https://factsandtheoriessite.wordpress.com/
Just started a SEO course on Udemy and in the introduction
they said: the Internet is about the world better helping to make, Google is about
helping to make the Internet better, SEO is about helping to make Google
better. I was inspired by that way to look at things – indeed our work, our
interests – even if it is an attempt to make my website more popular is ultimately
about making the world better.
So, any effort – including the most mundane work for a
living has a higher meaning – providing for myself is actually providing for
the betterment of humanity. That is of course if your particular line of business
is not intentionally focused on harming fellow human beings and in consequence
humanity as a whole.
https://factsandtheoriessite.wordpress.com/
People worry.
Then people fear.
Then people tend to act unreasonably.
Unreasonable behavior is detrimental to people's wellbeing.
It is normal. We have survived because we have avoided numerous dangers along the road. On the other hand paralyzing fear can prevent us from using valuable resources where they are most needed. Therefore it is most important to think before we act, doubt before we believe, analyze before we claim to understand.
Following is a quote that impressed and saddened me at the same time. There are great minds that warn us but we listen and don't hear, look and don't see....
"The English
government presents, just now, a curious phenomenon. Seeing that the French and
English nations are getting rid of the prejudices and false notions formerly
entertained against each other, and which have cost them so much money, that
government seems to be placarding its need of a foe; for unless it finds one
somewhere, no pretext exists for the enormous revenue and taxation now deemed
necessary.
Therefore, it
seeks in Russia the enemy it has lost in France, and appears to say to the
universe, or to say to itself. "If nobody will be so kind as to become my
foe, I shall need no more fleets nor armies, and shall be forced to reduce my
taxes. The American war enabled me to double the taxes; the Dutch business to
add more; the Nootka humbug gave me a pretext for raising three millions
sterling more; but unless I can make an enemy of Russia the harvest from wars
will end. I was the first to incite Turk against Russian, and now I hope to
reap a fresh crop of taxes."
If the miseries
of war, and the flood of evils it spreads over a country, did not check all
inclination to mirth, and turn laughter into grief, the frantic conduct of the
government of England would only excite ridicule. But it is impossible to
banish from one's mind the images of suffering which the contemplation of such
vicious policy presents. To reason with governments, as they have existed for
ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that
reforms can be expected. There ought not now to exist any doubt that the peoples
of France, England, and America, enlightened and enlightening each other, shall
henceforth be able, not merely to give the world an example of good government,
but by their united influence enforce its practice."
https://factsandtheoriessite.wordpress.com/
It's the critical thinking people's support that counts.
You can call it a blessing.
Yes! Because socialism and communism mobilizes societies resources for the common good, strives for equality and solves poverty and unemployment problems. Also the living proof is that Communist China is the leading world economy.
But… Communism with its rigid centralized system of government tends to breed corruption that creates the inequalities that it has proclaimed to be fighting against. Also, communism and socialism tend to stifle innovation - the iPhone was invented in America - but, of course, is made in China. On the other hand the Soviet Union beat America to space.
Communism is an old idea - since the time of Plato and Aristotle, even Jesus preached against private property. Still it has too many weak points and it is free markets and democracy that have brought humanity prosperity and technological progress (and that includes China).
https://www.quora.com/Do-you-really-want-a-socialist-or-communist-country-Why/answer/Alex-Great-5
First,
I thought communism was good and capitalism bad.
Then,
capitalism is good and communism bad.
Democracy and market forces should take care
of that….
And
that seemed to be so true because then we won the Cold war – Soviet style
communism crumbled under its own stupidity eager crowds dismantled the Berlin
war and turned the pieces of the hated barrier into souvenirs – under the
sounds of Pink Floyd singing “break down the wall…” Then the US bombed the
Serbs!
Then
NATO didn’t disband and kept going for no obvious reason. Then the Chinese
communist system managed to bring their country out of poverty to the leading
position in the world economy.
Then America is in multi trillion-dollar
debt…
I still believe that it’s not by the
benevolence of baker and shoemaker that we enjoy prosperity and that we have
those inalienable rights.
What I don’t know is – what went wrong?
I know Marx does – he was confident that it was the ownership of the means of production that was the problem but while that does seem to be true with China’s success and the recent economic crisis triggered by US financial institutions it doesn’t seem to explain everything. Communism did fail in Russia and Eastern Europe.
"...who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first… There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate..."
Margaret Thatcher
If you wonder what to have for dinner, or just wonder check - amazon.com/Mish-Mash-Elli
Compared to the past now is the best time to live! Following is a quote from Nick Kristof: ‘If you’re depressed by the state of the world, let me toss out an idea: In the long arc of human history, 2019 has been the best year ever.’As evidence, he cited record low levels of child deaths (whereas in 1950, 27 per cent of kids died by the age of 15, now that percentage is just 4 per cent) and record highs for adult literacy (90 per cent of adults are now literate). Every single …
Pinky: Gee, Brain.
What are we going to do tonight?
Brain: The same thing
we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.
This is a work in
progress. Intended to serve as a scaffolding for thought and research. I am
worried that we (humanity) have made such big strides ahead in technology but
so little in our understanding about the big issues in life as Why, What and How?
Here we go!
The question is:
Why humanity doesn’t
live in peace and prosperity?
Why humanity doesn’t
live in everlasting peace and prosperity if we have already mastered the
technological means and have access to the resources for that?
Possible answers:
Is it a greedy clique
of corrupt politicians and business people who conspire against us to protect
their undeserved profits because they know of no other way to safeguard their
privileges other than instigating division, conflict, war and chaos?
If that is true – how
powerful are they?
How can we stop them
from doing that and prevent anyone from doing that in the future?
Or are our
institutions the culprit?
Is it their failure
to allocate resources and distribute profits fairly while safeguarding against
those who plan to disturb the peace to gain unfair advantage?
Why is
humanity stumbling from war to war for no particular reason using ever more
sophisticated instruments to kill and maim fellow human beings?
Why?
Why
does our justice system seem eager to punish severely petty crimes but keen to
ignore major ones?
Those
are obvious questions that anyone can relate to. What bothers me that there
doesn’t seem to be a consensus on how are we going to go about resolving those
issues before humanity self-destructs? I know: Democracy, Free Markets, Rule of
Law! Truth is – regardless of the validity of those they don’t seem to work.
Why?
Where
is the theoretical, philosophical, ethical, legal knowledge that we need to
develop to overcome these obstacles and what are those obstacles?
One
possible answer could be – our institutions do not have the built-in
accountability devices to guard against them being highjacked by corrupt people
who misuse them for undeserved gains.
For me
a first step would be better understanding of what’s happening because
personally it has been more and more clouded with the years.
First,
I thought communism was good and capitalism bad.
Then,
capitalism is good and communism bad.
Democracy and market forces should take care
of that….
And
that seemed to be so true because then we won the Cold war – Soviet style communism
crumbled under its own stupidity eager crowds dismantled the Berlin war and
turned the pieces of the hated barrier into souvenirs – under the sounds of Pink
Floyd singing “break down the wall…” Then the US bombed the Serbs!
Then
NATO didn’t disband and kept going for no obvious reason. Then the Chinese
communist system managed to bring their country out of poverty to the leading
position in the world economy.
Then
America is in multi trillion-dollar debt…
I still
believe that it’s not by the benevolence of baker and shoemaker that we enjoy
prosperity and that we have those inalienable rights.
What I
don’t know is – what went wrong?
I know
Marx does – he was confident that it was the ownership of the means of
production that was the problem but while that does seem to be true with
China’s success and the recent economic crisis triggered by US financial
institutions it doesn’t seem to explain everything. Communism did fail in
Russia and Eastern Europe.
Therefore,
I am starting this blog hoping in a series of essays to manage to get maybe if
not straightforward answers – to at least build a scaffolding that will help me
scramble up to the shoulders of those giants and be able to see further (or
perhaps to the tops of their heads?).
What’s
in it for you?
Not
much.
I am
doing this mostly for myself. Why making it public?
If my
thoughts help you in your own quest for knowledge – please, tell me – your
encouragement may add a plank or pillar to my scaffold as I may help you build
yours.
In
general, I believe that understanding the fascinating and disappointing reality
we live in will help enjoy it more and for longer.
What
does space travel have to do with all this – you may ask…
It’s
obvious – space travel is the latest and most exciting adventure of humanity.
If anything is going to pull us out of the swamp of hate and division that we
are drowning in is the unifying vision of a common quest. It may also provide
purpose and employment for all those talented inventors, engineers and technicians
who are now preoccupied with creating fancy tools for destruction. So my aim is
to travel to space and in between now and then work to promote space travel for
civilian purposes as a a worthy endeavor that will save humanity and civilization
and may prove a useful substitute for the dangerous and wasteful arms race
So
that’s my plan to take over the world. I know it may sound kind of naïve or
even dodgy but that’s all I can think of for now and… you never know.
If you wonder what to have for dinner check - amazon.com/Mish-Mash-Elli
It seems the US
is purposely working to isolate Australia from all its possible trade partners
to keep it in American orbit. First starting an unnecessary war of words with
China. Next angering France just before a free trade agreement with the EU is
to be finalized.
Let’s find out –
if Germany supports the delay of the free trade agreement – then perhaps that’s
what the Americans want – if not then I am wrong and it’s just France whingeing
about the lost billions.
America is trying
to weaken the EU by encouraging the small EU members to disobey the powerful
German and French masters in Brussels, but do not have the money to that Brussels
can afford to spend. On the other hand, Germany seems increasingly less keen to
finance Eastern ‘dissidents’ like Poland and Hungary.
Now Australia participates into two military arrangements against it's main business partner - China. Both are with America - one with Britain, the other one with Japan and India. How that will affect all of us remains a mystery.
There is no reality as such because:
1. It is constantly changing
2. We are among
the actors who consciously (or subconsciously) contribute to that change
3. We act
on the basis of our desires and our perceptions of the state of affairs
4. Our perception,
our understanding is based on reality and our biases
5. Our biases,
opinions, and desires are constantly changing too.
Human society is an issue of the mind. Social co-operation must first be conceived, then willed, then realized in action. It is ideas that make history, not the “material productive forces”, those nebulous and mystical schemata of the materialist conception of history. If we could overcome the idea of Socialism, if humanity could be brought to recognize the social necessity of private ownership of the means of production, then Socialism would have to leave the stage. That is the only thing that counts.
Desires are like beacons on our path in life marking the direction towards our purpose. As any force of nature, they can be perilous and destructive or propel us towards our purpose in life if managed by a skillful captain. We are free to choose to guide the ship of our life towards exotic places or left without direction towards the only place our life will naturally go: the bottom, no matter how much we wallow in self-pity.
To find out where we are and where we want to go we try to base our decisions
on fact and proven theory. But life is much more complicated and on top of that
personal so its often hard to find useful advice and guidance. What are we and where
do we want to go? Everyone certainly has some idea about that. So do your
friends and wider circle of relatives, workmates etc. Their view may be close
to yours or widely different. And somewhere there is the real you independent
of opinion but certainly moving or being moved in one or other direction for
good or bad.
Among all that we have our beliefs: the things we hold to be true without
decisive proof because we didn’t have the time or the opportunity to check
their validity. We still act upon them because we need to act and make choice
big and small in every moment of our lives. So these beliefs influence reality
and so in fact create into reality. Again, we may be successful but that would
be entirely due to chance. Only by sharing our beliefs, assumptions, hypothesis
with other reasonable people and accepting any constructive criticism can we
see clearer in the fog of complexity created by contemporary society. Our
desires, passions, values, goals being the compass the best map will be the one
created by thinking and experience, and open to corrections by fellow travelers.
And not only for advice, often if not always we need outright help from others
to achieve our goals.
But how do we enlist that help?
There are two obvious ways:
Cooperation or Coercion.
Coercion might come first to mind and seems like a quick and easy way to
achieve your goals but it’s self-defeating in the end. Cooperation builds on
common reasoning and pooling of resource to reach goals both personal and
common trough understanding, compassion and common sense.
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If (as many believe) democracy is indeed in crisis and peoples desires and visions for the future are not acknowledged by government then we have to assume that it’s the corrupt elites interests and plans for the future that define official policy.’
If that is the case then are political failures (assuming a
failure is something the people do not want or approve) the result of the corrupt
elites’ stupidity or that was their plan and the fact that we, the people don’t
like it is too bad for us.
I guess elites – corrupt or not as clever as they are just people
like the rest of us and it is understandable if they make the occasional error.
But bearing in mind the information and resources that they have on their disposal
that is highly unlikely. Therefore, it may be beneficial to analyse so called
political failures from the premise that they may not be errors, but planned
actions aimed at some consequences preferred by the decision makers.
The elites prioritise their interests just like any human
being – me first, increase what’s mine second and help those closest to me
third. Citizenship, society, nationhood, global awareness comes after that.
Cooperation and/or exploitation of others is always a plus in the pursuit of
personal interests.
The difference between the elites and common people is in
the scale of power and resources that elites have at their disposal. We the
people would like to believe and the elites would like to convince us –
sometimes sincerely and sometimes hypocritically that they manage these
resources on our behalf, but the truth is that they have the control and we
only the choice to trust or not to trust them. And indeed sometimes resources
are managed to the benefit of all but when corruption and greed overtake the individual
member of the elites the damage spreads like malignant cancer. Better political
systems manage this spread more effectively than more primitive ones but which
are better is a matter open for discussion.
So a typical member of the elites will prioritise defending
and enhancing his or her exclusive personal privileges, encroaching on the
privileges of fellow elites who have more to lose but then more to give and on
those of common people who have less but are more in numbers and last but not
least protecting elite privileges or as Marx would define it class privileges.
While Marx is right on that part he is wrong about the whole class struggle
thing because the workers – or proletariat are not interested in defeating the
elites – the bourgeois class, they are interested in becoming part of it. That’s
where an enterprising member of the elites may and will summon the support of
the common people to increase his, hers or their groups power and wealth at the
expense of the other members of the elites and of course – the hapless masses.
Does that mean that there is no hope for the establishment of
a just and prosperous society? No, indeed there is hope as history and current
developments have shown. Elites, masses,
humanity strive towards a world where rules work and personal freedoms are
protected. Yes there are those who would try and will sometimes succeed to
cheat the system and on a grand scale too – see the Military Industrial Complex
as one blatant example of that, but the fact that with all their power and
money they cannot keep it secret and won’t be able to get away with it for long
gives us hope. Because arrogance leads to ignorance – ignorance to fear, and
fear – to failure!
Good is whatever keeps me alive and happy
Bad is whatever kills me or makes my life miserable.
Good is impossible without freedom. Freedom includes freedom
of choice.
It may seem freedom includes the freedom to harm others but
that is not true because harmed people will most certainly seek to harm you
therefore restricting your freedom and hampering your quest for happiness and even
jeopardizing your life expectancy…
What is a false claim for ethical behavior? A claim that
whatever is good for the majority must be imposed on the minority – it’s a
recipe for fascism, communism – oppression and extermination of those
considered not useful to society and even those who may be considered useful
but due to their convictions – unreliable. Judging that whatever is good for
the majority is good for everyone can also be used to justify for example slavery.
Slave labor in the USA before the civil war brought wealth to the nation yet
the nation went to a fratricidal war to abolish it. So whatever is done for the
common good but ignores the interests of the minority and the smallest unit of
minority is the individual cannot be good.
That’s why freedom is important and also because a society of
free people with various opinions and experience tends to be more knowledgeable
and better equipped for progress and problem solving when needed.
There is no such thing as "society” just an useful invention
of sociopaths to exploit the gullible.
Society as something opposed to the individual is a
travesty. The only useful use of the term is if it serves me.
There is no such thing as “society” apart from the personal interests
if its members and only in the sense those members understand them – not as
some other people or group will try to impose on them.
Any claims of primacy of the common good over personal
interests betray either personal confusion and a repulsive “holler than you” self-righteous
ignorant attitude or exploitative hypocrisy in a brazen attempt to shame you into
submission.
As with the wise Emperor of China who was the wisest person
in the land because he was able to learn something even from the dumbest person
so everyone of me and you is an emperor of our individual destiny. Free to set
up our own goals and devise the means to achieve those goals. Free to succeed
and free to fail including free to learn from that or ignore the lesson.
I am the way,
the truth and the life….
The most
important egoist – that’s Me!
Knowledge and
cooperation are the two most important tools that the individual has to survive
and succeed.
Knowledge –
for obvious reasons – to be able to achieve his or her dreams, satisfy desires
and learn how to yearn for more.
Cooperation
for the same reasons – plus to disincentivize other people from encroaching on
one’s life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
There is a
story about a Chinese emperor who was the wisest person because he could learn
something even from the dumbest person he met. And the dumbest person was dumb
due to being unable to learn even from the wisest emperor.
Knowledge
not only provides the means to achieve one’s goals but also clues on how to do
that easier, lazier, more efficient – it teaches us shortcuts.
But there
is irrelevant knowledge some would say – like astronomy, for example.
That may
seem so.
But when Neanderthals
were competing with our ancestors for a place in the future – we won because we were more creative. The Neanderthals
were bigger stronger and only engaged in inventing new tools when those tools seemed
to obviously bring some immediate advantage. They also had art and possibly
rudimentary faith. But we – had more – better art, stronger faith, more curious
minds and that’s why we survived and they didn’t. That’s why we need astronomy,
rock music, comedy and all the other good but seemingly useless stuff that we
do and enjoy.
And yes
knowledge gives us the idea of shortcuts and one of the most useful shortcuts
is to exploit your neighbor. Doesn’t seem ethical but it works.
