The Dark Side
As I have worked with the volume of material on this web site, especially as I consider the contents relative to the original intent; I have realized that there are two distinct tones or themes. There is the positive, investigative, problem-solving and discovery mode, which was what I really wanted to pass on. It says 'Come and Play!' (or work, which is sometimes the same thing).
However, there is the darker side of awareness that all is not well with our world as it is. This is reality, and part of what has moved me, from a very young age, to detect potential problems and to look for solutions. A certain amount of this is necessary. When you are standing in the middle of the road and a truck is bearing down on you, you need to be aware and step back out of the way.
Too much concentration on problems can lead to obsession, depression, and may decrease the energy available to work on solutions. When you feel bad, there may be almost a magnetic pull, to keep thinking about the bad, just looking and looking at it til it fills your life and that is all you see, with no way out. That is not where I want to go, nor where I want to take you. So- as of the current date- 3/26/12- I have copied all the headings concentrating on the negative into this section ('The Dark Side') My hope is to work with the material to decrease repetition, and come up with a pro-active presentation. I feel it is very valuable material. You can't solve a problem til you realize there is a problem.
In conceptualizing these problems as a group, I gave in to my typical methodology of attempting to categorize them, and thought I would lay out some of the results of this thought process here.
I came up with four categories; Environmental (En), Political (P), Economic (Ec), and human (H). Alas, it soon becomes obvious that almost all of our present-day problems have at least 2 or 3 of these aspects, if not all. I also realized that if these are categories of problems, then they are also categories of solutions. As in the previous point, most effective solutions would probably require action in 2, 3, or all 4 of the categories. An interesting question is whether or not the solution(s) is/are in the same categorie(s) as the problem(s).
The 'Global Sweatshop Economy', for example, has human and economic root causes. That is to say, humans (comprising corporations), because of a lack of ethics and conscience, and for the purposes of economic gain, choose to virtually enslave Third World populations. (See 'World Community, Social justice, and Global Activism')
What would be the basis, what categories of activities, would exert the leverage required for solution? I can see a requirement for human, economic, and political leverage. That is to say; 1) if humans in consumer countries boycott- refuse to buy the products of- corporations engaged in the wage slavery, and 2) if the workers strike, both actions would affect the corporations. But political muscle might also be required to prevent a backlash against the workers (and covertly, against the consumers); both political pressure from consumer (developed) countries, as well as political pressure from the victimized 'Third World' country.
Looking at the political arena; corrupt corporations use lobbyists to attempt control of political powers in consumer countries. Too often, as well, those with power in 'Third World' countries have been corrupted; pressured by corporations, 'the powers that be' in those countries have become complicit in enslaving their own people. The question also arises (and should be answered) as to whether and to what degree that corruption may hg before the corporations stepped in.
Another, darker point (seen in the theme/plot of the recent re-make of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still') is that, for many of the problems, removal of the human element would de facto remove the problem. (In the words of the 2008 Klaatu; 'If the earth dies, you die. But if you die, the earth survives.')
I say again, rip away the facade of lies and deception. The problems will become more transparent, the solutions more clear to the discerning mind.
'We will have won a battle so significant that we cannot
begin to realize it; when the human species finally and
entirely ceases and desists from lies and deceit. Painful
though the truth can be, it sheds such a great light,
that all of human interaction will be illuminated and made
straight, and only pockets of ignorance will remain dark
and shadowed.
'Justice should be impartial, but should not be blind.
Take off the blindfold.' lw
However, there is the darker side of awareness that all is not well with our world as it is. This is reality, and part of what has moved me, from a very young age, to detect potential problems and to look for solutions. A certain amount of this is necessary. When you are standing in the middle of the road and a truck is bearing down on you, you need to be aware and step back out of the way.
Too much concentration on problems can lead to obsession, depression, and may decrease the energy available to work on solutions. When you feel bad, there may be almost a magnetic pull, to keep thinking about the bad, just looking and looking at it til it fills your life and that is all you see, with no way out. That is not where I want to go, nor where I want to take you. So- as of the current date- 3/26/12- I have copied all the headings concentrating on the negative into this section ('The Dark Side') My hope is to work with the material to decrease repetition, and come up with a pro-active presentation. I feel it is very valuable material. You can't solve a problem til you realize there is a problem.
In conceptualizing these problems as a group, I gave in to my typical methodology of attempting to categorize them, and thought I would lay out some of the results of this thought process here.
I came up with four categories; Environmental (En), Political (P), Economic (Ec), and human (H). Alas, it soon becomes obvious that almost all of our present-day problems have at least 2 or 3 of these aspects, if not all. I also realized that if these are categories of problems, then they are also categories of solutions. As in the previous point, most effective solutions would probably require action in 2, 3, or all 4 of the categories. An interesting question is whether or not the solution(s) is/are in the same categorie(s) as the problem(s).
The 'Global Sweatshop Economy', for example, has human and economic root causes. That is to say, humans (comprising corporations), because of a lack of ethics and conscience, and for the purposes of economic gain, choose to virtually enslave Third World populations. (See 'World Community, Social justice, and Global Activism')
What would be the basis, what categories of activities, would exert the leverage required for solution? I can see a requirement for human, economic, and political leverage. That is to say; 1) if humans in consumer countries boycott- refuse to buy the products of- corporations engaged in the wage slavery, and 2) if the workers strike, both actions would affect the corporations. But political muscle might also be required to prevent a backlash against the workers (and covertly, against the consumers); both political pressure from consumer (developed) countries, as well as political pressure from the victimized 'Third World' country.
Looking at the political arena; corrupt corporations use lobbyists to attempt control of political powers in consumer countries. Too often, as well, those with power in 'Third World' countries have been corrupted; pressured by corporations, 'the powers that be' in those countries have become complicit in enslaving their own people. The question also arises (and should be answered) as to whether and to what degree that corruption may hg before the corporations stepped in.
Another, darker point (seen in the theme/plot of the recent re-make of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still') is that, for many of the problems, removal of the human element would de facto remove the problem. (In the words of the 2008 Klaatu; 'If the earth dies, you die. But if you die, the earth survives.')
I say again, rip away the facade of lies and deception. The problems will become more transparent, the solutions more clear to the discerning mind.
'We will have won a battle so significant that we cannot
begin to realize it; when the human species finally and
entirely ceases and desists from lies and deceit. Painful
though the truth can be, it sheds such a great light,
that all of human interaction will be illuminated and made
straight, and only pockets of ignorance will remain dark
and shadowed.
'Justice should be impartial, but should not be blind.
Take off the blindfold.' lw