Our loyalty must be to our species (#1735)

I am constantly appalled at seeing people put their loyalty toward concepts over people. It is amazing to me that when we think of things humanity is not the basis from which we begin. It is as if we take ourselves for granted and don't consider how our ideas affect our species. Some even go deeper into the weeds by not only not figuring our species in total but only in some discriminating way that benefits some and harms many more. The unadulterated ego that some display is astonishing in that we are all born with no clue and learn from those before us. We then all die off in some time frame so that for any of us to think we are some sort of higher intellectual immortal is insanity. We are all here in this existence together for what purpose no one knows and I mean no one knows! So instead of trying to compete to see who knows best why don't we just work together in some intelligent way that reduces harm and increases happiness? That should be our motto throughout the world and it should start right here in America that was founded upon that very same principle. The ignorance as to our genetics and our prejudices about those same differences in DNA coding have little to do with reality and more to do with hate. If hate is to be a virtue than prove how it is! I demand that you do otherwise reflect on your thoughts, actions and behaviors and then justify them to yourself in a logically acceptable way. We have little time on this planet to be playing at being alive when the actual living of life in a productive exemplifying way continues to slip away each day we keep on expounding life's illusion.

The heart strings (#1734)

They are there always to be pulled when the occasion arises. Funny how that works. I can be as logical as the day is long in summer but when my heart string gets tugged I lose a lot of my perspective. I fall into a void zone where nothing makes much sense accept the moment of my feeling. My emotions are very powerful things and for the most part have defined who I am at my core. Yes, I am an old softy who would rather feel my feelings of warmth than to constantly wrap myself around the coolness logic emanates. Don't get me wrong though I do like the coolness of logic but it isn't the only means to an end. My life has changed in so many ways, wow, that line kind of reminded me of a Neil Young song. lol. The life inside of me is quite amusing sometimes. lol. Anyway, my passion for life is still burning brightly but I am not such a zealot at applying that passion in just a few subjects. I am open now to the panoramic view that our world offers and in that view I can allow for me some happiness. That is where the heart strings fulfill a vital role. I can love and be loved like I had not previously been able to do. Often I could be loved but not love back the same or vice-versa. Now I am at the complete stage of allowing my heart to succumb to a similar heart. What a magnificent achievement I have evolved towards. My less than rock-like foundation has firmed up and the flighty part of me has waned. So when the pulling of my heart strings happens I am most ready to experience it with all of me and not just some unresolved part of me.

We must have state of the art schools for teaching our children (#1733)

I cannot emphasize enough how much our children depend on activities that enlighten them and hold their interest. Everywhere I look I see struggling schools that are barely keeping what students do find intellectually stimulating. The purpose of our civilization is to progress from our humble individual roots of millenniums ago. We have done that in significant ways but our journey to master knowledge and apply it is woefully short at this time and space in our history. Not that we can't do it but that we won't. For all kinds of more self serving reasons. A sense of duty to our species has been confused and lost by many and in it's place stands a more self centered motivation. Our processes for being busy on our planet have become out or their hierarchical priority. Where destroying is profitable and building is seen as not needed. I am a bit dumbfounded by the loss of vision embracing the best of who we are and that expressed in real actionable ways. Surely there is a cancerous element that has inflicted our social, economic and political body politic and the sooner we rationalize it and reasonably dissect it from ourselves the faster we can get back to creating the types of paradigms that celebrate opportunity and equality through learning and growing. I long for the day when our species sees ourselves as a community of people worthy of all of our destinies being fulfilled. What a remarkable future we could have if all of us are given the tools to learn and master this existence around us in ways that we all benefit from.    

Our existence comes from our Universe (#1732)

This isn't exactly known absolutely by me so with a bit of a disclaimer, let me see if I can lay out my case effectively. The only thing that is not found in all the chemicals, minerals and motions in this existence is the understanding for intelligence or in other words our ability to reason. Everything else is mechanical by nature and all these atoms and molecules exist within nature. As to how we come to "grow" a conscious or a thought is still a mystery. But I do know this we are born with sensory perceptions. These "instruments" we possess culminate in our brains being able to discern certain outcomes. Like all the other species that exist on our planet Earth, we are at different evolutionary stages of commanding our instruments. It is right to say that the human species has evolved further along on this line of enlightenment that any other known species. As we all are on some path toward enlightenment, it would seem we have something in common that may explain why we are. For me it is our need to "survive". All the species on our planet express some form of survival instincts. It is this very survival instinct that teaches us through fear and therefore how to understand fear. Through initial fear and other emotions we experience we sense and record conclusions and thus that is how we began our reasoning process at the beginning of our species evolution. So by my understanding we create our own reason after we began our time here in this existence which means all that we have or are comes from what is supplied here in this Universe. It is not a perfect analysis but for now I can't think of a better one. 

Life interrupted (#1731)

It is stark when something happens close to our hearts that shake us a bit and take us out of our previously important routines. We get at the least a glimpse of ourselves as to what are our priorities in life. Our little daily desires all seem to take a back seat to the shock of the moment. Hopefully we take advantage of our insightful perspective and change some things in our lives that bring less routine and more meaning. I know it is captivating to insulate ourselves from the discomforts of life when we can but while it does offer us sanctuary it denies us major parts of the actual good living of our lives. The control we strive for needs to be balanced with the openness to new adventures and thought processes. We, none of us, have arrived to a place where we can hang our hats on the knowledge we have as enough. We are a species specifically designed to learn and grow. Nothing about that is disputable, so while we do shelter ourselves from the motions outside our control, for the most part, we are not inherently adaptable to that. We need the movement and unpredictable chaos in our lives as part of the panoramic nature we exist within. We must allow for ourselves to be a part of each other's lives so that we don't miss a chance to grow from each other. As I know I am unique I also know that every one else is unique as well. Given that it is natural, we need to stay about with each other when possible instead of finding ways to remove ourselves from each other. It is our human legacy and good for us to do so.

Staying above the nonsense (#1730)

Deja vu all over again so the saying goes. I have spent enough wasted time to last me for a lifetime. I am referring to conversations that have little to do with reality and more to do with causing confusion. I prefer to stay focused on what I do know and add to that in a logical way. It seems that many do not share my process in that they just throw subjects of at best a dubious nature out there and expect others to confirm their conspiracies or negatives. I do not have the time or the patience for strategic idiocy. Neither should any of us, however that is the nature of some folks who cannot or will not practice honorable principles for living. Something deeply rooted in their psyche's won't allow them to logically confirm premise to premise to conclusion in a truthful way. So it goes with them and for me they are not allowed in my sphere of conversation. At least I can always leave before I get frustrated with their lack of logical sequencing. I have many things I could be doing other than trying to appeal to some smart part of someone's mind when they have closed that off for good to me. Maybe someone else with the proper psychological or psychiatric training will have more luck. For me I find that enjoying what is properly real is the best place for me to remain and as far as debating nonsense, I have no more time for it. 

Optimism even when it is hard (#1729)

It is not easy at all looking and finding the best in every situation, but that is what we must do regardless of the situation. Sometimes I fail miserably for a little while because I am human and apparently I am unable to keep my emotions from ruling my thoughts for short periods of time. Nothing unusual about that but it does signify to me that I am nowhere near where I want my control of my life to be. Again, nothing unusual about that either, since none of us is capable of exact control considering that many factors that intersect our lives come from outside our control. The variety of permutations is unlimited so for me the answer is to try to always find the best out of whatever is going on and focus on that. I am not discounting that terrible things occur but to dwell on them is useless as any form of remedy to my own mental health. When I keep my wits about me and allow for the best of thoughts to overwhelm me I find that my perspective on how we live and why things happen make for some situations to be more easily endured. Even when things are going great I do not waste any time on thinking what could go wrong. Instead I continue to create in my mind just how much greater the great thing could be. Optimism is a choice and for me it is more than that. It is a way of life that helps to sustain me when I need help from myself. If we all could just think about the best of what things could be and try to imagine how wonderful our existence could be over the things we humans control.

All we have is right now (#1728)

Coming to grips with knowing that in the next moment we may not exist is not an easy comprehension. We instead try not to think about it out of some mangled sense of self-preservation. However, by ignoring the truth of the thought does not make it go away or help us decide how to live our lives. The honesty of it must be a huge factor in how we choose to live. Those who dismiss it as irrelevant are already gone past reasonableness in their life plan. They have constructed a life pattern that doesn't entertain the notion that they won't be in it. By doing that what they have done is disregard reality and what is happening today in this moment as inconsequential to them and their goals. It helps insulate them from the obvious pain and suffering in our world to the point of it having no effect on their lifestyle. Which is a huge problem for those of us who are ready to more than give of ourselves to correct the problems in our societies. Some of us see the fragility of life and know the depths of it's human anguish but we are stymied by those who choose not to see or know the ongoing turbulence of what opting out of the truth creates. The machinations of some who would be kings and queens are enough of a barrier to thwart the honest attempts to rectify social dysfunctions. Thus here we are in a society that ignores reality and then blames the world for not being like them. The fervency needed by all of us to live our lives as if there will not be another breath is still waiting to be realized, hopefully it won't be a catastrophe that wakes us up to it as catastrophes are inherently species exterminators. 

Fear that exists from our imagination is harming us (#1727)

Yes, I am talking about myth, superstition and belief systems. None of these is a real thing only an imagining that we either hope that exists or hope that it doesn't exist. That is wrong of us to even be in the thought and act of allowing them to rule our lives with a determination to them as if they were factual. None of them are, they are hopes and wishes only. My life has to be centered on what I know about me and the surroundings I am existing in, not some ideal of what after life consists. My spiritualism will have to deal with anything that comes after my death the same way I had to evolve it here in this existence. And that is supposing that I am going to have another life after death. In all reality as far as I can ascertain, we end our lives here. So for me it is relatively simple, live my life now to the best of my ability within the dimension of this reality. The only fear I let truly to exist within me is the fear of the unknown and as I continue to discover and learn, I find that the unknown  is not very scary at all. It is just unknown until it is known. That will happen in time whether while I am here or after I am gone. So allowing fear of the imaginary to lead us to illogical thinking and actions does no one any good and many much harm. We are biological data processing sensors and if we are not reasoning, analyzing and concluding through those logical realities we are in dimension with, then we are not fulfilling the nature of our being and instead have mutated to a species unrecognizable based upon our inherent capabilities. 

We need to know we are connected to all around us (#1726)

I don't need anyone to tell me that I have a purpose in life, the very fact that I am here is enough evidence for me. I don't need anyone to tell me who I am when I have already defined myself to myself without a doubt. I don't need anyone to tell me how to live since I am living as myself reasonably fine. I don't need a lot of advice from anyone in particular since I am the one who must choose whether to be me or to be something I am not. I always go with me nowadays since it is seamlessly natural. When I was younger I sought out advice about how this existence operated and if there were any secrets about life I had not already discovered. I soon found that what life demonstrated to me was that I need to just live as who I am and enjoy the time I am here. There is no magical mystical journey I am missing out on, I am all the magical mystical I will ever be just being alive. I live my life now with the idea that what I care about and what I want to know are the true and only paradigms worthy of my attentions. My caring expands as each new knowing comes into my knowledge. My wondering about all that time, space and it's recognizable components increases daily as I am continually open to the newness created through discovery. As we all know none of us continues in this existence for long so trying to get to a goal is all about the journey as we will never eventually complete most of our greatest hopes and dreams. I know this though, I am connected to this life in all the ways that everything else is and that gives me pause to sense a hint of the sublime.

Causing pain and suffering is a choice (#1725)

I often hear this meme about "nothing is free". What bothers me most about it is that anyone who has ever loved anyone else knows how absurd that statement is. Surely though they must be talking about how our society operates. Even then, the barter that takes place is mostly cost/benefit but there are paradigms within that which only hold to benefit/benefit. I like doing things for others which gives them something and for me it is the satisfying feeling in my soul that is enhanced. Something for something can be free when what we do is right in every way. Here is the deal, I have to be doing something while I am alive and only living to accumulate wealth without regard to it's effect on others is not an option. I can receive wealth in amounts that are good for me but never to the point of causing others to go without. I am not made that way! What is not a purpose for us to be alive, in my mind, is to work for some happiness and blame others who cannot. None of us knows why we were born into this existence. We know how, through our parents and biology, but the why is still the greatest mystery to our questioning of all things. So for us to say that nothing is free is in complete contradiction to our even being here in existence. We paid no price to be born, we were gifted with it. As to the resources here on our planet, many before us instituted polices that marketed many necessities we need to sustain life. Is that right of us to put a price on our ability to survive? I think not. Our natures are compassion and curiosity and for us to be employing  anything less than that is not who we are or who we are still getting better at becoming.

Finish what we started (#1724)

It doesn't matter what it is, finishing it is what matters. If it is a good thing then follow through until done, if you realize it is a bad thing then unwind it and bring it back to where you started and then go forward with a good version of it. Regardless, don't stop until you are done. Now some things in life require us to never stop because the ideal behind them is of a longer duration than our lives. So be it. Once you decide to take it on then the onus to finish is yours. I don't mind life long journeys that require my vigilance, they are a steadying force for me to lean on when I am not at my best. I can always focus harder on my duties and responsibilities to smooth over any rough patches in my life. The constancy of applying myself toward my goals and obligations truly does define who I am. Because again, it is all about the journey I have in life that is descriptive of my character, thus my destiny. I started out in life as a blank canvas and since my birth I have been filling in a picture of who I am and will continue to do so until I am no longer part of this existence. What I leave behind me is important to me. I want the Universe to know who I was while I was here. Whether that is even possible I don't know but if in some slight way it is I will have been proud of the better parts of my life. So, in conclusion, I suggest we all make our way through life like the amazing species we are and leave no doubt as to our ability to shape and create an exceptional existence marked by our persevering presence.

A whole lotta lies out there so fact check (#1723)

In the past, even I got caught up in the delirium of seeing something that fit with my world perspective and jumped right into the reference with both feet, often passing it along because it had to be true, since it fit my world view. But what I found out was that despite the overall intent of my good world view, the reference I was using was not up to the truthful standard it was implying or advocating. So what I do now as much as possible is to not only check for the veracity of references I find but I also compare them with other studies or stories on the same subject. Often what we get are subjective stories that tell one side of a policy or law, without offering the countering view. Now the countering view is important here. We cannot accept the idea of knowing a subject without knowing the pros and cons of it. The smart idea on this is to prepare as if you were going into a debate. When you know the highs and lows of both sides, your debate opponent will not catch you off guard and you will likely have a rebuttal to their countering viewpoint. So it is with references that fit nicely into our personal and public narratives. My intent always forms my viewpoint and when starting from the foundation of equality, fairness and justice, I rarely find that I am on the wrong side of any argument. From there it is just accumulating the evidence necessary to argue my viewpoint from a human point of view. So let's all just take a deep breath and when we do advocate for some policy based upon a reference, let's make sure the reference meets our high standards of arguing truth and not lies.

Don't spoil the good seeking the perfect (#1722)

I have learned this the hard way. I tried to stick to my principles of advocating for the best of what can be only to have sabotaged meaningful steps forward. It is good to let the good triumphant regardless if it isn't perfect. We move forward from one place on the plateau to another higher place in order to make progress. It isn't like we all see eye to eye so despite the logic of having the perfect, we must allow for incremental steps instead of one giant bound. This is where knowing how diverse we are and the levels of our information intersect and then advancing to that point. One step at a time is truly progress despite our hubris to have a whole lot more. I know we are capable of great leaps and bounds within our society but that capability has not found a common enough pathway for all of us to attain. We will keep trying but in the meantime we must not allow steps forward to be hindered by our desire to move more quickly. Pausing to assess the big picture should be our ultimate strategy. We need to be less adamant in our demands for action this very second when the alternative is to gain ground gradually. It does inspire me that we are a restless lot who many think we can advance by quantum leaps and in my heart I will always be one of those souls, but reality has taught me an important lesson, win your battles on every level as you aim to win the war. Regardless of policy, we must endure forward without misstep, yes, even the little missteps hurt us if we fail to achieve them.

The pettiness of only being selfish (#1721)

The obviousness of the words that come out of some people's mouths at times is shameful. Through their own way of seeing our society it becomes clear that they are only concerned with their own well being. They will never be philanthropists in their heart. Surely they put up a front of acting concerned whether through deed or giving of money but in their hearts they are as cold as a stone. Now I am not saying they aren't occasionally touched by some travesty and their hearts are actually pure for a moment but the moments are fleeting and short of duration. They always fall back on their own sense of self worth based upon some ideal of them having accomplished their life goals with no help from others. They are in essence devoid of the foundational concept that we all have helped to make our own lives better. I think back to the last presidential campaign where Romney and his Republican colleagues spoke about the makers and the takers. They had no doubt in their minds that they were representing the elite of our society, you know, those who made all their success on their own. Well it does come to show that none of us are independent enough from each other to ever claim that we are demigods in a general way. We are just humans trying to cope in a world that has only enough rules in it to benefit the privileged and leave those without privilege difficult passage to navigate. I cannot understand how the idea of pettiness is regarded as a virtue by some but there it is and for that I am ashamed of them and for the effect it is having on our species to no end.

The greater good (#1720)

I would step in front of a train if that is what it takes to save someone who is helpless and in immediate danger of death. I know myself well enough and have actually done something similar already. My nature is to be a hero. lol. Although I am nowhere near one. That doesn't change how I feel about others when they need help from me in a real and desperate way. So it is with policies our country tries to implement. I would sacrifice some good of mine for a better good for many others any day. I can see the value in living less well off so that others can live better than the worse I have. In my mind I have always felt like a man who could survive under any circumstance out of my own sheer force of will. It is a quality that both enhances my abilities but also harms them. Truly, I try to use the power of my will to do what is right in life but I had not always thought that nobly. I used my force of will to feed my ego and for that I will always be ashamed, however that was the past and lessons learned. When living in a society of a huge proportion, nothing will be absolute in it's fairness of application. There are too many variables with too many individuals. So some moderation of outcome must always be the case. We can limit different outcomes with wise planning but not even then will things expose themselves as completely fair. That is okay with me since the price we pay to be in a civilized society must be borne at times. Most get the benefit and some get the cost. It is how we continue to move forward. Those that bear the cost sometimes are not used to sacrificing and sometimes their voices scream from all corners. It saddens me that the best of who we can be is cursed by those who cannot abide sacrificing in the name of progress. I am not one of those, instead I am one who is willing to give a bit of myself in order for others to have as well.

There is sense among the chaos (#1719)

The essence of this blog is to try to argue that we are creatures who have a specific set of natures. We also have the ability to sense and reason. Taken together it is simple for me to understand now my purpose in this life and for that fact all of our purposes together. We are a caring, wondering, driven to survive species who have the ability to sensory perceive, and then to reason, analyze and conclude. We are the best of what exists in nature. We have a choice to make, shall we deliver on the reality of who we are or shall we continue to muck about building and destroying as we deem satisfying? I for one am ready to put what is best about our species to test. It seems to me that when we are all in the same understanding of what it is to be a human being we would have little difficulty marshalling our capabilities toward goals that inspire us. Our first goal is to understand our surroundings. We seem to have a good handle on that as far as the planet we live upon. As to the boundaries outside our planet we are less certain. Which thus makes understanding the space outside our planet our next priority. We care and we wonder and through these two formidable instincts we find our destinies. Everything else is just marking time for some purpose that makes little sense. The science and technology needed to enhance our capabilities is within reach and with the proper emphasis aimed at all of our species', surely we will have what we need to continue into outer space in short order. The priority must be given however and the longer we dawdle on this mother Earth the less chance we will have of knowing the unknown and moving wonderingly and caring toward it's inception.

Educating our children (#1718)

I have no children of my own yet to me the most important thing any of us can do in this existence is to make sure our children know as much as we do if not more. Some, probably a majority of folks may think that serving ourselves to all the fancies and pleasures we are able to acquire is our most important occupation, I would wholeheartedly disagree. I have had few fancies and pleasures of this world but in no way did they ever compare to the giving of knowledge to others. It is a remarkable thing to see the light come on in someone's eyes when they grasp a concept or equation that had been nothing but frustration for them previously. The gift of passing on knowledge is a deep and full satisfaction. We are a continuing species, a chain that is linked by our own lives in order to further an idea that what we don't know about ourselves and our existence is just waiting to happen for us in the future. We have to get to that future by providing all we can within some happy boundary. Those who have come and gone before us have left us the blueprint to accomplish not only the goal of species survival but species maturation and information gathering to wisely use it. None of us is unique in that regard. We all do what we can to add to the path we are on and it is good for us to do so. To be human we are bound to learn and understand ourselves and as we continue to do so we also find it satisfying to pass what we learn and grow from on to the next souls who would find some knowing from it. It is a natural progression from us to the next and how we do it either exemplifies who we are or highlights the struggle that we are having just being human. 

There is nothing to big to solve, only small minded people (#1717)

Someday we will quit electing people to office who only see tearing things down as a solution. It takes greater imagination than that to do the will of the people. What really bothers me even more are people who get elected by dividing us from each other. We truly need leaders who are not afraid of what they do know and instead, actually have the courage to learn what they don't know. Most of the tearing down and dividing is done through labeling. They label this as bad or not good and then contort a rationale that has little to do with serving the common good. The politics of division have a long history in our governance and for it to stop we must not allow people to be elected who can only produce a vision for the future where equality, justice and fairness are sacrificed for the sake of some ideology that only benefits a few. The elimination of man made pain and suffering should have no enemies, yet we have too many politicians who will not address man made pain and suffering for reasons that escape my logic. I can only assume some nefarious purpose is being served and for that we are all lessened. A great society has the foundation of elevating it's citizens as it's golden rule. Where life exists there must be a regard for it's furtherance in both thought and substantive action. We must all be occupied with movement on this orb to keep our lives meaningful, why not focus on keeping ourselves active with goals that inspire us instead of depressing us?

Rescuing the cat this morning (#1716)

I noticed yesterday evening that Carter, my 10 year old cat, had not eaten his normal midday meal. None of it. Which is really odd because my cat likes his meals. I didn't make too much of this since the days are relatively warm and he likes to scout whenever the mood strikes him. I figured this was just an anomaly and didn't give it another thought. Later last night however I did realize again that his food had not been touched and I hadn't seen him since around noon. Then I became concerned. You should know that we are surrounded by watch dogs on all sides except the back fence where we border Arcade Creek. He has been known to frequent the creek and it has been preserved as a wildlife habitat by it's owner. Which means that any reasonably sized "wild" animal could be out and about. I did my due diligence and searched the large backyard for Carter but with no luck. As I tried to go to sleep I found that I couldn't because my cat sleeps down at the foot of the bed and he was not there. Why I was so unsettled is that Carter is always there as he is the first to go to sleep. Just another reminder that my cat was missing. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours and he had still not come home. There is a dog/cat door he could access to get in. So finally at midnight, after playing out all the gruesome possibilities in my head, I went back outside to look. No luck, then back to sleep for another few hours and then back up at 4 am to look for him. I found him meowing in a tree in the nearby church parking lot, apparently after having been treed by the custodian's dogs. I got my ladders out and scaled the fence between our properties and then laddered up the tree to get my cat down. All is good now, especially my soul. :)

Smoking out the hate (#1715)

We do seem to denounce those things that we find objectionable to our own understanding of things without looking at the larger perspective. I know for many years in my life I was an arrogant person about what I considered proper and I would let you know about it whenever I could. I am ashamed of who I was back then because although I was acting on my best intention, I was inaccurately informed about my positions. I had not let in enough information to make an objective decision. Sadly I castigated about too much abuse based upon some idea of my moral compass. I am not alone in this Universe, others exist as well and for me to take my understandings and place them upon others was cruel and egoistical. I have transformed from that early ugly version of myself and because of that transformation I have become more enlightened about what equality, justice and fairness really exist to represent. I have learned that my life and it's pursuit of happiness is my choice to realize as long as no harm entails from it. So it is with others who choose to pursue their happiness with no harm as well. We are all different in the small ways and allowing for diversity and not letting our own intolerance dominate how we interact with each other is the path we all should take. I am who I am and for that I am lucky to know. I gave myself the time and thought to understand myself without trying to place myth, mores and superstitions as obstacles in my path. I am a human being who respects the fact that we are all human beings and in general we all deserve the right to express that being within the framework of equality, justice and fairness.

The heart of the best civil servant (#1714)

Society is a fluctuating enterprise. It is not static in many areas because of ideas, hopes and dreams of those who partake to serve it. I feel we all should attempt to serve our society in ways that enrich and progress good and helpful humanitarian principles. Honorable principles founded in what is best about our humanity. The heart of a civil servant is truly an admirable thing when that heart has the goal of advancing equality, justice and fairness. There should be no vain glory in being a servant only a humble attitude that seeks to put worthy actions at the front of all underlying intentions. The thing is that when one decides to run and win office for the right to serve the rest of us the best of who we are needs to be the motivation for it. No other attitude other than to be a leader who attracts those to them because the respect they earn, not demand. What we have now in a lot of our politically ambition candidates and office holders are those who think that their ego, which wrongly tells them that they are better than those who elect them, deserves advantage and privilege over that of the their constituents. They exhibit attitudes that defy shame and indifference when challenged through their selfish actions. Too many of these sorts are corruptible because they are not founded in their hearts with stout principled outlooks. We need all our citizens to have a shot at advancing humanity into the future in an awe inspiring and helpful way and when we get many who only wish to occupy those leading positions through a false sense of ego-centered purpose we end up losing ground we should have gained with others as our leaders.

The arrogance of manipulation (#1713)

Here is my take on the arrogance of manipulation. When someone or a group of people actually do a bad thing and then have the audacity to blame it upon another or another group. So liars who blame other(s) rather than accepting their own creation. In our complex world of rules and procedures it is often difficult to keep track of who is doing what, when, how and most importantly, why. While for most of us our lives are hard and time consuming just trying to stay even it is understandable that we would not be informed about the minutiae of difficult policy questions. However, there is a way to distinguish between harm. For the most part if harm is used to deny what is right and good then we should question that particular harm and become informed about it. If a good is not equally spread out among the citizenry then that as well needs more investigation. We can be out of the loop on a lot of policies that effect our society but applying equality, fairness and ethics to questionable procedures, we can get at the heart of the truth of the policy. Remember, a lesson I have learned the hard way, Always be the good person you know you are, that is all of us by the way, not mostly the good person but always the good person. I know it is hard to do but hard is something we humans have become very familiar with over our entire species' existence. It is when we do lapse in being the good person we should be is when our greatest regrets are allowed to become. If we are not making our country stronger by doing what is right and good we are not making our selves stronger in our own eyes and in the eyes of those who look up to us.

Success nor failure determines our destiny (#1712)

Our destiny is in our trying. We are an immutable force with the will to endure. Our human species has many gifts and talents but the most vigorous one is our undeniable force of will. What we humans have as a compliment to our insatiable motivations is the concept of reasoning. We think about those things that have a peculiar dearness to us and we act in ways that amplify those ideals. Not always as one can truly see in our muddled social, economic and political orders but eventually the logic of full awareness to our futures will win out the day. For not only can our internal force of will evolve us toward that which is right and good within our own lives but that same force applies to the overall desires for our society as a whole to achieve that which is right and good. Whether we win or lose in debates about how right and good we can be, we never give up the logic that realizes right and good. Our species is not a harmful one by nature, just a struggling one trying to find it's proper niche in this existence. Eventually we will realize that our abilities are such that every one of us has a particular value worthy of high esteem and when that becomes our mantra then the rest of the pettiness in our society will subside. I cannot look upon our species as being omnipotent nor of no regard, yet I do see us in a vacuum at the moment waiting to bust the seams of it and ready to proclaim that we are the most pronounced species in the gamut of life within this existence and start acting accordingly. Our past has gotten here to the threshold of reason and ability, what we do tomorrow is contingent upon on how well we manage our today. 

No class distinction in an egalitarian society (#1711)

There seems to be a stubborn dynamic within our American politics to put a barrier between the types of citizens we are, the wealthy versus the rest of us. This cannot be allowed to be. We are a society based upon equality and justice and where inequality and injustice are ideals being defended by our representatives, we are less than who we think we are if we don't purge the nefarious transformation. Human beings are given the ability to reason for the purpose of accumulating information and when this process of accumulation is based upon concepts that deny egalitarianism we all suffer. The true attack on our American democracy is the one or ones that work to reward our differences over celebrating our similarities. Moving to a society that favors privilege and excuses wrongs in the name of deserve, is anti-democratic and the bane of all who choose to live within liberty of opportunity that does not obstruct based upon pejorative factors. I have lived long enough within the confines of our society to see that we are trending less toward egalitarian ideals, a society that compartmentalizes behaviors based upon criteria more to do with likeness and sameness, and as a result, congratulates us based upon our differences. Where fear of the unknown has infiltrated the known. I am less likely to perceive justice in our society today than the continual injustice being promulgated by those who cannot grasp the formed ideal of institutional equality of persons and how that is reflected through policy. Shall we leave this existence stronger in comparison to the past with the ideals of equality and fairness or shall we continue the trend of distinguishing between each other based upon our fear?

The purpose of logic (#1710)

The purpose of logic is to either prove truth or disapprove that which is forwarded as a truth. Simple. Now there are some equations/problems where neither truth nor untruth can be proven. But for now it is sufficient to know that truths and untruths can be concluded from the utility of logic. This is why an objective mind has the greatest chance of finding truths in our existence while also being able to discard untruths. What is an objective mind? Objectivity is the usage of facts to reach reach conclusions. Facts are proven truths. Do you see a trend here? Notwithstanding our emotional bias, which allows for the lesser of realizations based upon opinions and emotions, which I also include belief systems, the term subjectivity is it's definition. Steering clear of allowing myself to fall into the subjective camp, I constantly question my own premises' in order to make sure my logic is based upon facts and not wishful thinking or bias. A premise is a logical truth in an ordered set of truths which lead me to a conclusion. Using logic to determine the outcome of great policy questions of our time is an imperative that is beyond quantifying. Yet today in our world we are stuck with the some lesser powers that be, thus unable to use logic as the proper fact finder of truth in all situations, and are left with lesser subjective arguments that are obscured to their illogical intent. No one is above and more important than anyone else so if we position ourselves to utilize logic as our highest equation/problem solver, we can thus become truly a species worthy of being not only the master of ourselves but the master of all that we are in existence with to date.

"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious."-Albert Einstein. (#1709)

It seems Albert and I are on the same page when it comes to his human nature and my declaration that we are all caring and wondering as a species. Now you may say to yourself "but what about those who are not passionate and curious"? I say this, they are not being themselves but are otherwise deluded by other factors greater than the control they should have over their own natures. Greed, power and lust are such alluring sensations that many fall to their capture. However, for those who don't, the peace of being human in most every way is far greater a sensation that the illusion of grandeur or self aggrandizement. Life is about choices and that we can make choices, even to the detriment of our own natures explains why so many do. This is why I have made it the mission in my later life to proclaim to all that will hear and understand who we are as a species and why we should safeguard and live as such. What we all need is a grounding in some general basic logic that can then springboard many of us to even greater achievements. When we know who we are and what we are capable of we will less likely deviate from our foundations of caring and wondering. Our 5 senses serve to allow us to input data from our existence and our caring and wondering allow us to apply what we reason, analyze and conclude in a way that justifies the best of what our souls and spirits require. We are best when we give of ourselves not demand from others. We are best when we like and love each other than when we hurt and harm each other. The rationality of caring and wondering is what makes we humans so unique and therefore worthy of being able to master our own destinies.

I created the problem but it is your fault (#1708)

Otherwise known as cognitive dissonance. The holding of two opposing beliefs at the same time. Not quite a perfect definition but close enough for my purposes here. The point I am trying to get at is that when I am responsible for creating an unpleasant situation, I cannot just say it is someone else's fault and believe that to be true. It is an irrational position. What I must do instead if I create an unpleasant situation, is that I must accept and claim the unpleasantness as my own doing. I must accept my culpability in whatever outcome evolves from my creation. It is at least the honorable thing to do regardless if the outcome is wholly dishonorable. What I see so much of now are people who create a dishonorable situation and then go about the task of deflecting all the blame that surely follows onto others as a strategy. An intentional effort to blame someone else for their own creation. I would call that cowardly but even cowards have some dignity, no, it is worse than cowardice, it is inhuman. There is a baseline for what I perceive as being human and those who purposely set out to sabotage and shirk responsibility are below that baseline. Humans are caring curious entities, not devious harm inflicting savages. Now I know our species does have a different account as to how to define what a human is but in my mind, humanity must exist within a human for the human to be actually human. I accept no one into my sphere of living who cannot at least measure up to being human with some intent to do what is right and good.

Haters don't need reason or logic, just a convenient opportunity (#1707)

When your first premise is the hate you have inside, you have little control over how it is displayed. Any little situation or remark by anyone is prone to set it off. A lot of people confuse their hate with some kind of moral justification for a teachable moment in a somewhat violent way. How convenient! The problem of course is that anything that starts from the base of hate is going to be illogical and wrong in every instance. Even if the outcome comes out correctly through sheer luck it is still wrong in it's formulation. Mostly though haters are quite incapable of recognizing facts of equality, justice and fairness as they apply to others but not to themselves as they interpret it. I have been wronged many times in my life and so far I have not resorted to hating as a principle for living. Especially because I have wronged many in my life and I am no one anymore special than anyone else. So when I feel like I am angry at some perceived injustice or harm I just calmly relax and then begin to analyze why. Once that analyzation is performed I am ready to logically approach the injustice and combat it with solutions and persuasive arguments. I don't go off half cocked to cause harm with angry emotional rectitude. So this conveniently points out that hating is a choice and not a natural default. I can choose to hate like a wild animal, or to respond with my capabilities as an advanced and enlightened human being. If haters truly would examine why they hate, they would find that hate most always boils down to them caring about something. Which is where they should start from, the caring part, not the hating the outcome of their caring. 

A bitter pill (#1706)

Although I was born while Eisenhower was in office, 1955, I have consciously lived under the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2 and all of them represented policies that made me angry or sad depending on the outcome of them. I did however soldier through until we elected such administrations as Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and now Obama and I am much more at peace within my soul. This is our era of governing now and for that I am happy. Yet there are those who are not obeying the rule of the majority we have established to guide our country. We allow the majority of voters to decide what the policies of our nation will be and then we have votes to determine how those policies come into effect. Even then we apply a judicial standard to them and when proper allow the Supreme Court of our country to adjudicate if the laws that have become policy are proper and good within the overall framework of our national constitution. I have had to live under devastating policies that fell within the limits of our constitution regardless of how vehemently I disagreed with them. I shrugged my shoulders and began to advocate for better policies hoping that in the future I and others would triumph with the electorate and gain political control of our nations policy decisions. I know what it is like to feel the frustration of not being in the majority but I always respected the process since it is our democracy that produced the results. That others now are willing to dismantle the democratic process we enjoy in our nation by hostage taking through inaction on our vital national functions is not to be tolerated and the least I will do is expose them constantly for their inability to swallow the bitter pill we all have to endure when we are in the minority.

Reckless absurdity (#1705)

Trying to reason with extremists is a bad idea. The only thing you can do is to get the extremists to become more moderate and then try to reason. The only advantage in debating or arguing with extremists is that they expose themselves as such to others but never agree to anything they demand. Once the outside onlookers see that the extremists are not using practical logic the better for forcing the extremists to moderate. We have a similar situation here in America in our national politics at the moment and the tact of not negotiating with them is rightly being applied. There will be some discomfort and harm done to our society over not allowing the extremists to force any unacceptable demand upon us but the right course is to deny them anything for there nefarious effort. History will show how this all plays out and being on the right side of this current disaster is a true test of our character as a country on whole. If we are not to be expected to practice the virtue of our souls then we are a shallow society ripe for the disintegration that will most assuredly follow. Illogic aside, being the best of who we are is our purpose and our destiny should reflect that. Courage of conviction must be based upon values that have a high ideal. Equality, fairness, justice and ethic must be at the heart of all of our enterprises and when they are not then any strategy that employs willful harm as a solution is only reflective of the flawed thinking extremists are captured by. Captured for sure since logic has not been able to dissuade them from there head long rush into chaos.