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Victims of Nature
“Few scenes show zombies in nature… the majority of scenes are urban, reflecting the infection of people-to-people, like a wave, growing, flowing, and blunging, a tsunami over the people and, coincidentally, the urban environment. We flee this version of defunct nature by, as is often the case, returning to nature, the small village enclave, the necessary utopia; back into biological history, as it were. “ — Francis Sanzaro (2025 p.66)
Until you’ve demonstrated your ability to prevail, you’ll never know if there are risks you’ve overlooked.
Masters of Nature
“Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, has long been prophesying the moment–coming soon!–when we either download our brains into the cloud and either live there in a digital wilderness, or wait to respawn into new bodies. It is our destiny, he says.” — Francis Sanzaro, (2025 p. 69)
To believe that the very little we know of ourselves is all there is to us, and that our illusion of self is all there is to ourselves, is tantamount to equating a photograph with reality. What creates the sense of reality from perceptions is not an algorithm, it’s interaction. There is little more to us than our ability to interact and learn.
Human Interactions
“If we imagine a human child born onto a desert island, somehow magically kept alive until adulthood, it is possible that this adult’s cognitive skills wouldn’t differ very much–perhaps a little but not very much– from those of other great apes.” — Michael Tomasello (2007), evolutionary anthropologist
What if all that you are is not who you think you are but just what you’re learned from interacting with the world. What if all your internal powers of thought, perceptions, and awareness amount to nothing more than a system for learning.
Self Perception
The debate over free will is beside the point. The point is not how much autonomy you have, it’s how much autonomy you feel we have, as it’s feelings that motivate us to both think and act. And pursuant to this, the real question is why we have so little autonomy, how we could have more, and why we don’t bother.
There is a deception among those who discuss mental health that one person’s mental health is an issue that resides in that one person’s mind. That is to say, that we are independent and autonomous, and that the present and future course of our mental health is a function of who we are as individuals and what we individually decide to do.
There is a singular blindness, both in the therapeutic community and in society at large, to the connection between individual thought and group attitudes. We insist each of us is a witness free to evaluate, accept, or reject the ideas and attitudes that manifest around us, but this is rarely the case.
To recognize an idea is to have it in your head. You cannot think “about” an idea like some separate thing, you have to internalize the idea to fully understand it and, in that way, you become it. As the saying goes, you cannot not think of a pink elephant.
Mental Health Is Not Something One Person Has
So it goes with all of mental health. The ideas in the minds of those around us define how we think and what we say. Our social, cultural, and personal dialogs carry us along like the water in a river. Our social and individual mental health are reflections of each other, sometimes in agreement and other times in opposition, but always in rhythm. Individual mental health is related to collective mental health as a leaf is to a tree, but the whole tree is too large for us to see.
Because we don’t recognize the mental health of a group as being anything more than a cultural stereotype, we don’t understand how an individual’s mental health is related to it. We have a statistical definition of states of resilience, depression, insight, and independence. We’re connected to these social norms and personal expectations but we don’t appreciate the degree to which we’re captured by them.
“Neighborhoods characterized by higher social support and collective efficacy may buffer perceived stress through support networks promoting mental health. In addition, neighborhood social support networks may also contribute to social norms and practices that have been found to be protective for substance use disorders or suicide attempts.” — Oliver Gruebner et al. (2017)
Our indifference to our own duplicated thinking, close mindedness, and lack of far-sight is intentional. We resent the idea that we’re parrots or sheep who have learned to repeat what we’ve heard and follow others. To avoid this, and because we cannot argue that we’re not, we simply pretend that we’re not. But look at the properties, lifestyles, and ideologies of the people around you and ask yourself how unique are you? Of all the things you could think and do and say why have you chosen these?
If we understood that individuals are rarely responsible for their mental health but are vulnerable to the collective mental health of the people in their environment, then we’d wake up to the fact that our collective mental health proceeds without much guidance or discussion. Conformity begets stability and safety in numbers, but how capable is it in dealing with change and growth?
Don’t Imagine a Pink Elephant
I am continually frustrated by the cultural and mainstream media discussing Donald Trump’s motivations and strategy. It has been clear for many years that the man is a sociopath and, as such, there is no need for strategy or motivation beyond self-interest, exploitation, and narcissism. Many therapists have pointed this out (Glenza 2024). Most people cannot fathom the possibility that Donald Trump is insane because he is too much like them.
Mental health is a socially defined condition. It will be defined differently in different cultures. Western cultures have their roots in privilege, perceived scarcity, personal insecurity, institutional management, and material reward. Cultures that do not teach these characteristics do not have the same mental health problems, diagnoses, or solutions.
“Sooner or later… you are going to be looking at God saying, “We’re going to be lucky if we get out of here.” Your life is going to be in front of you and then you are going to realize that you’d rather be grocery shopping.” — Johnny Dawes
Stereotypes Reflect Reality
Pacific Island cultures have the lowest rates of depression. Western European, Japanese, and Korean cultures have the highest rates of competition. Latin American cultures have the highest rates of violence. Scandinavian countries have the highest rates of personal satisfaction. These trends affect everyone who lives within these cultures. A person’s vulnerability to these trends reflects both their connection with their environment and their mental strength or weakness.
The British instituted layers of middle management in their colonization of the Far East, and the management mindset was institutionalized.
“One manager recently told us, ‘I feel like the shock absorber of the company. I absorb everything – pressure from above, emotions from below, and uncertainty from all sides.’ His words, unfiltered and weary, capture a sentiment we hear repeatedly.” – Srinath Sridharan (2025)
“It still took us two days of trailing around long, impotent corridors of Kafkaesque bureaucracy to obtain the final papers that would release our air-freight equipment from the airport. Everyone was always very polite and friendly, and presented us with cups of tea, but everywhere they would patiently explain away delays by saying that they we’re just adhering to the system’. If we complained they would turn their eyes upward helplessly and explain, ‘But it was you British who taught us these procedures’” — Peter Boardman (1985 p.29).
Diagnosis
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental health, the gold standard for determining sanity, is a collation of aberrant behaviors. It is far from a description of mental health. It is not a diagnostic manual in the medical sense. Its behavioral profiles are useful in predicting related issues based on people’s behaviors. It says little about the origin or purpose of these behaviors. This is not a diagnosis of cause, it is a categorization of traits.
Given the little free will we have, combined with the degree to which we’re influenced by our culture, it is likely that little of our behavior originates in our mind or can be influenced by our thoughts in the normal course of events.
This would not be a problem if we were able to distinguish our personal mental health from the mental health of our environment, but we cannot. This is something like trying to maintain one’s health through foraging without knowing how to distinguish what’s nutritious from what’s toxic.
Distinction Begins with Duality
A consequence of this inability to distinguish between socially positive and negative forces leads to our electing psychopaths who echo our internal desires, and our failure to recognize insane patterns in action. The reason for this is that each of us, as individuals, operate within this ambiguous zone in order to maintain our illusion of free will. If we had greater discernment, we’d be more responsible for our thoughts and that, of course, would compel us to think harder.
People are captivated by the aberrant and the extreme: true crime, terrible accidents, catastrophic events, extreme wealth, opulent celebrity. We need to go to extremes to reach the edges of our understanding and wake up. Up until that point we’re just witnesses to the spectacle. It’s at the extremes where we might start thinking, not everybody does, but some do.
Much of our trend in accepting authority, whether it’s positive or negative, rests on the comfort we get from not needing to think, not needing to decide, not needing to doubt, and not needing to educate ourselves. We have not been trained in any of these skills—and that is not an accident—so we are inclined to think as we’re told. This is a trend instilled in us since childhood but to different degrees in different cultures.
Programming is Not the Same as Understanding
We can learn by watching or we can learn by doing. The first is passive and lacks authority, while the second is active and takes responsibility. The first is low risk and rewarded, while the second is higher risk and of uncertain outcome. It is more real because it requires greater understanding. Results range from success to failure.
High risks take you to deeper levels of responsibility. Engaging in risky things brings the highest levels of relationship, engagement, and consequence. Risk entrances us, but only those who accept the consequences learn from the experience. If you avoid facing your failures you will not learn from them.
“The body is the prime medium, as close to the mind as anything else. Nature allows the body to experience itself fully and directly, without remainder. That’s a leg up when you are trying to understand your mind… We become much happier beings if we seek discomfort and hard truth rather than comfort and soft delusion.”— Francis Sanzaro (2025)
You do not automatically learn from failure. It is more likely that failure throws you into levels of confusion. You have to distinguish what worked from what didn’t, and you have to know how to salvage what probably will work in a new context from what probably won’t. Failure doesn’t follow the rules.
Failing is Educational
The best way to learn how to handle failure is to fail, and the best way to fail is to aim higher than you can reach. This does not mean you should fly toward the sun on feathered wings held together with wax although, in retrospect, you might recognize there was some wax involved in your approach.
To learn from failure requires two things. First, you must discover something you didn’t know before. Second, you must survive to try again, which means your support, tools, and motivation must also survive.
As a culture, we don’t learn how to govern ourselves. This is because we don’t recognize what fails and we don’t discover anything new. We could learn, and generate better politics, if we were more interested, responsible, informed, and vulnerable. In this regard Donald Trump is an opportunity for the two most important reasons. First, the people elected him and, second, some of the same people will be injured by him. Unfortunately, he will harm many who were not responsible, and many who were responsible will not take responsibility for their failures in judgement.
Perhaps Donald Trump is a necessary warm-up. The next big collective decision will pertain to artificial intelligence. Think of Donald Trump as a malignant A.I. who told people what they wanted to hear and then proceeded to blatantly steal from them. Were he a real A.I. his malignance would not be so obvious.
“Before the prospect of an intelligence explosion, we humans are like children playing with a bomb. Such is the mismatch between the power of our plaything and the immaturity of our conduct. Super-intelligence is a challenge for which we are not ready now, and will not be ready for a long time. We have little idea when the detonation will occur, though if we hold the device to our ear we can hear a faint ticking sound.”— Nick Bostrom (2016), technology philosopher
References
Boardman, P. (1985 Aug). The Shining Mountain. Knopf Doubleday.
Bostrom, N. (2016 Apr). “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies.” Oxford U. Press
Glenza, J. (2024 Oct. 24). “More than 200 Health Professionals Say Trump Has ‘Malignant Narcissism’ in Open Letter.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/24/trump-nyt-ad-george-conway-pac
Gruebner, O., Rapp, M.A., Adli, M., Kluge, U., Gales, S., and Heinz, A. (2017 feb 24). “Cities and Mental Health.” Deutsche Arzteblatt Int. 114(8):121-127. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2017.0121
Sanzaro, F. (2025). The Zen of the Wild, Saraband.
Sridharan, S., Correa, S. (2025 Nov 28). “India’s Middle Managers Are Reaching Their Breaking Point.” BWEducation. https://www.bweducation.com/article/india-s-middle-managers-are-reaching-their-breaking-point-581527-587114
Tomasello, M., and Rakoczy, H. (2007). “What Makes Human Cognition Unique? From Individual to Shared to Collective Intentionality.” Intellectica 2007/2-3, 46-47, pp. 25-48. https://intellectica.org/SiteArchives/archives/n46_47/46-47-1-Tomasello.pdf
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