SPDF vlog Day 31: Paragons of mental health, who are they? Martin Luther Kin Jr., Malala, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Malcom X, Oscar Romero.....

Paragons of mental health, who are they?  Martin Luther Kin Jr., Malala, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Malcom X, Oscar Romero, the young people in Tahrir Square several years ago, some of the soldiers who have stood against war such as the Vietnam War war or the war on Iraq and Afghanistan and surely the soldiers in Israel that are standing against israel's barbarity on the Palestinians. 

The greatest of all of the formal psychologists Alford Adler said that health, the healthy choice, tends to lie in the direction of courage.  For him the hallmark of health was a social interest.

The greatest psychologist of all in that the truth of his insights have had a greater impact on humanity than the insights of anyone else, I'm referring to Jesus, his core notion was universal family, one Father making us all brothers, and his life and words commanded us to go and live our lives accordingly.  Lay down your life for your brother.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the flock.  As you do unto the least of these you do unto me.  Whoever would hold onto his life shall lose it, whoever would lose his life shall gain it.  Love as I have loved, and of course he ran into the arms of death.  King ran into the arms of death, as did Malala as did Gandhi, as did Malcom X. 

Only the most twisted would perceive that they had a death wish, that they wanted to die, that they wanted to be Martyrs, whatever that means.  And today it means some sort of twisted slender.  They wanted to ransom and redeem their suffering brothers and sisters.

For all intents and purposes there is only one way for the human being to get what they want and that is to pay the price for it.  The ultimate price that anyone can pay, and therefore the ultimate power that any individual has to affect what they want to affect.  Is their life, paying their life is the ultimate price they can pay for the ultimate value that they want. 

As Dr. King said so often and so many different ways, the person who does not know what they would die for is not equipped to live.

Whoever thinks that their own life is their ultimate value is already dead.  All of the individuals I mentioned lived, live, accordingly by whatever belief they might have.  They live accordingly because this is the law of our DNA, it is what is written in our DNA because it was ultimately addaptive for having our species produce generation after generation of human beings. 

This healthy nature is rarely seen in our sick culture, our western culture which is more and more the world's culture which has embraced a lower side of human nature, the capacity for morbid and suicidal self centeredness.  But this is not what we see in aboriginal cultures, human beings in an environment like that which we were designed for. This is not seen in other species, this morbid and suicidal self-centeredness.  It is not seen in any species except for cells that become cancerous which no longer devote themselves to the well being of the group but only to their own selfish interests.