This is the beginning of a series of threads dealing with why people do what they do that relates to the tragic passing of Kyara Guidry and Mark’s video “How Childhood Trauma Destroys Us.” I talked with Mark and he expressed interest in different thinking on people’s motivations for changing to behaviors that are known to be self-destructive. I cannot answer questions dealing with Kyara’s thinking, but I can present information about approaches for overcoming common social challenges that Americans can think about.
First, consider a common social improvement opportunity. Our people need to think about social abstractions instead of physical things. When I was six years old, my parents first telephone was a wooden box that hung on the wall. Cranking a handle was required to create electrical power to make a call. In my life time we have advanced from telephones made of wood with physical wire connections to little plastic things with which we can talk with people all over the world through the air.
But during the same many years, our society has continued to struggle with the same social problems that existed when I was six. We have made improvements in some areas, but we have also created social problems that did not exist previously. Watch the first two and a half minutes of Mark’s original interview with Wayne Slappy. Wayne mentioned life in the New Jersey projects before and after drugs became an issue. Life was good and then life was bad.
Typical American thinking focuses on the physical drugs, but no one asks why society changed in the same place, in the same physical buildings, involving the same people. “Why” is the most neglected word in our language and thinking. Drugs and violence with weapons were not problems when I was six. But no one asks why or attempts to identify the abstract social dynamics that brought about negative changes 17 years later.
Second, consider another social improvement opportunity. Americans view and think about events as isolated occurrences. We do not think of our society as a dynamic, interrelated social whole. For more than 400 years we have ignored John Donne’s message. Dealing with society is much like playing chess. What looks like a great move, may, in the long run, lead to defeat. What looks like a small well-meaning change in society can eventually cause greater negatives than the original small problem.
Events like Kyara’s tragic passing happen every day in our nation. Investigations into the why these common events occur could lead us to reducing the number of times the bell rings. Because of our interconnected social world, the bell rings for the drug victim, but it also tolls for us all.
6/24/2025 - I plan to post one of these messages each week for your thoughtful consideration. Number one of ?????.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
John Donne - 1623
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Not to sound rude, but who are you, Joseph L. Bass? How are you involved with Mark's Soft White Underbelly? Maybe I missed the memo? 😁

Who I am is of no importance. Think about my messages, not the messenger.

I guess we need to forget my stated plan for only posting one message a week. I got carried away and posted a total of seven in nine days. More will come after the Fourth holiday.