In biology, in the natural world, all organisms are mandated towards optimal health

for the individual as part of optimal health for the species, in the habitat that they
inhabit.
This mandate is fundamental to all biology, and has both intrinsic and extrinsic
qualities.
This applies to human beings as individuals, as localised communities and as a
species.
This mandate towards optimal human health has persisted throughout the entire
existence of the species. Indeed the long term existence and thriving of human beings
is founded on this mandate being met.
In terms of that long term existence, that long term thrivival of human societies,
certain qualities are associated with optimal human health.
Self empathy as part of a healthy sense of self, empathy for others, robust physical
health and well being, responsive intelligence, autonomy and the desire and ability to
effectively cooperate with others to meet both individual and collective needs ! these
are all mar"ers of optimal human health, in as much as collectively and individually
they lend themselves to long term sustained living cultures capable of meeting
challenges and changes in habitat and environment, of learning and growing.
Sense of self is an emergent quality.
The externalisations of the baby, the infant, the child that is to say the inner
experience which is articulated by movement, facial expression and sound, when
recognised and understood by caring adults, and therefore responded to accurately
helps to develop a healthy sense of self the recognition by the caring adult allows the
infant to become more secure in his or her inner experience as being valid.
#I am in discomfort, I need winding$ articulated by cries and face squirming is met by
#%ou are in discomfort and need winding.$ &nd action by the caring adult to ad'ust
the babies position, rub his or her bac" etc( leading to ease for the child( this tells
the child that his or her self perception is accurate.
This experience leads towards healthy self empathy, self understanding, which is the
basis for empathy for others.
Infants will also internalise aspects of the external world as part of their healthy
growth ) so they will internalise the love and care with which they are treated, they
internalise aspects of the habitat they grow into which allows them to navigate its
complexities, they internalise aspects of the various age groups they experience within
their community so that they have an accurate life time picture from cradle to grave so
to spea", and these deepen their capabilities in terms of sustained health, as parents to
be and as members of a diverse community.
This internalisation is biologically mandated, the child has to internalise the world
into which she or he is growing as well as develop a healthy sense of self through
experience( these are essential qualities in terms of long term survival and thriving.
&ll of these are mar"ers of optimal human health.
&ll of these mar"ers are now under chronic stress in modern Society, and in the *+ in
particular.
The State demands that children internalise and thus identify with the externals of
,ationalism, The -lag, The .otherland. /rganised and centralised religions demand
a similar internalisation. -ootball clubs set up players as role models. .edia portrays
men and women in idealised fashion and most often the dysfunctional is portrayed as
healthy. ,o one I "now could live with the heroic people in movies as their roles are
played( let alone the ordinary people, the blisters, as portrayed in movies(
Thus healthy self empathy is undermined, because it is constantly being challenged
and replaced with another external identity, and from that much else flows that is
damaging to optimal human health.
/ne can also spea" of massive trauma such as occasional natural events or disasters,
and the more frequent trauma of intentional war prosecuted by States and other actors,
intergenerational trauma, commercially driven social conditioning, social dysfunction
which if they remain unresolved will affect the development of optimal human health
in individuals and communities, for successive generations, across diverse
populations.
-or most people it is relatively easy to understand some few aspects of these
dynamics in terms of an abusive family dynamic ) we all "now of families whose
lives are blighted by addiction, bullying, child abuse, domestic violence and so on.
%et when it comes to the culture as a whole, and to power and politics in particular,
there is a dreamscape rather than a well articulated and accurate description of
concrete reality as it is and as it affects peoples lives.