Caregivers and other issues.

So care giving, is clearly related to health care, but also it connects
closely to the Buddhist notion of compassion. Here follows some details
from google search about compassion:

 Below, find eight signs you're a truly compassionate person. 

•  You find commonalities with other people. 
• You don't put emphasis on money. 
• You act on your empathy. ... 
• You're kind to yourself.
•  You teach others. ... 
• You're mindful. 
• You have high emotional intelligence. ... 
• You express gratitude. 

 I am not sure but it does seem that this is pretty good advice in general, for the normal behavior we should have, toward each other. Clearly if we have a lot of this behavior going on in society,,, many issues could be resolved , and of course many of these issues do or might connect with suffering in ourselves, and the suffering others. Now, I do suspect this is quite a natural way for people to behave, and we should be capable of encouraging each other in these things......

But now I have to point back to here:

trust-honesty-generosity-and-safety

as well as previous post on absolutes, because,
I don't know that your can ever achieve absolute
mastery of the above, in fact I think it is
a continuum an continuous project to progress
on these issues, and so,,,

the last post about trust, etc connects to all
these because of the term safety, which can
also be interpreted as justice.  So I think
that most clearly it should be thought of
as the fabric of society being,

trust, honesty, generosity, and justice ,,,,

kind of the same thing.

A little bit about absolutes

Now, some might accept a notion of, for example, the existence of a True Conservative
 or a True Liberal, which indicates there is an absolute line on some spectrum which
can be labeled at one point.  This does allow for the construction of a kind
of moral compass which has the premise that the true path must be somewhere
in the middle.

I would simply argue that I really don't think that works, it's kind of like a broken
clock which is right at least 2 time every day,,,,

Now we should reflect a bit on the natural world in order to consider if
there are some kinds of absolutes, and I would suggest that this observation
would indicate that because of the almost incredible variety and complexity
in nature, you can observe exceptions to almost any rule, unless it
is sufficiently general, and you might say generous in it's description.
For example if I say all leaves are green,,, well,, do you see that problem.

Or even all leaves are distinct..., well not that much, really.

Therefore, I would suggest both serious caution and thoughtfulness
be used in the creation of any kind of structure that relies too
heavily on this notion of absolute. Another good idea is not to
build cities on fault lines, but guess what .. ??

turn and face the strange changes

Link to youtube:  David Bowie, Changes

You know, I was thinking about writing about how difficult these
kinds of changes that I have discussed must be, and I heard this
interview which is linked here:   Chokwe Lumumba   .......

actually talking about these kinds of things, well, what the heck ????

talking about actions .... say heh !!!

A massive cultural change about what we think and how
we think and ultimately how we act,, no,, I don't think
it can be easy, it is even hard to imagine, or envision,  but as I have
discussed it seems plain that change is necessary and change
will come,,, but can we turn and face the changes ????

So exactly, now, tell me,  how much will these changes cost ????

Well, the more appropriate question is how can we afford
not to?

And you should remember about capital, there are many types
of capital,,, moral, physical, intellectual, and even cultural,,
which we possess individually and collectively and this is
where we need to invest, in each other.

These changes take place at a very intimate and very real level
within each of us but finds expression in everything .....
I mean everything .....

Back to the Truth ( again )

It seems like you do have to re-invent the wheel from time to time,
and so referencing old post :  The Truth

You know there are references to Einstein's letter to the U.N., about
secrets and how these secret's are detrimental to culture, and
boy talk about lot's of spades in relation to what's going on
right now ....  Hey?

A deck full of spades .....


We seem to be having a rather difficult time facing the the truth,
which is effectively honesty,,, which I also failed to address
in what seems to be essentially a kind of warp and woof for reality,

Trust, Honesty, Generosity, and Safety

maybe you can think of it like a bit of a matrix ......

in previous post ....

So I am going to add a few links to other ideas on this

subject....

euroculturer two-party-system

washington post

Howard Dean - NY times

The Hill

Huffington Post

U.S News

Fiscal Times

and this goes on, and on, .....

kind of a rabbit hole really ....

so you know what to think ????
( or ?)
 do you think what you know ?????

Trust, Honesty, Generosity, and Safety

Well, where is trust and where does trust go?////

Is there a relationship between trust and generosity?

And finally what about safety?

Well, we can pull this apart many different ways, but
to begin with I will assert that this is the fabric of
both economy and social order.  If there is no trust there
is no economy.  

So the first question, where does trust go?  I mentioned this
before in relationship to justice on this blog  21 Oh Man.

In the case of justice the answer was ,,,, nowhere.  Justice
does not move, but we are capable of obscuring it.  And
likewise I hold that trust is also one of those things that
may become obscured, and so I believe this goes back
to generosity.  How we interact with each other and
what kinds of things we mutually expect.  

Which get's back to safety.  If there is little trust,
or the perception of little trust, meaning the fabric
of society is beginning to shred, people will become
increasingly fearful.  That will cause them to behave
in particular ways.  But fear has never been a good
way to deal with reality, to understand reality, or to
connect with reality in substantial ways.  And that
of course brings us right back to " economy ".

Breaking my train of thought ....

While this may be a diversion or maybe going a bit left,
while everyone is going right,,,,

I still find it some how connected but also " intriguing " ...

Everything seems to be falling off the intriguing ...

"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness."

by Arundhati Roy

More On, Greed

So this is a continuing followup on what began with this post :  Seriously

So, in the last post I discussed some of my concerns about collective action
and --->  what I claim to be the major show stopper for cultural advancement
and an evolving society, " the one and only ",,,  greed.  ( also addressed here
at Demons & Dogmas ).

The big questions is, can greed be overcome?  I think the answer is a
some what personal one and clearly involves the issues of generosity.
But we can obverse that we are constantly getting feedback on this
issue and it really connects to personal behavior and how we
perceive generosity, as well as other human virtues.   Just following
along with the previous post here,  this has a profound effect on
collective action and the effectiveness of collective action more so
than one might initially expect, without giving due consideration to
it.

So we really need to bring into focus the need for self examination
on matters of this type and this also ties directly back to the
initial post above relating to how we take up , and pursue collective
actions on all levels, that is of the individual, family, community, and
so forth, and also, how we perceive the relationships of these
variously connected groups.  ( yes, an identity is a group )

The topics are really important and are issues that need to be addressed
in the present, but clearly moving on if we are serious about a future for
anybody.  But honestly and sincerely, none of this is easy.

Paradoxically Speaking

The alternate title would be , God, Greed, and Collective action and
relies on the previous two posts.

To begin with I want to specifically discuss collective action, the actions
taken by more than one individual.  So consider 4 individuals that wish
to perform an action or activity together.  You will see that in order
to succeed they must discuss details of how this action will be performed.
If they have performed that task before, those discussion may be abbreviated,
however, that task of discussion will go on at some level, how who,
where, what and when.

Now, if one individual believes or suggests he might have an
alternative method, but the other 3 agree on something, then
depending on the relationship between the 4, there might be
a less than positive effect.  For example, if there is not a strong 
relationship between them, and particularly if the 3 start into
belittling or demeaning that number 4, then one reasonable
outcome is that number 4 will just go his own way, then leaving
more work for the other 3.  This situation I believe it is fair to
call " stupid ", or perhaps, " counter-productive ".

Now we should be able to observe that this is not so different
from what happens to an individual before he undertakes
some action.  You will observe such things as collection
of information and assessments of details surrounding that task
should be taken in advance.  Time is always a big factor, so how
long do we predict this task will take?  And so individual action
requires a key component we often refer to as thinking. And there
are many aphorisms referring to this process, such as, " look before
you leap ".  Again, I will simply assert, that thinking is intimately
connected to the effective undertaking of any task and the quality
of the resulting task is related to that thinking as much as
how " together " the individual is in performing it.

Shifting over to God, now, I will just mention a few things.  First,
I will assert that it is possible to construct a rational proof for
the existence of God, but I will not get into that.  I will simply
note that one of the strongest arguments suggesting that
God doesn't exist, is the absence of physical evidence.  I will
simply note this argument is stated often, but rarely or never
proved, and that would be because it can not be proved.  Even
if it is reasonable to say there is no physical evidence now,
which I would disagree with, then you simply have to
qualify that with - yet -  ---- at the very  least.  But because
physical reality is effectively infinite by itself, asserting
the absence of physical evidence in this situation can
not be realistically provable.  Rather the correct observation
would be --- you have not personally observed it or made
the proper inference or connection.

But now let's move on to greed, or Greed if you prefer.  Very
few people will have any difficulty affirming the existence
of greed, though hardly anybody has ever seen a " lump
of greed ", or any measure of it.   And that is really because
greed is not so much a thing in itself, but more the absence of
a thing.  Mainly, I will assert that greed is the absence of
generosity and generosity itself makes itself known both
physically and non-physically.

Finally, I will also assert without proof that this issue of greed
or lack of generosity is the defining issue of the present day.
And you must observe that based on the example I gave
above concerning the behavior of 4 individuals in relation
to a task, a lack of generosity, particularly generosity of
spirit must logically result in a disruption of the effectiveness
or success of collective action.
 

More On, previous stuff

Following up from last post, which may take several more posts, I must point out
that my suggestion will not work if guys go to work and after work figure it's
okay to just do and say what they want.  So that means the " representatives " need
keep that going as you might imagine.  And beyond that " leaders " and executives
should do whatever is in there power to encourage that kind of behavior as well.

And so, seriously, why would anyway want to behave that way?

Well, those they represent need to expect that from them and support
and encourage them to behave that way.  That is one key point.  And
those they represent should expect it, regardless of perspective or
point of view on specific issues.  And primarily I will assert, because
in that way we can all achieve more of those things we truly wish
to achieve.  And I am not talking simply about compromise I am
talking about better solutions, and solutions that will encompass more
problems.

So I will follow up with more thoughts and comments on previous
post .....

Seriously

Well, I think it's about time that I became a little more serious and
a little bit more sincere about this blog, which I have given up on
at least twice, because I sort of felt it was a rant going nowhere,
basically.  But I have written frequently that the approach to decision
making based on conflict and confrontation is inherently weak, but
in addressing the real solutions to this difficulty, I expressed how
solutions seemed mostly intractable, or at least very difficult.

So I will offer one relatively simple idea, which can be easily applied
immediately.  Those bodies which have been set up for collective
deliberation need to address their behavior.  When anyone enters
these bodies, these environments for addressing the collective concerns
of societies and states, they must drop this posture of confrontation
and attack.   In other words, what ever their perspectives, views,
or agendas may be, however praiseworthy they may appear, they
must drop that all, and allow for a collective process which is
freed from preconceived views or opinions.  In other words if they
are of one party or another which may have some kind of agenda,
they most drop all that at the door, and commit themselves to
being open, considerate, and responsive to their colleagues above
all else.  They must in no way assume or suggest that they are in
possession of the right course of action or even the right course
of deliberation.  In other words, each one must put the other one,
 above themselves.  ( I hope that sentence is clear enough). If they
are not capable of achieving such a state then their best course of action
is to remain attentive, so that they might develop those skills
required to achieve the ability to work, act, and behave
in that manner that assumes collectively they may achieve solutions
of better quality than they could achieve individually.   And beyond
 that, the entire electorate must be supportive in what ever way is
possible of that kind of behavior.


It requires a commitment, however, but I trust these efforts are
reasonable and achievable, everywhere.  This simple effort I believe
can have dramatic and significant effects beneficial for all of us.
I finally, I also trust that following this suggestion that
strange quality ( the light of truth ) , will expand and
illumine all of us.

The Light of Truth

So I googled 'light of truth' and got this:
In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message as well as The Light of Truth 

I was thinking I might find something by Dr. Einstein who spent some time
considering the nature of light and himself became a luminary of the 20th
century.  

But certainly in this time of " existential crisis ", or as I like to think of it
as Seldon Crisis ....  energy has become a grave concern and therefore
I believe our understanding of this " light of truth " is ,quite relevant,
for ALL OF US, at this time.

Clearly light has a profound effect on all of us and is intimately connected with
processes  and the sustaining of life, and likewise we might expect that this light
of truth might also have a similar effect if - if it indeed possesses the nature of
physical light.

Another very interesting human experience we might acknowledge that
possesses this quality of illumination we also sometimes refer to as unity.

 These two experiences I assert possess remarkable potential as yet
not truly explored, but this does bring to mind another, luminary of the
20th century and of acclaim in the U.S.  nation and that would be
Humbert Humphery , which also leads me to mention Paul Wellstone 
whose life we should try to remember and today Minnesota can be rightfully
proud of the efforts of Al Franken  who continues to make efforts of that
type on our behalf today.  And he also has a new book: Giant of the Senate 
which I haven't read but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.  I'm going to
leave that there, but having had a personal encounter with Mr. Humphrey I
am well aware of his commitment of service to the people of Minnesota and
the nation as a whole.

One thing that seems quite evident to me is that during dark or difficult times,
the significance of this light of truth has even greater meanings, but I believe
this light will also properly lead us to that future with which we all wish to
be engaged.

There is a great deal left to be said on this topic, the topics of light,
the light of truth and the light of unity , but to complete this discussion
would involve more effort than I am willing commit to, at this time.