society

Work

Work. Work the mind and the body and peace and tranquility will follow. Work with purpose and control what you do for work. Work for others, not because you must, not because they pay you to work, but because you desire the peace and tranquility that only work can give.

In our deluded society we barter meaningless things for the illusion that we work. We must, it is true, work to be independent, but it is not payment that makes us independent. It is our realization that independence is a worthy cause to work for.

If the argument is that “we must…”, that “our society demands…” then it is a lie. It is deception on both parts: ourselves and others. Do not believe that we must meet the expectations of others, and lower the expectations you have of yourself. Remember:

You are not owed anything. You are guaranteed nothing.

Less Traveled

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Don’t fall for the cheap trinkets and shiny toys sold by society. Look away from the flashing lights and screens that inundate us. Raise yourself above the noise of the masses and their masters. Take the path less traveled, the forgotten trails, and spend your time in the “wastelands” where progress has turned its back; where brick and mortar grow and the soul dies. Where entertainment reigns and imagination is forgotten.

Be human. Be imperfect. Be a person, not a commodity, bought and sold by corporate lies and grandiose promises. Turn your back and walk away. Save yourself. None of their lies and promises are worth it. Don’t trust the empty eyes of those who have bought the ticket for cheap thrills and trick mirrors.

Turn off the social spigot, the pop parodies, and look for green spaces and dark nights and a silent home. Do not lose yourself in the shallow, shameful pools of progress made to order.

Truth in Poetry: 14

Problem: Civility

As the population grows and people move to cities en masse, the vast majority of people live in close quarters to one another.  As this phenomenon continues to grow there becomes a “rat king” problem.  Also, as our society evolves technologically, we have less and less need for our “neighbors”.  This leads to the attitude that the “other guy” is getting something that I could have had, rather than the more healthy: there’s enough for everyone attitude.  Now with cellphones we can disconnect at any time, for any reason, and anywhere.  Furthering the problem of civility was Covid.

As civility wains in our societies, so do our societies.  It is perhaps a well-known secret that the formalities of government keep government civil; they are often what makes a good government.  The same applies to societies.  When the so-called formalities of a good society wain, the society becomes less good.  As we as a society disregard accepted norms and traditions, we often lose some that are actually useful, and good.

Although civility is an esoteric concept, it is also one which can be recognized.  There are many examples of the dissolution of civility ranging from the way we drive, to the way we dress but civility, in all its forms is a cornerstone of any society worth living in.  It is not easy, and that is a problem since ease has become more and more important to us as citizens.  However, we must remember that easy is often not the best motivation for doing anything.

Solution: Parenting, Education, Population Control

            Yes.  Good parenting is an essential solution to the problem of civility.  However, sadly to say, there are many bad parents in the world, but solutions to bad parenting come with their own set of issues.  We could take Plato’s approach, that in The Republic. Population control, however, is an issue that must be addressed no matter what.  And this would seem to help civility.  If we are to live in close quarters, the less of us there are, the better behaved we might be.

            Of course, the primary solution has to be the education of children in the importance of being civil.  This could range from utilitarian manners to lessons in basic ethical philosophy (sympathy, empathy etc…)  We could broaden the education to those in prison, and those charged with lesser crimes.  If we chose to go China’s way, we could punish people for slight infractions, although it is not clear that that approach actually makes for a civil society.

            The easiest and the most difficult is for us all to realize that we would live in a better society if we all acted civilly towards one another.  Several other issues that could be enacted have been mentioned above.  If we as individuals simply acted responsibly and courteously towards one another at all times, it would go a long way.  However, getting to that point seems problematic without some kind of education in civility.

Truth is Like Poetry 6

Problem: Government*

A good government (one that increases the amount of happiness for most people) must balance the desires of individuals with the desires of the society in which the individual lives; think of government as a seesaw with individuals on one side and society on the other.  The seesaw will always swing one or the other way, but not too much.  This is its natural state of what I will call the “rights-relationship”.  It is when the natural state of the governmental seesaw is changed artificially by individuals or society that problems become inherent.  The seesaw starts seesawing radically.

It is important to remember that government is a philosophical idea and an objective reality, and at the same time it is defined by human limitations. So, a second problem is that the essence, the ultimate goal of government becomes biased, or corrupt unnaturally by human limitations instead of progressing towards its philosophical ideal.  One might say that one of the jobs of government is to regulate stupidity: to lessen human limitations in order to progress towards social and philosophical ideals.  It has failed in this.

Lastly, governments are defined by laws and so it would seem to follow that any law ought to protect the “natural state” of the rights-relationship, the natural state of the seesaw, between individuals and society.  It is the concept of rights, after all, that we are discussing when we discuss the concept of government.  However, laws are linguistic and so there will always be the problem of interpretation.  It is when interpretation of the law is used for the above reasons that bias and corruption become problems.

*see problems 4 & 5

Solution: Enforceable Law/social changes/re-establishment of separation of powers/money

First, rights are defined by law.  They are not “God-given”.  Nor can they be assumed simply because we are human beings.  That being said, any law must be written and enforced as to allow for the most rights for both individuals and society; both must compromise.  In essence, laws are amendments, and as such are changeable (amendable) but the ultimate goal, the most rights for both individuals and society, must always be the end-result.  Once in place, any and all laws must be enforceable and applicable to all individuals, the whole of society.

Secondly, unlimited lobbying and money must be taken out of governmental decision making.  The ability of the rich (or any minority) to control the government must be ended.

Lastly, law is interpretable.  Language is a tool of interpretation, and government is defined by the language that it uses.  This is where the issues start most of the time.  It is important to remember that interpretation itself is not a problem.  However, the issue is interpretation that is unnecessary, rhetorical, biased or corrupt towards an end other than the natural state, or that amendable laws are arbitrary.  This is typically caused by one or another section/part/power of the government gaining an upper hand through legal and sometimes illegal methods by re-interpreting law to their favor in lieu of the ultimate goal. To combat this inevitable problem, a true separation of powers is necessary.  This will need to be done legally and be enforceable.

All of this may sound like a mess, but it is the nature of government.  At the base of this mess must be a platform.  What that platform is must be clear, but can change if enough individuals within a society deem it necessary (a legal majority).  Enforce laws and change society, if needed, in order that laws may be enforceable and amendable if necessary.

Truth is Like Poetry 4

Problem: Religion

It is said by many that religion is as old as humanity.  It isn’t, but if it was it has been a problem for all of human history.  There are many problematic aspects of religion not the least being its undermining of Truth, critical thinking, and the ability to decipher and search out meaningful truth, the scientific method.  Other problematic aspects include the justification of human weaknesses, greediness, arrogance, selfishness, its stubborn and insistent anti-progressive stance, and the propagation of ignorance in general.

People turn to religion for many reasons, most of them bad, but for whatever reason people turn to it society pays.  Churches are subsidized in several ways by the government (i.e society).  They pay little to no taxes and in turn add little to no advantage to society other than to those who attend this or that particular church.  Furthermore, religion has held societies in its grip for eons, standing in the way of social, economic, scientific and cultural progress.  Religion is a problem, but so is the legislation of morality. The theocratic tendencies of religions continue to be a dangerous issue to most societies.  People may have the right to believe what they want, false or not.  However, all of society should not have to pay for that right.

Solution: taxation and education

The ultimate solution is for humanity to turn its back upon the crutch of religious belief by educating itself (especially regarding critical thinking).  However, this is unlikely.  So, the education of children should be limited to non-religious public education systems and private educational institutions should be limited to secular only.  In short, religious belief has no place in any educational institution and has no business calling itself (or being established as) an educational institution (i.e. “Bible College” etc…). 

Secondly, religions should be stripped of their nonprofit and/or not-for-profit status entirely.  The multi-million-dollar monstrosities that dot most cityscapes should not exist if its members do not want to pay for it themselves.  Public coffers and policy-making need to be off-limits to religious organizations, including the ability for religions to lobby the government.  If a religious organization of any kind desires to do more, become public, build, or create an institution for public use, it should be held to the same tax laws as any other business.

However, religion is and ought to be a private affair alone.  The division of church and state should be absolute.  The Christian figure Jesus, perhaps said it best:

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”

A Civil Society

In New Hampshire, armed idiots chased the governor elect away.

Ted Cruz is leading a group of Republican traitors, trying to fight the results of the recent elections. Mitch McConnell gives them his “blessings”.

No warranted evidence for any of their allegations has been produced, and our current president tried to change voter results in Georgia and an ongoing health concern is still, still a political debate.

Most of us turn our heads in disgust with some egging the upending of our country on for religious or other ideological reasons. Gun sales are up and fear and loathing are at an all-time high while rational and critical analysis and thinking are at an all-time low.

It is time for us as a nation to ask some simple questions:

What kind of society do we want, and how do we get it? How did we allow our society to come to this point?

It is time for us to look past the platitudes and bumper stickers and realize that a civil society does not come free and that unfettered freedoms do not equal a civil society.

Space

spaceSpace is amazing thing.  We create things to create space; we place things to create certain spaces and we rely upon people to give us space.  Space surrounds us; it makes up most of the universe and yet we are surrounded by barriers.

Once asked the job of government the answer was simple: to create space for a civilized society.

Once asked why read, the answer was simple: to create space in our minds for imagination.

Why learn?  To create space for curiosity.

Why be curious?  To create space for progress.

We all need space to ourselves and to allow space for others.  This is not just tolerance; we must not tolerate stupidity or incompetence.  But we must leave space for those who do not want to be or to remain stupid; to be or to remain incompetent.

There must be space for them and the change that they search for in the space that they live in.

There must be space for change; and it is in the spaces that we create that life happens.

With a Gun in Its Hand

Image result for gun violence pics

That we all must live in a society is no longer a question; the question is what kind of society do we want to live in?  Most of us talk of a just society, a society in which we have liberties, we have rights.  But those words are more often than not code for “my” liberties, “my” rights.  In such a society discussions become battles we cannot fight; arguments become wars that we must not lose.

In order for a society to work there must be a basis, a foundation upon which we all can build.  We must fight fear and cannot ignore ignorance, but must meet it head on.  My liberties are our liberties; my rights are our rights.  Any group, any government administration, any corporation or individual which dismisses this foundation is no longer working towards a better society.

But what are rights and what are liberties, those words so many seem to throw around?  Rights are limitations, liberties are freedoms.  To have the one we must accept the other.  To have a civil and a peaceful society we must all come to understand this.  And, we must understand that fear, ignorance, ideals and ideologies will fail us all.

So as the roar of voices rage on and the vulgar have their pitiful time in the spotlight, those that believe that a peaceful rather than fearful, that a civil rather than ignorant society is possible must continue to carry the heavy load of human potential and not give in to the penchant to define freedom as violence and normal as the lowest denominator.  We do not do this for our children or our children’s children, we do this because it is the right thing to do; we do this because the ugly alternative is staring us in the face at this very moment… with a gun in its hand.