Are you spiritual. Do you discount the existance of a spirit? Do spirits exist? What the heck am I talking about?
Well, a great source of contentious conflict and argument is the nature of spirituality, how it is applied to our lives and whether or not a spirit exists. Before you can even approach how to live and pursue a spiritual life you have to acknowledge the existance of a spirit, otherwise what's the point, really?
Well, first, the word spirit exists. Spirit comes from latin word "spiritus" that literally means "breath", and also is used to represent abstract concepts such as "courage", "soul", and "vigor". The word in greek is "anima", in Chinese is "chi", in Japanese is "ki". So, since the word exists in mulitple cultures then it defines something. That the word itself exists in many different languages should be enough evidence, in my opinion, that the thing exists.
However, there are some really stubborn people in the world who are very skeptical and have a pretty self-righteous attitude towards what should and shouldn't be accepted as real. While I agree you should be careful what you believe and really study it enough to confirm it is reasonable, I don't condone being a paranoid consipiracy theorists that questions the very nature of everything and denies anything is real. That's a pretty counterproductive attitude when it comes to getting anything productive done in the grand scheme of things.
Spirit is one of three components of being human, of being you as an individual, in many different cultural perspectives. The three components of a person is body, mind and spirit. The good news is we live in such a technologically advanced time that some really good illustrations are available to us to conceptualize two of these three ideas.
I'm going to use a computer to illustrate the idea of body, mind, and then to show how spirit is what makes us human compared to a computer.
A computer has a body, all the physical componenents that make the computer exist and function as a computer. All the circuits, power, case, etc... that all combine that allow a computer to function as a computer; including the software. The human body is like all the physical components of the computer. If significant parts of the computer are missing then it can no longer function as a computer. If significant parts of the human body is missing then it can no longer sustain life and function as a human being.
The computer, coincidentally, can be used to illustrate the mind. All the functions of software that access the parts of the computer in order to store, retrieve, and use information are like the human mind. The human mind, the brain, stores information and retrieves it for use when required. All the peripherals of the computer used to interact with that function (keyboard, mouse, modem, etc.) are the same as human senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, etc.)
So, body and mind are present in the computer. What makes a computer, no matter how advanced than a human in capabilities, different than a human? A computer can do nothing without external influence and input. There is no self-directing energy expended in a computer without some direction from an outside force.
In the human, all of us experience a whole range of motivations and thoughts that are not dependent on outside forces. We react, surely, to outside forces but we are not restricted to sitting idle waiting for something outside of ourselves to compel us to act. If we get bored, we seek stimulation.
Also we contemplate some very useless information for no particular reason. Rene Descartes justified existance by stating "I think therefore I am." meaning that the very act of contemplating existance indicates you are in fact existing. I would expand upon his concept and apply it to the existance of a spirit, saying "I think about things outside of my immediate senses and needs, therefore a spirit exists."
A computer, with no spirit, can do nothing with its capabilities until acted upon by an outside force. A human sitting idle can contemplate things outside of their environment or suddenly spring to action towards some goal without any external motivation. That is the spirit. That is the difference between humans and computers that illustrates and supports the existance of a spirit.
In the modern world, a lot is understood about the body and a lot understood about the mind, but there is very little understood about the spirit. This is because both body and mind present a lot more opportunities for experimentation and manipulation and the behavior of both can be measured and catalogued. With the spirit, it is a mystery because it is an internal process outside of our limited capabilities under our current conditions to manipulate and observe. Just because we are unable to come up with a way to measure the spirit doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it merely means we are very limited in our ability to understand its nature.
Once you establish and believe in the existance of a spirit, then it becomes very important for you to then explore the nature of spirit in your own experience of life. To ignore or discount the existance of spirit is to neglect at the very least 1/3 of what makes you human and seperates you from the nature of machines.
If you still fail to find spirit relevant then I ask you this last question. What is stress? Stress causes damage to the body and the mind, which is medical and psychological fact supported by scientific research and evidence. But what is it and where does it come from?
A computer experiences no distress, no stress, from being used to perform any function. A computer experiences wear and tear from use, abuse, or overuse but doesn't start destroying itself over some internal conflict in regards to what use it is being put. If a computer, which is functionally identical to mind and body experiences no stress then stress must come from the spirit.
If you ignore the existance of the spirit but experience stress then there will be no real resolution to your stress. Pharmaceuticals can shut down the parts of the body that respond to stress but cannot resolve the spiritual issue that is causing the stress to manifest. You can endeavor to change the way you think about things and this will reduce your stress, but I wonder if this is good because are you changing the very nature of who you are to avoid stress? Is that the best strategy in the long term? Who knows.
Think about it, and think hard. Once you accept that spirit exists then it becomes a serious concern and needs some thought on what to do in order to understand the nature of your spirit and how it works with the rest of you.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks.
Now to write something that will totally get me in trouble with several people in my life. I'm going to write about how I feel in regards to the education system. Of course I don't think I'll get in all that much trouble. I'll probably get yelled at by my wife or get the silent treatment from some of my teacher friends, but I don't think any of them have what it takes to try and run me over in the parking lot some dark and stormy night. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not against education in and of itself. It's the education system that I absolutely loathe.
It has become quite clear to me over the course of my quest for enlightenment and wisdom that education is absolutely necessary for a person to reach their full potential as an individual. But, it has also become quite clear to me that it is not in the best interest of most government and societies to have a large population of free willed educated individuals. It's the old what's good for the goose is not good for the gander cliche. For those of you unfamiliare with that particular cliche it means what is good for the individual is not necessarily good for the whole community to which they belong.
Let's start with my personal story regarding the education system. I taught myself how to read when I was five or six years old. Well, not really, Sesame Street and the Electric Company taught me how to read, but I didn't have a teacher other than the television. That jumpstarted my whole realization that you don't need a formal teacher to learn. I entered school straight into the first grade, skipping the beloved kindergarten most people enjoy.
In the first grade I was diagnosed with a speech problem because I had a Cuban accent. I was being raised 10 hours a day by Cuban babysitters; there were 7 in the apartment and only 1 spoke English. I was well on my way to being bilingual when the Tennessee school system go a hold of me and told me I couldn't speak like a normal white kid and sent me to speech therapy where I learned how to say "bathtub" instead of "bafftub" and how to say "church" instead of "shurch". I was also told that speaking Spanish was bad and to only speak English at all times. Thank you Tennessee, I will always remember you for that gift.
In the 2nd grade I was one of only two or three caucasian children in the Flowers Elementary School in Knoxville, TN. I was left handed, but they made me be right handed because it was easier for them. I guess they couldn't afford left handed scissors or desks. So now I write with my right hand but skateboard goofy footed and box south pawed. Also, I got into fights every single day of my school life but fortunately I never knew we were fighting so it didn't totally screw up my self-esteem. But now, as an adult, I wonder where were the teachers to protect me from having to fight my way out of the school yard and down the street to walk home. Yeah, I walked home through very low income/high crime neighborhoods all by myself without adult supervision or escort. Thanks Mom and Dad.
In the 3rd grade we moved to Texas where the only significant memory I have is flipping some kid off and getting in big trouble and another time of having to wash my mouth out with flourescent pink soap for saying "bad words". I didn't even know what flipping some one off meant and I ended up cussing every five minutes and washing my own mouth out with soap just to show the teacher I was tougher than her and toxic waste hand-soap. A big hurricane came and we moved before it hit us, leaving behind my beloved microscope and b.b. gun.
We moved to Pennsylvania where I attended the 4th grade. I went to a school for which I wasn't zoned because it was closer to my Aunt Barb's house where I stayed after school for several hours. One day the teacher found out I wasn't zoned for that school and I was called to meet the principle, a fat balding man who was sweating and eating a twinkie while he grilled me like a hardened criminal on who I thought I was coming to his school when I was zoned for Cannon McMillan. Yelling at a 10 year old about something he had no control over; thanks principle fatty for the memory.
Also that year I was showing myself to be a gifted and smart kid who excelled at math. So, the teachers took it upon themselves to move me up to a 6th grade class for math without asking me if that was okay. It taught me an important lesson. If people think you are smart they make you do things you don't want to do. I promptly failed 6th grade math and swore off learning any form of math so long as I lived.
We moved from Pennsylvania back to Tennesee, to Alcoa this time. There I met a witch named Mrs. Cochan who believed the best form of disciplining children is to humiliate them, make fun of them, and call them stupid if they didn't do what she wanted them to do. Unfortunately for Mrs. Cochran my father had invested a lot of time in raising me to never trust what an adult says or tells you to do just because they are an adult. During my two years at Eagleton elementary I concentrated all my efforts on torturing the teachers as rigorously as Mrs. Cochran had attempted to torture me. Naturally my school work and studies suffered, but I was on a crusade and couldn't be bothered with learning while I was engaged in open warfare with the authority figures trying to teach me.
My dad had left my mom for a year then came back, and upon returning it seems that he and my mom reconciled their differences and went on to love one another until the day my father died. That's all well and good for them but I wasn't having any of it. There was no way my dad was going to up and abandon me then come on home a year later and tell me what to do or how to live. My father chose my school performance as the battlefield in which we were to engage in our power struggle. The worse my academic performance the more my father punished me, the more he punished me the more determined I became to peform poorly at school.
The funny thing was, I learned plenty at school. I listened in the classes, I learned the material, and even did the homework most of the time. But I threw the home work away rather than turning it in and I failed the tests on purpose. The teachers were all sad faces and tsk tsks about me not living up to the potential they saw in me. I guess that potential wasn't really worth investing their time to reach me, though, since none of them ever really tried to turn me around back onto the straight and narrow path of being the next valedictorian. Thanks again Tennessee school systems. Sure, some of you may click your own tongues and say it was my own fault to which I respond I was a kid, they were the adults. Sure I was difficult but I was a child. The burden of duty for educating children lies with the adults in that child's life, not with the child.
In the 8th grade I loved where I went to school at Bearden, loved all the friends I had made in the two years we lived in Knoxville, TN, and was actually starting to settle down to doing better in school. Then we moved again, to Chattanooga, TN. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, my friends. In spite of every fit and act of open rebellion I threw to attempt to derail our move to Chattanooga, we still moved and I had to follow. I started my new school year at Hixson Jr. High School, which by the way was an appropriate hell in which to be sentenced for all my sins.
I decided to fail the 9th grade, escalating my war with my father over my school performance to Global Thermonuclear War. I succeeded in my goal to fail every class and to fail the 9th grade in spite of the herculean efforts my parents went to in an attempt to force me to get good grades. Upon failing my parents threw in the towel and gave up on trying to make me do anything ever. My father said, "Sean, it's yoru life. If you want to screw it up then go ahead, I can't stop you."
Once I established my intellectual and spiritual autonomy I proceeded to make straight A's the next year of 9th grade, not scoring below a 96 in any class except Geometry which I failed since math was still the devil to me at that time. During my Hixson Jr. High experience I was student to several teachers who were far dumber and more socially awkward than me, the only one of which I will name was Ms. Duggan. She used to go into fits of rage, storm out of class, burst into tears, and was generally insane in every facet of her teaching life. I took her class twice for entertainment purposes since it was great fun to watch her melt down. The whole experience of being 14 and having to sit in a class in front of adults who were by all appearances dumber and bigger failures than I ever was or could be caused me to lose all respect for the education system.
Oh, and I forgot to mention when I lost faith in science. It really was a process that culminated in the 10th grade. For all my childhood every science class told me they knew the nature of reality. What screwed me up was the model of the atom. First I was shown Dalton's model of the atom and told this is what an atom looks like. I was like, awesome, that's cool. Then I was shown Bohr's model of the atom a few years later and I was like, what the hell? That's not what you said two years ago. Then in the 10th grade I was shown the modern model of the atom with electron clouds and I just threw up my hands and told them they were all lying bastards and they could go straight to hell.
Also, in the 10th grade I raised my hand in a Chemistry class during a lecture about radiation and when I was called upon I stated with a straight face in a serious tone, "Ms. Macafee, I heard that when you are exposed to Gammar radiation that later when you become angry you turn green and develop super-human strength.", to which she looked thoughtful and replied, "You know, I haven't read that. I'm going to have to look into that and get back with you." And she was serious!!!
In health class and gym the teacher was legally blind, had an uncontrollable tremor and stuttered. In home economics the teacher tried to convince us that condiments were one of the four food groups and she almost had a heart attack when Andy Gray hid in the broom closet, plus she never noticed when some bored kids lit hairspray on fire on top of their desks. One science teacher tried to kill her whole class by attempting to demonstrate Newton's laws of motion by having everyone stand in the middle of the room and jump up and down at the same time. They stopped when the second story floor started buckling severely beneath them. I had a different chemistry teacher throw chalk at me when I dozed off in his class.
I did have a few teachers that I enjoyed. Mr. Denton, the art teacher was awesome as was Mr. Fulgham the latin teacher. My english teacher was very nice so I behaved well for her at all times. The geography teacher had a huge beer belly and coke bottle glasses, his tests consisted of maps and blank lines, but all in all he was cool enough. During the later years of my high school education my grades were more of a direct reflection of how I felt about the teacher than any reflection of my real knowledge on the subject.
During my Senior year the school tried an experiment in the attendance policy which only lasted that one year. The policy was as follows: There were no number of maximum allowable absences, you could miss as many as you wanted. And, all failing grades regardless of actual numeric value were calculated as 59's in the computer. I strained my brain to do the math, using a calculator, on what grades I needed at the beginning of the year to be averaged in with 59's to pass my senior year. I got those grades during the first half of the year then had 75 or more absences the rest of the year. Sometimes I came to school for lunch and to see my friends, and when I decided to do that I slept all morning in my car at the tennis courts parking lot. If you are a girl who went to Hixson High school in '93 and you surrounded a Dodge Omni to wake some kid up in the back seat by pointing and laughing, that was me. You guys scared the crap out of me.
After all was said and done I graduated high-school with a 2.65 GPA and scored a 29 on my ACT, applied to the University of Chattanooga at Tennessee and was accepted for the fall semester of '93. That is how I wasted my mornings and afternoons from age six to age eighteen. Thank you all, U.S. federal, state, and local governments and education systems.
I'll wrap this entry up here and go on to talk about my higher education experience at the Univeristy level and then clarify my position on the state of the education system in the U.S. I look forward to continuing with you guys in the future!
It has become quite clear to me over the course of my quest for enlightenment and wisdom that education is absolutely necessary for a person to reach their full potential as an individual. But, it has also become quite clear to me that it is not in the best interest of most government and societies to have a large population of free willed educated individuals. It's the old what's good for the goose is not good for the gander cliche. For those of you unfamiliare with that particular cliche it means what is good for the individual is not necessarily good for the whole community to which they belong.
Let's start with my personal story regarding the education system. I taught myself how to read when I was five or six years old. Well, not really, Sesame Street and the Electric Company taught me how to read, but I didn't have a teacher other than the television. That jumpstarted my whole realization that you don't need a formal teacher to learn. I entered school straight into the first grade, skipping the beloved kindergarten most people enjoy.
In the first grade I was diagnosed with a speech problem because I had a Cuban accent. I was being raised 10 hours a day by Cuban babysitters; there were 7 in the apartment and only 1 spoke English. I was well on my way to being bilingual when the Tennessee school system go a hold of me and told me I couldn't speak like a normal white kid and sent me to speech therapy where I learned how to say "bathtub" instead of "bafftub" and how to say "church" instead of "shurch". I was also told that speaking Spanish was bad and to only speak English at all times. Thank you Tennessee, I will always remember you for that gift.
In the 2nd grade I was one of only two or three caucasian children in the Flowers Elementary School in Knoxville, TN. I was left handed, but they made me be right handed because it was easier for them. I guess they couldn't afford left handed scissors or desks. So now I write with my right hand but skateboard goofy footed and box south pawed. Also, I got into fights every single day of my school life but fortunately I never knew we were fighting so it didn't totally screw up my self-esteem. But now, as an adult, I wonder where were the teachers to protect me from having to fight my way out of the school yard and down the street to walk home. Yeah, I walked home through very low income/high crime neighborhoods all by myself without adult supervision or escort. Thanks Mom and Dad.
In the 3rd grade we moved to Texas where the only significant memory I have is flipping some kid off and getting in big trouble and another time of having to wash my mouth out with flourescent pink soap for saying "bad words". I didn't even know what flipping some one off meant and I ended up cussing every five minutes and washing my own mouth out with soap just to show the teacher I was tougher than her and toxic waste hand-soap. A big hurricane came and we moved before it hit us, leaving behind my beloved microscope and b.b. gun.
We moved to Pennsylvania where I attended the 4th grade. I went to a school for which I wasn't zoned because it was closer to my Aunt Barb's house where I stayed after school for several hours. One day the teacher found out I wasn't zoned for that school and I was called to meet the principle, a fat balding man who was sweating and eating a twinkie while he grilled me like a hardened criminal on who I thought I was coming to his school when I was zoned for Cannon McMillan. Yelling at a 10 year old about something he had no control over; thanks principle fatty for the memory.
Also that year I was showing myself to be a gifted and smart kid who excelled at math. So, the teachers took it upon themselves to move me up to a 6th grade class for math without asking me if that was okay. It taught me an important lesson. If people think you are smart they make you do things you don't want to do. I promptly failed 6th grade math and swore off learning any form of math so long as I lived.
We moved from Pennsylvania back to Tennesee, to Alcoa this time. There I met a witch named Mrs. Cochan who believed the best form of disciplining children is to humiliate them, make fun of them, and call them stupid if they didn't do what she wanted them to do. Unfortunately for Mrs. Cochran my father had invested a lot of time in raising me to never trust what an adult says or tells you to do just because they are an adult. During my two years at Eagleton elementary I concentrated all my efforts on torturing the teachers as rigorously as Mrs. Cochran had attempted to torture me. Naturally my school work and studies suffered, but I was on a crusade and couldn't be bothered with learning while I was engaged in open warfare with the authority figures trying to teach me.
My dad had left my mom for a year then came back, and upon returning it seems that he and my mom reconciled their differences and went on to love one another until the day my father died. That's all well and good for them but I wasn't having any of it. There was no way my dad was going to up and abandon me then come on home a year later and tell me what to do or how to live. My father chose my school performance as the battlefield in which we were to engage in our power struggle. The worse my academic performance the more my father punished me, the more he punished me the more determined I became to peform poorly at school.
The funny thing was, I learned plenty at school. I listened in the classes, I learned the material, and even did the homework most of the time. But I threw the home work away rather than turning it in and I failed the tests on purpose. The teachers were all sad faces and tsk tsks about me not living up to the potential they saw in me. I guess that potential wasn't really worth investing their time to reach me, though, since none of them ever really tried to turn me around back onto the straight and narrow path of being the next valedictorian. Thanks again Tennessee school systems. Sure, some of you may click your own tongues and say it was my own fault to which I respond I was a kid, they were the adults. Sure I was difficult but I was a child. The burden of duty for educating children lies with the adults in that child's life, not with the child.
In the 8th grade I loved where I went to school at Bearden, loved all the friends I had made in the two years we lived in Knoxville, TN, and was actually starting to settle down to doing better in school. Then we moved again, to Chattanooga, TN. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, my friends. In spite of every fit and act of open rebellion I threw to attempt to derail our move to Chattanooga, we still moved and I had to follow. I started my new school year at Hixson Jr. High School, which by the way was an appropriate hell in which to be sentenced for all my sins.
I decided to fail the 9th grade, escalating my war with my father over my school performance to Global Thermonuclear War. I succeeded in my goal to fail every class and to fail the 9th grade in spite of the herculean efforts my parents went to in an attempt to force me to get good grades. Upon failing my parents threw in the towel and gave up on trying to make me do anything ever. My father said, "Sean, it's yoru life. If you want to screw it up then go ahead, I can't stop you."
Once I established my intellectual and spiritual autonomy I proceeded to make straight A's the next year of 9th grade, not scoring below a 96 in any class except Geometry which I failed since math was still the devil to me at that time. During my Hixson Jr. High experience I was student to several teachers who were far dumber and more socially awkward than me, the only one of which I will name was Ms. Duggan. She used to go into fits of rage, storm out of class, burst into tears, and was generally insane in every facet of her teaching life. I took her class twice for entertainment purposes since it was great fun to watch her melt down. The whole experience of being 14 and having to sit in a class in front of adults who were by all appearances dumber and bigger failures than I ever was or could be caused me to lose all respect for the education system.
Oh, and I forgot to mention when I lost faith in science. It really was a process that culminated in the 10th grade. For all my childhood every science class told me they knew the nature of reality. What screwed me up was the model of the atom. First I was shown Dalton's model of the atom and told this is what an atom looks like. I was like, awesome, that's cool. Then I was shown Bohr's model of the atom a few years later and I was like, what the hell? That's not what you said two years ago. Then in the 10th grade I was shown the modern model of the atom with electron clouds and I just threw up my hands and told them they were all lying bastards and they could go straight to hell.
Also, in the 10th grade I raised my hand in a Chemistry class during a lecture about radiation and when I was called upon I stated with a straight face in a serious tone, "Ms. Macafee, I heard that when you are exposed to Gammar radiation that later when you become angry you turn green and develop super-human strength.", to which she looked thoughtful and replied, "You know, I haven't read that. I'm going to have to look into that and get back with you." And she was serious!!!
In health class and gym the teacher was legally blind, had an uncontrollable tremor and stuttered. In home economics the teacher tried to convince us that condiments were one of the four food groups and she almost had a heart attack when Andy Gray hid in the broom closet, plus she never noticed when some bored kids lit hairspray on fire on top of their desks. One science teacher tried to kill her whole class by attempting to demonstrate Newton's laws of motion by having everyone stand in the middle of the room and jump up and down at the same time. They stopped when the second story floor started buckling severely beneath them. I had a different chemistry teacher throw chalk at me when I dozed off in his class.
I did have a few teachers that I enjoyed. Mr. Denton, the art teacher was awesome as was Mr. Fulgham the latin teacher. My english teacher was very nice so I behaved well for her at all times. The geography teacher had a huge beer belly and coke bottle glasses, his tests consisted of maps and blank lines, but all in all he was cool enough. During the later years of my high school education my grades were more of a direct reflection of how I felt about the teacher than any reflection of my real knowledge on the subject.
During my Senior year the school tried an experiment in the attendance policy which only lasted that one year. The policy was as follows: There were no number of maximum allowable absences, you could miss as many as you wanted. And, all failing grades regardless of actual numeric value were calculated as 59's in the computer. I strained my brain to do the math, using a calculator, on what grades I needed at the beginning of the year to be averaged in with 59's to pass my senior year. I got those grades during the first half of the year then had 75 or more absences the rest of the year. Sometimes I came to school for lunch and to see my friends, and when I decided to do that I slept all morning in my car at the tennis courts parking lot. If you are a girl who went to Hixson High school in '93 and you surrounded a Dodge Omni to wake some kid up in the back seat by pointing and laughing, that was me. You guys scared the crap out of me.
After all was said and done I graduated high-school with a 2.65 GPA and scored a 29 on my ACT, applied to the University of Chattanooga at Tennessee and was accepted for the fall semester of '93. That is how I wasted my mornings and afternoons from age six to age eighteen. Thank you all, U.S. federal, state, and local governments and education systems.
I'll wrap this entry up here and go on to talk about my higher education experience at the Univeristy level and then clarify my position on the state of the education system in the U.S. I look forward to continuing with you guys in the future!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy 4th of July! And now some words from our Founders.
“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”--Thomas Jefferson.
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”--Thomas Jefferson
“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”--Thomas Jefferson
“The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them”--Thomas Jefferson
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it”--John Adams
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion”--Treaty of Tripoli, John Adams; signer.
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence”-John Adams
“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.”--John Adams
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity”--John Adams
“The Pythagorean, as well as the Platonic philosophers, probably concurred in the fabrication of the Christian Trinity”--John Adams
“To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.”--Benjamin Franklin
"God helps those who help themselves.”--Benjamin Franklin
“I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make use of it gladly; and where it fails them, they cry out, It is a matter of faith, and above reason”--John Locke
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”--Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington; signer.
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter"--Thomas Jefferson.
"There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites"--Thomas Jefferson.(quoted by newspaper columnist William Edelen, "Politics and Religious Illiteracy," Truth Seeker, Vol. 121, No. 3, p. 33).
"Christianity...[has become] the most perverted system that ever shone on man....Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."--Thomas Jefferson.
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise....During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."--James Madison.
"My parents had given me betimes religious impressions, and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself."--Benjamin Franklin
"...Some books against Deism fell into my hands....It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations, in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."--Benjamin Franklin.
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of....Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and of my own part, I disbelieve them all."--Thomas Paine
"It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible."--Thomas Paine.
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The founding fathers of the United States of America were Deists, not Christians.
Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion. Many Deists reject the notion that God intervenes in human affairs, for example through miracles and revelations. These views contrast with the dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.
Deists typically reject most supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that is not altered either by God intervening in the affairs of human life or by suspending the natural laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.
Deism became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in what is now the United Kingdom, France, United States and Ireland, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in either a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy of scriptures, but who did believe in one god. It included some of the Unitarian ideas that emerged with Socinianism around 1574. Initially deism did not form any congregations, but in time it strongly influenced other religious groups, such as Unitarianism and Universalism. Many ideas of modern secularism were developed by deists.
Some people argue George Washington was Christian because he attended church. His wife was Christian. All reports on record by the preachers at the church where George Washington attended say that Washington always left before communion and refused to participate in the sacraments. It was a hot button topic of the time and many reporters tried to pin Washington down to answer whether or not he was Christian, to which he evaded all answers affirming yes or denying no. I have never met a single Christian shy to say they were one.
------
The founding fathers got almost all of their ideas from John Locke, who was a Christian.
"The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure."--John Locke.
"To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality."--John Locke.
John Locke developed the notion that people are individuals with subjective opinions on reality, that they are born without knowledge of any type and must be educated, and that religious tolerance should be practiced. I find it ironic that Deists took so many ideas on forming a government from a Christian.
********
"I have only one question. Exactly whos God is blessing America?" --Sean Carrigan.
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”--Thomas Jefferson
“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”--Thomas Jefferson
“The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them”--Thomas Jefferson
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it”--John Adams
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion”--Treaty of Tripoli, John Adams; signer.
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence”-John Adams
“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.”--John Adams
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity”--John Adams
“The Pythagorean, as well as the Platonic philosophers, probably concurred in the fabrication of the Christian Trinity”--John Adams
“To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.”--Benjamin Franklin
"God helps those who help themselves.”--Benjamin Franklin
“I find every sect, as far as reason will help them, make use of it gladly; and where it fails them, they cry out, It is a matter of faith, and above reason”--John Locke
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”--Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington; signer.
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter"--Thomas Jefferson.
"There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites"--Thomas Jefferson.(quoted by newspaper columnist William Edelen, "Politics and Religious Illiteracy," Truth Seeker, Vol. 121, No. 3, p. 33).
"Christianity...[has become] the most perverted system that ever shone on man....Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."--Thomas Jefferson.
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise....During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."--James Madison.
"My parents had given me betimes religious impressions, and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself."--Benjamin Franklin
"...Some books against Deism fell into my hands....It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations, in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."--Benjamin Franklin.
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of....Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and of my own part, I disbelieve them all."--Thomas Paine
"It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible."--Thomas Paine.
-----
The founding fathers of the United States of America were Deists, not Christians.
Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion. Many Deists reject the notion that God intervenes in human affairs, for example through miracles and revelations. These views contrast with the dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.
Deists typically reject most supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe that is not altered either by God intervening in the affairs of human life or by suspending the natural laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.
Deism became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in what is now the United Kingdom, France, United States and Ireland, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in either a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy of scriptures, but who did believe in one god. It included some of the Unitarian ideas that emerged with Socinianism around 1574. Initially deism did not form any congregations, but in time it strongly influenced other religious groups, such as Unitarianism and Universalism. Many ideas of modern secularism were developed by deists.
Some people argue George Washington was Christian because he attended church. His wife was Christian. All reports on record by the preachers at the church where George Washington attended say that Washington always left before communion and refused to participate in the sacraments. It was a hot button topic of the time and many reporters tried to pin Washington down to answer whether or not he was Christian, to which he evaded all answers affirming yes or denying no. I have never met a single Christian shy to say they were one.
------
The founding fathers got almost all of their ideas from John Locke, who was a Christian.
"The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure."--John Locke.
"To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality."--John Locke.
John Locke developed the notion that people are individuals with subjective opinions on reality, that they are born without knowledge of any type and must be educated, and that religious tolerance should be practiced. I find it ironic that Deists took so many ideas on forming a government from a Christian.
********
"I have only one question. Exactly whos God is blessing America?" --Sean Carrigan.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
What you believe came from somewhere.
In all of human existance, especially in your life, everthing anyone believes came from some source outside of themselves.
People like to believe they are unique individuals free from the constraints of being labeled. Yes, you are a unique snowlfake in no way identical to all the other snowflakes in the world. However, you're still a snowflake that falls onto the ground and makes a big white pile of snow that looks the same as all the other snow surrounding it. Unique but still human, no matter what you feel or say otherwise. Many people resist labels and are offended when they are labeled as X. Well, too bad. Putting a label, classifying the world around us including the people in it is part of how the human mind works. You can be angry at being labeled all you want, but it isn't going to change that it will happen to you.
Everything you believe came from these sources; Philosophy, Theology and Religion. Don't believe me, that's too bad for you because then you won't actually make any effort to understand what you believe, where it came from, and why believing it is right or wrong for you as an individual. They way you aquired these beliefs vary and can come from thousands upon thousands of various ways. Still, the roots are the three sources. If you truly and deeply feel you believe something unique and free from any precedent then you better write it down and submit it for publishing because you will be very, very famous for coming up with something new. If nothing else, please e-mail your unique position to me because I'd love to see something new.
In the U.S. the majority of people in this era are being shaped in their beliefs by the media they consume. Movies, books, radio, news, etc... Whether or not you realize it you are being taught how to think by everything around you. There's a theory of learning that explains how we, as humans, learn. One major method of learning is intrinsic learning, which is learning by watching. The problem with intrinsic learning is it shapes how we think and what we believe without any formal education and that means we cannot vocalize or explain why we believe something specific, we just feel it is right. This is what intrinsic learning does, it transmits the message, the belief, without the words to explain it. It mostly works on the emotional and intuitive faculties of our minds.
I'm just as much a victim of intrinsic learning through the media as everyone else. The two major examples I have to offer are my attitude towards violence and what I find physically attractive in people. First, my attitude towards violence is desensitized and I find violence entertaining and fun. I also morally and ethically am against the use of violence as a tool to get what I want, however that doesn't change the fact that I find it entertaining and fun. I've been the victim of violence and it didn't horrify me, though it did hurt quite a bit and cause some problems. However, as crazy as it may sound to many people, it was at the very least an experience I feel was positive and exciting. That is the effect of media and the lessons regardings violence it has taught me through intrinsic learning.
Second, regarding physical attraction. The way physical attraction would work outside of all the influence exerted on us through the media is we would be attracted to what is familiar to us and to the types of people we've had positive experiences with in our development. I am attracted to people that resemble my family, my intimate friends, and who are similar to me. But, thanks to media, I am also attracted to physically fit, tall, and exotic people. I have no significant personal experience or reasons other than the influence of media to be attracted to such people, and yet I am. People are also affected in their own self-esteem by the standard of beauty taught to us through the various medias.
I was entertaining myself by writing a short blurb on philosophical views. I'll post them here and continue to add to them as I feel like it.
Existentialism is intellectual laziness. Nihilism is an intellectual temper tantrum at how hard the process of critical thinking is. Utilitarianism is thinking just hard enough to get what you and your friends want out of life. Moral Relativism is intellectual terror at the prospect of conflict and having to fight for something in which one believes.
Natural Rights are the rights which people believe are a given in human existance, conditions which must be free to pursue in order to be human. If some one gives you a list of "Natural Rights", be aware they are telling you this is what I'm willing to kill you over if it comes down to it.
Pragmatism is thinking only about what is immediately relevant to your personal life. Logical Positivism is eliminating all imagination from your thinking and dealing only with literal reality. Post Modernism is a strategy to get everyone to get along and get to work. Stoicism is being the master of your own universe and feeling like you are better than everyone else. Skepticism is figuring out how to not think about anything. Empiricism is not believing in anything unless you can prove it through experimentation and senses. Epicurianism is trying to figure out how to feel good and avoid feeling bad. Atheism is just a lazy way of being a Zen Buddhist without the moral imperitive of Buddhism.
People like to believe they are unique individuals free from the constraints of being labeled. Yes, you are a unique snowlfake in no way identical to all the other snowflakes in the world. However, you're still a snowflake that falls onto the ground and makes a big white pile of snow that looks the same as all the other snow surrounding it. Unique but still human, no matter what you feel or say otherwise. Many people resist labels and are offended when they are labeled as X. Well, too bad. Putting a label, classifying the world around us including the people in it is part of how the human mind works. You can be angry at being labeled all you want, but it isn't going to change that it will happen to you.
Everything you believe came from these sources; Philosophy, Theology and Religion. Don't believe me, that's too bad for you because then you won't actually make any effort to understand what you believe, where it came from, and why believing it is right or wrong for you as an individual. They way you aquired these beliefs vary and can come from thousands upon thousands of various ways. Still, the roots are the three sources. If you truly and deeply feel you believe something unique and free from any precedent then you better write it down and submit it for publishing because you will be very, very famous for coming up with something new. If nothing else, please e-mail your unique position to me because I'd love to see something new.
In the U.S. the majority of people in this era are being shaped in their beliefs by the media they consume. Movies, books, radio, news, etc... Whether or not you realize it you are being taught how to think by everything around you. There's a theory of learning that explains how we, as humans, learn. One major method of learning is intrinsic learning, which is learning by watching. The problem with intrinsic learning is it shapes how we think and what we believe without any formal education and that means we cannot vocalize or explain why we believe something specific, we just feel it is right. This is what intrinsic learning does, it transmits the message, the belief, without the words to explain it. It mostly works on the emotional and intuitive faculties of our minds.
I'm just as much a victim of intrinsic learning through the media as everyone else. The two major examples I have to offer are my attitude towards violence and what I find physically attractive in people. First, my attitude towards violence is desensitized and I find violence entertaining and fun. I also morally and ethically am against the use of violence as a tool to get what I want, however that doesn't change the fact that I find it entertaining and fun. I've been the victim of violence and it didn't horrify me, though it did hurt quite a bit and cause some problems. However, as crazy as it may sound to many people, it was at the very least an experience I feel was positive and exciting. That is the effect of media and the lessons regardings violence it has taught me through intrinsic learning.
Second, regarding physical attraction. The way physical attraction would work outside of all the influence exerted on us through the media is we would be attracted to what is familiar to us and to the types of people we've had positive experiences with in our development. I am attracted to people that resemble my family, my intimate friends, and who are similar to me. But, thanks to media, I am also attracted to physically fit, tall, and exotic people. I have no significant personal experience or reasons other than the influence of media to be attracted to such people, and yet I am. People are also affected in their own self-esteem by the standard of beauty taught to us through the various medias.
I was entertaining myself by writing a short blurb on philosophical views. I'll post them here and continue to add to them as I feel like it.
Existentialism is intellectual laziness. Nihilism is an intellectual temper tantrum at how hard the process of critical thinking is. Utilitarianism is thinking just hard enough to get what you and your friends want out of life. Moral Relativism is intellectual terror at the prospect of conflict and having to fight for something in which one believes.
Natural Rights are the rights which people believe are a given in human existance, conditions which must be free to pursue in order to be human. If some one gives you a list of "Natural Rights", be aware they are telling you this is what I'm willing to kill you over if it comes down to it.
Pragmatism is thinking only about what is immediately relevant to your personal life. Logical Positivism is eliminating all imagination from your thinking and dealing only with literal reality. Post Modernism is a strategy to get everyone to get along and get to work. Stoicism is being the master of your own universe and feeling like you are better than everyone else. Skepticism is figuring out how to not think about anything. Empiricism is not believing in anything unless you can prove it through experimentation and senses. Epicurianism is trying to figure out how to feel good and avoid feeling bad. Atheism is just a lazy way of being a Zen Buddhist without the moral imperitive of Buddhism.
Friday, July 2, 2010
A Requiem of a Dream while Leaving Las Vegas:: Regarding Alcohol and Drug use.
There are a lot of special interest groups investing a lot of their time in trying to convince people, especially young people, to abstain from drinking and doing drugs. Parents, mentors, and well meaning adults who have never done any form of drinking or drugs have a lot of well meaning advice and aggressive alarmist approaches to convincing you to avoid the pitfalls and snares of the wicked ways of chemicals. While I agree with them, I am a bit put off by their approach since they usually have no real valuable information for their captive audiences.
At one time I aspired to be a literary phenomenon, a writer of high caliber both famous and rich. I don't want that anymore, but I once pursued that ambition with a fierceness. My role models were Jack Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, and Timothy Leary and I aspired to experience everything possible in order to write accurately about those experiences. That was a pretty messy process, both traumatic and interesting. Interesting in the way surviving a bad car wreck is interesting, a good story to tell one day but not all that fun at the time.
About drinking alchohol:
Let's start out by saying I enjoy the physical sensation of drinking alchohol. I always have since the first time I took a drink. That being said, I don't drink any more for a myriad of reasons. One, I tend to get pretty fat if I drink regularly. When I regularly drank in my past I lost all real motivation to work out, practice martial arts, and to regulate my nutrition. I prefered to sit on the couch or in front of the computer playing video games, watching movies, and generally doing nothing but taking up space when I drink alchohol.
Second, I've had some pretty messed up things happen to me in my life that have left some emotional and psychological scars. When I drink those issues tend to resurface and manifest themselves in some ugly ways. I can go from happy to abusive without warning. It didn't used to be like that early on in my life, but most of the messed up things that occured in my life were while I was drunk so it's entirely possible that being under the influence of alchohol sets the stage for some nasty memories and behavior.
I have been beaten half to death on a beach in Colombia. I have been attacked on two seperate occasions by angry knife weilding criminals who were giving killing me a serious go. I've had a gay ex-convict slip something in my drink and then try and talk me into coming into his bedroom to watch movies. By the way, I told him sure but let me smoke a cigarette first then I went out of the apartment and ran as fast as I could down the streets (not very fast since I kept stumbling and falling all over the place) of Great Lakes, Illinois until some good samaratin gave me a ride back to the Naval base. I've been knocked off a 2nd story balcony at a hotel on the beach in Virginia by an enraged drunk midget trying to kill a friend of mine. He wasn't really a midget, he was just five feet tall. I once tried to rip the throat out of an aquaintance who called me a bad name. My grip around his trachea slipped and when I was going for a second try a group of my shipmates grabbed me and carried me away, talking to me about the pros and cons of Maine lobster during the Rockport Lobster Festival.
Sure, you may think these experiences (which aren't all of them) aren't really relevant to your own life because we're different. To that I respond, I have also worked 3 years at a drug & alchohol rehab center. Of all the addicts, the alchoholics were the saddest and most traumatized I worked with in my job.
I'm not a teatoltaler, a prohibitionist, nor do I champion abstinence when it comes to alchohol. I just don't see any point to it outside of limited social drinking. I don't see any pros and do see a bunch of cons in my experiences.
About Drugs:
Well, what can I really say about drugs? Let's just say I know everything I need to know about them and more. While alchohol made me lazy drugs made me crazy. I don't see any reason or value in giving details to any experiences, especially since there might be a few people all across the country suddenly sitting up and reading real careful to see if their name comes up. For anyone who is concerned I don't remember anything clearly and I especially don't remember names.
When people tell you drugs are bad, that's a really subjective approach. They are not saying drugs feel bad. They are saying there is no positive result from taking them in your life. I'm not going to get into all of that because it's a crazy, twisting, winding road full of gray areas.
The bottom line is illegal drugs are illegal, and while you may not be a hardened criminal with violent tendancies you sure are going to run into them while you experience the drug culture. The whole process of buying, using, transporting, storing, and everything else concerning illegal drugs is extremely high-risk. Not only is it possible for you to get your throat cut in a dark alley but it's also possible you will get swarmed by dozens of policemen that aren't very gentle or compassionate when doing drug busts. There's a war or drugs and has been one for thirty something years now. You can be the nices person in the world with no real evil tendancies and still go to jail for a million years for being involved in anything to do with drugs.
In my life experience I've hung out with drug dealers and junkies. They are generally really nice people except when they think you'd be better off buried in the desert than walking around in the streets. It is really weird how nice violent criminals can be when you aren't the person they are targetting for violence. Surreal, really.
I've also almost died 5 seperate times from accidental drug overdoses. And I'm pretty sure I'm a bit crazy from altered brain chemistry due to past drug use. Not Michael Meyers or Jason Vorhees crazy, but I just don't think and feel the same way I used to and I sure don't think and feel the way "normal" people do. It makes it an interesting experience to fit in with the general population of society.
All things considered, I really, really wish I had never touched a drug in my life. I am 35 years old and I am a delivery driver. I've been working on my bachelors degree for 15 years. And every once in a while I kinda flip out and have a mild panic attack if the wrong combination of sounds and images pop up in a movie or t.v. show. Oh, and once in a while I have some super terrifying nightmares that take hours to really wake up from and believe they weren't real.
Drugs are bad, mmmkay?
A lot of people first try drugs because they are curious. I am curious as to what it feels like to get bit by a shark. That doesn't mean I should go out of my way to experience the sensation. By the way, I did once strip naked and swim out into the ocean at two in the morning trying to taunt sharks to come and bite me because I was curious about what getting attacked by a shark would be like. That's what drugs will do to you, son. Don't laugh! It could have been your kid instead of me.
For the parents of the world, don't just tell your kids not to drink and to not do drugs. You ever tell a two year old not to stick their finger up their nose? They immediately stick their finger up their nose. You have to actually have a real dialogue with your kids about drugs and why they shouldn't do them. Focus on consequences, not morals.
And for every person who think you can handle whatever and bad things won't happen to you. Well... have you ever stubbed your toe, tripped and fell down, or had a little unintended accident that was a little painful and embarassing? Yeah, stuff happens. It's just when it comes to many illegal drugs, that stubbing your toe event translates into your heart explodes while your sitting on the toilet and your mom is the one who finds your dead body in the bathroom. Figure out something else to do with your time that involves less risk and potential heartbreak to those who love you.
At one time I aspired to be a literary phenomenon, a writer of high caliber both famous and rich. I don't want that anymore, but I once pursued that ambition with a fierceness. My role models were Jack Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, and Timothy Leary and I aspired to experience everything possible in order to write accurately about those experiences. That was a pretty messy process, both traumatic and interesting. Interesting in the way surviving a bad car wreck is interesting, a good story to tell one day but not all that fun at the time.
About drinking alchohol:
Let's start out by saying I enjoy the physical sensation of drinking alchohol. I always have since the first time I took a drink. That being said, I don't drink any more for a myriad of reasons. One, I tend to get pretty fat if I drink regularly. When I regularly drank in my past I lost all real motivation to work out, practice martial arts, and to regulate my nutrition. I prefered to sit on the couch or in front of the computer playing video games, watching movies, and generally doing nothing but taking up space when I drink alchohol.
Second, I've had some pretty messed up things happen to me in my life that have left some emotional and psychological scars. When I drink those issues tend to resurface and manifest themselves in some ugly ways. I can go from happy to abusive without warning. It didn't used to be like that early on in my life, but most of the messed up things that occured in my life were while I was drunk so it's entirely possible that being under the influence of alchohol sets the stage for some nasty memories and behavior.
I have been beaten half to death on a beach in Colombia. I have been attacked on two seperate occasions by angry knife weilding criminals who were giving killing me a serious go. I've had a gay ex-convict slip something in my drink and then try and talk me into coming into his bedroom to watch movies. By the way, I told him sure but let me smoke a cigarette first then I went out of the apartment and ran as fast as I could down the streets (not very fast since I kept stumbling and falling all over the place) of Great Lakes, Illinois until some good samaratin gave me a ride back to the Naval base. I've been knocked off a 2nd story balcony at a hotel on the beach in Virginia by an enraged drunk midget trying to kill a friend of mine. He wasn't really a midget, he was just five feet tall. I once tried to rip the throat out of an aquaintance who called me a bad name. My grip around his trachea slipped and when I was going for a second try a group of my shipmates grabbed me and carried me away, talking to me about the pros and cons of Maine lobster during the Rockport Lobster Festival.
Sure, you may think these experiences (which aren't all of them) aren't really relevant to your own life because we're different. To that I respond, I have also worked 3 years at a drug & alchohol rehab center. Of all the addicts, the alchoholics were the saddest and most traumatized I worked with in my job.
I'm not a teatoltaler, a prohibitionist, nor do I champion abstinence when it comes to alchohol. I just don't see any point to it outside of limited social drinking. I don't see any pros and do see a bunch of cons in my experiences.
About Drugs:
Well, what can I really say about drugs? Let's just say I know everything I need to know about them and more. While alchohol made me lazy drugs made me crazy. I don't see any reason or value in giving details to any experiences, especially since there might be a few people all across the country suddenly sitting up and reading real careful to see if their name comes up. For anyone who is concerned I don't remember anything clearly and I especially don't remember names.
When people tell you drugs are bad, that's a really subjective approach. They are not saying drugs feel bad. They are saying there is no positive result from taking them in your life. I'm not going to get into all of that because it's a crazy, twisting, winding road full of gray areas.
The bottom line is illegal drugs are illegal, and while you may not be a hardened criminal with violent tendancies you sure are going to run into them while you experience the drug culture. The whole process of buying, using, transporting, storing, and everything else concerning illegal drugs is extremely high-risk. Not only is it possible for you to get your throat cut in a dark alley but it's also possible you will get swarmed by dozens of policemen that aren't very gentle or compassionate when doing drug busts. There's a war or drugs and has been one for thirty something years now. You can be the nices person in the world with no real evil tendancies and still go to jail for a million years for being involved in anything to do with drugs.
In my life experience I've hung out with drug dealers and junkies. They are generally really nice people except when they think you'd be better off buried in the desert than walking around in the streets. It is really weird how nice violent criminals can be when you aren't the person they are targetting for violence. Surreal, really.
I've also almost died 5 seperate times from accidental drug overdoses. And I'm pretty sure I'm a bit crazy from altered brain chemistry due to past drug use. Not Michael Meyers or Jason Vorhees crazy, but I just don't think and feel the same way I used to and I sure don't think and feel the way "normal" people do. It makes it an interesting experience to fit in with the general population of society.
All things considered, I really, really wish I had never touched a drug in my life. I am 35 years old and I am a delivery driver. I've been working on my bachelors degree for 15 years. And every once in a while I kinda flip out and have a mild panic attack if the wrong combination of sounds and images pop up in a movie or t.v. show. Oh, and once in a while I have some super terrifying nightmares that take hours to really wake up from and believe they weren't real.
Drugs are bad, mmmkay?
A lot of people first try drugs because they are curious. I am curious as to what it feels like to get bit by a shark. That doesn't mean I should go out of my way to experience the sensation. By the way, I did once strip naked and swim out into the ocean at two in the morning trying to taunt sharks to come and bite me because I was curious about what getting attacked by a shark would be like. That's what drugs will do to you, son. Don't laugh! It could have been your kid instead of me.
For the parents of the world, don't just tell your kids not to drink and to not do drugs. You ever tell a two year old not to stick their finger up their nose? They immediately stick their finger up their nose. You have to actually have a real dialogue with your kids about drugs and why they shouldn't do them. Focus on consequences, not morals.
And for every person who think you can handle whatever and bad things won't happen to you. Well... have you ever stubbed your toe, tripped and fell down, or had a little unintended accident that was a little painful and embarassing? Yeah, stuff happens. It's just when it comes to many illegal drugs, that stubbing your toe event translates into your heart explodes while your sitting on the toilet and your mom is the one who finds your dead body in the bathroom. Figure out something else to do with your time that involves less risk and potential heartbreak to those who love you.
Looking for love in all the wrong places...
A lot of people put a lot of energy into meeting people, especially when they are single and want to date. I have a lot of experience through my time in the Navy on how to approach meeting interesting people and how to avoid negative experiences in the process. You think it is challenging to meet new people in your home town? Try meeting new people in a foreign country who may or may not speak very much english. Acutally, in some ways it is easier to meet people outside of your comfort zone than in your home town. Being a stranger in a strange land gives you a lot of interesting things to talk about when meeting new people. I, and many of my Navy friends, have successful records in meeting people in foreign lands and convincing them in a few hours that it would be a good idea to let us sleep over at their place and take us around town to tour the area. That is the level of social skills we developed in order to have a good time while overseas. This is what I offer to share with you here.
Let's get to the nitty gritty, though. First off, even if you are lonely and want a partner for dating and fun activities you better shed that attitude right away. There is nothing that destroys your ability to comfortably meet new people than the emotional stress of desire to meet people and the underlying stress of the need for companionship. If you are specifically needing, wanting, or even desperate to meet new people for companionship then it comes across in your body language and your tone and it is uncomfortable. The reason being, why is this person talking to me so desperate to meet new people and make friend? Don't they have any friends? Why don't they have any friends? They must be a freak.
Relax. Just be in your situation and be open to interesting and new interactions. Like still water reflects the scenery, be like still water and relax so you are a part of and reflect the scenery that is hopefully pleasant and positive.
If you are shy and scared to approach strangers in conversation, that stress comes across in your communication as well. It'll mess it all up and then you'll have a negative experience that just makes the next time you talk to some one new even more nerve wracking.
First off, you are a human being and they are a human being. You share that in common. Second, unless you are patronizing one of the worst dives in a red light district then there is no physical danger to you in talking to some one. The worst thing that will happen to you when you talk to some one new is they will give you a cold reception. If that happens, it's almost never about you personally. If you immediately jump to conclusions that you are the cause of their negative reaction then you'll be guessing and trying to figure out what is wrong with you and develop all kinds of self-conscious issues about what you could have done wrong. People have bad days, people don't feel like meeting new people and have other things on their mind, people may assume you are hitting on them and have had a lot of negative experiences in such scenerios, etc.. etc.. There are hundreds of reasons why some one doesn't react positively to your approach besides you. Don't be so egotistical and self-centered to think it is all about you.
Second, don't be all nervous and awkward. A person can pick up on your emotional state and often times theirs starts to reflect it, or if it doesn't then they can get real annoyed that your emotional state is causing them discomfort. If you see some one you are interested in but they intimidate the hell out of you then skip it. I don't care how interesting or attractive you find them in that moment, there is always some one else and there is no reason to screw up your day/night getting shot down because you are an awkward creep stuttering bad one-liners at the bar. Believe it or not, a lot of people will watch your interactions and form their own judgements based on how it goes. If you get shot down a couple times then approach a third person, they may very well be aware they are your third or fourth choice and think that is just sad and dumb.
Third, do not compliment the person on how they look, especially if they are attractive. You can compliment them later if they continue to interact with you. Attractive people are often the victims of lame one liners and awkward come-ons. Don't fit that mold, break it. Get their attention, introduce yourself and give a short reason for you being where you are... "Hi, I'm Danny. I'm here with my friends to watch the world cup." etc... or if you are alone, "Hello, I'm Scott. I'm grabbing a bite to eat before I go to the book store..." etc... Establish who you are and why you are there. Do not say, "Hey. You're hot. Can I buy you a drink?" One, that's common and low and two a lot of people will let you buy them a drink and then blow you off. You are out the price of a drink and left sitting by yourself while they go back to tell their friends how creepy you are.
Know this, in social psychology a person is considered a stranger until there is seven significant interactions with another individual. People are built with a stranger danger attitude. You have to overcome the perception of being a stranger and a danger. Once you have enough significant interactions then you are an aquiantence, a much easier state of being to work towards friendship.
Ask for advice. People love to give advice. Try to pick something you think they are interested in and ask some advice regarding that perceived interest. If they look fit and strong, ask advice about some local gyms. "I need to start working out more. Do you know of any good gyms in this area? I was thinking about (name gym) at (name location) but I don't know if it's all that good." If you already look like you work out all the time this is not the best option, go with something else such as "Hey, I've been doing rock climing for a while but I'm getting bored with it. Do you know of any good outdoor activities in this area?"
Now here's the thing, I'm not saying you lie. Don't do that. Lying is easy in the short term but in the long term it totally screws your credibility, not only with that person but with all their friends who they tell about your lying. Pick something you know about and are curious about.
Attraction, on the non-physical plane, is about shared likes and dislikes. The more similar likes you establish with this person, the more they like you. The more things you say you like that they do not like, the less they will like you. So, considering this, avoid any controversial topics and don't take any strong positions on anything. For example, "What, soccer? No way, soccer sucks." That's bad.
Lastly, here's the hardest thing for most people to do. After introducing yourself. Talking. And sending all the body language and tonal cues that you are interested in them, then break off conversation and go back to doing something else. Let them know where you are going to be and what you are going to be doing, but that it's okay to interrupt you if they want. "Hey, I'm going to head back over to the bar and talk to Jacob (know the name of the bar tender). It was nice talking to you. If you have any more good suggestions come over and let me know."
The formula is come on strong and confident, establish you are interested in them, then back off and allow them the power to decide whether or not they want to continue to talk with you.
If they do not come back to talk to you then that's fine. The encounter was still positive and it will go towards the significant interactions necessary to become an aquaintence with them. Remember their name and whatever you talked about. Go about the rest of your day/night; meeting other people, watching t.v., playing trivia, or whatever. If you see them later, wave and say hello (insert name), but nothing else. Do not continuously look over at them or their direction. That's creepy.
If you are capable of it, be funny. If you are not, do not try to be funny.
If they do come back over to talk with you, then you were interesting enough to talk to a second time. You may want to know if they find you attractive. During your conversation, lean forward to tell them something in their ear. If they turn their ear towards you and lean towards you, that's all good. If they stiffen up or lean away, then they just find you interesting at this point, not attractive. Don't do the stereotypical try to touch their arm or hand. Touching with hands is much more aggressive and can derail the entire interactions.
Be aware of body language. Mirror their stance and hand positions. If they are leaning towards you and making eye contact, you are golden. If they constantly look elsewhere and are slow to answer questions or come up with their own topics of conversation, they've lost interest. No big deal, move on.
These are just the basics of meeting people. The most important thing to remember is don't be afraid of new people because they are not going to hit you, stab you, shoot you, or light you on fire for politely talking to them. Unless they are completely insane and/or you are one creepy perv.
Here's a list of major things to avoid...
--Don't talk too much. If you are talking more than them then it's not going so well.
--Don't talk about your mother, father, or parents. If your parents are not there with you then there is no reason to talk about them.
--Do not talk about an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. That's just dumb. If you feel compelled to talk about them then there's no reason to talk to new people. Go get a therapist to talk to about those issues.
--Don't talk about your strange or unusual hobbies. If you're a trekkie, a fantasy role-playing gamer, a live action role player, an anime fan, a comic book collector or whatever, realize that your hobby is not mainstream and popular. No matter how much you enjoy your activity, 9 out of 10 people do not share that interest. Stick to the basics.
--If you want to talk about your weirdo hobby, then bring it up in a round-about way. "Hey, have you seen those PS3 commercials for God of War 3? They're hilarious." You'll know all you need to know about how they feel towards your hobby when they react to your peripheral reference.
--Don't talk about intellectual and specialized knowledge. Sure, you might know about the moral imperatives of Immanuel Kant but I'll bet you anything than most people you meet have no idea what you are talking about. And while you may have found Frederich Nietche's existentialism fascinating, almost everyone in the world thinks he's a negative, pessimistic, jerk. The general population does not want to talk about the nature of a singularity and how it affects space/time around a black hole. Nor do they want to hear how Adolph Hitler was a foot messanger in world war one and learned a lot of his political and strategic lessons from reading documents he was delivering on the front lines. Shut it, Einstein... no one wants to hear how smart you are when they first meet you. Most of the time no one wants to hear how smart you are, ever. Trust me, I know.
--Don't talk about religion, unless you are very religious and it's important to you to establish that up front. Otherwise, don't criticize religion. You might bash Catholicism and the person's beloved granma that baked them snickerdoodles when they were sick with the chicken pox was a devout Catholic who died last week. Good going, jerk. You just bashed her dead granny while their grief is still fresh.
--If you work out a lot and are in shape, don't talk about it. We can see you're buff, don't be a self-absorbed weirdo and talk about how many reps you did during your 2 hour workout this morning.
--No matter how much training you have in being a Ninja Assasin, never talk about it. Sure, it's interesting to read about but it's a completely different thing to be sitting across from some one telling you how much training they have to kill people with their thumb. No matter how nice you are it's offputting to tell people how you invest a lot of time in learning how to maim and kill people.
Let's get to the nitty gritty, though. First off, even if you are lonely and want a partner for dating and fun activities you better shed that attitude right away. There is nothing that destroys your ability to comfortably meet new people than the emotional stress of desire to meet people and the underlying stress of the need for companionship. If you are specifically needing, wanting, or even desperate to meet new people for companionship then it comes across in your body language and your tone and it is uncomfortable. The reason being, why is this person talking to me so desperate to meet new people and make friend? Don't they have any friends? Why don't they have any friends? They must be a freak.
Relax. Just be in your situation and be open to interesting and new interactions. Like still water reflects the scenery, be like still water and relax so you are a part of and reflect the scenery that is hopefully pleasant and positive.
If you are shy and scared to approach strangers in conversation, that stress comes across in your communication as well. It'll mess it all up and then you'll have a negative experience that just makes the next time you talk to some one new even more nerve wracking.
First off, you are a human being and they are a human being. You share that in common. Second, unless you are patronizing one of the worst dives in a red light district then there is no physical danger to you in talking to some one. The worst thing that will happen to you when you talk to some one new is they will give you a cold reception. If that happens, it's almost never about you personally. If you immediately jump to conclusions that you are the cause of their negative reaction then you'll be guessing and trying to figure out what is wrong with you and develop all kinds of self-conscious issues about what you could have done wrong. People have bad days, people don't feel like meeting new people and have other things on their mind, people may assume you are hitting on them and have had a lot of negative experiences in such scenerios, etc.. etc.. There are hundreds of reasons why some one doesn't react positively to your approach besides you. Don't be so egotistical and self-centered to think it is all about you.
Second, don't be all nervous and awkward. A person can pick up on your emotional state and often times theirs starts to reflect it, or if it doesn't then they can get real annoyed that your emotional state is causing them discomfort. If you see some one you are interested in but they intimidate the hell out of you then skip it. I don't care how interesting or attractive you find them in that moment, there is always some one else and there is no reason to screw up your day/night getting shot down because you are an awkward creep stuttering bad one-liners at the bar. Believe it or not, a lot of people will watch your interactions and form their own judgements based on how it goes. If you get shot down a couple times then approach a third person, they may very well be aware they are your third or fourth choice and think that is just sad and dumb.
Third, do not compliment the person on how they look, especially if they are attractive. You can compliment them later if they continue to interact with you. Attractive people are often the victims of lame one liners and awkward come-ons. Don't fit that mold, break it. Get their attention, introduce yourself and give a short reason for you being where you are... "Hi, I'm Danny. I'm here with my friends to watch the world cup." etc... or if you are alone, "Hello, I'm Scott. I'm grabbing a bite to eat before I go to the book store..." etc... Establish who you are and why you are there. Do not say, "Hey. You're hot. Can I buy you a drink?" One, that's common and low and two a lot of people will let you buy them a drink and then blow you off. You are out the price of a drink and left sitting by yourself while they go back to tell their friends how creepy you are.
Know this, in social psychology a person is considered a stranger until there is seven significant interactions with another individual. People are built with a stranger danger attitude. You have to overcome the perception of being a stranger and a danger. Once you have enough significant interactions then you are an aquiantence, a much easier state of being to work towards friendship.
Ask for advice. People love to give advice. Try to pick something you think they are interested in and ask some advice regarding that perceived interest. If they look fit and strong, ask advice about some local gyms. "I need to start working out more. Do you know of any good gyms in this area? I was thinking about (name gym) at (name location) but I don't know if it's all that good." If you already look like you work out all the time this is not the best option, go with something else such as "Hey, I've been doing rock climing for a while but I'm getting bored with it. Do you know of any good outdoor activities in this area?"
Now here's the thing, I'm not saying you lie. Don't do that. Lying is easy in the short term but in the long term it totally screws your credibility, not only with that person but with all their friends who they tell about your lying. Pick something you know about and are curious about.
Attraction, on the non-physical plane, is about shared likes and dislikes. The more similar likes you establish with this person, the more they like you. The more things you say you like that they do not like, the less they will like you. So, considering this, avoid any controversial topics and don't take any strong positions on anything. For example, "What, soccer? No way, soccer sucks." That's bad.
Lastly, here's the hardest thing for most people to do. After introducing yourself. Talking. And sending all the body language and tonal cues that you are interested in them, then break off conversation and go back to doing something else. Let them know where you are going to be and what you are going to be doing, but that it's okay to interrupt you if they want. "Hey, I'm going to head back over to the bar and talk to Jacob (know the name of the bar tender). It was nice talking to you. If you have any more good suggestions come over and let me know."
The formula is come on strong and confident, establish you are interested in them, then back off and allow them the power to decide whether or not they want to continue to talk with you.
If they do not come back to talk to you then that's fine. The encounter was still positive and it will go towards the significant interactions necessary to become an aquaintence with them. Remember their name and whatever you talked about. Go about the rest of your day/night; meeting other people, watching t.v., playing trivia, or whatever. If you see them later, wave and say hello (insert name), but nothing else. Do not continuously look over at them or their direction. That's creepy.
If you are capable of it, be funny. If you are not, do not try to be funny.
If they do come back over to talk with you, then you were interesting enough to talk to a second time. You may want to know if they find you attractive. During your conversation, lean forward to tell them something in their ear. If they turn their ear towards you and lean towards you, that's all good. If they stiffen up or lean away, then they just find you interesting at this point, not attractive. Don't do the stereotypical try to touch their arm or hand. Touching with hands is much more aggressive and can derail the entire interactions.
Be aware of body language. Mirror their stance and hand positions. If they are leaning towards you and making eye contact, you are golden. If they constantly look elsewhere and are slow to answer questions or come up with their own topics of conversation, they've lost interest. No big deal, move on.
These are just the basics of meeting people. The most important thing to remember is don't be afraid of new people because they are not going to hit you, stab you, shoot you, or light you on fire for politely talking to them. Unless they are completely insane and/or you are one creepy perv.
Here's a list of major things to avoid...
--Don't talk too much. If you are talking more than them then it's not going so well.
--Don't talk about your mother, father, or parents. If your parents are not there with you then there is no reason to talk about them.
--Do not talk about an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. That's just dumb. If you feel compelled to talk about them then there's no reason to talk to new people. Go get a therapist to talk to about those issues.
--Don't talk about your strange or unusual hobbies. If you're a trekkie, a fantasy role-playing gamer, a live action role player, an anime fan, a comic book collector or whatever, realize that your hobby is not mainstream and popular. No matter how much you enjoy your activity, 9 out of 10 people do not share that interest. Stick to the basics.
--If you want to talk about your weirdo hobby, then bring it up in a round-about way. "Hey, have you seen those PS3 commercials for God of War 3? They're hilarious." You'll know all you need to know about how they feel towards your hobby when they react to your peripheral reference.
--Don't talk about intellectual and specialized knowledge. Sure, you might know about the moral imperatives of Immanuel Kant but I'll bet you anything than most people you meet have no idea what you are talking about. And while you may have found Frederich Nietche's existentialism fascinating, almost everyone in the world thinks he's a negative, pessimistic, jerk. The general population does not want to talk about the nature of a singularity and how it affects space/time around a black hole. Nor do they want to hear how Adolph Hitler was a foot messanger in world war one and learned a lot of his political and strategic lessons from reading documents he was delivering on the front lines. Shut it, Einstein... no one wants to hear how smart you are when they first meet you. Most of the time no one wants to hear how smart you are, ever. Trust me, I know.
--Don't talk about religion, unless you are very religious and it's important to you to establish that up front. Otherwise, don't criticize religion. You might bash Catholicism and the person's beloved granma that baked them snickerdoodles when they were sick with the chicken pox was a devout Catholic who died last week. Good going, jerk. You just bashed her dead granny while their grief is still fresh.
--If you work out a lot and are in shape, don't talk about it. We can see you're buff, don't be a self-absorbed weirdo and talk about how many reps you did during your 2 hour workout this morning.
--No matter how much training you have in being a Ninja Assasin, never talk about it. Sure, it's interesting to read about but it's a completely different thing to be sitting across from some one telling you how much training they have to kill people with their thumb. No matter how nice you are it's offputting to tell people how you invest a lot of time in learning how to maim and kill people.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Gulf Shores tourism needs a new approach.
I hear news stories how the BP ecological disaster has killed the Gulf Shores tourism industry. I also hear the sad advertisements trying to stimulate the tourism where they take the approach along the lines of "we're watching the beaches carefully and are doing everything we can to keep them beautiful for you so come one and visit."
That's just sad. What they need is some innovative thinking to attract people to the area since they are dependent on income and revenue from tourism.
I thought about the problem and came up with a solution I believe would work.
Gulf Shores Tourism Ad...
(Aerial view of disaster site, stock footage. Narrator begins speaking.)
On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded resulting in the most massive oil spill and ecological disaster in the history of mankind.
(Transition to aerial footage in motion over the ocean showing oil.)
Since that day millions of gallons of oil per day have been flowing into the Gulf waters. The impact and devastation to the ecology of the ocean is immense.
(Transition to the beaches. Pan in to narrator as they speak.)
These beaches once were the destination of people all over the nation taking a vacation to enjoy the beauty and serenity of the ocean. All of that has changed. This is no longer the place for vacationers seeking fun and beauty.
(Show footage of disaster relief workers.)
The air stinks of oil, the beaches are full of workers seeking to fight the effects of the disaster,
(Show footage of town, feature areas without much traffic.)
and the town is full of struggling businesses and workers trying to adjust to the loss of visitors.
(Transition back to narrator on beach.)
While the Gulf Shores is no longer the place to visit for fun in the sun, it is ground zero of the biggest disaster in the history of the world. Come to Gulf Shores and be a part of history.
(end.)
----
That would work. If they just stop trying to market it as a vacation spot and market it as a place to be so one can be a part of history then people will come.
By the way, I e-mailed a copy of this Blog entry to Guy Brennan, the marketting director of Alabama Tourism. Maybe they'll do something with it, maybe not, but hey... at least I did something.
That's just sad. What they need is some innovative thinking to attract people to the area since they are dependent on income and revenue from tourism.
I thought about the problem and came up with a solution I believe would work.
Gulf Shores Tourism Ad...
(Aerial view of disaster site, stock footage. Narrator begins speaking.)
On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded resulting in the most massive oil spill and ecological disaster in the history of mankind.
(Transition to aerial footage in motion over the ocean showing oil.)
Since that day millions of gallons of oil per day have been flowing into the Gulf waters. The impact and devastation to the ecology of the ocean is immense.
(Transition to the beaches. Pan in to narrator as they speak.)
These beaches once were the destination of people all over the nation taking a vacation to enjoy the beauty and serenity of the ocean. All of that has changed. This is no longer the place for vacationers seeking fun and beauty.
(Show footage of disaster relief workers.)
The air stinks of oil, the beaches are full of workers seeking to fight the effects of the disaster,
(Show footage of town, feature areas without much traffic.)
and the town is full of struggling businesses and workers trying to adjust to the loss of visitors.
(Transition back to narrator on beach.)
While the Gulf Shores is no longer the place to visit for fun in the sun, it is ground zero of the biggest disaster in the history of the world. Come to Gulf Shores and be a part of history.
(end.)
----
That would work. If they just stop trying to market it as a vacation spot and market it as a place to be so one can be a part of history then people will come.
By the way, I e-mailed a copy of this Blog entry to Guy Brennan, the marketting director of Alabama Tourism. Maybe they'll do something with it, maybe not, but hey... at least I did something.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Money, so they say is the root of all evil today.
Bang, bang, let me hear you say hey-ooooh. So, what's up? I want to tell you about money. What it really is and how to use it.
You know that saying in the title, that money is the root of all evil? It's not true. That's just an oversimplification of an entirely complex dynamic between money, people, and stuff. But to understand how money is not the root of all evil you have to understand how money works.
All right, money is a way to buy things. But why? Why can you give paper and digital information to some one in exchange for something of value? Because everyone agrees to do it. You can learn all that crap in a micro-economics class, learn about barter and limited-resources and how money is just a way of rationing the resources out to those who posess enough money to purchase the stuff they want.
But, what exactly is money? It is a token, much like a game token at Chuck'E'Cheeses. It's an arbitrary token that represents two things; time and talent. That's it. If you have ever worked a job for a wage then it will be easier for you to understand the concept. For example, if you work for $10 an hour then a $10 bill represents one hour of your time and the actual labor/skills/talents you put into the job for which you received pay.
Some people get all hot and bothered and claim they are more valuable than whatever wage they are payed for their job. The truth of the matter is that you are not "worth" more than you are paid unless you are sold on the black market. It is illegal to assign a monetary value to a person. There was a war supposedly fought over the whole principle of selling human beings in exchange for money. So, while you may feel you have more value than the wage you are paid the sad truth is you are not.
You are getting paid for your time. But that alone is not all that valuable. Anyone can sell their time if that's all the employer needs and usually that's why there are so many minimum wage jobs. If all you do is sit for several hours doing something that anyone anywhere can easily do then all you are getting paid for is your time. So apparently one hour of anyone's time is worth at least minimum wage. If you get paid more than minimum wage then the amount of pay you receive is the value of your talent, education, and skills to that employer. The fewer people who can do what you do the more money you will be offered to do it.
Let's say I get paid $12.50/hour to do what I do. I deliver stuff. I pick up heavy cases, stack them, roll them around, put them in a van, drive from place to place, and drop them off where they are supposed to go. The minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour. So, the actual value of everything I do is $5.25. For being healthy enough and strong enough to lift 33lb boxes a couple hundred times a day, smart enough to not crash a van into the side of a building, and smart enough to read an invoice and correctly deliver product I get paid $5.25 (remember, the other $7.25 is just what federal law says some one has to pay you in exchange for one hour of your time).
While you may feel you should get paid more for your job, it really depends on how difficult it would be to find some one else who is willing to do it for equal pay or less. If there are thousands of people just as capable of doing what you do without any special training then it's really hard to convince and employer to pay you more. If there's only 50 people in the whole world who can do what you do in that job then you will get paid a whole, whole lot of money.
If you want to get paid more money then learn how to do something very few people can do that employer's need done.
Take the stripper, for an illustration of this concept. Yes, a stripper. Male or female, though I'm going to insist we go with female since I'm the one writing. A "good" stripper gets paid a lot of money. Why is this? Well, for one, it's really hard to look the part. People are generally fat in the United States. Hey, I'm just paraphrasing statistics. So, a stripper automatically is some one rare by being fit and attractive. Now, being fit and attractive isn't all that rare. But, being fit, attractive, and willing to get naked and dance in front of strangers is pretty rare. It's the rarity of all those qualities that earns the high amounts of money in the exotic dancer's profession.
Now that you know money is a token of your time and talents, then you can start making better decisions on how to spend it. You spend a certain amount of time working a job that you may not even care about so you can cash that time in and go do something you really want to do. Make $10/hour, buy a $30 dinner then you exchanged 3 hours of your life in return for some food. Don't forget however much time you also spent eating that food.
If you want to save money then evaluate things you enjoy doing that require no money. Go swimming, walk in the woods, sit in the middle of the mall and stare at people as they walk past... whatever you like. That way you're only spending the time the activity takes instead of that time plus whatever time your money represents.
You want to be happy in your job and career? Find something that you would love to do for free but some one is willing to pay you for doing it. That way the time you are spending at work is bringing you value and fulfillment and on top of that you are getting money to spend elsewhere.
You know that saying in the title, that money is the root of all evil? It's not true. That's just an oversimplification of an entirely complex dynamic between money, people, and stuff. But to understand how money is not the root of all evil you have to understand how money works.
All right, money is a way to buy things. But why? Why can you give paper and digital information to some one in exchange for something of value? Because everyone agrees to do it. You can learn all that crap in a micro-economics class, learn about barter and limited-resources and how money is just a way of rationing the resources out to those who posess enough money to purchase the stuff they want.
But, what exactly is money? It is a token, much like a game token at Chuck'E'Cheeses. It's an arbitrary token that represents two things; time and talent. That's it. If you have ever worked a job for a wage then it will be easier for you to understand the concept. For example, if you work for $10 an hour then a $10 bill represents one hour of your time and the actual labor/skills/talents you put into the job for which you received pay.
Some people get all hot and bothered and claim they are more valuable than whatever wage they are payed for their job. The truth of the matter is that you are not "worth" more than you are paid unless you are sold on the black market. It is illegal to assign a monetary value to a person. There was a war supposedly fought over the whole principle of selling human beings in exchange for money. So, while you may feel you have more value than the wage you are paid the sad truth is you are not.
You are getting paid for your time. But that alone is not all that valuable. Anyone can sell their time if that's all the employer needs and usually that's why there are so many minimum wage jobs. If all you do is sit for several hours doing something that anyone anywhere can easily do then all you are getting paid for is your time. So apparently one hour of anyone's time is worth at least minimum wage. If you get paid more than minimum wage then the amount of pay you receive is the value of your talent, education, and skills to that employer. The fewer people who can do what you do the more money you will be offered to do it.
Let's say I get paid $12.50/hour to do what I do. I deliver stuff. I pick up heavy cases, stack them, roll them around, put them in a van, drive from place to place, and drop them off where they are supposed to go. The minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour. So, the actual value of everything I do is $5.25. For being healthy enough and strong enough to lift 33lb boxes a couple hundred times a day, smart enough to not crash a van into the side of a building, and smart enough to read an invoice and correctly deliver product I get paid $5.25 (remember, the other $7.25 is just what federal law says some one has to pay you in exchange for one hour of your time).
While you may feel you should get paid more for your job, it really depends on how difficult it would be to find some one else who is willing to do it for equal pay or less. If there are thousands of people just as capable of doing what you do without any special training then it's really hard to convince and employer to pay you more. If there's only 50 people in the whole world who can do what you do in that job then you will get paid a whole, whole lot of money.
If you want to get paid more money then learn how to do something very few people can do that employer's need done.
Take the stripper, for an illustration of this concept. Yes, a stripper. Male or female, though I'm going to insist we go with female since I'm the one writing. A "good" stripper gets paid a lot of money. Why is this? Well, for one, it's really hard to look the part. People are generally fat in the United States. Hey, I'm just paraphrasing statistics. So, a stripper automatically is some one rare by being fit and attractive. Now, being fit and attractive isn't all that rare. But, being fit, attractive, and willing to get naked and dance in front of strangers is pretty rare. It's the rarity of all those qualities that earns the high amounts of money in the exotic dancer's profession.
Now that you know money is a token of your time and talents, then you can start making better decisions on how to spend it. You spend a certain amount of time working a job that you may not even care about so you can cash that time in and go do something you really want to do. Make $10/hour, buy a $30 dinner then you exchanged 3 hours of your life in return for some food. Don't forget however much time you also spent eating that food.
If you want to save money then evaluate things you enjoy doing that require no money. Go swimming, walk in the woods, sit in the middle of the mall and stare at people as they walk past... whatever you like. That way you're only spending the time the activity takes instead of that time plus whatever time your money represents.
You want to be happy in your job and career? Find something that you would love to do for free but some one is willing to pay you for doing it. That way the time you are spending at work is bringing you value and fulfillment and on top of that you are getting money to spend elsewhere.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
My magnificent opus...
Hello everyone. And by everyone I mean you, the individual who is at this moment reading these words, though I like to imagine that everyone at one point in time will read what I write. I like to imagine a lot of things.
My name is Sean. There are lots of people named Sean, including the actor Sean Connery who is the person that inspired my father to name me Sean. I'm not sure that says anything about me, personally, but it does say a few things about my father. A few things like... he was a James Bond fan. Maybe he wanted to be in her majestey's secret service and have a license to kill. Who wouldn't want such a thing?
So, you've made it through two paragraphs and are still reading; that's encouraging. As you have been reading you've wondered why I am writing these words. Don't deny it, you have been. Even if you don't realize you've been wondering, you have. Well, I'll tell you why I'm writing. I am going to help make the world a better place by sharing what I have learned in my life and experience. And, by default, I am going to make your life better by sharing what I've learned in my life and experience. If you follow along and diligently read everything I write over time and you think about all the things I write about then you will have a better life.
Well, there is a small chance that some one who reads this already has a good life and won't find themselves having a better one as a result of reading my blog. Sure, there's a chance, but as I said it's a small chance. If you such a blessed person who won't benefit from my writing then I invite you to read along for no other reason than to be entertained and to explore ways that you can put into your own words why you have joy in your own life.
Before I get down to the nitty-gritty of making the world a better place I'm going to preface this entire blog by laying down some general statements of how things are when you read my work. First off, I write off the cuff. In this blog I will write one draft, no revisions. Second, people have a tendancy to call me arrogant or accuse me of having a "big ego". Once those criticisms bothered me and sent me into an introspective examination of whether or not I was as awesome as I believed. I have found over many years of such introspective soul searching that yes, yes I am as awesome as I think I am.
Descartes said, "I think therefor I am." So Sean says, "I think I am awesome, therefor I am."
Second, I use a "shock-jock" approach to my writing in order to entertain and grab the attention of my reader; to grab your attention. The narrative style is through a persona, a character, and is not an accurate representation of who I am. I deliberately say things in such a way to elicit a response, yet the content of my writing contains valuable information. If you are unable to read past the tone and presentation of my work to see the value in the underlying message then that's your problem, not mine. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time." Odds are I don't even know you, dear reader, so I don't know how to cater to your individual needs when it comes to receiving information through reading. I say it's impossible for me to anticipate every need of every reader in order to communicate. So, since there is just one of me but there are potentially millions of you, readers, then the burden of relating to what I write lies entirely with you.
I spent the entirety of my self-aware life in pursuit of happiness. During that pursuit I have experienced life, the universe, and everything in as full a manner as I could imagine. I have gained insight, education, and have learned through my successes and more importantly through my failures. I offer 28 years of experience, insight, and lessons to anyone who cares to have them. All this, and more, for free!
So read on, comment, and ask questions. If they are entertaining questions, which means they don't even have to be good, then I will answer them to the best of my ability.
My name is Sean. There are lots of people named Sean, including the actor Sean Connery who is the person that inspired my father to name me Sean. I'm not sure that says anything about me, personally, but it does say a few things about my father. A few things like... he was a James Bond fan. Maybe he wanted to be in her majestey's secret service and have a license to kill. Who wouldn't want such a thing?
So, you've made it through two paragraphs and are still reading; that's encouraging. As you have been reading you've wondered why I am writing these words. Don't deny it, you have been. Even if you don't realize you've been wondering, you have. Well, I'll tell you why I'm writing. I am going to help make the world a better place by sharing what I have learned in my life and experience. And, by default, I am going to make your life better by sharing what I've learned in my life and experience. If you follow along and diligently read everything I write over time and you think about all the things I write about then you will have a better life.
Well, there is a small chance that some one who reads this already has a good life and won't find themselves having a better one as a result of reading my blog. Sure, there's a chance, but as I said it's a small chance. If you such a blessed person who won't benefit from my writing then I invite you to read along for no other reason than to be entertained and to explore ways that you can put into your own words why you have joy in your own life.
Before I get down to the nitty-gritty of making the world a better place I'm going to preface this entire blog by laying down some general statements of how things are when you read my work. First off, I write off the cuff. In this blog I will write one draft, no revisions. Second, people have a tendancy to call me arrogant or accuse me of having a "big ego". Once those criticisms bothered me and sent me into an introspective examination of whether or not I was as awesome as I believed. I have found over many years of such introspective soul searching that yes, yes I am as awesome as I think I am.
Descartes said, "I think therefor I am." So Sean says, "I think I am awesome, therefor I am."
Second, I use a "shock-jock" approach to my writing in order to entertain and grab the attention of my reader; to grab your attention. The narrative style is through a persona, a character, and is not an accurate representation of who I am. I deliberately say things in such a way to elicit a response, yet the content of my writing contains valuable information. If you are unable to read past the tone and presentation of my work to see the value in the underlying message then that's your problem, not mine. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time." Odds are I don't even know you, dear reader, so I don't know how to cater to your individual needs when it comes to receiving information through reading. I say it's impossible for me to anticipate every need of every reader in order to communicate. So, since there is just one of me but there are potentially millions of you, readers, then the burden of relating to what I write lies entirely with you.
I spent the entirety of my self-aware life in pursuit of happiness. During that pursuit I have experienced life, the universe, and everything in as full a manner as I could imagine. I have gained insight, education, and have learned through my successes and more importantly through my failures. I offer 28 years of experience, insight, and lessons to anyone who cares to have them. All this, and more, for free!
So read on, comment, and ask questions. If they are entertaining questions, which means they don't even have to be good, then I will answer them to the best of my ability.
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