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Well, we started a dialogue in my last thinkpost. The seed of the post was happiness and control of one's own life and environment.
I think there were some exquisitely thought out responses to this, and that just made me think some more.
The idea is to try to inch a little closer to understanding the meaning of what we're doing here, why things are the way they are, discovering methods to improve the situations we are in, and to maybe catch a glimpse of that bigger picture, the ultimate question: Why?
When you're going exploring, like we are, it's important to take inventory before you go, design a plan of action and make certain you have the tools you need to get you to the destination. In our case, we don't have all of that, but what do we have? Our knowledge of human nature, our understanding of the world and the basic physics of it. We know a little bit about psychology, a little about history... a little bio, a little sociology.
What makes a person happy?
Well, before we can be happy, we have to be at a certain level of care. We need food, shelter, water to drink, clean air to breathe, the basics.
So, roughly 50% of the world's population is NOT even at that level. Nearly 1 of every 2 people on this planet don't have "the basics."
I had to take a big pause there. It's staggering to think that half of the world's population is living in such horrible conditions, most of us couldn't bear to SEE it, let alone have to deal with it as a matter of our day-to-day. And really we don't, to a great extent, see it. It's in areas of the world that cameras rarely visit, a place where the Western world has no interest.
To determine happiness, one first needs to know things. And here again, there's a lack. 1 Billion people on the planet are illiterate. But then again, if you aren't able to eat and drink, it's tough to learn a skill like reading. However, that also makes it difficult to get a job to earn money to support yourself and your family and that means you will remain in trouble for the forseeable future.
It's through our education that we can begin to understand a bit about how the world works, who is in charge of it, how much we can do in it and how strong the hold the people in charge have on it.
There is a "survival of the species" element built into us. We want to live, and there is a drive to continue the line. Perhaps the next generation will have it better than the last.
Sex Feels So Good!
Well, it can. Well, for some. Well, it's something to do.
And that's a bit of it. There are no cable tv shows to watch, no great novels to read, no video games, no films, no hobbies nor trivial pursuits to divert and distract people from the extreme horrors of their lives. But there is the feeling of an orgasm.
With it comes new births, and more people born into poverty. When sex is all you have to ease your mind, but ultimately placing even more pressure on the community with the need to provide for more and more people, there is a brutal cycle.
AIDS is claiming lives. Again, not being literate, educated, not having the information needed is the root. Education is a huge part of happiness.
And, of course, there are no handouts. People aren't really being given food to eat and fresh water to drink. They must pay for it somehow. If they have no employable skills, then they are in trouble.
This is a little like a road map through the wilderness, i.e. there is no "road" here. So there are lots of tangents to negotiate, and lots of areas that need to be explored.
So far, we've looked at the Third World, and the situations there, but let's bring it back stateside and see if we can't personalize this a little bit more.
Remember: We're looking for happiness.
Only in America, could a kid who's washing cars, take a giant step and reach right up and touch the stars!
Who is really running America? It's not who you think. There are political leaders, but let's be honest. They don't "run" the country. They represent it.
No. The people that "run" this country are people you probably never hear anything about. They are people who don't ever appear on reality TV shows, or get their names in the tabloids, because you wouldn't know who they were if they did.
They are super moguls. These people run corporations that dwarf Bill Gates. The deals they make, and the money they clear is the stuff of three wish genies.
The question is how orchestrated are our lives? How controlled are we to have to do what we do? And what are offered as distractions so we don't examine the "other stuff" too closely?
The conversation came up about cellular phones. The insidious quality of never being away from a phone, needing to answer it, constantly talking on it. This is a ten year phenomenon people. A decade ago, cell phones were a rarity. Now, everyone has one. And there is the distraction. The never having time to sit and think. That's why these thinkposts are important to me. It's a process. There needs to be time to stop everything and look at where you are. Because if you don't know that, you'll have no idea how to get from there to where you want to go.
Something with an impact like cell phones, DVD players, and iPods certainly give us a feeling. A feeling of empowerment. Being able to play our own music. Owning that whole season of our favorite show. Being able to call anyone, anywhere, or having them able to call us. We're in touch.
I think that sometimes we lose sight of the goal and are sent off on a trip to nowhere. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with a detour. But eventually, if you are a thinking person, you do want to get off the starting line and into the race. That needs to be done with some focus.
Our world has some basic laws of physics. Properties that we know and understand. Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Sex feels good, and so on. These standards are all a part of the landscape that we deal with in the day to day. These are the unbreakable rules that we exist under, and must relate to our own stories.
So, who's running this world? Certainly not anyone in the Third World. Clearly the members of G8 have some say in it, but again, these people are "representatives," and that's a slightly different animal. The people who run the world are the people with the deepest pockets. They are the people who move the jobs from union shops to underdeveloped countries for pennies on the dollar. They are the people that Chris Rock mentioned in his last HBO special. The people with "wealth," not the people who are "rich." To quote Mr. Rock: "Shaq is rich. The guy who signs his checks is wealthy."
But, clearly, some people thrive under the pressure of needing to achieve. If life was easy, then there would be no desire to give it any effort. Just look to the trustifarians to see the truth in that. The children of the wealthy are burdened with not having to do anything to live well. So, they make bad music, or films no one will see, or videos that get downloaded for everyone to see.
The point is, if you don't have motivation, you don't have much. So, motivation is a key word then.
MOTIVATION.
What motivates people? The need to get "the basics." The desire to do better." "Competition."
Hm. Ok. Competition. Let's go there. This one dates back to Cain and Abel, the original sibling rivals.
Are we natural competitors? It sure seems like it. There are enough sports and games and challenges to keep most everyone busy for the rest of time. We like to compete. There's something that feels good about winning. It makes us feel better about ourselves. It makes us happy.
There's an social element in the competition though. And humans are clearly social. We love to compete but we also love to be around each other.
Which is why this next wave of humans is a little disturbing.
When you have a generation that is getting the bulk of their social cues from internet interaction, things are changing in a drastic and somewhat ugly way.
You can compete with other people in other countries playing a game in real time, and then trash talk them when you win, using a translator program so they hear it in their language. What a great world!
Wanting to win.
There are pleasure centers in the brain that get stimulated when we experience something we enjoy. But not everyone gets the same stimulation from the same things, and in fact some are appalled by some of the things that others find pleasure. It is strange. We are so alike, and yet so different.
Experiences are a part of the process. What we have empirically lived through helps to determine what we enjoy, or at least what allows us to feel comfortable in any particular situation. The old fable of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." It's true! What we're used to is a big part of how we will react.
EXPERIENCE.
Dealing with situations is a bit easier if you've faced them before. Even if you didn't succeed the first time, you still have an advantage because you have knowledge of what happened, what you did and the result.
So, the idea is to pay attention and note these elements so you may get the result you wanted.
Macro/micro.
Let's look at the globe again. It's a big world out there. And there's a system in place to permit people to "run" this globe. We don't know the names of the people running it. In fact, the people in charge of it probably have some sort of "shadow" society that is controlling or at least helping to control it all.
On the grand scale, the vast majority of people (G8 leaders included) won't even be in the same room with the people I'm talking about. These are the people that are in charge... the unseen hands that spin the world.
Next... it's back to begin to calculate the "Happiness Quotient."
I think there were some exquisitely thought out responses to this, and that just made me think some more.
The idea is to try to inch a little closer to understanding the meaning of what we're doing here, why things are the way they are, discovering methods to improve the situations we are in, and to maybe catch a glimpse of that bigger picture, the ultimate question: Why?
When you're going exploring, like we are, it's important to take inventory before you go, design a plan of action and make certain you have the tools you need to get you to the destination. In our case, we don't have all of that, but what do we have? Our knowledge of human nature, our understanding of the world and the basic physics of it. We know a little bit about psychology, a little about history... a little bio, a little sociology.
What makes a person happy?
Well, before we can be happy, we have to be at a certain level of care. We need food, shelter, water to drink, clean air to breathe, the basics.
So, roughly 50% of the world's population is NOT even at that level. Nearly 1 of every 2 people on this planet don't have "the basics."
I had to take a big pause there. It's staggering to think that half of the world's population is living in such horrible conditions, most of us couldn't bear to SEE it, let alone have to deal with it as a matter of our day-to-day. And really we don't, to a great extent, see it. It's in areas of the world that cameras rarely visit, a place where the Western world has no interest.
To determine happiness, one first needs to know things. And here again, there's a lack. 1 Billion people on the planet are illiterate. But then again, if you aren't able to eat and drink, it's tough to learn a skill like reading. However, that also makes it difficult to get a job to earn money to support yourself and your family and that means you will remain in trouble for the forseeable future.
It's through our education that we can begin to understand a bit about how the world works, who is in charge of it, how much we can do in it and how strong the hold the people in charge have on it.
There is a "survival of the species" element built into us. We want to live, and there is a drive to continue the line. Perhaps the next generation will have it better than the last.
Sex Feels So Good!
Well, it can. Well, for some. Well, it's something to do.
And that's a bit of it. There are no cable tv shows to watch, no great novels to read, no video games, no films, no hobbies nor trivial pursuits to divert and distract people from the extreme horrors of their lives. But there is the feeling of an orgasm.
With it comes new births, and more people born into poverty. When sex is all you have to ease your mind, but ultimately placing even more pressure on the community with the need to provide for more and more people, there is a brutal cycle.
AIDS is claiming lives. Again, not being literate, educated, not having the information needed is the root. Education is a huge part of happiness.
And, of course, there are no handouts. People aren't really being given food to eat and fresh water to drink. They must pay for it somehow. If they have no employable skills, then they are in trouble.
This is a little like a road map through the wilderness, i.e. there is no "road" here. So there are lots of tangents to negotiate, and lots of areas that need to be explored.
So far, we've looked at the Third World, and the situations there, but let's bring it back stateside and see if we can't personalize this a little bit more.
Remember: We're looking for happiness.
Only in America, could a kid who's washing cars, take a giant step and reach right up and touch the stars!
Who is really running America? It's not who you think. There are political leaders, but let's be honest. They don't "run" the country. They represent it.
No. The people that "run" this country are people you probably never hear anything about. They are people who don't ever appear on reality TV shows, or get their names in the tabloids, because you wouldn't know who they were if they did.
They are super moguls. These people run corporations that dwarf Bill Gates. The deals they make, and the money they clear is the stuff of three wish genies.
The question is how orchestrated are our lives? How controlled are we to have to do what we do? And what are offered as distractions so we don't examine the "other stuff" too closely?
The conversation came up about cellular phones. The insidious quality of never being away from a phone, needing to answer it, constantly talking on it. This is a ten year phenomenon people. A decade ago, cell phones were a rarity. Now, everyone has one. And there is the distraction. The never having time to sit and think. That's why these thinkposts are important to me. It's a process. There needs to be time to stop everything and look at where you are. Because if you don't know that, you'll have no idea how to get from there to where you want to go.
Something with an impact like cell phones, DVD players, and iPods certainly give us a feeling. A feeling of empowerment. Being able to play our own music. Owning that whole season of our favorite show. Being able to call anyone, anywhere, or having them able to call us. We're in touch.
I think that sometimes we lose sight of the goal and are sent off on a trip to nowhere. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with a detour. But eventually, if you are a thinking person, you do want to get off the starting line and into the race. That needs to be done with some focus.
Our world has some basic laws of physics. Properties that we know and understand. Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Sex feels good, and so on. These standards are all a part of the landscape that we deal with in the day to day. These are the unbreakable rules that we exist under, and must relate to our own stories.
So, who's running this world? Certainly not anyone in the Third World. Clearly the members of G8 have some say in it, but again, these people are "representatives," and that's a slightly different animal. The people who run the world are the people with the deepest pockets. They are the people who move the jobs from union shops to underdeveloped countries for pennies on the dollar. They are the people that Chris Rock mentioned in his last HBO special. The people with "wealth," not the people who are "rich." To quote Mr. Rock: "Shaq is rich. The guy who signs his checks is wealthy."
But, clearly, some people thrive under the pressure of needing to achieve. If life was easy, then there would be no desire to give it any effort. Just look to the trustifarians to see the truth in that. The children of the wealthy are burdened with not having to do anything to live well. So, they make bad music, or films no one will see, or videos that get downloaded for everyone to see.
The point is, if you don't have motivation, you don't have much. So, motivation is a key word then.
MOTIVATION.
What motivates people? The need to get "the basics." The desire to do better." "Competition."
Hm. Ok. Competition. Let's go there. This one dates back to Cain and Abel, the original sibling rivals.
Are we natural competitors? It sure seems like it. There are enough sports and games and challenges to keep most everyone busy for the rest of time. We like to compete. There's something that feels good about winning. It makes us feel better about ourselves. It makes us happy.
There's an social element in the competition though. And humans are clearly social. We love to compete but we also love to be around each other.
Which is why this next wave of humans is a little disturbing.
When you have a generation that is getting the bulk of their social cues from internet interaction, things are changing in a drastic and somewhat ugly way.
You can compete with other people in other countries playing a game in real time, and then trash talk them when you win, using a translator program so they hear it in their language. What a great world!
Wanting to win.
There are pleasure centers in the brain that get stimulated when we experience something we enjoy. But not everyone gets the same stimulation from the same things, and in fact some are appalled by some of the things that others find pleasure. It is strange. We are so alike, and yet so different.
Experiences are a part of the process. What we have empirically lived through helps to determine what we enjoy, or at least what allows us to feel comfortable in any particular situation. The old fable of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." It's true! What we're used to is a big part of how we will react.
EXPERIENCE.
Dealing with situations is a bit easier if you've faced them before. Even if you didn't succeed the first time, you still have an advantage because you have knowledge of what happened, what you did and the result.
So, the idea is to pay attention and note these elements so you may get the result you wanted.
Macro/micro.
Let's look at the globe again. It's a big world out there. And there's a system in place to permit people to "run" this globe. We don't know the names of the people running it. In fact, the people in charge of it probably have some sort of "shadow" society that is controlling or at least helping to control it all.
On the grand scale, the vast majority of people (G8 leaders included) won't even be in the same room with the people I'm talking about. These are the people that are in charge... the unseen hands that spin the world.
Next... it's back to begin to calculate the "Happiness Quotient."