The illusion of commercialism (#2192)

As folks around the world are fighting and dying for freedom from oppression and subservience, we here in America and other commercially driven economies are more concerned with which football team will win the last game of the season. The hype surrounding the result of a game is a higher priority here in America then the life and death struggle being waged in too many countries. Does it seem to you that the commercialism of a game has become our national pride? The survival of other humans is an after thought in light of the game. Here is some of what the illusion is telling us. God has ordained who will win. We need to support the advertisers of this game since they are the ones who were able to afford time slots for commercials leading up to the game and during the game. We are showing our American pride by supporting football as a prioritized value. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that time spent on fantasy football would be regularly broadcast on television. The distance at which we Americans will go to ignore and avoid real life danger and courage is infinite it seems. We would rather not care about the principles of honorable survival. I am beside myself with shame that we here in America give little to no respect for our own rights to participate in our own elections which allows for less than honorable candidates to be elected who then turn around and influence the decline of our democracy. As long as we are captured by an artificial importance, like who will win the game, we will not notice how much our democracy is being eroded in the name of profit. That commercialism has us ensnared is the trap that will eventually choke the life out of our democracy. But no matter, as long as we have the importance of a game to keep us otherwise occupied.

Another milestone (#2191)

This post today completes the 6th year of posting this daily blog. Tomorrow will be the first day of the 7th year. I like to stop for a moment just to recognize why I started this blog in the first place. I wanted to let the world know that our humanity is based upon two main factors, compassion and curiosity. In other words, we care and we wonder. Nothing has changed over the years that would make me reconsider my original premise. If anything my premise has been reinforced to being a conclusion based upon all the experiences and information I have come across. Surely we have a darker side to our nature but I chalk that up to whatever we needed to do to survive as a species. Survival has always been an outlier from care and wonder so I do give it a dispensation that allows it to be a third factor but less than compassion and curiosity. However I digress, getting back to the point of the purpose of this blog, I find that as this 6th year is coming to an end I am still full of purpose and ambition to write about the subjects that most enhance or distance us from our greatest potential. I will continue to write about the majesty of our species as well as the disgraces. Somewhere in there most of us live and if I can change one person's thoughts on why we need to be a more noble species then a hundred years of writing would be worth it. I see great things ahead for our species, not just in a nationalistic sense but in a planetary sense and beyond. I am of the mindset that the Universe is our next great exploration and the sooner we focus our attention efficiently on it the better and more human like we will become. We are biological data processors with memory and reasoned conviction, with the ability to evolve. What greater purpose than exploring our Universe is there?

Blinded by our fears (#2190)

Never will anyone readily admit that they are blinded by their fears yet you look at their actions and then you see the hypocrisy. Being alive is not definable yet too many act as if they are settled into a consciousness that has all the answers. It must be nice to give over our will to believing something as fact without having any proof. As sort of default to help us along against our fears. Now being afraid is common to all humans but what is uncommon is how we address our fears. I prefer to face my fears head on with the knowledge that my right to be a curious individual supersedes anyone else's right to dictate to me what if any curiosity I can employ. I find it fascinating that any of us would give our free will, to be bold and courageous throughout the tenure of our lifetimes, to unproven theories that have little to do with reality. It is also puzzling that we would hold tight to mores and traditions that are meant to scare us into submission rather than scoffing loudly and dismissing them. I suppose it is easier to accept restricted compartmentalization over the whirligig of uncertainty but then we recede from our possibilities without any benefit other than a perceived alleviation of some fear. It is like creating a disease for ourselves and then paying a cost from ourselves to remedy it. A futile waste of time and energy to go backwards. I am not of that type and instead of being afraid of life in general I am one who celebrates my life by learning new things and being open to knowing what is now unknown to us. I expect that we humans are greater than our present state and have yet to tap that potential because we hold ourselves back out of fear. But instead of admitting we are afraid, we design a protocol for holding ourselves back based upon some unproven theory. Childish at best and fearfully ignorant at worst. Either way the effect has limited us to being less than what we can and should be.

Too many of us are beggars and scroungers (#2189)

Unfortunately there is a lack of opportunity among our poorer citizens to climb out of their obvious desperation. I see too many people scrounging in trash cans for recyclables and anything else that is being discarded with some value or nutrition left. I see too many who are on street corners with their cardboard signs asking for help in some form or another. Now I know that some of these street beggars are not as bad off as they try to imply, however, they are still relying on begging as a means for income. Too many of our citizens rely every month on what near expiration date food they can get from food banks and other forms of charity outlets. I know too many of our homeless are being pushed out of the cities and counties because they are seen as a blight on "proper" community standards. I see too many men at the large home improvement stores begging for day jobs of any kind. It is so troubling to me that instead of finding solutions to these inherent problems our political leaders are more inclined to punish these folks than to help them. Think about that for a moment, Punishing the disadvantaged for being disadvantaged. It is as if some dark world mindset has taken over our democracy and replaced it with a repressive non caring ideology. Well that is more truthful than is being reported. We do have those in office of power who think that everyone should be made to fend for themselves regardless of the difficulty most citizens face in a system that favors privilege and advantage. So if the majority of Americans are living below or just above the poverty level, these survival of the fittest ideologists, think that it is not their duty to help but to allow it to continue. They think that what we do for ourselves is enough of a stake in life. So for all of us who are in an income inequality vacuum, it is our responsibility alone to pull ourselves out of the suction that is concentrating us deeper and deeper into debt and closer to unsustainable impoverishment. This is not what our America should stand for and it is high time that we changed that awful way of thinking in order to help all our citizens achieve success through helping and not punishing.

Becoming Intelligent is our only hope to save our democracy. (#2188)

Limiting and controlling education is the number one priority of those who would like to see our democracy become less, and authoritarian and plutocratic rule become more. The travesty is that those who are doing this, a cabal of wealthy egomaniacs, are not being held accountable for it. They have invested in our politics so many like minded acolytes that the presumption of their guilt is being masked by some weird demented form of christian fundamental patriotism. Enough of their followers who find that exclusion is preferable to inclusion are making enough hateful noise that they have effectively scared off otherwise decent human beings from joining in the political process. There is still hope that the message of degrading democracy will catch on with the majority of us but the cost keeps getting higher the longer we wait to flush out these nefarious forces and bring our country's politics back to equality and justice for all. We must continue to preserve our learning institutions that are not established as a primary force for profit but are established for teaching our citizenry theories and facts without the ulterior motive of control and profit. If the learning process is subjective we lose our ability to think outside our imaginations. If our learning process is comprehensive and objective then we get young minds that can distinguish between the light and the shadows of complexity. Our imaginations can then roar into our future with innovation and modernity. Right now is the great struggle between the forces that would curtail our imaginations and those that would enhance them. There is no sitting this great battle out if you at all care about what our country's future holds for not only ourselves at this time but for the future of our next generations.

A reed blowing in the wind (#2187)

If you listen long enough to those who would give their self perceived valued opinion at any excuse eventually you will find that their valued opinion changes with different circumstances. The most obvious example is when it affects someone else it is one thing, if the same thing affects them well it is quite another thing. They let the circumstances and situations in life dictate what their opinion of things are depending upon whom and when the affect comes about. A rather nice ability to tell other people positively what to do while being able to say something entirely different when the situation changes. They express that different times bring out different opinions. Well different times do bring out different opinions but they should not bring out different opinions about the same subject from the same person. If you are going to give your opinion about a subject then at least have the courage to know what you are talking about. Some will say a thing absolutely should be done and then later those same people will say that a thing should absolutely not be done. Our opinions about principles should not change. Either it is an honorable principle or it is a dishonorable one, but not both. Choose which you will support and then don't be hypocritical in backing it. I know that this existence is complicated, especially with all the disinformation purposely and, unfortunately legally, being disseminated. Which is a wholly different problem than the one I am writing about now. Regardless of complications however, our basic principles should be able to sail us through all the twists and turns of confusion. As long as we remain true to them they will be our safe harbor. A reed blowing in the wind is analogous to someone who has no respect for their principles when they have ulterior motives to gain from.

Shifting reality (#2186)

What does it take for one person to be able to shift a broken reality to a better one? First it takes an awareness that the existing reality is broken. Understanding the problem and what causes it is the first step toward crystallizing a comprehensive view of how the reality got broken and what keeps it broken. Once one has a clear idea as to what is causing the problem and what is keeping and continuing the problem, it is then possible to go to the next step. Which is finding a solution to the problem that not only ends the brokenness but increases opportunity and justice. It isn't enough to say that "do no harm" is a solution. Doing no harm is just a place to start from. It must also have a component that adds to our evolutionary future. We humans are an incredible force within the known Universe. Our capabilities are constantly being upgraded to who knows what end. Our physical prowess continues to shatter previous benchmarks established through record keeping. Our mental acuity is even outdistancing our physical capabilities, with advances in logic and science. Knowing this, we must have a mindset that includes our advances in any reality that is to replace the current paradigms that are slowly but surely becoming archaic. It isn't ordained on any one person who will be the one who eventually unlocks the door to our new and better reality so we all must make ourselves available to actually being the one if that moment arrives for us. This isn't about ego or psychopathy, it is about being human and doing what we humans do best, imagine, think and create. Surely we are limited in our overall abilities to master all things but that is now and not what I see in our future. Our species is amazing and anything I can do to make it that much more amazing is my purpose for living. The honor to be a possible foundation piece toward our next evolutionary leap is humbling and in humility I find a perfect peace.

When will we stop Republicans from embarrassing our nation? (#2185)

When will it end? I cannot say how much more of this embarrassing behavior coming from Republican leaders and their followers I can take. I am already walking around with my head down scuffling my shoes so as not to make eye contact with anyone who might have a working brain in their head. For those of us who voted against the Republican vision and lost in the last election, we are being shamed by the lack of intelligence displayed by those who voted for the Republican vision. There is no way to debate the Republicans since they hold logic in low regard. Instead they rely on religion, a faith based belief system, to guide themselves and the rest of us into our futures. Now I am all for each of us having a faith or belief in something if that is what we need but only for ourselves as individuals, not thrust upon our whole society. When we forsake logic and science as lesser than something we hope is true we are demonstrating that it isn't reality we are living in but instead an illusion. I for one am not going to forsake logic and science in order to appease some fear I have about a possible afterlife. Instead I am going to utilize the natural abilities our species has evolved since our beginning and rationalize, analyze and conclude based upon the animate and inanimate. I live here in existence, nowhere else. This is my reality and no amount of wishful or hope filled faith in anything outside our Universe will change that. I am not a God and no one else is either so these folks who are Republicans and their backers need to start living as humans and should quit trying to live like what they think a hoped for God is. I don't profess to believing in anything that is God like, instead I keep an open mind about what reality shows me and right now reality is all mucked up with fearful people afraid to just live like human beings.

The wear down effect (#2184)

When I was young and saw all the work that needed to be done I was ready and willing to change our world into a better place. But instead what happened is that at every opportunity for me to effect change I ran into opposition in one form or another, with the chaotic effect of thwarting change from happening. I am not sure it was some grand conspiracy but instead I now think it was just that the institutions in place resist change so much and with such an endurance that we who try to change our world for the better are simply worn down through our inability to usurp the forces against change. I realize now that to change paradigms it takes a self-sacrificing sustained and uncompromising fortitude to endure for change just as hard if not harder than the forces protecting the status quo. The problem is that change for the better is founded upon the will of people whereas the resistance to change crowd get their strength through money and power. As long as the crowd that protects against change has most of the power and economic resources we the people will find our efforts are often thwarted, leaving us demoralized. The wear down effect is what I feel. Not only worn down from the resistance but left questioning my resolve for even trying. I start to feel like I should just join many others and accept the existing broken paradigms and try to get something out of life regardless of how unfair it is to too many. But then I sense within me a disgust, an unacceptable compromise to join in with those who have given in to not fighting against institutional harm. A resurgence again fills my spirit and I am ready again to face off with the status quo crowd and drive home my renewed boldness to stop injustice and inequality. Apparently my life will never be one of a white picket fence with the love a family at my side. I am destined to fight for honorable principles. I have won that battle of recognition and am now fully vested in staring down the forces that would make all our lives less than instead of more than.

The deafening roar of information (#2183)

How we deal with information we don't want to know. We ignore it like it doesn't exist. I see this question about why voters continue to vote against their own interest and it does occur to me that despite knowing that their interests are not being addressed, they continue to vote for those who won't address them. They find greater comfort in knowing that they are not "the takers", despite the fact that they are mostly the ones who need to be given more. They are convinced otherwise that taking is a bad thing and not a moral imperative. They are shown that those who are the ones who are looking to improve their lives are strange and not "American" by white American standards. They are also schooled that the way things are is good enough and that progress is only a way to make their lives harder. It is an inculcation of illusion and illogical thinking that is being fed to them and they are eating it up with a ravenous appetite. That we have people in our land who are actively destroying common sense and enlightened thinking is bad enough but that those very same people are now trying to set our national agenda based upon lies and misinformation is worse. Hatred for race and government is the new rallying cry and there are still enough white power brokers to stoke the flame of this injustice. I am white as well but for me the color of my skin gives me no privilege or advantage over any other human. Which is why I choose to be politically affiliated with the party that includes anyone who wishes to join without prejudice, restriction nor condescension. Information is what drives my insatiable appetite and not the denying of it but the utility of it. I grow into a more human person every day by taking what I know and applying it to my life as best I can.

I am me (#2182)

I am not you, nor my ego, just me. That simple little boy who first became aware and could see all the possibilities in the world. I am much older now in years and experiences but nonetheless, I am still me. Becoming aware that earlier in my life I had strayed from me into something my ego had created was eye opening. I had all the expectations and ambitions that I had conjured up out of the whirligig of chaos within my life. I had turned myself into a automatic like person saying and doing what was reasonably allowable to get what I wanted or thought I needed. No more! I found my way back to me when I stopped trying to be something else. For awhile there I was nowhere, neither me or the creation in my mind. I was in a sort of pause. But with patience and humility I remembered my young life and how I had such great hope for all around me and that is what I have rekindled within me. It takes a really thick skin to remain that little boy that I was but despite the calls of me being naive and foolish, I push forward. Because the calls from others for me not to be myself seem naive and foolish to me. I don't bend to peer pressure or to trying to keep up an appearance that is illusory, I will for the rest of my life only live up to what that little boy in my memories saw as who I would be. It is invigorating and liberating to know that none of the current race for stuff is at the top of my priority list. Instead I have my curiosity as my greatest priority and my care for all things honorable and good right there with it. I have me back and not my ego or some expectation that others have laid upon me. It is me here and for that I have found such a good vibration within myself that I had to share it here with any who would read this blog post. 

Riches from the heart (#2181)

Like many here in America, riches are monetary and consumer driven. For the most part most of us are chasing the dollar in order to keep up with our own and others' expectations for us. I myself have been on that treadmill, slowly advancing and then slowly falling back until I finally just got off of it. Now when I think of riches I think of kindness and sacrifice. The noble things we do for each other that remind me everyday of just how special a species we are. Now I don't live in a vacuum, I know that there are many examples of people harming others and causing others to suffer, yet not so much in my little world where I have a greater impact on what does happen around me. I do not allow despicable actions and shady characters to be part of what life span I have left. That is the key for me. I cannot do anything to anyone to change their illogical minds except one thing, keep them from my live. Those who remain are the ones who also feel like I do. We see the world as a place we have to find a niche within but not necessarily to continue what is wrong with it. We are smart enough to know that ignorance, intolerance and selfishness are bad things that are not what we have chosen to partake of. Instead we find happiness in the small things in life, The ordinary is fun again. I actually look forward to completing any project, yes, even taking care of the trash. I may not be the wisest man nor the most creative man but I am consistent in my chosen way of life and for that I am very happy. No amount of monetary or consumer accumulation will ever compete with that. Smiles and good vibes are better for me and my psyche. I have only one life and it is in a constant countdown toward it's finish. How I live my life and who I allow in my life reflects what is best in me, not what is expected of me nor demanded. Riches from the heart make me happy.

Everyday is fight for equality and justice day (#2180)

This much we have learned. Notwithstanding a current majority conservative US Supreme Court which somehow sees the battle over racial tensions finished, among other unequal and unjust visions through it's lens', however, we here in reality have a different view. We see American citizens and political representatives openly flaunting racial segregation and intolerance. So for us today to be celebrating the life of a man, yes a human man, who gave his life to murderers who would not heed his call for equality and justice is just an extension of what we, the many less influential do everyday in our lives. We celebrate the ideals Martin Luther King demanded for all of us, even those who tried and succeeded in silencing him. Today is a day for making it perfectly clear that injustice and inequality are not to be allowed. So it will be for tomorrow for me and many others who know that the quality of a humans life is not based upon appearance or geography, but upon character and honor. So again we say to those, who like the conservative members of our US Supreme Court, stop looking to justify inequality and injustice and instead become a champion of defeating it's very existence. I know I will give my effort for the cause since to live and die for a noble cause is greater than to live and die for an ignoble one. I don't know all there is to know about existence or life after death, but I do know that the path of my life is my choice to live and the record of it if any will reflect the best of my humanity. That is my purpose and just the thought of that makes me smile and experience happiness. After all, our great country was in theory, although not so much in practice at the time, envisioned to allow for us all the pursuit of happiness was it not?

Ignorance is not bliss (#2179)

Choosing to be ignorant is cowardly. I know this first hand. I was afraid to find out a lot of things mainly because I didn't want to interrupt my preferred perception of things. A lot of my previously chosen ignorance was because I knew that I would have to pay some kind of price for my knowing. Like If I didn't know what the cause of something was I could let it remain broken or in disrepair so I wouldn't have to spend whatever cost it took to make the thing right. Money caused a lot of my ignorance. But not alone it didn't, I was also afraid. I can't explain that other than to point to my own deficiency as a whole person. I have overcome that and accept whatever truth or fact is in front of me now. If I don't know something I learn about it. It is natural that way, letting my natural instinct of curiosity guide my present. I don't profess to knowing things that I don't know just so that I can impress someone. I have learned that regardless if other people think I am a nincompoop I will not be a liar. Anyway, judgmental souls are usually the last ones to be judging others since they are the ones who have bigger problems in their own lives, but that is a subject for another day. This is an important subject about why it necessary to not give into ignorance as a pathway. The information highway on the Internet is always a click away so that an excuse not to objectively learn what we can is no valid excuse. About my initial comment about ignorance not being bliss, consider this. While not knowing the cause of something is convenient for the moment, the effect doesn't change so that whatever we are avoiding in the first place is still there either remaining worse in a static state or progressively getting worse. So action is needed despite any and all procrastination. It is easier to solve a problem when faced with it and then move on then to have it linger and then still have to face it.

Oxygenating the outer space (#2178)

This isn't some science fiction idea that came from some comic book or low budget movie, it is just an idea that is floating around in my head. Surely many others have had this same thought and I am not claiming to be it's originator. However I will give word to it beyond me. While our society currently is wrestling over the overwhelming fact of climate change and the effect of pollution in our own atmosphere, we are not thinking and creating new advances into turning our outer space into breathing space. Could it not be one possibly in some fashion to start a chain reaction from introducing a catalyst into the void that would spread much like a virus to change the void from emptiness into something? I am sure that the science necessary to do so will not be explained here nor the actual catalyst needed to interact with the void in a way that generates the necessary atmosphere for we animals to breathe. But the idea of it will be expressed here if only for the hope that some day, when we humans are not squabbling over legitimate concerns we should be acting on, wasting time and energy in the process, we will be working on the true puzzles in this existence. Think about it, if space were transformed into breathable air then the idea of space travel becomes less a puzzle. The current laws of physics are barriers of course but what we don't know yet may become the new pieces of the puzzle that could help us overcome and modify existing laws of physics. This blog is entitled Man of Hope, well, here is to hoping that nothing will ever stop the inquisitive nature of humanity in our quest to know and understand the now unknowable and misunderstood. Outer space with breathable air, first we think it could happen then we work to make it happen. While we dream we should also clean our own air and not be fighting about whether to do it.

Greed is a choice (#2177)

Making it so that you can get away with being greedy through law or through deception does not make it right. Just because something is legal does not make it right. It is still dirty if it harms many to the benefit of the few. Much like our capitalistic system today. The more you can game the system to increase wealth the more you are respected by those who are playing by the same corrupted rules. Meanwhile, those who choose to live a right and good life are mostly left without. It seems that not having a sovereign over us is a bad thing because we keep proving that we are incapable of controlling our own greedy instincts. This is just one symptom of a sickness within our society that will be part of our own undoing. Nothing that is rotten inside is viable for long. We should know this but we fail to inculcate the lessons of our past into our present and future. The desire to participate in a society that lies, cheats and steals is not attractive unless one has no ethical foundation. Eventually the populace of such a society will dwindle to the point where the best it has to offer is less than a good person can stand. Our body politic is sick now with a power and wealth hungry agenda while seizing every opportunity to blame the less fortunate for all the current problems facing their unkempt, disjointed vision. Our democracy here in America is at stake and for that we all should be wary of those who see inequality and segregation as the way froward. If we don't stop supporting policies that inflict harm instead of good on our populace we will have been the generation that failed all the previous generations in advancing toward a more perfect union.

Staying resolute! (#2176)

No amount of dissuasion from the rhetoric of the right will ever persuade me that right wing conservative policies are better than progressive liberal policies. For one thing right wing conservatives act out of a need to exclude many to the benefit of the few. While progressive liberal policies act of a need to include all whenever and wherever possible. Nothing is perfect but trying hard to include all will always be far superior to those who work to exclude. For another thing, a survival of the fittest mentality embraced by right wing conservatives is regressive behavior that takes our species backwards from evolution. The conservative right wing philosophy of tearing down modernity at every level is asinine and although wrapped in forms of patriotism and religion is still asinine. The progressive liberal approach of embracing modernity and science as our future is enlightened. Enlightenment has given us the great discoveries and creative innovations we are currently enjoying and will continue to enjoy into our future. Our natures are of two major paradigms, to care and to wonder. We care about our species survival and we care about the species that share our planet with us. We also wonder about all the we know and especially about that which we don't know. It is who we are as human beings, which by the way defined by me as we being biological data processors. We have five senses with which to gather information and a mind and soul with which to decipher the information. We use our memories as data banks to influence what and how we act in the orderly progression of our lives. Being a progressive liberal is a natural evolutionary step into a future that holds care for ourselves and others while giving us an outlet to be bold in our discoveries about that which we still need to find/learn.

Make a choice! (#2175)

Too many American voters not voting. Why? Because they don't think they need to. Somehow they think things will be fine regardless of what they do. Well that is pure crap. Nothing will be fine until we all get involved. There are too many folks out there who are desperate and discouraged. What is fine about that? I am just seething beneath the surface of my skin's veneer because of the callous disregard of those who could make a difference in all of our lives doing nothing but sitting back making themselves more comfortable than anyone should possibly be. How ridiculous it is worrying about how many luxuries one could possibly amass while too many are without the basic necessities. What kind of person is it that thinks that everything is okay while a majority of American parents struggle to feed, clothe, educate and shelter their children? What kind of disconnect does one have to invent in their own minds for their conscience to subdue their guilt? How can any of us take any pride in our society when our society has lost it's compassion? Is living in the cold hardness of rebuke and condescension so overwhelming a value as to replace the kindness and dearness we should exemplify through caring? How is it that we have allowed commercialism and the chase for the almighty dollar to have superseded our values of dignity and respect? All I know for sure is that it is unsustainable. As our economic inequality continues to grow larger between the few wealthy and the many poor, a reckoning will eventually come to pass. Either through an ethical awakening of our conscious' or a hard battle of our physical wills. Either way a reckoning is coming and if you don't choose now which side you are on and be part of it's occurrence, you will be swept away by it's wake in whatever form you didn't try to understand.

A moral compass (#2174)

Guided by morality and virtues. We must all have one. It is imperative that we find within ourselves that which makes us the best of who we are. We all know that we can be scurrilous human beings if we choose to be. But we also know that being a scurrilous human being is contrary to our better natures. We all would rather be heralded for our courage and valor than be humiliated by our cowardice and our fear. So it is with our morality. Having no morals in guiding your life leaves you exposed as a fraudulent human being who has only a sociopathic sense of reality. There is no honor in that. But when virtue is established within yourself as your moral compass, you will find that more often than not you will be held up as an example by those who see your efforts, whether your efforts are successful or not. It is in the how we act out our comprehensions that reflects our inner strengths. Indeed, even more so is the choice that was made to be a morally driven human being that eventually shines through. There is a pathway to wisdom but wisdom will only come once we remove our own shady side from the equation by subjecting it to the mastery of virtuous thinking. I have wondered off the pathway of a life guided by a moral compass and all I got in return was confusion and frustration. Not to mention the harm that always comes from not putting myself in check from my own God like ambitions. I am no God and no one else is either. I am just a member of the species human being and although I am only one I am still relegated the duty to utilize what possible magnificence I can achieve. It is incumbent upon me to maximize my effectiveness within our community that not only brings honored principles from my actions but to also speak out when others have chosen to dishonor those very same honored principles. Do no harm is the first virtue we all must adopt, from there we add more until we are the best who we initially thought we could be.

The importance of being philosophical (#2173)

The reason philosophy is so difficult to comprehend or even understand is that overall there are an infinite possibility of options to choose from. Philosophy has an immense importance in our lives however and although it is difficult to wrap one's head around, it is still a priority to do so. The reasoning behind my opinion, is that philosophy is our foundation from which to build all of our values from. We find the importance in every decision we make grounded in how we view what the world should be like in conjunction with how the world actually is. It is a complex dynamic but then if it wasn't complex, every species on this planet could do it. We are humans and as such are adept at overcoming obstacles through our ability to reason. We all have the capacity within our minds to reason so there is no excuse for any of us not be able to learn how and what we think in our souls is best for our lives and how that effects the lives of others without ever causing harm. That is the tricky part, doing no harm. Although it is tricky it is not difficult to accomplish. A principled saying like do unto others as you would have them do unto you, exemplifies the process required toward living your philosophy in real time. What is even more important than living in real time is living for the future of existence. We are all but limited, biological data processor, time travelers in this existence and it is incumbent upon us to leave this existence in a better way. It honors whatever force of creation that gives us this human time while adding to the comprehensive raw beauty of the overall design. One cannot be more humbled by this experience within existence when one realizes that we are the masters of our time here. I will be the best philosopher king I can be and hopefully the rest of us will be the best philosopher kings and queens as well.

The uglier side of life (#2172)

For those of us who swore to ourselves as children that we would not treat each other the way we had been exposed to I say well done. But swearing to ourselves not to continue harm does not make us immune from doing it anyway. It is okay to be sensitive to harm when we know better. It is a sign of a conscience that is well formed. Somehow many of us have forgotten the lessons we learned at a young age and now try to justify our behavior by either ignoring it or laying it at the feet of doing what needs to be done to keep what we have and or to gain more. It does all boil back down to how principled a life we want to live. There should be no illusion about this. We have to examine our decisions and at what cost we will allow our decisions to violate our principles. Ugliness is still ugliness and for me or anyone to do a cost benefit analysis on just how ugly we are willing to be toward others for our own gain is still a violation of the oath we took so many long years ago. I have fallen short on my principles but I have rebounded to not compromising any longer on the values I want in my life. I know first hand just how cheap I have sold my soul for some shiny object or hoped for relationship. The disgust I felt for my own life was my prize and for that I know that nothing is worth being less than the human I most admiringly want to be. Nothing! So it is the high road for me which means that I will not have great ambition to desire or to be self gratified. I know now that existing with an awe and humility is a wise and peaceful life. I will still gather and consume but not at the expense of those around me who have to struggle mightily just to maintain the barest of existences.

Racism is choosing to be a coward (#2171)

Just hearing the word racism spoken out loud makes me cringe. It is like gutter talk right there with the worst of cuss words spoken in the heat of the moment. Yet too many of our fellow citizens are comfortable with being racist and have learned how to hide the fact most of the time. The problem is is that being a racist is a choice. It is positively affirming that one thinks some are better and some are worse based upon the color of one's skin. Think about that for a moment. The visual shading of one human beings skin is in the eyes of too many is a determining factor as to the value, or lack of value, of another human beings equality. The fact that we are all human beings does not seem to register with these racist folks. Now I know cultural mores have a lot to do with how we inculcate our information over our lifespans but there is no excuse for keeping particular cultural mores that discriminate based upon invalid factors. That is a choice to be illogical. Now how does this illogical thinking get it's argument? The only answer I have for that is fear. Being afraid to confront peer pressure based upon a character flaw is cowardice. It is a character flaw to allow fear to dominate one's choices when we all deep down in our souls know that racism is wrong. We all know it I said, but too many of us choose to embrace it out of fear. Not a mental health positive for our species is it? We are quick to point out flaws in others' character but refuse to recognize the flaws in our own. I still believe that our species is magnificent despite our shortcomings. But my view is that skin color has nothing to do with shortcomings. The only ones with this shortcoming are those who do see skin color as a factor in determining equality.

What I have learned... (#2170)

Not everything I have learned can be written about at any one sitting but I can write about segments of information that have come to me through either experience or logical reasoning. One such subject that comes to mind is the idea that somehow I have made my own way in life and it is a reflection on my character that I have done so. Instead, what I have learned is that for the most part no effort on my part has been the deciding factor. Most all my survival skills rest with paradigms outside my control. I have been fortunate much more than cleverly intuitive or rolled sleeves hard working. So for anyone to give me an accolade for any type of success is just blowing hot air. I say that because there are too many who are not finding any success through no majority fault of their own. It is at best to describe success as a crap shoot. Some will win but may will lose. Despite any and all effort given by each and every individual. So for this notion that we fail because we are not clever or that we don't put enough effort into being successful is a lie. The winners in economic life always seem to think they are winners because of some great gift they have. They seem to think that their efforts are somehow more magical than others'. What they fail to see or understand is that we have a society that favors privilege and advantage over equality of opportunity. Now this isn't spilled milk rhetoric, this is just calling out social and economic processes that have inherent bias and prejudice. So if the winners continue to see themselves as elite we are not progressing toward an enlightened society but instead toward an illusion of what our selfish egos demand. We are all the same trying to make our way in a world where success is rigged to less of us than more of us. It must be recognized by all before we can change it from a survival of the fittest competition to a partnering endeavor where we all can succeed.

The manifest destiny of Transhumanism (#2169)

Defined as: Transhumanism (abbreviated H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming by developing and making widely available technologies to greater enhance human, intellectual, physical and psychological capacities."-Google. In other words, leaving behind myths, superstitions and belief systems that deter our curious nature to explore that which we don't know and apply what we do know to good utility for all of the human species and other species' we have dominion over. The age of enlightenment is still fighting to free itself from the fear of the unknown. Still too many humans do not have the courage to live life with boldness and wonder. Boldness and wonder are within all of us but many have chosen to suppress these human values for a safe harbor rooted in our ancient past. A calculation that does not forward our advancing civilization but actually one that undermines it. However these mistaken souls have gotten to their complacency, their fear will not deter the strength of those of us who see a better future for all of humankind. If we must we will drag them into a better future despite their fear frozen choices. The awe and magnificence of discovery is just waiting for us to experience. When we stop looking so hard into what we can't do and focus more energy into what we can do we will find that that which we couldn't previously do has now become more possible. Each time we move a step closer toward new understandings, the closer we get to solving old problems that seemed impossible to overcome. Our manifest destiny in the 21st century is a mental one. As human beings, we need and have a duty to find our strength and courage so that we can continue to improve the human condition.

I wish I could do more... (#2168)

I keep thinking about how short a human lifespan is and all the things that need to be done for our next generations to build from and it frustrates me. Especially elected politicians who think that doing nothing is their job. As embarrassing and shameful as that is I still wish I could do more to change the injurious paradigms we now suffer through without giving much thought to changing. We all are to blame for being without a sense of urgency when it comes to consistently pushing for a better world to live in. I am not saying that we wouldn't try harder if given the opportunity but until we get the opportunity we seem to be static in our nonchalance objections. I have my blog here which very few read but still some do and that is a chance for me to spur us on to greater activity in all walks of our lives. I no longer condone people who willingly choose to ignore or hide from the fact of poverty and hunger. I no longer associate with people who can't or won't understand my frustration with poor education and health care opportunities. And I won't speak or interact with family and friends who are not aware of or instigate racial animosity. I do what little I can by standing up for equal justice and fairness. In every part of my being and every part of my life. There is no place in my life for any who accept ambivalent association among the worst of who we are. Shunning is all I have as a tool to make anyone know that I disapprove of hateful and harmful behavior. No one elected or anointed me as the conscience or guide of anyone's life, but since too many refuse to look reality in the eye I will bring reality with me everywhere I go so that no one may have an excuse of not knowing where I stand on every issue that we as a community of citizens of the world have within our grasp to change for the better.

My vegetarianism (#2167)

I am coming up on 7 years of being a vegetarian in February. I have been thinking about it lately because of what happened not too long ago. I was shopping for food and in the vegetarian section of the cold storage at the store and noticed a new item that offered what I thought was a variation of a breaded chicken option. Now many products are out there that are fake chicken or fake meat products so that we have something that looks like what we had previously grown accustomed to eating. Which is great by the way since I have a lot of years behind me eating meat products and faking out my eyes and taste buds helps a lot. Yet, I failed to notice that this product was misplaced in the vegetarian section since my eyesight is not what it used to be even with glasses. So I bought the product and brought it home only to discover that it was real chicken meat. It did say on the package that the chickens were free range and fed a vegetarian diet but still, not a vegetarian product. This has happened to me once before when going through a drive through I ordered bean tacos and was instead given meat tacos. Both times I seriously considered throwing them away and buying something else. I also have to consider my low economic status however. Given that I had purchased the products I decided to eat them and live with it. It hurts my conscious somewhat but then I know for a fact that I did not intentionally purchase them. It was an accidental purchase and therefore not some act of cheating on myself and lying to others. I still consider myself a vegetarian despite these two failings to be a perfect vegetarian. I choose to eat the purchased products and move on because of factors outside my own desire to not eat meat. If ever I get to a more secure financial footing, I know that I will seek out to give any mistaken meat product purchase away to someone who would be grateful for the gift of food and doesn't self restrict their eating diet. I will be more careful in the future as well with my purchases.

What I want to give away (#2166)

Today's blog post is a bit pedestrian but it is reflective of where I am with my life right now. The stuff that I have left that I have accumulated over time has been on my mind. I know you may have thought that I was going to go on and on about abstract thinking or social awareness but no, I am referring to my physical things. They were so important to me that I was willing to sacrifice of myself and others to attain them. Now all I can think about is how to give them to others who could really use them. Commercialism had me for a long while and I am not alone in this since most all my peers are of the same perspective. I am not anymore however and the quicker I can get to simplifying my life to basic necessities and a few entertainments then the more efficient my life will be with what is left of it. Efficiency is the key. I wish to waste no more of my time on irrelevancies. I no longer have that sense within me that I am immortal somehow. My big fear throughout most of my life was not living beyond expected life span. Now I have not been one who easily skirts away from danger but deep down I hoped that dying would come long after a fruitful lifespan. I no longer think in those terms either. Now I just wish to do and be the best man I can be and whatever comes my way will not change my approach. I am no longer making strategies to circumvent my duties if those duties require gambling with my own life if need be. I just want to live the rest of my life in the moment and come what may is the paradigm for me. So all the things I have surrounded myself with are becoming more useless by the day. The quicker I get to lighting my load the better the rest of my life's journey will be. Now on to figuring out how best to dispose of what I previously didn't want to live without, not that the value of them is of any great amount...

My subconscious is my sovereign (#2165)

I can always tell when I am off track in my life by the dreams I have after I wake. The message is clear if the story of the dream is not. Always within the story is a clear moral for me to address. My subconscious is my sovereign. Nothing becomes more clear to me by way of expression than something that stems from within me. I could get the same message from someone else in whatever setting and it would not have the same powerful impact I get from a dream plot with it's many twists and turns. It is as if the perspective needed by me to understand the moral becomes vividly clear through the dream process. This is another proof if needed by me that I have a good and honest soul. My inner self uses my outer actions to correct and establish honorable protocols for me to inculcate. That old saying that we are not perfect beings does not refer to my subconscious. My subconscious has been consistently perfect in it's directing me to live a continually better life. Using the same observation formula that Aristotle become famous for, ie... self examination as a tool for understanding humanistic behavior in general, I can honestly say that we all must have the capacity to be led by our own subconscious. We have to learn that we are survivors and long for life as a species so our internal strengths are conditioned to help us, not hinder us in that endeavor. So trusting our subconscious with being a guiding force for our own good is a reasonable assumption. The tricky part is when we do have our dreams of disjointed plot twists, we must remember that embedded in the plot twists is some morality that is trying to use the totality of the dream to reinforce some conscious action on our part. I have become an old hand at deciphering this and although my dreams are wild and fascinating, they always leave me with a humility that I need to impress on my own waking life.

Competitive athletics is distracting us from solving our problems (#2164)

If we don't recognize that our entertainment has become more important than our goals of having a better society then we are doomed to fail as a society. We are currently in this paradigm. We can find money to pay for sporting events that are too expensive to attend for most Americans yet we have no plan to spend a single penny on improving our national infrastructure nor our educational and social safety net programs. So instead of money going to help our economy in ways that return to us a benefit, we are more inclined to give our money to a few profiteers who stoke the competitive nature of our spirits with few victories and more so too many disappointments. But hey, there is always next year. Now I am all for competitive sports being utilized to galvanize us for improving ourselves but in today's existing market, competitive sports has taken most of the ambition we should have in societal advancement and monopolized it away from pressing problems that need immediate solutions. Meanwhile the few wealthy who control organized sporting competitions rake in our attendance and our money for their own personal gain without giving very much back to us as a return for our involvement. Can I really blame the wealthy for capitalizing on our own need for competition as an outlet in our lives? Not really, they are just doing what we allow as law to exist. It is the flawed system of capitalism that let's the privateers in our world control the public domain without an equal cost benefit for societal improvement. I am just as rabid a fan for some sports programs as the next person but I realize that we are in a catch twenty two. We know that competitive sports gives us little except occasional satisfaction while we continue to dole out too much money and attention to have it in our lives. It is like that old saying, we have looked into the eyes of our enemy and it us us.

The caretakers of our planet Earth (#2163)

It is we humans who are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of our planet and all the species that are under our care. We have an awesome duty and obligation to life and our environment. It is humbling to realize that life as we know it is in the hands of our determining. It is also humbling to realize that the very existence of our planet is in our hands as well as subject to the laws of the universe. What is our criteria for establishing protocols? Do we accept the responsibility that our survival instincts have elevated us to? Shall we be an honorable society that takes responsibility for our actions? It seems that generally more often than not we have shown the ability to master our surroundings with a sense of care. But often enough to worry me is our penchant for living for the now instead of preparing for our future generations. I think we can do both, live for the now while also being good stewards of our responsibilities. I am constantly clamoring for us to do so with pointing out the continued selfishness many seem to think is their right to practice without a duty of care for people and places that gave them their nurture. I for one am proud to be a human but proud in the sense that I have been born as a member of a species with ever evolving capabilities. So much so that we are constantly innovating and creating new paradigms which will propel us well beyond our own planet and out into unexplored space. We are in a manifest destiny mode as a species and our destination is everywhere our imaginations can take us in reality. Nothing is stopping us from properly taking care of who and what we have dominion over nor is anything stopping us from showing the universe that our species is an honorable one.

Hope is a start but it is not enough (#2162)

I entitled my blog Man of Hope and surely hope is the key to our future. But in reality, hope is just the beginning. Hope is what we envision for our future, a new or continuing paradigm that cannot exist without effort. It is the effort that makes up the more than just hope part. I foresee nothing different than many like minded souls like me see, less harm and more understanding. It is easy enough to know that both are attainable but not unless all of us want it as well. There are far too many who could care less and they feel that despite all evidence they are more important than greater societal goals. What I would say to them is that when we focus on greater societal goals instead of just individual goals we all stand to improve our lives, not just a select few. Now still they would say that none of us should be dependent upon another, yet that is wrong since we all are or were dependent upon others throughout our lives. We do not exist within a dual reality where we are supreme in one and separate in the other. It is a bit of an ego trip to think that we are solely independent from others while we take and give with each other all day and night long. You don't have to be a philosopher or a psychiatrist to know that holding two opposing points of view as true, at the same time, is illogical. But it seems that being illogical is preferred if it gets us what we want. Now that is selfish and deceitful all at the same time. Yet here I am not unlike many like me who continue to hold onto hope as our beginning while still too many choose to ignore hope and choose to do nothing or even worse increase harm and decrease knowledge. I will continue to hope with all my soul but I also will continue to call out the ones who oppose hope for their own blinding avarice.