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Companies Should Consider Adding Reason to the Worksite Wellness Agenda

Like Robert Green Ingersoll, I believe everyone should be helped to get what happiness she can out of life, that all happiness that breaks through the clouds of misfortune should be enjoyed and that no one should fail to pick up every jewel of joy that can be found in her path. This requires that we all get what good we can of the truly dramatic, of music, art and enjoyment. Everyone should be encouraged to enjoy liberty of mind as well as body, which entails finding out the conditions of happiness and having the wisdom to live in accordance with those conditions.

Most Americans are not getting such help. There are many institutions, governmental and otherwise, that could help, if the goal of added happiness were properly recognized as a priority foundation of good health. Worksite wellness programming might not be the most promising vehicle for advancing happiness, but it is the one area where wellness promoters have the best chance to make an impact. Added happiness would be a worthy new goal of worksite wellness; nothing else seems as likely to enrich employee satisfaction while boosting performance and productivity.

In addition to a goal of increasing employee happiness, another goal for wellness education might be promoting common sense. Naturally, nearly everyone thinks she already has common sense, so strategically this educational objective must be billed and promoted under another banner. I’d recommend critical thinking, save for a similar problem as with the term common sense—most people believe they already think critically. Alas, there is strong evidence that is definitely not the case.

Do you doubt it? Consider the reality that Americans are besotted with nonsensical beliefs. Large numbers of adults allowed to handle sharp objects and operate heavy machinery believe in the literal nature of ESP. They also believe in psychic and other forms of paranormal phenomena. There’s more. Many believe in UFO sightings, ghosts, miracles, witchcraft, devil possessions and exorcisms, crackpot alternative medicines (e.g., homeopathy and therapeutic, non-contact hand-waving over a patient as a serious treatment modality) and, of course, the literal truth of preposterous bible and other holy book tales. These have been passed down by word of mouth from around the time of the Bronze Age. It all stupifies and boggifies the skeptical, critical and reason-based mind.

Marty Kaplan recently published a piece that began as follows: “If you think the widening chasm between the rich and the rest spells trouble for American democracy, have a look at the growing gulf between the information-rich and-poor.” (See Marty Kaplan, “You Will Be Shocked at How Ignorant Americans Are,” Alternet, November 6, 2013.)

Well, I wasn’t shocked at all. The evidence that vast numbers of workers could benefit from common sense education, artfully promoted and ever so delicately presented at worksites the land over, has been building for years. The Kaplan article is only the latest instance wherein persuasive data are brought to bear in support of the obvious—that common sense training is desperately needed in schools, clubs and company worksite wellness programming.

A new Pew study revealed that fully one quarter of American adults watch only Fox News. Furthermore, a majority of citizens watch no news at all—leading the author of the report to conclude that, as far as knowledge of current events is concerned, most “may as well be living on the moon.”

If Fox viewers were to depart for the moon, the average common sense score of those left behind would increase dramatically. Since such a migration is unlikely, initiatives of a practical wellness nature should be considered. Therefore, I recommend a new focus at the worksite consisting of practical lessons on effective thinking (plus the aforementioned attention to strategies for understanding pathways to greater happiness. Boosting this skill will surely add to happiness.)

For a practical example of what such teaching might entail, watch this outstanding 30 minute tutorial on how easily old habit patterns lead us astray and into truly bad decisions. In some cases, these all too human tendencies prevent even the skeptical among us from recognizing deficiencies in our common sense reasoning.

The Youtube video features Point of Inquiry host Josh Zepps, the producer of HuffPost Live, interviewing physicist Leonard Mlodinow about his book, “Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior.”

Be well.

A Proposed New Motto for U.S. Currency

Be a Patriot, Strike a Blow for Liberty and Protect the First Amendment: Fold Your Arms in Protest While Declining to Recite the Religious Pledge of Allegiance

Imagine how put off you would be if, at the start of every workday, all employees at your worksite were expected to stand, face the flag and recite the Lord’s Prayer – or passages from the Bhagavad-Gita or the Holy Quran. Unless you were a devotee of the favored religion, you’d probably find the exercise rude at best or, much worse, a violation of your rights.

I suggest it’s time for the twenty percent of the “nones” in this country and all other citizens, including Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims who do not believe that the Republic is “under God” (or, if they do believe that, do not believe that the inclusion of this religious phrase in a once secular pledge of loyalty is appropriate or constitutional), to show overt opposition to the Pledge of Allegiance wherever and whenever it is recited.

I recommend a simple, respectful but clear physical technique for displaying opposition to this McCarthy-era imposition of Christianity into secular national affairs: stand, like everyone else but with folded arms, silently while slowly moving your head slightly from side to side in an unmistakable expression of “NO!”

In doing so, you and other co-conspirators for safeguarding separation of church and state will effectively be acting as patriots for your country, striking a blow for liberty while protecting your rights under the First Amendment. Patriotism need not be defined or associated with God-belief. To do so, as occurs with the recitation of the revised Pledge, marginalizes freethinkers. We have a right to communicate dissent from this imposition on our own, non-Christian convictions.

If the folded arm version of dissent from the Pledge catches on, it won’t be long before the odious “under God” Pledge is seen as the divisive intrusion into secular civility that it is. As expressions of silent dissent expand throughout the nation, the Knights of Columbus and communist scare era origins of the religious modification to the historic Pledge will be better understood by the American public. The “under God” addition will be widely discussed and debated. Many, if not most, service clubs, schools and other institutions that have for too long gone along with the revised Pledge absent organized resistance will drop it entirely. The commotion and needless discord it generates will be seen as more trouble than adherence to this ritual is worth.

Not incidentally, the national debate and the disharmony associated with the “under God” intrusion will also be factored into future deliberations at state, federal and the Supreme Court levels when the next round of challenges reach these courts.

Speaking of which, there is a promising court challenge to the Christian version of the Pledge. As reported in an About.com essay, the argument this time is new and quite possibly improved. Furthermore, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to hear the new arguments. (See Austin Cline, “Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to Review ‘Under God,’ “ About.com – Guide, October 31, 2012.)

In the case described, parents of public school children required to start each day with the Pledge assert that the phrase ‘under God’ “transforms a patriotic exercise into a religious exercise which encourages prejudice and bigotry to nonbelievers like themselves.” Of course that’s exactly what it does wherever participation is expected as part of a public ritual. “This,” the Massachusetts plaintiffs hold, “violates that state’s constitutional protection of the equal rights of all citizens.” The plaintiffs case “pits the legal equality of nonbelievers against the desire of Christians to have their beliefs endorsed, promoted and supported by the government.” Just so.

The head of the American Humanist Association is quoted to the effect that such a discriminatory practice stigmatizes non-believers and those of other faith traditions and therefor clearly violates the equal rights safeguards for all.

Let’s not wait for the courts to act. Let’s start a folded arms campaign against the Pledge immediately. Next time you are at a town hall, civic association, school or other gathering where the Pledge is about to be recited, think of all the patriots that have done so much over more than two centuries to protect the rights we enjoy today. In their honor and for the good of your country, stand and display an alternative to the “under God” pledge. Give everyone a look at the truly patriotic Pledge, a folded arms, NO head movement side to side that sends a clear message that America is actually under a constitution of, by and for the people.

As Frank Zappa put it, “Anybody who wants religion is welcome to it, as far as I’m concerned — I support your right to enjoy it. However, I would appreciate it if you exhibited more respect for the rights of those people who do not wish to share your dogma, rapture or necrodestination.” (Cited by FFRF as attributed to Warren Allen Smith in “Who’s Who in Hell.”)