philosophy

Expertise

Studies have been done on expertise and one aspect is that expertise takes at least ten thousand hours in a specific field. But it takes more than that. It takes curiosity. It takes passion, a longing for that knowledge, a clear goal and the ability and willingness to learn.

Expertise takes a lifetime of ups and downs, failure, tears, frustration, lack of confidence and over confidence. It takes the fortitude to persevere. It takes a conscious effort, a clarity of mind to dismiss common and popular opinions of others that are not experts.

To be an expert takes the ability to recognize others that might be experts and to learn from them. It takes the decision to work towards that clear goal you have set in mind regularly and to pay prices no matter the cost in order to understand and delve deeper into that understanding.

You might ask yourself if you are an expert in any field. You might be but it is not for you to say. An expert lives with the knowledge of ignorance and the ignorance of knowledge.

Numb

Why bother being good at anything? Why desire integrity with an onslaught of lies and smiles? Why want to make the world a better place when the world seems to want to be worse? Why knowledge when it is ignorance that reigns?

I don’t know the answer to these questions except that i doesn’t make sense to blind yourself simply because you live in an un-seeing world. It doesn’t make sense to fuel a machine built to suck the life out of you.

Numbness is not comfort. The loss of hope is not happiness.

Societies do not progress, individuals do. People have never done anything worthwhile. Some one has. The masses are a product; the inventor is an artist. The capitalist is a parasite; the engineer a drone, and the musician a drowning man.

In the end it doesn’t matter. But what we forget is that the end doesn’t matter. It is life, a good life, that is important.

To try to do good, to produce beauty is progress. All else is a cheap trinket in a dirty convenient store.

Good Enough

This is dedicated to the feigned skepticism of those that fear happiness and its cost, who have taken the low road and call it good enough.

The judgement of others hurts. The off-handed remarks, the silent look and lack of questions and curiosity. The worlds said and unsaid. The forgone conclusions that hang in the air. But what is most irksome is that these conclusions are ignorant and ill-informed.

It is in the traditional that [these] attributes are found. Those that see the world through the lens of the past, through their own biases. Sometimes it is from those you love and care for, your parents, your spouse. sometimes from people whom you dislike or don’t know.

Sometimes it is yourself. do your own beliefs color you? Do they remind you of something bothersome? Should you fight? For what is a dream without doubt?

What is independence without ridicule?

How much is enough? Be yourself and the world will look away because it will have lost you to your own happiness.

Ignorance is a heavy burden to bear, but regret is a chain that binds you to it.

Ignorant Wisdom

There is a pervasive attitude based upon pride and a hidden weakness that undermines the ability to be great and erases the path towards it. There must be a word for it as it comes in many forms. It is found in typical places, where the weak and the prideful mingle and hover.

It is empathy gone awry. It is a bloated sense of importance concerning personal endeavors and interests. It is both humble and braggart in the same voice and is spoken with a smile or a “concerned” look. It comes from those who do not do hard work or are not accustomed to discomfort. They are blatant in their ignorance but thinks themselves wise.

They are not lazy, and so the thing is not laziness. It is not the same as the arrogance found in those familiar places. It is, perhaps, fear of the unknown and a grasping at a self-satisfactory savior. But all things are fear of death in the end, even this thing. But it is more than that. It is a fear of ego. It turns away from the unknown and despises the difficult.

The strong often bow to it because it is easier to do so than to fight. “It” is unending and blind. It turns the world beige and normalizes the lowest common denominator. It is soil in which only the genetically modified, the typical, the unspecial and spoiled can grow. This is the empty-eyed stare of the future.

Listening

The art of listening is a giving and un-egotistical activity. But, we are all somewhat egotistical by our very nature. While we know the world exists and does not revolve around us, we wish that it did; at least to an extent. This is often recognized when we talk to others. We might wait impatiently to speak rather than listening while someone else talks. We might “zone” out if we are not interested. we might notice when others do these things to us.

We all probably do this to a lesser or greater extent. We see it all of the time. Those that “check” their phones or “multitask” while someone is trying to have an intentional conversation with them. This is not listening. Listening takes work if not interest in the person if not the topic.

To listen is to be generous with our time. It is to give something precious over to someone else. To listen is to be involved in what it is to be a person rather than just a human being with an ability. We understand by listening. We learn by listening. The world is aural and as we make our way through it we can listen to the universe sing if we so choose.

It is ironic that it is noise that keeps us from listening. It is everywhere, pumped in by lost souls and those that fear truth and silence in all their forms. It is the noise of our inundated lives, of bad decisions and lost causes. These things keep us from giving our attention to others because we are lost in our own lives.

But if we listen closely through the noise and the turmoil we can hear the beauty of a single songbird, or a friend who needs a shoulder, or the laugh of someone we love. If we listen closely we can hear the silence that we’ve needed in our lives as well as learn a thing or two.

Easy

Easy is not lessening pain or misery, nor is it necessarily to help lessen unwanted chores, work or mind-numbing repetition. To lessen these things is not always easy. To have more time for leisure is not necessarily creating more time for creativity or imagination because these things are not easy. So, what is it to make something “easy”?

The first possible explanation is that it does not take much effort or understanding in order to accomplish an easy thing. A second possible explanation is that one already has the knowledge and understanding to accomplish a task. However, that does not mean that it has always been easy to that person.

In the same way technology is not necessarily progress. It does not make life creative or allow uncreative people to be creative or imaginative. Technology, however, does make life easy. This has an interesting effect.

First, it would seem to have creative and progressive effect on a few creative and imaginative folks while lessening that effect on most others. Also, it seems to create the illusion of creativity and imagination for those that are actually not creative or imaginative.

In the worst-case scenario, wisdom becomes information and creativity becomes a cut-n-paste project. In the best case scenario, technology makes it easy to further the difficult task of actually being creative and imaginative.

The Art of Conversation

We can communicate with each other. Think about that. We can share ideas and understand subtle humor. We can ponder our own existence and philosophize about the importance of life itself. We created many languages grown out of necessity and culture, and desire, and passion.

We can tell someone we love them.

Think about the times in life that we have missed doing this, that we chose not to, and instead allowed ourselves to be carried away by trinkets and blinking lights or by laziness. It is almost as if we die from a thousand unthought decisions that slowly drain our souls from our bodies.

Time is infinite but we do not have infinite time.

Our time is short and although time seems so absurd, time is all we have.

Words hold power and we hold words in our heads, at the ready. To share. We can choose to pretend and simply bide our time with meaningless chatter and we can choose Truth. We can communicate these words in so many ways. And through these many scenarios, learn ourselves, about ourselves and even from ourselves.

Words hold no value but language does.

Words are art and we must share this art as a musician must share the notes on a page. We owe it to ourselves and to others not to waste this precious art form that we come to dismiss for so many toys and trinkets. We must learn the art of conversation before we lose our way through the forest of rhetoric and the rocks of the mundane.

Become an artist and have a conversation.

Truth is Like Poetry: 11

Problem: Fascism and Dictatorships

Unfortunately, this particular problem is apropos to the times that we are currently living in.  In 2022 Vladimir Putin is attacking the Ukraine and Donald Trump seems to be gearing up for another run at western Democracy.  These two individuals are typical examples of what fascism and dictatorships are.  And a further unfortunate truth is that they are not, and have not been alone.  Throughout history there have been fascists and dictators that have wrecked and ruined otherwise civil societies.  That’s what fascists and dictators do; they do it to further their own, selfish ends.

The ultimate problem of fascism and dictatorship ought to be apparent.  But the problem that fascism and dictatorships stem from is deeper.  Typically, they take power by promising and fear-mongering.  The basis of fascism and dictatorship is the same: groups of people within society that are fearful, ignorant, or are generally unhappy with the society that they live in.  These people tend to be a faction of the minority (in a Democracy) in a given society.  They feel their “rights” have been suppressed in some way or that they have been unjustly represented (in a representative government)

The other side of civil unrest is civil apathy, and this too allows for fascist and dictatorial ideas to come to fruition and grow.  As apathy towards politics grows so do the chances for fascist and dictatorial ideas gain traction.  It is often in the dark, un-visited corners of our societies that these ruinous ideas are born.  And so it is with apathy towards the politics of one’s society.  If few pay attention, then a few will do as they will.

Solution: *Eradication of Poverty***, re-implementation of separation of powers

            The solution to government overthrow by those who would disregard civil societies is not a simple one, nor is it one that will last without close attention by citizens who want civil societies.  There must be, of course, consequences for those that would be dictators as there should be for those that would have fascist tendencies.  However, it is the strength of any civil society to allow for voices and viewpoints from all sides.  This is why it is important to allow even violent voices a place. 

            However, the true eradication of these tendencies would be in eradicating the reasons that they come to exist.  Poverty has been, throughout history, a breeding ground for revolution because poverty is often the result of unfair and unjust government policies, greed, over-reach.  With this in mind, the eradication of poverty is necessary in order to undermine the need for, or the belief that there is a need for a fascist and/or dictatorship.  With poverty eradicated, there must be a voice for citizens in the government by which they are a part of.

            Government itself can lend a helpful hand to undermining fascist/dictatorial movements.  But like these movements, government itself has been, or allowed itself to be, part of the problem.  The founding fathers of the United States borrowed concepts from their forefathers, and their forefather’s forefathers when they introduced the concept of a governing citizenry.  Whatever form of government that a society takes upon itself, that government must be able to be held accountable.  One of the best ways to do so is to separate powers, sequester the chance for a government to allow fascist ideas to breed, or dictators to manipulate.  Donald Trump is a perfect example of what can happen when powers are separated in theory only rather than in reality.  He is the dark and foreboding face of apathy and governmental greed and the ignorant masses that follow dictators and fascists.

Truth is Like Poetry 10

Problem: Poverty           

There have always been the poor and most likely there will always be impoverished people.  Poverty has been an excuse, a plague, a problem, and a scapegoat throughout history.  In other words, the problem of poverty seems to be a natural consequence of civilization.  The solution for this general poverty would be the allocation of funds, goods, and services to people across the planet, but this takes money, planning, and a political desire.  These are in actuality the problems of poverty.

Income disparities are often the consequences of politics and greed, corporate greed in particular.  Corporate greed alone probably accounts for a great percentage of global poverty, which is to say that most poverty is human-born.  Even if corporations (which hold the vast majority of the wealth on the planet, not including governments*) were to find the motivation to try to solve general poverty, planning such an endeavor would prove unlikely given the history of governments across the planet.  Furthermore, most governments are at least in part controlled by large sums of corporate monies.

Lastly, the political desire to eradicate global poverty would be necessary.  This alone is enough to make this endeavor impossible.  Human beings are tribal and primarily understand their immediate surroundings.  An endeavor to end world poverty is beyond the scope of human empathy not to mention political will.  There might be a way to conjure political will to eradicate poverty, but it would most likely be limited at best.

Solution: John Rawls “invisible curtain”

            John Rawls, an ethical philosopher, wrote The Theory of Justice which introduced a philosophical theory of justice based upon two principles which are important.  They are:

First Principle: Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all;

Second Principle: Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions:

  1. They are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity;
  2. They are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society (the difference principle) (JF, 42–43).

These two principles play a part when citizens (individuals within a given society) are put behind what he calls the “invisible curtain”.  In short, all theories of justice in that given society are to be made by everyone within that society.  However, no individual actually knows their particular place in that society.  In this way, everyone has ‘skin in the game’ so to speak.

With Rawls’ hypothetical ‘curtain’ in place, the likelihood of anyone allowing for extreme poverty would at least be lowered.