Rioting In England

It is shocking and depressing to spectate while law and order disintegrated the last few days in several major cities in England. Rioters and looters rampaged, attacked, stole and destroyed private property. How did this happen in one of the most civilized countries on earth?

My first response is that it can happen anywhere for the veneer of civilized behavior restraining the masses can be shedded quickly and easily when mob fever is rampant and coursing through the veins of assembled young people, angry, unemployed, without focus or self-censoring.

My second response is that each moral agent is half-demon and half-angel. Where utter unity and self-effacement are demanded and complied with, the gathered young people can do anything to anyone. Anything goes. Our demonic side as ascendant.

Bad news can be transformed into good news were parents of such young people wise and in control of their youngsters. There would have been no thousands of young people to  get together and tear down society. Where youngsters are supervised, taught to work and dream, and be working hard towards their personal dream in line with their modern version of their vision quest (already undertaken, pondered upon with meaning assigned and a course of action for the future laid out), rioting does not occur.

Were these youngsters trained to develop as Mavericks pursuing their enlightened, self-actualizing self-interest, they would have neither the time, opportunity or inclination to run in packs, preying upon society and neighbors.

With about 95% probability, the angelic sides of children's natures can be nurtured and accentuated to the degree and point that it becomes natural to live an angelic adult life. Where parents begin to so raise their children, spontaneous rioting will become a rare occasion indeed.

Regretting so much when it is too late

It is easier to get into trouble than to dig one's way out of it once one realizes that one has made the wrong choice.

For example, we often will drink way too much, becoming very drunk. Once we get sick, cannot drive a car and will miss work the next day, then we admit we should not have screwed up again.

What is that perverse streak in human nature that makes us misbehave? There may be many motives, including our being wired to do the wrong thing: this original sin is our rebellious streak against obeying God's natural law that makes us flout it. Another motive is that the pressure for leading the "perfect life" is more than we can bear, so sinning relieves the pressure for awhile.

For many misbehaving and sinning are simply fun. Other fill their life with cheap drama: They sin during the week so they can confess, repent and atone on the weekend, perhaps even announcing it in front of the congregation on Sunday morning. Returning to the saintly path is much more a poignant,  sweet victory after a binge of real sinning. The prodigal daughter returns to the fold.

God wants us to sin a little and to hate a little, but mostly love and be virtuous. We cannot ever be perfect angels anyway. Less drama and more consistent performance is order. God will be more pleased with us as our actions and words become less theatrical and more sincere. We likely will get to heaven sooner. We will also see an increase in our self-esteem.

Job Fulfillment

It used to be in America that the man of the house was the breadwinner, likely to sole earner of a paycheck. His identity, his sense of self-worth and his sense of purpose were all wrapped up in the job he had.

Of course this has all changed and that is acceptable, even desirable. Here is my question:

What elements derived from the  patriarchal model of wage-earning are admirable, and, once extricated from their source, would serve as exemplary characteristics for any self-realizer to model?

First, God put us here to work and develop our God-given talents to the nth degree. Our identity should be inseparable from the work we do and the way that we go about it.

Second, leading a busy work life should be highlighted as the most purposeful life imaginable.

Third, doing something worthwhile and creating or bringing into existence something of worth corresponds to and should correspond to the type and caliber of activity proving the doer's worth. His sense of worth is not just how he feels about himself, but it is also a matter confirmed in action by his substantive output.

To be is to do, and impressive doing renders the doer worthy of accolades, respect and praise.

The Truth

The truth will set you free, but it sure can hurt too. There is no way to love God and live the authentic life like God does unless one receives the truth, lives in the truth and struggles to live according to the truth.

Discover the truth. Learn to recognize its presence or the lack thereof in personal and acquaintance speech and behavior.

Those living in the truth and by the truth will not portray good people as evil, while depicting evil people as good. They can and must call them as they see them, allowing the chips of life to fall where they will.

Good people are as they do and when they say what they really mean.

Bad people are as they do and when they say what they really mean.

 Jesus taught 2, 000 years ago that a tree is judged by the fruit that it produces, and the adage is as apt today as it was then.

 4/16/2011

Just show up

Just show up and your very presence will make a huge difference as staff in nursing homes caring for grandma, teachers at school, city council members and elected officials behave better when they realize that the public is scrutinizing every step that they take.

Step Two is unleashed when a group of people show up in sufficient numbers to seek to implement the political program, selected and agreed upon in advance to showing up.

They can transform and redirect the way their community, state and government are run.

4/16/2011

Creativity

Thinkers like Hoffer pooh-pooh the romantic stereotype of the creative genius as that socially inept crank, dreaming up new concepts and making new products out of the blue, in a blinding flash of original, brilliant, imaginative work. He fabricates something from nothing, generated in a complete vacuum devoid of ancestral or social input to build upon or to reference by comparing and contrasting what is with what one imagines that can exist or come to pass.

More typical, of the garden-variety individuators to be born and to design and to make new concepts, poetry forms and to introduce technological wonders in the near future, will be their stunning aptitude for regarding what is commonplace in a new way, or to build upon what others have done before them, going a little at a time beyond those that got them this far. These pioneers appreciate and readily acknowledge their antecedents and helpful mentors. They build upon what others before them have accomplished. And the trail of development is detectable and obvious.

4-14-2011

Breaking through routine

The lazy, negative, immature guy, unable to hold a steady job, has no discipline or focus. For one grown up in mental outlook as well as in years of living, boredom must become an irrelevant response to drudgery and repetition of duties at work. Monotony is what he will tolerate to get a paycheck while holding a permanent position with a respectable firm.

Joining and staying a productive, wage-earning member of the middle class public is the basis of individuating. Each mature grown-up will earn his bread full time while self-actualizing on the side. Should he be able to make enough money at his sideline to do it full time, more power to him,

Each citizen of adult years is to take on the adult role. Constant leisure, pleasure-seeking, playing, ease-seeking and being supported by others are games that he plays only in his spare time. In the main, he does his duty and makes his living, supporting his family and himself. Doing his duty makes him happy in a deep, fundamental, sound fashion. He loves the self but it is a disciplined self, not a self-indulgent self.