Calling the cops is an act of desperation. Short of being an actual crime victim (and even then), involving the authorities in your affairs is almost always a mistake. When you do, in personal matters, even if you are right, you are wrong, guilty of keeping the wrong company, of not being able to manage your own affairs, of wasting the cop's time.

Hiring a lawyer to resolve your personal disputes is also an act of desperation. If you can sort out your problem without the assistance of an attorney, so much the better.

The same principle applies to doctors. Resorting to the medical profession in hopes of improving your health is an admission of failure. I'm not disputing the efficacy of medical treatment in improving health. I'm just saying that it's better to live in such a way so that you don't get sick, or to do something for yourself when you feel yourself getting sick; "An ounce of prevention..."

In this regard, I recently came across some videos by a medical researcher, an endocrinologist with solid credentials named Robert Lustig, who asserts that 75% of all healthcare dollars are spent in treating illnesses caused by low-fiber, high-sugar processed foods. He says that our skyrocketing rates of disease are due to the food industry; high-fructose corn syrup being a major culprit.

The sicker we get, the more money Big Pharma makes. If you take money out of the equation, it doesn't add up. Even if the sky is falling, unsocial and antisocial technocratic nerds (those kids no one liked in school) should not be put in charge of society.

Answers abound, but, these days, and perhaps always, the powers that be frame the way we can ask the question. Black and white, cis and trans, hate speech and free speech, are all unresolvable dichotomies. If you are only thinking in terms of the Biden-Trump binary, then you are missing the solution. Back in my day, political radicals were not advocating for more government and less freedom.

You remember the guy who wanted to improve the world? He thought it natural to start with his own country. Then, becoming more specific, zoomed in, step-by-step, first to his own state, then his own city, his neighborhood, his block, his house, his family; finally realizing that he had to start with himself.

Regardless what you think of his politics, Jordan Peterson has good advice for young men: if you want to make the world a better place, start by straightening up your room; get your psychological house in order; stand up straight; be someone who contributes to making your family's life better, someone to be relied on. So far so good.

Lokkal takes this self-improvement philosophy up to the level of neighborhood. If you want social justice (and you've already got your own life in order), then organize your neighborhood. Create a neighborhood resource guide. Present your neighborhood. For all the concern about racism and sexism, money, a higher-standard of living, is still the surest way to improve people's lives. Poverty is a bitch.

But along with a stronger local economy, Lokkal also builds community. A stronger community provides its members with longer, healthier lives. Community resources, not just personal resources, help determine economic well-being. They are a social safety net and a leg up.

My conviction is that, as capable individuals joining together, we need to do it for ourselves. The change will come from the grassroots, from the bottom up, not from the top down; from localism, not globalism. The local community is the most natural political unit; "All politics is local."

Lokkal's strategy is simple: stop giving it away for free. Right now, we are all uploading our content to Facebook, making Mark Zuckerberg a beautiful social network, on which he sells ads, and keeps the profits. As it is today, Google searches our online content and presents results for "San Miguel de Allende mezcal" or "San Miguel de Allende chocolate," sells ads alongside those results, and keeps the profits.

Can't we make our local social network and our own local search engine, sell our own ads and keep the profits? Of course we can. And we can do it better locally than either Facebook or Google. There is no substitute for boots on the ground. And once we stop the extraction of those advertising profits from our city, once we raise San Miguel's common economic "water table," once we improve local community, most social ills will just disappear.

You know Lokkal as an event calendar and magazine. But Lokkal's real innovations are our Wall (social or community network) and our Search Engine. The technology is in place. I just need a couple of dozen young people to start adding data and content, to flesh out the Wall and Search Engine, to jump start the platform. And I'm in communication with some local schools to find those interns. Everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence. Lokkal is built upon Collective Human Intelligence. (Of course, you are welcome to join and help in the effort by making a page and uploading your own content.)

Thank you, Big Tech, but we don't need your algorithms; we'll present our own city to the planet. We ought not and cannot rely upon the authorities to do it for us. We've got the power. It's the most natural way.

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Dr. David presents Lokkal, the social network, the prettiest, most-efficient way to see San Miguel online. Our Wall shows it all. Join and add your point of view.

Discover Lokkal:
Watch the two-minute video below.
Then, just below that, scroll down SMA's Community Wall.
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