Seeing Through the Propaganda
I don't see the validity of comparing government worker jobs (service) with manufacturing jobs -- as their fair equivalents, because far and away, the majority of government jobs are clerical and "professional"(service) -- and then comparing that "average" to another location -- with much higher cost of living, and even other parts of the country.
Movie stars in Salem usually don't make a living off of it -- but a few do quite well in Los Angeles -- but they have to move there first and take hardscrabble jobs if they make it out of that, which many don't. But then they are averaged in with the barristas and waitresses rather than the movie stars. A lot of those participants just get zeroed out of the equation.
The most meaningful referrent therefore, is the MEDIAN income of that community -- and what all jobs are paying, and not just the few at select employers -- which is invariably the top 5%, which the unions then insist is their natural peers rather than the much more accurate total population sample -- of which even the lowest paying food service worker making $23,000 -- is already close to the median, of which benefits and pensions (never mentioned) is probably close to another $20,000. Food service workers elsewhere (in Salem), are likely to be getting close to the minimum wage -- or about $17,000, and so the lowest paid government worker is already receiving more than the median income -- which is not the poor they claim to be so they can also qualify for government assistance when the eligibility is raised to 200% of the "poverty level" -- which is about $14,000, or half the median.
Yet frequently, or invariably, the union negotiators claim they are making "poverty wages," because they are only making twice the median income -- and not the top 5% (1%) they feel is their entitlement -- if they didn't sacrifice themselves and take the "low paying" government lifetime job and pensions.
Not surprisingly -- with the aid of the confusion of the reporters -- it is no wonder, the representatives think there is unlimited money to maintain a post office wherever one wants to, and build government facilities at whatever costs can be imagined.
Quality of Life (Civilization)
The quality of life in modern society, is the value one can get in exchange for the money (credit) they have -- and not merely the money they have, if they cannot exchange it for anything of greater value. That's why it is possible to have a lot of money and be miserable, if all the people in their circle, are intent on getting more for less, or nothing at all -- while in another circle, people realize the intelligence of giving more for less, or nothing at all. The trouble begins when those of the former, infiltrate the game of the latter, and eventually make it the game of the former -- while the more intelligent become aware of that, and start an even better rate of exchange -- and leave the old game, to those who have nothing of value to offer -- to con and victimize each other.
That is the way of the world, and how civilization and society evolves -- from a culture of brute force, to increasing sophistication and discrimination -- that the former, try to make into a bad (banned) word. For nobody, they believe, should be able to tell the difference between good and bad, and nobody should get anything of value, and even everything of value, must be destroyed. That is the proverbial Sacking of Rome by the Vandals. The only expression such cultures enjoyed, was the wanton destruction of anything of beauty and intelligence. Those virtues, had to be destroyed, just as we now see in cities in decline and on the ropes -- becoming a virtual sea of graffiti and waste, in which their participants revel in -- smearing feces on themselves as warpaint, in preparation for their rallies and demonstrations against peace and order.
That impulse for self-destruction and degradation has been the other half of the ascent of man -- to ever higher orders of tools and organization, which the masses of brute force and destruction, instinctively and reflexively want to destroy -- upon seeing them and being sent into paroxysms of fury and rage. That is not the world that they were nurtured and conditioned by -- and to see, and manifest.
Not surprisingly then, there are two visions of power and strength as well -- one being the destruction of everything from cinder blocks to buildings, while the other obviously, was the design and construction of all those things in the first place. The latter may take years of evolution and thought to manifest, while it all can be destroyed in a second. But once the shock of such moments is absorbed, the slow, steady persistence to build even better, begins once again. That is the story of civilization.
Greed is not the antithesis and antidote of fear -- that order is. Order is the greater predictability of outcomes -- both good or bad, while fear is the belief that everything is random, so there is no rhyme or reason for anything that happens -- which naturally invokes fear and terror. But if one can create a greater understanding of the relationship between causes and effects -- then there is no mistaking one for the other. One does not think that the power to destroy, is the power to build.
In the daily conditioning we do, that is the difference between, the consumption of calories -- and the building up of reserves for the time at which it is absolutely necessary and vital to exhaust them -- but at all other times, to build up those margins (of reserve) as much as possible to handle as great a magnitude of challenge as might be possible (anticipated). That's how some people will live through greater shocks and stress than others will -- but it is fairly predictable, and not merely arbitrary and random. There are things people can do, to prevent the shit from hitting the fan -- in the first place. That is what we hope to do all the days of our lives -- until we are no longer there to see to it.
The New Age of Independence
The major difference between people these days, is the extent to which they can, and do live lives independently and self-sufficiently -- while also realizing their connectedness to all of reality and others. But that recognition doesn't mean they have to be dependent on others to an increasing degree until they are totally helpless -- when there is much that they can and should do for themselves, in order to maintain their health, viability as self-sufficient individuals, and to actualize the meaning and purpose of their own lives -- apart from the purposes of others to dictate what that should be for their own ends.
Such new age individuals, are those who grow comfortable with the idea of learning and thinking for themselves, as opposed to being the pawns of somebody else's programs. There's always been that 5% of the population so constitutionally different from the average -- in every field of life and activities -- that they are notable in these proclivities through a combination of birth and subsequent nurturing, that provides the leadership for the greater population in that aspect. But there is also the other 5% on the opposite end of the spectrum, that indicates the diametrical opposite -- in this case, that a significant number of the population, becomes entirely dependent on the rest of society and its resources -- just to keep them breathing and alive, at a prohibitive cost! -- that could be an entire subsistence for villages and society on the brink, with greater chances of survival, and a future beyond an eternal, persistent vegetative state.
At some point, society has to debate what are the cut-off points for which no further extraordinary efforts can be devoted to lives with no or little hope for recovery, rehabilitation and resuscitation. It is just as unconscionable to keep those alive who will never know the difference -- and so one of the distinguishing qualities one should look for in determining the quality of their own lives, is whether one can tell this difference -- and how does one indicate it, and not just have a board of self-designated/appointed experts, make that call for everybody else.
I'm inclined to believe that is the wave of the future -- and not a return to the previous generation of mass society with their mass media indoctrination (education) programs -- as what everybody should know and think, as though the self-appointed few, knew better what that should be for everybody else -- and that includes the government bureaucrats of every stripe, the doctors, lawyers, and self-appointed directors of the public good, as though nobody knew any better than what they know. And what they know, is what has been taught for centuries now, if not millennia and for all time, as the ultimate truth, that they have now inherited the responsibility for perpetuating, propagating and defending -- as the meaning, purpose, and status of their lives. Or so they have been convinced.
On the other end of that spectrum, have been the 5% who are congenitally predisposed, to look for other ways -- as the evolutionary genius of every species for survival, even in a worst case scenario that decimates the other 95% who perished running headlong over the cliff -- in their reflexive instinct to be first. In such a manner, the last often becomes the first -- for those who are merely thoughtful and observant.
So the quality of life question, is clearly whether one is becoming more independent, or more dependent, in the choices, actions and decisions they make -- as the measure of their health and prosperity, and not just at the expense of it.
The Boat, The Rail, The Education
If the Hawaii Department of Education is substandard in every facet of the word, then obviously, more of the same at higher wages, pensions and benefits are not the answer -- but is the problem.
It is the kind of union teacher education that tells them what to think and chant (Hey, hey, Ho, ho, ...), and not how to think for themselves, that is the problem of "education" in Hawaii -- because it tells them that things are going splendidly, when sewage is breaking out all over the islands, and calling it "Paradise," so that real problems are never addressed, and keep compounding themselves while the people are in denial.
Look at the rail fiasco: the citizens are finally waking up to the reality that they were lied to, manipulated, bamboozled and reamed big time, and still they favor those who brought these calamities upon Hawaii, and want Mufi and Mazie to bring them more of the Boat, the Rail, the Education of Hawaii -- as though that was the salvation for anything in Hawaii. That is the problem -- More of the Same.
You need something different to change the sad story that has become "Hawaii." Especially The Education.
"Should You Exercise When You're Sick?"
An even better question is, "Can you exercise when you're sick?" -- because many people's idea of exercise, would make them even sicker, and even more vulnerable, rather than as it should be doing at any time, under all conditions, making them well and better. That should be obvious -- that the whole intent and purpose of exercise (practice) is to make one better -- and if it does not do that, then one is one practicing and preparing for one's own destruction.
And while that seems obviously preposterous, that is what most people are practicing and exercising -- making themselves unwell in their mistaken notion that it will produce the opposite effect (reaction), while totally rejecting the simple notion, that one should directly make themselves better -- as the objective of their practice.
The objective is not to fail but to succeed -- which is the flaw in the thinking that one should exercise to failure or near exhaustion -- instead of what they really hope to be doing, in increasing their reserves, readiness and responsiveness. That is the rationale for aerobic conditioning in the first place -- to build up one's oxygen reserves for the momentary challenge one might have to perform at those peak levels -- and not that they are too sick, exhausted and injured to do so.
Many athletes who never reach their peak, fail because they are never healthy when they need to be -- but always defer that best, until the day they are too old that nobody would ever expect that out of them anymore. So a large part of the proper conditioning, is understanding that point at which one fails -- and doesn't practice that. Because eventually, the off-day, becomes the off-week, off-month, and then they can't anymore, and never even think about it anymore.
That kind of conditioning is a failure -- because the right conditioning, has to be available and accessible when one needs it the most -- at their worst, and not only at their best. If they're already at their best, then they don't need to get any better -- and what is the point, if they are at their worst, that there is nothing they can do about it, without making themselves even worse -- and might even kill them, while there is nothing at their disposal to make themselves better but to simply rest (not do anything) but hope for that spontaneous, miraculous recovery -- until it doesn't come anymore.
Obviously, precisely at those moments of their greatest need, there should be some action that can aid their recovery, and daily, practiced, put them into their peak operating condition for living the actuality of their lives -- as their enhanced normal, until the day they die. Stopping way before then, ensures that they will be in a hopelessly deteriorating condition -- rather than going out at the top, doing what they enjoy doing most -- thoughts most have abandoned because they have conditioned themselves to thinking that that is what they cannot do.
But that is more than just adopting the latest courses in wishful-thinking and denial of their actualities. People can actually get better, and not just wish they would -- when they really believe such an actuality is no longer possible. The most dramatic proof of that, would be the rapid improvement from one's worst -- to one's best, virtually instantaneously -- because the operating conditions of the body have changed in the most meaningful and palpable way. It doesn't just happen.
There are definitive actions that bring that improvement about. That would be specifically increasing the flow of blood to the brain by effecting the pulse of rhythmic and regular muscular contractions alternated with relaxations to produce that enhanced effect -- that does not just come about by increasing the heart rate, burning more calories, and overheating the body to profuse perspiration -- but in directing that flow where there is the pulsing effect of rhythmic alternating contractions (movement) of the facial muscles and neck in simply articulating that range of expression and range.
When the brain is empowered foremost in that manner, all the other functions of the body will be greatly enhanced, and will recognize that the same economy and efficiency of effectiveness, can be achieved similarly throughout the body by simply producing that same muscular pulsing at the furthest extremities (hands, feet) in similar fashion -- because it is those movements, that require the fullest coordination of the neuromuscular and cardiovascular functioning that signifies peak and optimal health -- and not whether one acquires "six-pack abs" -- at the expense of optimizing and prioritizing the flow and health of the brain to the furthest extensions of the nervous system, which is the root of all human action and activities.
