Master of Reality

 

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of Mankind is Man.”

Alexander Pope. An Essay on Man

 

I believe we are responsible for our own lives. It would be irrational to delude yourself with rewards sometimes in the unknown future let alone in unknown worlds. We have the greatest gift of life and all we need to forge our path though it. Unbelievable as it may seem at times most of us have the ability to reason. Regardless of if you believe in God or Nature, we have freedom because God loves us, because Nature values us. Loving parents respect their offspring and wouldn’t offend them with demeaning micromanagement and control. Slaves do not have responsibilities, free people do, regardless of position and in our own lives we are entitled to the highest possible position.

We are the sovereign kings and queens of the most important realm: our own lives. That’s a right to govern we don’t have the right to cede. And if that sounds too comfortable to be true it isn’t. If we are free of constraints it should be OK to do with our lives whatever we want including wasting them completely. But I don’t believe that’s true.

I love the biblical story about the Master of Talents who gave his servants talents according to their ability and when he came back demanded not only the talents back but also profit and reprimanded the one who buried them. That’s why I believe that as we expect good governance from politicians to deal with our taxes and other common resources and from business leaders to whom we entrust our investments it’s only logical that we have the greatest responsibility to govern our own lives not only to preserve but to make them as good as possible.

To put it simple I see God or Nature if you prefer as Masters of Talents and us as Masters of Reality. We take it as it is given to us and have the responsibility to make our lives as good as possible. We have all the tools and the ability to think is the most powerful among them followed by the ability to communicate and cooperate to achieve goals unreachable on one’s own.

We make mistakes along this road and that is only human. It is part of the learning process. The best bet to avoid mistakes and errors is to discuss and learn from others. Success is based on the respect for everyone’s rights and opinions even if we don’t agree.

Reality is what we create, it is what we dream of and work to achieve. A castle in the clouds will collapse if we don’t build foundations under it and that makes us real Masters of Reality. Reality exists as we create it or is the way it is because of our neglect. The Master has given us talents and it’s up to us to use them for prosperity. That’s the only way to be human. We have talents and freedom including the freedom to choose the life of a beast.

Mish Mash for busy minds

If faith and ethics mean anything in life they must bring real profit

But what is ethical and what isn't. Eve's pursuit of divine wisdom doesn't seem to have yielded any tangible results. I know there are uncountable sets of rules and regulations - legal, religious, cultural and whatnot. And most of them are very useful and going against them can get you into real trouble even if your indiscretion is not discovered by the relevant authorities. I am not talking about divine intervention because it seems that God more often than not looks the other way when the good are crushed and evil prevails. To sum it up life's different from an old Western with a happy ending. Perhaps there is some higher purpose or perhaps the atheists are right and the only real law is the law of the jungle of a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.

Do moral principles work at all? Could there be a workable set of rules worthy of keeping by providing adequate return for the good guys apart from the questionable place in that luxury retirement home - Heaven - resplendent with scores of virgins singing boring hymns? What if there is no afterlife and we just die and rot which seems rather obvious except for that atheist Richard Dawkins who reckons we live forever in physical form through our own immortal selfish genes. And we are destined to live in this real, material and fluid world which could be Heaven or Hell depending on perspective, luck, attitude and the results of your actions.

Can you judge others and complain about their actions - yes you can but that is mostly a waste of time because you have to look at yourself first). If you don’t like the world you’ll have to start  and from the man in the mirror and be the change you want to see in the world. To look deep inside and find that divine God given soul or genetic predisposition for survival - depending on how you prefer to call it. Because that idea/form/gene/meme/soul that will survive is the only thing that matters. There is the way of life and the dead end of death. There is a way to learn to be immortal - we are all offspring of a race of survivors - all the way back to Adam and Eve. So we have inherited a treasure of useful knowledge and a lot of nonsense (there were people who believed you have to kill someone to make the sun rise or kill an innocent child to win a battle). I don’t covet the neighbor’s donkey or his ass and we all believe his partner in life is free to choose. Still if I treat my neighbor badly and disrespect his right to life, liberty and to choose the way he pursues happiness than most probably my neighbor will disrespect my rights and property. And then we’ll both be in real trouble.

And if you ask whether you are your brother’s keeper then he might be asking the same silly question too.

Thoughts by Jesus, Ghandi, Buddha, Petar Danov were used throughout the text.

Faith

The results of human action are the most important factors in anyone's life.
The results of our own actions first and what everyone else does.
All human action is based on faith,
And this is not about religion.
Religion is a human creation - the crutches and walking sticks for those whose fate needs support. And sometimes these walking sticks and crutches ares used for fighting each other not for propping faith that they were intended for in first
True faith is tested in real life. If life shows us that what we believe is true then it must be true. It doesn't matter if you call it divine providence or laws of physics. If you believe something is true and it helps you predict the outcome of natural events or your own actions or the actions of others in response to your actions or inaction.
Faith grows from hope and hope from love and love is often blinded by emotions. But emotions are rooted in reality and hope is a combination of desire and past experience on how things turned out after we acted or failed to.act.

Blind faith is bad. It's like being a fan of a rock band. A fan is blind. A rock band either makes good music or it doesn't. I love The Beatles but I'm not a fan. I found it very difficult to find a song that I don't like but finally managed to do so and here it is - "Obladi - oblada" - it's unbearable.

Still a mother loves her child even if the statistics will clearly indicate that her child is more likely to end up as a criminal or a loser. She loves her child based on faith in the good.

But if things still are not going well even the loving mother is bound to notice and take action. True love is based on true feelings True faith is based on reality. Blind faith can only lead to a dead end sooner or later.

True faith is honest.

Honesty is such a rarity ...

Who needs ideas?

All theories are just assumptions of cause and effect relationships that seem plausible and provide reasonably useful prediction for how things might work so we can plan accordingly. It is prudent to be always aware that even the most trustworthy theory might prove inapplicable in a particular situation which demands an innovative approach.

We act we act on our beliefs . We act on what we believe is our best interest and we do what we believe is the best way to achieve it. A prudent person will make every effort to gather all available relevant information and evaluate its reliability as objectively as possible. But ultimately people will be driven by their passions and desires and will act on what they believe is genuine knowledge about how things work. The strength of our beliefs and factored by the relevance of our knowledge will make our actions a part of reality. What is more important it will have more significant effect on that part of reality the is closest to us and affects us the most. Therefore faith is a substantial part of reality and the most important force and tool to achieve our goals. We live because we believe. Or more correctly - the way we live is a reflection of our beliefs.

Philosophy – a journey to the other world

(a quest for wisdom, love and freedom)

This world is the world we know and understand. The other world is the world of the unknown. Philosophy is the name of the ship that can take us on a voyage of exploration of that world. The controls of this ship are easy to master because the only indispensable qualification is love for wisdom. Easy as it seems it must be handled with care like any tool that can harm you or those around you if it is not applied with care and forethought especially its sharp edge called doubt. This ship will use faith as the wind that will propel it on its way and dreams to serve as stars to guide it towards the its goal.

Faith that if you work hard all your emotional, intellectual, political and economic needs will be fulfilled and the best way to do that is if you think deep, love with abandon, work hard and sincerely believe.

Democracy is the way to fully appreciate the individual thus setting them on their path to develop their full potential for a their own and consequently everyone's benefit. Though it is the most natural way for organising a society it doesn't come naturally. Humanity's inherent complexity demands the ultimate intellectual, emotional and spiritual effort to make society work. The problems often seem insurmountable but the alternative is “nasty, brutish” and deadly. Power comes from working together chasing personal happiness.

Is God always Happy?

Why not? All powerful, immortal, all knowing it looks like God should be happy at all times. If you imagine God as a content Buddha – free of desires or a like Jesus ascending to Heaven that may be so but I doubt it. Yes, I too can see the serene beauty of a stone or of vapour rising to the clouds but is that happiness? Rocks are peaceful lacking desires, but the do not have souls either. While God of the Bible seems to have doubts even about creation. Remember God creates something and then sees that it is good. Then God creates humanity – the pinnacle of creation in God's own image but is so often disappointed. But that is not my problem.

My problems is that I don't seem to be happy all the time either. I know there are those of you who will say that happiness is actually the pursuit of happiness or else something that you cannot achieve on this world but I will disagree. There are moments on this world when I feel definitely happy and the pursuit of happiness even if it can be breathtakingly inspiring at times there are moments when it suicidally frustrating. But if it is in my nature to suffer from unsatisfied desires pulling my soul in different directions with no apparent meaning to it all and then again if we are created in God's image then what will be the strength of happiness and of frustration that God feels?

And whose responsibility is all this? (I will suppress the intuitive reaction to blame the government.)

There were times when people believed that if prayers to God do not provide quick solutions perhaps a contract with the devil will do. But that seems like an illusion too. If I was the devil I wouldn't be very interested in providing services in exchange for a corrupt soul too anxious to prostitute itself. That's damaged goods.

With no apparent help from above or below it seems that happiness is my responsibility alone. And if desires seem to contradict each other it's up to me to mould them into a coherent and satisfactory vision. But even then the path remains elusive.

It's easy in the Wizard of Oz – just follow the Yellow Brick Road and the dreams that you dare to dream will come true. In real life the roads of faith, enterprise, politics or thinking seem to lead into different directions. Faith seems like the best (and deceivingly easiest) choice but believing without acting can easily degenerate into hypocrisy because how can I be know by what I do if I do nothing. Politics then seem a good approach as I can harness the power of the many like minded people to pursue our goals together, but that may mean adjusting my goals to fit the common interest. Then thinking may be a good way to achieve what I want but reason also can painfully illuminate the impossibility of my dearest desires. Perhaps a combination of thinking based on faith can help me build a political consensus to support an enterprise that can materialise my dreams?

Tell me what you think?

Life, Freedom and Wealth are Private

Life, freedom and wealth are individual. They constitute the good life. To pursue these goals people cooperate in the fields of business, politics and ideas.

Business is best governed by the market but that being based on human judgement is not perfect. Its utility is in the fact that he market aggregates value judgements from a large number of people thus reducing but not eliminating the possibility of error. The danger of error exists because market choices might be made on the basis of insufficient or erroneous information. Therefore the market needs regulation by the government. The advantage is that political value judgement is formed in a manner different from that of the market thus minimising the danger of aggravating the same error. The way politics define value does not have the numerical measure that the market has and its less straightforward and well defined. That is why politics need a political theory which is based on philosophy and especially ethics and resulting theory of law and economics where it negotiates the legitimacy of its interaction with business.

Freedom is what makes us human. Bees and ants have better organised and consequently more effective and efficient societies but lack freedom and the concept of the primacy of individual interest. In contrast monkeys are on a constant vacation with few if any constraints (especially for the stronger individuals) and where food and shelter are basically free. Yet if compared to humanity their abilities to enjoy life are limited.

People unite to pursue their goals. This political activity has the potential for undesirable side effects. The first are grouped around the necessity to establish rules. That can be mitigated by negotiating the rules. The others are grouped around the potential of united people to exploit and oppress other people leading naturally to the danger of humanity obliterating itself. This threat is overcome by the elaborate security arrangements that define human history.

Faith and art define humanity and might have played a decisive role in its survival. Art and faith have an legitimate but uneasy relationship to philosophy through aesthetics and theology and to politics and business through their influence on public opinion and distribution channels and religion. Nevertheless governing faith and art using political or business tools have proved to be disastrous.

The modern democratic state based on a prosperous middle class thriving in a well regulated by an unobtrusive government market economy is the pinnacle of contemporary governance achieved through centuries of experimentation with theocracies, hereditary monarchies, primitive democracies like the ancient Greek and Roman and merchant republics like Venice and Florence. Apart from it there are states that are state only in form but not in substance which I will label collectively kleptocracies. These are states where the governing elites are concerned with providing exclusive privileges for themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve.