Welcome

 ____________________________________________

Hello, all good people...

    ___________________________________________

Salutations, I am Craig Willms creator of the Protohuman blog. The blog itself, as a weblog is now defunct. I have not posted since 2014, and I don't intend to resurrect it now. 

However, I own this space so to speak, and I have things I'd like to post in the form of essays, articles and personal notes simply as a record that I had these thoughts and sought to write them down before I lose myself. I'm under no illusion that anyone will read them - or care one wit. 

Still, there is a chance that someone will look me up after my death and find my online life. We live in the first era where we can preserve our thoughts indefinitely due to the way back machine, aka the Internet. Prior to the Internet you'd have to be published to have your writings preserved outside of your personal notebooks. Therefore, these essays and personal anecdotes that follow are my thoughts.

The articles/essays are in no particular order, relevant perhaps, but may have been superseded by events that followed. I maintain the right to be wrong about any of it...

que sera sera!

        Hold on!! Wait!    

Take a minute to look at my art and listen to my music. 

     - please see the links in the Recommended Sites section on the right ===========>  

                     

It's a Plastic World

 

by Craig Willms

"I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics. There's a great future in plastics."

                                                                                                    ~ The Graduate

In the film The Graduate, the character Mr. McGuire, played by Walter Brooke, advises Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin Braddock to invest in plastics. The claim was that plastic would change everything. And... It did.

So here we are nearly sixty years later, and we have a problem with plastic. Do we? Really? The answer is yes, but not in the way you might think.

When the plastics industry (read: oil industry) started getting grief about the environmental problem plastic was causing they tried righteously to get in front of it by pushing for recycling. The industry co-opted the symbol we all now associate with recycling - the triangular shaped looping arrow symbol. The symbol was not trademarked so they were able to put in on all plastic products. They categorized their products by type and assigned a number to each type. Today consumers see the symbol with a number on it and assume it means it's recyclable. In truth only two of the seven or eight types of plastics consumers come into contact with are actually recyclable. So, we dutifully recycle, looking for the symbol regardless of the number on it and toss it in the recycle bin. We have done this for 30+ years now. It's so ingrained that when my daughter was a child, she asked me ruefully, "Daddy, do we save the world?" I immediately said, "yes, honey, we recycle".

So we happily go about life thinking we're doing our part to save the world, feeling oh so good about ourselves. It's all a lie. Very, very little of the plastic we so carefully collect and sort actually gets recycled. Most of it is either dumped in a landfill, burned or put on garbage barges to be shipped to a third world country where it piles up or gets dumped in the ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch anyone? The industry and the government have known this for years, for decades, but no one says a thing.

The truth is recycling plastic has caused far worse environmental damage than just burying it in a landfill. Additionally, we get to pay for it.

If it's well known in the industry and the bureaucracy that recycling plastics is a fool's errand, then why are we still doing it? Bureaucracy, say no more. One civic administrator responded to this question honestly and unironically by saying "the consumer demands it". What? Did I hear that right? Indeed, the consumer is conditioned like a well-trained like a sea lion at the zoo. People would bark and clap their flippers if their cities suddenly dropped plastic recycling. Yes, even if it saved them money.

It's beyond me the sheer stupidity of that true statement. It was the government and the industry with the help of the media that trained the human animal to always recycle plastic. When are we going to face reality and stop this environmentally damaging practice? 

Plastic is a miracle product, it has enhanced our lives, made things safer and lighter, easier to transport and so much more. Like most things it's not a win/lose proposition, it comes with trade-offs. Plastic waste is one of those trade-offs. The ultimate solution would be to make consumer products out of bio-degradable plastics. I haven't a clue the science or economics of something like that, if it were simple, it probably would have been done by now. Until that's a reality we need to be smart about this issue. Currently the best solution is to bury it in a landfill. Burning it or shipping it to ill-equipped third world countries is illogical and environmentally damaging.

Countless hands are in the till on this one. There are reverse incentives to do the right thing. The almighty dollar front and center. In the name of the consumer, they keep up the charade of plastic recycling, while the Earth is trashed and polluted. One wonders how many other fairy tales we've be told. 

 You might be saying wait a minute, we're supposed to throw plastic in the trash? The landfills will be full! No, not even close. Landfills have a tiny footprint compared to other human activities. Liken all the land mass on Earth to a football field. By the year 3000 we will have a landfill that stretches all the way to the one-inch line. It's just not a real problem. The problem is in our heads; we've been brainwashed into recycling plastic. It's illogical and damaging to the environment - that's the fact. 

A hedge against the pitiless, indifferent universe: God

 

by Craig Willms

hedge

/hej/ noun 

 1. A row of closely planted shrubs or low-growing trees forming a fence or boundary

2. A line of people or objects forming a barrier

3. A means of protection or defense

In an earlier article called "The Mental Fabric" I wrote in summation: God is the hedge against the cold, cruel impersonal world. It was an attempt to describe just what God ultimately is to us. So many people are 'believe it when I see it' type of people, needing something tangible, solid - something called proof. The proof is out there... In spades

I think it's clear that faith is learned, not innate, not instinctual. We start learning it the moment we are born whether we know it or not. We all have faith in one thing or another. We quickly learn to have faith in our mother by her demonstrations of love and caring. We've learned to have faith that the sun will rise in the morning, that sort of thing. This kind of faith is easy, we see it, we experience it.

Faith in the unseen, what's in another's heart or head is another thing entirely.

Many learn to have faith in God, and many don't. Just because some reject the idea of God altogether doesn't mean God isn't real. You ask, isn't God something humanity made up? Possibly, but it doesn't change the fact that God, or some "Godlike" conceptual construct is intrinsic to human development in a civilized world.

Well known atheist Richard Dawkins once wrote, and I'm paraphrasing, the universe is exactly as we'd expect it to be if it were undirected, with a cold, pitiless indifference toward everything. He was just calling as he saw it. Upon examination it does seem this is true. Life on Earth, the only place we know it to be, is brutal and compassionless. Yet humanity has thrived to the tune of eight billion of us roaming the Earth today. We've tamed nature to some degree and we are now reaching out to the stars. How was this accomplished when nature clearly has it out for us?

All alone in the wilderness you would likely face an early death. You pair up and then form a clan in order to survive a difficult and unforgiving world. Strength in numbers. Ultimately though, you stand alone, self-preservation reigns supreme. It's in the defiance, the selfless ability to sacrifice your own well being to help another that provides witness to the very spark of divinity within you, the recognition that God is in you. When the self-sacrifice a mother bears toward her children and a father for his family is extended outward, a community is formed. The recognition that your sacrifices, freely giving of yourself, giving of your resources with genuine motives elevates everyone in your presence. This is the divine, this is God among us. There is a reason charity is associated with the Godly.

If nature favors the survival of the fittest as you were taught, why would you chance helping the weak when it could lead to your own demise? Where does this human decency come from? Of course there are many reasons acting in a kind, cooperative manner would help ensure survival for you and your children. But many go above and beyond without any personal benefit, as if it's the right thing to do... So, there is a right thing and a wrong thing?

Doing right or doing wrong is clear, recognizable for what it is. We call it morality, and it's made clear to us at a fairly early age. We know if our actions are moral, in our heart of hearts we know if what we are doing is right. We choose to reject, or at least suppress our better selves when we act immorally. We often hide or obfuscate our misbehavior. Why would we do that? You know why.

So if you are confronted by those who would belittle your faith, your belief in goodness, your belief in God by citing the bearded old man in the clouds, or your imaginary friend called Jesus, ignore their 14-year-olds argument, they are as ignorant as a teenager. You know the God presence in you, and it's your choice to accept God or reject God.

It's as obviously as the nose on your face that many, many people reject God, they push down the inherent goodness in their own heart, as they push it down in everyone around them. Too many corporate chieftains and political figures crave power and wealth over simple grace and humility. These leaders attract people like themselves. This is how evil grows in all institutions, even, I dare say, the church. Self-interest trumps self sacrifice.

Such is the problem of evil. A rejection of the God inside us. We are inundated with mixed messages in this modern world, where good and evil are inverted and good, Godly people are often ignored or are treated as the real weirdos. When you watch the people responding to a disaster, putting themselves in danger, going above and beyond, notice how they outnumber the looters and destroyers. There are so many good people - they don't get recognition, nor do they don't want it, just know they are there. It's all made to seem that the compromised outnumber those who honor the God presence inside them, but they don't. Good people with their love and kindness far outnumber the opposite.

 *****

Lastly, there are those who unequivocally reject the notion of God, especially a Judeo/Christian God, but they are clearly good people. What about them? They are fine. Deep down they believe in the power of good over evil, and act accordingly. Rabbis, pastors and teachers are guides toward truth, guides to righteousness - but not everyone needs a guide. I can't speak to other practiced religions; I do however have a belief that these people know the God deep down in their souls whether they profess believe in such things or not. Their inherent love and goodness is quite enough.

It's in the Box, or is it?

 by Craig Willms

I was at the butcher shop the other day waiting for the butcher to put my order together when in walks a guy and his wife. He said "we're picking up a big order that Charlie put together for us." He was chatting up the butcher about this and that as Charlie was digging boxes out of the cooler. He laughed, "well, at least I'll get a couple of good boxes out of the deal." Just then I knew he was a kindred spirit.

I think there's more of us box collectors out there than we thought. There are a bunch of us men who can spot a good box when we see one. Oh yeah, we take a lot of shit from our wives and other people, but in a pinch when a good (appropriate) box is needed we've got it.

I store mine in an upstairs spare bedroom, maybe a few out in the garage too. A decent, well-constructed cardboard box is invaluable. Every so often I'll find myself in a situation where something is being opened and there's this guy who doesn't seem to care about what's being revealed, his interest is the box itself. Sometimes that guy is me. 

If you're away from home, at a party, or maybe helping someone with a home improvement project you feel weird asking "Hey, you gonna want that box?" But you're thinking it. Certain boxes are irresistible. If you happen to be helping a buddy install a new toilet you covet his box. Toilet boxes are built, they're super sturdy and have handles built in! It's box nirvana!!! 

I really started taking boxes and their utility seriously after I got a Costco membership. Costco has some pretty great boxes. These boxes are usually very study, some have a double-walled construction, and they are often very large. Some have an open top design and those have their own utility. Open top boxes are not long-term storage boxes; they are more like crates. For moving your work along with you as you progress these boxes are awesome. Gardening tools, seedlings, gloves or anything you need, and it makes clean up a snap. Did I mention Costco has some great boxes?

There is a downside to all this box collecting - beside the ridicule. They take up space. I fortunately have a large spare bedroom, with a large walk-in closet. Not everyone has that luxury. True many boxes can be broken down and stored flat. I don't like to do that if it can be helped. It compromises the structural integrity of the box. But we do what we got to do. 

Next time you are in a situation where a substantial box is being opened keep an eye out for the guy (it's usually a guy) who is checking out the box instead of the treasure inside. He's there, lurking. Cut him a break. He's doing someone somewhere a service.

Humans desire order and stability over the Death Star

 

by Craig Willms

The Force

Humans crawled out of the jungle became nomads and eventually settled down into communities. We created an ordered society. That's important. That humans crave order is obvious. Conversely we seem to crave adventure. These concepts seem diametrically opposed. Which is it? Can't it be both?

Young boys, if left to there own devices, will set out on an adventure to conquer the unknown. It seems innately built into them. As a young boy I did it too. We lived on the edge of a housing development that opened into hundreds of acres of untouched land that stretched all the way to the Mississippi river. In the summer we'd often set out to explore these mysterious fields and woodlands. It was glorious. This feeling lasted about four or five hours. One by one each of us craved the life we'd left behind, our civilization. We wanted to be back in our homes where the refrigerator was full and the couch was as welcoming as the TV in the corner. 

The draw of the adventure was strong. The longing for home and its order was just as strong. We were kids, we had no responsibility and we knew so little of the way the world worked. Clearly breaking the bonds of order was important to our individual desires, and we pursued adventure with abandon. Wherever we went we knew our home and the attendant order was going to be there for us when we returned. Anything else was unthinkable. Comfort and safety was important whether we understood it or not. We were typical humans.

Today we are civilized men and women who live in an ordered society, an imperfect society. Every society ever created by human beings is imperfect. Why is the imperfection important enough to emphasize twice? Simply, imperfection is cited as the reason Western Civilization must be destroyed. Destroyed in favor of what?

The Empire Strikes 

Well, that is the question, but it comes after the fact. That fact our country, our society is being dismantled from within needs to be acknowledged first. Half of America doesn't even see it, the other half is equally divided into their camps. One camp is heavily funded and back stopped by the major media. The other half until recently didn't even fight back. 

They first awoke after Barack Obama was elected and sought to "fundamentally" transform America. He broke the country down across racial lines and that old favorite the exploiters vs the exploited. The media carried the water for The Light Bringer and covered his head in a halo. Dissenting voices were drowned out and all but dismissed as a nutty conspiracy theories. 

Barack Obama may have been the one to ramp up the undeclared civil war, but he was not the architect of ruin. It probably goes back to the end of World War II or even before, whenever its inception the "conspiracy" is now wide and deep. In recent years, basically since the rise of Trump, the left has turned the burners up to high. We are now seeing a partial breakdown of order. There is lawlessness that is being accepted and encouraged through no bail policies. Criminals are being protected and law enforcement is now branded the enemy. This particular conspiracy is undeniable. What Obama did was to carefully staff the federal apparatus including the Dept. of Justice, the military and numerous federal agencies with like-minded sycophants. It's been called the weaponization of government. They were able to unleash it on Donald Trump starting in 2015. The rest is history.

As Obama orchestrated his leftist base it coalesced with Non-Governmental Organizations and giant 'charitable' foundations, the real playground of the billionaires. Those ties were already there but now they were codified. It was a synchronicity that steered an entire manufactured narrative that America was irredeemable just as the newly minted EU sought to destroy European culture and its history. Born out of the elite structures of the WEF and the like, none of this was done out in the open. The power and weight of the this mindset was slap in the face to the ordinary native born populations. 

The NGO's with their noble missions and numerous benign sounding foundations utilize their billions aligned against America and it's founding principles. These private or government funded outfits are not required to report their finances and are not taxed on any of the money they receive. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors as the song goes. What they do, they do with impunity. It's believed that these entities underpin the whole leftist Democrat operation as well as all their European comrades. This has been known for years, everyone shrugs, or winks and nods. It goes deeper than we can possibly imagine. We know little of what actually happens with all that money at hand. What I know about it, or think I know, is cobbled together from different sources and putting two and two together. These organization's number one goal is to topple the United States. But first - Europe... 

In 2016 to everyone's surprise and especially his, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton as half of America recoiled against what Obama had done. Katy bar the door. Trump was naïve and had no idea of the width and depth of the swamp, as he liked to call it. He was in over his head. It was Russia, Russia, Russia 24/7 and then Covid-19. The tumultuous election that followed the George Floyd riots saw Trump lose to Joe Biden. His contesting the election went nowhere, every court case was immediately dismissed. In any event the lawfare against Donald Trump continued for years.

Biden from his first days in office was clearly losing his battle with dementia, but the Obama apparatchiks quietly took over his administration. In order to sow chaos the borders were thrown open and chaos ensued. This had already been done in Europe with devastating effect. Government budgets ballooned through Covid and beyond. On the ground the economy (the world economy) suffered government induced inflation. Rising interest rates used to fight inflation discouraged future homeowners, while private equity firms stepped into the housing sector to create renters instead of home owners. For the paycheck to paycheck crowd the rising cost of everything killed all their dreams. America, they were told was an unfair and racist society that the billionaires controlled, antithetical to the fact that most of the billionaires supported the Democrat's causes. 

Traditional culture was pummeled from every direction and the young here and abroad have become societally discouraged from marrying and having children. The children already born were encouraged to deny their biology and transition their sex. Their schools and colleges became literal indoctrination centers, where the parents were unwelcome. It got to the point of parents groups being tagged domestic terrorist organizations for opposing the trans agenda forced on their small children. Amid this chaos every change in the weather was treated as a sign of the end times. Global warming had become the Climate Crisis!! and all the energy our civilization needs was to blame. Safe energy was to come from only solar and wind - which didn't work. It was all so surreal, but treated as totally normal and oh so obvious. 

The future looked bleak for next generation. Which is what they wanted. Alas, all around civil order was starting to break down. On the streets in many cities here and in Europe are dangerous no-go zones, while across social media lawlessness and strife is being encouraged. It seems every week there is a church shooting or a school shooting, some mass casualty event. The perpetrator's are almost always potential psychiatric patients. Order and stability is waning.

A New Hope

While there have been signs in Europe that they've had enough of it, not much seems to be changing, yet. In United States however, Joe Biden may have actually saved the day for America. In retaliation of the Obama takeover of his administration, when they forced him out of the 2024 race his ego revolted and he crowned Kamala Harris his successor. She was a disaster. On the other side Donald Trump never gave up, and began to beat back the unfounded lawfare waged against him. He crushed Harris in the 2024 election. 

Armed with experience the Trump team hit the ground running in 2025. Having identified the underlying apparatus of the Democratic machine, the global socialist machine, they set about to dismantle it. The fraud, deception and embezzlement of government funded entities was thrown into the light. DOGE and federal prosecutors overturned the rocks these criminals hid under. On the international front the beneficiary's of USAID's funding were exposed. The billions in funding was immediately suspended or cancelled outright. So much of the funding fronted the intelligence community's activities in other countries that they don't know where the fraud began or ended.

This was just in the first months of the Trump's new term. Trump was the first Republican to actively fight in court the false claims made against him by the leftist media. He has won most of them. Other companies and social media entities have come forward to admit that the Biden administration and the Federal authorities pressured them into countering anything or anybody that opposed them or their agenda.

On the other front, the mass invasion of illegal immigrants, the Trump administration slammed shut the borders and began a mass deportation push. Trump is also putting so-called sanctuary cities on notice that there will be consequences for their actions related to thwarting ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other enforcement efforts. It's no mystery who is funding the anti-ICE riots all over the country. It is the hill the Democrats and leftists are willing to die on. Why they think there is an appetite to offer illegal immigrants health care and other services they don't offer to American citizens is the real mystery. 

All these actions are stirring the hard left into hysterics, but it's falling on deaf ears. Leftists are being exposed for liars and subversives that they are. Despite his unchecked ego people can see that Trump is acting to preserve and recover what had made the United States de facto global hegemon, the leader of the free world. If you were not paying close attention, you could be moved by the fear and loathing the left has for Trump and his policies. That ended when the sniper's bullet killed Charlie Kirk in full view of his wife and children. The Democrats could not help themselves the glee they felt. The sickening display of vitriol over Charlie's message against the backdrop of his brutal death was too much for many, many on the center-left. It is now completely clear who is for freedom, order and stability.

The Assassination of Charlie Kirk

 

by Craig Willms

Charlie Kirk was not a household name, that is until he was killed by an assassin's bullet. I knew of him, being a conservative myself. I was not a follower so to speak, but I watched some of his videos and I was always impressed. I had never heard a negative word from him; he was kind and generous with his grace. He was, it seems, just what he appeared to be - an articulate, polite, pious and intelligent spokesmen for the political right. He did not deserve this; his young family did not deserve this.

I suspect, and I'm not the only one that he was a victim of a professional hit. It's early in the investigation, so there's no particular evidence. The grooming of a mentally unstable person by certain entities is not out of the realm of possibilities, if you know what I mean. It could be the work of a "lone gunman", but we've heard that before. It's likely we will never know the whole truth.

Charlie had a bright future in the conservative movement, and he was having an effect on the youth he sought to reach. Hardcore leftists hated him because of his success. This was the only way to silence him, and they took it. Political assassinations are nothing new, there were many in the breakout 1960's. Today with hyper communications and a 24/7 news cycle it takes on a life of its own. The gatekeepers can't really conceal or prevent discussion like they could before everyone had the ability to 'broadcast' an opinion or a story arc. 

My thoughts... Charlie Kirk was assassinated because he was extremely effective and getting results against the left and for conservative, religious values. I don't know what this means for our country, but it is not good. This is a terrible day. God Bless you Charlie, you are gone too soon.

A New Philosophy: Words to Live By

 

by Craig Willms

I was sitting on the deck with my wife and some dear friends when I said something that sparked a thought, a profound thought. We were talking about how awful it is to get old. We are all in our sixties now, and only one of us is still working a day job. All of us were lamenting our inability to get a good night's sleep on a regular basis. Then there were all our aches and pains not to mention the physical clumsiness that increments day by day. It's hardly inspiring. It's only downhill from here. My wife sighed and said my goal is to get through to next Christmas when I can retire, then I'll make some plans. I said, "my goal is to get through tomorrow." I said, "Now, those are word to live by"!

My friend immediately said his goal was to get through today. I said no, no, no you got have a something to strive for. It then struck me that I might be on to some new philosophic approach to life. Getting through the day is pretty weak, because you're already halfway there. To set a goal of getting through tomorrow transcends the immediate and gives you something tangible to reach for. At our age tomorrow isn't too far out and therefore it's clearly obtainable. 

We are at the age when even a one-year plan is dicey, let alone a five-year plan. Setting goals is good, but we need to be realistic. In all seriousness by setting a goal of seeing tomorrow's bedtime instead of some too distant future we force ourselves to live for today, be present in the now, rather than constantly dreaming of someday. Face it, our time is numbered in months or years, not decades, not anymore. Living for today is not just laudable, it's also the right thing to do!

From this day forward that's the code, the philosophy I'll live by. So, from now on when someone asks, "what's your plan?" My answer will be, "my goal is to get through tomorrow." Everything else will fall into place (in one way or another).

PS

Talk is talk, right? I above anyone should not be giving advice on living, especially living in the moment. Doing something like that for a lazy person is quite difficult. I'm a daydreamer at best. So, in order for this new philosophy to stick I've got to live it, breath it and abide in the spirit of the words. So, this, the 31st of August in the year 2025 I start to live in the moment and plan for tomorrow... Everyday!