Friday, November 18, 2005

Life in the 21st Century

Many people are still shocked on hearing that expression, because they grew up in an age in which the 21st century was so far away into the future -- that it is shocking to think that it could be now, and even yesterday. They’re just getting used to things in the 20th century -- as the latest and greatest, state-of-the-art.

Undoubtedly, in many places, they’re still awaiting the first industrial revolution -- that the majority of civilization went through in the 19th century, resulting in one of the first widespread liberation movements. All but a few are aware that not only was a much celebrated civil war of liberation fought in the United States in that century, but there were similar revolutions in Russia, France, China -- that were changing the status of slaves, serfs, rabble and peasants. Naturally we assume that people everywhere have experienced that psychological evolution of liberation.

Those who haven’t, still have what we deride as the “plantation mentality,” which is the acceptance of overseers to do their thinking for them. It is familiarly the top-down organization chart and information flow. What we know, has to be passed on down from the top, and it is not allowed, to do one’s own thinking unless one is at the top. So all one’s time, energy and efforts, were expended to get to the top, but once one got there, one could do anything one pleased, and the only thing that had to be done, was to keep another from being similarly on the top.

The shift in the 21st century is the realization that if everybody can be king, then anybody can be king -- including oneself, and all but a few would agree, that is the society they wanted to live in and create. A few argued, “What was the point in having a society like that if one could not be above everybody else?” That is the old mindset at work. It thinks that the only way anyone can win, is for everybody else to lose.

Nowhere is this more evident than editorials and letters to the newspapers -- pitting one individual and faction against another, creating the unnecessary arguments that distract and detract from productive focus and work. Most of that society’s energies are sapped in this constant battle to prove who is on top -- and then maintain that status quo by preventing others from similarly riding on top.

That is the old culture and mindset dying away at this time. It should not be the model for modern conditioning activities provoking competition -- even with oneself. It is psychologically damaging to have this mindset that “one is not good enough,” as one’s motivating drive because that is the message one is reinforcing in oneself. It should also not be the paradigm for contemporary relating and communications -- reinforcing a hierarchy of the knowledgeable over the ignorant.

What that does is discourage people from acknowledging their ignorance -- which distinguishes the intelligent person; in him, there is no shame in not knowing, because that is his motivation for finding out.

http://thinkingdifferently.blogspot.com/

5 Comments:

At November 19, 2005 8:38 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

The greatest casualties in the new world order, is of course, the autocratic leaders of organizational hierarchies -- people who would flaunt their power by proclaiming, “I will reward my friends and punish my enemies” -- rule as a personal vendetta, creating and maintaining a climate of fear and intimidation. That is the most notable change of the Lingle Administration and the Republican style of governance -- the notable lack of coercion and conformity. In that kind of society, it becomes possible for a thousand voices to flourish, and not just the struggle to be the one.

That’s why those forums of human activity modeled on autocratic control -- the media, schools, and universities, are its greatest victims -- in a world moving toward greater egalitarianism and rational appeals, rather than the old style arbitrary rule and obsessive control

In the new world order, its not enough just to demand, “Do you know who I am?” Because it is a sure sign, the person asking the question, doesn’t know who he is.

 
At November 19, 2005 9:03 AM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

There are people who like to convince us that nothing ever changes -- and that life immemorial, has merely been a repetition of every life before it. They may even go further and claim that life used to be perfect -- and has devolved to the present state of the worst life has ever known -- which is of course, not verified by any indices of measurement. I don’t know what they’re thinking, or experiencing in life -- to come to those conclusions. So if they do persist in that manner of thinking that life is the worst now than it’s ever been, it has to be subscribing to the wrong information sources, which for most people, are the mass media, including schools and universities -- controlled by self-serving unions.

The difference here, is one is not discovering the truth of any matter for themselves but is relying on another to tell him what the truth is -- and that has always been the major problem of humanity and civilization, “Who is a source of truth -- in a world of illusion, delusion, deception and manipulation?” The mass media says, “Trust me -- you’ve seen it on television, or read about it in the newspapers.” But is that the standard of truth?

In places like Hawaii, the media will even insist that because this is Hawaii, all the universal principles that apply everywhere else, are invalidated. It is, what the authority says it is. That used to be the primary function of the governor -- to discredit all other competing information sources.

In the last several weeks, gas prices have fallen significantly all over the country -- but only in Hawaii, the media trumpets the Democrats’ claim, that it is because of Hawaii’s gas cap laws that it is so.

 
At November 20, 2005 5:52 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051120/ap_on_bi_ge/gas_prices_2

Gas Prices Continue to Plunge Nationwide Sun Nov 20, 5:37 PM ET

CAMARILLO, Calif. - Retail gas prices continue to plunge across the country, dropping 18 cents in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

The weighted average price for all three grades declined to $2.27 a gallon on Nov. 18, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.

Self-serve regular averaged $2.24 a gallon nationwide. The price for midgrade was $2.34, while premium-grade hit $2.44.

The lowest average price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $1.94 a gallon in Wichita, Kan. The highest price was $2.64 in Honolulu.

 
At November 20, 2005 5:59 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

In Hawaii, the newspapers are spinning it that falling gas prices are due to the Democrat passed Hawaii cap laws.

How stupid do these news editors think the people of Hawaii are?

 
At November 20, 2005 6:49 PM, Blogger Mike Hu said...

In Hawaii, the newspapers are spinning it that falling gas prices are due to the Democrat passed Hawaii cap laws.

How stupid do these news editors (Democrats) think the people of Hawaii are?

 

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