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

Cresleigh Homes

Welcome home! 🏡  The well-designed kitchen overlooks a bright casual dining area, and is highlighted by a large center island with breakfast bar, plenty of counter and cabinet space, and sizable walk-in pantry. 

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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

Very different from destructiveness are certain deeply buried archaic experiences that often appear to the modern observer as proofs for man’s innate destructiveness. Yet a closer analysis can show that while they result in destructive acts, their motivation is not the passion to destroy. We have focused on crimes against persons or property where there is an identifiable victim. Each of these crime types, ranging from homicide to burglary, fit under the head of malum in se offenses. The Latin phrase translates to “inherently bad or evil” acts. The serious felonies—murder, rape, robbery, burglary, arson, larceny—are classified as evil by their very nature. Even if they are not crimes under the law, killing another without justification or excuse, raping, robbing, burglarizing, and stealing are bad. Our focus will now be on those acts that fall under the heading of malum prohibitum offenses—acts that are deemed wrong by the law. These are the so-called victimless crimes that violate them norms or threaten the perceived moral well-being of society. Vice crimes such as prostitution, drug abuse, and gambling tend to be consensual acts perpetrated by consenting adults and produce no immediate harm to anyone other than the active participants. Clearly, conceptual schema such as vice crimes, public order crimes, or malum prohibitum offenses can include a broad and diverse array of law violations. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

Drug abuse violations, prostitution, gambling, liquor-law violations, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vandalism, and vagrancy are grouped together under the heading of public order crimes. Homosexual acts, traffic offenses, and exhibitionism are also added to the list by some typologies scholars. These are the most pervasive and well documented of the public order crimes and thus have accumulated the best systematic documentation from criminal justice experts. In the deepest layers of experience, one magically seizes upon the life-force itself by shedding blood. It cannot be denied that blood vengeance and criminal law, bad as they are, also have a certain social function in upholding social stability. It is notorious that real or alleged atrocities can ignite the most intense rage and vengefulness. By destroying the one who committed the atrocity his or her deed is magically undone, and it prevents others from committing similar heinous acts. If people were not punished for their crimes, then society would become uncivilized and no one would be safe. If law enforcement is not allowed to equally enforce the law, then they should be abolished. No one should be made a target, while others get away with crimes, and the one who has to defend one’s self is the only one held responsible by law. Vengeance may be said to be a magic reparation; but even assuming that is so, why is this desire for reparation so intense? Perhaps man is endowed with an elementary sense of justice; this may be because there is a deep-rooted sense of “existential equality.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

It is difficult to pinpoint uniform legal definitions of a given form of public order crime. Public standards regarding the criminality of public order offenses exhibit enormous variation across geographic areas. The instances of legalized prostitution or drug use (medicinal or personal use in small quantities) that exist within the United States of America or in other countries as evidence to this effect. Moreover, a sampling of the criminal codes of jurisdiction that criminalize vice offense reveals that there exists a great deal of disagreement over what physical (actus reus) and mental (mens reus) criteria should comprise the legal definition. As such, we find that traditional sources such as the Model Penal Code or criminal law textbooks provide us little guidance in defining the parameters of the discussion. The Uniform Crime Reports (FBI, 2023) provide some relief in this regard. The data collection instrument for the UCR affords public order offenses a Part II offense designation There are twenty plus offenses, ranging from weapons violations to public order crimes such as vandalism that re afforded such a designation. These crimes are deemed less serious than the Part I offense but still worthy of systematic inquiry. The FBI provides law enforcement authorities with a generic set of legal definitions to assist them when categorizing their crime data. The definitions are intentionally vague but provide us with a sound departure point from which to proceed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

Prostitution or commercialized vice is defined as sex offenses of a commercial nature, such as prostitution, keeping a bawdy house, procuring, or transporting women, men, or children for immoral purposes. Attempts are included. This definition encompasses acts or attempted acts of solicitation on the part of the prostitute and client (id est, john), as well as the acts of pandering, transporting, and facilitation on the part of the pimp or madam. These acts can manifest themselves in several generic forms including street prostitution, bar (“b-girls”) or hotel prostitution, illicit massage parlors, escort services, or brothel prostitution. The UCR defines drug abuse violations a state and/or local offenses relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, and manufacture of narcotics drugs. The following categories are specified: opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine, fentanyl); marijuana; synthetic narcotics—manufactured narcotics that can cause true addiction (Demerol, methadone); and dangerous nonnarcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine). Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Given their consensual nature (id est, victimless crimes), we cannot rely on victim reports (id est, National Crime Victimization Survey) for accurate data on the occurrence of public order crimes. The UCR represents the only national-level source of data on these crimes; and even this data source has its shortcomings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

The UCR treats all public order crimes as Part II offense. These offenses are viewed as less serious than the Part I offenses (murder, rape, et cetera) and result in the collection and release of far less detailed information—we are left with data on arrests and have no insight on the large number or reported offenses that go unsolved. This issue is particularly problematic for public order crimes because their consensual nature makes them prone to underreporting in the first place. Matters are further complicated by the fact that drug offenses in the first place. Matters are further complicated by the fact that drug offenses are processed at the federal level and thus beyond the reach of the UCR data. For data on federal offenses, we must turn to the Bureau of Justice Statistic’s annual report entitled, Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics. Every year in America, nearly 81,000 people are arrested from prostitution. Arrests trends reveal a sharp and steady increase from 1970 to 1983 (post WWII high of 125,600) and then steady decreases from that point through the end of the century. Given prostitution’s folklore status as the “world’s oldest profession,” one mut assume that the actual number of prostitution offenses is exponentially larger than indicated by arrests data. (However, agriculture has to be the World’s oldest profession. How else did Adam and Eve? They had to cultivate the Earth and farm.) #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Nonetheless, it is estimated that there may be as many as 500,000 male and female prostitutes working in the United States of America in a given year. The actual number of offenses that are perpetrated by these sex workers is surely staggering given the fact that sexual exchanges represent a primary source of income for these individuals. This necessitates that as many as 1.5 million persons frequent prostitutes, spending an estimated $7 to $9 billion each year. There appears to be some hard data to support these figures. Survey research efforts show that 45 percent of non-college-educated men and 35 percent of college-educated males admit to paying for sex at least once in their lives. Clearly, the prostitute and the client have a vested interest in avoiding law enforcement. By their own admission, law enforcement authorities often turn a blind eye to the problem. Given the above facts and figures, it is entirely possible that tens of millions of acts of prostitution occur in this country each year. The incidence numbers further expand when one turns the attention to drug crime. Annual arrests for unlawful possession, sale, use, growth, and/or manufacture of illicit drugs far surpass 2 million. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) relies on sophisticated stratified, multistage area probability sample and door-to-door visits of tens of thousands of citizens. It provides population estimates of the nonmedicinal and/or illicit use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products for persons over the age of 12. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

Approximately 40 percent (nearly 133 million Americans) had engaged in at least one lifetime episode of illicit drug use. Overall usage figures shrink to 11 percent (37 million) when the time interval is restricted to the past year and 7 percent (23 million) when the time interval is restricted to the past month. In terms of marijuana use alone, the report estimated that 34 percent or just under 113 million Americas, indicate at least one lifetime usage episode. What is more, 9 percent (30 million Americas) are estimated to have used marijuana at least once in 2022 and 5 percent 16.6 million were said to have used it in the past month. Drugs do not magically appear in the hands of wanton users. Instead, minor use and possession offenses are preceded by additional criminal acts (id est, manufacturing, transporting, and sales offenses). The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) estimates that there are roughly 1.1 million hardcore heroin users in America. The average hardcore users is said to spend $200 a week on heroin (id est, five to ten bags). It is estimated that these persons account for 70 percent to 80 percent of all street-level heroin purchases or 12 metric tons of pure heroin each year. It is staggering to think of the number of production, smuggling, dealing, and use-related crimes that must occur to maintain the heroin supply chain. The numbers grow exponentially when one examines the cocaine problem where we find 5 million hardcore cocaine users and 500 metric tons consumed in the United States of America each year. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

There were 107,375 drug-involved overdoses and drug poisoning deaths reported in the United States of America in the 12 month period ending in January 2022. A staggering 67 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Some of these deaths were attributed to fentanyl mixed with other illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, with many users unaware they were taking fentanyl. Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose; it is particularly dangerous for someone who does not have a tolerance to opioids. Even a nickel bad of marijuana can be deadly these days. It is a drug. It is not cool. Just because “everybody does it” does not make it right, nor mean that you should. Given their status as consensual and victimless crimes, we often overlook the social consequences that go along with public order cries. At first glance, it would appear that these crimes produce no real social costs. On the surface, the prostitute, john, pimp, drug smuggler, drug dealer, and/or drug user victimizes no one but him or herself; however, the matter is not so simple. In addition to representing moral transgressions, these crimes often generate significant public health concerns (id est, the spread of injury/disease, addictions and violent crime). Vast resources of the U.S.A. criminal justice system are deployed each year to pursue, apprehend, and punish public order offenders. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

Thus, when assessing the “social costs” of these crimes, officials often draw upon figures from the U.S.A. Department of State, Treasury, Education, Justice, Health, and Human Services, Veteran Affairs, and Transportation to broaden the scope of the issues to include the financial costs associated with the enforcement of laws, prevention and treatment efforts and lost income. It is estimated that the collective national drug control budget for the fiscal year 2022 was $39 billion. The federal government has enlisted more than a dozen federal agencies to address drug misuse and its effects. Alcohol and drug misuse and related disorders are major public health challenges that are taking an enormous toll on our society. Recently more than 27 million people in the United States of America reported that they are using illicit drugs or misusing prescription drugs, and nearly a quarter of adults and adolescents reported binge drinking in the past month. The annual economic impact of substance misuse is estimated to be $249 billion for alcohol misuse and $193 billion for illicit drug use. Americans are spending $150 billion to purchase illegal drugs each year, and this includes cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. The value of life lost due to overdose deaths was $480.7 billion. Opioid use disorder accounted for $471.0 billion. Almost $35 billion was spent on health care and opioid use disorder. There are other more alarming problems that stem from these offenses, most notably their tendency to generate violence and injuries. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

Drug use is directly and indirectly responsible for 11.8 million deaths each year. Smoking, alcohol and drug use is an important risk factor for early death: 11.4 million die prematurely as a result each year. Over 350,000 die from overdoses (alcohol and illicit drug use disorders) each year. A longitudinal study of heroin addicts revealed that nearly half had died before reaching the age of 60; and a study of intravenous drug users found one in five to be infected with HIV. In the United States of America, estimates suggested that Drug-related problems (DRPs) accounted for 17 million emergency department visits and 8.7 million hospital admission annually. When focusing more narrowly on violent crime victims, research shows that 40 percent of the persons admitted into the hospital claim that their attacker was high on drugs or alcohol when the crime took place. The situation was no better for prostitutes. Studies indicate that the violent victimizations are commonplace for street walkers. Even prostitutes who do not walk the streets are subject to a high level of violent victimization—it was found that nearly half of the 115 call girls surveyed had been victimized while on the job. An analysis of arrests statistics reveal that vice arrests nearly quadrupled over the past 20 of the twenty first century. In 2022, 2 million people were arrested from drug abuse violations, approximately 1.6 million were arrested for driving under the influence; 1.5 million arrested for simple assault, and 1.4 million arrested for larceny-thefts. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

The states with the most arrests in 2022 were Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana. Of course, California is the most populous state, but violent crime is still disproportionately high. The state is home to about 12 percent of the U.S.A. population, but is also the site of about 14 percent of all violent crimes. Despite a greater concentration of serious crimes, the state has a lower incarceration rate than most states. There are just 424 adults in California state and federal prisons for ever 100,000 residents 18 and over, below the 568 per 100,000 average across all states. The Uniform Crime Report reveals that public order arrest rates are much higher in urban areas than suburban or rural locales. For example, the urban arrest rate for drug crime was 629.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. This compares to rate of 446 in suburban areas and 390.8 in rural counties. The urban arrest rate for prostitution was 42.2 compared to 6.2 in suburban areas and 0.9 in rural communities. The considerations offered thus far seem to support the view that the passion for violence is so deep-seated that one must think of it as being present in all men. While it is indeed widespread, there are great differences in degree, up to the point that certain cultures and individuals seem to have only minimal traces of it. There must be factors that explain the difference. One such factor must be scarcity versus abundance. Also, there are people who have a thirst for violence, while others do not. Passivity of the mind can also be a factor. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

Passivity of the mind is a condition engendered by a wrong concept of the important place of the mind in the life surrendered to the ultimate concern: for obeying it. The ultimate concern likes people who have an educated mind. The greater the brain power, the great the use the ultimate concern can make of it, provided it is submissive to the truth. Ture, the cause of passivity of mind sometimes lies in the thought that the working of the intellect is a hinderance to the development of the divine life in the self-actualized. However, the fact is, that the non-working of the brain hinders, the psychopathic working of the brain hundgers, but the normal and pure working of the brain is essential and helpfyl for cooperation with the ultimate concern. The effect of passivity of the mind is usually seen in inactivity when there should be action, but it may also be seen in over-activity beyond control—as if a suddenly released instrument broke forth into ungovernable action. It can result also in hesitation, rashness, indecision, unwatchfulness, lack of concentration, lack of judgement, and bad memory. Passivity does not change the nature of a facuty but it hinders its normal operation. In the case of passivity hindering the memory, the person will be found looking outside onself for every possivle assistant to memory until one becomes a veritable slave to notebook and helps, which may fail at a critical moment. With this comes also passivity of the imagination, which places the imagination outside personal control and at the mercy of psychopaths who flash to it what they please One danger is to take these visions and call them “imaginations.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

The passive state can be produced without stooping to crystal gazing. “Crystal gazing” is the practice of starting into a crystal ball or similar object for a prolonged period; the natural vision is dulled, and deceiving spirits can then present anything to the mind. In pure inactivity of the mind, the mind can be used at the will of the person, but in psychopathological passivity of the mind the person is helpless, and one “cannot think!” As if one’s mind were bound and held by an iron band, one feels a weight or pressure on one’s head. Underlying self-creativity and growth is one of the structural polarities of being, the polarity of dynamics and form. Dynamics impels a formed reality to break out of its form, to go beyond itself, and to develop into a new reality. Form is the polar counterpart of dynamics. It makes the thing what it is, tends to keep it static, but then determines the new reality which emerges under the pressure of dynamics. The dynamics-form polarity is actualized in the life functions of growth (the non-spiritual dimension) and self-creativity (the spiritual dimension). However, the old form may stifle or the new form may not be reached, and so the whole creative process is subject to the ambiguity of destruction. The receptive function of culture is called theoria. Theoria is the act of looking at the encountered World in order to take something of it into the centered self as a meaningful, structured, whole. As an example, we can cite language: The word is the bearer of meaning; therefore, language is the first result of the self-creation of life under the dimension of spirit. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

The instruments of theoria are cognitive concepts and aesthetic images, each of which mirrors a fragment of the universe of meaning. The true and the beautiful are received through theoria which prolongs the grasping function of the word. However, as man’s spirit seizes reality, simultaneously he shapes it. Upon learning to speak, man fashioned tools. This primeval technical act is continued in the active function of culture termed praxis. Technology controls the World of nature, but praxis is the whole of cultural acts of centered personalities who as members of social groups act upon each other and themselves. Praxis operates in the personal-communal area and sees to procure individua and social good. Every cultural creation, whether it results from theoria or praxis, comprises three elements: subject matter (Inhalt), form (Form), and substance (Gehalt). The subject matter can be almost anything, but it is the form which is culturally decisive, in that form makes the creation what it is—an essay, a poem, or a law. Substance is described as the soil out of which a cultural creation grows. Substance is the underlying power of meaning, the ultimate concern which inspires the creative spirit and imparts significance to the cultural production. Subject matter is the accidental, substance is the essential, and form is the mediating element. Readers of George Herbert Mead will recall his distinction between the “me” and “I” phase of the self in personality development and social interaction. Looking at the elements of competence, three correspond roughly to the “me” phase and three to the “I” phase. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

Me: Intelligence, empathy, judgment. I: Health, autonomy, creativity. The former refer to the vested and organized experience of the community as incorporated within personal conduct; the latter, to the active, assertive, and emergent features of human behavior, not reducible to standard roles in conventional situations. However, while Mead, like Dewey, relied heavily upon biological explanation for the impulsive and unpredictable character of human development, it had nonetheless been his intention to show the emergence of novel identities within the process of interaction. The concepts of interpersonal autonomy and interpersonal creativity may help to complete his task. In any social act—any episode of interaction—all six capacities are and must be employed, though their prominence varies from phase to phase. The cultural anthropologists have offered many attempts to classify the full range of human culture. These range from the classic division into technology, social organization, and ideology through Lowie’s “universal pattern of culture” and Malinowski’s six-category analysis of institutions, to the extremely elaborate Yale cross-cultural index. It seems significant that the classical tripartite scheme can be detected underlying each of its more sophisticated successors. From quite a different angle, this old division seems to gain a vague additional warrant from Morris’ division of the study of meaningful verbal relationships into semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

Considering the fondness of Western thinkers for indicating completeness by schemes of three elements and opposition by schemes of two, it is difficult to distinguish chicken from egg in trying to account for the recurrence of such schemes, id est, do they describe reality, or is social reality not the precipitate of such linguistic constructions? Probably neither metaphysics nor intellectual history has to be called on for defense of either the number or order of the elements of competence, however intriguing it is to speculate about their resemblance to previous schemes. Health and intelligence refer to the factual World of physical events and overt experience; both principally afford rational and efficient manipulation of the objects of the environment. Empathy and autonomy, by contrast, have to do with the relationships of selves and others, not as objects, but as human subjects with whom each person is engaged in the plots of the human drama. Judgment and creativity refer to the symbolized realm of not-present relationships, to the extent that these can be distinguished from the social and instrumental realms of immediate experience. As mentioned in past reports, the six elements of competence (health, intelligence, empathy, autonomy, judgement, and creativity) were arrived at principally through reflection upon previous research and upon the observable content of interpersonal behavior, and not from play with hyper-abstractions. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

 If further abstraction, however, could demonstrate the completeness of a scheme that is made open-ended by the inclusion of creativity as its final element, then it would seem logical to suppose that our list of six would be lengthened by the addition only of subcategories, rather than by the addition of a seventh or eighth component. With regard to order, the list is thought to proceed from the most given to the least given features of any interpersonal performance. Also, as will be seen in ensuing reports, the order adopted is cognate with an order which appears not only empirically convenient in presenting types of family agencies and types of play, but also productive of further useful meditation about reciprocal implications. It would deprive the reader of some pleasant speculation to explore these exhaustively here; we prefer only to suggest the avenues which may be used to order and traverse the bast territory confronting us. It appears to us that a community which organizes its activity so that it maximizes the number of healthy, intelligent, self-directing citizens, capable of viewing situations from perspectives other than their own, of weighing alternatives and making decisions, of defining new goals and inventing ways of achieving them, is in fact a democratic community and is producing members who can sustain it against all more pessimistic theories of human nature and the social order. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Tomorrow’s Euro-army will sit on a gigantic economic base, the second leg of the power triad. Gross figures for the EC, even without adding its twelve members, are huge. With a population of 446.8 million inhabitants, it boats a gross national product of USD $16.6 trillion, America’s GDP is USD $23.32 trillion, and is nearly four times that of Japan’s USD $4.941 GDP, and is slightly less than China’s USD $17.73 trillion. In aggregate, the EC nations account for 20 percent of World trade, more than the U.S.A.’s 8.1 percent, and more than China’s 15 percent. As with military matters, Europe’s key financial decisions will once more be made in Berlin, in the German finance ministry and the Deutschebank, a dominance reflecting economic realities. Germany is the fourth largest economy in the World with a combined value of  $4.5 trillion, which is more than France’s economy of $2.94 trillion. West Europeans, led by France urge a stronger, tighter EC federation on the assumption that it will limit Germany’s freedom of action. However, the stronger and more centralized the EC itself becomes as it acquires a common currency and central bank and takes on the role of environmental policeman or policewoman, the stronger, not weaker, the influence of a combined Germany over the whole European apparatus. Germany established a special USD $106 billion fund to beef up the Bundeswehr. Germany has a military of nearly 200,000 soldiers. America has 482,416 active soldiers. China has 2 million active personnel and is the largest army in the World. Russia has a military of 147,000 men.  #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

The emergence of this Germano-centric system is, however, only part of an unfolding Ost-Strategie of breathtaking scope. For the emerging economic strategy being developed by governments and corporations in the EC is to take advantage of inexpensive labor in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and other East European countries and use it for low value-added mass production. The goods produced are not primarily for the East Europeans, but are intended for export to Western Europe. Smokestacks in the East, computers and consumer goods in the West—with a unified Germany acting now not merely as the core of the Western community, but as manager for this entire continental system. Execution of this broad economic strategy, which shifts hegemonic power over Eastern Europe from the Soviets to the West Europeans and Germans, will occupy the decades immediately ahead, and will be fraught with upsets and difficulties. This fast-crystallizing Ost-Strategie started beefing up after Russians invasion of Ukraine. There is also hopes that deals can be made with U.S.S.R. that will soften its resistance to the Germanization of the East. This will depend on internal politics within the Soviet Union, as well as on unpredictable events in China and Asia generally. Therefore, there is so much more to be worried about besides just climate change. There is a major power shift going on in the World. It is believed that China’s GDP will surpass America’s in 2035, and India will overtake U.S.A. economically by 2075. As a result, America needs to get their economy together and stop sending jobs overseas and buy America cars, meat, produce and more. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

The Ost-Strategie also presupposes tht the EC itself can deliver on its glowing promises for Western Europe—a 7 percent growth rate, and 5 million new jobs in the twelve member nations. More efficient production. Enhanced competitivity of World trade. Higher profits. Yet EC planning is still heavily premised on obsolete notions about economies of scale, which apply far more readily to smokestack manufacture than to advanced economies organized around information and service activities. Moreover, while the new system for wealth creation thrives on (and generates) heterogeneity, emphasizing customization and localization of production, segmentation of markets and de-massification of finance, of EC steamroller, despite rhetoric to the contrary, is intended to flatten out differences. The Eastern end of the strategy faces major problems as well. To begin with, it takes for granted political stability in the quasi-colonies. Yet the rush toward mass democracy, with parliaments and multiple parties, does not guarantee sausages or ham on the table. If desperate economic conditions do not significantly improve quickly, the infatuation with parliaments, parties, and voting could degenerate into chaos, charges of corruption, extraparliamentary terrorism, and a return before World War II—perhaps with the support of foreign investors for whom stability and order is a paramount requirement. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

After the initial euphoria about capital from the West, Eastern Europeans, on the morning after, will increasingly resent their new-style colonial status. Resentment will boil over into resistance. Economic scarcity will be blamed on foreign investors, “imperialists,” and local scapegoats. Initial emergency loans will be followed by further emergency loans to keep the economies afloat. Down the line will come demands for loan-repayment moratoria and cancelations. Even if none of this comes to pass, the root assumption of the Ost-Strategie, the importance of inexpensive labor, needs to be severely questioned. Inexpensive labor, as we have seen, is now increasingly expensive. With labor costs declining as a component of total cost, the savings will be minimal except in the most backward industries. Similarly, as we have seen, slow economies cannot plug into fast economies easily. In Poland, until recently, it could take a month to six weeks merely to transfer funds from one bank to another. The entire Eastern metabolism is slower than that required by the West, and its electronic infrastructure is virtually nonexistent. All this will make the Ost-Strategie more costly than it would appear. Finally, if a significant amount of smokestack work is actually transferred to the East, West European governments can expect increased pressure from their own blue-collar trade unions, increased demands for social benefits and protectionism at home. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

In Germany, in particular, this implies growing support for the political opposition. Like the neo-Nazi right, Social Democrats will sound nationalist themes in attacking the transfer of jobs to “non-Germans” who work for less than union wages. Greens, meanwhile, will oppose the transfer of pollution to a region that is already one of the most pollute to a region tht is already one of the most polluted on Earth. Should a Social Democrats fear its impact on employment, and the Greens are larded with Luddites and technophobes. A European Bank for Reconstruction Development has been created with funds supplied by many Western nations and Japan. Under the innovative leadership of Jacques Attali, the EBRD could lay down key beachheads for technological and economic advance in Eastern Europe. However, it will not be so easy. Commercial and political ardor for the Ost-Strategie will therefore cool in the coming decade as Europe’s deep problems begin to emerge. Europe has enormous wealth, but—so far—a questionable strategy for how to use it. In America, the state is strengthening regulations and oversight of financial institutions, making steps to contain disruptive financial gambling. Transactions with structured products have been put under stricter control than before. Lessons from the 2008 financial crisis can provide insights for achieving a low-carbon recovery after the COVID-19 crisis, and specific measures have been proposed, for example, setting electricity consumption standards for infrastructure projects to reduce electricity consumption induced by the fixed capital formation, and attaching energy efficiency labels and carbon footprint labels to metal products (exempli gratia, iron and steel, aluminum and fabricated metal products), large quantities of which are used for fixed capital information. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

The breakout of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in December 2019 caused great damage to the global economy, leading to the deepest recession since World War II.  We are still going through the aftermath of the actions taken to avoid total economic catastrophe: The Federal Reserve saved the bond market, and the federal government doled out trillions in spending to keep American households afloat while their economy was locked down. These measures avoided severe injury to the economy, but the Fed has only just begun to deal with the historic levels of inflation. There are also growing fears of another recession on the horizon. The COVID Recession taught people to anticipate recessions. If you have been watching the market since around 1996, you will notice that there tends to be a recession every 5 to 10 years, and the reasons vary from bad investments, supply shock, war, outsourcing, terrorism, pandemics and possibly even elections. With current geopolitical tensions, energy market imbalances, persistently high inflation, rising interest rates and power shifts, people fear a recession, but it is no reason to panic. Many companies are discouraged from taking on debt to invest in expanding their businesses because of high interest rates. Elevated rates also reduce consumer spending, easing demand pressures that have contributed to rising prices. However, inflation and rising interest rates have not yet dragged the U.S.A. economy into the red. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

 In addition to modest first-quarter GDP growth, the U.S.A. added 236,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate remains historically low at just 3.5 percent. However, investors should continue to monitor the labor market s interest rates rise. The probability that a recession will happen within the next 12 months is about 99 percent. The banking crisis has increased the risk of recession Concerns about financial stability could force the Fed to drop its inflation-fighting efforts prematurely. However, others maintain that there is only a 35 percent chance of a recession in 12 month, but even that was revised upward from the bank’s 25 percent figure in light of the banking upheaval. Tightening credit conditions could be the main factor that may push the economy to contract. So, it may actually be a good time to buy  house, as long as your employment is secure and recession proof because when lending requirements become more stringent, one may not qualify for a loan, but holding off on a house could give one more time to save and pay off some debt. If the federal reserve hies interest rates two or even three more times as the banking turmoil in the United States of America and Europe cause credit conditions to tighten significantly, the will send the U.S.A. into a recession within the next few months. The red-hot labor market would loosen quickly, and layoffs would be widespread. If the recession does not happen this summer, then there is  30 percent chance it will happen in the second half of 2024, but people think with prices being so high on consumer goods and services, it may happen before Christmas, but there is only a 50 percent chance—depending on who you ask. It sounds inevitable. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

Only man seems to take pleasure in destroying life without any reason or purpose other than that of destroying. To put it more generally, only man appears to be destructive beyond the aim of defense or attaining what he needs. Man’s destructiveness and cruelty cannot be explained in terms of terrestrial heredity or in terms of a destructive instinct, but must be understood on the basis of those factors by which man differs from any other creature on Earth. Two-thirds of the offenders interviewed could provide confident estimates of the number of vehicles they were stealing per week on average over the course of the year prior to being incarcerated. Excluding the three most prolific offenders and the four expressing minimal auto theft involvement, this sample of persistent young offenders claimed to have stolen almost three vehicles a week prior to their incarceration. These self-reported figures are consistent with other yearly automobile stealing figures reported by high involvement offenders. If the total number of autos reported stolen by this small sample of juveniles were halved to allow for a good deal of bragging and less automobile stealing levels for some portion of the year, it would still account for approximately 7 percent of the automobile thefts known to police in America, or roughly 3 million in direct costs. Offenders’ perceptions of deterrence was gauged in two areas—the prospects of target hardening (alarms, steering wheel and ignition locks, et cetera) and how they viewed the criminal justice system’s response to their offending. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Notwithstanding the possibility of functional displacement in the form of “car-jacking,” or displacement to less protected vehicles, target-hardening appears, on the basis of interviews with these offenders, the best prospect for reducing automobile theft. If the car is equipped with an alarm, or an alarm goes off while attempting to steal a car, 75 percent of offenders said they avoid these cars. Few had encountered many mechanical anti-theft devices such as the “Club;” however, 66 percent said they would avoid a care equipped with such a device. Several offenders expressed their dislike of being encumbered with special tools needed to defeat anti-theft devices: “It’s easy to get a car [equipped] with a “club”…you can saw through the steering wheel in 30 seconds, but it’s too big of a heat score carrying around a gym back with a hacksaw…Why go through all the hassle when you can just steal another one with a pen knife?” (17-year-old.) The findings offer little encouragement for the deterrent value of the Combat Auto Theft (CAT) sticker program as intended. The CAT program attempts to assist police in the identification of stolen autos by having owners who do not routinely operate their vehicles between the hours of 1.00 and 5.00 AM place a brightly colored sticker of the inside of the rear window where it is visible to patrolling police officers. Among other things, the sticker grants police blanket permission to stop and search a vehicle bearing this sticker whenever it is observed in operation during the proscribed hours. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Only three offenders correctly identifying a CAT sticker said they would avoid a car so marked. The majority of offenders believed the sticker indicated the car was equipped with an alarm, so presumably, three-quarters of these young offenders would avoid cars marked with CAT stickers in order to avoid the assumed alarms. The rest of the offenders did not recognize the CAT sticker as a police signaling device and said the presence of the stickers on a car would not influence their automobile stealing decisions. Because the majority of offenders believe the CAT sticker indicative of an alarmed car that most said they would avoid it, it may be advantageous for the true nature of the CAT sticker to remain obscure. If more offenders knew what the sticker signifies, they might be more inclined to promptly peel them off once they gain entry to a vehicle so marked. On average, offenders in this sample stole their first vehicle at age 13, and were passengers in stolen cars an average of two and a half times prior to their first theft. Nearly a quarter of the sample identified auto theft as a “starter crime” leading to their involvement in other crimes. Sixteen percent indicated that they had curtailed burglary in favor of auto theft in the last year as “judges are getting tougher on B&Es.” Several articulated a perception that they stood less chance of being incarcerated for automobile theft: “I told my friends they were stupid for doing robberies…I’d make $500-$2000 a pop [for a stolen car]; they got chump change…If I get caught I may get a month or two, they’re gonna get 18.” (15-year-old.) #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

On Evading the Police Offenders were aware of the policy constraints under which police operate and expressed an eagerness to exploit them: “[c]ops pull their guns out but I know they can’t shoot at me for joyriding” (14-year-old); “We can drive anyway we want…up on the sidewalk, down a one-way street, cops have to obey the rules…police can’t wreck cars so they won’t follow you in the bush.” (15-year-old.) The heat [police] won’t chase you during the day when there’s a lot of traffic cause they’ll get sued if they hit someone.” (17-year-old.) “I never use the middle lane during rush hour because that where cops have to go get it while you are running the other way. They can’t use dogs on you if it is only a stolen car.” (15-year-old.) “If they get you in the car they got you. If you get away from the scene they’ve got nothing.” (16-year-old.) Keep in mind that these are just the opinions of teenage offenders and may not be facts. On Evading Punishment More than half of the sample was confident of prevailing in court once charged, and almost 60 percent said they did not worry about being punished by the court. Consistent with other findings regarding persistent property offenders’ perceptions that offenses resulting in probation are “free crimes,” young offenders in this sample were nearly unanimous about the uselessness of probation. Virtually all the offenders characterized it’s a “joke.” They did not abide by the conditions, especially the curfew imposed, and no one every checked up on them: “It’s a joke! I’m going up for bench [probation violation] for the first time since age 12…I never obeyed.” (15-year-old.) #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Reflecting on his involvement in automobile theft, another 15-year-old remarked: “I think it’s pretty much worth it. I’ve only spent two and a half months in jail and I have gotten away with hundreds [of automobile thefts].” Many respondents identified the leniency of the juvenile system as a factor in their offending, though several expressed the view that a more punitive criminal justice system would not make a difference in their offending. While several offenders displayed an obvious lack of moral development, for example indicating that they thought it was great that lawyers work to get them off even when they committed the offense charged, most possessed a sense of the unique position in which the adolescent finds himself in Western society, hinting that they were involved in crime because they could do so without much repercussion. Q: Did you ever think about getting punished by the court? A: No, it was worth the risk…nothing happens…you get community hours or probation…I never abide by my curfew. (17-year-old.) Q: What do you think about getting probation? A: It’s a joke…for four car thefts, a B&E and three breaches, I got seven days in closed custody, most charges were dropped. The juvenile system doesn’t’ scare anyone, it just bores people to death…coming in here means nothing to me. (17-year-old.) #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Many of the young offenders in this study asserted that they did not consider the consequences of their actions, however this appears to be mostly situational. Based on our interviews, it becomes evident that many offenders do weigh the costs and benefits of their actions and conclude that crime is worth pursuing so long as their young offender status insulates them from what they themselves would see as meaningful sanctions. The obvious conclusions to be drawn from these findings involve the use of target hardening technology, including alarms, and steering wheel and ignition locks, and increased likelihood and severity of punishment. Consistent with the findings in the burglary study, the extra time and “hassle” required to overcome locks and alarms often discourages young, nonprofessional criminals. And, as many of the young offenders stated, the relative lack of punishment due to their status as juveniles encourages many to engage in offenses which they otherwise might not. These destructive explosions are not spontaneous in the sense that they break out without any reason. There are always external conditions that stimulate them, such as a need for money, coming from an abusive homes, poverty, extreme boredom, and insignificance of the individual. There are subjective reasons: group peer pressure, a certain predisposition to crime, lack of authority. It is not human nature that makes a sudden appearance, but the destructive potential that is fostered by certain permanent conditions and mobilized by sudden traumatic events. Without these provoking factors, the destructive energies in these populations seem to be formant, and not as with the destructive character, a constantly flowing source of energy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Each of the component aspects of competence in interpersonal relations can be considerably elaborated and investigated. The decision as to how far to go in any particular instance depends on the particular project in mind and the amount of resources available. Here it is deemed suitable only to outline roughly a recognizable conceptual definition of each component, and not to attempt operational definition or the construction of any measures. We can then go on to consider some hypotheses about the purposeful development of each of the six components of competence. Health—In this component we include much more than mere absence of disease. Rather it signifies the progressive maximization—within organic limits—of the ability of the organism to exercise all of its physiological functions, and to achieve its maximum of sensory acuity, strength, energy, co-ordination, dexterity, endurance, recuperative power, and immunity. A popular synonym is “good physical condition.” In some medical research circles, there is, in this positive sense, considerable discussion of the better operational criteria of health to take the place of such crude indices as, for example, gain in weight among children. Research in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine has been finding not only that sexual competence and fertility depend on psychosocial development, but also physical health in general. However, the relationship runs in both directions. Without good health, interpersonal episodes often diverge in outcome from wanted ends. Fatigue is a common example of this. While it can be and often is a symptom of complications in living, with certain other people it may also originate new difficulties. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

The overworked mother will lose her patience unless her reserve of energy, her ruggedness of physique, can carry her through the critical periods. The ailing person of either gender may find one’s dependence is not only a burden to others but means that one cannot complete the tasks that one formerly could. Endurance of strain makes physical demands, but the capacity to bear strain is not a constant; it can be cultivated in advance of its use. A striking example is the frequent recovery from despair and breakdown of interpersonal relations through vacation and rest, hygiene and recreation. On the beneficial, nontherapeutic side—in terms of optimal development—a benevolent spiral seems to extend from radiant health to a cheerful mien, from a cheerful mien to a friendly response, and back again to competence. The physiological substrates of interpersonal acts have been little studied within each social context; the body-mind dualism lingers on in the choice of research problems; by treating health as an element of competence, fresh possibilities arise, for the physiologist as well as the social psychologist. Efficient criteria of health which are appropriate to the various development periods are needed, and so are economical devices for measuring these criteria. Also needed are hypotheses where the health component is regarded as a consequent as well as an antecedent, and finally there should be programs to test these hypotheses. Such hypotheses can of course range over the entire social, biological, and physical environment. For purposes of this report, we limit our definition of the field to the relation of families or quasi-families to the development and maintenance of this component of competence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Intelligence—Since this component has been studied continuously and widely for over two generations, it would be presumptuous to elaborate upon it here. Scope of perception of relationships among events; the capacity to abstract and symbolize experience, to manipulate the symbols into meaningful generalizations, and to be articulate in communication; skill in mobilizing the resources of environment and experience in the services of a variety of goals; these are the kinds of capacities included in this category. It is significant that the construction of measures of intelligence is as controversial as ever, and that in any particular research project, the appropriateness and validity of the measure adopted is always a question of judgement. The research implications of this component are toward appraisals of the findings of past research within the competence frame of reference and the design of research to fill the gaps in relevant knowledge. Of special interest will be the study of the interrelations of this component with others we list. In the planning-action context, the most promising line will be the appraisal of the effectiveness of present programs in creating the relevant antecedent conditions for maximizing the intelligence component, and the design of new sets of conditions which will strengthen or replace those currently operative. The conception of intelligence as a variable subject to planned development is exemplified in certain previous research studies, and a number of ambitious experimental programs of action, exempli gratia, the X. G. project of the New York City public schools. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

Health and intelligence have been far less often assumed to be variables subject to change through experimental programs than the remaining components of competence, yet they are no less psychosocial in their development. Research and action in respect to the following four components of competence may be less hampered by the weight of previous assumptions. Empathy—People appear to differ in their ability correctly to interpret the attitudes and intentions of others, in the accuracy with which they can perceive situations from others’ standpoint, and thus anticipate and predict their behavior. This type of social sensitivity rests on what we call the empathic responses. Empathic responses are basic to “taking the role of the other” and hence to social interaction and the communicative processes upon which rests social integration. They are central in the development of the social self and the capacity for self-conscious behavior. No human association, and least of all democratic society, is possible without the processes indicated by this term. For this reason, we must include empathic capacity as one of the essential components of interpersonal competence. The sign of its absence is misunderstanding; to measure its presence in the beneficial sense is a task now being attempted by a few investigators. The kind of interaction experienced in the family as well as in other groups appears to depend heavily upon the degree to which empathic capacity develops, but experimental research on fluctuations in this element of competence has hardly begun. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

This lack in research is paralleled by a lack of explicit programs in action agencies aimed at the development of this type of skill. Yet it is so fundamental to social life of every kind that some social psychologists have come close to defining their field as the study of empathy. Autonomy—In the conception of the competent personality which we are defining in terms of its components, one essential element is perhaps best denoted by the word “autonomy,” though the ordinary usage of the term does not include all the significance we shall assign to it here. Our present referents, expressed as aspects, are: the clarity of the individual’s conception of self (identity); the extent to which one maintains a stable set of internal standards and self-controlled in one’s actions; one’s confidence in and reliance upon oneself; the degree of self-respect one maintains; and the capacity for recognizing real threats to self and of mobilizing realistic defenses when so threatened. That is, autonomy is taken to be genuine self-government, construed as an ability, not a state of affairs. A narrower definition, close to operational, is ease in giving and receiving evaluations of self and others. The attempts to deal with autonomy has been growing steadily, but the process of making clearer what is meant by this term (or its near-equivalents like ego-strength and integrity) had as yet produced no satisfactory agreement upon its referents. Autonomy may be considered as a trait, or as a value, or perhaps as a set of rules for behavior, and it could also be a highly subjective, desired of affairs. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

If definition is sought for autonomy, in terms of an acquired ability for handling those kinds of problematic interpersonal situations, where self-esteem is threatened or challenged, we believe that progress in definition and measurement of this obviously very important, though subtle complex, will come most rapidly. Judgement—While critical judgment has long been understood to be acquired slowly with experience, more or less according to age, its operational definition and measurement is still a difficult task. Certain of the educational psychologists have perhaps gone furthest in differentiating this ability from intelligence, and in analyzing the conditions by which an educational or other agency may cultivate judgment among its pupils. Judgment refers here to the ability which develops slowly in human beings to estimate and evaluate the meaning and consequences to one’s self of alternative lines of conduct. It means the ability to adjudicate among value, or to make correct decisions; the index of lack of judgment (bad judgment) is mistakes, but these are the products of an antecedent process, in which skills is the important variable. Obviously neither small children nor incapacitated adults can make sound decisions in the sense indicated; and it is equally obvious that among normal adults there is wide variation in this ability. Some persons acquire reputations for usually good judgment, and some others become conspicuous for the opposite. It is therefore highly proper to conceive of judgment as an acquired critical ability differing in degree among individuals. #RandolphHarris 12 or 20

Currently among several of the social sciences, though notably in economics, the study of decision-making and of value-choices is receiving much emphasis. Generally speaking, however, the various studies and seminars under way focus upon the outcome or the product of this process—upon ethics, logic, or some highly abstract calculus of contingencies and relative utilities; rarely do they focus upon the choosers, their identities, and the conditions under which their critical abilities develop. A thoroughly interpersonal concept of judgment, appropriate for studying its development, probably therefore must include the skill involved in getting others to be reasonable in discussion, and to handle criticism in a way that utilizes its value. Creativity—This component is perhaps the least amenable to precise definition and division into manageable variables which can be measured. It is ironical that the so-called tough-minded scientists and hard-headed practical people are inclined to look askance at this category as a proper object of scientific study, and yet all of these people demand appraisals of this quality in prospective associates on whom heavy responsibility for leadership and initiative will fall. The idea of creativity is commonly associated with artistic and intellectual activities. We define it here as any demonstrated capacity for innovations in behavior or real reconstruction of any aspect of the social environment. It involves the ability to develop fresh perspectives from which to view all accepted routines and to make novel combinations of ideas and objects and so define new goals, endowing old ones with fresh meaning, and inventing means for their realization. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

In interpersonal relations, it is the ability to invent or improvise new roles or alternative lines of action in problematic situations, and to evoke such behavior in others. Among other things it seems to involve curiosity, self-confidence, something of the venturesomeness and risk-taking tendencies of the explorer, a flexible mind with the kind of freedom which permits the orientation of spontaneous play. While this is a none too satisfactory delineation of creativity, we can begin here and invite help in the search for a more satisfying one. In interpersonal relations, the uncreative person is continually found in dilemmas and impasses—“at his wits’ end”—but the valid indices of creativity are harder to discover. Rigidity obtrudes upon attention more than flexibility, for obvious reasons, but that is not to say it deserves more scientific attention. The religio-cultural relationship is culture, and there is a union between the two. The juncture is achieved in theonomous culture, a culture in which religion is profoundly operative. Theonomy is a solution to the structural unity of religion and culture. Man has a “head” which is religion and a “body” which is cultural form. The head has already been drawn. However, the complete sketching of the important data about culture entails: its definition, functions and elements, cultural style, and cultural types. After the universal extension of religion as ultimate concern, it is not that culture is the realm of spirit. There it is the conditioned forms of meaning while religion looks to unconditioned meaning. Culture is the medium of the unconditioned in the life of the spirit, just as things are the medium of the unconditioned in the World. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Cultural areas reveal the vast range of human activities which are grouped under the term “culture”: science, technology, art, philosophy, law, economics, politics, morality, personal and social life. Consequently, this definition of culture must be elastic and comprehensive Culture is the self-creativity of life under the dimension of spirit. Culture creates “a universe of meaning” as it actualizes the potentiality of the human spirit. Man, the microcosm, is the point at which and the instrument through which a universe of meaning is actualized. The macrocosm, the universe of being, is fulfilled as a universe of meaning at least in an anticipatory and fragmentary fashion through man’s cultural creativity. The German Kultur refers primarily to the fulfilment of man and nature under the drive of the human spirit, while the French culture denotes the characteristics of an educated person who possesses good taste, critical sense, and sound judgment. The English “culture” regularly takes on either meaning according to the context. Kultur’s, English equivalent is perhaps more accurately defines as “civilization.” What we have in view when we deal with Christ and culture is that total process of human activity and tht total result of such activity to which now the name culture, now the name civilization, is applied in common speech. Culture is the artificial, secondary environment, which man superimposes on the natural. It comprises language, habits, ideas, beliefs, customs, social organization, inherited artifacts, technical processes, and values. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

In a word, culture is the spiritual creativity manifest in every area of human life and institutions. The truth to be emphasized is that the ultimate concern never wills INSTEAD of man, and whatever a man does, he is himself responsible for his actions. The believer whose will has become passive finds, after a time, the greatest difficulty in making decisions of any kind, and he looks outside and all around him for something to help him in deciding the smallest matters. Should he become aware of his passive conditions, it is because he has a painful sense of being unable to meet some of the situations or ordinary life. If spoke to, he can hardly listen till a sentence is completed. If asked to judge a matter, he knows he cannot do it. Should he be required to utilize his imagination, he knows he is unable to. He becomes terrified at any proposed course of action where these demands may present themselves. The tactic of the enemy will now be to drive him into situations where these demands will be made, and thus torture or embarrass him before others. Little does the confused believer realize that in this condition he may, unknowingly, rely upon the assistance of evil spirits—the deceivers who have led him into passivity for this very purpose. His unused volitional faculty lies dormant and dead in their grip, but if used it is an occasion for them to manifest themselves through it. They are only too ready to will instead of the man. They will put within his reach many “supernatural” props to help him in any decision—especially Christian Bible texts used apart from their context and “miraculously” given—which the believer, seeking so longingly to do the will of the ultimate concern, seized upon, and firmly grasps as a drowning man does a rope. By this apparently “divinely given” help he is further blinded to the principle that the ultimate concern only works through the active volition of a man, and not instead of him in matters requiring his action. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

In the wake of the crisis, the end of capitalism became a popular theme with Western politicians, economists, journalists, and the general public. As the governments were bailing out and nationalizing leading banks, insurance companies, and even some manufacturing firms, there was a lot of argument about the growing economic role of the state and the need to strengthen it in the longer term. However, this anticapitalist rhetoric had no sound conceptual basis and began to fade as soon as Western economics started recovering. There is no medium- or long-term trend toward increasing state involvement in economic activities. The main pillars of the Western capitalist system: private companies as dominant players, market-based resource allocation, profit maximization as the major goal of company management, and market prices freely set by producers depending on supply and demand, remain intact. The government bailouts and nationalizations of the past were a temporary step, an emergency rescue operation. As targeted financial institutions and companies were restructured and put back on track, they were again sold out to private investors, and the state was even making profit on it. Government loans were also repaid. Much of the USD $700 billion fund, established by the U.S.A. government to help ailing banks, AIG, GM, and Chrysler, was not actually disbursed. According to the Government Accountability Office, about $385 billion in cash had been handed out as of September 30, 2010, and almost $204 billion had been paid back. The fund made $28 billion on interest, dividends, and profit on investments. About $180 billion was outstanding. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

During the 2008 financial crisis, a rescue package of $182 billion was received by AIG through a combined loan from the Federal Reserve and Treasury, which resulted in a profit of $22.7 billion. The Treasury realized a positive return of $5.0 billion and the Federal Reserve realized a profit of $17.7 billion. Citigroup received the most federal funding during the financial crisis for a total of $476.2 billion in cash and guarantees. However, when the U.S.A. government sold off its remaining shares in Citigroup, along with the money they repaid, the U.S.A. government made a profit of $12 billion. The rescue schemes, after all, for the most part, turned out to be more of a commercial operation than a donation from state coffers. In this sense, the government deserves credit. Yes, Western capitalism failed. However, these structural problems within its own systemic framework are being addressed, especially after the 2020 COVID crisis. All the major parties involved—the state, financial institutions, and households—are trying to improve and act in a more reasonable way. They have no other choice. Western capitalism is still alive. The conflict within the capitalist World will intensity as Japan’s ambitions collide with those of the other main players, the United States of America and Europe, calling to mind these lines written on August 23, 1915: “A United States of Europe is possible…but to what end? Only for the purpose of suppressing socialism in Europe, of jointly protecting…booty against Japan and America.” Their author was an obscure revolutionary named Vladimir Illich Lenin, not yet the master of the Soviet Union. What would he name today’s events? #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Like the crack-up of communism, the rush to European integration was triggered by the arrival of the Third Wave, with its new system of wealth creation. Integration was the political response to the necessity of moving from an industrial to a post-industrial society. An enormous economic boom was forecasted for Europe, the market economy was extended to Eastern Europe. But the picture is not quite so rosy. The collapse of Marxist-Leninist governments in Easter Europe has given their people a taste of freedom and a whiff of hope. But it also changed the terms of the three-way struggle between Europe, the United States of America, and Japan, creates a power vacuum, and launches Western Europe on a new, unexpected strategy. However, the war in Ukraine has causes thousands of deaths and also major economic damages globally. The Russian rouble has lost half its value and inflation is soaring. Moscow’s stock exchange closed. Many international companies, like Ikea, McDonalds, Visa and MasterCard have left the country. And the Russian economy has shrank by 15 percent. Weakened and isolated, Russia risks becoming very dependent on China in the future, which is setting up China as a superpower because even the United States of America is relying on China. If the United States of America and other countries do not balance their budgets without borrowing, it seems not before long, China will end up taking over the World. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Because of the war in Ukraine, we are also seeing significant effects in Europe, with energy and other prices rising and probably set to continue to do so. Inside the EU, people have to accept to pay also a price to stop this war: the future of their security and democracies depend on it. The price to pay is the price of freedom. The war in Ukraine is a third asymmetric shock that the World has experiences in the last two decades after the 2008 financial and economic crisis and the following Eurozone crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. Many countries around the World are also experiencing another crisis due to the influx of refugees and fuel, energy, food, housing, and transportation costs. Many countries need to stop buying fuel from governments they consider their enemies, but the push for electric cars will just make governments around the World more dependent on China, who is already excelling and spreading their dominance globally, which leads many people to believe that China influenced American election because democrats think Green Energy is God, but ulterior motive is that it makes American more reliant on China for money and energy which will help improve their economy and allow them to have more control in American politics and culture and development, which will usher them in as the new World power. However, many people seem to forget about Germany. The merged German military has more power than it did in the past. Germany will, so to speak, call the shots in any Euro-military. For all Washington’s constant carping about European reluctance to “share the burden” of defense, the New Europe is now a major military power all by itself. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20