A R C H I V E

Throughout history, humans have used seashells, salt, cows, cigarettes and printed paper as a medium of exchange, what we call money. Amongst these mediums, gold has been the most enduring as it meets all five of the qualities for an ideal exchange mechanism as outlined by Aristotle, the fourth century B.C. Greek philosopher:

1) Durability -- will not rot, spoil, disintegrate or rust.

2) Divisibility -- can be spent in fractions.

3) Convenience --can be carried and easily exchanged.

4) Consistency -- uniform weight, look and feel.

5) Alternate uses -- seen in jewelry, industry, medicine and art

In 1971, President Richard Nixon cut the tie between the Dollar and Gold, resulting in Dollar to float from its then-price of roughly $35/oz, to today’s $1834/oz, reflecting a nearly 50X gold appreciation in Dollar terms in 50 years, or, stated differently, paper dollar has decreased in real value by almost an astounding 98%.

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A spectacle of sorts unfolded Monday night at Highland City Club. The occasion was the long-planned live presentation by Boulder’s esteemed council member Bob Yates on the subject of homelessness, a matter of great interest at both the local and national levels given the importance and inherent complexity of the matter -- precisely the type of subject Highland Institute was launched to address in the first place.

Bob was invited to provide his thoughts and outline City of Boulder’s position on an intransigent problem, to be further flushed out through questions, observations, and feedback by five invited “Keynote Listeners” from all levels of the community.

But Bob’s live interaction was severely compromised. A contingent of “protestors” saw fit to disrupt his presentation through what might be deemed free-range disorderly conduct -- physical trespass with the intent to stifle meaningful communication with competing noise, from sirens to pot-banging to the shouting of obscenities. A true Stoic, Bob exhibited grace under pressure by continuing to deliver amidst this orchestrated disruption.

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Printed on the back of every twenty-dollar bill are the words “In God We Trust.” A close second to God, and among the august founding fathers including Washington and Jefferson, was Alexander Hamilton,

Hamilton, America’s first Secretary of Treasury, not only interpreted the true intent of our Constitution by drafting the majority of the Federalist Papers, but literally created our currency, the Dollar, backed by all the faith and credit our fledgling Republic could muster.

Fast forward to today when, after nearly 75 years of America’s dominance and the ensuing relative global peace and prosperity, we encounter some major challenges to such dominance, including the threat of our weakened currency.

Weakness, compared to what, one might ask. After all, the dollar is holding up reasonably well versus the fiat currencies of many other nations.

Enter a new game in town, cryptocurrency.

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Humanity is undergoing major change, we hope for the better. Change is the product of cycles, as natural as day and night, birth and death, creation and destruction.

Nature, while efficient, is not necessarily tidy — witness the caterpillar molting into a chrysalis on the way to a butterfly. There is then the element of trust, that the phoenix will indeed rise from its ashes, that the net will appear as we take the leap of faith.

One lesson of the Fourth Turning is that hinges in history may indeed be messy, often ugly — witness the effects of the current pandemic and its fallout. We see a culture in transition, from the recent spate of mass shootings, substantial police reforms, domestic abuse, mental illness, drug addiction, aggressive panhandling and homelessness, often taking refuge in our parks and under bridges.

The rebuilding of London, Munich, and Hiroshima took decades after the end of WWII. People emerged, tentatively at first, from their basements and bunkers to lick their wounds, count their dead, and access the damage before contemplating a new reality to rebuild their lives physically, emotionally, politically, and economically.

Whether it be a shooting war, cold war, cyberwar, or a war against a virus, the first step in creating the new reality entails taking stock of what hit us, and assessing the appropriate response.

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Most of us begin life in a check-the-box world. We work hard to define ourselves in terms of external expectations. We are good kids; we listen to our parents; we respect our teachers; we make good friends, form loving families, believe in the accepted notion of God, advance in our careers, and strive for financial security. But after we check off all the boxes, we question our own creation, the very person we have become. David Brooks refers to this phase as having reached the peak of the first mountain.

Standing water, no matter how clear, eventually stagnates. The same thing occurs when we are defined by our career, our attachments, and our political beliefs. We thereby become little more than a reflection of that which society expects. The result is stagnation, no matter how successful we may appear to the outside world.

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Try to reconcile the fact humanity has never been more free and prosperous, with the sad reality that today we experience more loneliness and anxiety than ever. In fact, loneliness and feeling disconnected is considered to be the main cause of physical illness and addictions, evidenced by the unprecedented prescription of anti-anxiety drugs.

Erich Fromm of the Frankfurt School of Philosophy posits that "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." We pay a big price for having too many choices.

Until recently we lived in small communities, like an extended family or a small religious town. Even though such a life restricted many of our freedoms, it also provided us with a solid support system, like guardrails which limit our movement on the road, but provide a measure of security, and a clear path.

But our egos have a way of convincing us that we are somehow self-contained, whole by ourselves, with little need for a community, or for those who might hold opposing views. To some degree, we are all “recovering ego-holics.”

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The most recent senseless mass shooting, especially in our own backyard, poses a lot of questions, most fundamentally, how do we live a productive and joyful life in the midst of so much fear, violence, sadness and uncertainty?

Is this violence the cause or the effect of the current political divide in our country, the pandemic that has caused over half-million deaths, huge wealth disparity, or the many homeless that force us to avert our eyes from the panhandlers on every corner, and homeless camps under every bridge?

I am not here to offer easy solutions to this complicated problem, but I do know this: fear is baked deep into our reptilian brain, and the fear of death tends to paralyze us in the face of what seems to be life’s randomness, whether it be in the form of a neighbor killed in an inexplicable act of violence, or the loss of a loved one from a virus.

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Victor Frankel survived three years in multiple hellish concentration camps. Nelson Mandela endured 27 years of imprisonment, much of it in solitary confinement. Moses wandered the Sinai desert for 40 years looking for the Promised Land.

Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. Without Grit, talent is nothing more than unmet potential.

I often think about these and my other heroes: Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and how he dealt with the combination of war, famine, and the Antonine Plague; Lincoln and the Civil War he fought to free slaves and keep our country together; and Gandhi’s battle against the English to free his country.

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Sixteen Spring’s ago we launched Highland City Club with a Utopian vision to create “A Safe Space for Passionate and Caring People to explore our differences, find our common ground, and make the world a better place while having fun.”

We have come a long way since then, having expanded from a dark section of Highland’s basement to the entire building. In the process, we have launched Highland Institute for the Advancement of Humanity, with the long-term goal of growing it into an international entity modeled after the Soho House in London, Aspen Institute, and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco.

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With the worst of the pandemic behind us and the best of the Spring season ahead, we need to be conscious of the physical and emotional toll our body has endured during the past difficult year, as we fully embrace the possibilities of the days ahead.

Buddhists believe the cause of all suffering is attachment, and our greatest attachment is to life itself. When a virus we can not even see threatens our life, our reptilian brain goes into the fear mode, disrupting our physical and mental equilibrium state.

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In a world dominated by science and technology, where people can access all the knowledge in the world from a device in the palm of their hand, the hardest thing to find is wisdom.

Humanity is still in the early stages of its evolution, and although we have it better than ever before, we still have a long way to go, and many problems to solve, like income inequality, global warming, hunger, and disease.

Albert Einstein said “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In that case, where do we tap into the wisdom required to help solve today’s problems?

As old fashion as this may sound, the study of history, philosophy, poetry and religion provides the wisdom of the ages we need to solve our current problems. So, what can ancient kings and Greek gods teach us today?

Sisyphus was doomed to push a heavy rock up a steep mountain, watch it roll down, then try another big rock, again and again. How does that ancient myth relate to our modern life, and what are our own Sisyphean rocks?

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It has been a cold and hard Winter, but Spring is around the corner, and as we get ready to celebrate City Club’s 16th anniversary on March 21st, I have been reflecting on our progress during the pandemic, including the numerous physical and technological upgrades to Highland, and the launch of Highland Institute. At the same time, I have been asking myself whether any of this work is making a difference, or whether I am a lone wolf in the wilderness, barking at the moon?

During the past difficult year, our Weekly Newsletter has continued to serve as the intellectual glue that keeps our community together. Many of us work hard to bring you the best of what’s going on at Highland and around the world. So thank you for your continued moral and financial support of our community, and for reading and participating in our Newsletter.

We are pleased to share that starting next Monday March 1st, we are reopening our kitchen with a new menu, pricing, and direct order via your City Club Mobile App.

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​John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament, and civil servant. In 1859 he published his influential book, On Liberty, as a philosophical essay on the relationship between authority and liberty, asserting that democratic ideals may result in the tyranny of the majority.

​Last week I found myself in a lovely conversation with Member Gordon Gould on the topic of The Tragedy of Commons as it relates to the homelessness problem in Boulder. Waxing philosophic on Mill's position, we agreed that while citizens are free to enjoy public spaces as long as they do not break the law, there is potential for tyranny if our compassion overrules our logic, preventing us from enforcing the laws that govern a healthy society.​

​As usual, Gordon listened patiently, and elegantly summed up Mill’s position by stating, unchecked, "democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner."

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In 1968, Garrett Hardin presented a compelling formulation of the population problem, concluding that "a finite world can support only a finite population, hence, the optimum population is, less than the maximum.”

When a resource is held "in common," with many people having "ownership" and access to it, Hardin reasoned, a self-interested "rational" actor will decide to increase his or her exploitation of the resource since he or she receives the full benefit of the increase, but the costs are spread among all users. The devastating and tragic collective result of each person thinking this way, however, is destruction of the commons, to everyone’s ultimate detriment.

To ensure that our civil society functions properly, we must enact and enforce just laws, while changing laws deemed unjust. Failure to enforce just laws, as determined by society, leads to lawlessness and breakdown of that society.

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The triple punch of a global pandemic, political unrest at home, and a pending financial reset are indicative of a major societal change, a hinge in history if you will, or a Fourth Turning.

When the kinetic energy of the pendulum swings to the far side of the political center; when income equality is so vast, the wealth of three billionaires exceeds that of the lower half; when failed banks get Government bailout and favorable tax treatment, while the hard-working Main Street entrepreneurs are left to fail on their own in the name of “creative destruction,” then the pendulum's kinetic energy suddenly morph’s into potential energy, enabling the political Left to riot in the streets of Seattle, the political Right to storm the US Capital, and a new Occupy Wall Street crowd to use their digital pitchforks to take down billion-dollar short-selling hedge funds (see Steve Smith’s detailed review HERE).

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When we launched City Club in March 2005, our biggest obstacle was lack of experience and street cred, so folks were hesitant to join a community of which they knew little.

Ten years later, a select group of members met with me to express their concerns, suggesting in essence "this is now our community and an integral part of our social lives so, given your advancing age and your recent heart attack experience, might you give us some assurance about the continuity of our community after you pass on?"

My response at the time was, "I am not planning to go anywhere soon but, should a totally unforeseen event occur such that I were to be prematurely out of the picture, City Club would indeed die with me were it still lacking financial feasibility and significant work completion. But, I am hoping that by the time we execute on our third floor renovation plans to attract younger members, my son Dustin will be in a position to take over."

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Then what are elders?

They are wisdomkeepers

they are pioneers in consciousness

Serving as mentors,

they pass on the distilled essence

of their life experience

–Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.

Rabbi Zalman who passed away at the age of 90 was a City Club Honorary Member. One of the things that made Reb Zalman unique was his commitment to living it, instead of preaching it. He was fully alive because he was able to face his mortality, and learn from it; he strived to morph from age-ing to sage-ing.

What’s your plan for aging? Since none of us take any of it with us, how are you planning to give back? Do you get frustrated reading the morning paper, or are you taking an active leadership role in society, however small, to make a difference?

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January 6, 2021 will go down in history as a terrible day for Donald Trump, and a great day for America.

This "Hinge in History” is marked by the current Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: a global pandemic, political upheavals, environmental devastation, and a pending economic reset.

Experiencing the greatest political divide since the Civil War, and the largest wealth disparity since the Rubber Barons of the Industrial Revolution ruled, the old system was no longer working, requiring the birth of a new system.

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Over the break, I had the chance to read Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance, and Elie Wiesel’s classic Souls On Fire, Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters.

I keep wondering what is the common thread among Rumi and Shakespeare, Mozart and Beethoven, Edison and Musk, who all seem to have connected to a source I understand intellectually but struggle to experience practically. Who are these people and what source are they connected to that allows them to live fearlessly and channel knowledge most of us are not tapped into?

Reflecting on these lives, I am reminded of Neil Diamond’s quote “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” In fact, this is the essence of the classic Sufi analogy of the moth and the flame: get too close and you burn by merging into the flame; maintain a safe distance and you miss out on the essence of life.

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Last year is history; this year is a mystery; now is all that counts.

Since we are all tired of hearing how terrible last year was, and since it is not clear how much longer our personal and global pain and suffering will last, let’s take to heart Eckhart Tolle’s advice to focus on where we are now, and take appropriate action.

Faced with 40-to-1 odds against the British, George Washington, instead of worrying or complaining, crossed the Delaware River in the middle of the night, during the dead of winter, once again proving that courage does not mean we are not afraid. Instead, courage means we proceed despite being afraid.

Our City Club community is facing its fair share of challenges, but instead of freezing in the face of fear, we are building and expanding in anticipation of a bright future, launching what we hope to be a global institute, and offering to help any member who needs it in any way we can.

Best wishes for a healthy, meaningful, and prosperous year ahead.

— Sina.

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