other wild-card scenarios can be imagined. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

Surely the rest of the World ill not sit idly by as Europe, Japan, and the United States of America divide up the spoils. Yet strategists in Washington, Tokyo, Brussels, and Berlin may soon have to choose sides in the great triadic competition for the World power. The decision that Washington makes (consciously or by default) will shape the future of the entire rest of the planet, from China and the U.S.S.R. to the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. What, then, should we conclude about this inter-capitalist struggle for World power? Which of the three great contenders will triumph in history’s next great powershift? The answer, as we will see in coming days, is that we are asking the wrong question. As mentioned, Chinese households’ indebtedness is meager while their saving rates are remarkably high. There is the Western culture of living on debt, and there is the Chinese culture of minimizing family debts and keeping them under tight control. Thus, in China there is effectively no room for unaffordable consumption prompted by excessive household borrowing. In the corporate sector, Chinese banks, most of all state-owned banks as major lenders, are extending massive loans to domestic companies. Usually two major problems are raised in this regard. First, there are concerns that a substantial portion of loans—especially those extended to state-owned enterprises—may be politically motivated and lack commercial rationale. Second, there is a lot of anxiety about the fact that government and the central bank often fail to keep credit expansion within the limits they set, which allegedly exacerbates the threat of overheating and creates an asset bubble. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Such concerns, however, are usually exaggerated. Indeed, politically motivated loans to particular Chinese companies, especially state-owned, are still extended, and some poorly performing enterprises may get funding to keep afloat. However, the major trend is the reverse. Since the start of market reforms, China has been marking a really big shift from soft to hard budget constraints for enterprises. As time goes by, generally it is becoming more and more difficult for companies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) included, to get funding from the state, and the proportion of the fund-raising done by themselves in accordance with the market rules is steadily increasing. Already in the 1980, the government effectively terminated the SOE’s direct budgetary financing. Yet, until the launch of the SOE reforms in the second half of the 1990s, state banks had to continuously provide massive loans under the government’s directive without the right to squeeze or terminate commercially unviable credit. With the reform, however, this practice significantly decreased in scale. Back in 2003, the state recapitalized the four major banks and after that embarked on their corporatization. The latter was marked by consecutive World records in terms of the amount of funds they raised through the IPO, reflecting high expectations of the investment community. The Chinese leadership understands too well that commercially unviable financing and lending are a potential bomb whose explosion can undermine the very foundation of the economic system it is creating—and also the foundation its own power is resting on. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

The collapse of the Soviet Union and other conventional socialist economies provided crucially important empirical evidence in this regard. Hence, it is doing its best to make more, not less, state lending commercially viable. Even the three so-called policy banks (China Development Bank, Export-Import Bank, and Agricultural Development Bank of China) are increasingly relying on self-initiated commercial loans, while the proportion of subsidized government-directed lending is falling. As for excessive bank lending, which sometimes exceeds government-imposed limits, it is important to examine the problem within the context of China’s macroeconomic policy as a whole. For three decades the key features of this policy has been a persistent stance to neutralize the overheating threat. The architects of China’s macroeconomic policy are always on the alert. The record clearly shows that the government and the central bank recognize this threat very well and, when necessary, do not hesitate to tighten monetary policy in a very resolute manner. In the late 1990s, China’s monetary policy was expansionary in 2022, monetary policy has become moderately accommodative following modest interest rate-based easing measures, cuts to the reserve requirement ratio, adjustments to deposit rate guidance policies that have helped lower deposit rates, and the use of credit policies to steer credit to SMEs and other borrower segments. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

 To prevent overheating and contain the financial bubble, the Chinese government utilizes a wider range of monetary policy tools than its Western counterparts. For example, along with setting lending limits and increasing mandatory bank reserves to be held in the People’s Bank of China, it designates industries with excess production capacity where new investment projects are put under direct state supervision, or intervenes into the real estate market, restricting purchases and reselling of high-end property, which is likely to become target for speculators. Furthermore, when inflation risks are considered high, it does not stop short of directly guiding sellers not to raise prices for important consumer and production goods. Overall, at this point China has a very impressive record (perhaps, more impressive than that of any other big country) of avoiding, or rather preventing overheating and the asset bubble threat. Seen from this angel, inability to keep credit within imposed limits appears to be just a technical problem emerging in the process of the implementation of a policy that basically works. With increasing bureaucratization, it becomes plain to all who would see that man is to a very important degree controlled by his social relations to the instruments of production. Bureaucratization makes readily visible what was previously dim and obscure. More and more people discover that to work, they must be employed. For to work, one must have tools and equipment. And the tools and equipment are increasingly available only in bureaucraices, private or public. Consequently, one must be employed by the bureaucracies in order to have access to tools in order to work and live. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

 Schools, secular and religious, are in a favorable situation to experiment with various ways of supplementing and facilitating the family in the development of empathic capacity. Experimental and control groups could be used without detriment to the children used as subject, indeed, with the conscious participation of the children and parents in the experiment. Hypotheses such as the following illustrate some of the possibilities: Groups of children who are given the following experiences will show more empathic capacity than comparable groups who are not given such experiences: Taught courses in fiction, biography, and drama in which the child is instructed and is given assistance in putting himself in the roles of various characters studied. Taught by teachers who themselves are high in empathic capacity. Taught by a number of teachers who represent different subcultural backgrounds. Given explicit instruction, training, and practice in accurate portrayal of others who represent different roles in his own life situations in which the emphasis on individualistic striving for grades is replaced by emphasis on collaborative responsibility for maximizing the skill and the mastery of the subject matter by each member of the collaborating group. Participation in group activity which involved responsibility for co-operation in planning of significant programs, resolution of real problems, and genuine discipline of members. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

The design of such experiments should provide for the “noncontamination” of groups. The numbers involved should be large enough for reliable statistical comparisons. The value of the experiments would be further divided into groups which provide for the carious relevant combinations of parents: being told and actively co-operating in designated ways; informed, but not asked to participate further; and not informed; experimental subjects: informed as to objectives and participating in planning and appraisal of results; and not informed as to objectives. The general hypothesis to be tested by inclusion of the variable mentioned above is that active informed participation in the experiment will enhance the effectiveness of the antecedent variables. Recreation reflections the various types of activity in our culture. Despite the demonstration there that recreation is not a separate aspect but relates to all other aspects of our life, it is appropriate here to note some of the specific relations between recreational conditions and empathic response. Unilateral giving of toys with no opportunity for the child to reciprocate and to occupy the role of giver inhibits his empathic development. Toys which confine the child to the role of spectator limit his empathic development. Abundance of mimetic and dramatic play is positively correlated with empathic development. Reading and films, radio and television programs, which provide rich opportunity for identification with a variety of characters, increase the empathic capacity of the child. Forms of play which involve discussion, planning, teamwork, and resolution of differences are productive of empathic capacity. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Manifestations of influence of psychopathic offenders called natural idiosyncrasies—this truth abut the workings of psychopathic offenders among the pure, and the cause and symptoms of their power upon mind or body, has been so veiled in ignorance that multitude are deceived by them. The manifestations are generally taken as natural idiosyncrasies or infirmities. The ultimate concern’s work is put on one side, or even never taken up, because the pure is “over-strained” or else, “without gifts” for doing it. He is “nervous,” “timid,” has “no gift of speech, no power of thought” where the service of ultimate concern is; but in the social sphere these “deficiencies” are forgotten, and the timid ones shine out at their best. It does not occur to them to ask why it is that only in the ultimate concern’s service are they thus incapable. However, it is only in respect to such a service that the hidden workings of the psychopathic offenders interfere. If heteronomy inevitably foes shipwreck on the rocks of the demonic, authority becomes a dangerous problem because heteronomy is the authority claimed or exercised by a finite being in the name of the infinite. It is difficult and painful to break-through to autonomy which has made one immune against any system of thought or life which demands the surrender of this autonomy. However, subjection to a law is not experienced as our own. Actual authority is based on a superiority of knowledge, ability, and experience, which is indispensable due to man’s limitations and deficiencies. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

However, authority ambiguously degenerates into “established” authority attached to social positions, exempli gratia, parents, kings, and priests, which trespasses upon the sacred domains of the personal self. We are keenly aware of the need for authority, an awareness intensified by the political chaos in America after the 2020 election, but one most be even more sensitive to the ambiguity of authority and its constant need for a corrective. There can be a power through a renunciation of power, a renunciation or moderation based not on weakness, but on the vitality of participation in the transcendent power beyond all finite power-structures. Power is an ontological concept. The power of authority an be directed toward fostering union, but this process of unification may not be vitiated by an unjust and meaningless conformity. Man needs authority because we are so frail, so dependent upon others, and the acceptance of authority is the acceptance of what is given by those who have more than we. There is possibility of an authority guaranteed by its inner power, not established by tradition, knowledge or experience. There is something in the Christian message which is opposed to established authority. There is something in the Christian experience which revolts against subjection to even the greatest and holiest experience of the past. The place where the ultimate concern gives authority to man cannot be circumscribed. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

It cannot be legally defined. It cannot be put into the fences of doctrines and rituals. It is here, and you do not know where it comes from. You cannot derive it. You must be grasped by it. You must participate in its power. This is the reason why the question of authority never can get an ultimate answer. Authority is from God but God is Spirit, the Spirit that blows where it wills and cannot be imprisoned in finite institutions. The God who is Spirit does not eliminate preliminary authorities from our lives—parental, social, political, and ecclesiastical—but they are not ultimacy. The only suitable symbol of authority is the Cross upon which Jesus witnessed, not to himself, but to “Him who is the ground and the negation of everything which is authority on Earth and in Heaven.” The problem of authority which we have seen—power through renunciation of power, power inspired by love but tempered by justice, the acceptance of preliminary authorities but the denial of the possibility of localizing ultimate authority—through all of these solutions shines the Protestant principle, the paradoxical principle of simultaneous affirmation and negation. By the Protestant principle he accepts authority, but in the same breath criticizes it, for authority always leans toward heteronomy and thus presents a constant target for the prophetic protest against the demonic. Heteronomy is a type of union of religion and culture, but a demonically distorted one. It fails to respect legitimately autonomous forms and imposes itself as an alien law. Thus heteronomy is more a subordination of culture to religion than an organic union of the two, for it is the attempt of a religion to dominate autonomous cultural creativity from the outside. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Money economy and the dominance of the intellect are intrinsically connected. They share a matter-of-fact attitude in dealing with men and with things; and in, this attitude, a formal justice is often coupled with an inconsiderate hardness. It would be erroneous to assume the rural Kentucky communities present universally supportive or even knowledgeable fronts regarding the marijuana industry. Rather, individuals in these communities can be identified as occupying one of seven primary roles. It is important to note, however, that these roles are primarily males’ roles. The primary roles of community members are as ostriches, the fringe group, the in-the-knows, the profiteers, the part-timers, the retirees, and the active participants. The Ostriches are aware that people in the community grow marijuana, but likes myths about the flightless bird, stick their hands in the sand and pretend to not know anything about illegal activities. Consequently, these persons are the least informed about the nature and scope of the marijuana industry. Their constant denial serves to protect the marijuana grower from outside scrutiny. These people portray the marijuana grower from outside scrutiny. These people portray the marijuana grower as a deviant outsider and not one of “us” even when there is evidence to the contrary. This groups attempts to project the image of a community of only good, law-abiding people. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

The role of the ostriches is to promote this image to outsiders and to reassure themselves of the goodness of the people in the community. For the most part they do not profit from the marijuana grower’s enterprise. This is likely due to intimacy of community members and their awareness of the roles played by everyone in the community, including the ostriches. The Fringe group is aware that the marijuana industry is a part of their community, but these people have no connection to kinship networks that participate in the marijuana industry. These individuals will acknowledge the industry’s existence to others (while ostriches will not). However, they will rarely, if ever, inform law enforcement officials about such activity. The belief is that such knowledge should be contained within the community. They believe only insiders can and should exert social control over community and industry members. The Fringe group persistently assets that marijuana growers are a small deviant group within the community. This perspective, like that of the ostrich, offers the marijuana grower a degree of protection from outsiders. If organized crime is perceived as small and powerless, its members stand a better chance of avoiding detection and thereby enabling them to continue illegal activities (and presumably maintain community stability). For these reasons, those who disapprove of the marijuana grower facilitate his avoiding detection. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Wearing the mantle of respectability, the grower is not recognized or acknowledged as a member of the marijuana industry (or, he is not recognized as a community member). In reality, the Fringe group’s failure to publicly identify the scope of industry participation facilitates the invisibility enjoyed by many members, thus further entrenching the industry in the community fabric. The In-The-Knows differ from the Fringe group because they have friends and relatives involved in growing and selling marijuana. These persons may be present and witness others’ illegal activities or such activities may be discussed in their presence. This group is trusted by marijuana growers, and due to their strong kinship ties to those inside the marijuana industry, they never disclose information regarding illegal activities to law enforcement officials. Furthermore, kinship ties motivate these persons to protect industry participants whenever possible. Most commonly this occurs via warnings of impending raids or investigations known to individuals because of their professional and personal access to such information. By protecting others from detection and apprehension these individuals promote community cohesion and continuation of current community structures and social/economic activities. The Profiteers are those community members who, while not directly participating in the activities of the marijuana industry, indirectly benefit from the economic impact it has on the community. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

The Profiteers are a group of people made up of local business people who have knowledge of, and often support the marijuana growers. Marijuana is a major part of rural Kentucky communities’ economies. Many businesses will accept cash for both large and small purchases. Large purchases, such as new cars, are not question when paid in cash. That fact that a $50,000 vehicle is paid for in cash by someone whose home lacks indoor plumbing would draw attention from most, but not in a community that supports the rural marijuana industry. Many members of organized growers, such as the Country Boys, are not full-time participants. Some work in the marijuana industry for a short period of time, others move in and out of the group. Still others retire from the group but remain willing to help out when they are needed. All, however, remain fiercely loyal to the group. The Retiree is even more difficult to detect than the part-timer. He is no longer a participant, having retired due to advancing age (which may range from 60 to 80 years old). While no longer active in growing and selling, he is willing to teach other young men his trade and introduce them to his connections. On occasion retirement may be involuntary, a result of incarceration. Retirees may be extremely difficult for the outsider to identify. They are legitimate sector businessmen and professionals or literally almost anyone in the community. However, most community residents are keenly aware of these men’s past activities. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

It is rarely discussed, but community members know of these activities in the same way they know of the community’s gossip. Wearing an air of respectability, the retiree may assist the active marijuana grower in laundering his money by introducing him to legitimate business opportunities and to those willing to accept cash for goods and services as well as finding markets for his product. The retiree has connections for the sale and safe transportation of the marijuana, along with accumulated skills regarding efficient means to grow a crop. He may personally introduce novice growers within his kinship network to others who can provide information and resources. He may also teach the novice how to plant and grow marijuana or simply instruct him verbally about what is needed or how to correct problems. Retirees serve as an example to younger growers, modeling how to evade detection and achieve financial success. Those whose retirement is a result of imprisonment also serve as models, demonstrating that prison may be part of doing business within the marijuana industry. The final role available to community members encompasses all aspects of active, regular, involvement in growing and selling marijuana. These persons often have made the marijuana industry their career, and their primary source of income is generated by their marijuana crops. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

As noted above, active rural Kentucky marijuana participants are found in five forms: communal growers, hustlers, pragmatists, hipsters, and entrepreneurs. Most of the active participants, such as the pragmatist, have never been arrested and function on a limited scale. Others, such as members of the Country Boys, expand their operations and grow marijuana on a much larger scale. Most small growers do so because of perceived financial necessity. When so motivated, business operations are rarely expanded. The hustlers enjoy living on the edge and pursue their goals by increasing the size of their crops, (often venturing outside their communities to enlarge their illegal activities). This, of course, also means hustlers increase the likelihood of their detection, therefore putting the image and stability of the community in jeopardy. Young hipsters may be unable to obtain legitimate employment and so work as mules and tend the crops of the hustlers. As the economic underclass, young hipsters are cared for by those in the community who employ (exploit?) them. The most obvious similarity across the varieties of active participants is that those involved are nearly all men. Women, however, do fulfill roles in the rural marijuana industry, but their roles are significantly different from men’s roles. In order to compete our understanding of the culture of the rural Kentucky marijuana industry, we will discuss women’s roles in the days ahead. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

Developing empathy is an important part of becoming a healthy adult. To be empathic is to emotionally resonate with what another is feeling. Empathy cuts through our isolation, generating a network of interconnection. Empathy brings our heart out of the cold. It makes compassion possible. Members of an authoritarian, hierarchic social system will tend to develop higher empathic responsiveness to situations of superordinate-subordinate structure and lower empathic capacity for understanding other types of relations. If the system is relatively stable and rigid, then those nearer the top exhibit the greatest empathy with persons in superior position and the least with those in subordinate roles. Family structure in such systems will tend to reflect social structure, and families are hence rendered less likely to provide the interpersonal conditions for maximizing empathic capacity. In authoritarian families, the mother becomes the pivotal, mediating person, who is more able to understand both authoritarian father and subordinate children. (This may be why such characteristics as intuitiveness, sympathetic understanding, adaptability, and interest and skill in literary and artistic production have become identified as “feminine” in cultures characterized by patriarchal-authoritarian family system.) Age, gender, religious, and socioeconomic differences tend to operate to inhibit the development of empathic capacity, and reduce its utilization where possessed, when these rankings serve as barriers to participation and communication. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Participation in activities which include members of different subcultural groups, and which are not focused on the hierarchical relations of the subcultural groups themselves but oriented to concrete solution of common problems, will increase the empathic capacity of the participants. Subgroup relations characterized by anxiety and hostility are negative in their effects on the development of empathic capacity and its utilization. Families play a major role in the orientation of the child to these subgroups differences. Persons from families where positive efforts are made to bridge subgroup barriers to communication and understanding (differences in age, gender, class, ethnic origin, religion, and values) will show a higher empathic capacity than those who do not make such beneficial efforts. There is a positive linear relation between the empathic capacity of a person at any point in one’s developmental career line and the extent to which one’s previous development had been characterized by stable, intimate communicative relations of relative equality and reciprocity with the members of his family. For the ideal type, middle-class American family, the relative importance of the specific relationships are mother, father, siblings, in that order. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Affection is a highly important positive factor but its relative effectiveness is a function of the amount of communication sustained in the relationship. Friction and conflict produce a negative effect to the extent that they impair communication. The range of empathic capacity is a function of the number of different kinds of functional positions which the person has occupied in the family interaction. (By functional position of a person we mean the part played by him in a given social act, exempli gratia, a giver or a receiver in an act of giving and receiving; leader or follower.) Unilateral acts of parental subordination to the child’s demands, or of administering rewards and punishment, minimize reciprocity and inhibit the development of empathic response. Striking the child in anger at something he had done and in other ways reacting to his acts so that he discovers that “parents too are human,” is more in the direction of reciprocity and communication than the detached and impersonal application of rules of punishment and reward. The positive effect of “acting natural” is enhanced if the parent explains his reactions to the child and encourages him to consider how he would feel under similar circumstances, and then follows this by working out with the child some new line of action as an experimental solution to the problem. Empathic capacity in children is positively related to the facility with which their parents learn to communicate and understand each other (though high empathic capacity does not insure marital harmony). #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

When the believer is in any degree deceived by psychopathological offenders, one is liable to live in the body, give way to the sensuous, and to be dominated by the physical realm. This can become the case through “spiritual” experiences felt in the physical frame, but which are not really spiritual because not from the Spirit. A sense of “fire” in the body, “glow,” “thrills,” and all exquisite bodily sensations from apparently “spiritual” causes, really feed the senses; and, unconsciously to themselves, while they have these experiences, such believers live in the sense-realm, practically walking “after the flesh,” though they call themselves “spiritual.” For this reason “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” is practically impossible in this state of deception, because the sense-life is aroused in all kinds of ways, and the sensations of the body are forced upon the consciousness of the man. The spirit sense is practically lost in the acute realization of all the sensations in the bodily consciousness. May I point out that a man in normal health is oblivious of the physical action of breathing going on in his physical frame. In like manner, a believer under the domination of the Spirit ceases to register his bodily sensations; but the opposite is the case when psychopathic offenders have awakened the sense-life to abnormal action, either by beautiful experiences or the contrary. The cultivation of this condition of passivity may be ignorantly and sedulously carried out for years by the surrendered believer, so that it deepens its hold upon him to an incredible extent; until, when it reaches its consummation, the man may become so under the bondage of it as to awaken suddenly to his state. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

However, then one may think that “natural causes” alone explain his condition, or else, in some unaccountable way, his acute sensitiveness to the ultimate concern and divine things have become dulled beyond power of restoration or renewal. The physical feelings become deadened or atrophied, and the affections seem petrified and stoical. This is the time when deceiving spirits suggest that he has grieved God beyond repair, and the man goes through agonies of seeking the Presence he thinks he has grieved away. The cultivation of passivity may become about from reliance upon the many helps contrived (unknowingly) by the person to counteract or obviate the inconvenience of the passive state, such as the provision of and dependence upon outward helps to the eye for assisting the passive memory, utterance in speech to assist the “thinking” of the passive mind, and what may be termed “crutches” of all kinds, known only to the individual—elaborately constructed, and multiplied to meet his particular needs, but all keeping him from recognizing his true condition, even if her has the knowledge for doing so. While autonomy insists that man is his own law, heteronomy, on the other hand, assets that man, being unable to act according to universal reason, must be subjected to a law, strange and superior to him. Substance, instead of warming cultural forms with an inner glow, smothers them like an oversized garment. Most frequently heteronomy originates in religion that has lost the ultimate concern, that has degenerated into mere religion. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

A heteronomous culture subjects the forms and laws of thinking and acting to authoritative criteria of an ecclesiastical religion or a political quasi-religion, even at the price of destroying the structures of rationality. Heteronomy is imposed by an institution or a personality which arrogates itself the claim to speak in the name of the ground of being and therefore in an unconditional and ultimate way. Thus heteronomy is inevitably demonic. Like autonomy, heteronomy can be considered from several angles. Departure is primitive art: status of gods, fetishes, dance masks, and so on, which possess an artistic and religious vale often inaccessible to occidental consciousness. Those objects bear forms (men, animals, plants), we are shocked by the manner in which they shatter form. Hands, feet, teeth, eyes, “adult” organs are recognizable as such, but they also burst through and distort their natural organic form. Yet we cannot write off this impressive human production as devoid of cultural value. On the contrary, it demonstrates a truth which our form-ridden Western eyes overlook: There is something positively contrary to form that is capable of fitting into an artistic form. Call it lack of form, or contradiction of form, or the contrapositive. We call it the demonic, the actuality of that which is positively contrary of form. What primitive art reveals, the history of religions confirms by its “holy demonries”—phallic cults, ritual prostitution, laceration myths, cult of war gods, and so on. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

The most fearsome example from out own times is Dostoievsky’s “Grand Inquisitor”: The religion which makes itself absolute and therefore must destroy the saint in whose name it is established—the demonic will to power of the sacred institution. These examples contain the same tension as the creations of primitive art, id est, the combination of a formative and a form-shattering element, of form-creation and form-destruction. Therefore, the history of religions verifies the definition of the demonic: the unity of form-creating and form-destroying strength. These artistic and religious manifestations of the demonic are rooted in a metaphysics. The destructiveness of form which marks the demonic is neither injected from without nor originates from within by weakness of deficiency. It arises from the depths of form itself, from the inexhaustibility of being. Being is the non-rational, non-demonstrable ground of all things. At the same time it is their abyss, for they can never exhaust it. This inexhaustibility of being, however, is not like a passive, peaceful reservoir, but an active, consuming fire which burns through the form in which it is confined. For there dwells in everything the inner inexhaustibility of being, the will to realize in itself as an individual the active infinity of being, the impulse toward breaking through its own limited form, the longing to realize the abyss in itself. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

The demonic is this surge of the abyss of being which tends to destroy form, but never quite succeeds, because to come into being means to come to form. Moreover, the abyss of being is also the ground of being which is creative and conservative in a beneficial way. The ontology of the demonic: Demonry is the form-destroying eruption of the creative basis of things. The phenomenon and the ontology of the demonic at first glance may seem far removed from heteronomy. A few more steps, however, and the fusion of the two becomes discernible. For instance, the demonic operates in the personality as the explosion of subconscious forces that splits the personality, with the result that it is subjugated to a new power which is not a natural power—the perfect definition of heteronomy. On the social plane, demonry does not split the personality, but causes the breaking of personality by the superindividual social structure—a heteronomous imposition. Demonry ends in heteronomy because of its abysmal, imperialistic drive to realize the unrealizable infinity of being in a finite reality. By the destruction of form it seeks to expand ever farther and thus encompass more being. Finally, it claims to have achieved the infinite in the finite, and this claim is the root of all heteronomy and of all demonry. For the demonic is something finite, something limited, which puts on infinite, unlimited dignity. Hence the existence of a machine civilization, completely timed and scheduled and regulated, does not necessarily guarantee maximum efficiency in any sense. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

The United States of America still fields twice as many active research scientists and engineers as Japan, although the Japanese total is skyrocketing and Japanese nonacademic researchers tend to be younger. The sheer size of America’s effort does not guarantee quality. Moreover, with defense cuts likely and American corporations shifting resources from basic to more product-oriented research, the directions of change are not favorable. Still, though clearly challenged, the U.S.A. lead in high technology, and especially information technology, is still significant. Japanese progress in computers and memory chips has been phenomenal, and three of its firms—Fujitsu, NEC, and Hitachi—have made dazzling progress. Today, Fujitsu nips at the heels of Digital Equipment, the World’s second-largest computer manufacturer, and NEC and Hitachi are not far behind. The Japanese control 50 percent of the market for computer components and an amazing 85 percent of the market for memory chips. When it comes to computers, as such, however, U.S.A. manufacturers dominated 69 percent of the World market, the other 31 percent being divided almost evenly by European and Japanese firms. The United States of America supplies fully 62 percent of all the World’s personal computers (PCs). Among the World’s top twenty computer firms in 1988, tend were American, six European, and only four Japanese. IBM alone was more than twice the combined size of Japan’s Big Three. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

In the increasingly important field of computer services, as distinct from machines, nine of the World’s top tend firms are America, one European, and not a single one Japanese. (The Japanese share of the service market, only 10.6 percent in 1988, is actually projected to shrink as that of the United States of America grows.) Similarly, it is true that Japanese lead in hardware; the Americans, in systems and applications software. The race is not over. In memory chip manufacture, Japanese mass production has decimated its American competition. However, IBM was the first to announce a 16-million-bit chip, four times larger than the most advanced chips, and well ahead of the Japanese competition. Moreover, the direction of change is not so much toward mass production as toward chip customization and specialization, where design skills and sophisticated software count for more—precisely the fields of Japanese weakness. As for software itself—is a $659.00 billion market, which is expected to grow to $858.10 billion by 2028. The United States of American currently has a 60 percent grip of the World market. An acknowledged disaster area for America is a school system, devasted by drugs, sex, violence, and alienation.  However, schools are also troubled around the World, especially inner cities schools. The education crisis is not an American monopoly. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

What gives American schools an edge, despite everything, is that they are less centralized than those in Europe and Japan, and not subject to the dictates of a national ministry of education. This makes them, at least, potentially, more open to experiment and innovation. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk response of the American business and scientific communities is to call for more math and science, more lock-step learning, more Ph.D.’s Misinformed about actual educational conditions in Japan, most would be amazed to learn that Japan’s leap to the high-tech frontier, from 1975 to 1988, took place with only a small increase in the number of engineering and science Ph.D’s. Offsetting America’s educational wasteland, however, is a key source of America’s global power—its unquantified but enormous cultural impact on the planet. This is not a matter of quality—which can, of course, be passionately debated. It is simply fact that culture in one form or another flows outward from the United States of America. Thus, more books are translated by American publishers. From one point of view this is unfortunate, since it deprives Americans of valuable ideas and insights. However, it reflects America’s enormous surplus in cultural trade. For good or ill, vast multitudes around the planet hunger to adopt Western, but also specifically American, lifestyle, attitudes, fashions, ideas, and innovations. It has been suggested that the global appeal of American popular culture derives from its multi-ethnic origins. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

 The surging influence of these images, along with the rich flow of science and technology rather than just economic or military power, is what makes the United States of America so threatening to the hard-liners who control China today or the Ayatollahs who run Iran. American movies and television programs, not Japanese or Soviet or European, are the most watched around the World. The other major powers are simply not in the running. Broadly speaking, the United States of America continues to be a rich source of innovations in science, technology, art, business, imagery, and knowledge in its broadest sense. This advantage may dwindle in the decades ahead, but other nations or regions will find it harder to overtake this American culture lead than to build a new weapon system or to integrate their economies. A review of the power triad, therefore, suggests that while the United States of America has severe problems, it is by no means a paper tiger. In the approaching decades it will be internally racked by social, racial, and sexual protests as the pace of power-shifting accelerates at home and abroad. However, America’s internal troubles will not, in all likelihood, compared with the upheavals that are to be expected in Europe, the least stable of the three great contenders for World power. Nor will Japan escape political and social turmoil as the World around it is shaken to the core. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Such quick-stroke assessments are admittedly impressionistic, and all of them are legitimately arguable, point by point. However, taken together they suggest that the United States of America holds the most balanced power of any of the three great capitalist centers in the World, and that it still holds the lead in precisely that element of the power triad that is becoming most important—knowledge. Under capitalism time-keeping is not merely a means of co-ordinating and interrelating complicated functions: it is also like money an independent commodity with a value of its own. Money, with all its colorlessness and indifference, becomes the common denominator of all values. High households’ indebtedness, low savings, uncontrolled expansion of credit to marginal borrowers, adventurous games with structured financial products and poor risk management, public debts hitting critical highs, terrorism, the pandemic, foreign assistance, and the urgent need to accelerate the trimming of the welfare state—this is the list of key structural problems that either drove Western economies into the crisis or are exacerbating it in its aftermath. Even the Chinese economy is not immune to all those structural diseases. A lot has been said and written about China’s structural issues. The time has come to assess its structural strengths. It may seem improbable, but compared to the West, the economy of today’s China, at the moment, seem to be a little more structurally stronger and healthier. This is one of the major reasons the global power balance is shifting in its favor. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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The wine of youth does not always clear with advancing year; sometimes it grows more turbid. The very frequent neurotic disturbances of adult years all have one thing in common: they want to carry the psychology of the youthful phase over the threshold of the so-called years of the so-called years of discretion. Square groper is a slang term for bales of marijuana thrown overboard or out of airplanes in South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s. South Florida was once called “the dope smuggling capital of the country.” In 1978, there was a move to legalize marijuana because 13 million Americans used it regularly. The federal government started phasing out commercial fishing in Everglade’s National Park. The commercial fishermen had to find some way to feed their families. It was suggested that people find alternate sources of income, and they did. The money was in Marijuana, it was like their savior. In fact, 80 percent of the male population in Everglade City were arrested for smuggling square groper. By the late 1970s, the U.S.A. Customs Service was reporting that 87 percent of all the marijuana seizures in the United States of America were made in South Florida. What tipped investigators off was the newfound wealth—evidenced by shiny cars, trucks, boats, and even new houses. The flagrant posturing finally drove home the need for outside law assistance to combat the smuggling. The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency was called in to infiltrate the tight-knit community by posing as buyers, sellers and even boat handlers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

On July 7, 1983, more than 200 lawmen representing DEA, FBI, and the IRS, coupled with the U.S.A. Coast Guard officers and Collier Country Sheriff’s Office deputies, swept across the county in one of the nation’s biggest marijuana smuggling crackdowns. Route 29, the only road into Everglades City was sealed off at 5 A.M. Agents patrolled the mangroves by boat, while government airplanes and helicopters kept an eye on the town. Now, the population of the town was 526 people. That day, the two-year-long undercover Operations Everglades netted 28 people: 12 from the Everglades City and Chokoloskee area and 16 from Naples and elsewhere throughout Florida. Agents also grabbed 14 boats, assorted cars and trucks an two small airplanes, all of which allegedly were used in the smuggling of marijuana. Fifteen handguns one rifle, one submachine gun and a MAC-11 machine gun were confiscated from one resident. More than 75 tons of marijuana a week from the mountains of Colombia into the 2,000 square miles of salt-water labyrinth known as the Ten Thousand Islands was being smuggled in. Some people went from making $18,000 a year to $528,000 in marijuana profits. There were even “strumpets” who served as the party girls of mistresses for the growers, “decent women” who would bear their children and keep their homes, and the “women-in-between” who somehow carved out an egalitarian role in the patriarchal marijuana industry. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Marijuana is often viewed as a harmful drug from which the public must be protected. In reality marijuana has been in use for at least 5,000 years and is one of the oldest agricultural crops in existence. The negative image of marijuana now possess is largely a social construction, created by moral entrepreneurs, not a product of concrete, science evidence attesting to the social and medical dangers of the drug. However, marijuana has served many purposes (in addition to being a recreational drug) over the years ranging from the manufacture of cloth and rope to medicinal applications. Despite its value, marijuana continues to maintain a negative image generating controversy whenever potential legalization is discussed in the United States of America. Despite the evolution of public disapproval and legal restrictions on the growth, distribution and use of marijuana, the marijuana industry continues to grow in California. In 2022, more than 5 million marijuana plants were confiscated in California. In 2016, when California voters faced the choice of whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, they heard promises that it would help end the “war on drugs,” brining it tax revenue. Cannabis sales were $5.3 billion in California for the year of 2022. And state tax revenue dropped from $251.3 million in the third quarter of 2022 to $221.6 million in the fourth quarter. However, on the federal level, cannabis remains illegal. The federal government classifies cannabis, along with heroin and cocaine, as Schedule I drug with a high potential for abuse and little to no medical benefit. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

The typical rural Kentucky marijuana grower is a European America male between the ages of 35 and 50, with a high school education. He most almost always is married, with at least one child. He is rarely a user of marijuana and is often a respected, church-going, community leader with no previous arrest record. The typical marijuana grower, as is the case with nearly all community members, has strong, extensive kinship ties with roots in his community dating back to the first settlers. Data about individuals and their culture and communities are relatively scarce in the academic literature. There are generally three types of marijuana growers: the communal grower, the hustler, and the pragmatist. The communal grower believes growing marijuana makes a social statement. Some purchase land with the intention of growing marijuana, others drift into marijuana production as a part of their lifestyle. In Kentucky, a similar motivation drives some marijuana growers who desire self-sufficiency and seek to earn additional money as a supplement to low paying jobs. Unlike the young, urban, outsiders who migrated into Kentucky for a short period of time, the rural resident is not retreating from society. He is trying to survive within his society and maintain his way of life. The hustlers have both used and sold marijuana. They may grow a marijuana crop on land they own or they may purchase or rent land specifically for this purpose. Always adventuresome, the danger is an added appeal to the endeavor and allows the grower opportunities to match wits with law enforcement. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

When the excitement fades, they may retire. These people might well be equally successful in a legitimate business. Many members of the “Country Boys,” who dominate the Bluegrass County marijuana industry, fit in this category. The pragmatist grows marijuana due to economic hardship. These individuals acknowledge that growing marijuana is morally and legally wrong, but feel that due to circumstances they have no better option. Most Kentucky marijuana growers fit into this variety of grower. The unique cultural environment of rural Kentucky necessitates an expansion of young men and entrepreneurs. The youngster is the marijuana wanna-be. These are young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty who are most likely without both older males relatives within the marijuana industry and a kinship network that is significantly tied to the marijuana industry. They do not own land or have the agricultural skills necessary to grow quality marijuana. True marijuana growers may use these young men as mules to transport their marijuana. The entrepreneur most commonly begins as a hustler or pragmatist. In the beginning he grows marijuana out of economic necessity or he may view his actions simply as an alternative business venture. As time passes, he comes to enjoy devising new methods to elude detection. Even when he is financially secure, and no longer has an economic need to grow marijuana, he will continue to grow this crop and/or develop new ways of concealing and growing marijuana. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

Within this typology lies the primary reason why any attempts to eradicate marijuana growers from the hills of Kentucky have, and will likely continue to be next to impossible. The typical rural resident deeply resents interference from outsiders. Marijuana growers’ attitudes towards outsiders is even more intense. Rural residents will not discuss illegal activities which occur within the community with outsiders. It can be extremely difficult for the outsider to identify the marijuana industry participants within a rural Kentucky community. Marijuana growers are perceived as respectable citizens of the community and do not fit the stereotype of a “drug dealer” often portrayed in the media. The rural Kentucky resident knows who participates in the marijuana industry in the same way everyone in the community knows who is sleeping with whom and other community gossip. Historically, illegal activities have been a part of rural Kentucky culture. Many marijuana growers are the descendants of moonshiners and bootleggers. Within rural Kentucky communities a culture exists which protects and shelters those engaging in illegal activities from the scrutiny of outsiders. These norms and values, coupled with the economic crises facing the agricultural industry in recent decades have pushed rural families to pursue off-farm income sources. However, rural Kentucky values encourage independence and self-reliance. One consequence of such values is a resistance to outside interference or attempts to control rural activities, including eradication of marijuana. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

The small rural community and the rural culture provide the necessary structure and stabilizing factors to successfully raise and sell marijuana. These communities provide safety for both small independent growers as well as those involved in the organized aspect of the industry. The secrecy which surrounds marijuana growers (due to marijuana’s illegal status until January 2025) and the reluctance of the rural resident to discuss such activities with outsiders indicates an element of strong informal social control within the rural community. Such informal social control allows the marijuana industry to exist and flourish. Within the small rural community many expected social controls which are evident in mainstream society are not present. Thus, participants in illegal activities are allowed to function within the community without censor. Members of crime groups are not shunned, a would be expected if marijuana growers were perceived as deviants. Marijuana growers receive strong community support; the prevailing view in the community is that those involved in growing “alternative crops” have done nothing wrong. Economic factors play a large part in the introduction of organized crime to rural Kentucky. Rural Americans have been entering off-farm income accounted for over 70 percent of U.S.A. farm family income. However, while farmers are increasingly relying on non-farm employment, in rural Kentucky high rates of unemployment lead many residents to the marijuana industry. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

In 1989 Kentucky had an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent, however Bluegrass County’s unemployment rate was more than 30 percent higher at 8.3 percent overall and 9.7 percent for Bluegrass County males. Lacking plentiful employment opportunities, many rural Kentuckians are forced to migrate to cities. In an effort to retain their community, rural residents often remain silent or protect those involved in the marijuana industry and thereby keep residents in the community. Rural residents do not want their “kin” to migrate; consequently many rural citizens endure a long drive to and from the city rather than moving nearer their urban place of employment. Lacking well paying jobs, many rural males opt to grow marijuana to generate or supplement their incomes. Resident of Bluegrass County regard outsiders with distrust, believing outsiders to not respect them. The example of a Bluegrass County resident being apprehended for trafficking in marijuana is tinged with resentment—not empathy or compassion—towards the resident outsider. However, despite the arrests, many community members continue to go to grow and sell marijuana. Joe Paul explains the persistence of the marijuana industry in Bluegrass County, saying: “They’s several that was bigger than Buford and them Country Boys ever thought about being. Hell they got him for organized crime. He ain’t no big boss but they’s others in Bluegrass County that are. The law’s ignorant. They nailed Buford but they cover up their own screw-ups.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

On April 1^st, 2023, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, making the Bluegrass State the 38^th in the nation to approve the medicinal use of cannabis for patients with serious health conditions. The Democratic governor, who had repeatedly called on lawmakers to legalize medical marijuana, signed the measure, Senate Bill 47, at a ceremony in Frankfort. Senate Bill 47 allows patients with certain qualifying medical conditions including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy and posttraumatic stress disorder to obtain a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis medicinally. The bill does not allow patients to smoke marijuana, although it does allow for the sale of unprocessed cannabis flower for vaporization. Other cannabis formulations including capsules, tinctures and topical product are also authorized by the bill. Patients will be permitted to possess a 10-day supply of cannabis on their person and a 30-day supply at home. The legislation directs the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to draft and implement regulations to enact the legislation and regulate the production and sale of medical marijuana in the state. Under the bill, Kentucky’s medical cannabis program is slated to launch by January 2025. In 2022, 184,295 marijuana plants were seized in Kentucky. The cultivation of domestic marijuana is a problem of manor concern for Kentucky State Police, as well as, all law enforcement agencies. Marijuana eradication and interdiction causes a sizeable drain on agency budgets. Marijuana has become one of the most profitable crops grown in the United States of America. Some claim it is the most profitable crop grown in Kentucky, surpassing the burley tobacco industry. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

Some of you may remember the “Cornbread Mafia,” which was the name for a group of Kentucky men who created the largest domestic marijuana production operation in the history of the United States of America. It was based in Marion, Nelson, and Washington counties in central Kentucky. Between 1985 and 1989, 70 Kentuckians were accused of growing 182 tons of marijuana on 29 farms in 10 states, including Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas, which federal prosecutors considered to be the largest domestic marijuana production organization in the nation. By the end of 1991, prosecutors had arrested more than 100 members of the Cornbread Mafia. Johnny Boone and Bobby Joe Shewmaker, were considered to be the leaders of the cartel. The bust was much bigger and more complex than the agents had ever imagined. The busted Minnesota harvest alone weighed ninety tones, the police said, a number they calculated by weighing one dump truck load, then multiplying that by sixty-two—the number of trips it took to clear the fields—and then multiplying that number by two because so much marijuana remained in the field that estimating its weight was “inconceivable.” This group was unique in the eyes of the law. Federal Task Force documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request note that, unlikely any other illegal drug operation of its size, the syndicate included no foreign nationals—that not only were all the participants American, but also they were from one state, from a three-county area, and the vast majority from Marion County. They were smuggling drugs to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and to South America. Many people have ethicized things like drug dealing, computer information science, and engineering, but they have forgot how innovative and notorious European Americans can be. It is like most people think all they do is quietly sit at the computer reading documents all day and somehow make a lot of money doing that, but they also play other roles in society. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

Empathy is the basic response capacity on which the process of socialization, development of a self, communication, and integration rest. Empathic capacity, like any other response capacity, requires a healthy organism. This type of response needs to special organ or faculty beyond the special human equipment of a highly developed cortex. Sensory acuity and capacity for accurate perception; neural and neuromuscular capacity for generalization and symbolization; capacity for covert mobilization of complex acts, symbolization of those acts, and the conduct of complex interacts at the covert level are critical importance. We have few specific hypotheses under this heading, aside from the obvious one that when the physical basis of an organism is impaired so is the organism’s capacity for empathic response. In the field of mental illness, the testing of hypotheses on the conditions and consequences of empathy might lead to highly interesting results. In general it is widely suspected that underdevelopment or impairment of empathic capacity plays a major role in many kinds of behavior disorders, particularly in schizophrenia. Under biological conditions also belong hypotheses concerning the effects on empathic capacity of various bodily states of extreme hunger, anger, pain, fear, excitement, intoxication, pleasure-anticipation, pain-anticipation, and similar conditions which restrict attention or reduce perception. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

Additional types of hypotheses about the social psychological consequents of certain biological conditions and their effects in turn upon empathic capacity are suggested here. For example: Prolonged illness increases habituation to a relationship of dependency and thus depresses empathic capacity on both sides of the relationship, but especially in the dependent member. Empathic capacity is negatively correlated with repression of biological functions. There isa negative correlation between the degree of repression of sexual functions and empathic capacity. Thus economic, social, and educational provision for minimizing the gap between organic sexual maturity and sexual functioning will have a positive effect on empathic capacity. Unwanted children are lower in empathic development than children who are desired and planned for. Instruction in how to safely and efficiently control the number of children born, and means to exercise this control, will result in a lower proportion of rejected people in the population By spreading the economic burden of having and rearing children over the whole population, the probability of children being born to people who want them will be increased, with a consequent increase in average empathic capacity. There is a critical point beyond which closer contact with another person will no longer lead to an increase in empathy. Up to a certain point, intimate interaction with others increases the capacity to empathize with them. However, when others are too constantly present, the organism appears to develop a protective resistance to responding to them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

However, when other are too constantly present, the organism appears to develop a protective resistance to responding to them. As the numbers of people with whom one must deal increase, it is necessary to respond to them impersonally. This is exemplified in customer, passenger, and patient relations. This limit on the capacity to empathize should be taken into account in planning the optimal size and concentration of urban populations, as well as in planning the schools and the housing on individual families. Families who provide time and space for privacy, and who teach children the utility and satisfaction of withdrawing for private revery, will show higher average empathic capacity than those who do not. Economic conditions (job stability, income, conditions of work, and leisure time) become factors in the development and exercise of empathic capacity when they affect the amount of unhurried and anxiety-free time, and the facilities for stimulating activities, the parents can give their children. Their influence is also important to empathic development to the extent that they affect contact and participation in the life of the community. In less obvious ways they influence attitudes and values, and these in turn affect empathic skill: There is a negative correlation between the degree to which parents emphasize material possessions and other evidences of buying power in their evaluations of themselves and others, and their own and their children’s empathic capacity. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

To the extent that criteria of wealthy predominate in the selection of associates, social life becomes restricted and unstimulating and empathic capacity atrophies. Mate selection in which monetary criteria of eligibility predominate results in a higher proportion of marriages characterized by progressive deterioration of communication, companionship, and sexual compatibility. The effects on the empathic capacity of the parents and children will be correspondingly negative. The assumption by children of appropriately graded responsibilities for the economic welfare of the family (as for example, regular duties and special jobs in the home, or limited jobs outside) increases empathic capacity. (Note: This is of course no argument for child labor in the old sense. But  revision of our economic, educational, and family institutional arrangements so as to make it a regular thing for all children, beginning at junior high school age, to have a limited and safeguard opportunity for genuine participation in the World of business, industry, and government, would probably be a desirable thing in terms of their optimal development.) The neurotic is a person who can never have things as one would like them in the present, and who can therefore never enjoy the past either. As formerly the neurotic could not escape from one’s childhood, so now one cannot part with one’s youth. One shrinks from the grey thoughts of approaching age, and, feeling the prospect before one unbearable, is always straining to look behind one. Just as the childish person shrinks back from the unknown in the World and in human existence, so the grown adult shrinks back from the second half of life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

At this stage of development of the whole being is affected. The man acts without using, or using fully, the mind, will, imagination, reason; that is without thinking (volitionally), deciding, imagining, reasoning. The affections seem dormant, as well as all the faculties of the mind and body. In some cases, the bodily needs are  also dormant, or else the man suppresses them, and deprives himself of food, sleep, and bodily comfort at the dictation of the spirits in control, thus carrying out a “severity of the body” which is not of any real value against the indulgence of the flesh. The animal part of the man may also be awakened, and while stoical in sensibilities and feeling one becomes gluttonous in the demand for supply of bodily needs; that is, the machinery of the bodily frame goes on working independently of the control of mind or will, for the body now dominates spirit and soul. Men may live in the human spirit, in the soul, or in the body; for example, the glutton lives in, or after, the body; the student, in mind or soul; the spiritual man, in the spirit. If autonomy is self-sufficiency, a word must be said about one of the most powerful forces for man’s independence—technology. As one of the causes for the onslaught of secularization against religion, the chief and always effect weapon for this attack is the invasion of all religious groups by technology with its various waves of technical revolution. Its effect was and is, first of all, a secularization which destroys the old traditions, both of culture and religion. This is most obvious in a country like Japan. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

Technology is the formation of reality according to a goal. It produces tools and machines which mold material to patterns determined by man. As such, it serves man and is not in itself secular; in fact, technology can and should be consecrated, as hand labor was in days gone by. However, it is the technical mentality that secularizes—the drive t subjugate reality by harnessing it as means to an end, the loss of reverence for nature, and the eventual reduction of man himself to a machine, a tool, a unit of labor. Technology fosters secularism by providing man with an instrument seemingly capable of achieving human self-sufficiency. Yet we also acknowledge the debt which our World owes to technology. In contrast to much of what has been said, there is a saving power of the technical control of nature. In technology, we see liberation from animal drudgery, conquest of the narrow confines of time and space, and protection from unnecessary pain and death. Technology undoubtedly possesses destructive possibilities. Nevertheless, in the great feats of technical control, we have a breakthrough of the eternal into the temporal. Autonomy has been considered from several viewpoint: the secular, the process of profanization, and technology. It is the humanism that fails to transcend itself: Humanism is the attitude which makes man the measure of his own spiritual life, in art and philosophy, in science and politics, in social relations and personal ethics. For humanism the divine is manifest in the human; the ultimate concern of man is man. An autonomous humanism stops at the door of the temple without crossing the threshold of the holy. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Since the 1990s, as life expectancy was rising and birth rates and the share of the population in its working age falling, most Western, especially European countries started to overhaul their social security systems in order to contain the increase of taxes, social contributions, and social spending. As a result social security benefits, especially pensions and health insurance payments, have been gradually reduced in scale. A number of countries elevated the retirement age. To provide for the means of support in the postretirement years, in the case of disability and so on, people have to save more and more by themselves, entrusting the management of the money they have accumulated to pension funds and other financial institutions. Net total social spending in the United States of America is approximately 30 percent of GDP, where the amount of private social spending and tax incentives is much larger than in other countries. This amount increased from 16.3 percent in 2001 to 17.4 percent in 2007, so since then we have seen an unprecedented increase in just 16 years. Today’s critical status of public finances makes it necessary to do everything possible to reverse or at least stop the trend. The West has to return to the roots of the social security concept. Basically, public social security payments are supposed to provide a minimal basic living standard, and not a cozy free lunch. However Social Security recipients are losing ground financially, despite receiving an annual cost-of-living (COLA) increase. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

It is estimated that the 2024 COLA for Social Security recipients will be only 2.7 percent. Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of buying power since 2000. And in the past year alone, Social Security recipients fell 4 percent behind the rise in their actual cost of living. The loss occurred even though beneficiaries received a 2-perent annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) annually. Many of these people do not even qualify to rent in the free market because the amount of their benefits is so low. More than half of the 1,057 respondents who participated in the study reported that their monthly expenses went up by more than $200. Social Security recipients received a 8.7 COLA for 2023. Even though many counties placed regulations on how high rent could be raised, people who live in income based rental apartments saw a nearly 20 percent increase in their rent, which ate up more than half of the COLA increase for 2023. In addition, Social Security beneficiaries saw high inflation in 15 categories in December 2022. There was a fuel increase of 42.1 percent, airfare increase of 27.8 percent, utilities increased by 19.4 percent, cereals and bakery products increase by 16.3 percent, energy services increased by 15.4 percent, dairy and related products increased by 14.9 percent, motor vehicle insurance increased by 14.2 percent, electricity increased by 14.1 percent, transportation services increased by 14.1 percent, motor vehicle maintenance and repair increased by 13.4 percent, nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials increased by 12.5 percent, food at home increased by 11.7 percent, food increased by 10.3 percent, for most, rent of primary residence increased by 8.6 percent, and all items increased by 6.3 percent. So, clearly their benefits are not keeping up with inflation. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Additionally, high replacement rates (the ratio of public pension payments to the income from work the beneficiary received before retirement) in a number of countries, especially those facing grave public finance problems (for instance, in Greece it has reached around 90 percent), can hardly be sustained. However, Social Security is not going bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars continue fueling Social Security. And will continue to do so as long as we have workers who earn wages. The most fundamental part of the Social Security program is that worker pay into the system during their working years. However, a big welfare state may badly undermine work motivation—an old problem coming to the forefront gain in the wake of the growing global competition, especially from China. While people out of work count on high social security benefits comparable to their earnings in times when they had a job, those who have a job are not motivated to work harder, as a substantial part of the increase of their earnings will be eaten out by high taxes and public social security contributions. On their part, employers restrain new hiring because they have to share the heavy social security burden. It pushes up unemployment rates. Overall, too big a welfare state reduced the efficiency of the use of human resources—the fundamental issues of primary importance the West has to address in a really serious way, not least in the wake of the Chinese challenge. Besides, one more somewhat tricky welfare state—related problem exists, deserving close attention. It is still largely unspoken because of its sensitivity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

The creation and expansion of public social security were driven by the quest for social justice. However, today those systems have turned out to be very unfair toward working families especially those in their 30s and 40s—the age when, logically, consumption activities should reach their peak. Those families have to pay more and more to support the elderly and other social security beneficiaries, while at this life stage their own living expenses, especially buying a home and brining up children, usually reach their peak, and while in today’s developed societies a substantial portion of the elderly and other people they have to support are richer than themselves. The picture is one of a worn-out guy in his 30s or 40, always on the run and, due to a tight family budget, thinking twice before buying essential items at a grocery store, or things he may need for his health, having to supper well-to-do guys in their 60s, 70s, and beyond who are relaxing a lot, having a jolly time hanging out in the parking lot doing drugs and drinking and vandalizing cars, playing cricket, swinging, or golf, traveling around the World for their own pleasure, and maybe even buying, without any hesitation, diamonds and furs for their wives and Cartier watches and Jordan sneakers for themselves, and lobster dinner with shots of tequila. Mind you, the former guy can hardly except to be provided the same amount of benefits from public social security funds when he himself hits 65 or 70. Of course, this sketch is grotesque and it does not pretend to grasp the whole picture. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

A lot of elderly people are not so well-to-do and need genuine social protection provided by the federal government. However, it represents a very important dimension of the problem. As the economy and society develop and mature, more and more people become financially capable of providing their living after retirement (either all the living expense or their substantial part), their medical expenses, and so on by themselves, without relying on income redistribution by the federal government. And they should do it. High dependency on public social security has to be limited to those who really cannot do without relying on state protection. Currently, Wester powers have no choice but to trim the welfare state on a large scale and at a higher speed than they did before the crisis. The welfare budget of the United States of America totaled $1.215 trillion in fiscal year 2022 or 19 percent of all federal outlays. The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development is $63.1 billion for foreign assistance and diplomatic engagement. This is an increase from $49.35 billion in 2023. And since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S.A. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which many struggling families wish would be returned to them in tax rebates or used to fund homeless centers and other projects in their community to improve American lives. The budget has to be balanced and deficit spending has to be stopped; otherwise, Western societies will become financially unsustainable and economically powerless. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

The mentality of an average Western household is more and more entering the tomorrow-it-will-be-worse-than-today territory, inducing it to tighten the belts. Far more vital for U.S.A. power over the long run than its mass manufacturing base is its knowledge system or info-sphere. A look at this third leg of power triad contradict those who would hastily write off the immense residual power of the United States of America. Overfocusing on arms and money, they ignore or underestimate the role of knowledge in national power. Thus, the first enormous advantage that the United States of America holds at present is simply language. English is the whole World’s language in international science, commerce, aviation, and scores of other fields. Hundreds of millions of people all around the World are told to learn to speak English, learn American styles, inventions, products and ideas as this will give you a powerful thrust in the World. Another strength is America’s still-strong scientific and technological base. A great deal has been written about the declining percentage of patents being won by Americas, and other signs of scientific and technical infirmity. After World War II the United States of America for all practical purposes was the only major industrial state able to engage in scientific or technical research on a large scale. Under the circumstances, it is hardly reasonable to expect the United States of America to continue to hold the same percentage of patents it did in the past. The United States of America has lost its virtual monopoly. However, its scientific and technical base still towers over that of its rivals. The U.S.A. R&D for 2020 was $717.0 billion, which is more than the budget of Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom combined.  #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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Because our words influence how we think, we do well to choose our words carefully. Our labels for things affect our thoughts about them. Whether a space weapons program is termed “Star Wars” or “The Peace Shield” can subtly affect people’s thoughts and feelings about it. Liberation movements recognize this power of words to shape thought. Public order crime shares a nearly inextricable bond with what we know as the criminal subculture. Sex and drug violations are illicit pleasure pursuits that take place on the proverbial underbelly of society. Given their sensual attractions and victimless qualities, these crimes draw a healthy cadre of repeat customers. Over time, these widespread and routinized transactions become intertwined in the underground economy and criminal subculture. Our research on street prostitutes, bar prostitutes, and study of upper-level drug smugglers reveal how isolated forms of public order crime (and their repeat offenders) are readily folded into the criminal subculture. These people share the same social space and go about their business with little concern for those around them. Most of all public order offending takes shape as what is called deviant exchanges. This entails two or more persons (usually a distributor and a client) engaging in illicit trades or sales as a means of exchanging good and services. Often times, these exchanges become routinized to the point that we think of them as deviant markets. The collective nature of this offending means that most offenders orient to one another as either peers, colleagues, or team members. An example of a peer arrangement would be two drug users who share needles, dope, or a common “shooting gallery.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

Still other public order offending gets organized along what is called a teamlike alignment. Routinized offending and a division of labor leads to set roles and cooperation among the offenders. Take, for example, drug dealers, pimps, or drug smugglers. These individuals will often work in concert with one another to maximize their profits and minimize risk of outside interference. Small-time cocaine dealers prefer to operate in small collectives. One person might hold small, prepackaged units of the drugs on a street corner to perform the actual exchanges with drug users. Another serves as a street-level lookout who also holds the larger sums of money. A third person is located in a nearby apartment where one cuts and packages more drugs for sale. A fourth person serves as the runner who keeps a fresh supply of drugs moving from the apartment to the street corner. There is a great deal of scripted interaction and socialization that takes place between the participants of public order crime. For example, prostitutes and their clients must develop and follow a scripted set of interactions that allow the participants to identify one another and negotiate the terms of a transaction while somehow not arousing the suspicions of those around them. Male street prostitutes and their clients enact a series of verbal and nonverbal exchanges en route to agreeing on the terms of a sexual transaction. In fact, numerous scholars have documented rudimentary forms of socialization or tutelage occurring among parties to the public order crime transaction. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

To further highlight this illustration, consider how we have documented how pimps and madams recruit and even train prostitutes. Some prostitutes even develop agreed-upon rules that dictate where and when to do business and often shepherd one another into drug use. Public order crimes receive a mixed statutory response from the criminal justice system. Our nation’s “war on drugs” has led criminal justice officials to reconsider their formal response to drug crimes. Crimes such as the possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to distribute, and the manufacture or trafficking of illegal drugs were once afforded serious misdemeanor or minor felony distinctions under the law. Prior to the early 1980, the vast majority of these offenses were dealt with by state or local authorities. This all changed under the Reagan administration, when the federal criminal code was revised. More severe, prescribed charges; and sentencing guidelines were enacted to allow for federal authorities to rigorously pursue and punish drug offenders. Crimes that used to be classified as state misdemeanors suddenly became class 1 felonies, subject to 20 years in federal prison. Moreover, broad, never criminal offense such as “continuing criminal enterprise” and conspiracy offenses were added to the criminal code affording federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors a broader array of offense designations to direct toward drug offenders. Prosecutors began applying mandatory minimum sentencing and the principles of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) to drug offenders, further upping the statutory ante by treating drug dealers and smugglers as members of criminal syndicates. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

At present, drug dealers, as well as those who manufacture and smuggle the illicit drugs into and through the United States of America, face some of the most severe and vigilant criminal justice responses of modern times. For example, in 2023, the Federal Drug Control Budget was listed at $42.5 billion, there will be approximately 1.5 million drug arrests by December 31, 2023, and 3 million pounds of drugs (marijuana, hashish, cocaine, fentanyl) will be seized by the end of the year. Drug cases make up one-third of our nation’s total prison population. At the same time, other broad forms of vice such as gambling and prostitution are afforded petty misdemeanor status and draw little or no formal enforcement response from criminal justice officials at any jurisdictional level. For the most part, federal law enforcement and prosecutors refuse to be bothered by these “nuisance” offenses and direct the vast majority of their vice-related interdiction toward drug crime. In many cases, state and even local authorities adopt a similarly lukewarm response to these crimes. According to the Compendium of Federal Criminal Justice Statistics, there were a paltry 491 nonviolent sex offenses recorded by federal law enforcement authorities in 2000. While exact figures are not available, scholars agree that the clearance rates for public order crimes are woefully low. We have identified several factors that contribute to low arrest numbers and clearance rates for prostitution and drug offenses. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

First, most of these crimes occur in private settings, outside of police and public view. Second, police must conduct clandestine investigations without the benefit of complaining witnesses due to the victimless nature of the offense. Third, these crimes are viewed as minor offense, meaning the beat police officers are not pressure internally by their superiors or externally by the public to crack down on their occurrence in the same way that they are with more heinous offenses. Fourth, public opinion tends to be supportive or neutral toward these crimes, thus undermining potential deterrent effects. Court officials clearly take drug offenses seriously. An analysis of federal justice statistics reveals that approximately 35 percent of all U.S.A. attorney investigations were directed toward drug offenses. In addition, these federal prosecutors declined prosecution for only 20 percent of these cases—no other form of offense was pursued with this level of tenacity. Drug cases thus comprise nearly 40 percent of prosecutorial caseload. We also found that nearly 40 percent of the felony cases that were processed in state courts were drug cases. Researchers also found that nearly three in four state-level drug cases yielded a conviction of some sort, more often than not it was a felony conviction obtained through a plea arrangement. A similar trend is observed among deferral drug defendants—90 percent of these cases produce convictions with 85 percent coming as the result of a plea bargain. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

The available data suggest that sentencing hearings provide more bad news for convicted drug offenders. A full 72 percent of state-level convictions and 89 percent of federal convictions led to a term of incarceration for the guilty party. State-level convictions yielded an average prisons sentence of 47 months while persons convicted in the federal system faced an average prisons term of 74 months, and the type and quantity of drug involved, the presence of an injured party, the use of a weapon, and the defendant’s criminal history were all factors that contributed to longer federal prison sentences. Strict sentencing guidelines at the federal level means that offenders will end up serving better than 90 percent of these prescribed prison terms. Things are a bit more relaxed at the state level, where on average, drug offenders serve 49 percent of their original sentences behind bars. As of March 14, 2023, it was documented that there are over 350,000 people serving time in state prisons for drug convictions, and 94,678 in federal prisons on drug charges. These figures represent 20 percent of the state inmate population and 55 percent of the federal inmate population and do not include the nearly 514,000 individuals housed in U.S.A. jails. There are currently 1,047,000 people in state prison, and 209,000 in federal prisons and jails. In the juvenile system, there are 36,000 youths, 8,000 people in territorial prisons, 34,000 people in immigration detention, 22,000 in involuntary commitment, 2,000 in Indian country jails, and 1,000 in military jails. Drug offenders account for 17 percent of the growth in state inmate populations and 65 percent of the federal inmate population growth in 2022. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

Society adopts a mixed message when it comes to the informal social control of public order crime. In the case of drug crime, it appears that we are mobilized in a broad antidrug initiative that approaches drug use and its accompanying criminal activities as a public health concern. Such an approach emphasizes the addiction issues and orients to the behaviors from an informal treatment and education perspective as opposed to a punishment one. For example, drug, alcohol and other addiction rehab in the United States of America is big business–$42 billion this year. There are now over 14,000 treatment facilities and growing. A total of 4 million persons received treatment, but many more need it and facilities are filled to capacity. It has become increasingly popular to discuss the possibility of legalizing public order crimes such as prostitution and drug use. Assume that any one of these crimes were to be legalized and subject to some form of governmental regulation. What impact would this likely have on the behavioral, cognitive, cultural, and societal reactions to what was once a form of criminal behavior? The United States of America spends billions of dollars each year trying to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country. Still, no other country sees more drugs being used and sold on its streets. What is it about the American way of life that makes drug use so appealing, and hence, makes demand side programs so hard to effectively implement? #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

Prostitution is a crime that goes largely unsanctioned by the police and prosecutors. When enforcement does occur, these efforts tend to focus much more energy on the female prostitutes than on the male clients. Feminists argue that this constitutes sex discrimination while others content that it constitutes efficient supply reduction. Formulate several policy initiatives that might effectively and efficiently target male clients for demand reduction without seriously infringing upon citizen’s civil rights. Human intelligence, mental quality that consists of the abilities to learn from experience, adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts, and use knowledge to manipulate one’s environment. These are some conditions of intelligence: Biological conditions during: Infancy: Physical stimulation through handling and caressing stimulates perceptive responsiveness to the environment. Childhood: Having other children to play with fosters intelligence; having none retards it. Preadolescence: Regular and thorough examination and correction of deficiencies in hearing and seeing improve intelligence in children; hearing difficulties particularly lead to attributions of lack of intelligence, and to self-conceptions and unintelligent. Adolescence: The span of involvement in episodes of learning behavior can be steadily lengthened by progressively adjusting new tasks to the margin of ability. Adulthood: The event of parenthood clarifies adult identity, thus remental resources for chosen tasks. Later maturity: Energy reluctantly expended in pathogenic, but energy expended willingly in response to stimulation, even in large amounts, is generally hygienic. Not quality but quality of work is the gauge. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Economic conditions during: Infancy: Objects that can be manipulated, and which disclose their principles by being disassembled and assembled, foster intelligence. Childhood: Use of adult objects—despite cost and waste—improve the child’s comprehension of its environment. Preadolescence: If both father and mother can send much time with their children, being responsive to their initiative, rather than doing thing for them, the children’s intelligence improves. Adolescence: The opportunity to explore and experiment before being committed to a vocation makes more probable a choice which will utilize potentialities fully, thus fostering their growth. Adulthood: Opportunity for success-experiences and for their recognition by self and others through reference to a visible product encourages intelligence. Later maturity: To continue to have people and projects dependent upon one for support preserves motivation and faculties. Social-legal conditions during: Infancy: A general atmosphere of neighborhood interest in births and babies stimulates response and development. Childhood: Subcultural emphasis on the values of learning and professionalism encourages the development of intelligence; anti-intellectualism discourages it. Preadolescence: Cultural emphasis on the values of personal performance rather than on those of birth, race, and family connection, lifts the ceiling of motivation imposed by inherited status. Adolescence: The complementarity of receptive and assertive approached to knowledge and control of reality is best appreciated and employed in coeducational institutions. Thus all types of intelligence are cultivated best by coeduction. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

Adulthood: As profound cultural stereotypes about the innate intellectual inferiority of particular minorities are demolished by criticism, the intelligence of these minorities rises. Later maturity: The making of social demands upon the aged to take responsibility for themselves as a group (when put with respect and not as punishment or rejection) evokes a flow of ingenuity not obtainable when responsibility is withdrawn. Interpersonal conditions during: Infancy: Maternal responsiveness fosters alertness to novel elements in experience; ger enjoyment in the child’s discoveries intensifies one’s own. Childhood: To involve the child in the pursuit of knowledge through discussion between parents, especially where there is a dialectic and reasonable resolution, cultivates one’s intelligence. Preadolescence: A chum with whom one can assimilate new intellectual challenges, by kindly mutual criticism and by confiding fears, is a great help in forming strategies for mastering fears. Adolescence: Reciprocal, frank discussion of the standards of adolescent peers versus the parent-teacher generation reduces ambiguity in the self-evaluation of progress, and makes criticism bear clearly on the sources of mistakes. Adulthood: Self-conscious recognition by a continuing critical, appreciative audience of significant others promotes disciplined attention to standards of performance. Later maturity: Foster-home placement of aged persons stimulates their faculties when it furnishes them identification with the purposes of a younger family, and a chance to contribute to those purposes. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

Educational conditions during: Infancy: Abundant talking with the infant before one learns to talk stimulates the growth of intelligence. Childhood: When teachers proceed explicitly, not on the notion of an original self that has to be trained, curbed, expressed, or molded, but by construing education as a joint process of discovery and mastery, they reduce resistance to learning and encourage the appetite for it. Preadolescence: Practice in group methods of problem-solving, exempli gratia, through admission to family councils, furnished an overt, dramatic model of careful thinking, which can be assumed individually by identification. Adulthood: Children’s questions—if welcomes and used—provide the parent with a review of one’s own intellectual biography and stimulate self-analysis of one’s resistances to learning, and so many reduce them. Later maturity: Adult education, to evoke serious involvement when it is not to be put to vocational use, must foresee a significant audience for the products of the knowledge and skills acquired. Recreational conditions during: Infancy: Patient play by parents with a child as one struggles to master new phases of development creates confidence in approaching new experience. Childhood: Observation of play furnishes clues to problems perplexing the child; spontaneous response to these problems in a friendly, spontaneous way helps in their recognition, verbalization, and control by the child. Preadolescence: Play is both preparator and assimilational; adequate rehearsal before and after each new accession of understanding is a means of securing it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

Adolescence: Adequate opportunity (space, time, respect for privacy) for reverie, whenever learning exceeds the rate of immediate assimilation, prevents the building-up of resistance and helps to build major themes of unified selection and composition of new experience. Adulthood: If they parent (or teacher) in play permits one’s likeness as an omniscient being to be laughed at, both one and the children gain in discriminating real from false intellectual control. Later maturity: Utopian speculation leads to discrimination of the novel and emergent, thence to fresh attacks on familiar problems. When passivity of body takes place it practically means a cessation of conscious action, because this passivity affects sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling, et cetera. Any person in normal health should be able to focus one’s eyes on whatever object one chooses, randomly or by design, and should have similar control over all one’s other senses. They are avenues of information for one’s mind and spirit. However, when any of these senses are kept in a passive state, consciousness becomes dulled and deadened. Such a person, unaware of what one should be keenly alive to, becomes mechanical in one’s actions. Peculiar or even repulsive habits easily take hold. It is much simpler for persons in this condition to see these flaws in others than to recognize what is going on in themselves, even though they may be fully aware of external influences which affect them. When this passive condition brought about by evil spirits reaches its climax, passivity of other parts of the body may result, such as stiff fingers, lost elasticity of the frame in walking, lethargy, heaviness, stooping of the back and spine. The handshake is flabby and passive; the eyes will not look straight into the eyes of others, but move from side to side—all indicating passivity, brought about by deepening interference of the powers of darkness with the whole man, resulting from the initial passive condition of the will and mind, in which the man gave up his self-control, and use of his will. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

Autonomy can also be considered as the result of an eviscerating process which is described a the profanization of religion by the secular. This process is called “profanization” rather than “secularization,” because the term “profane” in its genuine meaning expresses exactly what we call “resisting self-transcendence,” this is, remaining before the door of the temple, standing outside the holy.” Thus it is a more graphic expression, although equivalent to secularization. The profanization of religion reduces it to a finite thing among other finite things. However, religion should manifest the holy, should transcend itself, so that its elements—Holy Scripture, holy communities, acts, persons, and offices—should point beyond themselves, should be translucent to the holy. When this does not happen, the ambiguous character of religion asserts itself, and religion is profanized. Profanization occur in two ways: the institutional way and the reductive way. Religion is institutionalized when it becomes just another object—a set of prescribed activities to be performed, a set of stated doctrines to be accepted, a social pressure group along with other, a political power with all the implications of power politics. It can also be profanized by being reduced to culture and morality. This comes about when the veil of self-transcendence is taken away from religion, and one finds there cognitive insight and aesthetic expression, personality development, and principles of community. Culture and morality then have no need of religion, for it offers them nothing that they do not already possess. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

In both processes of profanization, by either the institutional or the reductive way, the nature of the secular appears as self-sufficiency which resists transcendence. The Catholic Church runs the perennial risk of profanization by superstitious devotions devoid of true religious content, while Protestaintism is always in danger of reductive secularization. The formulation of a new military strategy will also shape that other leg of the power triad, America’s economy Skinning the U.S.A. military down from a Second Wave force based on mass to a Third Wave force based on mobility, speed, and reach, the military equivalent of miniaturization, could pump new energy into the U.S.A. economy. Ad hoc defense cuts, made under pork-barrel pressures from Congress, could destroy key research and development projects and slow down technological advance in the American economy, which has, until now, benefited from Pentagon contracts. However, the same troop withdrawal that could double Europe’s military costs could, by the same token, help reduce the U.S.A. budget deficit, meaning less reliance on Japanese finance. It would create at least temporary unemployment. However, it would also tend to lower interest rates and increase investment. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

There is no guarantee that freed-up federal funds would necessarily be channeled to overdue social renovation, but some at least would find their way into education, day care, job training, and other uses that, intelligently planned, could help spark next-generation economic gains. Much tooth-gnashing and wailing has taken place over America’s relative economic decline—actually a measure of the success of its post-World War II strategy for putting Japan and Europe back on their feet. The fact is that, despite misconceptions, the United States of America still represents about the same share of Gross World Production that it did 35 years ago. (The big decline in this indicator came just after the war, when the destroyed European and Japanese economies came back on stream. Since the mid-1970s, the United States of America has roughly held its own.) However, manufacturing is no longer the most important gage of an economy’s importance. In the services and information sectors, which represent the leading edge of the super-symbolic economy, the United States of America outpoint not only Europe but Japan. As a result, unemployment in the United States has proved a less persistent problem than in Europe. The trade imbalance, too, which for a time caused near panic in Washington, needs to be reconsidered in the light of the new economy. First, the widespread impression that U.S.A. exports have fallen is incorrect. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

During the 1980s, American exports to the World actually rose 61 percent. The problem was that imports rose one and a half times faster. Exports to Japan alone jumped 114 percent, but imports soared over 200 percent. That disparity is now narrowing. However, far more important, an economy shifting toward domestic services may be quite healthy, even though many of its new products are not exportable—medical care, for example, or education. More serious than America’s much-lamented “twin deficits,” both likely to decline, are the institutional obsolescence and social instability eroding American society and threatening to tear families, communities, and ethic groups apart, and the spread of drugs in society whose members are alienated from the state and from one another. It seems because crisis after crisis has happened since September 11, 2001, that the American government has never been able to fully recovery and the World is feeling the impact of this devastation. Public debt has soared in countries all around the World. For government to balance their budgets, spending has to be trimmed on overseas assistance, and other government projects. This will naturally lead to public sector jobs being cut. Government employees will retire without replacement. State spending will have to be frozen, tax loopholes will be closed. However, with another COVID crisis looming, health care spending is likely to increase. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

Withdrawing U.S.A. troops from overseas conflicts is another way to reduce spending. Otherwise the economy will remain sick. The pills needed to cure those sick men are so strong that, while taking them, they will be able to move along at a slow pace, coughing and sniffing, if not bleeding. Large-scale issuance of government bonds may crowd out private investment. Raising interest rates, although inflation is on the raise, a mix of spending cuts and tax increase will negatively affect households’ discretionary income, curtail many economic activities, and cause social tensions if not unrest. Massive antigoverment demonstrations may breakout in various places around the World. This could lead to mass rioting and looting. It all will reflect despair and the wrath of the growing number of have-nots feeling betrayed by their governments. More and more, class warfare, in a Marxist sense will be visible. The West’s economic future will largely depend on its ability, even under tough financial constraints, to do much more to help domestic business enhance their global competitiveness and capture markets in the developing World, especially China. America, Europe, and Japan need strong government policies supporting industrial upgrading and exports. If, amid a neoconservative drive, this dimension is forgotten, the global economic clout of major Western powers will be weakening at a growing speed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

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In the state of despair there is nobody and nothing that accepts. However, there is the power of acceptance itself which is experienced. Meaninglessness, as long as it is experienced, includes an experience of the “power of acceptance.” To accept this power of acceptance consciously is the religious answer of absolute faith, of a faith which had been deprived by doubt of any concrete content, which nevertheless is faith and the source of the most paradoxical manifestation of the courage to be. The pleasure principle tends to dominate the mindset of the public order offender. These persons are usually driven by short-term gratification and thus possess a self-interested and shortsighted outlook at the time of the offense. This observation is perhaps best evidenced by the high levels of drug and alcohol use that exist at the time of the offending. In our survey of state prison inmates, we discovered that 54 percent of persons serving time on drug possession charges and 51 percent of persons incarcerated on drug trafficking charges admit to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they committed their crimes. High levels of substance use and abuse have also been observed in studies of prostitutes, johns, and pimps. Public order offenders are driven by a host of instrumental and expressive motives. More often than not, persons of the production/distribution side of the public order crime equation are motivated by the promise of financial returns. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Many drug dealers see legitimate jobs as being unattainable or even “sucker’s work” and thus choose their illicit trade as a means of easy and free-flowing cash. This theme was well evidenced in our interviews with crack dealers. As one respondent put it: “It’s better money than everything. Make twenty dollars in one second, two seconds. It’s better than robbery; it’s better than everything. I done made three $100 sales in one minute one time.” Research on street pimps and house madams indicates that these sex brokers are “in it for the money” and status (id est, gender domination and “player” label) that goes with the job. Prostitutes, on the other hand, tend to exhibit a broader range of motivations. Most all prostitutes talk about the money that goes along with their trade; however, prostitutes often use their involvements in the sex industry to fill an emotional (love) or psychological (pain, low self-esteem) void within themselves. Persons who occupy the client role in public order offenses tend to be motivated by self-gratification or self-enrichment. These offenders seek the euphoria that comes from getting high or having sex. For example, pleasure pursuits such as being with an exotic or aggressive woman or fulfilling sexual fantasies tend to be primary motivational factors for persons who solicit prostitutes. The problem, however, is that these hedonistic pursuits have a propensity to get out of hand. Over time, individuals may become so dependent upon their chosen vice that survival or maintenance replaced what used to be the pursuit of pleasure. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Public order transactions tend to be preceded by rudimentary exercises in planning an target selection. While many of these processes are streamlined by the existence of mutual benefits between the distributor and client, perpetrators of public order means that the transactions must take on a somewhat covert quality so that the participants’ intentions and behaviors are not clearly evident to the public and members of law enforcement. Criminal exchanges are generally modeled in one of three ways: the client and distributor can maintain a steady and private relationship; the distributor can make him or herself available in a public location and then wait for the client to intermittently “cruise” by; or the client may wait for the distributor to contact him or her directly when goods or services become available. Each category is preceded by its own form of planning and target selection process. Drug dealing is typically characterized by the first transactional exchange, wherein a single dealer serves as a main source for a given user. A recent study of drug users in six U.S.A. cities found that nearly half of the power cocaine and heroin users relied on a single dealer to supply them with their drugs. Crack users were found to be less selective in their behaviors with just more than one-third saying that they maintained a steady source. A drug user who has a go-to source can often predict the quality of the product that one will receive as well as the hours of operations, predictable location, and choice of substances that will be available. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

For the dealer, a steady roster of users helps to maintain a regular intake of cash, impose more rigid rule of operation, and limit the possibility of apprehension. These factors serve to streamline the planning and target selection processes and enable the participants to pattern their relationship. Street prostitution is often organized around a “cruising” model of exchange. Male and female prostitutes alike are known to frequent the same stretch of road, commonly known as a “track,” and make themselves visible to oncoming motorists in hopes of getting a “date.” All the prostitute has to do is look the part, be available to clients, and avoid the attention of the police. The john, on the other hand, must identify a suitable sex partner, negotiate a price, and avoid apprehension from undercover and uniformed police officers. Similar patterns of exchange and target selection have been observed in groups of drug dealers, call girls and gigolos, hotel and bar prostitutes (id est, b-girls), and brothel prostitutes, pimps, and madams. In each of these cases, a seemingly never-ending source of would-be client seek out these service providers in a known location and then go about negotiating terms and consummating the exchange. Much more rare are public order crime exchanges in which the distributor seeks out the would-be client. Drug producers (id est, grower and manufacturers) and smugglers are prone to this model. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

We have documented scenarios in which a given drug smuggler will intermittently contact prospective dealers when one comes into possession of large quantities of a drug. On occasion, entrepreneurial pimps or prostitutes are know to drum up business by making their rounds at the local conventions or casinos. Much of the planning and target selection that exists in these types of exchanges must come from the person in the distributor role. Public order offenses get framed as relatively minor transgression against the moral or righteous order of society. Drug use and prostitution are not framed so much as evil in their own right as they are indications of weak personal character, or a need for money, or maybe a need for stress release or attention, or bonding. This being the case, persons who engage in these acts usually invoke a series of normative neutralizations in an effort to protect or defend their moral standing. Necessity is a common theme that emerges among public order offenders. Prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, and other persons who occupy a distributor role in the public order equation tend to rely on these activities as a primary or secondary source of income. They involve themselves in the underground economy of vice because they see limited options in the legitimate economy. This gives way to a survivalist mentality in which conceptions of “right or wrong” take a backseat to making a livable wage. #RandolphHarri 5 of 19

Ironically, most of the proceeds from these illegal transactions do not go toward noble expenditure such as food and rent. Instead, the money tends to be spent on frivolous purchase (id est, clothes or socializing) or get used to finance some sort of addiction (id est, drugs, alcohol, or gambling). When drug dealers and pimps spend foolishly and lavishly on leisure pursuits, they are apt to justify this spending (and the criminal activities that supported such spending) by protesting that they have earned it. In short, if the dealer has to put his or her life and freedom on the line to fill a void in the drug market, then surely he or she is  entitled to some just reward. A somewhat different set of neutralizations are deployed by those who suffer from an addiction. This would include prostitutes, pimps, or drug dealers (id est, distributors) who decide to spend their “hard earned” cash on drugs, alcohol, or other pleasure pursuit. This observation also extends to the clients (drug users or johns) who habitually purchase the illicit goods or services on the illegal market. These persons tend to distance themselves from responsibility and direct attention to the addictive state, not the crime itself. In short, they skirt personal responsibility by claiming that the addiction left them without realistic options. This pattern is well evidenced in regards to street prostitutes, and heroin users. Regardless of their specific manifestations, public order criminals can become quite adept at deflecting blame and guilt for their actions. This is largely a biproduct of offenders who tend to exhibit long, drawn out deviant histories that afford the plenty of practice and reinforcement of their criminal thoughts and behaviors. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

Reasoning as a limited cognitive function, detached from the personal center, never could create courage. One cannot remove anxiety by arguing it away. There are different phases of life when social-legal condition has an impact on development of mental health. Social-legal conditions during: Infancy: To minimize the traditional penalties of minority status—crowing, deprivation, neglect—is to increase the chances of life for children in these restricted groups. Childhood: If a family lives in residential community designed for family living and for children’s safety and play, then the children’s health will thrive more than in an area oriented mainly to adult males. Preadolescence: Dramatization of the public interest in the welfare of children—particularly its concern and intervention in cases of illtreament—causes parents to give children better protection than where the public seems indifferent.. Adolescence: Legal and moral emphasis on responsibility toward others creates an atmosphere more favorable to the growth of sexual competence than emphasis upon restraint of sexual interests. Adulthood: As women feel accorded equal status at large, they gain in capacity for sexual response. Later maturity: Health of the aged is directly a function of whether as a class they experience tangible evidence of respect or rejection. Interpersonal conditions during: Infancy: If parents are accepted as adults by parental figures, they can in turn more readily give parental care. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Well covered is the bearing of continuous affection upon physical and mental health, but rarely discussed is how love might be enhanced for the unloved and the unloving. Childhood: The cared-for child learns to value and care for oneself, by avoiding risks and following rules, when these rules are conceived as protection and not as restraint. Preadolescence: An optimum alternation between isolation and stimulation is directly related to patterns of energy-use that fall between apathy and overstimulation. Adolescence: Clear-cut models of sex identification improve the chances of sexual competence and reduce frigidity and impotency. Adulthood: Control of fertility is a function of full communication and common intent between husband and wife. Later maturity: Retaining an audience or finding new audiences, before whom one wishes to do well, is conducive to continuous health. Educational conditions during: Infancy: Recognition by parents and others of each gain made in the child’s physical development builds up assurance and appetite for further ventures. Childhood: Sympathetic responses of others to signs of the child’s physical state help the child to recognize their meaning and importance: teaching one to report them explicitly is the basis for ultimate self-regulation. Preadolescence: The responsibility of looking after pet animals provides a dramatic basis for learning hygiene. Adolescence: Understanding of physiology reduces anxiety over rapid development and makes the emergence of sexual functioning a welcome attainment and thus contributes to sexual competence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Adulthood: Full access to knowledge of sexual techniques and the range of human behavior encourages couples to explore and find various mutually acceptable patterns. Later maturity: A sense of fruition through completion of recognized career fosters health in later years. Recreational conditions during: Infancy: Space and objects for exploration induce the growth of coordination. Childhood: Full and free expression of evening bursts of energy in play, with adult consent or participation, do more for health than their suppression. Preadolescence: If the physical demands of sports are adjusted to slightly exceed the margin or proven competence, their effect upon growth of physical competence is maximal. Adolescence: They rhythm and phrasing of play episodes—if the demands increase in a graded series-affect the span of potential involvement, and thereby the capacity for flexible mobilization of energy. Adulthood: Play by its nature begs ideal performance, and by its range exercises faculties unused in work; thus play if continued maintains capacity, whilst lack of play leads to deterioration of the unused capacities. Later maturity: Involvement in new interests looking toward future outcomes are as both actor and sectator is conducive to health. Man lives “in” meanings, in that which is valid logically, esthetically, religiously. The most fundamental expression of this fact is the language which gives man the power to abstract from the concretely given and, after having abstracted from it, to return to it, to interpret and transform it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

The most vital being is the being which has the word and is by the word liberated from bondage to the given. Passivity of the reasoning powers leads naturally to what may be described as passivity of the conscience. The conscience becomes passive through non-use when believers think that they are being guided by higher law of being told to do this or that directly from the ultimate concern; that is, by direct guidance through voices and texts. When believers sink into passivity of conscience there is, in some cases, a manifestation of moral degradation, and in others stagnation, or retrogression in life or service. Rather than using either mind or conscience in deciding what is right and what is wrong, they say they walk according to the “voice of the ultimate concern.” This they make the deciding factor in all their decisions. When they “hear the ultimate concern” they will not listen to their reason or conscience, nor to the words of others; for having come to a decision through the supposed direction of the ultimate concern, their minds become as a closed and sealed book on the matter in question. In actual fact, having ceased to use their true reasoning powers they become open to all kinds of suggestions from psychopathic offenders. For example, people feel they do not have to honor America, they do not have to pray because it is the end of the World and because of that they do not need carry on their usually work, overlooking the sacrifices people made for this great country and its rich heritage. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

However, as most veterans, some law enforcement and every patriot will tell you, “Who then is virtuous and wise American, whom one’s ancestors and government hath set over one’s household, to give them food in due season? Honorable is the American, whom one’s ancestors when they come shall find one working hard.” Because of what one will gain through it, the psychopathic offenders will do anything to engender passivity in any form whatsoever, in spirit or mind or body. Since cultural styles result from a blend of form and substance, three general types of culture are possible. These types never exist in the pure state, but they are very useful as principles for judging a culture, and as guidelines for the interpretation of history. If form is stressed at the expense of substance, the culture is called “autonomous.” If substance dominates and overshadows form, the culture is “heteronomous.” However, if the two are harmoniously balanced, the culture is “theonomous.” The etymology of autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy indicates the presence of a predominating principle or law (nomos). In autonomy it is the principle of self-sufficient form heteronomy, a tyrannical and hence demonically distorted substance; and in theonomy, an equilibrium in which form is transparent to the ground of being, and religion is perfectly related to culture. Autonomy is the attempt to create the forms of personal and social life without any reference to something ultimate and unconditional, following only the demands of theoretical and practical rationality. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Reason is structure. Subjectivity, it is the structure of the mind which enables it to grasp and shape reality. Objectively, it is the structure of reality which the mind can grasp and according to which it can shape reality. However, reason precedes reasons and transcends its structures in power and meaning. Metaphorically speaking, the depth of reason is truth-itself, beauty-itself, justice-itself, love-itself. Essentially, it should be manifest in the rational structures. However, under the conditions of existence, the polarity of structure and dept falls into conflict, with the result that reason affirms and actualizes its structure without regarding its depth. It is autonomous and independent, but, by the same token, superficial, shallow, and secular. Autonomous culture is secularized in the degree to which it has lost its ultimate reference, its center of meaning, its spiritual substance. Autonomy can be viewed under several aspects, the first of these is the secular. For the secular is the absence of holiness, of ultimacy. The holy is the realm of ultimate concern, of the unconditional, and of the infinite. The secular is the realm of preliminary concern, of conditioned, and of the finite. Secular is a neutral term inasmuch as it does not imply the unclean, the morally bad. Our period of history has decided for a secular World, and has dethroned a too powerful church. Yet it excluded those deep things for which religion stands: the feeling for the inexhaustible mystery of life, the grip of an ultimate meaning of existence, and the invincible power of an unconditioned devotion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Such is the defect of a secular World. The secular mind is sometimes called immature in that it lacks the wisdom born out of the shattering experience of the holy. The secular mind fails to go beyond itself, it stays on the banal surface of things, and it never asks the penetrating question of its own existence. The capitalist society is secular. For bourgeois society is impregnated with the spirit of self-sufficient finitude, so that its substance has been lost and its inner ardor has grown cold. The spirit of finitude which lives within itself is the spirit of the capitalist society. Thus is produced an autonomous, secularized culture which has lost its ultimate reference, its center of meaning, its spiritual substance. The secular, or profane, can also be understood by contrasting with the demonic. The secular does not rise above itself; the demonic exalts itself to the stature of the divine. The demonic does not resist self-transcendence as does the profane, but it distorts self-transcendence. An example of this is the Greek philosophy which destroyed the Homeric gods, and the Enlightenment which did away with the devil. The weapon take up by the secular against the demonic is rational form. Rational clarity leaves no room for the mystery of God and the fear of demons. The demons are banished and God is incorporated into an orderly World-system; neither can break into the World with the shaking power of the holy. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

Secularism upholds form against the negative, form-destroying power of the demonic. However, it rejects the divine in that it denies transcendence, and so the price of “de-demonizing” is “de-divinizing.” In either case, the characteristic of the secular is the rational. We shall finish discussing autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy in the coming days. This takes us to that wounded giant, the United States of America. Of course, for the United States of America even more than for its global competitors, the military leg of the triad is crucial. The armed forces of Europe and Japan are both still primarily regional forces, with limited capacity for operations far from home. By contrast, those of the United States of America and the Soviet Union, despite cutbacks, both have global outreach. With the U.S.S.R. troubled internally, however, and its Red Army needed to deal with threatened secessions, ethnic troubles, and potentially unstable borders from Iran all the way to China, the U.S.A. miliary has the most resources available for projecting power at a distance (for example, fourteen aircraft carriers with their assorted support ships, compared with four carriers for the Soviets, six for the Europeans). It is precisely the capacity for global projection that differentiates the American forces from all others. America’s tremendous armed might, firmly under civilian guidance and supported by able, educated officers, is, however, shackled to an obsolete strategic view of the World, still overfocused on the Soviet Threat to Western Europe. The result is profound confusion about vital national interest and priorities—a form, as it were, of brain failure at the top. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Because of this, congressional pressures for cuts in defense spending, driven by local politics and largely haphazard, are unrelated to any coherent Worldview. The collapse of America’s grand strategy also means much of its defense expenditure goes toward building the wrong weapons systems and putting them in the wrong places at the wrong time—a waste that dwarfs defense-contractor overruns or the proverbial “$1000 haircuts.” It also means that, apart from $75 billion America has sent to Ukraine since the war started, the United States of America is reacting to the great World event of our time rathe than initiating them. In February 2020, the United States of America and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States of America agreed to withdraw all U.S.A. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. However,  earlier in May of 2023, President Joe Biden has now approved a request by the Pentagon to redeploy USA troops to Somalia in an effort to counter the terrorist group al-Shabaab.  The move reverses a decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw all USA troops from the country in 2020. The USA will reposition USA forces in East Africa and move to restore a USA military presence in Somalia in consultation with Somali government. Under 500 troops will be sent back into the country. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Less discussed the USA redeployment toward the Pacific in the light of changed strategic conditions—the great uncertainties in China, the rearmament of Japan, the civil war in the Philippines, and the continued Soviet interest in the region. The United States Indo-Pacific Command Area of Responsibility (USIDOPACOM) encompasses about half the Earth’s surface. Approximately 375,000 U.S.A. military and civilian personnel are assigned to the USIDOPACOM area of responsibility. U.S.A. Pacific Fleet consists of approximately 200 ships (to include five aircraft carrier strike groups), nearly 1,100 aircraft, and more than 130,000 Sailors and civilians dedicated to protecting our mutual security interests. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific includes two Marine Expeditionary Forces and about 86,000 personnel and 640 aircraft assigned. U.S.A. Pacific Air Forces comprises of approximately 46,000 airmen and civilians and more than 420 aircraft. U.S.A. Army Pacific has approximately 106,000 personnel from one corps and two divisions, plus over 300 aircraft and five watercraft assigned throughout the AOR from Japan and Korea to Alaska and Hawaii. Of note, component command personnel numbers include more than 1,200 Special Operations personnel. Department of Defense civilian employees in the Indo-Pacific Command AOR number about 38,000. USIDOPACOM protects and defend, in concert with other U.S.A. Government agencies, the territory of the United States of America, its people, and its interests. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

As of 2022, Japan has made a significant policy change to allow it to get the ability to strike other nations, a move widely seen as a major step toward rearming the nation more than seven decades since it demilitarized after World War II. A Japan’s relations with China worsen and the threat it perceives from its much larger neighbor heightens, the Japanese government gave the green light to proposals it has been debating sporadically since at least 1956. “In such a severe environment,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, counterstrike capability which can deter an attack, or force an enemy to stop one is capability which will become increasingly vital.” The move follows years of efforts by the United States of America to persuade Japan to assume more responsibility for its own defense, particularly as a bulwark against China’s rising military might and threats against Taiwan. Former president Rodrigo Duterte set up the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NFT-ELCAC, in late 2018 in a bid to crush the over 50-year insurgency of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its NPA armed wing.  Since then, rights activists say, thousands of mainly poor civilians with no link to the insurgency have been pressed to sign documents stating they are surrendering rebels; promised assistance if they do, and sometimes threatened with criminal charges if they do not. Karapatan, the national human rights network, has tallied 3,908 civilians forced to surrender as of the start of 2022, while nearly 4,000 individuals have been detained on politically motivated charges since the NTF-ELCAC came into existence. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Countless others have been publicly labelled as communists’ sympathizers, NPA members, terrorist, or all of thee above. This practice, known as red-tagging, has cast a wide net over civil society, enveloping activists, journalists, the clergy, even UN special rapporteurs and celebrities. In April 2021, police officials were accused of fabricating a ceremony in which Indigenous civilians were also made to pose as surrendering rebels. Between 1969 and 2008, some 43,000 people were killed in one of the World’s longest running insurgencies. Though the intensity of the conflict has lessened considerably over the past 16 years, the CPP continues to push for a revolution with regular military actions. If the debt crisis roiling Washington were eventually to send the United States of America into recession, America’s economy would not sink alone. The repercussions of a first-ever default on the deferral debt would quickly reverberate around the World. Orders for Chinese factories that sell electronics to the United States of America could dry up. Swiss investors who own U.S.A. Treasurys would suffer losses. Sri Lankan companies could no longer deploy dollars as an alternative to their own dodgy currency. No corner of the global economy will be spared. If the debt limit were breached for no more than a week, the U.S.A economy would weaken so much, so fast, as to wipe out roughly 1.5 million job. And if a government default were to last much longer—well into the summer—the consequences would be more dire. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

U.S.A. economic growth would sink, 8 million jobs would vanish, borrowing rates would increase, the unemployment rate would soar from the current 3.4 percent to 8 percent and a stock-market plunge would erase $10 trillion in household wealth. A default could shatter the $24 trillion market for Treasury debt, cause financial markets to freeze up and ignite an international crisis. The threat has emerged just as the World economy is contending with a pandemic of threats—from surging inflation and interest rates to the ongoing repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the tightening grip of authoritarian regimes. On top of all that, many countries have grown skeptical of America’s outsize role in global finance. Along with overlending and overborrowing, low saving, and supervision, and adventurous financial transactions, and COVID cases surging in China, the West soaring public debts and unprecedented government spending has become exacerbated and may significantly slowdown growth pace and are likely to do so for quite a long period of time—perhaps for a decade or even longer. With the unprecedented stimulus packages on a scale we have never seen before, and the budget constraints we are now facing, it would be profane to expect that such a spending extravaganza could go on without consequence in the longer term. The United States of America cannot police the entire tumultuous and highly dangerous World, either on its own behalf or anyone else’s, but its unique capability suggest that it may, in alliance with other nations or international organizations, squelch regional conflicts that threaten World peace. In the dangerous decades ahead, many other nations may want just such a firefighter on duty. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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Love, tenderness, sadism, masochism, ambition, curiosity, anxiety, rivalry—these and many other drives are no longer each attributed to just a special instinct, but they are also influenced by the environment (especially the significant early childhood, teenage, and early to mid-adulthood years). Most public order crimes require a baseline level of skill and organization. Street-level drug deals are depicted as simple, fast-hitting exchanges. Dealers and users develop simple routines such as keeping drugs separate from money, passing merchandise through slot doors, or using pager/cell phones to help slow or hinder the efforts of law enforcement. Growers and smugglers rely on a series of systematized practices (exempli gratia the use of chemistry and botany to refine purity levels at the production stage, disguising and moving large shipments at the smuggling stage, fronting drugs and money to a network of distributors) to minimize their risk of personal harm and maximize profits as they go about moving the drugs closer to their final street-level destinations. Drug dealers enlist the assistance of scales, packaging materials, and substances with similar physical appearances as the drug to dilute (also known as “cut” or “step on”) the goods before they make them available for sale. Dealers also seek to maintain clear rules and sales schedules with a set of reliable users. Habitual drug users must become proficient in the drug paraphernalia and the skills that go along with preparing the drugs for use (exempli gratia cooking, cutting, copping). #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

Similar tricks of the trade are observed in the human trafficking industry. The clients of prostitution, also known as johns, employe strategies aimed at minimizing public contact, avoiding suspicion, minimizing health risks, and identifying desirable partners for pleasures of the flesh. Prostitutes refine their craft by frequenting the same stretch of road, nightclub, neighborhood, bar, or hotel. They specialize their sex acts and seek to develop a steady set of clients. They maintain stashes of condoms, drugs, and weapons to help themselves cope with the job. Pimps and madams (exploitive brokers located in between the prostitute and john) employs a series of techniques directed at the efficient recruitment and control of prostitutes and evading police intervention. Some of their favorite practices include the use of intimidation against rival brokers of pleasures of the flesh, false business fronts, bribes, and payoffs, and total control over their employees’ movements, appearance, and daily habits. Most public order transactions take the form of one-on-one interactions between complete strangers or casual acquaintances. Prostitutes may recognize repeat customers and even be privy to their name and some personal details. However, these associations rarely progress beyond the business transactions. The same can be said about the relationships between actors in the illicit drug market (producers, smugglers, dealers, and users). #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

These participants tacitly agrees that a certain level of routinization and stable relations are good for business, but that too much of a good thing can and will produce problems. Getting too close to pers or clients exposes the individual to cognitive dissonance (id est, psychological conflicts of interest), thus increasing the possibility that informant-based police practices will lead to brushes with the law. Most public order crimes occur in either open-air environments or private locales. In the case of prostitution, sex acts are generally performed by “call girls” or “house girls” or gigolos in hotel rooms or private residence. These crimes rarely see the light of day as the john solicits the prostitute via the phone or by dropping by the brothel in person. Street walkers, on the other hand, often negotiate their exchanges and even perform the sex acts in public places. Street prostitutes used to be able to rely on inexpensive hotels or apartments for privacy. The popularity of urban renewal projects, however, has significantly reduced the prostitute’s options in this regard. Where affordable shelter is not available, street walkers turn to secluded alleyways or automobiles as settings for their sex acts. The same pattern is observed with drug crime. Much of the actual drug dealing takes place on street corners, in seedy business establishments, or in alleyways. At the same time, some dealers work out of their homes. Most smuggler and midlevel distributors seek out private residences to conduct their more complex criminal exchanges. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

It is difficult to accurately assess the age, sex, and racial composition of public order offenders, as the victimless/consensual nature of the offenses leaves us without reliable data sources in this regard. We are left with only arrests data at our disposal. The reliability of these data are dependent on the lofty assumptions that police work is unbiased. This caveat aside, let us take a look at the demographic characteristics of public order arrestees. In 2022, state level drug crime arrestees were disproportionately young, male, minority members. A full 49 percent of persons arrested on drug charges were under the age of 25, 83 percent were male, and 35 percent were African American. Although Hispanic America representation is not provided in state- and local-level UCR data, federal arrest data reveal that 48 percent of the persons arrested on drug charges in 2022 were of Hispanic origin. A different demographic profile emerges for the crime of prostitution. While there continue to be disproportionate numbers of African American in the arrest population (49 percent of total), markedly different age (only 22 percent were under 25 while roughly 35 were 25 to 34) and sex (66.6 percent were females) patterns are observed. Public order offenders display some of the most pronounced criminal careers of any category of perpetrator. Drug crimes provide the best evidence to this effect. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Persons facing felony drug charges are likely to have long criminal histories. For example, 65 percent of the drug defendants in the sample had at least one prior felony arrests and 29 percent had a rap sheet containing five or more felony arrests. Shifting the focus to prior convictions, we found that 43 percent of drug defendants had at least one past felony conviction and nearly one in four (24 percent) had amassed a criminal resume that included five or more previous felony convictions. What is more, better than one in three (38 percent) were found to be in active criminal justice status (id est, out on pretrial release, probation, or parole) at the time of their arrest. In a longitudinal study of over 272,000 prison releasees, it was further confirmed that the habitual nature of drug offenders’ criminality, two-thirds of the drug offenders were rearrested within 3 years. Drug offenders exhibit considerable variation in their criminal activities, generally involving themselves in a variety of offenses. We found that 42 percent of those released on a drug charge were arrested on a similar offense within 3 years (3 years tends to be the magic number for being rearrested, and it is possible that some people are targeted to return to prison, especially if they did not belong there in the first place), these offenders showed the greatest propensity to branch out and find themselves in trouble for some other form of crime as well. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

These criminal career trends appear to hold true regardless of the type of drug-related offending engaged in. Small-scale studies of drug users, drug dealers, and drug smugglers reveal a tendency for players in the drug underworld to carry out long and highly active criminal careers tht span a wide variety of offense categories. Much of this activity and versatility are bi-products of their chosen lifestyle. If you are going to smuggle or deal drug, you are bound to come into contact with violent persons and will need to engage in a number of property and public order offenses to maintain your “business.” Conversely, habitual drug users find themselves drawn toward property and violent crimes as a means to feed their habits. Nearly one in five stay prison inmates (17 percent) claim that they landed behind bars because they committed their chosen crime to get money to buy drugs. Interviews with known inner-city heroin and cocaine users, reveals that sizable proportions, as many as one in four, rely entirely on illegal activities to fund their drug habits. This is startling when one considers that their drug habits can necessitate several hundreds or even thousands of dollars in funding each week. The notion of interpersonal competence is not central in current family research; indeed the term is rarely used. (This is not true of its designated components. Bibliographies on empathy, autonomy, judgment, and creativity running to several hundred titles each, have been collected at the Family Study Center.) #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

Certainly some focus for family research is needed. We have already pointed out some serious objections to adjustment as central concept Static functionalist theories of satisfaction or adjustment may be useful for short-run analysis in relatively stable situations, but they are almost useless when they attempt to deal with phenomena of change, which they tend to approach as pathological or dysfunctional conditions. In a society oriented to values which include the continual discovery of new values and the reformulation of old one, theories based on static assumptions are often out of date before they can be tested. The rapid postwar drop in age at marriage, plus the rise in “going steady,” as against prewar theories of student dating, is a case in point. Competent personalities in contrast to adjusted ones have the qualities, skills, and orientations which ideally enable them to cope with whatever confronts them, insofar as any human being can do so. And so long as people have some competence in this sense and are free to exercise it, the achievement of the basic values of our society remains a realistic possibility. Sch statements cannot be made of adjustment as presently conceived. Some suitable measure of interpersonal competence is a function of suitable measures of health, intelligence, empathy, autonomy, judgment, and creativity. The testing of this general hypothesis will we hope become the focus of widespread research effort; for the present purposes we shall assume the essential validity of the general hypothesis. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

Much of what is regarded as research on the family is in this primitive state—or worse, that is, not even approaching hypothetical statement. Such a condition needs to apology provided the goal is a more rigorous level. Psychological tests, to illustrate difference, may enable an employer to pick out with some reliability employees whose performance will be good. That would be a case of prediction from selections variables, these variables having been identified through previous research as showing the highest correlations with later performance. On the other hand, an employer may find oneself with a staff already on hand, whose performance one wishes to improve, not by discharging the poorer ones and rehiring better ones, but by training procedures. In that case, research, if it is to help one, must identify those conditions which will produce the desired change in employee behavior. Marriage research tht relies principally on prediction of adjustment from selection variables contribute little to the understanding or control of how to produce desired changes in the capacities of mates. It thus stands to benefit from the precedent of training variables, which have been established, almost perforce, in child development research. There it has to be assumed that parent must do what they can with the children they have, rather than exchanging them for better risks. To dramatize this point somewhat more strongly, the reader, as one scans the following hypotheses, may consider in one’s own mind how, if validated, they could be used by husbands and wives in evaluating the conditions which they as actors create for the continuous development of each other after marriage. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Finally, because it is not immediately evident, it may be important to point out that experimental hypotheses like those to follow are not readily derived from static descriptive correlations. Because height and weight are correlated does not mean that one can grow taller by eating more. Though everyone grants that correlation is not causation, the curiosity of many is satisfied by the finding of mere associations. Some experimental hypotheses can be derived by translation from empirical regularities of this sort, but most come from theoretical propositions which cannot themselves be put to the test. For reasons of space and the large amount of existing research, as well as the presumably greater familiarity of the reader with health and intelligence, we include only sample unit hypotheses about the conditions affecting their optimal development. Empathy and autonomy are treated much more fully, partly because special interest in these two variables. Biological conditions during: Infancy: The planned child I more likely to be born under favorable conditions of maternal health. (Ceteris paribus is a qualification that applies to all the following hypotheses.) Childhood: The health of the parent affects the child, and improvement of their health may often be more effective than direct approach to the child. Preadolescence: If left alone, food fears run a course and abate; if alternate diets are kept at hand meanwhile, the range of taste will freely expand. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

Adolescence: If disrupted arbitrarily, developing rhythms of sleeping and eating, work and play lead to stress reactions, but if respected, facilitate regular autonomic functioning. Adulthood: Self-management of the body along hygienic lines depends on commitment to health as a value, and not on mere learning of practices. Later maturity: Health histories show a cumulative feature; that is, early health predisposes to later good health, and bad health disposes to chronic illness. Economic conditions during: Infancy: The chances of life for each child increase with its family’s rising level of living, and approach a point where chances are even. Childhood: Since the health of each school child largely depends on the health of the other school children, where the school explicitly functions to bring community medical resources to bear in cases of need, the health of all improves. Preadolescence: Progressive involvement in productive manual work which mobilizes energies for tasks of extended duration is conductive to good physical condition, and particularly to control of situation. Adolescence: Health is favorably affected by the development of clear-cut vocational identity through ideal models and confirming groups. Adulthood: Security of employment fosters health; assurance of permanent worth to the employment unit fosters it even more. Later maturity: Availability of rewarding work, regardless of age, prolongs the retention of vigor and faculties. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

When it comes to passivity of judgment and reason—the man in this condition has closed his mind to all arguments and clarifying statements. One has come to settled conclusions; all attempts to give one further truth and light are rejected as interference, while the person attempting it is regarded as ignorant or intrusive. The ultimate concern expressed will, given in words spoken “supernaturally” to him, has become his law, so that he cannot be induced to reason about it. The believer in this stage of passivity lapses into a state of psychopathology and infallibility, from which nothing can release him except the rude shock of seeing that he has been deceived by psychopaths. Undermining the deception of a believer in this condition almost means the re-laying of the very foundations of his self-actualized life. Hence the very few—called “fanatics” and “cracks” by the World—who have been saved out of this degree of the deception of the enemy. When form is distinctively qualified by substance in a large number of cultural activities, the resulting pattern is what is called “style,” a term borrowed from the World of art. Style provides the key to a comparison of cultures of different people and epochs, for cultural styles reflect the varied manner in which the human spirit encounters reality. One who can read the style of a culture can discover its ultimate concern, its religious substance. This is precisely the goal of a theology of culture: to analyze cultural styles in order to discover the ultimate concern in the ground of a philosophy, a political system, an artistic style, a set of ethical or social principles. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

Systematic theology enunciates principles, but it is the task of a constructive theology of culture to apply these principles to the concrete problems of our cultural existence. In turn, by its analyses the theology of culture opens up to the systematic theologian one of the theological sources, the history of culture, just as the exegete makes the biblical source available. Linking theology with culture so a legitimate theology of culture emerges can be difficult. However, the connecting link is spirit. Theology is the science of religion, and religion resides in Geist. Geist is also the domain of culture. Religion provides the substance (unconditioned meaning), while culture imparts form (conditioned form). Thus, the role of a theology of culture is sharply delimited. It cannot directly produce cultural creations, but it act critically as a gauge to indicate the degree to which religious substance has been realized in cultural forms. More beneficially, it reveals the unity of a culture by working toward a cultural synthesis based on the transparency of form to substance. The theology of culture is contributed to the ultimate concern which animates specific cultural creations. In the economy sphere, there is a financial culture. Major Western banks and other financial institutions have been curtailing transactions with risky and potentially toxic measures. The reason major layoffs and housing price did not drop during the COVID pandemic is because the government bailed out public and private industries and individuals. So, money did not dry up, but the influx of cash caused prices to rise. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

Banks’ capital-to-asset ratios increased, especially in the United States of America, after the economic crises of 2008. As of the second half of 2023, the four major American Banks (Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo) were holding capital equal to about 10-12 percent of their outstanding loans versus 9 percent at the end of 2008. The ratio for the average EU banks rose from 5.9 percent at the end of 2007 to nearly 11 percent as of 2023. In 2023, the largest European banks registered combined net profits equal to about $3.2 billion. Profits were generated first of all in the major area of business: commercial, especially retail, banking operations. Lenders are checking borrowers more thoroughly and tightening lending criteria: Today’s major problem is not overlining, but rather a credit squeeze. Banks often refuse to lend even to quite reliable clients. The monitoring of mortgage loan recipients has been significantly strengthened, containing the lending expansion—and posing problems of an entirely different character: New home sales increased 4.1 percent in April 2023 compared with March and were up 12 percent compared with April 2022. The median priced home in California is nearly $1 million. However, the number of homes fell nearly 40 percent. Nationally, existing home sale prices declined nearly 1 percent to $375,700 in March compared to a year ago. Total existing-homes sales dipped 2.4 percent from February to March and are down 22 percent from a year ago. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

Rising mortgage rates seems to be slowing the demand for houses. However, lower priced homes on the market tend to have more than one offer. Yet, both conventional and government home purchase applications are down nearly 28 percent from last year’s pace. Home inventory is down nearly 50 percent from 1999 levels. The COVID crisis actually increased housing by 44 percent, from 2020 to 2022. Overall, Western financial capitalism and human capital are reassessing their mode of behavior, becoming more cautious and risk-conscious. The recession which many households believe is already here, has made many Western households more financially conservative than they used to be. They are not financially confident enough to be on big spending spree. Consumer net worth declined by 3 percent in 2022. This was the first time consumer net worth had declined since 2009. Consumer spending is down by 1 percent from this time last year, and credit card spending has rebounded robustly in 2022, with balances now largely back to prepandemic levels. Consumers continue to draw down excess savings, at an average of $88 billion monthly or 0.5 percent of annual consumer spending, since July 2022. Estimated excess savings are at $1.0 trillion as of March 2023, which is down 52 percent from the $2.2 trillion peak in August 2022. Support from excess savings is now approximately 20 percent of the growth in spending capacity. Western capitalism is trying to become more cautious, but prices of goods and services are so high that people are maxing out their credit cards and using up their savings. And for those who thought COVID was over, as of May 25, 2023, China is facing 40 million cases a week, and it is expected to peak at 65 million a week, which could slow the economy, cause a supply shock and create a recession sooner than expected. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

America and Europe are deeply in debt, and in America, a government shutdown is looming. The real estate market is hanging on by a thread. There is a conflict over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. If Congress refuses to raise it, it could force the government to shut down and risk default on its debts as soon as June 1, 2023. The federal government has had four shutdowns in 30 years. There has never been a default, that moment when the government cannot borrow money to pay its bills. This could slow down the residential real estate market, and the longer the shutdown lasts, the slower it will get. If the government defaults or shutdown, mortgage rates could go from 6.39 percent now for a 30-year fixed rate loan to 8.5 percent, or even higher—which would take many home buyers out of the market. The Fed funds rate is above 5 percent, which is the highest it has been in 15 year, and they may not be done raising rates. With rates no longer stimulating economic growth, each rate hike from here could have an even greater effect on the U.S.A. economy. They will meet in the middle of June 2023 to discuss the matter. Markets fear that defeating inflation means starting a recession. Economist are largely expecting a recession. Each rate hike for consumers means higher borrowing costs on credit cards, personal loans, and auto loan and more, and it will also drive up the costs of food, energy, fuel and other supplies. The odds of a recession for 2023 are at 64 percent, and the government possibly defaulting on its debt for the first time in history has investors spooked. The price for the unconventional stimulus policies of the crisis years is high, and the payment period will be long. Hard times have already come for many. Fed officials see inflation remaining elevated through at least 2024, after which it is projected to hit 2.1 percent by 2025.  #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

Even more than in the United States of America and Japan, the future of European power will depend on its “third leg”—its knowledge base. Measured by the number of Nobel Prizes and distinguished research laboratories and institutes, Western Europe had little to worry about. It has strength in nuclear energy, aerospace, and robotics, and stuck a hesitant toe into superconductor research. The EC, which long treated science and technology as a poor relative, has stepped up its funding, especially of cross-border research projects. Science and technology are “in.” Here again, Germany leads. West German scientists enjoy the largest R&D budgets in Europe, and hold 2.5 time as many U.S.A. patents as either the British or the French. Since 1984, West Germans have been on the Nobel Prize science list every year, for things like scanning-tunneling microscope or the quantum Hall effect. Yet Europe, including Germany, trails both Japan and America in the crucial fields of computers and information technology, notably chip manufactures and supercomputers. The recent failure of Nixdorf—once West Germany’s hottest computer firm—and its absorption by Siemens, along with the difficulties faced by Norsk Data in Norway and Phillips in Holland, underscore Europe’s embarrassing weakness in these fields. In the related field of telecommunications, progress is suffocated by the stubborn refusal of various national PTTs—the post office and telecom ministries—to give up their monopoly control. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

Meanwhile, bad as American schools are, Europe, too, has severe educational problems. Its school systems are overcentralized, formalistic, and rigid. And while Europe’s cultural exports are greater and more prestigious than those of Japan, Europe lags far behind the United States of America as an originator of emulated life styles, art, and popular culture. One may, of course, argue that Europe’s culture is aesthetically or morally superior to that of the United States of America, depending upon the criteria applied. However, in terms of national power in today’s fast-changing, video-drenched World, it is U.S.A. culture and popular culture that still make the running. Ideologically and intellectually, Western Europe’s prime postwar exports have been quasi-Marxist leftism and, for a time, existentialism, followed by structuralism and, more recently, semiology. These re now waning in the World intellectual market. In their place, however, Europe is now taking a strong lead in promoting a new political product. Europe’s main ideological export in the years immediately ahead will be a green version of social democracy. If not distorted and dominated by the ecological lunatic fringe, it is extremely important and could find immensely receptive markets in the United States of America, Japan, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. Finally, whereas Japan is steeped in future-consciousness, and America focuses on the “now,” Europe still heavily reviews history and projects into the future. If Western Europe devotes more drive to developing its knowledge base and to reconfiguring its military and integrating its economy, they are likely to retain status as World Superpower. So there will be a battle between America, Europe and China as to who will become the next Worlds Superpower! American cannot afford to be a wounded giant. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17