I am the way...

If faith grows out of love and love from hope and hope based on knowledge which is the best remedy for fear, then faith in oneself is the highest most honest faith that one can have. Because it's obvious that you can only love what you know and that what you know best and deepest you are destined to love most. If you believe that you were created in God's image or you believe that you are the pinnacle of evolution no matter how imperfect you are - you have to love yourself to be able to love anyone and anything else

It is a delusion to believe that I know anything at all if I don't know myself first and from myself my deepest desires and boldest dreams. Then it looks like you can't believe in anything at all if you don't have faith in yourself first. And if that is the most honest possible faith why don't pray to yourself:

Dear me - please, help me become the person that I want to be and may my will be done... Perhaps if you do that then God, or Nature or Society or all of them together will help me achieve just that. Or not - you do believe that God will trade favors for prayers (as if God needs anything from me) or Nature will just take a course naturally favorable to me (it actually did already if I am the progeny of a long line of survivors or perhaps because they were survivors it looks like nature was simply good to them.

David didn’t wait for God to kill Goliath - but picked up a couple of pebbles and opposed the scary giant who died confused by his own arrogance. I can’t imagine David praying to God to kill Goliath because David is understandably reluctant to do it himself. David has faith and took action in his own hands to get what he wanted. Was he always good - no. But what makes David admirable is his honesty and faithfulness to himself.

You cannot be saved if you don’t save yourself. That’s what airline safety instructions tell you to do. If you don’t put on your oxygen mask first you may faint before you are able to help that child next to you. You have to love yourself so everyone can love you and so you can love the others. And you can only love yourself if you reach deep inside to that divine essence, some call soul.

There is no gate to the way but many roads lead to it.

Can a government burden future generations with debt they haven't had a chance to agree to.

Definitely not! That is against the principle of no taxation without representation.

But what if the money is spent to keep the parents of these future kids alive?

What is good and what is bad we might be able to tell but how to measure it? Does the greatest good for the most people maxim work? The experience of Hitler and Stalin's persecution of minorities under the false pretext of common good tells us enough to be able to judge. Most important, ignoring the fate of unrelated minorities will lead inevitably to the time when they will come for me and then there will be no one left to protest.

While the Tea Party religiously is carrying the future generations to the mountain to sacrifice them to an imagined principle of decency Obama is trying to do the intuitively correct thing and borrow a sacrificial lamb from the neighbors although he doesn't seem to have a very clear idea how he is going to pay for it.

Who is right? Burden the future with debt or kill the present in the name of the principle even if the principle is in itself correct – even sacred? There is no one correct answer. Perhaps we need to keep in mind that the Sabath was created for the people not the people for the Sabath. But then again the unity of diversity makes the nation and even if the people can be enslaved a proud nation – never.

Thoughts by Cicero, Jesus, Buddha and from the Old Testament were paraphrased in this post.

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 Morals?

So Eve, God and the Snake conspired to teach Adam some ethics the hard way. Gone was the easy life of tree fruits and air-conditioned paradise. Now he had to work for his food and shelter. Also, regardless of the tens of thousands of years of experience, in sin and good deeds it seems Adam's and Eve's descendants haven't learnt a lot about morals. On the bright side though (one must always think positive) Adam didn't have steak, beer, or fried chicken in paradise and we suspect there was no sex too so he (and Eve) had gained something. And if we include the joys and trials of motherhood and fatherhood then humanity has had an opportunity to feel the frustration of trying to to teach good and bad and seeing no results. Just like God.

On the other hand the way Adam and Eve's descendants have set up a society in which, regardless of declared principles, deception, manipulation and coercion are the preferred methods to get what you want. So obviously wrong and frustrating was that that Buddha decided that all desires must be wrong. But without desires Adam will return to his vegetative state of the pampered gardener of Paradise – with no freedom, no pursuit of happiness and frankly no life to speak of.

Perhaps if your passion is focused on higher purpose you will achieve worthy goals but what if your passion is drifting towards something horrible – than if Nature or the Divine are cruelly fair then your self-destructive wish may be granted too.

When man became good at accumulating the things that he wanted three things became obvious = first, that with your neighbor’s help you could produce more, second, it’s easier to steal the fruit of your neighbor’s labor instead of laboring yourself, and third, with the help of your neighbor you can easily overcome the resistance of your other neighbor when you are stealing the fruits of his labor. Unfortunately that other neighbor might have figured out the same arrangement before you did.

Centuries of trial and error led to the universal understanding that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights - not because that sounds good but because it is in my personal interest. Obviously without life there cannot be any appreciation of happiness and without the freedom to choose your own path to happiness it can never be real happiness.

Without the freedom to choose to know what is good and bad Adam and Eve couldn’t have been created in God’s image!

Adam and Eve - not a happy ending

"I should have married the Devil instead of you."
"But, Eve, you cannot marry a close relative."

Adam and Eve - Ethics, God and ME!

It is part of the Bible that has always perplexed me. I hope to somehow understand it sometimes. I believe I will regardless if it happens as a result of conscious analysis or an epiphany.

It is the story of Eve with the apple (i wonder if Steve Jobs hasn’t named his company after that particular apple:-). The story goes like that - God creates a man and a woman and leaves them in the Garden of Eden where they can live happily by eating the fruits of the heavenly plants. There is one catch though - they are not allowed to eat the fruit of one particular tree - the Tree of Wisdom which will make them know the difference between Good and Bad and eventually make them Godlike. One day - when Adam is asleep (presumably after downing a couple of beers out of boredom - remember he is not working and there is nothing worse or more dangerous than an idle man;-) Eve - the woman wanders by the tree and is seduced by a talking snake (some say Satan him or herself or the devil though at that point of time the ancient Jews seem to not have developed the concept of the devil so let’s just settle on a talking snake) to try one of the fruits of the Tree of Wisdom which remember will make her equal to God by giving her the understanding of what is good and what isn’t. Being naturally sociable Eve wakes up her snoring mate to share this remarkable opportunity. Adam is a bit wary - he prefers the lazy life of doing nothing and knowing nothing (more like the three Japanese monkeys who cover their eyes, ears or mouth) but Eve doesn’t accept Confucian excuses and he reluctantly shares in the forbidden fruit and presumably the knowledge of what is good and what is bad (for him it kind of worked more in the realm of sports, unhealthy food, alcohol and female appearance than any deeper philosophical or ethical insights that would bring him closer to God). Anyway both ate the forbidden fruit (often depicted as an apple but I don’t think it is described as an apple in the Bible and actually Steve Jobs named his company after the Beatles’ Apple which created some problems - then again perhaps the Beatles named their company after the apple from the Garden of Eden or it was a conspiracy between them and Steve).

After they ate the forbidden fruit they noticed they are naked and tried to hide their genitalia with a fig leaf - later called modesty patch and still sometimes used by contemporary politicians or other celebrities (at least by those of them who still care) and who have suddenly realized there is some kind of indecency in their lives.

Obviously that was an act of direct insubordination to God’s orders and God expel the curious couple from the Garden of Eden and gives them the whole world to explore. That exploration will be accompanied by suffering (including at childbirth for the woman) and they will have to work for their food and other essentials (including fig leaves).

That’s what they proceed to with them and their descendants suffering the consequences of this so-called original sin. That is the Judaist version. The Christian interpretation will add to that that Jesus by his death of the cross somehow absolved humanity of this original sin and now we can breath freely without feeling guilty about it and presumably sin as much as we want because we are miraculously “saved”.

I have a problem with that. Not with the story itself - I consider it as one of the most profound parts of the Bible (it just doesn’t speak to me clearly enough yet) but the blasphemous interpretations.

Imagine if you are a teacher and have just told this story to a bright little child and ask the poor kid about the moral of the story.

The most likely answer will be -

If you disobey someone powerful like God or a parent you are most likely to get a lovely present - like this whole beautiful world.

My mother, grandmother and sister are bad and all bad in my life is their fault. There must be

a way to get back to them for that.

There  must be something wrong with people in general even after having eaten from the Tree of Wisdom - of knowing what is right and what is wrong - they still seem to have difficulties telling right from wrong in words and deeds and precariously far from any useful wisdom.

But if God indeed is our creator wouldn’t God like us to be independent as every normal parent will? And if that is so wouldn’t God want us to know the difference between good and evil? And if that is so wouldn’t God try to entice Eve with the knowledge that will make humanity created in God’s image truly godlike (Adam being happy like a vegetable in the Garden of Eden fed and protected without the need to exert any effort at all).And wouldn’t we the people be happier and more thankful if given the freedom to pursue happiness whatever that means for each and every one of us?

It seems the whole world history from the first human beings until now points towards that. We don’t seem to long for a carefree living in a garden that we haven’t planted ourselves and we are not responsible for. And if all that was God’s plan it seems we are doing pretty well. A parent would have been proud with a humanity that regardless of all our deficiencies, errors and crimes ultimately find a way to rise from the dust, repent, reflect and proceed further.

Even if you don’t believe in miracles you have to be realistic and agree that is quite a miracle in itself.

Philosophers are Kings

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers are kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands, while the many natures now content to follow either to the exclusion of the other are forcibly debarred from doing so. This is what I have hesitated to say so long, knowing what a paradox it would sound; for it is not easy to see that there is no other road to happiness, either for society or the individual. (Plato, Republic)

It dawned on me just this morning that it is not about kings taking a community course in philosophy but rather we, the people - the true sovereigns of this world taking the path of loving wisdom and gaining the good life in the process.
Rather simple really.

Does God like to pray?

If for us the people praying is a way to communicate with God then for God prayer must be a way to communicate with us. I can say that because i believe we are created in God's image and if that is so then possibly the good parts of us are the Godly parts - in other worlds the true unadulterated image of God and I believe prayer is one of those things.

It would be impossible to know if God likes prayer in general but I can personally say that in my particular case the answer is - yes.

I feel good about it and so should God.

But what is the point in that.

Does God ask us to do certain things as we tend to do in our prayers.

Or does God simply pray may thou will be done.

I believe that is what God does and that is scary.

It's easy for us to pray for God's will to be done safely assuming it will be good for us but that is an illusion.

If God set us free because God loves us even in our stupidity it is prudent to assume that God will make our deepest wishes come true without judging them if they are good or bad.

That means that God not only makes our dreams and most elevated yearnings come true but our nightmares and basest urges too.

Be careful what you wish for.

Because your will will be done.

Pussy Riot vs Putin 1-0

Vladimir Lenin defeated capitalism.

Vladimir Putin - Pussy Riot.

And that is the man who Sarah Palin was secretly ogling from her Governor’s mansion in Alaska whole he was horsing around half naked or otherwise posing.

We, the men are disappointed.

Always on the look out for our next hero, with Clint Eastwood growing old and David Beckham falling pray to a Spice Girl we were expecting His KGB Fearsomeness Vladimir P. to parry the Pussy Riot challenge with James Bond elegance. But it seems the girls knew exactly what they were doing. They didin't damage Mr. P.'s credibility (if he ever had any) - they provoked him into revealing his insecurity and that of his inner circlie.
Sorry Sarah - you misjudged him.

The biggest threat to Vladimir's authority is not Madonna's support for Pussy Riot but his own insecurity.

Thoughts from PD

The first face of God is love expressed in life.

The second face of God is wisdom expressed in the light of knowledge

The third face of God is the truth expressed in freedom

Wisdom is the world of the outer divine forms weaved by love.

Love is the essence and wisdom represents the forms of the harmony that flow into music and poetry.

Wisdom is the world that contains from times immemorial all things that God has created all things that the higher powers have created and all things that people have created on Earth. That is why this world is accessible to us. From this world comes all true and essential knowledge.

Strive towards the light and don’t forget that knowledge doesn’t come from one place only and that light doesn’t enter only through one particular window.

Invest wisdom in your mind so the light can come and the knowledge to give you its power.

Only the enlightened path of wisdom leads to the truth. Without being good you cannot attain any knowledge.

All knowledge starts with learning what is good.

There is no love without wisdom and no wisdom without love.

If a thought comes to you bringing joy, peace and light you can be certain it comes from above – from the divine world. If it brings confusion, sadness, darkness, fear, worry and uneasiness it comes from the underworld.

Reason is the harmony between love and wisdom.

Thought is concentrated love. Light is concentrated thought.

Give freedom to your thought. I call freedom only that which can free you from life's adversities. Only then you are free. If you have an idea but it doesn't set you free – you don't need that idea. You need a philosophy that can free you from your life's adversities and contradictions in which you can find an explanation of the inner laws of life.

Wisdom is the source of hope. If you don't have hope – you cannot achieve anything. Hope is the foundation of health and without health you only suffer. Hope gives you direction in the physical world.

Love is the foundation of life that creates faith and faith is the source of intelligence. Intelligence is the foundation of a life that gives us the ability to know God.

Tell me what you think>

The Strait of Hormuz between Allah and Mammon

The Ayatollahs: Allah, Petrol and the Great Satan

The last weeks brought a seemingly incoherent actions by the Iranian dictators. First they threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, next they invite international inspectors to play the game of cat and mouse with the Iranian nuclear program and its suspected military aspects.

What could be the reason for such inconsistent behavior. Either stick it up to the man (the USA, the Western world and the world public opinion) or meekly accept their superiority and do as they say. It would be difficult to divine supernatural causes because I would expect an omnipotent and omniscient God to inspire consistency. So if it is not Allah it must be the Great Satan who can be blamed for the wavering of the faithful.

That has certain logic behind it. The United States have hurt the international transactions of Iranian banks by imposing sanctions on them and have paraded an aircraft carrier near the narrow straight which is so important for international oil trade although not affecting particularly US oil imports which come mainly from other sources.

So if not God or the Great Satan who can be the culprit? The last suspect is Mammon. The Ayatollahs are not so worried about things divine or they would have defied the Great Satan but more about things pecuniary. That is why it is easy for them to continue with the military posturing – they know that the US is no position politically, military or financially to sustain another war (and Iran is a much more dangerous adversary than Saddam's Iraq or Afghanistan) and on the other hand the rulers of Tehran wouldn't risk their earthly positions in a war with the USA too because the fate of Saddam, Milosevic and Gaddafi is not something to be desired. On the other hand it turns out that petrol has become the US main export. So both countries US and Iran (actually even Russia) will benefit from a rise in the price of petrol and certain military posturing won't hurt (especially bearing in mind that the US military are facing painful cuts and need an excuse to boost the perception that the bloated defense budget is still needed).

Nuclear weapons are something else althogether. The USA has demonstrated with Saddam that this pretext can be used easily for an intervention that is why the Ayatollahs invite international monitors to preempt such a possibility.

That makes them quite clever and decisive and not inconsistent at all. They need a foreign enemy to scare the ignorant part of their subjects into submission (the Arab spring was preceded by the demonstrations against voting irregularities in Persia, now Russia has the same problems but more about that later).

Unfortunately it looks like it's not Allah or other high ethical principle or enlightened idea that motivates them and the Americans but petty business interest which could be not bad if it leads to good results but higher price of petrol is a good result only for those who trade in it and for the rest of us remains the hope to manage to save enough for an electric car to be able to travel further than the natural limitations of a bicycle.

There could be one good consequence of all this – expensive gas leading to less pollution.

Links:

U.S., EU Rebuff Iran's Hormuz Passing Threat | New Middle East News

nmen.org/u-s-eu-rebuff-irans-hormuz-passing-threat-3/

56 minutes ago - “The Strait of Hormuz is an international strait. Therefore all ships, no matter what flag they fly, have the right of transit passage.” Iranian Vice President ...

Iran plans missile tests near Strait of Hormuz | World | DAWN.COM

www.dawn.com/.../iran-plans-missile-tests-near-strait-of-hor... - Pakistan

59 minutes ago - TEHRAN, Dec 31: Iran on Saturday kept tensions simmering over its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers by readying war game missile tests near ...

Iranian missile spin closes Hormuz for five hours | MELCHIZEDEK ...

www.melchizedekpriest.com/?p=13737

19 minutes ago - 31, Iran's state agencies “reported” long-range and other missiles had been test-fired as part of its ongoing naval drill around the Strait of Hormuz. Ahead of the ...

Iran backs off threat to close oil strait | News24

www.news24.com/.../Iran-backs-off-threat-to-close-oil-strait-201112...

37 minutes ago - Tehran - Talk of blocking the strategic oil route through the Strait of Hormuz is a discussion of the past, a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard said on...

Iran Delays Missile Test & Suggests Talks - War On Terror News

waronterrornews.typepad.com/.../iran-delays-missile-test-suggests-tal...

22 minutes ago - The fresh diplomatic overture follows Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. The U.S. later countered with a promise to keep the strait...

THE BIBLE BLOG | Blog | Strait talking: Iran gets tough as US fleet ...

www.thebibleblog.co/.../strait-talking-iran-gets-tough-as-us-fleet-loo...

27 minutes ago - The US says its warships, which crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, are heading to the Arabian Sea. Iran's long-range missile systems, including the ...

Iran - Press TV

www.presstv.ir/section/3510201.html

18 minutes ago - The spokesman for Iranian Navy's Velayat 90 war games in the Strait of Hormuz says three of Iran's newest domestically-manufactured Ghadir-class submarines ...

Britannia Radio

britanniaradio.blogspot.com/.../us-sanctions-on-irans-central-bank.ht...

57 minutes ago - 31, DEBKAfile reported Iran had managed by a media trick to close the Strait of Hormuz for at least five hours without firing a shot. Posted by Britannia Radio at ...

BBC News -Iran denies test-firing long-range missiles in Gulf

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16372141

18 minutes ago - On Tuesday Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil export route, if new sanctions were imposed over its nuclear programme. The US and its...

North Korea - What Now?

What will happen in North Korea?

The regime seems far less stable than the Arab dictatorships or even the USSR by the end of the 80s.
For there is no doubt that North Korean regime will collapse most probably sooner than later and in any case not later than the end of this decade if not in the first half of it.
The problem is how the world or the major interests involved will deal with it. If there are any particular plans they don't seem to be public if they exist at all so I will feel free to speculate.
Questions to be answered:

First, what could happen?
Second, who are the major players and what are their interests?
Third, what can they do to promote them or what can be expected that they may do?

Possible answers to the first question – possible developments :

1. Russian scenario. A Gorbachev style move towards reforms starts well but ends in Yeltsin type chaos of crime and corruption until the Putin type strongman regulates corruption in favor of his clique and puts the losers in jail
2. Chinese scenario. Deng Xiaoping style reforms lead to improved living standards while preserving the rule of the communist party and postponing the inevitable collapse.
3. East German scenario. South Korea absorbs North Korea and the North Korean communist elite melts into obscurity.

Additional questions stemming from the proposed answers to the first question:

• Which is the preferred scenario?
• Which is the most probable one?
• Which is the most dangerous?

Answer to the second question – major stakeholders :

1. The people of North Korea – interested in survival, development, democracy and opportunities
2. The communist elite of North Korea – interested in preserving their privileges
3. South Korea – interest in dealing with the military threat from the North and reunification.
4. China – interested in stability in Korea to prevent destabilization of its regions bordering Korea.
5. Japan – interested in removing the threat from North Korea and a host of problems.
6. USA – a peaceful Korea will reduce the need for US military presence but open opportunities for trade.
7. Russia – has shown remarkable indifference for a country so close and the importance accorded by the government to the development of the Russian Pacific region so close to North Korea.

So far all stakeholders (with the notable exception of the sovereign – the people of North Korea) have pledged to work with the elite in North Korea to facilitate a smooth transition. Russia has warned against “provocations” by North Korean neighbors probably meaning that the Russian government won't tolerate a repeat of the Libyan scenario.
That may be the most sensible foreign policy in response to the contingency of the moment but what should the main stakeholders do to secure the promotion of there strategic interests in the future?
And what those interest may be? (I am aware that the concise list provided here is far from complete and may be even off the mark.)

You Cannot Love If You Don't Know

If you want to give
you have to have.
If you want to live
you have to love.

You can only have
what you understand,
not what is in your hand,
and you cannot know it if you don't love.

Russian Spring and US National Interest

One night the Khalif Harum al Rashid summoned his vizier Jafar and said to him: “I wish to go into the city to find out what is happening and to question the people about the conduct of my administrators so that I may dismiss those who they complain of and promote those they praise...”
from the Tale of Three Apples not Newton's, Beatles' and Steve Jobs' but the one from The Thousand and One Nights

The Khalif in Moscow seems to have forgotten that he has to check what people think of his administrators and confident in his popularity after ruling uncontested for over 12 years was unpleasantly surprised by his party's loss of more than 20 per cent of their seats in the Russian parliament regardless of the intimidation of his opponents and his control over the media (perhaps that was caused in part by the 20 per cent increase of internet penetration among the highly literate Russian population). Even worse he seems failing to acknowledge that the people have genuine concerns and dismisses the protesters in true Leninist style as paid by the West. To top it up US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed her concern with the rigged elections, prompting Mr Putin to retaliate that she was instigating the protests which is hardly try. Try spending several hours outside in the Russian winter. No matter how big a fan of Mrs Clinton you may be that thought won't be enough to keep you warm. Just how shaky Putin's position is at the moment can be discerned by his nervousness and lack of confidence (this is the man who rides his horse half-naked even when Sarah Palin is not watching from Alaska) but making the allusion that the white ribbons used by the protesters look like condoms is pretty low (and exposes ignorance that condoms may come in different colors). Gorbachev too (hardly a political competitor anymore) incurred the wrath of Putin by calling for a rerun of the elections.
Having said all that most of the protesters have spent most of their creative lives under the relatively secure, stable and prosperous rule of Putin and his political allies especially if compared with the chaotic Yeltsin regime. Those are the less flamboyant KGB guys (the more extravagant ones are in London dazzling the UK public with extreme wealth obtain though unthinkable corruption) and they may continue to rule Russia for quite some time with or without Putin mostly because they are unlikely to give up their positions without a fight. On the other hand the protestors are not the workers, soldiers and sailors of the October Revolution from the previous century. They are mostly middle class people who are looking for a government that can provide for more opportunities for development and innovation besides selling oil and gas to the West and China.
And that is where the interests of the people standing in the cold in Russia coincide with US national interest. A more democratic Russia where innovation and development will create more markets for US products and more products for US markets can only benefit the US middle class.
In that line of thought it was lucky timing that Russia was accepted as a member of the WTO just when it needs a boost. US – Russia relations cannot be fully covered by the philosophy of a “reset”. They need much more creative thinking to build a whole new system of interdependence and cooperation that will not only boost domestic economies but help create the conditions for stability and prosperity across Eurasia where pockets of volatile conflicts and regional animosities threaten to blow out of proportions, not to mention the imminent collapse of Chinese communism with yet unknown and unpredictable consequences.
The most precious legacy of the G.W. Bush era is the expensive lesson that the US cannot and should not act alone attempting to resolve international issues no matter how well-intentioned and powerful it may feel. It is debilitatingly expensive and the results are at best inconclusive if not disastrous.
The cheapest and most effective way to promote US national interest globally (and in space) is through cooperation – Marshal Plan style, or Kissinger's policy towards China style or International Space Station style. That is not confined to US international experience. Post WWII French policy to entangle Germany in an EU, (I remember it was originally an US idea) but it only became successful after France started pursuing it with religious fervor, and has managed to forge fascinating unity on the Old Continent torn by the most devastating wars in human history less than a century ago, and that united continent is one of the most reliable US trade partners and military allies.
Russia has moved a long way since the stagnation of the Brezhnev era. It is not perfect but it is moving slowly forward. It's in our interest to support that movement.

… the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it— but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor...
--- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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.

What You See Is What You Get

What you see is what you get in live. If you know more you will get it easier. Understanding how the world works is critical to achieve ones goals easier. That knowledge comes from reflection on personal and others' experience. By reflection I mean both creating assumptions on cause and effect relationships and analyzing the result of testing these assumptions in real life. Personal experience is the most expensive but most reliable method of testing these assumptions and it relates them to our personal goals, interests or desires more closely than others. An experiment or in other words an artificial model of reality to test our theories is cheaper than real life experience but can be inaccurate or misleading due to the necessary simplification of that reality. The danger of self deception is even greater when applied to complex phenomena like society, business and especially politics.

But if personal experience leads to better knowledge wouldn't that also mean that personal theories of happiness, ethics, economics and politics are better than general ones. And indeed that is the logical conclusion. General theories are always weaker and less informative than personal ones. That doesn't meant that the are unnecessary – we need them to establish understanding between us so we can get other to help us achieve our goals which would be difficult (if not impossible unless one resorts to coercion) if we don't have a shared system of values, meanings and beliefs on the projected results of certain actions. Coercion is bad not because of some obscure commandment but because it can only achieve short lived results deceptively easy. The results will be short lived and the whole coercive enterprise a waste of resources because anything that does not develop is bound to die out. The only way to improve the results from coercion is by more coercion thus inevitably causing more resistance until the balance tips over against the perpetrator of coercive practices. It's a futile exercise and that makes it bad policy to pursue.

Scapegoat

Who is to blame for the mess we are in?

The politicians?

Big business?

Both?

Or its all our own fault?

Mad is not the man who eats two cabbage pies,

but mad is the one who gives them to the man.

Bulgarian wisdom (don't count on it's relevance, but ignore it on your own risk)

The Tea (for lack of beer) Party will blame big government and unaccountability and they are to a great extent right. The OWS will blame big business and they too have a point. But it is like blaming the GPS if you don't know where you want to go. If your goal is clear then the deficiencies of the instruments to get you there would be more obvious. The main problem with government is not lack of efficiency but lack of effectiveness. It's no use to blame someone for wastefulness if you don't know the final goal. You cannot allocate resources if you don't have priorities, you cannot find the way if you don't know the destination. Once you know that you are looking for the Wizard of Oz the Yellow Brick Road becomes visible clearer than before.

Less regulation may seem like more freedom to its advocates by they should remember that free markets are impossible without a government guaranteeing private property and the critics of capitalism while right about the negative consequences from breathtaking inequality should keep in mind that when private property is compromised even worse inequality (Chinese, Cuban or North Korean style) emerges inevitably. The above are simple laws of how society works. By simple I do not imply insignificant but basic and solid to the extent that further attempt to disprove them will be rightfully considered waste of time. I will restate them:

1. There is no democracy without free markets.

2. There is no free market economy without democracy.

3. There is no freedom without both of the above being in place.

But if the goal setting is the most important part of the politico/economic process how do we go about setting them?

Here the answer cannot be simple because the goals must incorporate the interests of each and every citizen. Market and Politics work differently. When buying or selling it is the customer peculiar preferences that come to the surface. In a democracy on the other hand it is the same peculiar, individual, pesonal interests that are most important but they are negotiated in a manner appealing to some common, overarching interest. That has let some to believe that this commont interest is above personal interest and that is the worst political error with the gravest consequences as has been proven by the actions of Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot among others. Private, individual interest always has the priority and only by protecting and respecting it is possible to formulate and protect a common course of action that wouldn't turn against those who it is supposed to benefit.

Therefore it is not politicians and big business who are to blame. It's me and you – equally. Perhaps to a certain extent it's more my fault than yours. Think about it. Tell me what you think.

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.