Personal Wellbeing for a Better World!

 

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.

You Are What You Are

Ethical values are universal but our understanding of those values is developed and expressed in relation to historically defined circumstances and the individual's understanding of how goals defined as common can serve that person's private interests.

You are not what you, what you know and what you believe. You are not your race, nationality and culture. You are not even your family.

You are you!

And only as you you can be part of a family, company, nation or faith. You can only be really to anyone including yourself by being unique. Because that is the only human way. A human being is not a product of or cog in the mechanism of society. Society is the product and servant of its members, not the other way around. To put the records straight – it's not what you can do for you country it's what you country can do for you and if your country doesn't do it for you – you can and must change the government – it's in the Declaration of Independence. (and I see the Declaration of Independence as a document not only of American but of universal significance).

Bees and ants are social animals – people are individuals with personal differences, preferences and dreams.

The humanness of is ultimately the good life but it is creativity which makes the connection between dreams and realty between life as it is and life as we want it to be, life as it should be! And because that is something very difficult if not impossible to achieve on my own – I need the help of other people. People who are either keen to build my dream or at least a similar one or people who would help me realize my dream in exchange of me helping them achieve theirs.

And those dreams might be castles in the sky or something more practical like security, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Th achieve these goals we create associations, nations, institutions and other tools and mechanisms – but that doesn't mean that these constructs are what we are at least nor more than the clothes that we wear are what we are. There are just means to an end to be changed and discarded when they no longer serve their purpose.

And that purpose is – make no mistake and repeat after me in a loud voice – to help me chase my dreams, not yours – my dreams and of course we can talk about how chasing your dreams might help me chase mine or we can fight over that (although that is more expensive and not at all productive).

Still I am in the center of my world and you are in the center of yours and only by fiercely preserving our personal freedom can personal security, and the personal pursuit of happiness be possible at all. Only unity in diversity works, unity without diversity is a dangerous illusion that makes life miserable for everyone involved.

Desires and Values

In our quest for happiness conjuring plans and putting them into action to fulfill our goals to satisfy our desires we acquire knowledge that can be shared with others for the mutual benefit of reaching our goals easier and cheaper. Thus knowledge is any information that can be used for the creation of a workable way to pursue our interests. Distilling our interest from the fountain of desires bursting from the spring of life fueled by love and beauty builds the structure of the tower of wisdom. That tower will be shinier and taller if it is built on sincerity and honesty or else deception can easily lead to misunderstanding that will cause it to crumble. Because of its complexity the search of happiness is only partially achievable by reason alone. It needs the passion of divine faith to serve as guiding light in the darkness of uncertainty. Desires may be born in the quest for earthly pleasures but that is only a refection of their heavenly source and destination. To deny the moving force of desires is to deny life itself. If they are there they must serve a purpose. It might be divine if you believe in God or you can consider it natural if you believe in Nature but they have the power of an ocean wave that can drown you or give lift you high and take you far in an exhilarating ride if you have mastered the skill to use it.

Sincerity and faith will make communication with like-minded souls possible. You may be able to achieve faster and more impressive results through lies but those results are likely to be short-lived and will most certainly cause more harm than good in the long run. Also depriving others of your honest oppinion on your interests and the best ways to achieve them deprives the community of valuable input which may be decisive for success or failure based on the advantage gained by deliberation.

Desires lead to values through the process of defining first interests, then goals by tempering them in the furnaces of reason, faith and passion. True wisdom will not come only through reason or, faith or passion alone or by merely absorbing knowledge useful to others. It can only blossom from a constant personal quest to understand what I really want, who I really am, why do I love myself and how will that help me become a better (happier) person with the help of others and how can I help them do that.

Personal Interests, Politics and Philosophy

Personal interests are our only legitimate claim we have to resources including the time and effort of others. I believe we can only inquire about other’s interests to be able to find ways to align ours to theirs and help each other achieve our goals through cooperation. Free association through discussion and good all fashioned haggling about who gets what should complete the process to everyone’s satisfaction.
Unfortunately human history is littered with wars and injustice and despite the major advances in science and technology that ensure that al humanity’s needs can be met at an acceptable level to situation in politics prevents that from happening. On the contrary we the people continue to waste resources for expensive and destructive armaments, disregard the environment which affects us and our offspring and worst of all: do nothing to relief the suffering of fellow human beings who are in dire conditions through no fault of their own or even worse killing, oppressing or denying opportunities for development.
That is even more perplexing because if you check the statements of our politicians and the declarations of the only global political body we have, regardless of its deficiencies the UN we all want peace, prosperity, care for the environment and sustainable development.
There is an explanation for that discrepancy between intention and reality and I will not accuse politicians of hypocrisy but the sheer complexity of balancing all interests, the complexity of ensuring proper governance of resources and the ingrained ancient and ineffective in the modern age concerns about security prevent the right things from being done.
Corrupt politicians and business leaders will exist always. Good, bad and completely rotten people will exist always. That’s human nature and I have no explanation for that. But the least we can do is eliminate groundless fear that stems from ignorance or reluctance to abolish defunct systems, knowledge and beliefs that worked before but are no longer relevant. It’s easy to find excuses for inaction but I believe that if we realize that it’s our own lives, our own welfare that we are playing with we’ll be more keen to take matters in our own hands and think more, listen more, learn more and act more sensibly in our own interests which ultimately is in everyone else’s interest.

Personal Political Philosophy

Political Philosophy can only be personal. To paraphrase the crook quotation Ask not what you can do for your country but ask what your country can do for you, because if your county doesn't do anything for you yet you are forced to do more and more for your country without getting anything in return then your country is probably called the Peopl'es Democratic Republic of North Korea or any other People's Democratic Republic which usually has nothing to do with the peoples or the demos or the public except trying to extract as much as possible and stash it away into foreign bank accounts away from harm. Also if you hear a politician asking you to sacrifice for society or the future they most probably equate society with themselves and have in mind the security of their future not yours. But if you live in a country which states that we the people ... and the people means you and me so let's paraphrase it more properly to: I have certain inalienable rights like life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and if the government is not up to its task of protecting and supporting my rights I have the right to denounce it. That's the basis of politics. It's not about power Its about finding a way to help each other protect and enhance our rights mostly by cooperation against those who think that politics is about power and exploitation. And if they succeed it's not their fault that they get their way its my fault that I let them encroach on my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
If knowledge is our most powerful and only tool to achieve happiness in fact knowledge and thinking as the only thing that distinguishes us from animals. (I know there are people who consider animals better than people and very often I can see why but still these people cling to our society instead of practicing what they preach and fade into the jungle to lead a life of Tarzan or Mowgli :-) So if knowledge is our most powerful weapon in the fight for freedom and good life and society is the most important amplifier of both our knowledge and efforts then politics should be the most important knowledge that we can ever have. Consequently as I proved that I am the most important subject and object of politics and politics is all about me then studying myself must be the starting point for studying politics.
Since philosophy is about creating good life then political philosophy should start and end with me: my needs, my desires, my aspirations and my plans to get there.
Ethics
Getting there must be moral. Because morality ensures the cooperation of society and society or simply said other people can be our greatest help or obstacle in achieving our goals following our dreams. That's why politics is important. You can always steal and get away with it but probably not for long and that's why it's not wise.
To finish.
You can't sign away your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are not yours because they the were in that well know declaration. It stated a fact, not a claim. You have them no matter what but to make them real you must fight for them, defend them enhance them. Without that they are like an empty bowl you have to work to put the soup in.