I am

 

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.

Mish Mash for busy minds

Tarzan and Politics

I like history. I don't like war. Yet historians seem to be preoccupied with war. As if that's all people were doing and thinking of in (I’ll go back to that later with economics). That has somehow spilled into political analysis and international relations theory excessively focusing on power and by power usually understanding something related to violence an oppression which somehow become justified if they have the label of political or international attached to them.
To get things straight I strongly believe that oppression and violence are always wrong. Using force for self-defense though is legitimate.
Politics is not about power, much less about violence and oppression. If that was so then the Mafiosi are the best politicians.
Politics is about cooperation.
And cooperation and society is that what makes us human. Sure bees and wolfs cooperate and that’s their way to survive but wit us people it is a bit different. We can survive on our own. A healthy human can probably survive in the wild gathering fruit and hunting with sticks and stones but that will be a life, natural for sure, but not far removed from the monkeys.
Civilization implies cooperation. Not coercion. Violence shows failure of civilization it's not a prerequisite or even a by product of it.
If coercion civilization was about coercion Hitler's concentration camps would have been celebrated as the epitome of civilization.
Civilization is about cooperation and that's where polices comes in. We the people want a lot; we see our happiness as more than being fed and warm. We want more and that more is only possible in cooperation that makes the pursuit of happiness possible.